Five Years. Infinite Impact: Community Impact Celebration 

Our Fifth Anniversary Community Impact Celebration recognized our Governing Board members, donors, funders, colleagues, and partners—all who have generously given time, talent, and treasure to support the Foundation’s expanding impact in Houston. In addition to celebrating our Community Impact work journey since 2019, this celebration focused on the newest pillar of our Community Impact Work—our High-Impact Grantmaking initiative—and uplifted three amazing organizations advancing ambitious work in Houston to address intergenerational poverty and advance economic mobility.  

Continue reading to learn how the Foundation remains dedicated to honoring donor intent, enhancing philanthropic impact, and forging partnerships to achieve even greater outcomes for Houston. Our goal is to leverage our platform to address important issues in collaboration with community leaders.  

Community Impact Work: Three Pillars 

A little over five years ago, the Foundation’s Governing Board decided to expand how we show up for Houston. Today, our community impact work consists of three pillars, which together represent the path we have been on since then—moving from data to collaborative action and impact on key issues.  

Built in partnership with Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Understanding Houston is a regional indicators initiative that roots the Foundation and our community in credible data and insights about our region’s strengths and challenges. Since 2019, the Foundation has briefed more than 3,800 community leaders to help them better understand community needs and inform their philanthropy, strategic planning, and actions to address those needs.  

The Foundation has also used Understanding Houston to identify key issues and pursue data-informed, strategic philanthropy and collaborative action. This led to the launch of Greater Houston Disaster Alliance (Disaster Alliance) in early 2023, a strategic partnership with United Way of Greater Houston that builds on our nearly 35 combined years of servant leadership in local disaster philanthropy.  

The Disaster Alliance, established in 2023 thanks to catalytic gifts from Enbridge and Phillips 66, accelerates our region’s disaster recovery and pursues resources and tactics to build resilience between disasters. With back-to-back disasters in Houston, coupled with credible data about our climate risks, the Disaster Alliance reflects a complete shift from a reactive stance to one focused on proactive preparedness year-round. 

Finally, the third and newest pillar is the High-Impact Grantmaking initiative. Through this initiative, the Foundation aims to source, co-invest, and uplift the most promising solutions and approaches to addressing pressing community challenges, beginning with a focus on economic mobility.  

These three pillars are more than initiatives—they’re a testament to how meaningful progress happens when we come together, grounded in data, to address seemingly intractable issues. The Foundations believes that strategic philanthropy, collaborative leadership, and collective action—bringing donors and community leaders together—are essential to ensuring Houston remains a thriving place of opportunity for generations to come. The three pillars of our Community Impact work represent the Foundation’s commitment to shaping Houston as a place where philanthropy fuels possibility and long-lasting impact, and where collective action drives real change for Houston residents.  

Fueling High-Impact Philanthropy 

The Community Impact Fund, which is supported by a growing list of Houston philanthropists, has committed to making a half-million dollar investment, called the “Shared Prosperity Award,” in high-impact grants this year and next year. A special thank you to our Community Impact Growth Committee Co-Chairs, Cullen Gieselman and Tym Tombar, and our Honorary Co-Chairs, Kate Fowler and Randa Weiner. As of November 2024, thanks to our Founder’s Circle, the Community Impact Fund has raised $6 million in commitments toward a longer-term $10 million goal by the end of 2027 to grow this work. The collective generosity and dedication of our donors have made possible these efforts to uplift and support organizations pursuing bold plans that advance a vision of shared prosperity in Houston.  

Another guiding force behind the High-Impact Grantmaking initiative is the Community Grantmaking Committee (Committee). This Committee creates an opportunity for community leaders to provide meaningful voice to the most promising solutions grounded in data and evidence, navigated through collective action, and have the highest potential to improve the lives of intergenerational families in Houston. The Committee is comprised of individuals with diverse backgrounds, which enhances the integrity of our selection process. This diversity of thought, backgrounds, and experiences allows a thorough examination of every aspect of grantmaking decisions, with the Committee being fully aware that its recommendations will significantly influence positive outcomes in Harris County. 

