Scaling 

Solutions II

A look at best practices in successful 

public-philanthropic partnerships

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | Office of Policy Development and Research 

FOREWORD 

FOREWORD

I

n 2012, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), jointly with the Council on Foundations 

(COF), created the Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships in order to raise awareness of the 

impactful partnerships between HUD grantees and foundations throughout the nation.

Since then, HUD and COF have recognized 60 public-philanthropic partnerships. The partnerships featured 

through the Secretary’s Award stand out for their measurable benefits to low- and moderate-income families. 

The efforts have had a diverse set of benefits in the areas of employment, health, safety, education, sustainability, 

inclusivity and cultural opportunities, and housing access. By highlighting effective public-philanthropic 

partnerships, the Awards offer a set of best practices that can inform the development of other place-based 

programs and initiatives. In addition to the successful partnerships highlighted in this report, two key priorities of 

the Department also include the EnVision Center Demonstration and Opportunity Zones. 

The EnVision Center Demonstration consists of four pillars in order to provide communities with centralized 

hubs for support: Economic Empowerment; Educational Advancement; Health and Wellness; and Character 

and Leadership. By reinforcing these core principles, HUD is helping to advance local solutions that put people 

first. The Economic Empowerment pillar provides government-assisted households with increased opportunities 

in order to achieve self-reliance. The Educational Advancement pillar bolsters public-private partnerships in 

the education space. The Health and Wellness pillar is designed to improve health outcomes and increase 

access to better healthcare. Lastly, the Character and Leadership pillar encourages citizens to become caring 

and responsible citizens by engaging with their communities through participation in volunteer and mentoring 

programs. EnVision Centers are opening their doors across the country to serve those most in need.

In order to stimulate economic growth in economically distressed communities, Opportunity Zones were introduced 

in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Additionally, Executive Order 13853 established the White House Opportunity 

Revitalization Council (Council). Opportunity Zones are a key priority of HUD. As the Chair of the Council, which 

includes 17 Federal agencies and Federal-State partnerships, Secretary Ben Carson leads government-wide efforts to 

spur revitalization in America’s underserved communities. Currently, there are more than 8,700 economically distressed 

areas that have been designated as Opportunity Zones, where tax incentives have been created to spur investment. 

The Council engages with communities and residents, state and local officials, investors, entrepreneurs, philanthropic 

organizations, faith leaders, and more to bring about lasting, revitalizing investments in Opportunity Zones.

Scaling Solutions II features the recipients of the Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships over the past few 

years. This report showcases eight innovative partnerships between foundations and government that have been critical in 

transforming communities and improving the quality of life for low- and moderate-income residents across the country.

Seth D. Appleton

Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 

Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships

Conten

CONTENTS

Introduction���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������1

The Gulf Coast Foundation��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������3

The San Francisco Foundation��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������5

City Alive Foundation ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������7

The Legacy Foundation �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������10

The Community Foundation of the New River Valley�������������������������������������������������������������������������������12

The Skillman Foundation ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������14

Seattle Foundation ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������16

The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������18

Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships v

INTRODUC

INTRODUCTION

Published in 2016, Scaling Solutions provided a set of lessons learned from various philanthropies funded 

by the Sustainable Communities Initiative. It was designed to act as a guide for public, philanthropic, 

private, and nonprofit entities seeking effective partnerships in pursuit of a common goal. This follow-up 

publication, Scaling Solutions II, expands the scope beyond the Sustainable Communities Initiative and 

highlights partnerships that have received the Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships over the 

past few years.

“...the key to helping the vulnerable people and families we serve are 

the partnerships we have with the philanthropic community...creating 

opportunities in our communities can never be the job of just one 

sector—it has to be the public, private, nonprofit, and faith community 

working together.” (HUD Secretary Ben Carson)

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in conjunction with the Council on 

Foundations (COF), has been awarding the Secretary’s Award annually since 2012 (with the exception of 2015). 

These awards are meant to recognize various partnerships that have developed as community strategies to 

increase the quality of life for low- and moderate-income residents across all American geographies—urban, 

suburban, and rural. Over the years, this award has given HUD many opportunities to celebrate the innovation 

and ambitious visions of cross-sector partnerships between philanthropic and public organizations.

One observation that comes out of these various partnerships is that there is no one single formula to produce 

a successful partnership. Instead, the focus should be to develop a partnership that is unique to the community 

it will serve and to use tools and resources in a sustainable and effective manner. These partnerships share the 

goal of making the world a better place, but they work toward that goal in ways that are most effective for their 

own communities.

