Changing the National Conversation About Poverty and Economic Mobility

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 10, 2020 – Twenty-eight organizations from 18 states and the District of Columbia will elevate diverse voices and broaden the national conversation about poverty and economic mobility at a critical moment in our nation’s history as recipients of $100,000 grants in the Voices for Economic Opportunity Grand Challenge, sponsored by a group of eight philanthropic organizations.

In light of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic early this year and the outrage against racial injustice that is gripping our nation, the effort to change the narrative around poverty and opportunity is now more important than ever. With tens of millions of people newly unemployed, many of them people of color, and many facing racism and othering each day, there is an even greater need to break down the dominant perceptions about poverty and to replace them with more accurate ones.

The purpose of the Grand Challenge, launched in September 2019, is to establish ways to offer alternatives to confusing, conflicting, and just plain inaccurate accounts about what poverty is, why it happens, to whom it happens, and how to address it. Key partners on the project have included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Omidyar Network, Raikes Foundation, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, and the Schultz Family Foundation.

“Equitable access to opportunity will not be possible until we address misconceptions, racial bias, racism, and stereotypes and move to action guided by shared values, history, systemic solutions, racial equity and human dignity,” said Ryan Rippel, Director of the Economic Mobility and Opportunity program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We don’t think that this work is by itself going to solve either racism or poverty in America. Far from it. But we will not change complex systems if decision makers are not following the voice and insight of those facing marginalization and victimization as a result of our economy and our institutions. One way to accomplish this is by ensuring that the actual stories of those who experience poverty are front and center with the goal of compelling new levels of action.”

The Grand Challenge is part of a multi-funder, multiyear plan to examine economic mobility and opportunity in this country, to create tools to help everyone better understand the systemic factors that lead to the presence of greater economic mobility in their own neighborhoods, and to craft and test strategies for changing the outlook for people experiencing poverty.

“Research shows that our country’s history of structural racism spanning generations denies economic opportunity to entire communities and subsequently robs them of their health,” said Jennifer Ng’andu, Managing Director, Program at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “In particular, Black and Latino Americans often live in conditions that move them further from opportunity and into the position where they are forced to make impossible choices about basic needs like food and shelter. This has become most apparent as the COVID-19 epidemic plays out, where families are negotiating between their family’s well-being and jobs with inadequate protections and pay. To finally create conditions where everyone can thrive, we need to come to grips with this longstanding disinvestment in communities — and move towards the solutions that support the caregivers who are striving every day to take care of their families. What’s happening today in America is a wakeup call for all of us and shows us we need to hear people’s stories, understand their challenges, and let them show us the way to confront head-on the systems and policies that hold them down.”

The grantees will gather over the next 18 months as a cohort to collaborate and learn from one another; receive access to research, coaching and other technical support; and incubate their individual projects, with an eye toward production and distribution of prototypes by the fall of 2021. The incubation effort will be led by Purpose, a social impact agency and public benefit corporation that uses public mobilization and storytelling to build and support movements to advance the fight for an open, just, and habitable world.

Grantees were selected from 1,225 submissions made last fall and represent a broad cross-section of geographies, cultures, media and scope of ideas. Each of those submissions was reviewed to determine whether they met the published eligibility criteria. The remaining applications were then reviewed and rated by a panel of more than 30 external experts with experience in film and media, social movements and non-profits, narrative and culture change, philanthropy, economics and social science. Their recommendations were then presented to the partners for final grantee selections.

The following is a list of the grantee organizations, their projects, and location. More information about the Voices for Economic Opportunity Grand Challenge can be found at the Grand Challenges web site.

Voices for Economic Opportunity Grand Challenge Grant Recipients

Arkansas Asset Funders Network Chicago, IL
Can You See Me Now?

The Arkansas Asset Funders Network in the U.S. will organize grasstops (e.g. business and banking, philanthropic and policy) champions to advance an agenda focused on Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed (ALICE) individuals. Efforts will highlight class-based narratives around the value and worthiness of hourly wage employment and the importance of asset creation and protection for Arkansas workers. Ambassadors will especially highlight ALICE households without a “work from home” option: those individuals who keep our businesses running, prepare and handle our food, care for our children and our sick, and keep our public spaces clean. Working together, they will build champions for this population, highlighting how the ALICE juggle to make ends meet and need equitable asset building options and protections for the future.

