ABOUT US WHAT WE DO KEY INITIATIVES PUBLICATIONS MEMBERS
ABOUT US
The Baltimore Workforce Funders Collaborative is a group of private and public funders established to support the alignment and pooling of resources around common workforce development goals and strategies. The BWFC is hosted by Maryland Philanthropy Network and is a signed partner of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions. For over a decade, BWFC funder members have gathered on a monthly basis for conversations about topics related to our collective strategies and goals.
Vision: We envision the Baltimore region as a place of equity and shared prosperity, where all communities and workers can access employment that brings dignity and enables families to thrive and build wealth.
Mission: The BWFC is a collective committed to advancing equity, job quality and systems change efforts that lead to family-sustaining wages, strengthened communities, and a vibrant local economy.
We Value:
Racial Equity, Justice and Inclusion: The systematic fair treatment of all people through transformative and reparative action as the foundation of our work, resulting in prosperity for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who have been excluded from the benefits of the American economy.
Harnessing the Power of the Collective: The amplified and increased impact that occurs when we bring our ideas, expertise, and resources together as a group.
Continuous Learning: The importance of an ongoing journey as a collective includes personal, professional, and organizational growth for Collaborative members, learning from grantees, policymakers, community, and individuals with lived experience.
Courage to Take Risks: The responsibility to show up as a leader in support of unemployed and underemployed residents and the willingness to support early innovation in the field.
Trust: The commitment to being honest with each other, stakeholders, partners, and grantees; and to strive to achieve transparency and integrity in our decision making and grantmaking.
Our Roles:
The BWFC is comprised of private and public funders. Together our primary roles in this work are to:
- Provide resources and thought partnership to support strategies and tactics that are aligned with the BWFC’s mission and vision,
- Help increase overall investment by aggregating investments, attracting external resources, and forging partnerships,
- Take risks to catalyze and incubate new approaches and ideas,
- Create and sustain local momentum to change narratives, expand practices, and improve policies to support workforce equity,
- Drive aligned grantmaking and collective action, and
- Share learnings to help improve outcomes and support our grantees.
WHAT WE DO: STRATEGIC AND OPERATING FRAMEWORK
This document sets forth our vision, mission, and set of values. It recognizes the rich history of the BWFC dating back to 2006 and presents our strategic principles, pillars, and tactics for the future. This framework also lays out a plan for how the Collaborative is structured to operate.
CLICK HERE TO READ OUR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK
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GUIDING STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES |
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Race should not be a determinant of one’s employment outcomes or wealth. We recognize and work to dismantle systemic racism, bias, and anti-blackness. |
Employers are essential partners in this work. Advancing worker wellbeing and closing racial wealth gaps often requires changes in employer practice. |
Those who do the work of providing services and solutions are our partners in this work and we, as funders, commit to listening to these partners and approach them with humility and respect. |
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We apply an asset framework to our work and our communications. We acknowledge all people’s aspirations, gifts, and excellence. We do not define people by their challenges. |
We use a systems approach to workforce problems and solutions. This means that we look across our ecosystem at interconnected policies, practices and mindsets that sustain inequities. |
The adults and youth most impacted by the work need to be heard and have agency. Jobseeker and worker voice is essential. |
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STRATEGIC PILLARS |
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CREATE MORE EQUITABLE ACCESS TO GOOD JOBS
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INCREASE THE NUMBER OF GOOD JOBS |
SUPPORT EQUITABLE AND IMPACTFUL WORKFORCE FUNDER PRACTICE |
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KEY INITIATIVES
Baltimore Energy and Infrastructure Workforce Coalition
The newly formed Baltimore Energy and Infrastructure Workforce Coalition, a collaborative effort among public and private partners, will support the coordination of skills training and the deployment of a flexible fund for worker supports, ensuring that high-quality, publicly funded clean energy and infrastructure jobs are accessible to Baltimore City residents.
Shifting the Childcare Industry: Better Jobs for Better Access
Childcare is out of reach for a vast number of working families, in large part because the sector itself is in crisis—marked by low wages, staffing shortages, and regulatory hurdles that limit both access and supply. Most solutions proposed by policymakers and childcare advocates focus on increasing public funding or expanding the number of childcare centers. But they often miss a critical piece: the quality of jobs for early educators. In collaboration with the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, the BWFC is tackling this head-on through Shifting the Childcare Industry: Better Jobs for Better Access initiative. This work is generously funded by BWFC members: the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Truist.
The goals of our project are to:
Elevate & position early care professional voice to measurably influence systems changes and practices by integrating workforce insights and lived experience into statewide early care and education reform efforts led by the Maryland State Department of Education.
Develop & strengthen cross-sector partnerships to align around improving the quality and sustainability of child care jobs to shift systems-level mindsets and practices so that improving job quality is recognized as essential to high quality in early childhood programs.
Data and Evaluation
For over a decade, the BWFC has engaged in an ongoing effort to systematize the collection and analysis of participation and outcomes data about occupational skills training in Baltimore. The work is conducted in alignment with the Data Committee of the Baltimore Workforce Development Board and with the collaboration of Baltimore’s training providers. This has involved establishing a set of Common Performance Metrics, creating a technical solution for collecting participant data, capacity building with partner organizations, co-designing methods to track the provision of supportive services. conducting employment analyses, and building out a city-wide Baltimore Data Bridge.
Workforce Community Conversations
In keeping with the Collaborative’s commitment to listening to our partners at the front lines of workforce development services in Baltimore, the BWFC launched the Workforce Community Conversations initiative in 2023. A planning committee comprised of service providers and funders has defined a shared concept of workforce community conversations, and works to develop and facilitate Workforce Community Conversation events. Approximately 50 individuals representing a balanced list of funders and grantees attended the first two events in Fall 2023 and Winter 2024. The Workforce Community Conversations are designed to foster open communications between funders and practitioners to build a shared sense of mutual understanding,accountability, and possibility.
Workforce Grants Scan
The Collaborative conducts an annual collection and analysis of workforce funding data for the Baltimore region. In 2023, we were able to track 11 private and public funders collaborating to award $36.9M of new funding in 2022 for workforce development efforts in Baltimore. This represented $16.9M (46%) in grants and contracts made by philanthropic members of the BWFC which, in turn, leveraged $20M (54%) in public grants to nonprofit partners. The largest categories of funding were for: Industry-Specific Training Programs, General Employment Preparation and Career Readiness, and In-School Youth Workforce Programming.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
- Expanding Apprenticeships in Maryland
- Baltimore Workforce Funders Collaborative Wage Record Study November 2022
- Scaling Workforce Development Programming in Baltimore
- Advancing Careers in Retail Baltimore: Labor Market Analysis
- Strengthening Baltimore's Workforce: Reflections and Lessons Learned
- A Call To Action: Creating New Opportunities for Baltimore City's Disconnected Youth
- Connecting Baltimore's Opportunity Youth To Careers
- Expanding Sector Employment Opportunities for Young Adults in Baltimore
OUR MEMBERS
Abell Foundation*
Annie E. Casey Foundation*
Baltimore County Department of Economic and Workforce Development
Baltimore Gas & Electric
Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Employment Development*
The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation*
Hoffberger Family Philanthropies
The Knott Foundation
Robert W. Deutsch Foundation
Thalheimer Eurich Charitable Fund
Truist
*founding members