Thursday, May 28th

Interested in learning more about how your peers are tackling the challenges of grantmaking in the COVID-19 era? Join Workforce Matters and our partners at the Children, Youth, and Family Funders Roundtable; Economic Opportunity Funders; NFG’s Funders for a Just Economy; Funders Together to End Homelessness; Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, Hispanics in Philanthropy; and Youth Transition Funders Group to discuss the strategies three foundations are using to respond to working families’ near-term needs related to income, employment, job training, and supportive services while sustaining their long-term work to reduce disparities and injustices and advance family economic security. Featured speakers and initiatives include:

  • Rachel Korberg- a Program Officer with the Ford Foundation’s Future of Work(ers) initiative - will share information about the Families + Workers Fund, a new response fund Ford helped to launch alongside Schmidt Futures, Open Society Foundations, The JPB Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Amalgamated Foundation. With initial commitments over $7 million, the fund ultimately aims to raise $20 million to provide flexible funding to organizations working to prevent workers and families from sinking deeper into poverty during the initial months of the pandemic, and to support policy and advocacy efforts that center workers and families in long-term economic recovery.
  • The Mariam Assefa Fund at World Education Services' Senior Director, Monica Munn, will discuss the framework her team used to rapidly analyze potential responses WES’ philanthropic fund could take to the COVID-19 crisis, as well as share highlights from recent grantmaking that aims to advance strategies and organizations supporting the immediate and longer-term needs of over 12 million immigrants and refugees who are either working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic or facing significant economic hardship as they are displaced from or trying to reenter the workforce.
  • The James Irvine Foundation's Jeanne Sakamoto(Chief of Staff and Planning) and Casey Budesilich (Director of Finance & Administration) will share highlights from Irvine's Recession Resilience Project, a $20 million investment which will provide immediate emergency funding to core grantees in their Better Careers, Fair Work, and Priority Regions initiatives; technical assistance for financial planning and recovery; and longer-term strategic recession-response grants for these grantees as well as approximately $2.5 million in additional funds to help other grassroots organizations in California to weather this crisis.

To access the recording, please click here to visit our video library.