Arrowhead Business Group Foundation Fort Apache, AZ
Elevating Native American Voices

White Mountain Apache tribal members and founders of the Arrowhead Business Group Foundation in the U.S. will engage the voices of their fellow Native Americans to tell the story of a grass roots initiative to change the national narrative about the poorest and most invisible peoples in the U.S. Native Americans living in reservation settings continue to struggle with poverty and high unemployment. Working together with their tribe and the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, they will use different forms of media to explain how the first peoples of the U.S. were driven into poverty and unemployment. They will then showcase their recent success story of the Arrowhead youth entrepreneurship program to demonstrate the value of culturally based solutions and drive action toward sustainable Indigenous economic empowerment.

Brandeis University Waltham, MA
Cascading Lives: Stories of Loss, Resilience, & Resistance

Brandeis University and Boston University in the U.S. will gather and disseminate the life histories of people who have suffered economic decline to highlight the dynamic nature of the underlying causes and better inspire empathy. Economic and social decline often lurches in fits and starts over a lifetime, driven by diverse, interrelated factors such as family resources and relationships. However, most studies on social mobility focus on a specific moment in time. As an alternative approach, they will conduct interviews with men and women from diverse backgrounds who have experienced an economic shock to assess their personal, familial, and neighborhood settings; their emotions and key events; and how they relate to their economic circumstances over time. They will also harness the capacity of young people to change public opinions to develop effective strategies to disseminate the stories to their peers.

Center for Popular Democracy, Fair Workweek Initiative Brooklyn, NY
Amplifying Working Families’ Voices to Educate the Public about the Racial Economic Impact of Unstable Work Hours, Exacerbated in a Time of Pandemic

The Center for Popular Democracy’s Fair Workweek Initiative in the U.S. will run a digital campaign to tell the real-life stories of how volatile working hours and other business practices harm families’ financial security and well-being. The majority of Americans are paid hourly and are not given set working hours. This makes it difficult for families to plan for necessities such as child-care or pursue further education, leading to poverty, instability, and a feeling of powerlessness. These practices are prevalent in low-wage jobs (often considered “essential”), occupied by workers of color, especially women of color, and perpetuate racial and economic inequities in economic opportunity. Center for Popular Democracy will recruit storytellers, including workers impacted by just-in-time scheduling, and will pair their stories with data to illustrate a larger trend, and highlight how racial bias ensures workers of color experience disproportionate impacts. They will tailor the content to a variety of audiences and evaluate their reactions to different formats.

Center for Public Interest Communications Gainesville, FL
The Radical Communicators Network New York, NY
Changing the Poverty Narrative by Changing the Voices

The Center for Public Interest Communications and the Radical Communicators Network (The Center and RadComms) in the U.S. are working together to change the narrative of poverty by supporting those most affected in telling their stories. The Center and RadComms will first conduct a narrative power analysis to characterize the harmful narrative and underlying assumptions that need changing, then provide frontline activists with science-based communications tools to produce and develop counternarratives that can replace harmful and inaccurate ones. These resources can be used to promote a new narrative on poverty that recognizes the conditions responsible for the problem and the voices of those most affected.

Children’s Defense Fund Washington, DC
Voices of Young People in Poverty Turn Compassion to Action

The Children’s Defense Fund in the U.S. will tell the stories of young people from diverse backgrounds living in poverty and combine them with policy solutions to prompt audiences to help lift families out of poverty. Children are often missing from the poverty debate, yet a child who had no say in their own circumstances may be better able to overcome the prejudices surrounding adults living in poverty. They will identify young people who have experienced elements of poverty, such as food insufficiency or homelessness, and capture their stories on film. These will be paired with actions that can be taken by viewers and developed for digital and social media platforms. Through this process, they will evaluate how well their videos engage people and identify the stories that most resonate and the actions they spur.

