We were thrilled to see many of our nonprofit partners receive grants through the recent Yield Giving Open Call. Congratulations to Arts Corps, Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI), East African Community Services, Korean Community Center of the East Bay (KCCEB), La Cocina, Planting Justice, and YES Nature to Neighborhoods.
Between the Puget Sound and San Francisco Bay Area, our grantee partners (who represent 18% of Yield’s Washington awardees and 14% of Yield’s Bay Area awardees) received a combined total of $11,000,000 in funding for 2024. They join four other Magic Cabinet nonprofit grantees Technology Access Foundation (TAF), Friends of the Children Tacoma, Open Door Legal, and Asian Women’s Shelter (AWS), who received funding in previous rounds, bringing their combined awards total to $13,500,000.
Digging into Yield Giving’s Open Call
After reviewing Yield’s Public Gifts and insights from reports* analyzing these gifts, we see some alignment between the principles driving Yield Giving’s grantmaking approach and Magic Cabinet’s methodology. These practices include:
- Funding nonprofits with operating budgets ranging from $1 million to $5 million, understanding the pivotal role funding can play at this inflection point of an organization’s growth.
- Providing flexible funding, such as unrestricted (Yield Giving) and capacity-building grants (Magic Cabinet), allows nonprofits to address evolving needs and priorities.
- Prioritizing community involvement by incorporating insights from community advisors to identify nonprofits making meaningful impacts in their communities.
Over the past year, Panorama Global gathered and analyzed data from over 100 Yield Giving grant recipients to better understand MacKenzie Scott’s giving. These conversations highlighted the urgent need for deeper partnerships and more predictable funding structures for nonprofits. Panorama Global’s insights called for a fundamental shift in the dynamics between funders and nonprofits and stressed the importance of working together to advocate for trust-based relationships and more equitable partnerships.
An added insight from Panorama Global’s report was that many Yield Giving grant recipients invested in infrastructure, increasing long stagnant salaries or updating old systems. This focus on capacity-building projects has increased their ability to field larger grants, making them more attractive to larger donors.
But as we dug deeper, distinct differences emerged in our approaches. While these larger grants from Yield Giving can be a massive boost to nonprofits, they alone can’t drive lasting change. Philanthropy can and should leverage its power to provide holistic support to nonprofits that goes beyond grantmaking and one-time gifts.
Going Beyond the Check
While valuable, these large one-time gifts are missed opportunities for funders to build deeper relationships with nonprofits over the long term, resourcing them with multi-year funding to provide a stable and supportive runway for their work. This not only helps nonprofits plan more effectively for the future, but it also helps them build the internal infrastructure that will accelerate their impact, visibility, and success while positioning them to access additional funding opportunities long term.
At Magic Cabinet, we see an opportunity for philanthropy to evolve, and multi-year funding is a big step in the right direction. Philanthropy’s responsibility goes beyond financial support to how we commit to nonprofits, by deepening our relationships and helping to catalyze their work. Our approach, honed over 15 years, prioritizes long-term capacity-building investments in locally-rooted organizations in the Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay Area, and Puerto Rico. We’ve seen firsthand how funding infrastructure has enabled our nonprofit grantees to build their internal infrastructure and increase their impact in the communities they serve.
“Nonprofits value cultivating relationships with donors, emphasizing that non-financial resources are equally critical to accelerating change as financial ones.” — Panorama Global
One of our nonprofit grantees, YES Nature to Neighborhoods, received a 2024 Yield Giving Award, the largest in the organization’s 25-year history. The award will go toward their $5.2 million capital campaign to rebuild and expand their headquarters in Richmond, California, turning it into a nature-inspired community center and hub for their place-based, culturally relevant programming.
During its three years in a Magic Cabinet cohort, YES Nature to Neighborhoods has used its grant funding for several capacity-building projects, including development, strategic planning, technology and software upgrades, and consulting services. The organization has seen phenomenal growth and, by 2025, will have expanded from 8 to 20 full-time employees with a projected programming budget of $2.1 million—a 75% increase from the start of its cohort.
We’re excited to see their mission and work elevated as a Yield Giving Awardee, an early signal that long-term, flexible investments in locally rooted organizations increase their sustainability and capacity to field larger awards.
More Than Unrestricted
While Yield Giving’s unrestricted grants have an immense positive impact, we also recognize that philanthropy must go beyond providing one-time, unrestricted funding. At Magic Cabinet, we’ve committed to a grantmaking methodology that prioritizes long-term, capacity-building funding and community-driven decision making. At its core, this means supporting nonprofits in achieving their mission by establishing reciprocal relationships in a shift toward more collaborative approaches to funding and partnership.
Ultimately, our goal is to contribute to a broader sector transformation that encompasses more trusting equitable, and long-term practices. We will continue to experiment while maintaining our flexibility and seeking out new opportunities for collaboration. Learning alongside other funders is how we accelerate positive change in philanthropy — if you have a unique idea or if you’re looking for support with your grantmaking practice, we would love to hear from you!
*www.panoramaglobal.org/publications/insights-a-nonprofit-wishlist-for-funders
*www.panoramaglobal.org/publications/how-mackenzie-scott-shares-her-financial-fortune
*www.ssir.org/articles/entry/unrestricted-funding-barriers
Want to connect with us to transform philanthropy? Contact our partnerships team at partnerships@magiccabinet.org.
