The Crimsonbridge Foundation is an entrepreneurial philanthropic organization that builds bridges of collaboration to create transformative solutions to improve the lives of our nation’s youth and families. We innovate and strategically invest in education, leadership development, and capacity building programs to help America’s youth and nonprofit organizations succeed.
#Community
#Community is the Crimsonbridge Foundation’s commitment to participate, engage, listen, and learn with the communities we support. It is a team driven social philanthropy initiative to take relationships beyond grant proposals and engage directly with partners to better understand challenges, identify solutions, leverage new resources, celebrate success, and build community. It’s our approach to philanthropy and community partnership.
Latest News
How You Can be There for a Young Parent in College
Generation Hope Scholars are no strangers to overcoming obstacles and persisting against the odds. They are all young parents in college, and every day they are balancing a combination of going to school, parenting, and dealing with the range of systemic and logistical challenges that come with being a low-income parent of color. They are also working, primarily in the retail and service industries, and some are even caring for their own parents.
Nationally, the outlook is bleak: fewer than 2% of women who have a baby by age 18 go on to earn their degree before age 30. COVID-19 has thrown up yet another roadblock for Generation Hope Scholars, but with wraparound support that includes financial aid, academic tutoring, caring mentors, mental health care, career readiness support, and case management, we can ensure the pandemic doesn’t derail their dreams.
If you’re looking for ways to build community and make a lasting impact, consider joining Generation Hope as a Mentor for a Scholar.
Generation Hope is currently seeking caring adult mentors who will support a young parent as they work toward their dream of graduating college. Our mentors are people from all walks of life who are passionate about supporting teen parents in college and believe that education can be transformative for two generations–our Scholars and their children.
Each Mentor builds a strong bond with their Scholar, meeting up once a month to do a fun activity or to just catch up. Generation Hope’s program fosters meaningful, long-term connections since Mentors support their Scholars through their entire college journey. Mentors are a consistent person Scholars can turn to for encouragement or a listening ear.
“My mentor Lisa and I have grown very close in the past 5 years. As Lisa says, I am the tightrope walker, and she is my safety net. She has been one of my biggest supporters throughout school, always celebrating times in which I have gotten a 4.0 in the semester, made the Dean’s List, or when I have received scholarships. She has also been there for me during the difficult times. Lisa is always there to listen to me. Lisa always believed I was going to get through it no matter what and reminded me of how close I was getting to my goal. I am grateful that Lisa never let me stop.” – Ana (George Mason University) Pictured Left: Mentor Lisa with Scholar Ana and her children
Mentors also play a role with financial support. Mentors commit to providing $1,200/year ($100/month) toward their Scholar’s tuition if the Scholar is attending a 2-year college or $2,400/year ($200/month) if the Scholar is attending a 4-year college. This contribution — made monthly or once a year — bridges the gap between a Scholar’s financial aid (including government Pell Grants) and the real cost of attending college, to help them graduate with as little debt as possible. Mentors make this tax-deductible donation themselves or raise it through fundraising.
Generation Hope Mentors are the “special sauce” that help our Scholars beat the odds–graduating at a rate that is nearly 8 times the graduation rate of single mothers nationwide, and exceeding the average rate for all college students. And we provide robust support to our Mentors. Each Mentor is backed up day-to-day by our staff of case workers, or “Hope Coaches,” and we also have a Mental Health Coordinator on staff. We are truly a team, so mentors don’t feel like they are on their own.
Will you join us as a Mentor for our incoming Scholar class? In the face of the incredible challenges from COVID-19, we’ve already seen so many inspiring examples of what is possible when communities come together to help one another through these tough times. To learn more, or to apply, visit our website or contact our Director of Programming, Caroline Griswold Short (caroline@supportgenerationhope.org).
Generation Hope is one of six nonprofit organizations focused on student success that is part of the 3-year College Completion Colleagues (C3) Initiative in partnership with the Crimsonbridge Foundation and the Scheidel Foundation.
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Message to Our Community Partners – May 2020
Two months ago, we initiated a remote work plan for our team. While adapting personally and professionally to the current climate, the Crimsonbridge team kept grants, programs, and communications work moving forward and we are grateful for their commitment. As we look ahead, Crimsonbridge is prepared to remain a teleworking organization for the foreseeable future, but this has not and will not change our availability, our interest in participating in #community events, or the long-term goals of our grantmaking work in Education, Leadership Development, and Communications Capacity Building.
