Through a peer review process, we developed our Equity in Grantmaking Framework that defines and operationalizes our equity in grantmaking goals, which aim to:
- Maintain or increase grant investments in communities of color, areas of highest kids in need, and under-resourced communities, with an emphasis on supporting organizations that are reflective of the communities they aim to impact
- Increase Share Our Strength's understanding on how organizations are incorporating equity practices and centering their work around the unique needs of the communities they aim to impact in order to share learnings across the organization
- Increase accessibility of grant-related materials & processes
- Increase equitable grant-related decision making
- Increase transparency of EDI-related metrics and learnings
What We've Done So Far
- In 2020, we developed an internal dashboard to better track how we are increasing our investment in communities of color, communities with high free- and reduced-meal eligibility, rural and urban communities and organizations led by and/or serving communities of color and other marginalized communities.
- In 2021, we launched a grantee survey in partnership with the Center for Effective Philanthropy to better understand the needs and challenges of our grantees. We learned the majority of grantees strongly agreed that they were satisfied with the turnaround time to answer their questions through the HelpDesk, the clarity of the instructions for grant applications, and their satisfaction with the grantee portal system and its ease of use. We took learnings and reevaluated our funding practices to minimize the burden associated with completing proposals and post-award reports and developed new practices that made funding and resources even more accessible and supportive to marginalized communities.
- In 2021, we began collecting organizational demographic information to ensure that our granting decisions align with our organizational EDI priorities. In 2022, 24% of grants to non-profit organizations were provided to organizations led by persons of color. This percentage increased to 49% in 2023.
- In 2022, we increased transparency around EDI-related metrics by publicly sharing such as where our grantees are geographically located and what grant funds are used for, among others.
- In 2022, we launched the No Kid Hungry Centering Equity Fund Grant Opportunity and provided funding to five organizations to support the implementation and operationalization of EDI practices.
