For Immediate Release: Journey Home Receives $2 Million Gift From the Yield Giving Open Call
Sara Wilson
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Sara Salomons Wilson
Journey Home
860-808-0336 (office); 860-882-9791 (mobile)
Journey Home Receives $2 Million Gift From the Yield Giving Open Call
Hartford, CT March 19, 2024 – Today, MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving announced Journey Home as one of the Yield Giving Open Call’s awardees working with people and in places experiencing the greatest need in the United States. Journey Home received $2 million dollars.
Journey Home’s mission is to accelerate progress towards ending homelessness in Connecticut’s Capital region. Partnering with agencies across the region, Journey Home focuses on solving the problem of homelessness rather than managing it.
In March 2023, Yield Giving launched an Open Call for community-led, community-focused organizations whose explicit purpose is to enable individuals and families to achieve substantive improvement in their well-being through foundational resources.
"We are excited that our partnership with Yield Giving has resonated with so many organizations," said Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever for Change. "In a world teeming with potential and talent, the Open Call has given us an opportunity to identify, uplift, and empower transformative organizations that often remain unseen.”
Matt Morgan, Executive Director of Journey Home, said, “They’re not asking us to do anything different. They’re saying you’re doing a really good job. Keep going, we trust you. That means so much to us. It gives us the opportunity to do what we do best – be creative, test ideas, and innovate. We are so grateful for the support of Yield Giving and the work that they are not only making possible here in our community but in communities all over our nation. It’s remarkable.”
The Open Call received 6,353 applications and initially planned for 250 awards of $1 million each. In the Fall of 2023, organizations top-rated by their peers advanced to a second round of review by an external Evaluation Panel recruited for experience relevant to this cause, and underwent a final round of due diligence. In light of the incredible work of these organizations, as judged by their peers and external panelists, the donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and the award amount.
More information on the Yield Giving Open Call and other initiatives can be found at www.leverforchange.org.
Journey Home
Journey Home has spent more than a decade committed to ending homelessness in Connecticut’s Capital Region. We apply sustainable solutions to the barriers that create cycles of homelessness. We are proud to be a lead agency within the Greater Hartford and Central Coordinated Access Networks, developer of the Career Pathways Employment Program, and creator of A Hand Up.
Journey Home works each day to prevent as many people as possible from losing their housing, to increase the speed at which we find housing for anyone who is already experiencing homelessness, to help folks move into their homes and provide furnishings and household items, and to help them gain the income and services they need to never become homeless again. To learn more, visit www.journeyhomect.org
Yield Giving
Established by MacKenzie Scott to share a financial fortune created through the effort of countless people, Yield Giving is named after a belief in adding value by giving up control. To date, Yield’s network of staff and advisors has yielded over $16,500,000,000 to 1,900+ non-profit teams to use as they see fit for the benefit of others. To learn more, visit www.yieldgiving.com.
Lever for Change
Lever for Change connects donors with bold solutions to the world’s biggest problems—including issues like racial inequity, gender inequality, lack of access to economic opportunity, and climate change. Using an inclusive, equitable model and due diligence process, Lever for Change creates customized challenges and other tailored funding opportunities. Top-ranked teams and challenge finalists become members of the Bold Solutions Network—a growing global network that helps secure additional funding, amplify members’ impact, and accelerate social change. Founded in 2019 as a nonprofit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Lever for Change has influenced over $1.7 billion in grants to date and provided support to more than 145 organizations. To learn more, visit www.leverforchange.org.
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