Skyline Public Works Changing Their Grant-Making Strategy

This is one of the "big" announcements I was talking about. I'm going to sit on the other announcement for a while.

For those who don't know, Skyline Public Works is one of the biggest givers to progressive youth organizing. They've funded numerous projects and have a reputation for trying outside the box strategies in both how they fund and the projects in which they invest. Lately, they've been particularly known for their GO Grants program. (full disclosure - they bankrolled Music for America, my first project, and basically gave me my start in youth politics.)

There was a bit of a shake-up at Skyline this week. The incubator laid-off some of their staff, and they are starting to reevaluate their system of grantmaking - basically what types of projects they want to invest in and how best to make those investments. Until they work that out, the organization will not entertain any new GO Grants. They will, however, continue to fulfill their current commitments to organizations. Once Skyline establishes their new way forward, they expect to continue giving at the same or a higher rate than they have thus far.

To be clear: No one is losing any money they have already been promised.

It's a shame that there will be a lull in youth funding so close to the election, but Skyline has a track record for pushing the envelope, and I'll be eager to see what they come up with and how it differs from their recent and past strategies.

Here's the official statement from Skyline:

Skyline Public Works is making some changes in how we do things, but we remain as committed as ever, especially to youth programs. We are in the midst of a strategic review about what kinds of new commitments we want to make given the current state of things in the progressive movement, and these will likely be different than some of the things we have done in the past. As a result, we no longer have need for the part of our staff that has provided technical assistance to some of our grantees. These were tough decisions because the staff is extremely talented and they have exceeded our expectations of them. We remain as committed as ever to the progressive movement and look forward to this new chapter in our activism.