Grantee Week Day 1 – Responsive Grantmaking

Welcome to Grantee Week 2025! All week we will be sharing and celebrating the most recent cohort of grantees from five of Triangle Community Foundation's discretionary grant programs - Responsive Grantmaking, Economic Resilience, Environmental Resilience, Housing Affordability, and Land Transaction - with a combined total of almost $1.5 million going to 72 nonprofit organizations!

Today we are pleased to announce the 24 nonprofit organizations serving the Triangle that have received a total of $436,525 to help maintain capacity through a period of organizational change.

The nonprofit sector both locally and nationally has faced significant challenges in recent years. Nonprofit leaders and staff have had to react and respond to evolving needs from their communities, often while dealing with direct impacts in their own lives, and turnover in the nonprofit sector has been high since the COVID-19 pandemic. With the recent and multiple executive orders announced by the White House creating a new level of uncertainty about the availability of federal funding and potential ability to carry out missions, the risk of burnout is even higher. We anticipate uncertainty and instability will remain for some time, which is why we redeployed our Responsive Grantmaking program this past spring, with the goal of supporting established Triangle nonprofits in maintaining their capacity through a period of organizational change.

While we initially anticipated granting a total of $100,000 from our Fund for the Triangle, we were overwhelmed with gratitude when Foundation fundholders Pat and Tom Gipson offered a matching grant opportunity for fellow fundholders. The combined generosity was such that the Foundation has been able to grant over four times more than originally anticipated, and we are planning to offer another round of funding this fall. "When the new administration announced federal funding cuts in the nonprofits sector in February, we knew we wanted to provide additional support to area nonprofits to try and fill at least some of the funding gap," said Tom. "When Triangle Community Foundation shared they were relaunching their Responsive Grantmaking program to support nonprofits during this difficult time, it struck me as a natural partnership. In the past fellow fundholders have shown their generosity with matching funds on different issues, and I figured this would be no different. I was right - and it is great to see so much additional support going out into the community as a result."

Congratulations to our 24 grantees!