The challenge
Southwest Leadership Academy, a youth education nonprofit serving under-resourced communities in Philadelphia, had secured a conditional $2 million matching grant from the Philadelphia Foundation, one of the region's most prestigious funders. The grant was conditional: they had to raise an equal amount in matching funds within a fixed window or forfeit the award. Their internal team had no grant writing capacity, no funder relationships to draw on, and no experience running a capital campaign at this scale.
Our strategic approach
Elysian Trust joined as a strategic partner and designed the full capital campaign. We began with a rapid Funding Readiness Assessment to map existing donor relationships, identify grant-eligible programming, and establish a credible institutional narrative for external funders. From there, we developed a layered funding strategy that combined foundation grants, corporate partnerships, and program-specific awards. We identified OutRide as a secondary funder for their active programming and secured an additional $10,000 award while the larger capital campaign was still in motion. Throughout the process, we managed funder communications, compliance timelines, and submission coordination to protect the Philadelphia Foundation match deadline.
Impact & results
The matching condition was met. Southwest Leadership Academy secured the full $2 million Philadelphia Foundation grant plus additional supplemental funding, a capital position its internal team could not have reached alone. The engagement also left the organization with a working funder pipeline, a documented grant history, and the operational frameworks to keep building.