High-Impact Grantmaking

The High-Impact Grantmaking initiative gives our donors and partners the ability to partner with the Foundation and invest, together, in innovative solutions with catalytic community impact focused on Houston’s most pressing challenges.

In Fall 2023, the Foundation Governing Board, along with a mounting consensus among key stakeholders, selected economic mobility as a priority and a paramount concern for Houston. In the Initiative’s next phase, the Community Grants Advisory Committee will dig deep into the community needs impacting economic mobility, shape a funding strategy, and recommend investments that will make a tangible difference in Houston’s social and economic landscape.

2025 Funding Timeline

The Foundation will run a second grant cycle in late Spring 2025 to make another half-million-dollar investment in organizations and collaboratives that effectively advance economic mobility for Houston-area families. Be sure to stay informed by subscribing to the Insider Update newsletter and following us on social! The Request for Proposals (RFP) will go live in May – check back here for the link.

The grant process has four major steps.

1. Open Application: The application is open to all and includes a “Good Fit Assessment,” comprising eligibility requirements and alignment guidelines. The Foundation will provide three virtual sessions where we will be available to answer questions pertaining to the application.
2. Applicant Q&A: Applicants can expect additional questions via email or phone call during the grant review period (August 25–September 11).
3. Semi-Finalist Site Visits: After a thorough review of applications, the Community Grants Advisory Committee (Committee) will select Semi-Finalists to do 90-minute site visits with during the weeks of October 13–22. (Each applicant invited to host a site visit will receive a grant of $1,000 for their time and efforts.)
4. Finalist Presentations: From those, the Committee will advance a subset as Finalists who will have the opportunity to present their proposals to a group of donors, funders, and other Foundation stakeholders on January 29, 5:30-7:30 pm. (Finalists who are not awarded as Grant Partner will receive a grant of $5,000 for their time and efforts.)
5. Board Approval & Award: Finally, the Committee will recommend 1–3 proposals to the Foundation’s Governing Board for consideration and approval.

Please note the following:

• The Foundation will provide three virtual sessions where we will be available to answer questions pertaining to the application.
• Applicants can expect additional questions via email or phone call during the grant review period (August 25–September 11).
• Applicants that advance to the “Semi-Finalist” stage will be asked to participate in a site visit with a subset of Committee members during the weeks of October 13–22. (Each applicant invited to host a site visit will receive a grant of $1,000 for their time and efforts.)
• After the site visits, the Committee will select Finalists that will be invited to present to the Foundation’s Board, donors, and potentially other funders on January 29, 5:30-7:30 pm. (Finalists who are not awarded as Grant Partner will receive a grant of $5,000 for their time and efforts.)

The Grant timeline with milestones is below:

Inaugural Grant Recipients

Following the recommendation from the Community Grants Advisory Committee and presentations at the Foundation’s Community Impact Celebration, the Foundation’s Governing Board approved grant awards to three finalists of our inaugural High-Impact Grantmaking cycle. These nonprofits demonstrated a clear, credible, and compelling vision and plan for significant impact in Houston. Their proven track record of success, coupled with their focus on addressing the root causes and systemic issues of intergenerational poverty, made them stand out. What’s more, each of these organizations is on the precipice of scaling their work such that the Foundation’s support will be leveraged to have an outsized impact.

Connective: Public Benefits Hub

Connective transforms social services into a more connected, empathetic, and accessible system. With this $200,000 investment, Connective will continue its Public Benefits Hub pilot through 2025, providing a one-stop-shop for low-income families in Harris County to access essential public benefits like food assistance, health coverage, and utility bill aid. By partnering with community-based organizations and leveraging technology, Connective will screen over 2,250 households and support at least 450 households to apply for benefits, track progress, and stay connected to the social service ecosystem. This initiative empowers families to increase their income, reduce poverty, and achieve economic mobility, breaking down silos and creating a sustainable, equitable support system.

Grameen America: Expansion in Houston

Grameen America helps entrepreneurial women build businesses to enable financial mobility. With this $100,000 investment, Grameen America aims to continue expanding its footprint and impact in Houston as a priority city, providing microloans to women, along with financial literacy, education, and technical assistance to help entrepreneurs build skills and resource connections that support achieving long-term financial goals. In 2025, Grameen America’s second Houston Branch will distribute $30 million, serve 5,200 members, and provide 18,000+ hours of loan counseling, financial literacy, and small business education to help underserved women build their financial identities through their businesses.

Prison Entrepreneurship Program: Collider Program

Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP)unites business executives and incarcerated individuals through entrepreneurial passion and servant leadership to transform lives, restore families, and rebuild communities. With this $200,000 investment, PEP will expand its Collider Program, a dynamic social and economic community center serving Houston’s returning citizens. This expansion will provide comprehensive reentry support, education, employment pathways, mentorship, business incubation, and access to capital – empowering 500 formerly incarcerated individuals and their families (impacting over 1,900 lives) to achieve lasting economic independence and break the cycle of poverty.

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 Grants Advisory Committee. The recommendations put forth by the Committee were closely reviewed and approved by the Foundation’s Community Impact Committee and its Governing Board.

2025 Community Grants Advisory Committee

For all funding inquiries, please contact [email protected] and refrain from reaching out directly to the Committee.

