Generational Grants

Phillips Foundation implements a Generational Grantmaking cycle once every generation. The current generation of Trustees has selected a slate of 12 game-changer grants in Guilford County, North Carolina, providing catalytic capital to important initiatives as identified by the community.

The Foundation has served as a top donor and advocate for initiatives from a new performing arts center in Downtown Greensboro to ending chronic homelessness countywide. Other efforts include a new state-of-the-art, joint nursing school; piloting a new Family Success Center in Greensboro’s lowest-income ZIP code; endowing the Greensboro Children’s Museum to ensure it lasts as a community institution for generations to come; and funding a first-of-its-kind, replicable magnet school model, which saw an initial increase in reading proficiency from 33 to 65 percent.

By seed funding community projects, we seek to provide long-term momentum and catalyze sustainable funding sources through solidifying proof of concept. One such example is YVLifeSet, a grantee that grew to serve all youth aging out of the system in Guilford County, providing $4.8 million in cost savings to taxpayers and leading North Carolina’s Legislature to expand this program to thousands more children across the state.

In direct response to COVID-19, the Phillips Foundation provided an additional Generational Grant in the amount of $500,000 to be directed toward the coordinated effort of United Way of Greater Greensboro (UWGG) and Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro (CFGG).

Until the next generation of Trustees identify the challenges and opportunities of their time, the current Generational Grant cycle is closed, as the Foundation focuses on field-building and strategic initiatives, original programs and impact investing.