Giving Compass' Take:

• ECMC Foundation program analyst Angela Sanchez ,shares lessons about funding initiatives locally in Los Angeles, trying to grapple with the 31,000 nonprofits that currently serve the city, and on the national scale. 

• What are the challenges in trying to fund national organizations and giving back to local communities simultaneously?

• Read NCFP's advice on how foundations can effectively help who they are serving. 

Transitioning from a scholarship fund to an organizational grantmaker, ECMC Foundation maintained its educational focus, but now with an emphasis on supporting postsecondary degree/credential attainment among young adults and adult learners from traditionally underserved populations.

With its sprawling neighborhoods and ribbons of freeways, Los Angeles covers a lot of turf. The nonprofit sector matches its city’s complexity; Los Angeles is home to over 31,000 nonprofits.

With so much activity outside our window, remaining agnostic to geography isn’t easy. But being a national funder does not mean being disconnected to the activity happening in our own backyards. It’s a careful exchange to be locally engaged while staying true to mission. In working at ECMC Foundation for three years, the following is what I’ve learned so far.

  • Don’t shy away - Being a national funder doesn’t mean closed doors. One of the first communities ECMC Foundation joined was Southern California Grantmakers (SCG).
  • Do set limitations - ECMC Foundation is dedicated to its commitment of funding nationally, but there are numerous, worthy organizations we could fund within Los Angeles County alone. This, unfortunately, means we have to be conscientious as to how vested we are in the local landscape.
  • Be transparent about your scope and strategy - In an effort to be as transparent as possible, we make applicants aware both on our website and through our inquiry portal about our portfolios’ specific giving strategies and target populations.
  • Be engaged 
  • Look for (and support) outsized impact - When we find a program in our backyard that has outstanding outcomes, our response is to figure out how the efforts can leverage our investment, whether that’s through scaling or replication of the work or supporting the leadership of an organization to influence others.

Read the full article about lessons from a foundation by Angela Sanchez at Exponent Philanthropy