It’s our mission to understand a world shaped by ongoing, substantial change. While the upheaval of the last year has been persistent and far reaching, our years of experience navigating uncertainty have served us well, and set us up to engage with new challenges while continuing to address the long term societal changes that define our work.
For all the challenges that 2020 has presented, I’m proud that we’ve still managed to increase our output, help our grantees advance their own work, and hit a number of significant milestones along the way. I’m happy to share this year’s annual report, which includes a few bright spots from our work in the last year, and recognizes the continued progress that our grantees and partners are making every day.
We responded to the changing needs of the world around us
Our COVID-19 Community Grants program gave members of our team an opportunity to engage directly with work that was important to us personally. Every team member was given access to a one-time fixed amount of funding, and had the opportunity to make an impact in communities that are important to each of us individually.
We also redoubled our commitment to equity and justice, and have taken action to ensure that our work never ignores the context and widespread impacts of institutional and systemic racism.
We released a new framework for creating the world we all deserve
Our whitepaper on multidimensional infrastructure included examples of partner organizations doing important work across our portfolio, and outlines a vision for a more inclusive world.
We evangelized the messages of this framework to a number of high-impact audiences, and convened key stakeholders to develop best practices and advance this work in practice.
We’re also gathering more and more examples of work that reflects a commitment to multidimensional infrastructure – and will keep adding to the list as we move forward.
We published more insights on our work and updates from across our network than ever
Our grantees have done amazing work in a time of crisis, and directly engaged some of the most pressing issues facing our society today. We’ve been proud to use our Insights channel to spotlight grantee work, highlight elements of our strategic approach, and partner with other leaders in the field to issue meaningful calls to action.
- “As the Pandemic Magnifies Misinformation, SFE Grantees Defend Information Integrity,” by Laura Maher, Relationship Manager
- “Context is Key,” by Katy Knight, Executive Director
- “What You Need to Know About Privacy, Personal Data, and COVID-19,” by Laura Maher, Relationship Manager
- “Designing America’s Schools for Equity and Inclusion,” by Joshua Elder, Director of Grants Management
- “It’s Time to Unlock Rural America’s Assets,” by Katy Knight, Executive Director, and Matt Dunne, Founder and Executive Director of the Center on Rural Innovation
We’re excited for what’s to come in the year ahead!
