The Melville Charitable Trust Board's Approach to Funding Decisions
THE BOARD'S APPROACH TO FUNDING DECISIONS
The primary interest of the Trust's Board is to promote approaches to homelessness that bring about long-term solutions. The Board views its philanthropy as social venture capital and subjects its funding to the same rigorous analysis that would be applied to any serious investment decision:
- The Trust is pledged to use its giving to leverage funds from other private or public sources in order to multiply the resources available to end homelessness and to promote collaboration between the many players with a stake in solving this devastating problem.
- The Trust has been fortunate to work collaboratively with several departments of state government in Connecticut on programs and policies which directly affect the homeless population. In so doing, the Trust has established important partnerships with the public sector that it hopes will promote more targeted and comprehensive application of resources.
- The Trust believes that housing and supportive service programs that do not take into account the actual needs and desires of the affected population are unlikely to be significantly useful in the longer term, and so it seeks to fund projects that are willing and able to incorporate in their decision-making structures people who are or have been homeless.
- The Trust realizes that many community organizations which have provided leadership in addressing homelessness are underfunded and often lack sufficient resources to affect the problem. As a result, the Trust applies a portion of its resources to build organizational capacity through grants and technical assistance.
- The Trust is committed to support efforts that identify the significant public policy issues involved in addressing homelessness and to promote greater public dialogue and understanding regarding effective strategies to end homelessness.
Among the key characteristics that the Foundation seeks in its funding partners are:
- Evidence of being a leadership organization;
- Credibility in the community;
- Demonstrated ethical and prudent management and governance practices;
- Commitment to results and to overall assessment of the impact of the program; and
- Openness to working with other community groups and with other sectors to address the issue of homelessness
