PropelNext is working with foundations in California to help youth-serving organizations in the state boost their impact on young peoples’ lives.
This partnership began in 2015 when the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Sobrato Family Foundation, Weingart Foundation, and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation collaborated to deliver PropelNext to 15 organizations working in Northern and Southern California. Their goal was to help these nonprofits transform their passion for serving disadvantaged youth into data-driven insights and practices enabling them to deliver even stronger results.
In 2018, The Heising-Simons Foundation joined the four foundations from PropelNext‘s California Partnership to deliver the program to 12 nonprofits serving disadvantaged youth in the San Francisco Bay area, forming the Northern California 2021 Grantee Cohort.
Over three years, each PropelNext grantee will receive a combination of unrestricted funding and an equal investment in expert coaching, group learning sessions, and a peer learning community so the cohort can enhance its program models, implement strong performance management systems, and develop organizational cultures that practice ongoing learning and evaluation.
Learn about the twelve Northern California PropelNext grantees
Our co-investors believe, as a result, that the life prospects of disadvantaged youth in California will be improved by even smarter, stronger organizations able to set strategic priorities informed by data and improved decision-making, measure and track performance and impact, and use evidence to increase support for their work.
All the foundations in the California Partnership share a desire and commitment to communicate learnings from this new partnership, and will publish the results of a formal evaluation.
From the California Partners
“The PropelNext initiative is an important opportunity to strengthen outcomes for disadvantaged youth in California,” said Belen Vargas, Senior Vice President with Weingart Foundation. “The organizations that engage in this deep and transformative process will emerge, we believe, with greater capacity and more effective programs.”
“No one does a better job supporting youth development than EMCF,” said Larry Kramer, President of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation. “We are thrilled to join the PropelNext California Partnership to expand Hewlett’s support of Bay Area organizations focused on strengthening outcomes for disadvantaged youth.”
“We are excited to partner in this collaborative and to invest in the increased effectiveness of local youth development organizations. We believe that stronger organizations will lead to greater outcomes for the youth in our region,” stated Mara Williams Low, Program Director of the Sobrato Family Foundation.
“We are excited to work with the Edna McConnell Clark, Hewlett, Sobrato and Weingart Foundations to help strengthen youth-serving organizations in our communities,” said Carol Larson, President and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. “By joining colleagues to bring PropelNext to California, we increase our ability to impact the groups dedicated to transforming the lives of youth, ultimately making the future of our communities brighter for all.”
“We are honored to join EMCF and other funders to support local nonprofit organizations as they strive to deepen their positive impact on youth,” said Holly Kreider, Local and Emerging Opportunities Program Officer at the Heising-Simons Foundation.
“The Hewlett, Packard, Sobrato, Weingart and Heising-Simons foundations are deeply committed to supporting organizations in their communities,” stated Lissette Rodriguez, Vice President and Chief Program Officer, “so we are excited to partner with them and focus on our next group of grantees in California.”