Institute for Policy Studies Washington, DC
Working with the Poor People’s Campaign to Change the Pervasive Narrative that Blames Poor People in this Country for Their Own Poverty

The Institute for Policy Studies in the U.S. will build on their pilot project with Reverend Barber’s Poor People’s Campaign by working with low-income individuals to translate their stories into widely distributed op-eds. The Institute for Policy Studies will provide data and support to help impacted people from diverse backgrounds and geographical areas to craft compelling op-eds to bring the public's and policymakers' attention to the structural and historical barriers to economic mobility and in demanding policy action to confront those barriers. Op-eds will be distributed through their network of over 1,000 small circulation papers as well as large mainstream media outlets. They will also run a social media campaign using shareable graphics and videos created from the testimonies.

Metropolitan Planning Council Chicago, IL
"Good" Neighborhoods: Shifting Segregation Paradigms

The Metropolitan Planning Council in the U.S. will build a website to push back against the myth of “good” and “bad” neighborhoods – dominant narratives that are value judgments, which help perpetuate inequity. Aided by a long history of racial and economic segregation, racialized policies and practices in many cities have systematically deprived communities of color of equitable investment. By centering resident voice—particularly the voices of residents in segregated, low-income communities of color—this effort will shift the way these neighborhoods are conceptualized, focusing on resilience, social bonds, and other themes that emerge. These powerful narratives will further the case for investment in chronically disinvested individuals and communities.

National Center for Families Learning Louisville, KY
Families Leading the Way: Stories of Leadership, Advocacy and Strength

The National Center for Families Learning in the U.S. will produce and distribute stories told by low-income, diverse families describing their remarkable achievements leading projects that address local challenges. Low-income families are often mischaracterized by false narratives. By building trust with families and creating a safe space for them to openly and productively share their personal experiences overcoming barriers and driving change with larger audiences via local open mic events, they hope to change such narratives. These inspirational stories will be coupled with interviews to produce a series of podcast episodes for distribution.

National Domestic Workers Alliance New York, NY
Offering Stories from Domestic Workers to Drive Forward the Conversation about the Value of their Work and to Improve their Economic Opportunities

The National Domestic Workers Alliance in the U.S. will produce a video series portraying the home lives of domestic workers to showcase the important, unique, complex nature of domestic work and create a sense of urgency for policy and employer change that protects domestic workers and expands their economic opportunities (especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic). There are over 2.5 million domestic workers in the U.S., who are disproportionately women of color and immigrants. Although nannies, housekeepers, and caregivers provide many families with stability and financial security, paradoxically they are not afforded the same. Instead, they deal with poverty-level wages, restricted health coverage and sick pay, and other working conditions that create barriers to economic opportunity. National Domestic Workers Alliance will identify values-based statements that most strongly resonate with key audiences and train domestic workers from diverse backgrounds to shoot videos documenting their lives. The videos will incorporate additional relevant materials and be disseminated through social media.

National Women’s Law Center Washington, DC
Show Me the Receipts

The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) in the U.S. will partner with individuals doing their best to make ends meet to collate and present the receipts and paystubs they receive over the course of a year to dispel the myth that poverty is an individual problem. NWLC will provide a stipend and tools for storytellers to document how they navigate poverty and show how systemic failings, such as limited benefits for the disabled and unaffordable interest repayments, underlie poverty. These documents will be compiled along with interviews, other texts, and art and transformed into an online visual art display as well as other products.

Outside the Lens San Diego, CA
Project Re_Line

Outside the Lens in the U.S. will launch an app-based participatory media project in partnership with high school students, connecting communities to understand the historical barriers to economic mobility in redline communities, places where there exists a systemic denial of basic services. This phone application will enable data visualization, geo-tagging, interactive maps, and community engagement events to explore how historical economic barriers impact our cities in the past, present, and collective future. Through community and media partnerships, content will be shared across digital platforms in order to further amplify these stories for awareness, empathy building, and social change.

Partners for Rural Transformation, led by Fahe Berea, KY
Our Story: Changing the Narrative of Persistently Poor Rural Places

Fahe in the U.S., through the Partners for Rural Transformation, will share the stories of people living in poverty across geographically, culturally, and racially distinct communities to highlight shared experiences and encourage their unification to reshape narratives and drive policy change. Negative stereotypes of people in poverty based on divisive factors such as race and class severely damage efforts to change those stereotypes by diluting their power as a group and detracting from the underlying systemic causes of poverty. They will recruit residents in diverse areas of persistent poverty to provide interviews of their experiences, share them with other regions, and analyze the effect on changing attitudes to poverty.

