PROVIDENCE – Skills for Rhode Island’s Future has received a $1.5 million grant to help fund its mission of strengthening Rhode Island’s workforce by matching employers with job seekers.
The nonprofit, which started just over three years ago at the request of Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, was awarded the grant by the American Student Assistance Foundation. Skills for Rhode Island’s Future employs a demand-driven approach to address joblessness and staffing needs in the Ocean State by training and pairing job seekers with employers.
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Nina Pande, the nonprofit’s founding executive director, told Providence Business News that receiving the grant was “an early Christmas gift. We’re super excited about it. Being a new startup nonprofit it’s hard to get private philanthropic dollars into an organization that’s new and doesn’t necessarily have a track record.”
Pande said the grant is a “first of its kind in Rhode Island,” noting that the American Student Assistance Foundation has just started investing in Rhode Island. Pande said the grant would be used to fund the organization’s educational goals and objectives.
Skills for Rhode Island’s Future received a $200,000 grant in November from Bank of America Neighborhood Builders. Pande said that grant funding has been earmarked for the organization’s staff training, a minority businesses feasibility study and a training program for digital literacy for technology job seekers.
“What Bank of America has done for us by giving us such a generous gift is signaling to funders in Rhode Island and nationally that we’re a safe bet,” said Pande. “This signals to others to come invest in us. We hadn’t received a large gift from a private foundation, so this has really tipped the needle for us.”
Pande said her organization has “placed over 1,800 job seekers in three years, and our trajectory is continuing to grow.”
Skills for Rhode Island’s Future is modeled after Skill’s for Chicagoland’s Future, a demand- driven nonprofit that matches job seekers and employers.
Cassius Shuman is the PBN researcher. You may reach him at Shuman@PBN.com.
