Dear Friends,

This past year has been one of so much reflection. As we announced at the beginning of December, the Medina Foundation will be sunsetting in the next few years. After nearly 80 years, we know it will take time for us to do this thoughtfully, and we look forward to sharing our thinking and ideas with you along the way.

We also know that most of our best ideas have come from you, our grantees and our partners. We are inspired every day by the work that happens in the nonprofit sector and the stories that you share with us. We are using this report to highlight some of those bright spots.

As a foundation that primarily makes general operating grants (76% of our funding in 2024), we rely on organizations to define their own goals. What does success look like for their organizations? For the people closest to them? For their communities? Instead of imposing a universal measure of success that we create, we look to our grantees. We know that nonprofits know best. Some of the strongest organizations have people who have experienced their programs in leadership positions on their board and staff, so they know firsthand what is most helpful.

We have always known it is a privilege to be able to contribute to an organization’s achievements—not take credit for them. In a blog post we published nearly a decade ago about the importance of general operating support, we wrote, “If we make a grant, it’s because we believe in the organization and we want to see the same outcomes they want to see. But we always need to remember that we are investing in their work, not ours.”

Medina funds broadly, in different geographic areas, diverse communities, and across many issue areas. We care about people having their basic needs met, finding pathways out of poverty, and building the kind of lives they dream about. We invest in so many different outcomes because we know there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to stability, security, and well-being. We trust our grantees to know how to measure their effectiveness.

With 164 grantees in 2024, we can unfortunately only share a small sample of the inspiring results we see, but every organization on our grants list is a shining star. We are honored to be able to contribute to them.

With admiration and gratitude,

Margaret Clapp
Board President