How We Work

 

How We Work

Our team endeavors to build deep and committed relationships in the communities where we work and with our grantee partners. Our program areas and budgets are designed to offer both longer-term funding commitments for our partners as well as room to be responsive and adaptable as community needs shift. 

We proactively scan the landscape to identify organizations aligned with our mission, program areas, and geography. However, we are always open to learn more about organizations and projects that are new to us, and welcome inquiries from prospective partners and others who seek to learn about our grantmaking.

How We Fund

We strive to apply best practices in philanthropy to our grantmaking. To that end, we work toward the following:

Mission Alignment
We consider funding organizations based on their mission, leadership, clients served, and alignment with our overall mission and the priorities outlined in each initiative and program area.
Equity
We partner with organizations that are committed to advancing fairness, opportunity, and justice by centering the needs, voices, and experiences of BIPOC, immigrants, women, families, and people living in poverty.
Flexible Funding
We provide flexible funding, typically in the form of general support grants, and may offer capacity building, capital, and other types of grants as well.
Longer-Term Funding
We consider multi-year support for most of our grantees, acknowledging the benefits of securing stable, longer-term funding.
Minimal Requirements
We are mindful of the time and effort we request from grantees throughout the funding process and attempt to minimize procedure and reporting requirements.
Grant Size
We determine our grant sizes based on an organization’s capacity, number of clients served, budget, opportunities for growth, and other factors.

Grant Process and Timeline

The foundation meets five times a year to make grant decisions, usually in February, April, June, August, and October. The average grant process takes between two to three months from start to finish. For most organizations under consideration for funding, a typical process is as follows:

  1. A program officer reaches out for a conversation and/or to request a site visit
  1. The program officer extends a request for additional information or shares the decision not to proceed at this time
  1. Prospective partners share a short organizational profile, usually with a deadline at least one month prior to a grant meeting date
  1. The program officer and grants team perform due diligence, summarize information, and recommend a grant amount, term and support type
  1. The staff and board meet to review grant recommendations and hear updates from current partners to stay informed about what is happening in the community
  1. Shortly after the grants meeting, the program officer notifies partners with the decision for the grant recommendation
  1. Within a month of the grants meeting, partners receive formal notification in the form of a partnership letter and grant funds

After a Grant Is Made

We believe in minimizing requests for our partners’ time and resources so that they can do their best work. In this way, we do not request any reporting, presentations, or donor cultivation. Given the number of grantees we have, and their scattered locations, we conduct one follow up meeting with each grantee per year — typically within three months of their grant renewal date. We do not attend fundraisers, galas, or other events.

Learn More

Check out our current strategy and grants budget, and past years' data and reflections
Strategy & Budget