SaverLife San Francisco, CA
Elevating the Voices of Low‐Income Families Through Financial Technology

SaverLife in the U.S. will connect financial data with the perspectives and experiences of low-income individuals from their online community to shift perceptions on who they are and why they are poor and help drive client-informed solutions. SaverLife’s online community supports over 330,000 low-income members across the U.S. to help them save for their futures. As a result, SaverLife has gained rich insights into the causes and effects of poverty and the household impact of social policy. They will harness these data and the collective power of this community as a tool to develop and evaluate messages and policies that better address the community’s needs. They will also distribute stories from members that explain the real barriers to economic mobility.

Sojourners Washington, DC
Creating Messaging to Mobilize People of Faith to Address the Economic Security of Marginalized Communities, Exacerbated in a Crisis like COVID-19

Sojourners in the U.S. will feature the voices of young people and marginalized communities in short films and articles shared on their digital and print platforms to change stereotypes about the causes of poverty, from one of personal responsibility to one that highlights structural and historic barriers to economic mobility. Sojourners, whose platforms have a wide audience of leaders and communities of faith, will produce stories and other learning tools that demonstrate the impacts of gender, race, class, as well as systems and policies, on economic opportunity to encourage people from different backgrounds to act together and drive change.

Strengthen ND Minot, ND
Through the Threads of Homesteading

Strengthen ND in the U.S. will encourage North Dakotans experiencing poverty to take up the rich local tradition of homesteading by using stories to connect the diverse populations of new residents and longtime rural residents. Homesteading was the original mode of economic mobility for European migrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. The recent energy boom brought in more families from around the world, including from refugee camps, creating a more diverse population not fully sufficient in terms of opportunities for economic growth. This community now suffers from misconceptions and stereotypes, making it even harder for them to improve their economic status. In an effort to change that, new residents will be invited to incorporate their stories of seeking opportunity with those of the homesteading families connected to longtime residents in order to spark a statewide conversation between residents and stakeholders to promote acceptance.

Three Sisters Kitchen Albuquerque, NM
Using the Unique Influence of a Local Food Space in Activating Narratives to Shift Community Perspectives and Policy and Stir Action on Poverty

Three Sisters Kitchen, which is a non-profit community food space in New Mexico in the U.S., along with a network of partner organizations and artists, will produce films and other creative media tools capturing the diverse realities of individuals living in poverty in Albuquerque, using food access and security as a means to explore the structural and historic barriers to economic opportunity. Food both connects people and provides economic opportunities. It is an interwoven theme in the lives of many people living in poverty, such as those trying to feed a family on minimum wage and small farmers unable to compete with large growers who are given federal subsidies. Working with their community partners, Three Sisters Kitchen will use media tools to create content to spark community conversations about structural and historic barriers to economic mobility and develop strategies for using the stories to organize for narrative and policy change in support of economic opportunity.

UNC Greensboro Greensboro, NC
Disrupting Dehumanizing Narratives of Black Men in Poverty

UNC Greensboro, together with visual artist and educator Zun Lee, M.D., and the Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition in the U.S. will tell the stories of traumatic loss, resilience, and quests for economic mobility of young black men in Baltimore to recast them in the national consciousness as human beings deserving of dignity and investment rather than as social problems. In the last decade, the team has documented the unequal burdens of violence and grief faced by this community. They will recruit young men to take part in a Photovoice project and to complete ethnographic interviews about their life course. In addition, the team will employ machine learning to identify hidden barriers to their economic mobility. These approaches will be combined to produce a dynamic digital exhibit that centers the pain and promise of these survivors of violence to engage citizens and leaders in transformative dialogue that affirms the humanity of young black men and deepens awareness about root causes and barriers to their economic mobility.

University of San Diego Children’s Advocacy Institute San Diego, CA
Fostering Fairness

The University of San Diego in the U.S. will launch a peer-to-peer education campaign to raise awareness of the unfair policies that prevent former foster youth from escaping poverty. Around 20,000 young adults age out of foster care each year in the U.S.; members of this population, which includes an overrepresentation of African American and Latino youth, suffer disproportionately from mental health issues and have little preparation and support to become self-sufficient. The team has identified several unique barriers faced by this youth population, including asset caps while they are in care, the redirection of their money to the state to pay for the cost of care, and lack of family support. They will provide training and resources to help a group of former foster youth share their stories with peers using online platforms.

