National Fund Staff's blog

First Lady Michelle Obama describes the Social Innovation Fund this way: “By focusing on high-impact, results-oriented nonprofits, we will ensure that government dollars are spent in a way that is effective, accountable and worthy of public trust.”

The 22 sites of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions are working at “ground zero” of a national crisis: unemployment that appears stuck at almost 10 percent. More and more, local media are searching for innovative, local solutions. What they are finding is the National Fund.

San Diego Site in the News for Changing Lives

New evaluation data reveals that the National Fund for Workforce Solutions is helping to redefine how America can prepare low-wage workers for careers.

Keisha Monique Blake, from Baltimore, tells us what the numbers really mean.

There are a thousand stories in the National Fund for Workforce Solutions. Well, actually based on our most recent evaluation data, at least 18,000 stories (that’s how many participants were served in 2009) – but it seemed like a catchy way to start a post about some of the recent press coverage generated by local National Fund sites.

Today, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions was presented the highest award bestowed by the Council on Foundations: the Distinguished Grantmaking Award for Collaboration. It speaks to the leadership role that philanthropy must take in helping America’s workers and businesses succeed in a post-recession economy. Even more important, it speaks to how the National Fund operates.

Today, Fred Dedrick, most recently the Deputy Secretary for Workforce Development in Pennsylvania, takes over as the first Executive Director of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

We’ve often said that what may be most unique about the National Fund for Workforce Solutions is how many national, regional, and local funders have joined together to help employees succeed and businesses compete.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, at few other times in our economic history have so many counted on so few.

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions could best be thought of as an enabler of solutions. The foundations, along with the U.S. Department of Labor, that started the National Fund sought to learn how promising practices for preparing workers for careers could be taken to scale nationwide.

To do that, they relied on the creativity and entrepreneurial drive of local funders, employers, community-based organizations, and organized labor nationwide. A new report tells us that the National Fund sites are, indeed, redefining approaches to workforce development.

A persistent challenge at large urban hospitals is retaining frontline workers. From lab techs to nurses, these employees are invaluable to a hospital’s operation, but we have failed in offering a critical incentive to retaining and training these workers: a career path. Can investments in career path programs yield tangible bottom line results for the hospital? Can such investments yield career paths for workers who once had none? If done the right way, workforce investments can accomplish both goals.