JFF, a national nonprofit that drives transformation in the American workforce and education systems, announced a $6 million grant from the Walmart Foundation to enhance its capacity to boost economic mobility through deep collaborations with educators and employers, breakthrough technology and innovations, and public policy.
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“The pandemic has magnified social challenges yet also stimulated fresh thinking about solutions. This grant reflects our confidence in JFF as a bold, creative facilitator of the system-wide collaboration needed to create a more equitable economic recovery,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation.
For more than 35 years, JFF has been at the forefront of innovation, advocacy, research, and practice in education and workforce development. Beginning in 2018, the organization announced a bold internal transformation and expansion plan, with significant investment in new talent and systems, and the launch of new initiatives such as JFFLabs, a team within JFF that designs and scales new technology-enabled approaches to promoting economic advancement. The Walmart Foundation grant will strengthen JFF’s organizational capacity and enable it to invest in further innovation. The grant will support critical operational and system improvements, increased staff capacity, and talent development.
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Among JFFLabs’ signature projects are the Employment Technology Fund, which invests in and scales promising workforce technologies; Social Impact Acceleration, which works with mission-aligned entrepreneurs and growth stage companies to accelerate and scale technology-based solutions; and Corporate Leadership, which is working to change the training, hiring, and benefits practices of Fortune 500 companies to meet both worker and employer needs.
“The economic crisis caused by COVID-19 has exposed skill, income, and equity gaps that have been growing for decades. But it has also created a renewed sense of urgency and an openness to thinking differently as we chart a path toward a more inclusive recovery,” said Maria Flynn, president and CEO of JFF. “Getting Americans not just back to work, but into better and more resilient jobs will require both unprecedented innovation and atypical collaboration. No sector can move the needle alone. JFF is deeply grateful for the partnership and investment of the Walmart Foundation.”
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