High-Impact Grantmaking

The High-Impact Grantmaking initiative represents innovative solutions to break the cycle of poverty through the power of collaborative grantmaking and strategic partnerships. Led by the Community Grantmaking Committee, this initiative serves as a catalytic force for philanthropic impact in our community.

In Fall 2023, the Foundation Governing Board, along with a mounting consensus among key stakeholders, selected economic mobility as a priority and a paramount concern for Houston. In the Initiative’s next phase, the Community Grantmaking Committee will dig deep into the community needs impacting economic mobility, shape a funding strategy, and recommend investments that will make a tangible difference in Houston’s social and economic landscape.

2024 Funding Timeline & Key Dates

Shared Prosperity Award Finalists

Greater Houston Community Foundation’s High-Impact Grantmaking initiative represents innovative solutions to break the cycle of poverty through the power of collaborative grantmaking and strategic partnerships. The three nonprofits below are finalists of the Foundation’s inaugural Shared Prosperity Award, including grant funding and other support and resources to advance economic mobility in Harris County.

Connective: Public Benefits Hub

• Mission: To transform social services into a more connected, empathetic, and accessible system.
• Project Overview: Connective aims to expand its Public Benefits Hub pilot which serves as a one-stop-shop to simplify accessing and applying for public benefits for thousands of households.
• Promising Outcome: A small-scale pilot has shown an average annual income boost of $3,000/household.

Grameen America: Houston 2 Branch

• Mission: To help low-income entrepreneurial women build businesses to enable financial mobility.
• Project Overview: Grameen aims to expand its second Houston branch to disburse $31M through microloans to low-income women of color in Houston and financial literacy, education, and technical assistance for entrepreneurs.
• Promising Outcome: Programs show an $860 increase in average savings.

Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP): Collider

• Mission: To unite business executives and inmates through entrepreneurial passion and servant leadership to transform lives, restore families, and rebuild communities.
• Project Overview:PEP aims to expand its Collider program, a social and economic community center, to offer reentry support, education, employment, mentors, and access to capital for formerly incarcerated people and their families.
• Promising Outcome: 700 new businesses have been formed by program graduates, creating $122.5M in economic impact.

Letter of Interest (LOI)

The submission period for Letters of Interest (LOIs) for our latest funding opportunity, aimed at promoting economic mobility with a focus on addressing intergenerational poverty in Harris County, has now concluded. All submissions are currently under review. We kindly request your participation in completing the Call for Input. Thank you for your engagement and interest in this important initiative!

Call for Input (Optional)  

Recognizing the issue’s complex landscape, we aim to be additive to the ecosystem of leaders and funders already working to support financial stability and economic mobility in Harris County. We are interested in learning more about the current landscape of services aimed to advance economic mobility for children and families in Harris County, including gaps and opportunities where we could play an additive role.

We are also interested in learning about different models or approaches that have been implemented elsewhere that could be applied locally. Many interventions to improve economic mobility address just one aspect of what children and families need to escape poverty, but most children, families, and communities need multiple, holistic, and integrated interventions and investments over time to break cycles of persistent poverty. We have begun to explore some promising approaches (p. 4), but this list is a starting point of our exploration and is not exhaustive of our interest.

The responses to the learning questions will strengthen the Community Grantmaking Committee’s understanding of the issue and will inform the investment strategy. We welcome input from individuals with relevant personal and professional experience and knowledge across a variety of sectors from community, nonprofit, philanthropic, government, and business.

Community Grantmaking Committee

We respectfully request all inquiries about the funding opportunity be directed to impact@ghcf.org and ask that direct communication with the Community Grantmaking Committee be avoided.

Linda Civarello
Director of Community Engagement, University of Houston Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine

Steven Dow
Retired Nonprofit Executive

Oriana Durbin
Founder, Organized Decisions, LLC

Kate Dearing Fowler
Executive Director, The Jerry C. Dearing Family Foundation
Board Member, Greater Houston Community Foundation

Adrienne Holloway
Founder & CEO, AMNY Consulting

Brittany Hyman
Executive Director, Office of Jason T. Hyman

Mark Martin
Senior Director of Development, Genesys Works Houston

Paul Nguyen
Business Developer – Hydrogen, bp

Randi Sonenshein
Retired Business Executive

Robert Thomas
Senior Pastor, Olivet Missionary Baptist Church
Board Chair, Olevia CDC

Don Titcombe
Associate Director, Early Childhood Initiatives, Harris County Department of Economic Equity & Opportunity

Daniel Villanueva
Vice President, Enrollment Management, University of Houston – Downtown

Patty Williams-Downs
Founder & CEO, BreakingBounds

Why Economic Mobility?

Economic mobility is about our ability to achieve the American Dream within our lifetime and across generations. It is the idea that if you work hard, you can gain access to the resources and opportunities to climb the economic ladder, no matter your circumstances. We want this to be true in Houston and yet we know it isn’t for specific populations that have been left out or left behind.

Addressing economic mobility offers the ability to pursue holistic strategies and initiatives that both research and promising practice suggest are required to overcome persistent disparities and systemic challenges.

In recognizing the complex landscape, we are committed to fostering collaboration with other community partners. By working in tandem with organizations that have similar objectives, we aim to bring resources together in pursuit of shared goals.

The Power of Place-Based Initiatives

Like many cities, Houston’s persistent disparities across race and place are in large measure a result of 90 years of discriminatory federal, state, and local policies aimed at maintaining racial segregation. These policies significantly harmed resident wealth, health and well-being across generations and, by extension, entire neighborhoods.

To effectively address these systemic challenges, the latest research and promising practices underscore the need for comprehensive, multi-faceted solutions, including community-driven revitalization initiatives that knit together people, resources and capital to increase economic prosperity for families and neighborhoods.

Place-based initiatives focus on people in a given place–bringing together disciplines of economic development and community development to produce positive change in a neighborhood that ultimately improves quality of life in a sustainable way. Place-based initiatives aim to improve quality of life and access to opportunity for people—particularly people of color and families with low incomes—who live in neighborhoods experiencing disinvestment.

Targeted Population

The geographic boundary is defined as a neighborhood by its residents. You often have additional target populations within that neighborhood as a focus of interventions.

Resident Leadership

Community aspirations and contributions have to be at the forefront of any sustainable effort. As a funder, this means giving up decision-making power to be responsive to resident priorities as one important shift.

Holistic, Integrated Approach

This includes major built environment investments like mixed-income housing development and infrastructure, in addition to people-focused strategies like investment in local entrepreneurs and building a cradle-to-career pipeline supporting child development from birth to adulthood.

Multi-Sector Financing

Philanthropy, business, or government acting alone, are challenged to revitalize neighborhoods and build inclusive prosperity. The incentives aren’t sufficiently aligned and the funds are insufficient when they’re siloed.

Sustained Effort with Measurable Wins

This work is long-term and complex. Equally important is to establish clear, measurable wins along the way. Community, resident leaders, funders, and supporters will embrace and communicate that hard-earned wins are key to sustaining momentum and progress.