While they vary in program lengths, goals, approaches, scopes, and geography, there are certain elements 

that hold true: relationship building with communities and stakeholders, targeted approaches, and community 

empowerment stand out in particular. These elements have produced successful partnerships and projects that 

were able to thrive.

“...to deliver tangible, measurable, and lasting results, all the 

philanthropic groups, nonprofit organizations, and federal and state 

agencies...must align and combine resources, share best practices, 

and closely coordinate action.” (HUD Secretary Ben Carson)

Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships 1
2 Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships

INTRODUC

Scaling Solutions II, like Scaling Solutions, starts from the recognition that philanthropy goes beyond 

grantmaking, as demonstrated in the partnerships and networks described in the following pages. 

Scaling Solutions II highlights how philanthropic organizations can utilize their knowledge and network 

to partner communities with experts and ideas they might not have access to otherwise.
Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships 3

THE GULF COAST FOUN

THE GULF COAST FOUNDATION

The Gulf Coast Foundation won the Secretary’s 

Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships 

in 2014. It is a philanthropic organization 

that has been doing work in Florida’s Sarasota and 

De Soto Counties since 1995. The Feeding Hungry 

Families Initiative was started in 2014 by the Gulf 

Coast Foundation. It has continued since then through 

partnerships with schools, libraries, food banks, and 

local public entities including county and municipal 

government and hospitals.

The Gulf Coast Foundation uses an entrepreneurial 

“collective impact” strategy when deciding how to develop their projects. That is to say, they seek out large 

community issues as opposed to sitting back and waiting for people to write grants. Feeding Hungry Families, 

which is the initiative for which they received the Secretary’s Award, was a product of this. The Board of 

Directors learned that a majority of children in Sarasota County were receiving free or reduced-price lunch. 

They were shocked that so many children in their community were in such a vulnerable position.

Another inflection point in the foundation’s early work was a 2014 study they commissioned about food 

insecurity among schoolchildren in Sarasota and DeSoto Counties. The study found that a large number of 

children in both counties were experiencing “food insecurity without hunger.” That is, they had regular concerns 

about having enough food. Recognizing the scale of the problem, the foundation decided to work on improving 

the distribution of healthy, nutritious food to children in need in their region. This began with some fact-finding 

about food deserts and early engagement with the All Faiths Food Bank. Looking further into the issue, the 

foundation’s Board found that the need was even greater over the summer, when kids weren’t receiving meals 

at school.

Having found a point of focus in the need for summer meals, the foundation soon became frustrated with 

the rules that governed how the federally subsidized meals were distributed during the summer. The U.S. 

Department of Agriculture (USDA) has rules in place that limit where and how the meals can be distributed and 

require the kids to eat most of the food on site. In order to improve the distribution, the foundation decided to 

develop their own network using public partners and private donations. This program is the Campaign Against 

Summer Hunger (CASH) initiative, referred to as CASH and Cans. CASH has been able to raise just over $1 

million a year, serves 34,000 kids, and, unlike the USDA-sponsored programs, allows and even encourages 

children to take the food home and share it.
4 Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships

THE GULF COAST FOUN

The fundraising model used by the foundation for CASH differed from the usual strategy. Rather than getting 

high-dollar amounts from a relatively small number of individuals, Gulf Coast put a cap on the dollar amount 

that any individual could give. Previous campaigns had become dependent on a few individuals writing big 

checks. This became unsustainable, since those sources could quickly disappear for a variety of reasons. 

For CASH, no individual could donate more than $25,000 in each round of the campaign. Even with this limit 

in place, the foundation was able to raise about $650,000 annually from their investors group. Outreach by 

community partners brought in a match to this amount, raised from individuals contributing $25 or less.

This outreach also increased awareness of the campaign. 

Because the initiative was new, the first year functioned 

more as an awareness campaign than an actual 

fundraising campaign. The outreach by their community 

partners was important to get it off the ground and to 

increase awareness. Without those partnerships, the 

initiative’s success would have been much more limited. 

These partnerships included working with the dozens of 

agencies that work as distribution points for the All Faiths 

Food Bank. The foundation also put into place standards 

of cleanliness and improved the refrigeration facilities, 

which made the partnerships even more effective.

The foundation began the initiative working with small community organizations, although problems with 

inconsistency filtered out some early strategies and partnerships. The first year of the initiative was difficult. 

