Meals on Wheels Diablo Region Chosen to Receive Major Gift
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY—Philanthropist McKenzie Scott has chosen Meals on Wheels Diablo Region to receive a major gift. Our local meal delivery and senior care group will share in the $4 billion donation with 384 groups.
Last July, Scott asked a team of advisors to help accelerate her 2020 giving. She wanted immediate support for people suffering the economic effects of the Covid-19 crisis.
They took a data-driven approach to identifying organizations with strong leadership teams and significant results.
The advisors paid special attention to organizations operating in communities with high food insecurity. They also considered racial inequity, local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital. Next they narrowed 6,490 non-profits from across the country down to 384 recipients.
Only 3 chosen in California
“Learning about the rigorous process used to identify the beneficiaries makes us even more honored to have been chosen as one of the recipients of this very generous donation,” says Caitlin Sly, MOW Diablo Region Executive Director. “This donation will have a major impact on the lives of vulnerable seniors who depend on MOW Diablo Region. It allows us to continue to fulfill our mission of combating food insecurity and providing life-improving services to seniors so they can remain in their homes with dignity.” MOW Diablo Region received this donation along with only two other meals on wheels in California.
Scott posted a list of the hundreds of organizations that received funds in her blog post. The services provided by these groups include food banks, emergency relief funds, and debt relief. The list also includes employment training, credit and financial services for under-resourced communities, education for historically marginalized and underserved people. Other recipients included civil rights advocacy groups, and legal defense funds that take on institutional discrimination.
In a statement Scott said, “These 384 carefully selected teams have dedicated their lives to helping others, working and volunteering and serving real people face-to-face at bedsides and tables, in prisons and courtrooms and classrooms, on streets and hospital wards and hotlines and frontlines of all types and sizes, day after day after day.”
Meals on Wheels Diablo Region is an independent non-profit that not only delivers meals but provides wraparound services such as Fall Prevention classes and home modifications, Care Management, elder abuse prevention, exercise and nutrition classes, Friendly Visitors, and Friendly Callers.