WOMEN’S WAY Rapid Response General Operating Fund, Support Beyond Funding, and Data Collaboration
When COVID-19 hit, WOMEN’S WAY, along with many other funders in the region scrambled to react quickly and efficiently to the needs of organizations serving the region’s most marginalized and at-risk communities.
For WOMEN’S WAY, the transition wasn’t so difficult because we already had a rapid response funding model in place through our Immediate Response Action Fund (IRAF). When we created IRAF in 2017, we knew that urgent and unanticipated needs of community organizations couldn’t be served through twice a year grant cycles. To meet these needs, we designed a turn-around process that gives applying organizations a decision in 10 business days, which is the fastest response rate in our region. But then came the current global crisis, and we now needed to be conscious of the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on marginalized communities. Who needs the support the most? What groups are most often overlooked? To meet incredible demand, many foundations choose to fund previous grantees in order to respond quickly to applications. Because these organizations were already vetted, foundations saved time granting to organizations they have a history with, which got money moving quickly. Healthy endowments also help in times of crisis — 5% of $80 million can go a long way.
Looking further into philanthropy, there are unfortunate trends that show nonprofits who focus on women and girls receive only 1.6% of all charitable giving. In addition to this, organizations led by women of color receive less than 1% of philanthropic dollars. Given this information, isn’t that where we should be focusing? Directing our resources to organizations who are the experts in their community and providing not only emergency funding — but funding to help stabilize post-crisis became the most important element when designing the Rapid Response General Operating Fund.
In the midst of COVID we listened as organizations expressed the dire need for unrestricted funding. We then took the IRAF model and made a quick pivot to provide general operating support as opposed to programmatic funding. More importantly, we decided to provide funding for 2 years: the first year of funding to address the organization’s immediate needs in light of the COVID-19 crisis, the second year of funding is to recover to economic stability.
We then set out to prioritize organizations that:
· were led by women of color
· had budgets of less than $500,000
· were serving communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19
And we did just that. In four weeks, we raised and disbursed $135,000 in grants to twelve organizations — ten of which were led by women of color and eight of which had budgets of under $500,000. The grantees serve a wide range of communities: women and children experiencing homelessness and/or lacking basic necessities such as food and clothing, justice-involved women, immigrants and refugees (primarily Latinx and Cambodian), low income folx in need of abortion, and people experiencing Intimate Partner Violence. Not surprisingly the organizations serving those most severely impacted by COVID were facing loss of funding, increase in demand for services, or in most cases, both. The provision of general operating funds allowed them to help buffer these shortfalls how they best saw fit.
For the full list of organizations and grants awarded please click here.
Beyond Funding
To create true partnerships with our grantees, we also wanted to move past just dollars and cents. On the application, we asked the optional question of “How can WOMEN’S WAY help advance the work of your organization beyond a grant/financial support?”
Among a variety of answers from the applicants, an overarching theme emerged for the desire to collaborate with other organizations and with WOMEN’S WAY to learn from one another about how to effectively build capacity and strengthen their respective organizations.
This led to the creation of a Learning Collaborative.
Learning Collaborative
We then polled the grantees asking if they would have an interest in a Learning Collaborative to gauge interest in this upcoming initiative. Through this, we let our grantees know that we envisioned a project that would involve the grantees working together with WOMEN’S WAY to strengthen their organizations and build sustainability.
One enthusiastic response was “Yes. Yes. Did I say YES?! I absolutely love the idea and absolutely welcome the support and collaborative opportunity. I find so much value in learning from other organizations, their leaders, and WOMEN’S WAY.”
Eight of the twelve Rapid Response General Operating Grantees have committed to the Learning Collaborative, and are excited about the preliminary plans and intentions that we have for the cohort. Most notably, they welcome that the structure of the learning collaborative will be open and flexible enough so that participants will be co-creators in the collaborative’s ongoing development.
The core focus of the 18 month Learning Collaborative will be on: Leadership, Community Engagement and Programs, Finance and Administration, and Technology. However, content will shift as needed to include more topics that arise as the Learning Collaborative continues to convene.
Data and Collaboration
In a joint effort between the Center for High Impact Philanthropy and the Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia, we were asked to join twelve other funders for a unique exercise in transparency, unlike anything the region had seen before. We shared our data. ALL of our data: who applied, how much did they request, who received funding, who were the leaders of the organization, what regions were they serving, and what populations. The goal was to help us, as funders, recognize and reconcile gaps in giving. Which populations are being underserved with respect to philanthropic dollars? Which communities saw less funding?
The result was the Regional COVID Response Dashboard.
What You Can Do
As the global pandemic continues to span into September, the needs of the organizations we support continue to rise. As data continues to roll out revealing how the impact of COVID-19 has affected women, and especially women of color, the hardest, it is crucial that we continue to raise money to support women and girls in our region.
To donate to the Rapid Response General Operating Fund, please visit our website here. Note, that while the Fund is no longer accepting applications, we still have to raise every dollar we committed for the second year of funding to the twelve grantee organizations.