Without community awareness and strong relationships with partners, there was very low turnout. This was 

a valuable lesson for the foundation. They switched gears and ended up becoming engaged with the local 

government through partnerships with libraries and parks. Libraries and parks became their most prominent 

and important partners largely because of their reliability. They consistently produced programming that 

resulted in a reliable attendance so that they could provide reliable meals. 

One of the more eye-catching elements of the initiative is the Sprout Mobile Market, a van that travels across 

Sarasota County to fill the gaps in the region’s many food deserts. Bringing fresh produce is only part of 

the Sprout van’s mission; it also provides a physical platform for food preparation and cooking classes. The 

foundation is also supporting community gardens in the region by using Sprout to deliver water to gardens that 

are lacking it. These gardens give the children who work in them the chance to eat food that they’ve grown.

The Feeding Hungry Families Initiative has proven to be a success for several years in a row and highlights 

how effective, thoughtful partnerships among philanthropies, public institutions, and community leaders 

can transform how services are provided. Thanks to the work of the Gulf Coast Foundation and its partners, 

thousands of children are receiving meals year-round, communities have increased knowledge of and access to 

healthy foods, and institutions like libraries and parks are centers of community engagement.
Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships 5

THE SAN FRANCISCO FO

THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION

The San Francisco Foundation won the 

Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic 

Partnerships in 2014 for its HOPE SF project. 

HOPE SF is composed of the San Francisco Foundation 

(SFF), Enterprise Community Partners, and the City and 

County of San Francisco. SFF houses the partnership 

and has taken on the civic leadership of the project, as 

it has lasted through several mayoral administrations. 

The Mayor’s Office leads the overall design and vision 

of HOPE SF while Enterprise Community Partners 

brings national best practices around housing 

affordability and mixed-income inclusion.

At a superficial level, HOPE SF has a similarity to HOPE 

VI and the Rental Assistance Demonstration program (RAD) in that it is replacing distressed public housing 

with higher quality buildings. However, HOPE SF shifts the focus away from the physical properties and onto 

the households living in them. This shift is expressed in the initiative’s three main goals: replace obsolete 

public housing with mixed-income developments; improve social and economic outcomes for existing public 

housing residents; and create neighborhoods desirable to low- and middle-income families alike. There is an 

additional cross-cutting goal of “generating the systems change necessary to promote and sustain the desired 

outcomes.” This sets HOPE SF apart from previous redevelopment programs that focused on building new 

housing rather than finding ways to address deeper social issues. A central concern to HOPE SF is to avoid 

displacement and empower residents; HOPE VI has been criticized for resulting in fewer public housing units 

and causing the displacement of families.

Planning began in 2005 to redevelop five public housing developments in the city: Hunters View, Alice Griffith, 

Potrero Terrace, Potrero Annex, and Sunnydale-Velasco, which have a total of 1,904 units. The quality of the 

housing is very poor; much of it was built in the 1950s to early 1960s and was not meant to last as long as it 

has. Then-Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supervisors authorized a $95 million bond to support the 

effort to redevelop the housing in 2006, and the late Mayor Ed Lee expanded the city’s engagement by hiring a 

director and staff to run the initiative from the mayor’s office. The current governance structure involves several 

committees composed of agency staff and leadership, community members, and other stakeholders.

HOPE SF was created in 2010 to engage the philanthropic sector in achieving HOPE SF’s goals. The 

partnership’s philanthropic participants have since grown to play essential roles. The San Francisco Foundation 

houses the partnership, provides administrative support, and acts as the civic leader, while Enterprise 

Community Partners bring a considerable range of expertise: providing technical support to developers and 

property managers, creating and maintaining affordability, and placemaking and attracting anchor institutions.
6 Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships

THE SAN FRANSICSO F

As of late 2017, the project has seen great successes and very positive outcomes for the families. Two of the 

four sites have been finished, with all the original families now living in new homes. The successes go beyond 

rehousing. The initiative has so far had a 90 percent retention rate for families in the redeveloped developments; 

the median income for the rehoused families has increased; and chronic absenteeism levels for school 

attendance have dropped from 53 percent in 2011 to 27 percent in 2016.

Two programs that demonstrate HOPE SF’s deeper 

commitment to resident empowerment are the Resident 

Leadership Academy and the HOPE SF Summer 

Achiever program. The Leadership Academy helps 

adults build their leadership and professional skills. 

Many of the program’s graduates have gone on to enroll 

in and complete professional certification programs. 

Some residents who participated in the Academy also 

participated in the Peer Health Leadership program and 

became community health workers in the pilot health 

and wellness center in the Sunnydale community.

