Meet the foundations that took home NCRP Impact Awards
Nat Chioke Williams, Executive Director
Hill-Snowdon Foundation
Established in 1959, the Hill-Snowdon Foundation is committed to its vision of a fair and just society where low-income families and communities can thrive. NCRP is impressed by the foundation’s use of community organizing as its core strategy to effectively secure concrete improvements for underserved populations and encouraging them to be central actors in the social and political sphere.
Since the early 2000s, HSF has focused its grants in three areas: Youth Organizing, Economic Justice Organizing and the Fund for DC. In particular, grants are awarded to organizations that use multi-generational approaches to address issues facing low-income youth of color and other marginalized youth, multi-issue organizing that promotes family-supporting and community-strengthening jobs, and outreach that strengthens resident-led decision-making within the District of Columbia. More recently, the foundation has made a concerted effort to advocate for the critical need to support social change efforts in the U.S. South and helped to create Grantmakers for Southern Progress, a network of southern and national funders who seek to strengthen the infrastructure for social change work in the South.
With the foundation based in the nation’s capital, HSF grantees have been at the forefront of many policy wins in the D.C. metro region. In December 2013, the neighboring Montgomery and Prince George’s counties passed a law increasing the local minimum wage from $7.25 to $11.50 by 2017. CASA de Maryland, an HSF grantee, played a key role by hosting rallies, testifying at hearings and providing legal analysis. “Everyone deserves to live and be paid with dignity. There are many things I could do differently making $11 an hour,” said CASA member Wilfred Mokoko during a packed Montgomery County hearing.
The District of Columbia followed suit by increasing its minimum wage shortly after to $11.50 as well. It also became one of the first jurisdictions in the country to sign into law the expansion of paid sick days to all workers, including tipped workers. And again, an HSF grantee, DC Jobs with Justice, was at the forefront of both these monumental wins.