ABOUT US      WHAT WE DO     KEY INITIATIVES     PUBLICATIONS     MEMBERS

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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 Collaborative is committed to advancing equity, job quality and systems change efforts that lead to family-sustaining wages, strengthened communities, and a vibrant local economy.

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.

The BWFC is a national network partner of Shift Work Forward (formerly known as the National Fund for Workforce Solutions). For over a decade, BWFC funder members have gathered monthly for conversations about topics related to our collective strategies and goals. 

Together, our Collaborative:

• Provides resources and thought partnership to support strategies and tactics that are aligned with the BWFC’s mission and vision,
• Helps increase overall investment by aggregating investments, attracting external resources, and forging partnerships,
• Takes risks to catalyze and incubate new approaches and ideas,
• Creates and sustains local momentum to change narratives, expand practices, and improve policies to support workforce equity,
• Drives aligned grantmaking and collective action, and
• Share slearnings to help improve outcomes and support our grantees.

 

WHAT WE DO: STRATEGIC AND OPERATING FRAMEWORK

 

CLICK HERE TO READ OUR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

GUIDING STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES
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.
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.
STRATEGIC PILLARS
CREATE MORE EQUITABLE ACCESS TO GOOD JOBS	INCREASE THE NUMBER OF GOOD JOBS	SUPPORT EQUITABLE AND IMPACTFUL WORKFORCE FUNDER PRACTICE
Increase the supply of effective training and education that leads to good jobs Support opportunities for career progression to occupations that can sustain families and build wealth Offer accessible, effective supportive services Support city and county efforts to build more coordinated workforce systems Fund and advocate for approaches that eliminate systemic barriers to good jobs	Support and incentivize employer-based hiring, training, and workforce practices that improve job quality Elevate worker / jobseeker voice Support good jobs policy making and enforcement Educate and empower workers and jobseekers to have agency in the labor market	Facilitate peer learning, collaboration, alignment, and pooling of funds Support adoption of equitable workforce grantmaking practices Collect and share data about workforce grantmaking Provide learning opportunities for funders

 

KEY INITIATIVES

 

Baltimore Energy and Infrastructure Workforce Coalition

The Baltimore Energy and Infrastructure Workforce Coalition, a collaborative effort among public and private partners, supports 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

The Shifting Maryland’s Child Care Industry: Better Jobs for Better Access project aims to make child care jobs more recognized, desirable, and beneficial to those who care for and educate young children, thereby improving recruitment, retention, and quality of care. The project aims to elevate early childhood professionals’ voice and strengthen cross-sector partnerships to improve the quality and sustainability of child care jobs, positioning job quality as essential to high-quality early childhood programs. This is a partnership with Shift Work Forward, with support from the Truist and Annie E. Casey Foundations.  Read about Phase I of this project in this report: Breaking the Triple Bind: How Worker-Centered Solutions are Transforming Childcare.

Data and Evaluation

For over a decade, BWFC has worked with Baltimore’s training providers and the Baltimore Workforce Development Board Data Committee to strengthen how occupational skills training participation and outcomes are collected and analyzed. This includes Common Performance Metrics, shared data collection tools, capacity building, methods to track supportive services, employment analyses, and the Baltimore Data Bridge.

Workforce Community Conversations 

Workforce Community Conversations are events that bring together funders and frontline workforce practitioners to build shared understanding, accountability, and possibility through open dialogue.

Workforce Grants Scan

The Collaborative collects and analyzes workforce funding data for the Baltimore region. In 2023, we  tracked 11 private and public funders  awarding $36.9M of new 2022 workforce development funding. 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

• Breaking the Triple Bind: How Worker-Centered Solutions are Transforming Childcare (by Shift Work Forward)
• 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*

CareFirst BlueCross BlueSheild

The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation*

Hoffberger Family Philanthropies

The Knott Foundation

Robert W. Deutsch Foundation

Thalheimer Eurich Charitable Fund

Truist

Wolman Family Fund

*founding members