The Summer Achiever program is designed to help residents in the four HOPE SF communities overcome the 

disparity between their opportunities and those elsewhere in the city. It provides youth between the ages of 

13 and 24 with leadership development and skill building; team building and network building; coaching and 

mentoring; and access and exposure to a network of educational, professional, and social supports.

The problems that HOPE SF seeks to solve are myriad and complex in nature, produced by generations of 

disinvestment and isolation from the city and the services it provides. In a report published in 2017, the initiative 

shared the major lessons they have learned through the HOPE SF process. Most of them address the structural 

issues that have kept the communities isolated from the rest of the city. The solutions presented by HOPE SF 

include building trust and community leadership, using that leadership to create community transformation, and 

maintaining the strong cross-sector collaboration that has made HOPE SF successful. It is a strong example of 

how public-philanthropic partnerships can catalyze change in underserved communities.
Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships 7

CITY ALIVE FOUNDA

CITY ALIVE FOUNDATION 

A recipient of the Secretary’s Award in 2017, 

City Alive is a cross-sector collaboration in 

Albuquerque, New Mexico, that is funded 

by the Living Cities Integration Initiative program.

Living Cities has been in the community development 

space since 1991, starting as the National Community 

Development Initiative and becoming Living Cities in 

2007. The Integration Initiative was started in 2010 across 

five cities: Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Newark, and 

Minneapolis-St. Paul. Albuquerque was included in the 

second wave of cities in 2014, alongside New Orleans, 

San Antonio, San Francisco, and Seattle/King County.

New Mexico and Albuquerque both tend to fall relatively 

low on many measures of economic and social well-being. The Integration Initiative was created to produce 

“system-level” change in local policy environments through cross-sector collaboration. In the case of 

Albuquerque, the Initiative’s support was used to create a “collective impact initiative” through a partnership 

that includes public institutions, philanthropic organizations, and the business, education, and nonprofit sectors. 

Through the collective impact initiative, City Alive, these organizations and their leaders collaborate to ensure 

that all hard-working entrepreneurs in Albuquerque—regardless of race, income, or background—have the 

support and resources they need to turn good ideas into businesses that succeed. 

The overall mission of the collaboration is to close the gap in business ownership and leadership with a focus 

on people of color. The collaborating organizations do this through several avenues of action. One way is by 

working to increase the availability of and access to both high-quality business development opportunities and 

the capital required to start and grow businesses. Another way is to foster up-and-coming entrepreneurs by 

growing opportunities for talent and skill development in both traditional and nontraditional tracks.

The partnership has also made a commitment to building Albuquerque’s economy from the ground up. This is 

done by buying local and supporting homegrown businesses as the default institutional practice throughout 

the city. Complementarily, the partnership supports the advancement of Albuquerque’s infrastructure to 

connect people and places in new and impactful ways, making sure that the city’s communities along with its 

businesses experience the benefits of development.

City Alive was not the first collaborative project in Albuquerque. The others that preceded it helped prime the 

policy environment for such a large-scale initiative. ABQ Heading Home was another public-philanthropic 

initiative that brought together city government and local nonprofits to address homelessness for individuals 

who have been chronically homeless and are medically vulnerable. Another collaborative project, Mission 
8 Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships

CITY ALIVE FOUNDA

Graduate, brought together public and private 

organizations to increase the graduation rates. 

Both of these proved successful and showed that 

collaborative efforts were beneficial. 

City Alive owes at least part of its existence to 

an original steering table made up of the City of 

Albuquerque, University of New Mexico (UNM), 

and Nusenda Credit Union, institutions that have 

become more intentionally engaged in the economic 

fate of New Mexico in the years after the Great 

Recession. In 2012, UNM published a report called 

“Expanding UNM’s Role in Economic Development,” which laid out the ways in which UNM could leverage 

its own resources to help pull New Mexico’s economy back on track. This included supporting an innovation 

initiative, using UNM’s institutional resources to secure patents, pushing for in-state procurement of various 

supplies, and developing a curriculum to educate others about how to support a more entrepreneurial economy. 

One manifestation of UNM, Nusenda Credit Union, and the City of Albuquerque’s collaboration is the creation of 

an “innovation district” in downtown Albuquerque.

The first phase of this project included the construction of the Rainforest Building, which houses offices for 

several technology developers, including the Air Force Research Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and 

STC.UNM, UNM’s technology-transfer and economic development organization. The building also has housing 

for UNM students and two floors that are leased by the Navajo Nation to give Navajo students a “culturally 

sustaining” residential space while they are in school.

