As co-founder and CEO of Foundations for Social Change, Claire Elizabeth Williams is getting global acclaim for North America’s first direct giving project with people experiencing homelessness. Direct giving project, as in giving a lump sum of cash directly to people experiencing homelessness. We hear about their innovative project, the New Leaf Project, and its key success factors, including:
- the ability to be innovative
- forming partnerships
- conducting the research – the proof of the impact they’re making and how they’re going about doing that, and doing it through the gold standard of a Randomized Control Trial in partnership with an academic institution
- the magic of giving $7500 to people experiencing homelessness upfront in a lump sum, and not a more traditional monthly amount, though the same total amount
We talk about how this is a model for other communities, and many are eager to get at this approach. We also explore whether this could be a model for other funders to loosen the strings that are attached to giving, to being able to leverage cash transfers as a solution in their toolkit. There are some obstacles to get over to make that possible, but it does seem possible in this time where the sector and society are ready for change.
We’re excited to share Claire’s ground-breaking work with you in this conversation. Have a listen!
Resources:
- Foundations for Social Change: https://forsocialchange.org/who-we-are
- New Leaf Project: https://forsocialchange.org/new-leaf-project-overview
Claire Elizabeth Williams:
- Believe in Someone Campaign: https://forsocialchange.org/believe-in-someone
- Believe in Someone Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N82EWjCb5nc&trk=organization-update-content_share-embed-video_share-article_title