US Dream Academy Columbia, MD
Children of the Incarcerated: Our Time is Now

The U.S. Dream Academy in the U.S. will produce a series of accounts of the lived experiences of children of incarcerated parents faced with poverty and highlight their resilience in overcoming adversity. More than 2.2 million children have incarcerated parents and live largely in poverty. Parental incarceration is often associated with shame and stigma, and ultimately leads to poor education and mental health, particularly for minority communities. They will pilot their approach in Baltimore and build a platform of student-directed stories that capture their challenges and successes, and recruit influential people, such as celebrities and faith-based leaders, to help amplify the voices of young people and broaden the distribution channels. At the same time, US Dream will convene a diverse national group of experts and influencers to identify and promote scalable solutions to mitigate group stigmatization based on race.

Vera Institute of Justice Brooklyn, NY
Transforming Rural America by Ending Mass Incarceration

The “In Our Backyards” team at the Vera Institute of Justice in the U.S. will lead a narrative change campaign challenging the criminalization of poverty in smaller cities and rural communities. High and rising rates of incarceration in small town and rural America disproportionately impact the poor and people of color and stand as a major barrier to economic mobility. The team will launch a campaign that includes people affected by the justice system in Kentucky and Indiana and use data science to index the stories and demonstrate the human impact of incarceration. They will also provide opportunities to connect with journalists to help reframe the narrative from poverty and decline to resilience and determination.

Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project Portland, OR
Strengthening the Worker Defense Clinic to Help Overcome Barriers to Economic Mobility for Day Laborers and Temporary Workers

The Voz Workers' Rights Education Project in the U.S. will develop a new legal clinic model and create a public campaign to raise awareness and understanding among the day-laborer community and its employers about the structural and historic barriers to their economic mobility. Day laborers, who are largely immigrants, refugees, and people of color, face low wages, insecure work, poor working conditions, and wage theft, causing many to live below the poverty level. Despite being disproportionately impacted, many day laborers do not qualify for federal stimulus funding for COVID-19. Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project’s new worker defense clinic model will be developed to facilitate a process through which day laborers become protagonists and strategists by offering education on the systemic causes of their lived experiences, skills on campaign strategies, and legal consultation. Those individuals will then be able to train others that come through the clinic. Staff, volunteers, and day laborer leaders will work together to create a campaign to present workers’ experiences and share success stories using digital and non-digital platforms.

Wayne State University Detroit, MI
Shifting Urban Narratives

Wayne State University in the U.S. will showcase the inspiring stories of young innovators in Detroit who overcame hardship and carved out opportunities in community development projects, especially amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team will recruit individuals from diverse backgrounds between 18 and 24 years old who are involved in transformative projects around the city. The young change agents will learn how to effectively document having to navigate social and economic adversity in the city in a way that captures their leadership and impact. The storytellers will work with video and graphic editors to produce a documentary and photo collages that reflect their experiences and vision, which will be presented at a public exhibition at the university or a local museum.

West Virginia Community Development Hub Charleston, WV
Rural Community Development Innovation

The West Virginia Community Development Hub in the U.S. will capture and share accounts of the hard-won achievements of rural community leaders to challenge cultural and economic stereotypes about Central Appalachia’s diverse rural communities in the face of poverty. They will use their existing network within these communities to produce texts, photographs and videos that share the lives of leaders and innovators who have worked hard to improve the quality of life in their communities. The stories will be combined with information highlighting key strategies for building community to overcome systemic, intergenerational poverty and be distributed on existing communications platforms, pitched to regional and national news outlets, and disseminated to practitioners in the rural community development field.

Women’s Way Philadelphia, PA
Elevating the Firsthand Stories of Women with Lived Experiences to More Impactfully Address the Root Causes of Economic Insecurity

Women’s Way in the U.S., working with a network of collaborators, will develop a fellowship program that trains and empowers women experiencing economic insecurity to share their stories. The purpose of the program will be to generate awareness of racial and gender inequities in economic opportunity and spur actions among the public and private sectors that improve family economic security in the Philadelphia region. Women’s Way will connect fellows with journalists to share these stories and will convene them with media partners, policymakers, and philanthropists in the Philadelphia region with the goal of identifying actions that improve economic security for women and their families.