High-Impact Grantmaking Process: How We Arrived 

The road to this celebration has been informative, impactful, and encouraging. So, how did the Foundation narrow things down to these three finalists? Initially, the Foundation spoke with nearly 175 stakeholders, where two resounding themes emerged:  

1. We want Houston to stay a welcoming, vibrant place of opportunity for everyone. It there is a place that can preserve the American Dream, it is Houston.  

2. There is value in the Foundation growing its capacity to play a critical role in driving meaningful progress in Houston—leading impactful initiatives, convening to catalyze collective action, and fostering strategic, high-impact philanthropy.  

These stakeholders helped us narrow our focus to sourcing, co-investing, and uplifting the most promising solutions and approaches to addressing pressing community challenges, beginning with a focus on economic mobility. We then formed the Community Grantmaking Committee, which guides the Foundation’s overall investment strategy and priorities to support economic mobility.  

The Committee received nearly 300 submissions expressing interest in receiving grant funding through this initiative. The Committee was greatly inspired by the remarkable initiatives happening in Houston and carefully selected 16 organizations and collaborations to submit full applications. From this group, six semi-finalists were chosen for site visits, ultimately leading to the Committee’s recommendations of three finalists to the Foundation’s Governing Board.

All three finalists were able to demonstrate measurable impact at a meaningful scale!

Meet the Finalists 

The celebratory event allowed finalists to present their projects to those in attendance. While the attendees did not vote on the selection of the grantees, they were invited to share their feedback on which finalists should be considered for the Shared Prosperity Award. The Community Grantmaking Committee will consider this feedback as they make final grant recommendations to the Foundation’s Governing Board. It was exciting to reach this milestone with the inaugural grantmaking program. Here is a little more about each of our finalists (listed in alphabetical order):

Connective 

Elaine Morales, Senior Director of Partnerships and Policy, and Ryan Lauko, Senior Fellow, Public Benefits Hub, presented on behalf of Connective. They framed their proposed project through the perspective of a single mother, Sarita, raising her children on a part-time income that barely covers their needs. Each month, Sarita faces impossible choices, like deciding between paying for her child’s asthma medication or covering her electricity bill. In addition, she has applied for assistance before, but each attempt was met with long waits, piles of paperwork, and complex online systems, so eventually, like so many, she has given up.  

Morales shared that the choices and barriers Sarita confronts are similar to those faced by approximately 500,000 families in Harris County. These families, our neighbors, struggle to stay afloat while, simultaneously, in Harris County there is nearly a billion dollars in unclaimed benefits each year. These public benefits could prevent eviction, ensure families have food on the table, keep kids enrolled in school, and give families a chance to start climbing the economic ladder.  

This is where the Public Benefits Hub comes in, a one-stop-shop for accessing and navigating public benefits, addressing the issues of lack of awareness, difficult application processes, and social stigma. Using a screening and common application approach, Connective’s innovative all-in-one tool covers a range of benefits. The Public Benefit Hub increases awareness of available benefits and offers personalized application guidance, prioritizing transparency and accessibility. It improves the lives of individuals in the community by facilitating easier access to unused benefits. 

This project would create a system where families no longer need to search for assistance alone, organizations no longer work in silos, and collective efforts lead to systemic reform. It does proactive outreach to families through various communication channels and community partners. In addition, there is a 24/7 online screener, a call center, and in-person appointments so that the communities have the help they need to complete and submit corresponding paperwork. There are also alerts, application progress tracking, and other reminders to ensure that families do not lose their benefits.  

In 2023, Connective tested the Public Benefits Screener with LISC’s Financial Opportunity Centers. The results spoke for themselves. Of the 180 clients screened, 78% were eligible for at least one benefit. Many were approved for essential programs like food and utility assistance, seeing an average income boost of nearly $3,000 per household—30% higher than initial projections. 

