Dedicated Grants to Homeless Serving Organizations

December 2017: After deciding at the first meeting of 2017 to focus this year on homelessness in Atlanta, The Imlay Foundation made grants totaling $510,000 to twelve different homeless serving organizations, nearly 20% of its standard grantmaking for the year.

The roots of this focus go back to early 2017, when the Board of Trustees of the Foundation made a commitment to develop annual learning and significant grantmaking opportunities for board members devoted to one specific focus area each year outside of the Foundation’s regular grantmaking program. The focus area chosen for 2017 was homelessness and those organizations serving this population. Based on input solicited from and offered by board members, six (6) organizations were eventually selected for deeper learning about their respective missions, programs, target clientele, leadership capacity, financial status and key current priorities.

Beginning in early March and continuing through mid-November, groups of board members visited all six organizations on this learning journey, meeting senior staff, board members and clients, drilling deeper into each organizations’ successes and challenges, and striving to understand each one’s greatest needs and priorities as they respectively move forward. In addition, board members learned about broader regional efforts to address and functionally eliminate homelessness in Metro Atlanta.

In all, over half of the board (6 board members) participated in one or more site visits to each of these organizations, including an October 9 debrief meeting at The Imlay Foundation offices on organizations visited to date and preliminary recommendations for possible funding.

Of the six homeless serving organizations visited during 2017, the Board of Trustees approved targeted grants totaling $285,000 for four of these organizations at the December 4, 2017 board meeting, including:

• Atlanta Mission – For the purchase of two new vans for client and client family transport to jobs, healthcare appointments and childcare
• Gateway Center – For Gateway’s 2017 capital campaign
• Mary Hall Freedom House – For the kitchen addition to the new Donna Center 24/7 emergency shelter for women and children
• Rainbow Village – For general operating support

Beyond these four targeted grants, The Imlay Foundation made ten additional grants totaling $225,000 to homeless serving organizations through its three regular grant cycles in 2017, as follows:

• Atlanta Mission
• Covenant Community
• Crossroads Community Ministries
• The Drake House
• Interfaith Outreach Home
• Jerusalem House
• Living Room
• Mary Hall Freedom House
• Midtown Assistance
• Zaban Couples Shelter