The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development is seeking applications for its Organizational Capacity Building Grant that enables nonprofit organizations and their leaders to improve their practices and infrastructure by creating new approaches, structures, or skills that can make them more effective and sustainable.
Donor Name: Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development
State: California
County: San Francisco
City: San Francisco
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/03/2023
Size of the Grant: $1,000,000
Grant Duration: 1 year
Details:
The mission of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) is to support San Franciscans with affordable housing opportunities and essential services to build strong communities. The department is organized into four divisions: Housing, Community Development, Homeownership and Below Market Rate (HBMR) programs, and Fiscal/Administration.
This Capacity Building RFP is grounded in MOCHD’s Theory of Change and advances San Francisco’s Consolidated Plan by furthering the following goals:
- Communities At-Risk of Displacement Are Stabilized
- Provide services to maintain housing stability
- Communities have healthy physical, social, and business infrastructure
- Build organizational capacity of MOHCD grantees/providers through outreach, relationship building and recruitment, organizational assessments, trainings and coaching, cohort-based and project-based work, subject matter experts, and other technical assistance methodologies
- The City Works to Eliminate the Causes of Racial Disparities
- Ensure racially equitable access to programs and services, in coordination with other city departments
- Instill racial equity and trauma-informed values and practices in the work of MOHCD
Capacity building is an investment in the effectiveness and future sustainability of a nonprofit organization. MOHCD recognizes the gaps in funding and resources that exist for many nonprofits, including its own grantees. MOHCD also recognizes how practices within their sector perpetuate a cycle in which funders continually under resource the nonprofits they support.
MOHCD’s proposed capacity building framework has been informed by research and best practices and community voices, including the Learning for Action (LFA) Capacity Building Landscape Study, the Human Right Commission Reallocation of SFPD Report, One SF’s Economic Recovery Task Force Report, and a cohort of MOCHD funded Black-serving organizations. LFA’s report describes the seven nonprofit capacities that any nonprofit needs in varying degrees:
- Vision and impact model – A clear and detailed description of the impact the organization is trying to create, mapped to the set of organizational activities that help produce that impact (e.g., Theory of Change)
- Governance and leadership – A board and staff leadership that have the skills needed to work effectively together in service of the organization’s mission
- Program delivery – Staff, technology, facilities, and other capabilities needed to deliver programs effectively and in fidelity to the impact model
- Resource generation – A strong funding model to guide resource generation, and the capabilities to secure resources over time
- Internal operations and management – Includes technical functions such as IT, financial management, and internal/external communications, plus human resources management and strategic planning
- Evaluation and learning – Tools, processes, infrastructure, and culture that support continuous program and organizational improvement
- Strategic relationships – The ability to nurture and maintain the external relationships necessary for success, including program delivery partners, funding relationships, and political support
LFA also places capacity building interventions into two categories Focused vs. Developmental Capacity Building:
- A focused intervention addresses a problem or pain point, which does not require a holistic understanding of the organization’s performance across the seven capacities.
- A developmental intervention seeks to understand a potential problem in the context of the organization’s performance in relation to the full range of capacities, and tailor the intervention accordingly, Strengthen the organization as a whole (across the seven capacities) in the context of its stage of development, or both.
MOHCD has also been engaged in intentional conversations over the last year with their African American Stabilization grantees about their strengths and capacity building needs, as well as strategies that would be effective in advancing their organizations’ mission, goals and operations. The following were identified as five high priority areas that will serve as a guide to their success.
- Fund development/multi-year funding
- Bookkeeping and administrative staffing
- Board development and strategic planning
- Technology and skills upgrades
- Marketing and communications
Funding Information
- General Organizational Capacity Building Projects
- Term: 6/1/2023 -6/30/2024
- Total Funding Available: $330,000
- AASC Organizational Capacity Building Projects
- Term: 6/1/2023 -6/30/2024
- Total Funding Available: $1,000,000
Eligibility Criteria
All applicants must meet all the following eligibility requirements to be considered for MOHCD funding:
- Applicants must be a community-based agency that is non-profit and tax-exempt under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code or apply under a valid fiscal sponsor.
- Organizations receiving a grant from this RFP must be approved City suppliers or have started the process of becoming a City Supplier at time of proposal submission.
- MOHCD contracts are administered on a cost reimbursement basis. Grantees are reimbursed after invoicing for expenses incurred.
- No City agencies or departments may apply for funding under this RFP.
For more information, visit MOHCD.
