Transformative grant will accelerate national nonprofit's effort to build a "Good Jobs Economy"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: communications@americaachieves.org
NEW YORK, NY (December 18, 2024) – America Achieves, the national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that everyone has a clear path to a good job and a career with upward mobility, announced today that it has received a $15 million grant from Yield Giving, the groundbreaking philanthropy founded by MacKenzie Scott.
This unrestricted investment will bolster America Achieves' mission to help communities, regions, and states build a "Good Jobs Economy." These initiatives align the supply of diverse talent to the demand for good jobs – especially in high-growth occupations and high growth economic sectors – with a particular focus on overlooked communities and the people who have long called those places home. This strategy is a crucial element of helping community and state efforts to advance and integrate economic growth and economic mobility.
"MacKenzie Scott and Yield Giving's extremely generous grant will help us support communities and states to effectively address two fundamental realities: millions of Americans from all backgrounds, with and without college degrees, need clear pathways to good jobs and most employers report challenges in finding enough skilled talent, including in high-growth and innovation sectors of the economy," said Jon Schnur, CEO of America Achieves. "This grant will help communities and states scale and spread what works to move tens of thousands of people into good jobs to sustain them and their families - while advancing place-based efforts to advance and integrate economic growth with economic mobility.”
America Achieves is one of 199 organizations receiving support from MacKenzie Scott's Yield Giving, which announced more than $2 billion in total grants today. The majority of recipients focus on expanding economic opportunity and stability for Americans facing economic challenges at this critical moment.
This work is addressing important and urgent needs in communities across this country. Consider that only 50% of children born in the 1980s will out-earn their parents, compared to 90% born in the 1940s. Today's families need 62 weeks of median wages to cover annual living costs, up from 40 weeks in 1985, and nearly two-thirds of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Meanwhile, three in four more employers report difficulty finding skilled workers.
America Achieves helps local intermediaries, coalitions and public officials to bridge these gaps by helping communities and states build strong programs and local systems that connect people to in-demand jobs and employers to skilled talent.
This grant from MacKenze Scott and Yield Giving is an anchor investment in America Achieves’ go-forward strategy to help communities and states, over the next three years, increasingly move large numbers of people into good jobs and careers that will drive economic growth and mobility – particularly for overlooked people and communities. Using this strategy, America Achieves will over the next three years support local and state partners to:
America Achieves and its partners will work with states, local intermediaries, and coalitions on four strategic priorities aimed at comprehensive, lasting impact at the regional, state and national levels:
America Achieves has secured philanthropic funding to support the planning and launch of its “Good Jobs Economy” initiative from the following funders. In addition to the investment announced today by Yield Giving, philanthropic funding for planning this initiative was provided by Blue Meridian Partners, the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), Strada Education Foundation, and others. Of those funders, GKFF also supported America Achieves’ efforts to help Tech Hub applicants develop their plans – as did the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and others.
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About America Achieves
For more than a decade, America Achieves has incubated high-performing initiatives, launched new nonprofit organizations, shaped over $2 billion in federal funding for inclusive economic development, and partnered with local leaders focused on making their communities better places to live, learn, work, and raise a family. Our organization and partners place a special focus on those who have been left behind — and whose talents are not yet being fully leveraged to build economic opportunity for themselves and their communities. America Achieves helps local economic and workforce development intermediaries, coalitions, and states to fund, develop and implement the programs, strategies and systems that create sustainable pathways to good jobs.
For more information, visit americaachieves.org.
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