MARGUERITE CASEY FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES $8.9 MILLION IN NEW GRANTS

New Foundation Helps Give Voice and Power to Low-Income Families Nationwide With Grants for Living Wage Campaigns, Land Loss Prevention, Grassroots Leadership Development, and Other Critical Needs

SEATTLE, WA (April 22, 2003) – Marguerite Casey Foundation today announced the approval of $8.9 million in new grants to help families and communities throughout the United States become stronger and more resilient. The new Foundation grants will support an array of family and community based organizations, including some of the most advanced living wage campaigns in the nation working to bring attention to the economic benefits that the working poor receive when they are able to earn livable wages.

Marguerite Casey Foundation grants were awarded to 28 organizations in 12 states and the District of Columbia, including almost one million dollars for organizations focused on living wage issues. Grant recipients range in size and scope from small neighborhood groups to larger regional and national organizations.

“As a weakening economy adds additional burdens to the lives of poor families across the country, the divide between wealthy and poor continues to grow,” said Marguerite Casey Foundation President and CEO Luz Vega-Marquis. “Living wage organizing has emerged in recent years as a key strategy to empower low-wage workers and their families to build momentum for a broader economic justice agenda. Marguerite Casey Foundation is honored to help support this important work.”

“Someone who works full-time should never fall below the poverty line,” said Patricia Schroeder, a former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives now serving on the Marguerite Casey Foundation Board of Directors. “So it is critical that foundations like Marguerite Casey promote and encourage those groups who are organizing communities to fight for better wages.”

According to the Foundation, living wage ordinances have now been approved in at least 79 cities and counties across the United States, with proposals pending in at least 100 more. Living wage projects supported by Marguerite Casey Foundation grants include Working Partnerships USA (San Jose, CA), Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (Los Angeles, CA), and the Center for Public Initiatives (San Diego, CA).

Marguerite Casey Foundation is also funding several programs aimed at reducing poverty and protecting land ownership throughout African American communities in the Deep South. With grant support from the Foundation, organizations including the Black Family Land Trust (Durham, NC), the Quitman County Development Organization, Inc. (Marks, MS), and the Newton Florist Society (Gainesville, GA) are testing a variety of techniques to address long-term racial and economic disparities throughout the region. These approaches range from helping poor families acquire and conserve farmlands to training a new generation of community leaders on issues of environmental justice.

Marguerite Casey Foundation grantmaking is focused primarily in three regions of the United States: the Southern Belt states; California and the Southwest, including the U.S./Mexico Border; and the Midwest, beginning in Chicago. This summer, the Foundation also plans to begin making grants to organizations in its home state of Washington.

A majority of the new grants are intended for core operating support, enabling recipient organizations to use the Foundation’s resources for basic needs, leadership development and capacity building rather than for designated project support or specific programs. The announcement by the Marguerite Casey Foundation includes grants for the following organizations:

• Americans for Indian Opportunity (Santa Anna Pueblo, NM). A three-year $100,000 grant to strengthen Native American families and communities, both urban and rural, by generating new ambassadors (leaders) focused on policy issues and grassroots activism.
• AVANCE Inc. Rio Grand Valley Chapter (McAllen, TX). A three-year $300,000 grant to strengthen families throughout the colonias of the Rio Grande Valley by enhancing parenting skills and promoting the educational, personal, and economic success of parents.
• Breakthrough Urban Ministries, Inc. (Chicago, IL). A three-year $225,000 grant to activate a community and family advocacy program and expand its academic enrichment program to serve more disadvantaged youth.
• Institute for Democratic Renewal/Project Change (Claremont, CA). A two-year $400,000 grant to support the development of a new curriculum/training model for organizing parents and advocates around efforts to dismantle institutional racism.
• Quitman County Development Organization, Inc. (Marks, MS). A three-year $325,000 grant to build a regional community development corporation infrastructure to support and expand asset development opportunities for Black families living in the tri-state Mississippi Delta.
• Working Partnerships USA (San Jose, CA). A two-year $400,000 grant to strengthen families and communities by working to increase affordable housing supplies and enroll 10,000 new contingent workers in a partially subsidized health plan.

For a complete list please see our Grants Database.