The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation finds high-potential youth-serving organizations that meet its due diligence criteria.

• A compelling program with evidence that it improves educational skills and attainment, employment prospects, and/or reduces high-risk behaviors
• Outstanding leadership with a track record of accomplishment and a vision of growth
• Financial viability
• Operational viability
• A commitment to tracking performance and measuring outcomes
• Compatibility with the Foundation’s investment approach
  

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• Is the grantee a single-service organization, delivering one program in several locales and seeking to expand elsewhere?
• Is it a multi-service organization, providing an array of services in one community?
• Is it a national network, providing one or more services through local affiliates in many communities?
• If the grantee is a single-service organization, is it:

- An early stage organization in need of business planning and external evaluation?

- A growth ready organization that needs to strengthen its evaluation and its infrastructure?

- A sustainable growth organization with a scientifically proven program that requires growth capital to expand?

We help grantees prepare to grow by assisting them with business planning and with improving the quality of their programs, the evidence of their programs’ effectiveness, and their organizational capacity. In some instances we also provide up-front growth capital.

• Business planning
• Unrestricted multi-year investments
• Performance tracking systems
• External evaluation
• Talent and leadership development
• Up-front growth capital
  
  

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As our grantees grow, they improve the life prospects of greater numbers of youth with programs that have been proven effective.

• Growth in service capacity and numbers served
• Improved program effectiveness as demonstrated in evaluation
• Stronger organizations able to sustain growth and quality
• More youth benefit from improved life prospects