Our first two years
Since we started in 2021 our little consultancy has grown — we’ve secured hundreds of millions of dollars for over 50 clients in our 2.5 years of operation, winning some of the most technical and competitive grants, supporting successful capital campaigns, and building and streamlining tools for organizational fundraising and effectiveness. The demand for our services has increased as we’ve grown.
As we start a new year, Collective Agency is reflecting on the incredible work our wonderful clients are doing to make the world more just, healthy, and connected. We are enormously grateful to partner with each of them, to share ideas and tools, and to bring in resources that allow them to enact their dreams.
Here are some highlights from the last two years — some of our clients’ notable successes:
Oakland Promise received its first federal grant, a Full Service Community Schools grant from the Department of Education to partner with Oakland Unified School District to bring resources to three schools in East Oakland: East Oakland Pride, Elmhurst, and Castlemont.This funding will allow Oakland Promise and community partners to implement programs and services to support students, families, teachers and community stakeholders in deepening the Community Schools model within these schools.
TODEC Legal Center secured $4.5 million from the USDA to distribute cash to more than 5,000 immigrant food and farm workers in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties who were impacted by COVID. TODEC was the only small regional nonprofit in the US to win an award. Due to their successful implementation of this grant, the USDA awarded them an additional $2.5 million to distribute. As they connect with local workers, they are gathering data on the long-term impacts of the pandemic on California farmworkers and will use these findings to influence systems change to better support undocumented agricultural workers.
Community Schools Learning Exchange (CSLX) engaged Collective Agency to support eight school districts across the state in their applications for funding from the California Department of Education’s California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP). Since 2021, Collective Agency has supported winning proposals for Community Schools in California, through Federal, State, and Local opportunities.
Chapter 510 launched a BIPOC youth-led oral history project documenting the history of Swan's Market, the first racially segregated retail site in Oakland. The project sought to explore how physical spaces, and the generations of stories they hold, create a sense of belonging, especially as the city rapidly gentrifies. The project resulted in a podcast and an audio walking tour.
The Oakland Unified School District secured a $66 million grant from the California Department of Education to convert 53 of the district’s 81 schools into Community Schools, which leverage community partnerships and resources so school campuses become hubs of support and opportunity for students, families, and community members. Students throughout Oakland will have greater access to physical and mental health services, and parents will have an increased voice in decisions that impact their children.
The Deputy Sheriff's Activities League continued building a circular food economy across Alameda County, turning almost 100 acres of vacant land into regeneratively farmed land, using that food to feed thousands of medically vulnerable and food-insecure residents, and providing jobs for formerly incarcerated residents.
