Investment Strategy
In 2016, the Grove Foundation decided to align all of its assets with its mission to ensure that all people have access to resources, respect and a sense of belonging, and the opportunity to live and contribute fully as themselves. We began the process by rewriting the investment policy statement and then transitioning approximately $150 million from more traditional investments to mission-aligned investments.
Black Led Power Building
In early 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Grove Board member Eva Grove made an additional financial contribution to the Foundation. The board and staff decided to allot an equal amount for each program area, and the remaining amount would be used for flexible or discretionary funding. Grove staff decided to reallocate the foundation-flexible money specifically to Black-led organizations working on power building, and civic engagement, or that focused on ending state violence.
Racial Equity & Shared Leadership
The Grove Foundation’s staff and board thought about our racial equity approach for a few years before embarking on a formal learning and implementation journey in 2016. There was already an organizational commitment to racial justice, particularly at the program officer level, before it became an institutional priority. We concentrated internally on creating a distributed leadership model honoring our commitment to racial justice.
Trust-Based Philanthropy
The Grove Foundation’s trust-based philanthropy model was ignited by our racial equity lens and core belief that the people most impacted by oppression and injustice – those living at the intersection of racism, sexism, transphobia, disability, xenophobia, and classism, to name a few – should be resourced so that they can design, implement, and sustain solutions. We believe that true, trust-based collaboration is essential among nonprofits and funders.
Spenddown Strategy
Many private foundations were established to exist in perpetuity. They manage their assets to ensure they can continue to operate. This means that when the economy suffers, these foundations often decrease resources. Unfortunately, this is when grantees and their communities need the most support. In contrast, Grove was set up with the requirement that all assets be “spent down” within 25 years of the deaths of both founders, Andy and Eva. We believe that our generation is best equipped to solve the problems of our time, and those closest to the issues are best equipped to find the solutions.
The Grove Foundation will distribute all of its assets and cease grantmaking in 2030. As we move closer to our end date, we have decided to use most of our remaining resources to support our current grantees. This means that we are not actively seeking new grantees, and expect that new funding opportunities will be limited.