How to Live Your Values when Pressures Rise with Amy Gross
About This Episode
Some stories begin with a single alarm bell. This one begins with dozens of small ones—nonprofit leaders quietly signaling the same thing at the same time: the ground under them was shifting, and shifting fast. Because the France-Merrick Foundation funds discrete, one-time capital projects across Baltimore, they hear from an unusually wide cross-section of organizations. And in early 2025, all those cross-currents pointed in the same direction: instability, delays, burnout, and a crisis arriving faster than anyone had planned for.
France-Merrick chose to act. In this conversation, Amy Gross walks Carrie through how her foundation made the rare choice to increase its payout and launch the Meet the Moment Fund, dedicating 40% of their annual giving to rapid-response support. The board shifted from quarterly to monthly meetings. The application process was streamlined to a single stage. And the goal was simple: respond before inaction made the moment worse.
Along the way, Amy offers a window into the larger questions philanthropy is wrestling with this year—how nonprofits survive when government contracts become unpredictable, why earned revenue has gone from “nice to have” to essential, and what it means for funders to collaborate when the sector is feeling squeezed from all sides. Her own hope rises and falls with the day’s news, she admits, yet intention and community remain steady guides.
This episode makes a perfect connection to this season’s theme of hellos, goodbyes, and the space between. Amy’s answers—focused on connection, recognition, and leaving behind an impact that outlives her—echo the very principles her foundation brought to its decision: see people clearly, respond with purpose, and do the most good you can with the moment you’re given.
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Carrie Fox
All right. Hi, and thanks for joining us for this episode of the Mission Forward Podcast. I'm your host and founder of Mission Partners, a social impact communications firm and certified B Corporation, and I am so glad to have you with us for today's show. If you're new here, a quick bit of background. I have been at this podcast thing since 2020, and we have built this platform as a place to learn from leaders all over the world. who are committed to moving missions forward in smart and creative ways. These are the people who inspire me, and I've loved sharing their insights and intentional leadership with you. Today's guest is one of those intentional leaders. Amy Gross is the president of the France-Merrick Foundation, a Baltimore-based grant-making organization that supports nonprofits in Maryland. with a specific focus on the greater Baltimore area. Now I went to college in Baltimore. I remain highly connected to Baltimore, but it wasn't until recently that Amy and the France-Merrick Foundation came on my radar. And it was when I learned about the work they were doing that I thought, I need Amy on this show. Because recently, and we'll hear more about this today, Amy and her team recently launched something called the Meet the Moment Fund. Now that moment, what we will learn about a little more today, is a good reminder, the moment we're in, that we can't wait, we can't observe, but we can act, right? In service of supporting nonprofits. who are feeling the impact of government and philanthropic pullbacks and watching them pivot without pause caught my attention. So we've got Amy with us today to share more about the fund, about more about the foundation in general, why they chose to meet the moment in this way, and what other funders can learn from their process. So, Amy Gross, I am delighted to have you here on Mission Forward. Thanks for joining us.
Amy Gross
Thank you.
Carrie Fox
Amy, tell us a bit more about the France-Merrick Foundation. What do we need to know about your work?
Amy Gross
So the France-Merrick Foundation is a family foundation that focuses its work on the Baltimore area. One area that we are specifically unique in in the philanthropic landscape is that we fund projects with defined beginning and endings. Which normally means capital. So it does mean that we are not funding the same groups every year. That gives us a perspective in that we have funded over 800 groups over time and therefore have familiarity with a lot of nonprofits. services that they're providing and their needs. I do think that that was particularly helpful at this moment because we could hear from so many different nonprofits about the pain that they were experiencing. in all of our program areas. We focus on a lot of different areas that include civic and culture environment, education, community economic development, historic preservation, health and human services. I might have forgotten one. And We heard from nonprofits in all of those areas how difficult they were finding this moment. And they did not understand that their colleagues in other nonprofits were also struggling at this time. So that was, I think, our first effort was to try to help communicate between nonprofits about what was going on.
Carrie Fox
So I want you to take me back to that moment, to those conversations, right? You were hearing signals coming in saying, we're feeling this, we're not sure how to navigate this. I I am certain there's a lot of people who would hurt who would have heard that and said, My hands are tied. There's not so much I can do. Here's what we can do. But at some point you all literally made a pivot. Now I don't know how much of a pivot that was, but I'd love to hear a little more because You stood up a new fund. It was called the Meet the Moment Fund. So tell us a little more about that.
