28 organizations from 18 states and D.C. receive $100,000 Grand Challenge Grants, sponsored by a group of 8 philanthropic partners

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.

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 the 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.

Original source: Gates Foundation
Published on 10 June 2020