Even the best-intentioned philanthropies can’t support what they don’t see.
Every day across our nation, altruistic people and organizations give money and other resources to nonprofits with the aim of reducing inequity. Too often, though, their largess stays on the beaten path, missing opportunities to help in “blind spots” that lack not just resources but visibility.
Many communities can’t make themselves seen by grant makers because, despite great need, they are unlikely to apply for funding. Leaders in these places know their needs well, but they don’t have the resources to bring them to the attention of foundations. It takes time and energy to build relationships with foundation decision makers, to learn the language of philanthropy, and to catalog and communicate needs in ways that resonate with potential grant makers.
To address this oversight at New Jersey Health Initiatives, we examined our grants data from 2015 through 2018. We divided communities in the state into three groups. Those from which we:
- received no grant applications (“invisible”)
- received applications but made no grants (“visible, unfunded”)
- received applications and made a grant (“visible, funded”)
In hindsight, the correlation should have been predictable: The communities of greatest need were most likely to be functionally invisible to us.
So we asked ourselves how we could retool grant making to begin to put money where it is so desperately needed. We began to reach out to people in “invisible” communities who had little or no means to create a grant request.
We allowed those potential grantees to submit a proposal that was just three pages instead of the usual 10. For the most promising proposals, we then provided a one-hour coaching session, after which applicants submitted revised proposals that had a much better chance of being selected for a grant.
We also homed in on the smallest communities, providing readiness assessments, help with applications, and longer-term technical assistance. We used our data to locate blind-spot communities and invited them to apply.
We asked applicants for a list of five “dream team” local leaders who would collaborate on a project, and we gave those people $250 gift cards in exchange for their time helping us determine community assets, partnership capacity, technology, health needs, and the like. Applicants worked together on proposals during a daylong session with local and national experts in areas of data, building healthy communities, and philanthropy.
The dream teams then worked with facilitators to develop ideas for how to use $50,000 grants. Once they received the money, grantees stayed connected to technical-assistance providers for ongoing help.
Vulnerable Groups
Blind spots occur among communities, but grant makers also have blind spots when it comes to certain issues. Problems in poorer communities, such as access to public transportation, lack of information infrastructure, or the implosion of local journalism, can compound in ways that turn disadvantages into destiny.
Let’s use Covid-19 vaccination efforts as an example. I’m certain that, if you were to overlay a map that shows Covid-19 vaccination rates with a map of the previously invisible communities, there would be a direct correlation between those communities and the lowest rates of vaccination.
Communities in and near cities were the first to marshal resources and figure out how to set up vaccine centers. People living in those areas were more likely than those in resource-poor rural areas to obtain information about the centers and navigate the logistics of getting to them.
So, NJHI is working to eliminate blind spots as they relate to Covid-19 vaccination efforts by funding two initiatives: one specifically aimed at increasing vaccination rates for individuals experiencing homelessness and another to increase vaccination rates in all hard-to-reach and vulnerable groups.
In both cases, we work closely with the New Jersey Department of Health to identify communities and municipalities with the greatest inequity in vaccine rates. We leverage relationships with trusted solution-seekers in those communities to reach people who are undocumented, homebound older adults, migrant workers, and others who tend to be the hardest to reach.
These are just a few ways to illuminate philanthropy’s blind spots. By no means are they the only ones. But the first step must be acknowledging that traditional grant making too often misses the greatest needs because the burden falls on communities to make themselves visible to foundations.
Grant makers need to take on some of this burden, build relationships with overlooked communities, and change operations to better serve communities in greatest need. Now, more than ever, we can’t afford to miss anyone.
