There are solutions to childhood poverty. They exist. They work. 

We’ve seen it firsthand in the programs we fund — children with safe places to sleep, quality schools, and an enriching place to go after the bell rings. But right now, systems are not supporting these solutions, and most nonprofit organizations simply don't have the resources to meet community needs at scale. And when that happens, kids facing poverty fall behind, and keep falling. They experience developmental delays, poorer health, and gaps in education that follow them into adulthood. 

That's what we're here to change. 

Our strategy works on three tracks at once: using comedy to shift the story around childhood poverty, so that people can understand, connect and come together to fight for kids and — what we are talking about here — direct real resources to the organizations already doing the work. The ones living and breathing the solutions every day. 

Trust the People Closest to the Problem

We believe this deeply: organizations rooted in a community are the ones who best understand that community's needs. Their solutions aren’t designed from a distance. They’re shaped by lived experience and relationships built over time.

That belief drives how we fund — with trust-based philanthropy. That means we provide flexible, sustainable grants that give our partners room to respond to what's most urgent and pursue real, lasting change for their communities. We work shoulder to shoulder with organizations and give them runway, not restrictions.

And we offer something else unique: amplification. Storytelling. It’s what we excel at, and it’s something organizations aren’t always able to do themselves. We give our partners the creative tools and platforms to reach new audiences, build public support, and attract more resources. 

Here's how:

Fast, Flexible Funding 

We are intentional about funding organizations at different stages of growth — from nationally scaled nonprofits with proven impact to grassroots and community-led groups that are newer, and undersupported. Each plays a different, essential role: one brings reach and infrastructure, the other brings proximate leadership and innovation.. Supporting the full spectrum is how we move the needle on childhood poverty.

And we stay nimble. Crises don't wait for grant cycles. When a natural disaster hits, when a sudden funding change puts families in immediate need, when an economic shock ripples through a community — we move fast, getting resources to trusted partners quickly.

We also bring locally rooted organizations and their work into the public eye. We center them in our community events and promotional campaigns with flexible grants to recruit volunteers, share materials, and tell their stories, rallying their communities in their own voices.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Houston's Tejano Center for Community Concerns has been building comprehensive support networks for low-income families since 1992 — education, social services, health resources, housing, all for the predominantly Hispanic community it was built to serve. Their La Tiendita is a free market where families can stock up on fresh produce, meat, and bread alongside health education classes, counseling, and social services. Last year they reached more than 8,000 people — and recently expanded to a second location.

Our unrestricted grant gave the center the freedom to “adapt to pressing community needs, enhance service delivery, and create lasting impact,” they say. But our partnership went beyond dollars — we spotlighted the center’s work publicly, which they report “helped us build momentum and make new connections” and reach audiences they couldn’t otherwise.

The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation (BLHF) connects people to mental health care designed for and by the community it serves. Their SheCare Wellness Pods bring free therapy, peer connection, and holistic programming — yoga, meditation, plant and art therapy, African dance — directly to Black women on HBCU campuses. When funding uncertainty threatened that work, our two-year grant let them protect staff, launch a new campus Pod, and expand programming in real time. As they put it, the approach “recognized that the organization closest to the work is best positioned to make resource allocation decisions.”

That’s the idea. Funding that puts the right resources in the right hands at the right moment.  

The Bigger Picture

Shift the narrative about poverty. Galvanize the community. Get resources flowing to the people who know their communities best. Three key elements that work together, each making the others stronger.

When organizations can tell their stories, more people show up. When more people show up, more resources follow. And when organizations are better resourced, more kids are reached. The cycle builds on itself — and every person who takes an action adds to its momentum.

This is how we get to a world where every child has a fair shot — not someday, but through work that’s happening right now, in communities across this country. We’re fueling that work. We hope you’ll join us.

This is part three of a three part series on our impact strategy.

• Part 1: We're evolving, because kids can't wait.
• Part 2: Childhood poverty is a we problem. And together we can solve it.
• Part 3: When communities lead, kids thrive. Here’s how we’re using comedy to make that happen.