Lauko shared that this could mean an additional $25,000 in annual income for single-parent households with three children. For senior couples, it could mean an extra $7,000 per year. Connective also shared that an additional $3,000-$5,000 in income could prevent nearly half of all eviction cases on certain dockets in Harris County. This extra support is a tangible opportunity for families experiencing cycles of instability. 

The Public Benefits Hub helps everyone access the support they need when they need it. If they receive the Shared Prosperity Award, Connective will scale its efforts to contact over 10,000 individuals regarding public benefits, screen at least 6,000 households in targeted neighborhoods, and provide public benefit application support to 1,000. Connective aims to increase the rate of individuals approved for public benefits through the Benefits Hub by 30%, with a major goal of enrolling 100,000 new individuals in public benefits by 2030.

Jeff Nadler, Senior Director of Institutional Giving at Grameen America, shared more about the work that Grameen America engages with and their objective of doubling their expansion in Houston. Grameen America is dedicated to helping low-income entrepreneurial women build businesses to enable financial mobility. It envisions an inclusive society where all entrepreneurs, regardless of gender, race, or income, can access fair and affordable financial services to support upward economic mobility.  

Nadler shared that only 4% of small business loans in the United States go to women. He also shared that many of these women who are being denied access to traditional financial services face obstacles related to generational poverty, no or poor credit scores, low income, and no collateral. Women come to Grameen America to break the cycle of poverty through their entrepreneurial spirit while offering a supportive community.  

Grameen America promotes a path to economic mobility by increasing business income, improving credit scores, and helping its members build savings. Its model helps to increase women’s financial mobility through its proven record of engaging with and lending directly to women entrepreneurs. They offer microloans that provide life-changing loan capital for women to invest in their businesses, build a financial identity, and develop communities. In addition, the microloans help their members build credit as Grameen America reports microloan repayments to Experian and Equifax to help members build their credit scores. In addition, Grameen America helps its members establish savings, develop a peer network of entrepreneurial women, increase their financial education to support overall financial health, and navigate the health system.  

Grameen America established its first Houston branch in 2018 and its second Houston branch in 2022. The average loan size in Houston is $3,800. To date, it has awarded $97 million in loans invested in 8,500 low-income women entrepreneurs across Houston. Of those women in Houston, 95% reside in Harris County, and 71% of Houston members have children under 18 living in their households. Grameen America projects that they have reached about 8% of the women in Houston who need its support, highlighting the large population of women in our region they have yet to serve.  

Grameen America projects that between 2024 and 2028, it will disburse over $518 million in microloan capital to its two Houston locations, increasing active membership in Houston to 18,000. The ‘velocity of capital,’ a term Nadler shared to describe the recycling of dollars, is staggering; a $2 million investment disbursed over five years can turn into $26 million. Grameen America has a 99.9% repayment rate in Houston.  

Nadler also shared that Grameen America does not use traditional marketing to recruit new members. Instead, they hire people from the communities in which they operate to help spread the word as building trust within the community is critical.  

The millions of dollars invested back into low-income women of color to build businesses means that millions are being invested back into Houston’s local economy. In addition, thousands of women through this program have become role models for their communities while building wealth for their families. Grameen America seeks funding from the Shared Prosperity Awardto rapidly expand its impact in the Houston market by adding 2,000 new members to its second Houston Branch.  

Prison Entrepreneurship Program

 CEO of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP), Chip Skowron, and Re-Entry Manager at PEP, Robert Gil, shared their personal stories of how PEP gave them tools and opportunities they needed to thrive when they were released from prison. PEP is an established organization with a 20-year track record of delivering significant, measurable outcomes for a historically marginalized population—currently and formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. With nearly one in three working-age adults in the U.S. having a criminal record, this population faces persistent barriers that perpetuate cycles of poverty and incarceration across generations, a cycle that PEP aims to break.  