YMCA of the Coosa Valley Gadsden, AL
Community Protectors: Poverty and Racism as Christian Calls to Action

The YMCA of the Coosa Valley in the U.S. will bring together diverse groups in small Christian communities under a common goal to overcome economic and racial divides. There is a strong belief that an individual’s personal choices cause their economic circumstances: for example, that wealth comes from having faith in God. To change these misconceptions, the YMCA and Savannah Miles will partner with local pastors to present common Christian callings on eliminating poverty and racism to members of local churches. They will also provide education and training to build relationships between diverse church members and equip them with skills and tools to collectively act to overcome shared challenges. Finally, they will form a council that will meet to discuss broad-based issues and build a community action and dissemination plan.

Young Women’s Christian Association of San Antonio San Antonio, TX
“Why Can't They Just...”

The Young Women's Christian Association of San Antonio in the U.S. will run a multimedia public awareness campaign by producing videos of days in the lives of women of color working in hospitality, caregiving, and food service industries in the city. These videos will be used as a platform to answer the questions often posed by those who misunderstand the causes of poverty, such as “Why can’t they just get a job?” In partnership with a local community foundation and radio station, they will present the stories as short films in movie theaters and in radio talk shows to explore a series of “Why can’t they just…” questions.

YR Media Oakland, CA
Speak Your Truth: A Youth Voices Project

YR Media in the U.S. will support young people in describing how their lives have been affected by foster care and the juvenile justice system to counter stereotypes and engage diverse audiences. Young people living in poverty are at greater risk of interacting with these systems, both of which often further perpetuate poverty. Their personal reflections will provide powerful illustrations of the complex causes of poverty and the widespread impact it has while also highlighting affected youth’s resilience and strength. These insights, when paired and shared, are expected to disrupt deeply entrenched stereotypes. Using their approach and network, YR Media will produce personal narratives as well as social media content for distribution via their youth-run platform and partners.

Grand Challenge Partners

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. For further information, contact Ed Wyatt, [email protected] or [email protected].

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

For more than 45 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve health and health care. We are working alongside others to build a national Culture of Health that provides everyone in America a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook. Media contact: Melissa Blair, [email protected] or (609) 627-5937

About the James Irvine Foundation

The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California. The Foundation’s current focus is a California where all low-income workers have the power to advance economically. Since 1937 the Foundation has provided more than $1.98 billion in grants to organizations throughout California. With more than $2 billion in assets, the Foundation made grants of $105 million in 2019. For more, please visit www.irvine.org.

About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal innovator and entrepreneur Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life. WKKF supports work throughout the U.S. and with sovereign tribes, and in Mexico and Haiti, concentrating up to two-thirds of grantmaking in priority places: Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans in the U.S., Chiapas and the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, and in Central and South Haiti. For more information, visit wkkf.org.

About the Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network seeks to create a more equitable economy, promote responsible technology that improves lives, and discover the emergent issues that will shape our future. Established in 2004 by philanthropists Pam and Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, Omidyar Network has committed more than $1 billion to innovative for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations to catalyze economic and social change. For further information, contact Beth Kanter at [email protected].

About the Raikes Foundation

The Raikes Foundation works toward a just and inclusive society where young people have the support they need to reach their full potential. For further information, contact Molly Watkins at [email protected].

About the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation

The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation (WRF) exists to relentlessly pursue economic, educational, social, ethnic, and racial equity for all Arkansans. Governor Winthrop Rockefeller’s commitment, courage, and collaboration created systemic change in Arkansas. This is the legacy WRF was founded on more than 45 years ago and the inspiration for AR Equity 2025. WRF envisions an equitable Arkansas in which all Arkansans have jobs that pay a livable wage, a quality education, and the chance to thrive and prosper. For more information on the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, go to www.wrfoundation.org.

About the Schultz Family Foundation

The Schultz Family Foundation, established by Sheri and Howard Schultz, aims to unlock America’s potential, one individual and one community at a time. It is building a world where all young people are valued, engaged, and inspired in their lives and in their communities. Investing in innovative, scalable solutions and partnerships, the foundation focuses its efforts on communities with enormous promise. For further information, contact Yeri Yun at [email protected].

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