Foundation Regranting

At MSC, we work to avoid the pitfalls of traditional regranting with our Philanthropic Innovation Foundation Regranting program. It speaks to the emerging trend of participatory grantmaking, which shifts the power from grantmakers, boards, investors, and the wealthy to the leaders and communities on the ground. We have been a key grants and contracts administration partner for the philanthropic sector since 2014. Between collaborative funds and grantmaking, MSC has moved over $35 million across 30 states and Canada since 2020. Unlike traditional systems, we are able to regrant stipends to individuals, for-profit entities, and contractors — often working around language barriers and limited access to wifi or traditional bank accounts. In addition, we support philanthropic partners with research and design and RFP and proposal evaluations.

Read more about the future of regranting in our Shifting Philanthropy series on the Move Blog.

Recent projects have included

The Climate Solutions Fund

The fund supports BIPOC-centered efforts to advance critical climate and environmental solutions in the areas of sustainable communities via electrifying buildings and decarbonizing transportation, transitioning to eliminate fossil fuels, advancing clean energy, and transforming public utilities, along with nature conservation and regenerative agriculture.

Energy Efficiency Solutions in Affordable Multi-Family Homes

We facilitate Energy Efficiency Solutions in Affordable Multi-family Homes by allocating funds nationally to organizations working to fight the nation’s climate and affordable housing crises with health, clean energy, environmental resilience, and community building. These multi-state coalitions unify organizations behind equitable investment in efficiency, design and implementation, policy, and healthy building materials. By the end of 2021, MSC supported over 50 grantees and 20 contractors nationwide.

Latinx, Immigrant, and Refugee Youth Power Building

We support Latinx, Immigrant, and Refugee Youth Power Building through two projects that provide access to stipends for youth leaders. The first supported 13 Latinx youth organizations participating in a series of interactive online discussions centering on language, creating space for plurality, well-being, and developing individual and community power. The second project focused on providing postsecondary and vocational training plus college and employment support to 15- and 16-year-old immigrants and refugees.

The Next Generation Fund

This fund was created to support and strengthen transformative youth organizing with a focus on healing and resilience while shining a light on the stories, research, and practices at the heart of this crucial field. The fund, which has supported 19 frontline groups, uplifts this rising generation of young activists as they learn restorative practices, resilience, healing, and the transformative power of building communities of justice through organizing.

The California BIPOC Farmer and Land Steward Relief Fund

This was a response to the crises of 2020 and supported 80 BIPOC farmers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 California wildfires. Many of these BIPOC farmers are leading in implementing climate-resilient practices in the sector but also face incredible barriers to accessing financial support for their enterprises.

In addition

We helped found the Building Equity and Alignment for Environmental Justice (BEA) initiative, focused on bringing together philanthropic, green businesses, and frontline environmental organizations to improve outcomes in the field.

We conducted ecosystem mapping of youth organizing in the Bay Area in addition to designing the People, Power, Place Pathways grantmaking programs.

We created and oversaw the Climate Resilience and Urban Opportunity (CRUO) initiative, focused on moving environmental funding through a racial equity lens to groups that might not typically be considered for these grants.

We worked with Partners for Places to evaluate their RFP and proposal materials for accessibility concerns, in order to promote more applications led by frontline groups rather than sustainability professionals.

We advised a fund in spend-down mode on potential areas of environmental justice funding they could support to lift community-driven solutions in the field.