Crimsonbridge team members have worked closely, even while virtual, with our grantee community partners on promoting Census 2020, identifying new leaders for the Crimsonbridge Leadership Fund, and preparing for the fourth year of the Hispanic Education Imperative Fund. We are committed to moving our shared work forward and programs such as the College Completion Colleagues (C3) Initiative, Hispanic Education Imperative, Bridges for Schools, Bridges for Census 2020, and Crimsonbridge Leadership Fund remain engaged and focused on supporting the success of students, parents, organizations, and nonprofit leaders. In addition, we have been vocal advocates on program-aligned issues that have received increased attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the urgent need for bilingual/Spanish language communications and the need for tools and resources to support the retention and graduation of first generation college students.
Over the past eight weeks, the Foundation has joined philanthropic partners in supporting the development of funds to meet urgent needs in the Greater Washington region, while keeping it’s focus on sustainability for the long term. Recent and ongoing efforts include:
- Emergency Relief. We contributed early to the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund at Greater Washington Community Foundation and are directing requests for emergency funding to this Fund.
- Flexibility. Our existing policy of flexibility with proposal and final report due dates as urgent needs arise continues as always.
- Sharing Messages. The Foundation is using its communications capacity and reach to help share your work, needs, and messaging with the hope of increasing visibility and connecting partners to resources. Email your program officer to share content.
- Added Accessibility. We are here for you. Our team members can always be reached by email and can also be reached by phone or video via Zoom.
- Staying Connected. Our whole team is on Twitter as is the Foundation at @CrimsonbridgeDC. Please know we value all of your communications and are reviewing our grantee partner information daily, from email to online news to stay informed.
- Staying Engaged. Our staff continue to participate in community partner activities and are eager to attend online events and even volunteer where possible. Visit our #community page to learn more or reach out to your program officer with an opportunity.
In closing, we want to express our deep gratitude. Over the past two months, we have watched school and nonprofit partners continue to demonstrate a passion for their work, ability to adapt, and commitment to our region’s children, students, families, and communities. We stand with you and we give thanks for all of the teachers, administrators, nonprofit employees, and essential workers in our community who are helping, supporting, and caring for friends and neighbors in need.
Sincerely,
Danielle M. Reyes, Executive Director and Gabriela Smith, Founder & President
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DC Scores Cites Bilingual Capacity to Virtual Transition Success
At the beginning of March, DC SCORES was busy gearing up for their spring season. For twelve weeks each spring, over 3,000 students at 65 schools play soccer, write poetry, and serve their community with DC SCORES. When schools closed in response to the spread of COVID-19, DC SCORES had to act quickly. Rather than cancelling their season, DC SCORES committed to staying connected to as many of their poet-athletes as possible while they are at home. Within three weeks, DC SCORES had built an online learning portal called SCORES at Home. Updated daily with new writing and soccer lessons, along with supplemental resources that might be helpful to the students and their families, the online learning portal is bilingual, offering all resources in both English and Spanish. DC SCORES knows that this will allow them to reach more families – over 40% of DC SCORES participants are Latino.
How did DC SCORES have the capacity to develop SCORES at Home as a fully bilingual online learning portal? The organization has been strategically building their capacity to effectively communicate with bilingual and Spanish-speaking families for at least three years. In 2017, DC SCORES launched the Familias Unidas Initiative after conducting focus groups with Spanish-speaking parents of DC SCORES participants. These focus groups, which were led by DC SCORES’ Latino Engagement Coordinator, informed a strategy to increase the organization’s cultural competency and sensitivity and launch a Spanish-language communications plan. In 2018, the Crimsonbridge Foundation made a grant to DC SCORES through our Bridges Program to support Spanish-language communications capacity building efforts, including the creation of a Spanish-language microsite, a ¡Conoce más sobre DC SCORES! video, and other communications collateral.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the importance of investing in communications, especially communications to reach members of the community who do not speak English. Tony Francavilla, DC SCORES Chief Development Officer, reflects, “ DC SCORES is so much better equipped to communicate with our Spanish-speaking families through SCORES at Home, our Parent Resource Center, and through direct communication than we were a couple years ago. Our bilingual Communications and Engagement Manager has been essential in basically every part of our work since we went virtual.”
DC Scores will host Our Words Our City – Live! – a virtual event – on Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 7pm. To participate register here.
read more read lessLatino Student Fund Recognizes Crimsonbridge Foundation
During its 25th Anniversary Gala the Latino Student Fund (LSF) recognized Crimsonbridge Foundation with the Community Builder Award. Watch the below video to learn more about our partnership.
We agree. The mothers who live at St. Ann’s are #essential and so are courageous #nonprofit leaders like Sister Mar… e8fKtWjVAlWed May, 27 2020