Amy Gross
Um, it definitely was a pivot for us. In fact, uh, I don't believe that we have ever sped up the fund before. We have responded in crisis before. So uh you know in the economic collapse of 08-09, uh, we did emergency funding during COVID. We helped form a collaborative. uh that put funds aside. Uh this time was different in that we specifically uh increased our payout for the first time, uh, which was its own decision. Uh and we decided instead of an amount of money that we were going to set aside as we did in these previous crises uh that it was going to be a percentage of what we would give for the year. So we decided on 40%. And part of that was uh we knew that the problem was large. We also didn't want it to be the largest thing we did. So we thought that, you know, maintaining normalcy needed to be larger. So that's the regular 60% of what we're doing. But yet the 40% is fairly significant. uh in terms of what we were able to do for the year. It also honestly protects us because the market is doing great right now. And so therefore that percentage has increased, but the market could crash any moment. And uh this way it also provides some parameters that we can control.
Carrie Fox
Great. So you had some things you were able to shift. You clearly, as as you said, it was a pivot. It was something new for you all to do to increase those payouts. What were the conversations like, as much as you can tell us on a podcast, but with your board, were they supportive? Were they concerned? You know, how you think about those who you report to? Um, how they were in that response?
Amy Gross
So the blurred was actually really great. And I think that one other piece that was helpful. was that around January fifteenth, so before the inauguration and all the changes, uh we had a regular board session on the state of the nonprofit sector. And in that education section set that education session, we explained the difficulty that nonprofits were having right now. that they were extremely dependent on government funds, that those funds were late always, that they required organizations to put cash up front that they didn't have, the stress that many nonprofit leaders were under since COVID and continuing. The Burnout of a lot of their staff and the fact that some of their staff actually needed benefits themselves. Uh, then you combine that with board governance challenges and the change of what's going on in society, it really was a moment for us to put up like there are some real red flags. And then two weeks later, we reached out and said, remember that bottom that we were about to tell you was coming out? It's falling. much quicker than any of us anticipated. I'm pretty sure that most people thought, okay, there's going to be some changes that come along with this administration, but we have until October to do some planning. But we didn't. We had days. Um, and as you recall from that time period, there was a lot of Decision, reaction, change of decision. There was a lot of chaos. There still is. And that did not help the situation at all. So I think uh what we tried to do was figure out what was in our control to respond to a chaotic situation and part of what we needed to do was compartmentalize. We needed to uh compare the request for an organization in distress With other organizations in distress and not compare them to a request that we're getting for regular items. I mean, at the time, I happen to remember we were getting requests for HVAC replacement. um other institutions. That's actually something that we do a lot of. And at the time when organizations were closing, that people weren't getting fed, they weren't getting, they were losing their housing. uh we were sort of freaking out saying like well you know that's more important than HVAC but really HVAC is always important so uh by compartmentalizing the two ways that we gave it really allowed us it sort of freed us up um to make decisions within different parameters uh of what we care about.
Carrie Fox
Hmm. Really smart. Rose Smart. That's a good takeaway. And I know we're going to talk a bit about what other foundations can learn. But the idea of having um parallel pathways that you can continue to do the the core work as you've been doing and carve out some to think about a a pivot or an earlier a different kind of response that's helpful to hear.
Amy Gross
The other thing that I think was super helpful about our process is it is rolling. And uh so people in this particular moment are getting different information every day. And so it allows them to adjust if they're asked. to ask and we've had I mean this year we've had the most withdrawals of requests that we've ever had uh because the world keeps shifting on people and so things that they want to do they can't do things that they thought they needed that they didn't need And so our rolling process allows people to have uh flexibility within that.
Carrie Fox
That's helpful. That's good. So the Baltimore community is such a special one to me, as I noted at the top, but I'm curious if Uh how often, if ever, you are collaborating with other foundation leaders in the Baltimore community? Thinking about how You don't just meet the moment singularly, as I know you are, but how you meet that moment collectively? What kind of conversations do you see happening there?
