Frontline Solutions, on behalf of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is requesting proposals from organizations engaged in addressing disparities within the American workforce. This process reflects a desire on the part of the foundation to expand relationships with organizations and communities.

A Black-owned, national consulting firm, Frontline Solutions centers its work on intersectional equity, community drove innovation, and activating broad networks for change. These are the tenets governing this process and the space for you to work within, from the release of this RFP, through the distribution of grants, and throughout our convening of a learning community.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Economic Mobility and Opportunity (EM&O) portfolio aims to improve the economic outcomes of America’s most vulnerable individuals and their families. Along with the struggle of finding jobs that provide greater economic security or channels for advancement, many individuals often face systemic, institutional forces out of their control, referred to as ‘structural barriers’. Among these, structural racism presents unique challenges to long-term upward mobility and economic security.

Specifically, Frontline approaches this process mindful of the following principles:

• Transparency
• Context
• Respect
• Equity

Funding Information

Up to ten (10) grants of between $100,000 and $300,000 will be awarded to organizations nationwide. Organizations should demonstrate a strong commitment to intersectional racial justice, and an ability to address economic disparities that affect Black and Brown workers as the result of structural racism.

Funding Criteria

Target Populations: This RFP is focused on addressing structural and systemic barriers to economic opportunity and ensuring equitable outcomes in the American workforce. Applicant organizations should demonstrate a primary focus on addressing financial insecurity and poverty, with a priority on groups who have historically been affected by systemic inequity and injustice.

The following is a list of target populations with whom applicants might be working. They include these not to indicate that applicants should address the entirety of complex and important issues facing these groups, but as populations that your work engages and who have traditionally faced systemic racism and disadvantages in the workforce.  These groups may include, but are not limited to:

• Black and Brown workers
• Black and Brown businesses and entrepreneurs
• Immigrant workers
• Indigenous workers
• Returning citizens
• Workers experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity
• Individuals residing and working in rural areas
• Young adults of color
• Women of color

Eligibility Criteria

Organizations applying for this grant opportunity must:

• Focus on economic mobility and have experience working in partnership with communities of color and including the perspectives of those with lived experience
• Be willing to help build and engage in a community of practice with peer organizations for approximately 12 to 15 months
• Demonstrate 501(c)(3) status or be a social sector focused organization supporting Black and Brown workers, indigenous workers, rural workers, returning citizens, immigrants, workers who are homeless or housing insecure, or women of color, etc.
• Be in good financial standing
• Be able to manage a grant of at least $100,000. If that amount would represent more than 50% of the organization’s total annual budget, you should be prepared to address the project’s sustainability after the grant period
• Not solely engage in advocacy or any political lobbying efforts
• Provide services in the United States
• Be committed internally to racial equity
• Have publicly committed to a set of racial equity goals or plans
• Have a demonstrable track record of economic mobility programming

For more information, visit Elevate Initiative.