Role of Funders:
Community Foundations and Regional Funders: What is Your Role?

Funders of all types can play a variety of important roles in the fight to end long-term homelessness. Community foundations and other regionally based funders often serve both as grantmakers and convenors. Here are just a few options for approaches that community foundations may wish to take, based on their lens to this important work:

Short-term actions to take now...

1. Register for this site to gain complimentary access to a customized and comprehensive collection of strategies and resources for funding efforts to fight chronic homelessness.
   
   
2. Read and share copies of “Million Dollar Murray,” a New Yorker article by Malcom Gladwell which makes a clear, convincing and provocative case for the need to focus primary attention on the chronically homeless, both from a moral and economic perspective. Invite your donors to discuss the problem of homelessness in your community, and to explore the proven strategies that exist for fighting chronic homelessness.
   
   
3. Scan the collection of case studies to find examples in your region and consider inviting your donors to a site visit to a local supportive housing provider to see first-hand how these programs are making a difference.
   
   
4. Contact the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the National Alliance to End Long-term Homelessness to learn more about how they can support your own community’s fight against long-term homelessness.
   
   
5. Include articles, studies, and key statistics about homelessness in your community on your website and in your newsletters, alongside research and case studies for fighting homelessness, or information about your own work in this area.
   
   
6. Review the Melville Charitable Trust’s “Approach to Funding Decisions” for an example of one foundation’s approach to giving in this area.
   
   
7. Search the Partnership’s Knowledge Center to learn of existing research, best practices and case studies in this area. Consider starting with the publications, Why is Homelessness an Important Issue and The Impact of Supportive Housing for Homeless People with Severe Mental Illness.
   
   
8. Join the Partnership today and connect with timely and up-to-date solutions available!
   

If you are currently supporting one or more efforts to fight homelessness…

1. Share your story so that we may use it to inform others with an interest in effective strategies and lessons learned in fighting chronic homelessness.
   
   
2. Contact the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the National Alliance to End Long-term Homelessness to learn more about how they can support your own community’s fight against long-term homelessness.
   
   
3. Search the Partnership’s Knowledge Center to learn of existing research, best practices and case studies in this area. Consider starting with the publications, Why is Homelessness an Important Issue and The Impact of Supportive Housing for Homeless People with Severe Mental Illness.
   
   
4. Join the Partnership today and connect to the most timely and up-to-date solutions available!

Longer-term strategies to pursue...

1. Review the list of Ten Year Plans to End Homelessness from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to determine if your community currently has a plan.
   
   a) If so, connect with your local Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, and support local programs to fight long-term homelessness, including supportive housing programs and continuum of care providers.
   
   b) If no local initiative exists, consider becoming the local catalyst for a Campaign to End Long-term Homelessness, perhaps to be modeled on the Reaching Home campaign model in Connecticut. Or, identify and support a local continuum of care provider to apply for HUD support to create and initiate a local ten year plan.
   
   
2. Convene local grantmakers, policymakers, and housing developers to discuss the issue of homelessness in your community, and to explore the strategies and solutions that currently exist for fighting long-term homelessness.
   
   
3. Create and make available to your donors and members field-of-interest funds for fighting chronic homelessness.
   
   
4. Meet with your local legislators about the issue of homelessness, and the strategies and solutions that currently exist.
   
   
5. Build local networks and collaboratives of funders and organizations with an interest in this area.
   
   
6. Connect with other community foundations: Interested in talking with another community foundation about their approach to fighting chronic homelessness? Submit your request here and we will be happy to put you in touch with one of our current Partners. Review profiles of community foundations that are members of PELTH doing important work in this area.  

Other questions & answers related to this topic:

Why is chronic homelessness an important issue for funders?

What other networks exist for funders with an interest in causes related to homelessness?

Private and Family Foundations: What is Your Role?

What types of funding are needed to develop effective and sustainable supportive housing?

What are some tips for funders interested in funding efforts to fight chronic homelessness?

How can I find supportive housing programs and other initiatives to end long-term homelessness in my own community or state?

What other types of support can funders provide to help fight long-term homelessness?