Change Capital Fund’s Grantees Demonstrate Poverty-Busting Programs Generate Public Benefits and Pay for Themselves
As Change Capital Fund (CCF) concludes its most recent four-year, $4 million funding cycle, the collaborative has released a final report with public benefit rationales that demonstrate that its grantees’ programs are highly effective and generate a huge return on investment.
With financial and technical support from CCF, all of the grantees have been able to demonstrate impact that translates not only to improved outcomes for residents in their communities but also significant return on investment for government and philanthropic funders. Grantees are seeking to take the next step in increasing the scale of promising pilots and proven programs.
As a result of the collaboration between CCF and its grantees, job training and placements have increased along with wages, hours worked, and benefits. Young people have increased graduation rates, college access, and college persistence. Elementary school students have drastically improved reading scores.
Read the report here.
Findings from public benefit rationales for selected programs include:
- St. Nicks Alliance’s Literary Immersion Model Pilot Project increased the percentage of third graders in their after school program who were reading at grade level from 7% to 31% in a nine-month period. Third graders who read at grade level are four times more likely to graduate from high school than those who do not. See the rationale here.
- CHLDC Student Success Center participants have higher high school graduation, college enrollment, and college persistence rates than a comparable group of similar students. Eighty-seven percent graduate high school, compared with 59-72% of comparable students; 85% enroll in college, compared with 38-49% of comparable students; and 83% complete their first year of college, compared with a CUNY rate of 68%. See the rationale here.
- Similarly, New Settlement Apartments’ College Access Program participants exceeded CUNY persistence and graduation rates. Ninety percent completed their first year of college compared with 66-68% of CUNY students; 81% percent completed two years compared with 55%; and 59% completed college compared with 47-50% of CUNY students. Because we know that education decreases poverty and increases income, New Settlement projects that each dollar invested generates $66 in benefits seen in increased lifetime earnings. See the rationale here.
- Fifth Avenue Committee’s Employment Training Bridge pilots provided remedial math and English tutoring to help participants meet requirements for sectoral job training programs. In one pilot, 83.3 percent of participants were able to achieve the required level for the training programs; and in the other, 82% attained that goal. With an investment of just $144 per participant, participants without a high school diploma or equivalent are projected to earn lifetime earnings of $340,994 more than they would have had the bridge program not been available to enable them to participate in sectoral employment training. See the rationale here.
CCF Gears Up For Next Cohort
As CCF’s current 4-year funding cycle winds down, the collaborative of 17 funders, including newcomer Santander Bank, are gearing up for their next round, releasing a by-invitation-only RFP to a new group of New York City community based nonprofits. The collaborative plans to select new grantees this summer.