Amy Gross
Well, we've been having them. Uh we've actually been having them, I think, before we started uh the Meet the Moment uh Fund. And I think that different foundations are at different points in their fiscal year, in their board processes, uh in their internal processes, and able to respond But there has been a great response by a lot of funders, mostly around sector-related issues, so immigrant funding or housing funding or food crises. You know, funders will come around a certain issue. We've also tried to talk to some funders about the challenges that we see in the sector and the importance of encouraging more sustained collaboration among nonprofits themselves Those conversations are ongoing and I hope that we'll be able to announce things in 2026 of more cooperation in that area.
Carrie Fox
That's great. That's great. So uh I had mentioned at the top some of the work that we do that is uh with other foundations around the country. And we've been doing a lot of listening recently of foundations and nonprofits. And There are some really interesting things I'm hearing around uh nonprofits who are thinking very differently, knowing that I should I should say first, as you know full well. that no philanthropy will ever be able to fill the gap that government leaves. So that is one big one. How do we ever fill that big gap? Um, but that nonprofits are starting to think about how else can I fuel this mission in addition to philanthropy, knowing that there is only so much philanthropy. And so I see a lot more foun uh nonprofits exploring at least earned revenue streams and different ways of not just having a gala for the sake of having a gala, but having a workshop that has a pi a t a paid ticket price to it. different ways of thinking about how to fuel that mission. And I'm curious if you're seeing some of that too. Maybe it's in the kinds of requests you're getting, but organizations who are realizing that it actually is a good thing to be exploring many different ways. of fueling that mission into the future.
Amy Gross
Absolutely. Uh so you know before 2025, a foundation would always tell a nonprofit, oh, if you can get government money, that's your most solid money, that's sustainable, you know, that's what you need to strive for. Philanthropy will do RD, government will take it from there. That message no longer holds at the moment. And so nonprofits really do need to pivot their engagement and their fundraising. to individuals, individual donors, communities of people, and earned revenue streams. The ones that are able to do that are weathering this storm. It's interesting just today. We had a meeting with a nonprofit who seems to be doing very well. They have an ear earned revenue stream. They have a strong board. And they were talking to us about where they were coming from strength and expanding their program. And my colleague and I looked at them and said, Most of our conversations are with people who are crying in front of us with their lives falling apart and their years of work. Like this was odd to us that someone was talking about success. But it is out there. And so we need to figure out how to highlight it, how to celebrate it, how to show others how to do it, uh, and to give people hope uh that, you know, yes, we have to change the business models and plan differently for how we are supporting each other, but it is possible.
Carrie Fox
Amy, can you remind me, when did you join approximately France-Merrick Foundation?
Amy Gross
Two thousand and thirteen
Carrie Fox
Okay. All right. So I was reading someplace recently about the time navigating through COVID. And I believe you and I have this in common around having had young children during that period. and learning how to lead an organization while caring for our children who are in the next room on Zoom or you know, I'm I'm not exactly sure how old your children were at that at the time mine were in first grade and fourth grade. And how we thought, gosh, if we can get through this, we're gonna be able to get through anything. And then fast forward a few years, and here we are. And the volatility of now feels very different than the volatility of then. Right. I I often hear people refer to COVID as a we were all in this together. W there was a response. Um including from government that actually helped us get through this. And this is new terrain. This is who am I in uh in in this with and how do I navigate through it? And will I get through this? You know, how how often do you hear from nonprofits or other foundations on we don't know if we will get through this? So so back to that hope question you were just speaking of a few moments ago. Where is your um hope scale, your hope barometer in this moment?
Amy Gross
Um, so you know, I will admit that my hope barometer varies. Uh today it's pretty good because of how my day started. Other days it's not as good. Uh reading the news also couldn't affect the hope barometer. Uh but the truth of the matter is that we will get through this It will be hard. We don't know how to do it. Uh, you know, what I keep saying is that uh my kids need to stop living through history. uh because everything that's happened in the last 10 years uh has been you know the first time in a hundred years. So uh I'm definitely over that But the truth is uh we will get past this. We don't know how it is uh within our control to try to contribute to the solution in a positive way. I mean, that is within our control. We don't know what the outcome is, but we can know what our intentions are.
