Funding for the future: Long-term impact requires long-term grants

La Cocina is a food business incubator in San Francisco that provides affordable kitchen spaces, training, resources, and community to women, immigrants, and people of color so they can cultivate thriving businesses. Our program lasts six years, and when entrepreneurs “graduate,” they remain part of the alumni community. This model of long-term support is resource-intensive and has led us to seek multiyear funding.

When La Cocina started in 2005, all of our funders provided one-year grants, often with six-month reporting requirements and an expectation that we show enough impact that year to apply again. This meant we couldn’t speak to the actual goal of our work: business sustainability and economic well-being over time.

This is a challenge familiar to any organization whose theory of change unfolds over years rather than months: How do you demonstrate impact when your program is designed to produce results on a longer timeline than your funders are measuring?

Seeking long-term grants by showing impact over time

By 2015, La Cocina had graduated 19 brick-and-mortar restaurants. We knew we had a model that worked, so we began talking more openly with our funders about our need for multiyear grants by emphasizing our own long-term commitment to entrepreneurs. What changed the conversation wasn’t a single number or story. It was showing three layers of evidence together:

Longitudinal data: We shared not only how many entrepreneurs completed a program milestone that year but also what happened to their business over five and 10 years. We can now show that 70% of alumni businesses stay active and 71% remained open at least 10 years.

Individual stories: We told the story of Alicia, who started selling tamales door-to-door and now sells to school districts and Alaska Airlines, and of Heena, who joined our program at age 50 and whose restaurant has earned national recognition and created 16 jobs.

Community-level impact: Then, we connected those individual journeys to the ripple effect on the community—jobs created, businesses being passed on to the next generation, and dollars circulating in the local economy. And, increasingly, recognition of La Cocina entrepreneurs’ talent and leadership (i.e., industry awards, media accolades, restaurants throughout the Bay Area) made the case in ways no grant report could.

We also chose to be transparent about what annual cycles cost, how the constant cycle of applications and renewals was pulling us away from the work itself. That vulnerability felt risky, but backed by evidence, it opened doors.

Once funders were able to see the full ecosystem of impact our work created, a few of our larger foundation funders agreed to two- and even three-year grants. We still had to report our progress every six months, but it was helpful for budgeting and planning to know we already had committed funding.

In late 2019, we were awarded a five-year grant from Magic Cabinet focused on capacity building. Then, in 2023, we were awarded a seven-year, $3.5 million grant as part of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund’s Endeavor Fund (as described in Fund the People’s Long-Haul Grantmaking report).

What the stability of long-term grants made possible

Peer support: Magic Cabinet creates neighborhood-based cohorts of three similarly sized organizations. This gave us a space to talk openly about organizational challenges and learn from peers—which was particularly valuable during the pandemic.

Investment in development and human resources: We were able to hire a development director and give them enough time to build up their capacity to raise more money. We also hired a director of people and culture, who worked on a compensation policy and structure that brought all staff up to above-average salaries and offered a 401(k) retirement plan.

Director of People and Culture Sarah Lau explains, “With the security of multiyear support, I’ve been able to shift from reactive problem solving to proactive culture building, ensuring that La Cocina is not only a place where good work gets done, but where our people can truly thrive.”

Support for program participants: In addition, we’ve been able to provide wraparound support and access to expertise and resources to our entrepreneur community: 100% were able to keep their businesses open through the pandemic.

Confidence in fundraising: Our experience has given us the confidence to always ask for long-term grants. Sometimes the answer is still “No,” but making the case with evidence and transparency has opened doors we didn’t expect, including a three-year partnership with U.S. Bank.

Collaboration over competition: The stability of multiyear grants also changed our relationship with peer organizations. Rather than viewing other local nonprofits as competitors for the same limited grant dollars, we had the opportunity to collaborate, sharing connections, strategies, and even funder introductions.

What we’ve learned about long-term grants

Here’s what we’d tell other nonprofits: Start by connecting your program timeline to your funding timeline. If your model requires years to show results, show funders the full arc of your impact on people and communities over time. Be honest about what one-year grant cycles cost you in capacity and focus. And when you do secure longer-term funding, use that stability to invest in your people and your infrastructure, because they make lasting impact possible.

Photo credit: Silent Victory