We believe that intervening during critical times of key transitions in a person’s life provides fertile ground for transformation and growth. As part of our strategy in human services, we concentrate on a segment of those living in poverty or in at-risk situations and are at key transition periods in their lives. Examples include: a family escaping homelessness, a refugee integrating into a community, or an individual re-entering society from prison. We seek to award Project Grants to organizations in the five-county Philadelphia area using innovative approaches to assist these individuals or families who are underserved and in great need.

Specifically, we have two objectives in our goal to support services for people in transition:

• Increase the number of vulnerable people able to succeed at key transition points in their lives such that they are able to become personally fulfilled, healthy, self-reliant and contributing members of society.
• Promote initiatives that take an integrated approach to alleviating poverty that transcend the traditional service delivery silos of housing, job training, child welfare, healthcare, education, etc.

Requests will be evaluated based on the extent to which they address these objectives and also our overall criteria for Project Grants, which are as follows:

• Demonstrate a novel way to approach emerging, current or persistent issues
• Will be more effective than existing or past solutions
• Will provide meaningful and measurable results
• Can demonstrate a reasonable plan for sustainability
• Have the potential to be widely adopted or to catalyze change in a particular field

Project Grants usually range from $50,000 to $150,000. Project Grants are not intended to provide funds for general operating support.  For more information about our grantmaking guidelines, please visit our FAQ page.