Carrie Fox
Hmm. Mmm. That's a great way of putting it. We don't know what the outcome is, but we do know what our intentions are, and we can hold on to that I wrote something a few weeks ago in my weekly blog around purpose and holding on to purpose, holding on to mission. I had had I had been having a conversation. was someone who leads um uh businesses through times of crisis. And they said, look, in in a time of crisis, a business can turn off a lot of its purpose work. It's not need to have, it's nice to have. But in my world, right, the organizations that I work with, including my own, we can't turn off mission. So intention and mission is everything to us. And when we are going through a time like this It's nice to remember the story of something like how a diamond is built, right? That a diamond is actually formed under pressure. And many, I think, of the nonprofits we are seeing today are rising and foundations like yours are rising to this moment, finding ways to live that purpose, to live that intention. To be able to navigate through it. It doesn't mean it's it's all good, but can good can come of it. And I think that's the important piece.
Amy Gross
Yes.
Carrie Fox
Good can come even out of the pressure and of the tensions.
Amy Gross
You know, you asked me before about our board. Um, you know, one of the things that has allowed us to pivot is that we have a grant committee and that committee has actually agreed to meet monthly so that we can make quicker decisions instead of quarterly That's a big change. So like that's a practical piece that I think it's seven people, you know, have agreed that this moment also requires something different from them in their time. uh that they want to help us act more quickly.
Carrie Fox
Hmm, that's great to hear. That is a great to hear. All right, so this season of the podcast is helloes, goodbyes, and the space between. And for folks who haven't picked up on it yet, we are very much talking about the space between uh today, how you make the most of the moment you're in. very specifically sometimes how you meet that moment, as we're learning with the France-Merrick Foundation and a new fund that they launched to support nonprofits in ensuring that they can remain sustainable through a time of change. So let's talk a little bit more about that space between, right? How you think about making the most of this time. Are there any other changes Certainly I caught I caught uh the news of the Meet the Moment fund. You just talked about one on changing how often you're meeting with your grants committee. Anything else that you would raise up, either that your foundation is doing or that you see happening that are good ways to meet this moment, make the most of the tension and the uncertainty.
Amy Gross
Um, well sure. So, you know, I think The most important thing we did was something. So don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You know, what we have really heard from nonprofits is that they did not feel heard in this moment. And with the ARM program, they were like, oh, you get us. Whether or not we can fund them or not, I think just the idea of action was important. Uh and I think that part of that action is letting nonprofits know that you're in this with them. Oftentimes philanthropy has a, you know, these are the things that I'm trying to do. And nonprofits are like, these are my needs. You know, at this point, like it's just survival. And not all, not every nonprofit is going to survive. Some of the grants that we're making are for what we're calling responsible windows. Uh, you know, having the organization not close within 24 hours. Uh so there. Is definitely a lot that can be done in this moment to build trust, to exercise trust, to uh communicate clearly. Part of what we need to do is focus on what we can do and not what we can't. You're totally right that foundations and philanthropy cannot replace government money. We know that. It's only so helpful to say that. It's only helpful to say that in order to say we are not the solution. We are part of a solution with you. And we need to think through that with you and reimagine the future. What really was helpful for us was to be flexible. So, you know, I talked about how our board responded. We're also reviewing applications much quicker and having a variety of different pieces of flexibility in our process. Not every foundation can do that. And if you can't, also be clear. Be clear on what you can do and what you can't do and why. And then others can come and work around that. Part of what we've always done is try to make this easier for nonprofits. So we have a two-stage process for our regular process. We made the Meet the Moment Fund one stage, which is, you know, tell us what you need and we're just going to ask you follow-up questions. That has made it a little harder for us as staff. But it has allowed it to be less cumbersome for other organizations to apply. And I think was a good idea since so many facts are changing anyway. By the time we get around to talk to them, it's different than what's on paper, you know, regardless. Uh the collabor the collaborative piece is really important because nonprofits need to feel supported by an entire community of funders, not just a funder. And I do think that our nonprofits in Baltimore feel that. But we also know that nonprofits are under attack. Foundations are starting to be under attack. And this is something that we can only respond to if we do it together with solidarity. And it's important that we keep those lines of communication open and figure out when we can partner. The other area of partnership is with local government. So uh, you know, the federal government is off the table at the moment. But in order to solve uh challenges, the whatever the challenges are, our local governments, our state and city governments County if it's relevant. You know, we're all trying to resolve the same pieces. So how can we better coordinate? How can we better align? And there has been some bright spots on that in the last few months. Uh the piece that uh you know I would go on intention when we were talking was hoping at this moment is actually not the goal. getting through the moment is the goal so that we can reimagine what the future is. And that I think is helpful as a frame in terms of having that piece of hope is like, yes, this is what we have to do now, but this is not our new long-term plan. This is our short-term plan to come up with a new long-term plan.
