Giving Back to Our Community
For over 30 years, the Clark Foundation has invested in schools and nonprofits serving the Washington, DC region. Among the Foundation’s top priorities is ensuring its grantees are in the strongest possible position to continue to grow and serve their communities. Through significant multi-year investments, the Foundation has supported leadership transitions, strategic planning, stronger infrastructure, and promising new initiatives.
In addition to its longstanding support of the region’s schools and community anchors, the DC Initiatives portfolio centers on improving parent and child health, and supporting the persistence of DC students through college.
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Strong Schools and Community Anchors
The Clark Foundation invests in the capacity-building and sustainability of the DC region’s schools and nonprofit community anchors. We aim to ensure that DC students have educational opportunities that set them on the path to fulfilling careers by investing in public and charter school growth and infrastructure.
In addition, we support community-based organizations so that they are in the best possible position to fulfill their missions over the long term. To do this, we invest in the capacity and infrastructure of dozens of the region’s nonprofits providing health care, food access, youth development, and other essential services.
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Parent-Child Health Initiative
Healthy brain development in a child’s early years is crucial to their academic and economic success in life. By investing in hospitals, early learning programs and other crucial community supports, we are creating opportunities for all children to grow, learn, and reach their full potential.
Our grantees are leaders in their fields. They operate major hospitals, community health programs, early learning centers and research initiatives. Their innovative work is transforming the opportunity landscape for vulnerable children and families at both the neighborhood and citywide level.
The A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation is investing in local health care providers to improve the quality of perinatal and early pediatric health care for families in Washington, DC. These investments will not only enhance innovation and integration of health services, they will also strengthen collaborations among hospitals and community health providers.
On October 1, 2020, leaders in hospital-based care, community health providers, health advocates, and members of the philanthropic community convened to discuss a vision of a comprehensive, integrated, culturally competent system of support serving all families in the District of Columbia.
Resources from the Clark Parent-Child Health Partner Summit:
The Parent-Child Health Initiative Overview (PDF)
Welcome Video: 2020 Clark Parent-Child Health Partner Summit (MP4)
D.C. Safe Babies, Safe Moms at MedStar Health: Video (MP4)
Sibley Maternal Health Access Program Overview (PDF)
The Clark Parent & Child Network at Children’s National: Video (MP4)
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Supporting DC High School Graduates to and through College
The Foundation invests in organizations that prepare students for the challenges of earning a four-year degree through individual, specialized transition, and persistence support. Our goal is to make sure students throughout the city who choose to pursue a college degree have the support they need to graduate.
Featured Grantees
Community of Hope
During her first pregnancy, Mercedez Milling-Robinson realized that she needed a different sort of care if she were ever going to have another child. Her first born, Marcus S. Robinson is doing well today, but throughout her pregnancy Mercedez felt her care was too impersonal — at times, even disrespectful. The ability to have caregivers […]
Latin American Youth Center
Based in Columbia Heights, Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) is a multi-service community anchor that has been supporting the social, academic, and career needs of young people since the late 1960s. In 2018, Lupi Quinteros-Grady took the reins as President and CEO. Ms. Quinteros-Grady has a 20-plus year history with the organization: she was a […]
DCPS Persists
As part of its broader commitment to support DC public and charter school graduates succeed in college, the Foundation invested $10 million in the DC Public Education Fund to launch DCPS Persists, a new program that provides college-bound DC Public Schools graduates with a support network to help them graduate from college. Starting with the class of 2020, students will be […]
Tutoring makes math fun, Saga Education
A year ago, if you talked to DC ninth-grader Jah’ere Kelley about math, he likely would have shrugged and grudgingly admitted he was stressed about school and, by extension, his future. Though the bright freshman at Ron Brown College Preparatory High School in Washington, DC, is just beginning to think about what he wants to […]