Skowron’s personal connection to PEP’s mission, as a formerly incarcerated individual himself, brings authenticity to PEP’s plans to scale. Skowron shared how, four years before he found PEP, but after he was released from prison, the absence of the community he had built in prison often led him to think he would have been better off back in prison. He was lonesome, facing so many barriers and challenges, but once he learned about PEP, he got to Houston as fast as he could.  

Gil shared more about his story, highlighting that the man standing in front of the crowd today used to be completely different. As a former drug dealer, which ultimately led to his incarceration, prison made him face some harsh realities. The ultimate one was the negative impact his former lifestyle and incarceration had on his five children. Gil shared that when he first joined PEP he was met with something different from any other program he was exposed to in prison. PEP was about brotherhood, fellowship, and community. PEP helped reintroduce Gil to his children as a transformed person who would not backslide into crime but genuinely sought a new career path so he could restore and rebuild his family. 

Impacting 3,500 men and their families to date, PEP is a nonprofit that empowers incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals through entrepreneurship training, leadership development, and reentry support. Their in-prison program focuses on character development and business education, while post-release services include housing, employment support, mentorship, and access to capital. PEP’s comprehensive reentry program is proven, with multiple third-party studies indicating a significant reduction in recidivism, higher employment rates and average starting wages, and increased wealth-building activities through entrepreneurship and home ownership. PEP has calculated that for every $1 invested in charitable gifts to PEP, $8 is generated in social and economic impact.  

If PEP receives the Shared Prosperity Award from the High-Impact Grantmaking initiative, it will help to expand its Collider program in Second Ward, a social and economic community center to offer reentry support, education, employment, entrepreneurship training, mentors, business incubation, and capital access for 550 formerly incarcerated people and their families so they can build and grow their own ventures and break the cycle of poverty for themselves and their families. This will expand PEP’s reach in Harris County, offering business incubation, financial literacy, and comprehensive reentry services to help clients and their families achieve long-term economic stability.  

Future Insights: What’s Next?

The Grantmaking Committee will recommend one to three Shared Prosperity Awards totaling $500,000, which the Foundation’s Governing Board will vote on by mid-December. The Foundation’s Community Impact work highlights that no single institution or organization, no single leader, and no single sector can drive the kind of progress Houston needs. Progress requires all of us, and the Foundation believes strategic philanthropy, collaborative leadership, and collective action–working across public and private sectors–is vital in preserving Houston as a place of opportunity for generations to come. 

For nearly 30 years, the Foundation has built deep relationships through honoring donor intent and igniting meaningful change with our clients. Looking ahead, the Foundation will expand its Community Impact efforts and ultimately leverage its local knowledge, convening power, and collective resources to help create a better future for all Houstonians.  

Interested in learning more about our Community Impact Fund? Contact Tyler Murphy, Senior Advisor, Charitable Solutions to engage today! 

More Helpful Articles by Greater Houston Community Foundation: 

• Understanding Houston: Leveraging Data for Action
• Building a Stronger Houston: A Committee’s Commitment to Impactful Grantmaking
• The Power of Place-Based Initiatives: Transforming Houston’s Communities
• High-Impact Grantmaking Journey: Investing in Economic Mobility

The selection process for the High-Impact Grantmaking initiative incorporated a robust multi-level review process designed to ensure maximum fairness, transparency, and comprehensiveness in evaluating all submissions. The outcome of this process reflects the recommendations made by an independent Community Grantmaking Committee, which is composed of 14 community leaders, with 12 members being external to the Greater Houston Community Foundation (Foundation). The Community Grantmaking Committee members bring a diverse range of personal and professional experiences pertaining to economic opportunity and intergenerational poverty, as well as knowledge of various neighborhoods, communities, and relevant efforts in greater Houston. The recommendations put forth by the Committee were closely reviewed and approved by the Foundation’s Philanthropic Impact Committee and its Governing Board.

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