The Rainforest Building also houses the Innovation Academy, which gives UNM students the opportunity to 

pursue entrepreneurial goals while in school. Students living in the Rainforest Building have a remarkable 

amount of access to resources that support technological entrepreneurship, including support in their 

entrepreneurship from the university and exposure to organizations and individuals that can help move their 

ideas to the next level.

On the other end of the spectrum of City Alive’s support for 

entrepreneurs is the support provided to local businesses. Some 

of the support for the entrepreneurs listed above has come from 

Co-op Capital. Co-op Capital is a “relationship-based microlending” program. Organizations identify individuals or small 

businesses that they want to support and use a deposit account at 

Nusenda Credit Union to sponsor the loan. Nusenda in turn takes 

care of the origination, the servicing, and all the reporting. This 

model of lending allows organizations to identify and support lower 

income entrepreneurs in Albuquerque’s communities who would 

otherwise have a difficult time accessing capital.
Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships 9

CITY ALIVE FOUNDA

These are only two examples of how City Alive has pursued its mission. Taken as a whole, the City Alive 

initiative can be seen as an effective collaboration between the public sector resources of the City, the County, 

and the University and the private civic institutions like Nusenda, the National Laboratories, and the other 

local and national businesses and nonprofits that have become engaged in the initiative. City Alive has helped 

Albuquerque take advantage of its own internal resources and encourage economic development on its 

own terms.
10 Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships

THE LEGACY FOUNDA

THE LEGACY FOUNDATION 

The Legacy Foundation is a community foundation for Lake County, Indiana. The foundation awards 

grants to nonprofit organizations, presents scholarships, and leads community initiatives. In 

2014, the Legacy Foundation’s Neighborhood Spotlight Initiative won the Secretary’s Award for 

Public-Philanthropic Partnerships.

The Neighborhood Spotlight Initiative is a place-based initiative for reinvesting in communities. The initiative 

provides a framework for capacity building, planning, and implementing community development. The idea 

for the initiative came about when the city of Gary, Indiana began the Strong City, Strong Community Initiative 

(SC2). The Legacy Foundation sought more engagement with residents and businesses in the community to 

better leverage their resources and looked at the community-engagement approaches of other organizations 

in the cities of Chicago and Indianapolis. The Legacy Foundation met with the SC2 team in Gary and began 

working in tandem with SC2 to develop a ground-up approach to engage residents, build up a base of 

volunteers, and engage the community. 

The Legacy Foundation partnered with Prosperity Indiana, a statewide membership organization for community 

development, to develop technical training and design a collective impact model. The training focused on 

leadership, networking, and mobilizing people to create change. They offered training to many neighborhood 

groups interested in the Neighborhood Spotlight Initiative. After the year-long training, the foundation invited 

the neighborhood groups to apply for the initiative. The foundation selected two neighborhoods to participate 

during the first year and another two neighborhoods the following year. Once selected, the neighborhood 

groups received further training and developed surveys for their neighborhood outreach. They began their 

outreach and conducted hundreds of one-on-one interviews within their respective communities. They received 

a lot of quality feedback from their outreach about what was important to these Lake County communities. 

The Neighborhood Spotlight Initiative brought 

residents together and empowered them to take 

ownership of their respective communities. The 

resident-led initiatives varied in each neighborhood 

according to its respective community feedback. 

Through the initiatives, residents created networks 

and action groups, developed community gardens, 

advocated and created a kayak launch with weekly 

sunset paddles, and held a variety of events for youth 

in the community. They began First Fridays, which 

are community events featuring small businesses, 

local artists, farmers markets, and so forth.
Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships 11

THE LEGACY FOUNDA

The Neighborhood Spotlight Initiative gave a voice to residents in their respective communities, opening up 

a dialog with the public sector. In Gary, the spotlight neighborhoods met quarterly with the mayor to identify 

pressing issues in the local neighborhoods. One issue was illegal dumping in the area, and in response to the 

neighborhood group advocating to the mayor, the city posted more signage to discourage illegal dumping. 

The spotlight neighborhoods in Gary would also organize community cleanups, often including artists to 

paint murals.

