Posted by:
Steve Dubb
Community wealth builders among grant recipients
On July 23, the Corporation for National and Community Service announced its first round of Social Innovation Fund awards. Nearly $50 million in Social Innovation grants were awarded to 11 organizations and is anticipated to leverage an additional $74 million in non-federal match funds. The grants are anticipated to ultimate benefit over60 collaborating partner organizations of the 11 direct grant recipients. Created as part of the 2009 Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, the Social Innovation Fund aims to promote innovation in the nonprofit sector. Among the recipients are three organizations featured at Community-Wealth.org: the community development corporation (CDC) intermediary LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation), the San Francisco-based social enterprise incubator REDF (formerly Roberts Enterprise Development Fund) and the Boston-based social enterprise incubator New Profit.
LISC was awarded $4.2 million for its Financial Opportunity Centers program, an effort that seeks to foster individual and family wealth preservation through a combination of employment training and placement, financial counseling, and assistance in accessing federal income tax benefits. The grant will support new and expanded Centers in Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Duluth, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay Area. REDF was awarded $3 million to support expansion of its social enterprise model beyond San Francisco to other sections of California. New Profit was awarded $5 million to support youth-focused nonprofits that aim to bridge the gap between high school and college, including through partnerships with sub-grantees IMentor, College Summit, and Year Up.
Additional Social Innovation Fund grant recipients are the following:
Jobs For the Future and the National Fund for Workforce Solutions were awarded $7.7 million to promote regional workforce partnerships with employers to seek to identify job and career pathways for low-income individuals through a statewide program in Pennsylvania and partnership programs in 22 cities: Seattle, WA; Baltimore, MD San Francisco, CA; Des Moines, IA; Dan River, VA; Detroit, MI; Denver, CO; Cincinnati, OH; Washington, DC; Philadelphia, PA; Los Angeles, CA;l Milwaukee, WI; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; South Wood County, WI; Wichita, KS; San Diego, CA; Providence, RI; Boston, MA; Omaha, NE; and Hartford, CT
The New York City Center for Economic Opportunity and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City were awarded $5.7 million to support a suite of five programs that aim to support education, employment, and financial savings by low-income participants in eight urban areas: Kansas City, MO; Memphis; TN; Newark, NJ: New York, NY; Northeast Ohio (Greater Cleveland, Youngstown and Akron); San Antonio, TX; Savannah, GA; and Tulsa, OK.
Three organizations received grants for public health work. These were: Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky ($2 million award), Missouri Foundation for Health ($2 million award), and the National AIDS Fund (now “AIDS United") ($5.6 million).
In the area of youth development and school support, in addition to New Profit, two other grant recipients were the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (awarded $10 million) and Venture Philanthropy Partners.
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation’s award, the single largest Social Innovation Fund grant, will be open to sub-grant organizations nationwide, with an initial emphasis on communities of need in North Carolina and South Carolina, Oklahoma, and California. The Foundation is known for its support of a number of innovative programs, including the Harlem Children Zone, which has become a model for the Obama Administration’s Promise Neighborhoods program.
Venture Philanthropy Partners will use its $4 million in federal funds (and $9 million in matching funds) to support its youthCONNECT initiative, which aims to meet youth educational and employment needs in the Washington, DC area through partnerships with up to eight area nonprofit organizations.
Lastly, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati and Strive were awarded $2 million to support expansion of the Strive comprehensive “cradle to career” approach that combines early education, college access, and career pathway services.