Strategy & Budget

Each year, our team engages in a planning process to reflect on what we have learned, reaffirm our mission and values, set goals for our strategy and approaches, and establish a grantmaking budget.

 

2023 Strategic Direction

As we all adapt to a changing landscape brought about by COVID-19, we will transition our responsive grantmaking related to the pandemic to refocus on and strengthen our core grantmaking. This includes augmenting general operating grants for several long-term partners and honing our capacity building support to address a range of organizational and programmatic priorities. After taking some initial yet fruitful steps to more explicitly incorporate racial equity into our work, we will continue to do so by examining how to elevate our commitment across each of our program areas and strategies. Finally, we will continue learning through grantmaking with our existing initiatives and chart a course for exploring new areas of focus.


 

Past Years' Reports

This year, we regularly heard from grantee partners about the urgent housing crisis, especially the growing displacement of families who are priced out of their homes and communities. Many communities are seeing rapid growth in requests for services, particularly across Santa Cruz and Monterey counties and the San Joaquin Valley, all places where wages tend to be lower amid an escalating cost of living for families. In spite of serious threats such as public charge and changing eligibility for benefits, grantee partners have provided critical services to families around the region. In addition to our core portfolio, we made several grants to emerging and exciting work in the San Joaquin Valley that focuses on strengthening the capacity of local organizations. The strong leadership and investment by local funders in that region has been inspiring; we are excited to participate and learn. We also continued to fund efforts to ensure a fair and accurate count for the 2020 Census and have sustained our housing advocacy grantmaking at the state and local levels. In the coming year, we will explore how to more fully incorporate community voice to ensure that those most affected by poverty and policies are at the center of the work.

2019 Grant Data

Grants Paid
308

Unique Grantees
274

Payment Range
$7,500 - $500,000

Average Grant Payment
$74,266

Grant Payments
$22,874,000

Payments