St. Croix Foundation CARE Fund

On behalf of all of us at St. Croix Foundation, we send our heartfelt prayers and messages of safety and wellbeing to our island neighbors, who are now confronting the damage of what has become Hurricane Fiona. As part of the Caribbean community, we stand with you.

Sober with the understanding that we must continue to build on the work we’ve conducted since Hurricanes Irma and Maria, we are also optimistic that all of the challenges we continue to face create a unique environment for finding, nurturing, and institutionalizing new systems of resilience. As a place-based foundation, our partnership with our family at GlobalGiving is testimony to our own theory of change: that by investing in community foundations that are firmly rooted in their People and Place, we can unveil solutions to long-entrenched problems. Testimony to this fact is that, in the past three months, the Foundation has been nationally recognized for its programmatic work through our CARE Fund, and we have and continue to achieve exponential impact with our nonprofits through strategic grantmaking made possible by GlobalGiving – thank you!

SCF Receives HUD Secretary’s Award for Community Resilience Hubs
GlobalGiving has been with us on every step of our journey to nurture robust, equitable Community Resilience Hubs. And so it is that we are incredibly happy to announce that, just this past June, the Council on Foundations (COF) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced St. Croix Foundation for Community Development as a recipient of the 2022 HUD Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships!

One of five organizations from across the nation to receive this honor in 2022, the award is testimony to our investment in Community Resilience Hubs in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which include (1) our Farm Tienda (container farmstand) Initiative; (2) our Solar-Supported Community Center and Workforce Development Initiative; and (3) our renovation and retrofit of the historic Alexander Theater, which we are currently transforming into a state-of-the-art performing arts center and a downtown Community Disaster Safe Room capable of housing over 300 people.

A national partnership between HUD and COF now in its tenth year, the Secretary’s Awards are presented annually and recognize philanthropy’s work with government partners as a community strategy to increase the quality of life for low- and moderate-income residents across America.

Early on, GlobalGiving, combined with public and private stakeholders, understood the power of place-based philanthropies to identify critical needs and mobilize diverse partnerships because of their community-rooted networks and ability to deploy resources.  As our President, Deanna James, stated “This award is truly a testament to the impact of Place-Based Philanthropy working in full alignment with Civil Society.”

Through these initiatives, SCF continues to fulfill our fundamental role as a convener and bridge-builder, forging strategic partnerships between nonprofit, private, public, and philanthropic sectors. The Foundation is also grateful for the cross-sector collaboration and contributions of time, talent, and treasure from FEMA, GlobalGiving, the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA), CC1, and numerous other nonprofits and community stakeholders. Thank you!

Taking Grantmaking Beyond Transactions
Each day, our Nonprofit Partners continue to inspire us and remind us that the real formula for community resilience lies in the power of community-rooted relationships! In our last report we described some of the early outcomes to our 2021 Sustaining Impact CARE Grant and today, the results are fully in, proving that strategic grantmaking – which prioritizes collaboration, core support, and trust – works!

We are so pleased to report that our 2021 Sustaining Impact CARE Grant, which awarded 11 organizations in our Nonprofit Consortium a total of $175,000, has positively impacted 2,267 souls.And we don’t use the word “souls” lightly. Our organizations directly served children of all ages from economically fragile communities, cancer survivors across the Territory, small “unseen” youth groups, and rank-and-file community members in search of healing, education, and a connection with Community through the arts. Today, we’ll tell you just one story that reflects the courage, innovative spirit, and perseverance of the civic sector through the lens one small nonprofit.

St. Croix Environmental Association: A Journey of Innovation, Equity, and Capacity Building
We love the story of the St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA), whose project originally aimed to visit public, private, and parochial schools and give afterschool presentations on St. Croix’s unique environment and how to protect it. The goal was to provide one-time exposure to SEA to 400 students across St. Croix. But when COVID-19 cases began to rise again, an unreliable schedule of virtual and in-person learning sent schools on a roller coaster ride through the entire school year. SEA, however, shifted – and ultimately had greater impact.

Throughout the year, SEA researched and targeted smaller youth camps and clubs, and developed their own Environmental Leadership Summer Program. In all, they met with 192 youth multiple times as opposed to a single touchpoint. SEA reached smaller, less traditional groups, camps, and clubs and therefore had more meaningful activities. These intimate groups allowed for greater flexibility, comprehensive content--- and sustainability of the program. In fact, SEA also determined that developing and offering their own environmental leadership program during the summer would provide needed space for youth. And, with parents and youth alike requesting more programming and having tested the pilot, SEA is now institutionalizing the Environmental Leadership Program as one of their keystone programs.  In addition, SEA was able to leverage this funding to maximize a grant from the U.S. Forest Service and expanded field trips to explore native flora and fauna… and plant trees!

At the Foundation we often talk about strategic – as opposed to transactional – grantmaking. This is because all of our grants aim to not just keep a program alive but to build capacity and provide flexibility for organizations to learn, to be innovative – and yes to take risks by changing direction when conditions demand. And of course, beyond the ‘terms’ of the grant, our relationship with every one of our grant partners goes far beyond just the check. We are often their fiscal sponsors, their partners in our Nonprofit Consortium, or co-conspirators in advocacy and systems building.

In all, the formula works: every awardee reported the ability to reach a more diverse audience, improved their program scope and organizational capacity, and created stronger collaborative networks. Thus, we are truly more resilient than ever, and we thank GlobalGiving for modeling trust-based philanthropy that allowed us to empower the civic sector and our People.

The Work Continues!
With so many lessons learned – and strategies proven - on how best to support our Community, St. Croix Foundation’s work is becoming ever-more defined. Together with GlobalGiving, we have proven that the power of a small, place-based community foundation lies in its knowledge of community, in its nuanced understanding of its people and place. This is quite simply because we do not sit above or apart from community – we are community. GlobalGiving, in demonstration of trust-based philanthropy, recognized this. Today, we are more committed than ever to strengthening Civil Society, to boldly advocating for our People and Place. GlobalGiving is an integral part of the story – and the impact. We’ve really just only begun… and we hope you’ll keep walking the path with us!

Thank you all - be safe and be well!

Links:

• CARE Grants supported new programming targeting our youth!