Unlikely Collaborators awards $7.2 million to 52 nonprofits from its first national open call
The grants, announced Nov. 4, range from $25,000 to $250,000 and go to 26 new grantees and 26 the group has funded before, for programs built on Elizabeth R. Koch's Perception Box framework.
Los Angeles. Unlikely Collaborators, a nonprofit founded and led by Elizabeth R. Koch, said on Nov. 4 that it has awarded $7.2 million in grants to 52 nonprofit organizations across the United States. The money pays for programs built on Ms. Koch's Perception Box framework, which the group describes as the lens of beliefs, experiences and assumptions through which each person sees themselves, other people and the world.
Half of the grantees are new to the funder; the other 26 are organizations it has funded before. The grants range from $25,000 to $250,000. The announcement does not give the amount of each grant.
The first open call
The awards close the group's first national request for proposals, which opened on April 23 and closed May 22. It was open to 501(c)(3) public charities, or groups with a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor, with annual budgets of at least $500,000. It offered one-time, project-specific grants of $50,000 to $250,000, with no general operating support, and excluded political, lobbying and advocacy work. The call said decisions would come by Aug. 3 and money would be paid by Oct. 5. The announcement does not say why the smallest awards fall below the call's $50,000 floor.
Applicants were asked to show what in their programs leads participants to reconsider their own perspective. Reviewers weighed fit with the framework, the depth of the participant experience, lived experience and closeness to the work, organizational capacity and likely impact, according to the announcement.
Hospitals, prisons and grief programs
The organization says the grantees span hospitals and schools, prisons and reentry programs, veterans and first responders, grief programs, and work with young people, artists, health care workers and people recovering from trauma. Some programs use writing, poetry or theater; others use mindfulness, dialogue, movement or grief support.
New grantees include Children's Hospital Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, Defy Ventures and 826 National. Among the organizations receiving continued support are the American Red Cross, the Dougy Center in Portland, Ore., the Veterans Breakfast Club in Pittsburgh and Prison Yoga Project.
“These non-profits come to us with an intimate understanding of their communities, enabling them to help these demographics from the inside out, and we have so much to learn from them.”
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