Suburban Needs Unmet
Suburban community foundations in the four regions studied are newer and smaller than those in core cities, despite faster growth of suburban poor populations.
The rapid growth in poverty in the suburbs raises questions about the ability of nonprofit organizations to adapt to this new geography of metropolitan poverty. This analysis combines an original dataset of foundation grants for social services with in-depth interviews to assess the role of foundations in supporting the suburban social safety net in the Atlanta, Chicago, Denver and Detroit regions.
Suburban community foundations in the four regions studied are newer and smaller than those in core cities, despite faster growth of suburban poor populations.
The share of foundation dollars targeted to organizations serving low-income residents varies widely across regions, but relatively few of those dollars are devoted to building organizational capacity in the suburbs.
Suburbs with high rates of poverty have substantially fewer grantees and grant dollars per poor person than either central cities or lower-poverty suburbs.
The growth of suburban poverty over the past two decades challenges the longstanding association of cities with poverty and suburbs with the middles class.
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