The Bruening Foundation's responsive grantmaking strategy complements our proactive strategy to help families out of poverty. We believe that family relationships play a central role in shaping an individual's well-being across the course of their life. These relationships can be a source of comfort, guidance and strength. Because kids need strong and supportive families to thrive, we seek to invest in parents and caregivers who raise them.
We employ a broad definition of family but most basically, a minor child(ren) and their trusted adult(s), which might include a parent, relative, legal guardian or other caregiver. Thriving Families funding priorities are: 1) Housing, Health and Skill Building; and, 2) Social and Emotional Well-Being.
Housing, Health and Skill Building
If families are unsafe or faced with social or economic disadvantages, it is difficult to provide the building blocks needed for family stability and well-being. The Bruening Foundation aims to support access and connections to housing, health, skill building and economic mobility. We will provide grants to organizations that provide services for adult caregivers with children in the areas of:
- Housing – Emergency shelter and transitional housing, case management to support housing stabilization and connections to permanent housing, financial counseling/coaching to prepare for homeownership
- Health – Navigation services to help locate and access appropriate healthcare and insurance, and connections to other resources that support health and well-being
- Skill Building and Economic Mobility – Adult literacy, acquisition of high school equivalency credentials, job readiness and training, connections to employment including placement and retention services, financial literacy, case management and barrier removal, translation and English for Speakers of Other Language services for immigrants.
Social and Emotional Wellbeing
Social-emotional wellness is a person's ability to understand and manage their emotions, make responsible decisions, build and maintain relationships, and understand and empathize with others. It's important because it affects how individuals think, feel, and act. We aim to support promotion programs that strengthen family relationships, increase protective factors and bolster social-emotional wellness making individuals more likely to engage in healthy behaviors. Examples include:
- Programs that foster social and emotional competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making – with an established social-emotional learning curriculum, evaluation, and demonstrated outcomes
- Youth mentoring that aligns with MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership standards
- Evidence-based parenting programs that educate parents about child development, promote healthy parent-child interaction, and prevent or mitigate adverse childhood experiences
- Family-centered learning and play spaces
- Programs that aim to strengthen family relationships
- Parent café models
- Kinship and adoptive parent support programming
- Programs aimed at supporting relationships between children and their incarcerated parents
The Bruening Foundation invests through two grantmaking approaches: proactive and responsive. The Strong Start proactive grantmaking strategy is by invitation only and focuses on children, ages 0-5, and their families by funding programs that support caregiving and/or address social determinants of health that impact child development. Thriving Families responsive grantmaking strategy complements the proactive strategy and supports families with a focus on: 1) Housing, Health and Skill Building; and 2) Social and Emotional Well-Being.
Applicants are discouraged from submitting requests for endowment, general operating expenses, scholarships, research, symposia/seminars or fundraising events. No grants are awarded to individuals, nor does the Foundation respond to mass mailings or annual campaign solicitations.
The Bruening Foundation funds organizations that implement best practices or evidence-based programming. A best practice is a method or technique that has shown results superior to those achieved through other means, and that is used as a benchmark. Evidence-based programs are grounded in research. We encourage applicants to share information about their programs that are either evidence informed or based on best practices.