Leaning Into New Work: Our June 2018 Grantmaking

We recently completed our first round of grantmaking for 2018 at the Meyer Foundation! On June 5, our board of directors approved 73 grants totaling $3,205,000.

This grant round made significant strides toward what will become our new normal – an approach to grantmaking that considers racial equity in all aspects. We are focused on building a grantmaking strategy that supports our partner’s efforts to eliminate racial disparities in housing, education, employment, and asset building through addressing the systems—the policies, practices, cultures, and norms—that allow these disparities to persist. This is an evolving process as we and our partners learn and develop our capacity to advance racial equity in our work. This grant round was the first under the revised selection criteria and goals we released earlier this year, and it encompasses other significant shifts from how we’ve worked in the past. Here are some key highlights:

• A few years ago, we reorganized program directors around geographic areas, instead of goal areas as we have previously. With the addition of Nadine Duplessy Kearns as the District of Columbia Program Director, Sonia Quiñónez as the Northern Virginia Program Director, and Julian Haynes’ tenure as the Maryland Program Director, we are better positioned to apply a sharper focus on the geographic areas where we fund, and the ability to identify the challenges and opportunities that exist within each one.
• We’ve committed to increasing the depth of our relationships and grantmaking in suburban jurisdictions in Maryland and Northern Virginia, recognizing that economic challenges and racial inequity are not confined to DC. We continue to make progress toward this commitment, as shown in our list of first-round grantee partners below.
• Our application and proposal guidelines were redesigned to incorporate new questions. Applicants were asked to describe their work toward systems change, their commitment to advancing racial equity, and to share demographic data about the racial/ethnic constitution of their board, staff, and constituents of the organization. Their responses provided valuable insight into how organizations reflect and respond to their communities, view their needs and assets, and how the curriculum for our capacity-building program might be heightened to create changemakers. Yes, changemakers!
• When we resolved to take on a new strategic direction and to cultivate relationships with new grantee partners, we anticipated that we would not be able to award a grant to every organization we have in the past. We are committed to maintaining the valuable relationships we’ve established with the many organizations providing critical direct services in the region, even as we transition some of those organizations away from Meyer funding. We expect to continue to transition organizations out of the Meyer portfolio over the next few grant rounds as we pursue a clear focus on systems change efforts that advance racial equity.

I’m pleased to share the grants awarded earlier this month. They represent the very beginning of our evolution toward funding systems change. This evolution doesn’t come without growing pains, but we believe that together we can make a difference in our region. Read on for more details:

 

Name	Grant Amount	Project Title	Geographical Area Served
Access Youth	$30,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Advocates for Children and Youth	$40,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Advocates for Justice and Education	$35,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Arlington Community Foundation	$20,000	to support the Arlington Bridges Out of Poverty Initiative	Northern Virginia
Asian American LEAD	$40,000	to support general operations	Washington Metropolitan Area
Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center	$30,000	to support general operations	Washington Metropolitan Area
Ayuda	$40,000	to support general operations	Washington Metropolitan Area
Bright Beginnings	$35,000	to support the Workforce Development Program	District of Columbia
Byte Back	$60,000	to support general operations	Washington Metropolitan Area
Calvary Women’s Services	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Campaign For The Fair Sentencing Of Youth	$30,000	to support the DC Reentry Program	District of Columbia
Capital Partners for Education	$30,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington	$37,500	to support general operations over two years	Washington Metropolitan Area
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities	$100,000	to support the DC Fiscal Policy Institute	District of Columbia
Central American Resource Center	$50,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
City Year	$30,000	to support general operations for City Year Washington, DC	District of Columbia
CollegeTracks	$50,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis	$60,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
Communities in Schools of the Nation’s Capital	$52,500	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Community Bridges	$30,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Community Youth Advance	$30,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Compass	$45,000	to support general operations in the Washington, DC region over two years	Washington Metropolitan Area
Computer CORE	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	Northern Virginia
DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice	$40,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
DC Bar Pro Bono Center	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Edu-Futuro	$25,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
Equal Rights Center	$30,000	to support fair housing work in the DC region	Washington Metropolitan Area
Equity Lab	$25,000	to support the Seeding Disruption Fellowship	District of Columbia
Friendship Place	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Future Foundation	$25,000	to support the design of the Listening Session Program	District of Columbia
Good Shepherd Housing and Family Services	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	Northern Virginia
GOODProjects	$30,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Goodwill of Greater Washington	$75,000	to support workforce development programs in Prince George’s County over two years	Maryland
Higher Achievement Program	$50,000	to support general operations of the DC program	District of Columbia
Housing Initiative Partnership	$30,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Housing Up	$60,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Identity	$70,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Interfaith Works	$40,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Just Neighbors Ministry	$45,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
La Cocina VA	$130,000	to support general operations ($30,000) and the capital campaign ($100,000)	Northern Virginia
Latino Student Fund	$30,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Leadership Montgomery	$65,000	to support the Building Bridges through a Race Equity Lens project	Maryland
Legal Aid Justice Center	$75,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
Legal Counsel for the Elderly	$40,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Legal Services of Northern Virginia	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	Northern Virginia
Literacy Council of Montgomery County, Maryland	$40,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations	$30,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Maryland Center on Economic Policy	$30,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition	$40,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Miriam’s Kitchen	$75,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless	$30,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Montgomery County Renters Alliance	$20,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Montgomery Housing Partnership	$50,000	to support the policy and advocacy program	Maryland
N Street Village	$60,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
National Korean American Service and Education Consortium	$30,000	to support general operations in Northern Virginia	Northern Virginia
New Hope Housing	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	Northern Virginia
Nonprofit Prince George’s County	$25,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance	$30,000	to support general operations	Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia Family Service	$50,000	to support Training Futures	Northern Virginia
Posse Foundation	$45,000	to support general operations of Posse DC over two years	Washington Metropolitan Area
Prince George’s Child Resource Center	$40,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Samaritan Inns	$45,000	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
School Justice Project	$30,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Sitar Arts Center	$67,500	to support general operations over two years	District of Columbia
Southeast Ministry	$50,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Teaching for Change	$40,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Training Source	$40,000	to support general operations	Maryland
Tzedek DC	$30,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy	$30,000	to support the Wage Justice Program in Northern Virginia	Northern Virginia
Washington English Center	$52,500	to support general operations over two years	Washington Metropolitan Area
Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs	$75,000	to support general operations	Washington Metropolitan Area
Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless	$35,000	to support general operations	District of Columbia
Youth Professional Development	$40,000	to support general operations	Maryland

Next up: We invite you to visit our recently-restated strategic plan and our growing racial equity resource page as we dive into round two of our 2018 grantmaking. Applications close on July 17.