While the initiative gave voice to Lake County residents, the lack 

of community development organizations was a hurdle for the 

initiative. There simply are not many community development 

organizations in Lake County to implement many of the ideas 

birthed out of the Neighborhood Spotlight Initiative. In response 

to this barrier, Legacy Foundation is launching a community 

development corporation that can focus on community 

development in Lake County neighborhoods.
12 Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships

THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE NEW RIVE

THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 

OF THE NEW RIVER VALLEY

The Community Foundation of the New River 

Valley is located in Christiansburg, Virginia, in 

Montgomery County and provides services to the 

counties of Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, and Pulaski, as well 

as the city of Radford, Virginia. The New River Valley is a 

rural region with some centers around higher education, 

including Virginia Tech, Radford University, and New 

River Valley Community College. In 2016, the Community 

Foundation of the New River Valley won the Secretary’s 

Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships for its work 

with the Aging in Place partnership, which formed during 

the New River Valley Livability Initiative. 

The New River Valley Livability Initiative was a 3-year regional planning initiative funded through the Federal 

Partnership for Sustainable Communities, and the Community Foundation was a core partner of the initiative. 

A demographic analysis was conducted as part of the Livability initiative, and the data revealed the doubling 

of the older adult population in less than 20 years. This significant finding led to the creation of the Aging in 

Place Leadership Team, which comprises representatives from AARP, the New River Valley Area Agency on 

Aging, Floyd County, Habitat for Humanity, Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services, New River Valley 

Home Consortium, the New River Valley Regional Commission, the Town of Blacksburg, and the Community 

Foundation of the New River Valley, among others. The Aging in Place Leadership Team has now met monthly 

since 2012 to help implement the series of strategies to improve opportunities to age in place for the New 

River Valley Region identified during the Livability Initiative. These strategies are outlined in the Home Matters 

report and an aging-in-place 

workplan that included the 

Lifespan Friendly Homes 

Program, the New River Valley 

TimeBank, and an agingin-place workbook, “Aging 

in Place: Your Home, Your 

Community, Your Choice.” 

The Lifespan Friendly Homes 

Program provided home 

accessibility, safety, and 

energy modifications to lowincome adults—these are 
Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships 13

THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE NEW RIVE

priority needs in the region. The program provided the modifications for 24 low-income adults—12 in the Town 

of Blacksburg and 12 in the surrounding New River Valley area—at an average cost of $5,000. The program 

was funded by the Community Foundation of the New River Valley and Funders Network’s Partner for Places 

program. The 2-year pilot program had the short-term goal of increasing participants’ ability to age in place and 

the long-term goal of determining how to implement a sustainable aging-in-place program. 

The pilot program revealed larger issues with establishing a sustained program over the long term. One 

issue was that the homes of some applicants were in disrepair beyond that which could be fixed through 

the modifications provided by the program. Many applicants put off home maintenance and repair for more 

immediate needs like food and healthcare. Deferring home maintenance eventually caused more structural 

and systematic damages to the homes, so much so that they could not have their home modified through 

the program. 

Long-term funding for the program also proves challenging in rural areas. The Town of Blacksburg is able to 

receive Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding directly from HUD to help carry out the home 

modifications. However, in the more rural areas of the New River Valley, CDBG funding is authorized by the 

Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, which does not allow the CDBG funds to be 

used for home modifications and energy upgrades. 

Other initiatives include the New River Valley TimeBank, which provides an online platform for exchanging 

volunteer services within the community. In rural areas, people do not often have access to the financial 

resources to make home repairs or receive other kinds of assistance. The TimeBank provides a platform for 

people of all ages to exchange services that they otherwise would not get. The TimeBank also started offering 

wildly popular semiannual repair cafes with the New River Valley 

Habitat for Humanity, which allow people to bring in things that 

need repair in order to make them functional again. 

The most recent effort of the Aging in Place Leadership Team is 

the creation of an aging-in-place workbook, “Aging in Place: Your 

Home, Your Community, Your Choice.” The workbook is a useful 

tool to assist older adults to age at home and in their community. 

It includes chapters on personal finance, health and wellness, 

housing, transportation, and connection and growth. They are also 

currently making a “train the trainers” guide along with videos to be 

used by other groups interested in facilitating discussion on these 

topics, whether an interested neighborhood, community, church 

group, or other human, health, or social service professionals. 

The workbook is available through a guided process online or 

available for print. 
14 Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships

THE SKILLMAN FOUN

THE SKILLMAN FOUNDATION 

The Skillman Foundation has been a champion for children since the 1960s, working to expand equitable 

opportunity for Detroit children to ensure their well-being 

and prosperity. In 2017, the Skillman Foundation won the 

Secretary’s Award for Public-Private Partnerships for its work 

with the program Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT). 

