Community Priorities
Our Grantmaking is Guided by What We Learned from COVID
Using data to inform our grantmaking was sparked by responsive and deliberate grantmaking. We have taken the time to reassess and prioritize the community’s needs, and asked our grant partners about our own performance as a grantmaking partner.
Our Learning Approach
We surveyed over 1300 parents, nonprofit providers, and community residents.
We interviewed over 30 nonprofit partners.
We assessed our own performance.
What Did Our Survey Results Reveal ?
We asked the simple question: Before COVID we knew the Greater Coatesville community struggled with basic needs. Almost a year later, what would you say are the most pressing community needs?
- Food Access | 347 26.3%
- Education (K-12) | 618 46.9%
- Employment | 659 50%
- Housing | 429 32.5%
- Family Support Services | 406 30.8%
- Mental Health & Wellbeing | 476 36.1%
- Other | 46 3.5%
What are Our Nonprofit Partners Saying About how COVID-19 Impacted their Organizations?
Instead of requiring traditional reporting, we conducted over 30 brief nonprofit partner interviews to assess the impact of the pandemic within their organization and program/service delivery and the reckoning with racial inequities.
Key Points
- 3 main areas that they identified as funding priorities/areas of need: mental health, employment and housing.
- How funding was used: General operating, improving/expanding quality of services, adding new service to meet community need.
- How are people expanding collaboration: Over 90% of Grant partners reported forging new partnerships and collaborations, as a result of the pandemic.
What Our Nonprofit Partners Think About The Alliance for Health Equity
Gaining insight into what our nonprofit partners think about our own performance is critical for our grantmaking. We conducted confidential surveys to assess how nonprofit organizations experience and engage with The Alliance for Health Equity.
Key Points
- Rated us 4.5 out of 5 on meeting the needs of the community.
- Resources they found more informative: weekly grant partner connection communication, one-on-one communication with our staff and the website.
- Our process of Trust-based Philanthropy: They rated us 4.5 out of 5 and felt that we worked in partnership with them to roll out this new process.
What to Expect in Our Future Grantmaking
Our future grant making will reflect the culmination of our learnings about the impact of COVID on our community and nonprofit partners. What we do know is that our impact areas still remain relevant and will be prioritized based on our learnings:
- Helping people live healthy and well
- Creating healthy spaces and places for people to thrive
- Leading Positive Community Change
We remain committed to adopting Trust-based philanthropy approaches and will continue to learn along with our grant partners.
Every Dollar Makes a Difference!
The impacts of COVID, natural disasters, such as Hurricane Ida, and racial reckoning keeps our community marginalized and vulnerable. Whether our community is dealing the long-term health consequences of the coronavirus, misinformation about vaccinations, or dealing with the economic consequences. Your donations will be put to great use to address the priorities and concerns of our community.
100% of your contribution will be put to work right away – we will not take any administrative fees from your generous gift.
