Our Strategy
Our Focus: Schools & Neighborhoods
BCF’s strategic grantmaking is focused on schools in neighborhoods where housing remains affordable and which offer some amenities like access to public transit, local businesses and green space, but need additional investment. We support schools with funding for enrichment programs that nurture academic excellence and expand opportunities for young people, as well as early childhood programs like Judy Centers, which provide educational, health and social services for families with children ages birth – 5 to promote school readiness. Grants to schools and school partners are paired with ones to community development organizations and nonprofits working collaboratively to build cleaner, greener, and more vibrant neighborhoods around each school, with all of the resources families need to thrive.
Our Context: Race, Equity & Inclusion
Our schools and neighborhoods strategy is guided by the knowledge that profound disparities in opportunity exist between people of color and their white counterparts. We acknowledge the historic and ongoing role that structural racism plays in creating and perpetuating those disparities. That is why we are committed to reducing racial disparities, identifying and combatting structural racism and fostering more equity and inclusion through our strategic grantmaking, impact investing, special initiatives and advocacy.
Our Tools: Grants, Investments, Special Initiatives and Advocacy
Making grants is one way BCF is helping to build a better Baltimore for all. But our capacity to invest in civic projects, pilot new initiatives and be a voice for change are powerful tools as well. We make impact investments in economic and community development projects that have the potential to improve quality of life and equity in our region. When it makes sense to do so, we create and operate special program initiatives to fill a gap or explore a new model to address long-standing, still unsolved challenges. And we recognize that to effect real change, we must operate at the systems level, advocating for public policies that can frame a better future for all of us.