The Skillman Foundation began working to create youth 

employment opportunities in Detroit after hearing the city’s 

youth express that they had few job opportunities to obtain or 

aspire to. The foundation started with a small pilot to create 

300 summer jobs in 2008. In an effort to grow this program, 

the foundation established a youth development consortium 

to access available federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars, then provided early support to 

establish a citywide public-private partnership, and, as a result, GDYT was launched in 2014. 

GDYT is a 6-week summer youth-employment program that combines work readiness training with on-thejob experience designed to prepare youth ages 14 to 24 years old for the workforce. In addition to leveraging 

traditional and social media, youth are recruited through local schools, community organizations, and the 

City of Detroit’s workforce development system. Applicants are matched with employers based on interest, 

ability, and accessibility. The employers can interview candidates or have GDYT Youth Specialists manage the 

placement process. Before entering the workplace, youth are prepared with at least 24 hours of work readiness 

training. Once youth begin employment, they are assigned a GDYT Youth Specialist to help them succeed in 

the workplace. 
Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships 15

Since its inception, GDYT has placed over 30,000 youth in summer jobs. The program is currently able to 

provide around 8,000 jobs to the city’s youth each summer. 

With the continued partnership of the Skillman Foundation and other philanthropic organizations, GDYT 

has been able to add a career and academics component to its program. This new addition allows young 

people to tie their academic work to future careers. Moreover, in addition to continuing to expand summer 

employment opportunities, the Skillman Foundation and its partners have set out to secure year-round jobs 

for young Detroiters.

Overall, the GDYT initiative has been successful because philanthropy was initially supporting a body of work 

that was grounded in what was heard in the community. In addition, the deep buy-in from a number of partners 

from multiple sectors and a mayor who champions the work allow GDYT to continue to thrive. 

THE SKILLMAN FOUN
16 Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships

SEATT LE FOUN

SEATTLE FOUNDATION 

Seattle Foundation has been working with local philanthropists since 1946. Today, the community 

foundation has over $1 billion in charitable assets and awards more than $100 million in grants annually 

to nonprofit organizations that are dedicated to making the greater Seattle area a stronger community. 

Seattle and the surrounding regions have seen tremendous growth and prosperity in recent years and as a 

result have experienced challenges that include the growing disparity between the rich and the poor. In order to 

address those challenges, Seattle Foundation teamed up with King County to specifically address inequities in 

health, social, racial, and economic outcomes. 

Seattle Foundation won the 2016 Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships for creating a 

framework that would engage other cross-sector partners, intermediaries, and investors into a collective impact 

approach. The effort focused on place-based solutions and policy/system change solutions in partnership with 

affected communities. It was important that community partners had key roles in shaping and owning solutions.

This partnership resulted in Communities of Opportunity (COO), a network of residents, communities, 

decisionmakers, government, and funders who are dedicated to eliminating racial, health, and economic 

disparities. 

Since its inception, COO partners have focused on preserving and developing affordable housing that is 

in close proximity to transit, jobs, and education; creating access to healthy, affordable food; developing 

the workforce to include local hires and expand job opportunities for young people; and increasing civic 

participation and cultural preservation. 

Recently, COO built on early momentum to ensure 

policies support community priorities and needs by 

bringing together a group of grantees to develop a 

policy change agenda. Participating organizations 

came together to identify regional policy and system 

shifts needed to advance equity in the region 

and dismantle persistent racial injustice from the 

perspective of the 50 participating community-based 

organizations. 

COO investments have also funded the Yesler 

Community Collaborative (YCC), a network of 

neighborhood-level organizations that advocate 

for equitable development to preserve cultural and 

economic diversity and affordable housing in one of 

Seattle’s most diverse communities. YCC convened 
Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships 17

SEATTLE FOUN

community groups with developers to redevelop a 

large block in the heart of the city’s historic AfricanAmerican neighborhood with community needs and 

cultural connections at the forefront. It includes a plan 

to build 120 apartment units for low-income residents. 

YCC also developed a new neighborhood preference 

policy to make new affordable housing units more 

accessible to people who have been displaced from 

their communities due to rising gentrification. 

In addition to the policy change agenda, Communities 

of Opportunity is also building a learning community 

for groups and organizations to collaborate, share 

their work, and gain additional skills to advance 

impact across the region.
18 Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships

THE GREATER KANAWHA VALLEY FOUN

THE GREATER KANAWHA 

VALLEY FOUNDATION

The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation (GKVF) 

in Charleston, West Virginia, is the largest 

community foundation in West Virginia and 

the largest in the central Appalachia region. The 

foundation serves six counties through its discretionary 

grants and the whole state through its scholarship 

program. Charleston, the capital, is the largest city 

in the state, with roughly 47,000 people. In 2016, the 

Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation’s “Investing in Our 

Communities Initiative” was a recipient of the Secretary’s 

Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships.

