The second year of the Community Impact Fund (CIF) marked a profound shift – from collaborative design to action on the ground. After 12 months of planning alongside our Design and Advisory Committee (DAC), we were ready to see what happened when grassroots leaders had both resources and genuine decision-making power to advance advocacy on their own terms. What would they prioritize? What strategies would they choose? How could we at the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) show up as truly useful national partners, in addition to providing funding?

This report tells the story of what our inaugural grantees—the Beloved Early Education and Care Collective (BEE Collective) in South Carolina, and Partnership for Community Action (PCA) in New Mexico—accomplished in their first grant year (July 2024 – June 2025). It captures the organizing work, the advocacy wins (including New Mexico’s creation of and plan for a career ladder for early childhood educators and the launch of their universal child care program in November 2025), the infrastructure they built, and the powerful ways their leadership transformed what we thought was possible. This report also reflects honestly on what we’re learning about how national organizations can meaningfully resource grassroots power-building while sustaining their own advocacy work in a challenging fundraising environment.