We work in close partnership with philanthropy to help shape strategy, guide investment, and strengthen organizational practice in ways that reflect community experience, address root causes, and advance long-term change. Through research, analysis, capacity building, and ongoing strategic advising, we support funders in aligning resources, decision-making, and internal practice with prevention-oriented, equity-centered approaches—and in adapting strategy over time as learning and conditions evolve. Across this work, we help funders move from intention to sustained practice by supporting clarity of strategy, internal alignment, and adaptive learning so that philanthropic investments contribute to durable, community-driven systems change.

Defining and Refining Strategic Focus

We support funders in defining and refining their strategic focus by conducting landscape scans, systems analyses, and equity-centered research that clarify priorities, surface leverage points, and inform upstream investment. This work helps foundations understand how inequities are produced and sustained by systems, identify where philanthropy can add the most value, and align strategy with contextual evidence, lived experience, and community-defined priorities.

This includes work with The California Endowment to integrate health disparities into its approach—providing research and an analysis that informed the foundation’s 10-year Building Healthy Communities initiative. Similar landscape and systems analysis is supporting the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health in advancing prevention-oriented mental health investment, and informed strategic planning and program alignment for Methodist Healthcare Ministries, identifying opportunities to advance systems-level change in South Texas.

We have also partnered with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop health equity measures as part of its Culture of Health framework and to analyze drivers of inequity shaping health outcomes—work that informed grantmaking goals and strategies by grounding investment decisions in a clearer understanding of structural conditions and pathways to change.

Translating Strategy into Practice

Once strategic direction is set, we work with foundations to translate priorities into practice—supporting the development of internal frameworks, learning processes, and tools that help staff, boards, and partners consistently apply equity-centered, prevention-focused approaches across portfolios.

Work with The California Endowment illustrates the depth of this approach. We co-developed the foundation’s community safety framework (Community Safety: A Building Block for Community Health) and, as it prioritized health equity, prepared a background paper for the board of directors and trained all staff to build shared understanding across the organization. As Building Healthy Communities launched, we developed two initial outcomes guides to support consistent application of prevention and equity principles across portfolios.

Additional capacity-building efforts include developing an internal community safety framework for The Annie E. Casey Foundation, supporting both programmatic strategy and internal framing around prevention and community safety. Board learning has also been a key entry point, including facilitating a health equity session for the Health Forward Foundation to support shared understanding and alignment at the governance level.

Sustaining, Adapting, and Learning Over Time

We provide ongoing analytic and strategic support as philanthropic priorities evolve—helping funders reflect on practice, adapt strategy, and strengthen alignment across investments, partners, and systems. This long-term engagement supports learning, accountability, and responsiveness while maintaining a focus on prevention and equity.

This includes serving on the Collective Wellbeing Workgroup at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, contributing analysis and strategic input to inform wellbeing-focused investment. We have also worked through advisory groups and “kitchen cabinet”–style structures with the Blue Shield of California Foundation to support prevention-oriented approaches to domestic violence and community safety.

In addition, we have provided strategic advising as foundations shape or refine prevention and community safety portfolios, including supporting the Hope and Heal Fund in advancing a statewide approach to gun violence prevention, working with The California Wellness Foundation to strengthen violence prevention strategy, and partnering with the Langeloth Foundation as it entered the community safety space.