In 2014, the foundation conducted a series of 

stakeholder meetings and informal listening campaigns in 

each of its six counties in order to understand how to better serve the communities. While foundation staff 

and volunteers received a lot of good feedback, they wanted to take a more comprehensive approach to 

understanding the needs of Charleston’s West Side and partnered with the Kanawha Institute for Social 

Research and Action (KISRA) to design a needs assessment utilizing a survey and focus group discussions 

in this neighborhood. The survey gave the foundation a better idea of how they could help address the issues 

facing the West Side community, which is home to many low-income families. Based on the community 

responses from the survey and focus group discussions, the foundation focused its efforts on health, education, 

housing, and civic engagement. 

The initiative launched three projects to help improve the neighborhood: Project West Invest, which incentivized 

law enforcement officers to move into the community; Second Avenue Community Center Restoration, which 

helped to restore a community anchor in the neighborhood; and the Handle with Care Mentorship program, in 

which law enforcement notifies the neighborhood elementary school—Mary C. Snow Elementary—if they are 

called to a student’s home and then enroll the student, if interested, in the mentorship program. 

Project West Invest was modeled after HUD’s Good Neighbor Next Door program. Project West Invest came 

about from a dialog between the foundation, the local police force, and the Charleston Urban Renewal Authority 

(CURA). Through Project West Invest, CURA and the foundation offer forgivable loans to police officers for 

purchasing homes on the West Side with the requirement that they live in the neighborhood for 10 years. 

The project later expanded to offer up to $2,500 for exterior renovations to current homeowners. The police 

department partnered with the Mount Olive Correctional Complex to employ previously incarcerated individuals 

for the renovations as a means of workforce development. Now, multiple officers are living in the neighborhood, 

and the project is working to expand to include teachers. 
Scaling Solutions II: A look at best practices in successful public-philanthropic partnerships 19

THE GREATER KANAWHA VALLEY FOUN

The Second Avenue Center (Paul Dunbar Center) is a community anchor on the West Side of Charleston, 

providing services for seniors, an afterschool program for Mary C. Snow Elementary School students, 

and a summer basketball program. The Second Avenue Community Center had a leaking roof, and the 

foundation worked with CURA to repair the roof. The newly repaired community center continues to serve the 

neighborhood with a number of community activities. Since these renovations, a local church has taken an 

active interest in the center and provides tutoring on site, as well as other services. 

Through the Handle with Care Mentorship program, which was piloted on Charleston’s West Side and is now 

growing nationally, police officers notify the Mary C. Snow Elementary School whenever law enforcement 

encounters a student when answering a call. To build upon its success, the Kanawha Valley Council on 

Philanthropy, a consortium of local funders who pool their resources to support collaborative projects, 

supported a mentorship program that targets students who have experienced law enforcement’s interventions 

in their homes. By providing a mentorship program that pairs police officers with students, children who don’t 

always see law enforcement in a positive light have an opportunity to build constructive relationships with 

them. Lastly, in response to the increased communication between school administration, teachers, and the 

school nurse and the police department, the local legal aid office identified a need for onsite legal services. As 

a result, the school piloted the Lawyer in the School program, which ensures that an attorney is available 2 days 

a week at the school for parents to get legal advice. Through the Lawyer in the School program, more than 150 

families have been provided with legal advice from pro bono attorneys and legal aid staff. Often the lawyers 

help caretakers obtain guardianship of the children in their homes, sometimes they prevent unfair evictions, and 

in other instances they help a family member retain employment. By stabilizing families, this program helps to 

increase students’ school attendance and decrease their behavioral incidents. Piloted on the West Side at Mary 

C. Snow Elementary, this program is growing statewide and has been recognized as a national model by the 

Legal Services Corporation.

The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation’s 

original commitment to the West Side 

“Investing in Our Communities” initiative was 

for 3 years; however, in December 2018, the 

foundation’s Board of Trustees decided to 

extend its commitment for another 3 years. 

Through its West Side 2.0 initiative, the 

foundation will focus on community economic 

development projects that support workforce 

development, placemaking, and the economic 

stability of residence.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Office of Policy Development and Research

Washington, DC 20410-6000

January 2020