partner with us
Invest in your community with UpTogether
Direct your funds nationally, regionally or locally.
By investing in people, elevating the true lived experiences of individuals facing financial hardship and rallying with our members, together, we can change policies and systems to make it easier for everyone to thrive. Because the status quo isn’t working.
Fund Partnership Opportunities
When your philanthropic organization joins UpTogether as a fund partner, you are making a commitment to adopt our strength-based approach and leverage your learnings to effect systems change in your community and beyond.
Just as we honor the uniqueness of each of our members, we also honor the differing needs of our fund partners. As such, we offer two options, shown in the green boxes below. Whichever option you choose, you will get periodic reports to show the impact of your dollars.
Community Investment Fund
Invest in UpTogether members in your city, county or beyond.
Community Engagement Fund
Co-design a fund in collaboration with UpTogether members, staff and community leaders.
Example fund: UpTogether Tulsa
UpTogether partnered with the George Kaiser Family Foundation to recognize, invest in and learn from 300 families in historically undervalued communities in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Each family received a total of $9,000 over 18 months ($500/month from July 2021-December 2022.) They also had the opportunity to join and create groups on the UpTogether Community website to connect with others, exchange knowledge, skills, and resources, and help each other accomplish their goals.
Example fund: Trust + Invest Collaborative
The Trust+Invest Collaborative (TIC) is a partnership between UpTogether, the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance and Harvard University. Its goal is to better understand how access to community, cash and choice improves people’s lives and well-being. To uncover those learnings, the collaborative is conducting a paid randomized control trial with nearly 1,500 UpTogether members in Boston. Different members have different experiences within the three-year study which ends in 2023. Findings are expected in 2024.
A team of family evaluators, who have deep connections in their community in Boston, designed and co-led the study. They also helped recruit study participants in their community. The family evaluators work monthly with the UpTogether team and TIC members to problem-solve and plan for future engagement of TIC members.
In 2023, we will begin capturing stories of individuals and families experiencing financial hardship and get their recommendations for what needs to be done to change deficit-based systems that make it difficult for them to get ahead. The aim of this narrative change effort is to build momentum for policy change within Massachusetts.
Capacity Building Partnership Opportunities
General Operations
Support us with fully unrestricted general operating grants that allow us the flexibility to support the organization and our people. These grants enable us to invest in the critical infrastructure needed to create funds, advance our systems change work and continuously improve our member community experience.
Systems Change
Provide funding to support our members in rallying for changes to state and local policies, and with telling stories of their true lived experiences to change the narrative.
Technology and Member Community Experience Enhancements
Enhance our work to improve the digital experience our members have on our payment platform and as they connect with one another, share support, resources and exchange social capital. We are seeking to improve the online member community along with investment in our data and analytics infrastructure, allowing us to keep member information secure, share data with members for their investments, and more effectively track and report our organizational performance metrics.
