First Grants in New Program Help Advance Racial Equity

Jasmine Lacsamana, Program Officer, also contributed to this post.

Archstone Foundation has spoken out against hate, violence, and racism directed at Black people, as well as Indigenous and People of Color, which includes Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. But we recognize that speaking out is only a first step.

Ongoing engagement and grantmaking with a specific purpose of advancing equity is needed both as a dedicated funding opportunity and throughout the Foundation’s future work.

Recognizing the appalling impact that COVID-19, structural racism, and ongoing xenophobic rhetoric has had and continues to have on communities of color, Archstone Foundation launched a specific grantmaking program in the fall of 2020 focused on supporting organizations in communities of color that are working to address health inequities.

In February and March 2021, the Foundation awarded the first three grants in response to our Request for Proposals (RFP) for “Stimulating Innovations and Building Capacity to Support Diverse Communities and Advance Racial Equity.” The aim of the RFP was to support California nonprofits seeking to improve their capacity and stimulate innovations to better serve older, diverse people with low incomes, and to begin to reduce health disparities.

About the Applicants

The range of requests received emphasizes the wide variety of capacity building and programmatic support needed by nonprofits serving older adult communities of color. In total, the Foundation received 21 applications for Capacity Building support and 12 applications for the Innovations category. Across all applications, the most requested types of support were program costs (20), evaluation (17) and staff development (13). Other requests included consultant support, virtual program delivery, IT help, and assistance with customer relationship management, or CRM.

Meet the Grantees

The three organizations selected to receive one-year, $50,000 grants in this round share a key element: a focus on reducing health disparities among the communities they serve. Please join us in congratulating the following:

Downtown Women's Center
Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) will use the grant to build capacity by supporting a Public Health Coordinator to help the organization meet the significant and growing need for homeless service provision in the Los Angeles area due to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on older adults and women of color. Founded in 1978, DWC is the only organization in Los Angeles focused exclusively on serving and empowering women experiencing homelessness and women who were formerly homeless. The goals for this project are to support women disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 by decreasing their hospitalization rates due to the coronavirus, decreasing community spread of COVID-19 among women served at DWC, and decreasing long-term risk for public health crises at DWC. DWC’s clients are 58% Black, 15% Latina, 14% Caucasian, 5% Asian American and Pacific Islander, 4% Native American and Indigenous women, and 4% are multiracial.

Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation
The grant to Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) will support the implementation of Apricot 360, a HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based social services software system. With this support, LTSC will increase their efficiency of service delivery and staff reporting and improve the efficacy of services provided. Implementation of this new software system will also assist in current and new efforts to track and better serve its clients. LTSC provides a comprehensive array of social welfare and community development services to assist individuals with low incomes and other persons in need. These services contribute to community revitalization and cultural preservation in Little Tokyo and among the broader Japanese community in the Southland. LTSC also provides such resources to neighboring Asian Pacific Islander and other low-income communities.

Somang Society
Somang Society will use its grant to build sustainable internal operations by developing the capacity of, and nurturing the careers of, Somang Society staff and volunteers, and by managing the performance of each individual and team. Somang Society was established with the mission of promoting “Well-Aging, Well-Dying.” Their programmatic philosophy is that death is part of life and the organization’s programs help participants to better prepare for their last stages of life. The grant from Archstone Foundation will provide resources for the organization to support leadership and management development, provide education and training for role-specific professional development, and establish organizational policies and procedures. Somang Society’s Advisory Board is comprised of Korean Americans (62.5%), Vietnamese Americans (25%), and Caucasians (12.5%).

Building Toward a More Just Future

Although we have a long way to go, diversity-focused, targeted grantmaking marks a beginning step in addressing racial and health disparities. We will continue to listen and learn from the organizations doing this important work, and to incorporate what we’ve learned into changing the way we conduct grantmaking.

The Foundation plans to continue offering the Stimulating Innovations and Building Capacity to Support Diverse Communities and Advance Racial Equity RFP on an annual basis, and to offer two opportunities each year for organizations to apply for general Capacity Building and Innovations support grants. In addition, addressing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is — and will remain — a priority across all of Archstone Foundation’s strategy areas as we work to achieve a more just future.