MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving announced Elevate Phoenix as one of the Yield Giving Open Call’s 2024 awardees working with people and in places experiencing the greatest need in the United States. Elevate Phoenix received $1 million after the initial March 2023 Open Call for community-led and focused organizations dedicated to providing foundational resources to people in need.
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Elevate Phoenix helps low-income, at-risk youth academically succeed and remain in education, allowing them to prepare for college and a career. Elevate Phoenix’s proven formula breaks the generational cycle of poverty while simultaneously empowering students, cultivating confidence and life skills to become independent and compassionate adults. Through its unique relationship-based model that inspires youth to want to stay in school, Elevate Phoenix presents children experiencing poverty with the tools and opportunities to attain a successful, stable future.
“We are both tremendously humbled and grateful to be one of Yield Giving Open Call’s awardees especially since Elevate Phoenix is only one of three recipients in all of Arizona,” said Dalila Gamper, Executive Director. “We know this award will help change the lives of thousands of our deserving students and, by extension, their families and schools. Earning this financial opportunity validates the work of Elevate Phoenix – to improve our community and motivate future leaders to stay in school, graduate and advance to post-secondary education and a career.”
The Open Call received 6,353 applications and initially planned for 250 awards of $1 million each. During the Fall of 2023, top-rated organizations advanced to a second round of review by a panel of judges and underwent a final round of due diligence. Due to the incredible, extensive philanthropic work of the nominated organizations, the donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and award amount. Spearheaded by Lever for Change, a total of 361 non-profits from 38 states and U.S. territories were selected, including Arizona’s Elevate Phoenix.
“We are excited that our partnership with Yield Giving has resonated with so many organizations,” said Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever for Change. “In a world teeming with potential and talent, the Open Call has given us an opportunity to identify, uplift, and empower transformative organizations that often remain unseen.”
More information on the Yield Giving Open Call and other initiatives can be found at www.leverforchange.org.
