Strategies to Eliminate Poverty (STEP) is a grantmaking project of The Seattle Foundation, made possible by a five-year, $2.5 million commitment from the Northwest Area Foundation. STEP's sole purpose is to utilize its grants of nearly $500,000 a year to advance public policies to increase economic security and decrease poverty levels in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.

The primary areas of grantmaking are:

1. Poverty measurement and the establishment by state government of comprehensive, public support policies that increase economic security
2. Human capital investment and the development of robust career pathways leading to sustainable wages
3. Asset growth and enterprise development for low-income persons
4. Economic opportunities for documented and undocumented immigrant populations

The grant making program Strategies to Eliminate Poverty (STEP) was established in 2006. The program is coordinated by David S. Harrison, serving as a consultant to The Seattle Foundation.

STEP grant making in the area of Measurement and Policy Development helps create the framework for the remainder of STEP grant making. Advocates and policy makers are less successful in creating effective economic security policy than they otherwise would be because poverty is under-calculated, poorly defined, and misunderstood. STEP seeks better, more updated and accurate measurement of an essential standard of living and better links between measurement and strategy, to generate greater interest in and support for new and bold policy approaches that increase economic security. Highly visible public commitments to significantly increase economic security and reduce poverty can inspire the development, by governments and non-profit organizations, of policy strategies that improve the economic circumstances of residents in the northwest area states. These efforts can offer lessons learned and models for other states similarly interested in comprehensive strategies to improve economic security.

Where would support on these matters be most effectively directed by STEP?  Much of the new work in economic security policy has been built around asset development for low income persons.   Strengthening the assets of the poor can sustain family economic security.  A robust and reliable system of income and other public supports are a necessary foundation for boosting prosperity and reducing poverty as assets increase. Among STEP’s special interests in Measurement and Policy Development are projects that:

• Encourage states to develop substantive targets to increase economic security and reduce poverty.
• Seek to remove barriers to the use of critical income and other public supports; increase the levels at which supports are provided and the extent to which they are utilized; develop new ways to lessen the sharp benefits reductions low income workers face as their wages increase; and expand the role income and public supports play in equalizing opportunity and helping people get and stay ahead poverty.
• Increase earned income tax credits, individual development accounts and other individual asset building efforts, and tie them to broader economic security improvement strategies so that greater scale can be achieved.

It is clear that there are three primary ways that assets grow. Home ownership is a less useful strategy for people with very low monthly incomes. The other two asset development strategies that governments advance, Human Capital Investment and Enterprise Development, thus are also prime interests of STEP, and build upon the grant making in the area of Measurement and Policy Development. Within the context of an effective overall strategy to increase economic security (including well utilized income and other public supports and growing individual asset building efforts), significantly improving human capital and enterprise policy with special attention to the working poor provides the best hope and the best option for reducing poverty in the Northwest area.

However, the promise of these forms of asset development will not automatically or easily be provided to many of the region’s residents. Policy changes in the area of Immigration must be achieved if human capital investment and enterprise development are to achieve the greatest gains possible.

Non-profit policy-focused organizations interested in securing assistance from Strategies to Eliminate Poverty should submit a one page Letter of Inquiry (LOI) to David Harrison at d.harrison@seattlefoundation.org. STEP seeks proposals from throughout the eight state region and awards grants on an ongoing basis. Up to $500,000 will be awarded across all STEP priority areas during the period July 1, 2008- June 30, 2009.