The Constellation Fund
The Constellation Fund
The Constellation Fund
Programs
Program 1 [2021]
In fiscal year 2021, Constellation Fund staff conducted two grant rounds in November and May. Constellation's staff continued to work to improve grantmaking processes, create new metrics, and began building a learnings framework. Constellation staff have identified the following potential focus areas in which to eventually develop broader learnings: -Examine which metrics consistently show up on high BCRs. -Examine which versions of similar metrics consistently show up on high and low BCRs. -Identify differences in activities between high and low performers working in the same issue areas. -Examine trends of BCRs to overall financial size - is there a size at which organizations are most efficient? -Analyze outcomes of multi-service organizations compared to focused, single-serve organizations - is one approach more efficient? -Analyze intersectionality of portfolio, considering both issue areas and types of organizations. Constellation Fund awarded grants to 29 nonprofit organizations totaling $2,859,000, with no restrictions on the use of funds, a rare form of capital in the philanthropic sector that allows the organizations to grow their impact purposefully. In addition, grantees received connections to best-in-class pro bono partners to provide services and expertise otherwise inaccessible to most poverty-fighting organizations.In addition to the growth within Impact, Constellation grew across the organization. Our Beyond Dollars program is now available to all of Constellation's 29 grantees. Constellation also grew our Board of Directors by adding three new directors, Of the three new directors two are from community based organizations which further reinforces our commitment to include community voices in our work. Constellation also added new staff in the form of a Research Impact Officer and External Engagement Manager.GeographiesNot indicatedDatesJul 1, 2020 – Jun 30, 2021Source990No causes providedNo populations provided–$3.3MConstellation Fund Poverty Initiative
The Constellation Fund is built to harness the incisive power of modern analytics alongside on-the-ground insights to allocate precious philanthropic resources to the people and partners creating the most impact in the fight against poverty in the Twin Cities. We use quantitative metrics alongside qualitative analysis to select our grantee partners. Our metrics are built using the best available evidence to develop metrics that allow Constellation to reliably project the long-term quality-of-life impact of poverty-fighting services resulting in a benefit-cost ratio used to help objectively build a portfolio of the most impactful nonprofits across a broad spectrum of programs and interventions. In fiscal year 2023, this approach led Constellation to invest over $3.2 million into 31 poverty-fighting nonprofits working across four impact areas education, employment, health, and housing. Constellation's evidence-driven analysis projects that these nonprofits will turn every dollar of that investment into an average of $4.70 of lifetime health and income improvements for individuals and families experiencing poverty in our community. The average projected impact of the nonprofits receiving Constellation funding last year was more than three times greater than the average of $1.51-to-1 for all other organizations that we evaluated in 2021.The Constellation Fund continues to expand the reach of our signature capacity building program, Beyond Dollars. Beyond Dollars creates best-in-class pro bono experiences through curated teams of volunteer employees from Fortune 500 corporations to mid-sized companies, who deliver unparalleled capacity-building services to our impactful nonprofit partners.GeographiesNot indicatedDatesJul 1, 2022 – Jun 30, 2023Source990No causes providedNo populations provided–$4.4M
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