The Giving Season
Happy holidays from all of us at Venable! Click here for a special greeting featuring this year's Venable Foundation Impact Grants.
The Giving Season from Venable LLP on Vimeo.
2021 Venable Foundation Impact Grants
The Venable Foundation recently awarded its annual Impact Grant funding, totaling $500,000 and benefiting organizations providing enhanced services for school-aged youth. These grants—$100,000 in each of the firm's five major metropolitan regions—are awarded in addition to the Foundation's regular funding cycle.
These above-and-beyond contributions are targeted grants intended to address a specific need within the firm's respective communities. Understanding that the pandemic has exacerbated existing academic achievement gaps for students, this year the Foundation has made its focus the educational recovery from the learning disruptions and digital divide caused by COVID-19. The largest Impact Grant went to Elev8 Baltimore, which partners with schools, families, and the community to ensure that every student is prepared and ready to succeed in school and life.
"The schools we partner with are in communities that have been impacted by historic redlining, with young people who were already behind in grade level," said Alexandria Warrick Adams, executive director of Elev8. "[To miss out on] access to learning due to lack of internet and devices was devastating for our families and for our communities."
Elev8 received $100,000 to help expand its comprehensive academic tutoring program to offer full in-person tutoring interventions twice a week at five Baltimore City public schools in addition to its after-school and summer programs.
"This is an amazing investment," Adams said. "Tutoring is not something we had [offered] pre-pandemic, but with the Venable Foundation as a partner, we have been able to lean in and be nimble so that we can meet the needs of the kids and the families."
Additional Impact Grants Around the Country
Los Angeles
A grant of $70,000 was awarded to Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), which provides underserved youth free after-school programs in academics, arts, and athletics, empowering them to develop their potential, pursue their education, and strengthen their communities. Reading Partners Los Angeles provides one-on-one literacy tutoring for students from under-resourced schools. The organization received $30,000 to expand its virtual programming and help with the costs of a hybrid/in-person model.
New York
The Foundation awarded two $50,000 Impact Grants in New York. One went to Springboard Collaborative, which helps kids learn to read by coaching educators and family members to set goals, practice evidence-based reading strategies, measure progress, and celebrate success. The other grant went to City Year New York, which partners with schools to help bridge the gap between what students need and what most schools are equipped to provide.
San Francisco
In San Francisco, a $75,000 grant was awarded to the Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, which partners with the school district to support families experiencing disparities in school readiness and academic achievement to improve outcomes. Reading Partners San Francisco Bay Area, which empowers students to become lifelong readers, received $25,000 for technology to help make hybrid learning possible.
Washington, DC
A $60,000 grant was awarded to The Literacy Lab for program expansion in the Washington metropolitan area to help meet the growing needs of students experiencing learning gaps due to the pandemic. City Year DC, which works to advance educational equity, was awarded $40,000 to help scale its programming to reach an anticipated 6,000 students at 20 schools. On average, these students will receive 15 additional hours of tutoring, coaching, or intervention throughout the school year.
Read more about the 2021 Impact Grants.
Visit Venable.com/Foundation to learn more about our funding priorities and application process.