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Jobs

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How can my giving create, sustain and attract jobs that will strengthen neighborhoods and communities?

Finding and keeping employment is perhaps the most obvious key to economic security for individuals, regardless of where they live.  In low-income communities, job availability, quality and variety can make the difference between prosperity and decline. 

Jobs with family-supporting wages enable a family to survive on their own and pay for housing, food, services, and other necessities.  By and large, people with good jobs only need government assistance when they face a catastrophic illness, retirement or major unanticipated financial crises.

Unfortunately, many people struggle to find jobs, lack marketable skills or face other barriers to employment.  An increasing number of people who find full-time work still do not earn enough income to cover basic needs.  They often lack such essential  fringe benefits as health insurance.  Many others are unable to work because of their age, illness, injury, or obligation to stay home and care for a baby, sick relative or elderly person.

Whom Are You Most Interested in Helping?
Many donors start with a strong desire to help a particular group of people get the jobs and income they need.  They may, for example, be especially interested in helping:

  • Women moving off welfare and into the labor force – the group which currently is the top priority for federal policy-makers.
  • Long-term unemployed men who are not eligible for aid from most government social programs.
  • Teenagers without work experience, a good education or marketable skills, who need help making the transition from school to work.
  • "Working poor” people who work full-time, or work two or more jobs, but still cannot adequately support a family.
  • Immigrants who do not speak English and have difficulty navigating the world of work and essential services.
  • Day laborers and “casual laborers” who wait on street corners for day jobs.
  • Ex-felons released from prison who face re-entry problems and great obstacles to getting jobs or government assistance.
  • Victims of discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, limited English proficiency, gender, age or other grounds.

As you think about programs and organizations that address jobs and income, you might consider how programs would be especially helpful to the group(s) you would most like to help. 



What do you need to know about jobs?  The following links will help break down the components of jobs and how your giving can influence this critical community issue.

How do you want to make change?  For each jobs sub-topic, you can explore five Take Action categories. Each walks you through a specific approach to a jobs topic and the ways your giving can make a difference. 

Learn More About Jobs


Measure the Results

Making a Difference

Needmor Fund: A Long-Term Commitment to Local Community Leadership

Needmor Fund: A Long-Term Commitment to Local Community Leadership

When they started their family foundation, Duane and Virginia Secor Stranahan drew upon their parents' legacy of community stewardship. In the late 19th century, the Secors were pivotal to Toledo, Ohio's economic, intellectual, and cultural formation. In 1910, Frank Stranahan and his brother Robert founded The Champion Spark Plug Company, which was to become a leader in corporate accountability and philanthropy.  Leadership and strategies change; yet the Needmor Fund remains faithful to one goal: to empower those individuals whose basic rights to justice and opportunity are systematically ignored or denied. Read More

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Facts & Figures

  • There are now an estimated 400 Giving Circles nationwide.
  • Between December 1998 and 2004, State Children's Health Insurance Program enrollment grew from 897,000 to 4 million with little evidence that the program displaced employer-sponsored private insurance
  • 3 in 5 low-income, non-citizens are uninsured
  • In 2004, only 43% of poor single mothers (with custody of their children) received child support. 
  • 1 in 5 low-wage workers is an immigrant


In the News

  • Giving circles multiply donor's impact Read More...
  • Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says she'll consider using her authority to require states to report high school graduation rates in a more uniform and accurate way, if Congress doesn't pass a law to do so. Read More...
  • The Center for Law and Social Policy has created a basic fact sheet on the US Child Support system.  Read More...