The Organization
About Metta Fund
Vision
We envision inclusive and healthy communities where all can thrive and age with dignity and joy.
Mission
Through grantmaking and community partnerships, Metta Fund works to advance the health and wellbeing of older San Franciscans.
Position Overview
Consultancy Focus
We are seeking a consultant to work with us to more intentionally center and hone our racial equity practices as we carry out our programmatic work.
Programmatic Focus
Metta Fund is a private foundation dedicated to advancing the health and wellness of San Francisco’s aging population, particularly those furthest from access and resources. To ensure equitable health outcomes for all older San Franciscans, the foundation partners with nonprofits to provide critical direct services and advocate for policies that drive systemic change. Metta Fund’s grantmaking is primarily focused in San Francisco, with additional support throughout the state of California. In 2021, Metta Fund awarded $2.5 million in grants, as well as engaging “beyond the grant” to provide capacity building, develop partnerships, engage in field building and act as a convener.
Metta Fund seeks to improve the social connectedness and health of older adults through two grantmaking areas:
· Reducing social isolation and loneliness
· Supporting paid caregivers
Reducing Social Isolation and Loneliness
As the proportion of older adults in San Francisco increases and more live alone, the problem of social isolation among this age-based cohort is of growing concern. The goal of Metta Fund’s Aging and Older Adult grantmaking focus area is to reconnect those in isolation in order to improve San Francisco seniors’ physical, social and psychological health; ability and motivation to access adequate supports for themselves; and community and environment in which they live.
Support Professional Caregivers
Metta is in our second year of working in our caregiving focus area and seeks to fund effective and equity-focused organizations that support paid caregivers and ultimately lead to older people’s ability to live fully in community settings. The foundation is particularly interested in contributing to the growing movement focusing on inequities faced by paid caregivers as the country comes to terms with the historic inequities endured by these essential workers.
Racial Equity Focus
Metta Fund seeks to improve the health and wellness of San Francisco’s growing older adult population and we are continually reminded that racism is a formidable barrier to that mission. In order to make meaningful impact and advance equity in aging, we believe that we must be both explicit and unequivocal in our long-term commitment to advancing racial equity–and being antiracist–in all that we do. We are continually reminded that focusing on equity, and in particular racial equity will bring us closer to achieving our programmatic goals.
We have recently spent time at the organization level, learning how we can center equity within all of our practices organization-wide. Staff and board have worked with organizational development consultant, Greg Hodge of Khepera Consulting, to develop a draft of equity-centered commitments and have refined our mission, vision and values.
We are now ready to center and integrate equity more intentionally and fully into our programmatic work which currently includes:
· Grantmaking strategy and operations
· Evaluation
· Convenings
· Capacity building
· Partner outreach and engagement
· Other internal practices
Metta Fund’s program team understands that centering equity is an ongoing practice. We see our work with a consultant in 2022 as the continuation of our learning journey – an opportunity to build a framework for deepening and strengthening our equity-focused programmatic work that will be sustained and further developed in the future.
Scope, Timeline and Deliverables
Metta Fund is seeking a consultant to assist with planning and implementation of our program team equity strategy. We currently see the work in two phases. Phase One would focus on co-creating a detailed scope of work and timeline. Phase Two would be a deeper dive into our programmatic areas (see bulleted list above) to assist us in identifying, prioritizing and implementing equity-focused grantmaking and other programmatic projects, internal and external (e.g. identifying and removing operational barriers, capacity building, evaluation).
Metta Fund will provide the consultant access to internal and external strategy documents and other programmatic materials as appropriate. The consultant’s primary point of contact will be Metta Fund’s Director of Program Strategy, Renee Espinoza, and we anticipate the work to begin in early March 2022.
If you have questions and would like to discuss your proposal prior to submission, please contact Program and Grants Associate, Mimi Kelly at mkelly@mettafund.org to set up a brief meeting.
We are interested in a consultant who will bring the following skills and attributes to the work:
· Experience with and commitment to shifting philanthropic practices to center racial equity
· Facilitation and project management skills
· Knowledge of external resources and practical solutions to share with the team
· Willingness to challenge traditional philanthropic practices in service of centering racial equity
· Engaged and enthusiastic thought-partner
Please provide a proposal/letter of interest that outlines a design and approach for the development of an equity-centered strategy for the Metta Fund program team. We may follow up with a request to have a conversation. Once we engage a consultant, we would work together to customize the design and develop a detailed workplan with specific deliverables.
In addition to your proposal, please respond to the following questions:
· Can you tell us about prior experience you have with this kind of process, specifically how you have designed frameworks for both program and grantmaking operations that includes centering racial equity? Identify three organizations you have worked with in the past and share the best outcomes from your engaement.
· We are committed to finding a consultant that will be right-sized for our small organization and program team, understands our aspirations and capacity constraints and is willing to be flexible in terms of helping at both the vision and implementation levels. How have you worked with small teams who have large aspirations?
· What are your work expectations when partnering with clients?
The budget for this consultancy is $25,000. The grid below provides estimates for the timeline and phasing as a starting place for discussion. The Metta Fund team is open to changes within the overall perameters.
Estimated Timeline
Phase
Estimated Contract Amount
March-April
Phase 1 (Design and Scoping)
$10,000
May-Dec
Phase 2 (Prioritization and Implementation)
$15,000
How To Apply
Proposals are due no later than Friday, February 18th, 2022 and should be emailed to our Senior Program and Grants Officer, Catherine Collen at ccollen@mettafund.org and our Director of Program Strategy, Renee Espinoza at respinoza@mettafund.org. Metta Fund staff may request follow up in written form and/or via a meeting.