Project Overview
The Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia organized a COVID-19 response fund effort for Philadelphia and associated regions. With more than $40 million dollars in funding from 13 shared funds, the organization and partners aimed to fund community based, minority focused organizations for their projects related to at least one of four areas related to COVID-19: Health, Education, Access, or Outreach. The funding phase of the project officially began in the spring of 2021 and the final round concluded in the fall of 2021.
Grant Highlights
The main criteria for grant awardees is: focus on at least one of the target areas, location in or focus on Philadelphia or Philadelphia adjacent communities, and be composed of or serve minority communities (e.g. by race, culture, gender identity). Grant funds were dispersed in three rounds with nearly $1.5 million dollars in direct funding being given to awardees. The majority of grantees were small (<$2.5 million) nonprofit organizations within the Philadelphia area. The grant process was refined by the Community Investment Advisors (CIAs) who provided feedback on funding amounts, allocation of resources, application criteria, and funding rules.
My Involvement
Picking up where I left off with Scattergood as a representative for the Hunting Park /East Tioga neighborhood plan, I welcomed the opportunity to contribute to this project. My passion for health equity and literacy, especially in minority communities, drove me to accept the opportunity and contribute quantitative and qualitative research methods and experience to the team. I instantly saw the opportunity to not only give my knowledge and expertise to help refine the grant process, but also justify and future demonstrate success for any ongoing efforts or for what the future holds for other COVID variants, similar projects in other geographic regions, etc. More importantly, this project gave me a first-hand look into how small organizations make meaningful change. Seeing the responses and the work being done firsthand gave me valuable insight as to how communities are taking matters into their own hands to respond to COVID.
Survey Development
The bulk of my contribution to the project came in the form of a survey through REDCAP. REDCAP is a data management system that allows users to create “projects” which can manage a variety of data points (numerical and non-numerical) in a variety of formats (e.g. longitudinal data) with the capacity to collect data via easy to use surveys. Initially designed for clinical use, my background with REDCAP began in my career at Penn which allowed me to design the project as a 3 part15 question survey for the grantees to detail various data points about their organizations and the use of the funds. Quantitative data points include size of organizations, level of community impact, and demographics of minority focus. Qualitative data points include word descriptions of projects. These data were collected based on round (ending at round 2) and summarized for the results.
Story Mapping
In response to the survey data, I collaborated with various members of the Philanthropy Network to create an interactive story map. This story map details not only where the grantees are located within the region but provides interactive data visualization in the form of pop-ups which showcase flyers, graphs, pictures, and other relevant information that the grantees chose to provide.
Future Steps and Impact
I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to be involved with this project. There is a strong opportunity for future philanthropic efforts to follow the mold that the Philanthropy Network and partners have created. More importantly, in the midst of a pandemic that is continually evolving, we have given members of Philadelphia the opportunity to empower themselves and create meaningful change in response. I truly believe that the work being done as a result of this project will leave a lasting impact on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the United States as a whole.