Carrie Fox
Right, right, right.
Amy Gross
Um and lastly, we do need to have discussions with other funders about uh what does working for common humanity mean? What is a social safety net? Uh I was listening to uh a book that was talking about, you know, Kennedy's Oh, you know, don't ask what you can do for yourself, ask what you can do for your country. And then in the 90s, uh the message sort of went, you know, what can your country do for you? Now, I would say let's remove both of those and let's have a new conversation about what communities can do for each other. Because at the end of the day, that's who's left. That's what we need to build on. That's what we need to create.
Carrie Fox
Beautiful It has become so clear to me, that particularly in this year, but in recent years, that we are a nation made up of communities and so much of deep social change and impact. happens inside communities. And I I remember, you know, when I was starting my career, I used to do quite a bit in public affairs. And it was always a big deal when you had a a a federal or a White House administrator come and speak to your nonprofit. They were going to tell you what was happening at the national level. Now it's really flipped, right? It's let's talk about what's happening at the local level and how we level that up to make sure it's happening in other places too. So that beauty, that importance of what's happening in community, as as you all know well. will remain so important, right? It's not how will we survive this. It's the only way around this is through it. And so we're gonna get through it and we're gonna hopefully be stronger in some ways. on the other side, but certainly we'll be different. Um and sometimes that's okay too. To answer this next question, I think I may simply have people rewind and listen again because I think I think you've already answered this really well, but I'm gonna ask if there's anything else as you are sitting here, if you could be speaking to an audience purely of philanthropic leaders who are outside Baltimore. What you would advise them on if they are thinking similarly about wanting to stand up a response or find a way to act in this issue, to be a community for another community. What you would advise them to do?
Amy Gross
I think actually I might be about to give you advice that I should be taking myself. And maybe this podcast is one way to do it. But I don't think that enough funders are sharing what they are doing. Our idea of how to meet the moment came from listening to other funders talk about what they were doing in their own local community and seeing what was possible and how. So I do think that there needs to be more of that because we don't need to recreate the wheel. And there are a lot of similarities within each of our communities.
Carrie Fox
Hmm. Great answer. All right. Well, Amy, I said to you this was a 24-25 minute episode. Um, we're at 26, and so I'm gonna ask you my last question and we'll wrap up. And this is a bit of a speed round just for us to get to know you a little bit more as we've done in other episodes this season. Amy, what is your favorite way to say hello?
Amy Gross
Depends on the context.
Carrie Fox
Okay, so let's say that you um are meeting someone for the first time. Do you say hi, hello? Do you say it in a different language? What's your favorite way to simply greet someone?
Amy Gross
Um, I do say hello. I just want to make sure that the person knows that they've been seen and recognized.
Carrie Fox
Love it. Great. Do you prefer a hug or a handshake or something else
Amy Gross
Um, you know, I I prefer all of them. It just depends on who the person is in the context of uh where you're giving them.
Carrie Fox
Great. Human connection above all connection.
Amy Gross
Correct. Yes, that's the theme.
Carrie Fox
Great. I love it. I love it. Um, what do you never leave home without?
Amy Gross
Uh, ways to contact other people.
Carrie Fox
All right, great. And in this big game of life, what do you hope to leave behind?
Amy Gross
Uh I hope to leave behind some legacy of impact, of uh knowing that I was able to make a difference and add some positivity out there in the world.
Carrie Fox
Excellent. Great. Well, Amy, thank you for taking time out of your day to be with us here at Mission Forward. I have so appreciated the chance to hear from you directly. As noted, I've been following your work. I admire your work, so thanks for being here and bringing it to life for us.
Amy Gross
Thank you.
