March 10, 2023 (Warren, Ohio) – The Raymond John Wean Foundation serves as capacity builders, conveners and partners, as well as grantmakers. The Foundation’s first board meeting of the year addressed each of these roles.
With a focus on leading with capacity building opportunities for its grassroots grantmaking, the Foundation announced plans to offer more opportunity for engagement and relationship building, thus reducing the barriers to funding and technical support. The Foundation seeks to make the program more accessible for more organizations applying for grants.
Changes to the program were spurred by the Foundation’s recently published report Making Philanthropy Better, which was shared with board members at the meeting. The Foundation plans to center community conversations and events around the report. Capturing the Foundation’s work over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic—what they and others did to support the community during this time and how—the report highlights the ways the Foundation strived to become more collaborative, resident-centered and racially equitable.
The Foundation awarded $60,000 to Bridgeway Capital in programmatic support to cultivate relationships in Youngstown and Warren. Bridgeway seeks to expand the delivery of their entrepreneurship development and social-lending activities to historically underserved entrepreneurs and nonprofits in Warren and Youngstown through this planning grant.
“Bridgeway Capital is deeply appreciative of this grant from The Raymond John Wean Foundation,” says T.J. Bogdewic, president and CEO of Bridgeway Capital. “As a nonprofit social-impact lender, Bridgeway will use this grant to better understand the needs of small businesses in Warren and Youngstown and establish itself as a trusted lending partner in the Mahoning Valley. Bridgeway is eager to make its mission-backed financing and programming available to the region’s entrepreneurs. We are committed to helping create a more equitable and inclusive economy in the Mahoning Valley.”
For information on capacity building, convening and partnership or grant opportunities with the Wean Foundation, visit weanfoundation.org. To request a copy of Making Philanthropy Better, contact Erika Parker at eparker@weanfoundation.org or 330.394.5600 x104.
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About the Wean Foundation: The Raymond John Wean Foundation is dedicated to community-building in underresourced communities of Warren and Youngstown in Ohio’s Mahoning Valley. The Foundation leverages a dynamic combination of grantmaking, capacity building, convening and partnerships to provoke new thinking, strengthen communities and disrupt the status quo to achieve its vision: empowered residents creating an equitable Mahoning Valley. Visit weanfoundation.org to learn more.