Steven Dow
Retired Nonprofit Executive

Oriana Durbin
Founder, Organized Decisions, LLC

Kate Dearing Fowler
Executive Director, The Jerry C. Dearing Family Foundation
Board Member, Greater Houston Community Foundation

Adrienne Holloway
Founder & CEO, AMNY Consulting

Mark Martin
Senior Director of Development, Genesys Works Houston

Patrick Moreno-Covington
Program Officer, Rockwell Fund

Randi Sonenshein
Retired Business Executive

Robert Thomas
Senior Pastor, Olivet Missionary Baptist Church
Board Chair, Olevia CDC

Don Titcombe
Vice President of Strategy, The Hackett Center for Mental Health at Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute

Patty Williams-Downs
Founder & CEO, BreakingBounds

Diana Zarzuelo
Vice President of Community Impact, Greater Houston Community Foundation

Why Economic Mobility?

In Harris County, almost one in four children (24%) live in poverty, surpassing both the national (17%) and Texas (20%) averages. The incidence of poverty is particularly acute among Black (33%) and Latino (28%) children compared to their white peers (11%).[i]

Poverty is persistent across generations. Nationally, one in three American children born into poverty are likely to remain in poverty as an adult.[ii] Locally, children born into families in the bottom 20th percentile of income (less than $23,400) are twice as likely to stay in this income bracket as adults compared to those from middle-income families (around $55,600).[iii]

At the same time, economic mobility—the ability to move up the income ladder across generations—has declined by 40% over the past 50 years.[iv] Only about half of today’s children are projected to earn more than their parents.[v] The data are clear: where and how a child grows up profoundly shapes their economic future.

In Harris County, poverty is concentrated in specific neighborhoods, often alongside lower-performing schools, limited job access, unaffordable or low-quality housing, and reduced access to services and enrichment opportunities. Over 15% of county residents live in high-poverty neighborhoods, where economic opportunity is severely constrained—particularly for Black and Latino families.[vi] Economic segregation is a major barrier to upward mobility, with research indicating that children from low-income families growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods are far less likely to climb the economic ladder than their counterparts in low-poverty neighborhoods.[vii]

In addition, there are critical milestones across a lifetime, from cradle to career, that support upward mobility.[viii] For young adults, the transition from high school to post-secondary education and workforce entry on a viable, thriving-wage career pathway is a pivotal moment for future earning potential.[ix] Many low-income youth face significant barriers—financial, institutional, and social—that limit their upward mobility at this critical stage.

These challenges—economic segregation, intergenerational poverty, and unequal access to opportunity—call for bold, scalable solutions that increase income, strengthen pathways to opportunity, and build the conditions for lasting economic mobility.

This grant seeks to support those solutions.

The Foundation recognizes the incredible work that has already been happening to address economic mobility in Harris County, and—as we heard from key stakeholders—as the region’s community foundation, we also have a role to play. The selection of economic mobility was the culmination of a year-long learning journey for the Foundation, framed through a strength-based perspective of possibility and grounded in five guiding principles:

Thanks to Understanding Houston, we had compelling data to begin our issue area selection. We first looked at quality-of-life indicators where outcomes in Harris County had stagnated or worsened since 2010, ultimately identifying 24 potential issue areas for focus.

As a next step, the Foundation engaged more than 100 community leaders—a combination of donors, Foundation Governing Board members, nonprofit professionals, and community residents—through an appreciative inquiry process in 2023. Appreciative inquiry is a collaborative, strengths-based approach that focuses on engagement through a positive lens to assess strengths, opportunities, and aspirations.

We also conducted focus groups with 75 community residents, nonprofit professionals, and other stakeholders to hear their hopes and concerns. This process enabled us to refine our focus further, and in 2023, the Foundation’s Governing Board and a consensus among key stakeholders selected economic mobility as the first focus area for the Foundation’s High-Impact Grantmaking.

Helpful Resources by Greater Houston Community Foundation

• High-Impact Grantmaking Journey: Investing in Economic Mobility
• Building Futures: Harris County’s Historic Investment in Early Childhood
• Building a Stronger Houston: A Committee’s Commitment to Impactful Grantmaking
• Advancing Impact Donor Breakfast: Cradle-to-Career Systems
• Advancing Impact Donor Breakfast: Building Thriving Neighborhoods

[i] U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 American Community Survey
[ii] Chetty, R., Grusky, D., Hell, M., Hendren, N., Manduca, R., & Narang, J. (2017). The fading American dream: Trends in absolute income mobility since 1940. Science, 356(6336), 398-406.
[iii] Presentation from Daniel Potter, PhD on April 23, 2024
[iv] Chetty, R., Grusky, D., Hell, M., Hendren, N., Manduca, R., & Narang, J. (2017). The fading American dream: Trends in absolute income mobility since 1940. Science, 356(6336), 398-406.
[v] Chetty, R., Grusky, D., Hell, M., Hendren, N., Manduca, R., & Narang, J. (2017). The fading American dream: Trends in absolute income mobility since 1940. Science, 356(6336), 398-406.
[vi] National Equity Atlas, retrieved from https://nationalequityatlas.org/indicators/Neighborhood_poverty?geo=04000000000048201&breakdown=by-race-ethnicity
[vii] Chetty, R., & Hendren, N. (2018). The impacts of neighborhoods on intergenerational mobility I: Childhood exposure effects. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 133(3), 1107-1162.
[viii] https://www.strivetogether.org/what-we-do/theory-of-action/
[ix] chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://mobilityexperiences.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Mobility-Experiences-R1-Life-Experiences-that-Power-Lifetime-Income.pdf