Momentum – Opportunity

From collaborating on regional equity efforts designed to level the playing field for all Greater Dayton citizens, to putting youth on the path to higher education, Dayton Foundation donors awarded millions of dollars in grants in fiscal year 2021 to give life-changing opportunities to underserved and underrepresented individuals.

The African-American Community Fund, a component fund of The Dayton Foundation that gives African-Americans the opportunity to make a difference in their communities through charitable giving, awarded nearly $450,000 in grants to area nonprofit organizations in FY2021. Included in this amount was $16,000 in discretionary grants, which supported programs that provide life enrichment skills for young women and help to break the stigma associated with mental healthcare in the African-American community.

Since 1992, AACF has grown to include 208 funds that have awarded $5.7 million in grants to date and has served as a national model for the promotion of philanthropy in the African-American community.

Learn to Earn Dayton, a supporting organization of The Dayton Foundation, is making great strides in its mission to ensure that 60 percent of Montgomery County’s working-age adults have a two- or four-year college degree or a high-quality credential by the year 2025. Most recently L2ED, in partnership with The Dayton Foundation and other community and national partners, worked behind the scenes to launch the Northwest Dayton Partnership, a collaborative, place-based effort to build economic and racial equity in that area. The initiative aims to take a two-generation approach to building well-being by intentionally and simultaneously working with children and the adults in their lives. L2ED acts as a convener to facilitate collaboration between Northwest Dayton Partnership team members, and The Dayton Foundation provides technical assistance to build capacity and leverage philanthropic investment to support the initiative’s goals.

Montgomery County Ohio College Promise, a component fund of The Dayton Foundation, was founded in 2010 with the goal of helping 500 Montgomery County students attend college at little to no cost for them or their families. MCOCP, which also pairs its students with a caring adult mentor, surpassed a milestone in 2021 when it reached 550 students served. Because of the program’s enormous success, plans to expand it for future cohorts are underway, with a goal of providing this transformative opportunity for more area students who may not otherwise be able to attend college without MCOCP’s assistance.

Looking ahead, the Foundation is excited about this work, as well as that of the Del Mar Encore Fellows Initiative, the Institute for Livable & Equitable Communities and other coordinated efforts that are creating fair, equitable and age-friendly opportunities for individuals from all walks of life so they may thrive in our region.

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