How

The Foundation funded a total of 13 core organizations with multi-year grants over the five years and set to work as a forward-thinking funder using some of the best practices in social change models; collaborative learning; highly engaged grant making; emergent strategy design; participatory evaluation; and high-leverage actions including board-level leadership roles with some of the bigger grantees and a commitment to impact investing (a goal of 100% of its portfolio). In addition the foundation committed itself to initiate and support innovation in its own work and that of its grantees. Mission Without Borders has catalyzed important and immediate results as well as far-ranging ripples of change.

The Results

Build an Education Model to Fuel Human Rights Policy and Action

The centerpiece commitment of Mission Without Borders is the founding support for a Human Rights Program at Southern Methodist University. Now known as the Embrey Human Rights Program, it engages faculty from disciplines across the university to find and teach to the human rights issues in their disciplines; and the program enables students to learn together through on campus activities and travel about human rights struggles globally.

The Center’s program is creating leadership for human rights in its students and faculty. And the University itself has emerged as a leader of human rights education in the higher education field. SMU’s Embrey Center is used by many others as a model for education and action.

Helped Build an Infrastructure to Counteract Domestic Human Trafficking

MWB supported the development and sustainability of the U.S  Trafficking Hotline and the Colorado model for identifying and organizing strategic and effective community responses to trafficking.

Pushed and Pulled Gender and Race into Central Strategic Positions

The plight and potential of women and girls is at the core of MWB’s design and the MWB grants seeded efforts big and small to move gender lens thinking into the center of human rights, human trafficking, and media.

• Amnesty International revitalized its national programs on women and girls and acknowledged the growing importance of young women as the backbone of its college programs and next-generation membership.
• The American Indian College Fund created a leadership program to strengthen the opportunities for women students in the Native American college system to complete their educations while learning personal and civic leadership skills.
• The Women’s Media Center and She Should Run battled sexism and misogyny towards women political candidates.
• The University of Texas Women’s Studies Program broadened gender into curriculum and tapped the civic leadership potential of UT students.

An interest in defining and clarifying the ways in which institutionalized racism holds back human rights and women’s equality led Embrey and the MWB to turn the attention of Dallas leaders to the significance of race in achieving the vision and aspirations of the city.  MWB initiated a partnership with Race Forward (a national resource organization) and also organized a local Dallas coalition of non  profit organizations, civic leaders, churches into Dallas Faces Race.  In November 2014 more than 200 local Dallas leaders joined the other 1400 leaders at the Race Forward conference hosted in Dallas.  Dallas Faces Race forum will continue to carry the work forward.

Positioned the Arts as Social Change in Conflict and Forgiveness

The Arts as a Tool for Social Change took shape through two major strategies:

• Support of prize winning documentary films (Chicken and Egg; Moxie Institute and others).
• One of the largest single investments was made in the Global Arts Corps to further develop its unique approach to original theatre production with and for people searching for conflict resolution and forgiveness while remaining in highly traumatized post-conflict situations (South Africa, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Cambodia).

Leverage and Leadership

The Foundation optimized its resources in every possible way. The maximum number of grants were made; a discretionary fund for smaller ventures and small supportive gifts extended seed support for many; the endowment was invested in mission-driven impact opportunities; and the Embrey sisters and their staff members invested time and effort mentoring and connecting their grantees and ultimately also served on the boards of many MWB grantee organizations.