Search

EMCF's View A Year-End Update on Blue Meridian Partners Blue Meridian CEO Nancy Roob reflects on Blue Meridian's progress in 2019 and shares priorities guiding the work going forward. EMCF's View | Blue Meridian Partners | October 14, 2020 Continued commitment to emergency response efforts...

EMCF President and CEO Nancy Roob says in a video interview, “Everything I’ve learned about good grantmaking I’ve learned through the experience of investing in Harlem Children’s Zone.”

Nancy Roob, President & CEO of EMCF and CEO of Blue Meridian Partners, shared her vision for a massive change in how philanthropy funds social programs.

Working closely together for 18 years, Harlem Children's Zone and EMCF have shown that "when adults in the community stand up, it's possible to save a generation of young people."

Following First Statewide Pay-for-Success Program Helps At-Risk Moms Governing magazine reports on South Carolina’s innovative public-private initiative to quadruple the number of low-income families NFP serves. Following | HealthySteps | June 24, 2019 A Noble Collaboration: Capital Flows to...

Videos Watch Nancy Roob's TEDx Talk Nancy Roob, President & CEO of EMCF and CEO of Blue Meridian Partners, shared her vision for a massive change in how philanthropy funds social programs. Video | Year Up | January 7, 2019 Creating Opportunities for Young Talent and Business Year Up’s Boston...

The following column, "Blue Meridian Partners: A Collaborative Form of “Big Bet” Philanthropy Aims to Give $1B to Youth Programs," was originally published in the Nonprofit Quarterly . Blue Meridian Partners is a relatively massive endeavor. Why do you feel it is so important to get this...

Harlem Children’s Zone works to “rebuild the very fabric of community life” through a comprehensive set of programs that engage local residents and stakeholders in providing a safe learning environment and positive opportunities for children and families in New York’s Harlem community. Harlem...

Since 2000, EMCF has developed and tested a performance-based investing approach centered on large, long-term investments that help high-performing nonprofits lift the life prospects of more children and youth living in poverty. This approach provides organizations the capital and support...

EMCF launched a new fund in 2011 to aggregate private growth capital and help programs supported by the Foundation and the federal Social Innovation Fund expand to serve more low-income youth. The name we gave this fund—the True North Fund—reflected the inspiration and example we believed...

EMCF requires empirical evidence of a program's effectiveness, evidence that shows not only how well a program is working but also how to make it work better. Amassing evidence is an ongoing, dynamic process we call building an evidence base. This fosters a culture of learning and helps an...

Due diligence rigorously examines whether a prospective grantee and vulnerable youth could benefit from an EMCF investment. We spend hundreds of hours poring over every aspect of an organization's program and operations. Due diligence initially concentrates on three areas: Compelling Product:...

Michael Bailin, who served as President from 1996 to 2005, wrote several essays about the Foundation’s transformation and trends in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors: Great Expectations Versus Getting the Job Done (2004) argued that "even though philanthropy is capable of great...

Propel Next helps nonprofits transform their passion for helping disadvantaged youth into data-driven insights and practices that enable them to deliver even more powerful results. In 2012 EMCF launched Propel Next to assist promising nonprofits in strengthening their capacity to use data for...

The True North Fund portfolio was a blend of 12 local, state and national nonprofits spanning the 9-to-24 age range and three of EMCF's outcome areas: education, employment, and reduction of risky behaviors. These investments delivered effective programming to significantly greater numbers of...

The Youth Development Fund has been EMCF's core program since 2000, concentrating on helping high-performing youth-serving nonprofits achieve greater impact. The Youth Development Fund helps grantees build the infrastructure and evidence they need to expand and help economically disadvantaged...

Communities In Schools , one of the nation’s leading dropout prevention programs, offers and integrates community services that help economically disadvantaged students, grades K–12, stay in school and graduate on time. A Communities In Schools (CIS) site coordinator at each school assesses...

Inside Philanthropy cites Blue Meridian as 2016’s "Best Big Bet" and Roob as "Foundation President of the Year."

For five decades, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation sought to help people and communities in need. In October 2018, EMCF announced it was entering the final stage of its limited-life strategy to invest all its assets within the next decade to leave a lasting impact on the lives of children...

EMCF is proud to have partnered with more than 45 co-investors in aggregating growth capital for 20 youth-serving organizations. We continue to maximize the impact of high-performing nonprofits as a General Partner in Blue Meridian Partners....