If a grantee’s work with consultants produces a sound business plan, the Foundation uses it as the basis for structuring a substantial multi-year investment. This investment includes agreed-upon performance goals that the grantee intends to meet and to which it agrees to be held accountable. Investments are structured to help the grantee reach performance goals that are appropriate to its organizational type, level of proven programmatic effectiveness, and capacity for scale.

The Foundation makes three kinds of investments:

• Proven Programs Fully Ready to Grow: Growth capital for organizations that deliver services proven empirically to produce positive outcomes and that have the organizational capacity to grow nationally or regionally.
• Early-Stage Organizations Pursuing Growth While Demonstrating Effectiveness: Organizations that are undertaking program quality improvement initiatives and implementing or planning rigorous third-party evaluations while expanding programs regionally or locally.
• Organizations Improving Quality/Getting to Outcomes: Organizations that deliver multiple services to youth in local communities and are striving to produce better outcomes.

Single-service organizations, which specialize in providing one particular service to low-income youth, frequently in several communities, usually fit into one of the first two categories: ready to grow or pursuing growth while demonstrating effectiveness. Multi-service organizations and national networks, which provide a broader range of services, usually focus on improving quality and producing better outcomes. Most of the Foundation’s current grantmaking supports single-service organizations.

To learn more about the organizations the Foundation’s currently supports, see our Grantee Portfolio.

The first grant following business planning is typically for three to five years. If an organization meets its initial performance goals, the Foundation considers additional grants. The Foundation may exit from an investment relationship under one of three circumstances:

• An organization reaches scale or higher level of program effectiveness in ways that are self-sustaining without further Foundation support;
• An organization neither meets performance goals nor responds to additional support to reach them; or
• Organizational priorities and capacity change significantly and no longer fit the Foundation’s grantmaking goals.

A Foundation portfolio manager manages each grantee relationship, monitoring performance against agreed-upon goals and offering assistance directly or through consultants. Examples of performance goals include increasing the number of youth served in current locations, adding new locations to increase the number of youth served, completing external evaluations, increasing an organizational budget, codifying programs so they can be replicated with similar quality and results, aligning staff structure, diversifying funding sources, and improving program performance data and using it to drive effectiveness.