Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice

Challenge

Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) is building a movement that integrates community-led, trauma-informed, resilience-focused, and healing-centered prevention and intervention across all sectors and generations through coalition-building, advocacy, and policymaking. Established in 2015 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 2017, CTIPP is one of the first organizations focused on trauma-informed policy and practice on a national scale. By 2021, the organization had secured its first two grants, and CTIPP’s new Executive Director reached out to Elevate to support the organization as it continued to grow.

Response

In 2022, CTIPP engaged Elevate for a Grants Accelerator Project (GAP). As part of the Grants Accelerator Project, Elevate provided CTIPP with strategic prospect research and cultivation support to prepare the organization to begin outreach to grantmakers. We developed language to frame the organization’s work for institutional funders and recommended next steps to set the organization up for success as it began to build its grants program.

Impact

During CTIPP’s Grants Accelerator Project, Elevate supported the organization to articulate its program design and goals and position CTIPP to build upon its first few foundation grants. We also identified several well-aligned funding prospects, including Oak Foundation USA. Over the course of six months, CTIPP’s Executive Director cultivated a relationship with the foundation – a process that involved identifying a warm connection to a program officer through a current funder and champion of the organization. He then had several conversations to co-create a project that aligned the organization’s work on trauma-informed schools with the Foundation’s learning differences program area. After a 12-month process of research, cultivation, concept development, and proposal processes, the Oak Foundation awarded CTIPP its first six-figure, multi-year grant in 2023 to reimagine the systems in which students learn.

Elevate was there every step of the way, providing CTIPP’s ED with the support needed to confidently connect with prospective funders and win grants. Since that time, CTIPP’s relationship with Elevate has continued to evolve to meet the growing organization’s needs for grant institutional fundraising support. Through Comprehensive Grant Writing Services, Elevate now provides CTIPP ongoing strategy consulting, prospect research, cultivation support, grant writing, and grant calendar management.

In the first two years of our partnership, which started with a Grants Accelerator Project and later transitioned into Comprehensive Grant Writing Services, Elevate supported CTIPP to secure $670,000 in grant funding, including a two-year, $150,000 award to build community resilience initiatives addressing trauma related to climate change.

About the Organization

Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) is building a movement that integrates community-led, trauma-informed, resilience-focused, and healing-centered prevention and intervention across all sectors and generations through coalition-building, advocacy, and policymaking.

Service Details

advocacy and policy

Founded

2018

Started With Elevate

2022

Location

Washington, D.C.

Annual Budget

$400,000

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