Photo courtesy of National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice.

Since its formation in 1977, Discount has supported non-profit organizations working primarily at the community level to empower low-income and poor urban citizens to improve their communities, living conditions and opportunities. In the mid-1990s, the Discount Foundation began funding efforts to increase wages for the working poor, improve their job prospects and help them build political power. Since then, with the help of Discount and many other funders, grassroots efforts that reward work and generate good job opportunities for the poor have multiplied in number and effectiveness.

Discount works in four major priority areas:

Living Wage and Statewide Minimum Wage Campaigns. The need for Living Wage laws and the underlying organizing to support this growing and effective movement have been centerpieces of Discount’s grant-making. Increasingly, Discount also has supported minimum wage campaigns at the state level, and will continue to do so.

Immigrant Worker Rights. Immigrants comprise a major pool of low-wage workers in the United States. Discount works to ensure that efforts to support the working poor must address the needs of this constituency.

Community-Labor Coalitions. An exciting aspect of the current wave of job organizing has been the rise of new coalitions, which meld together community, workplace and faith-based organizing. Discount has a strong belief in the power of such coalitions.

Worker Organizing. The right of workers to form unions is a cornerstone of the most serious efforts to improve wages. Organized labor has taken new and promising steps to engage and assist the working poor, including immigrant workers. Discount supports the right of workers to organize and new organizing models that address the particular needs of low-wage workers, such as worker centers.

Henry Allen is Discount's Executive Director. Henry was previously the Senior Program Officer at the Hyams Foundation. In his 15 years there, he oversaw Hyams' civic engagement grant making in the Boston area, covering community organizing, leadership development, and public policy advocacy. Under his leadership, Hyams greatly expanded its funding of community organizing, including support for community/labor collaborations and for immigrant worker organizing. Nationally, Henry served for two years as co-chair of the Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG). With Sue Chinn (former Executive Director of Discount), he co-founded NFG's Working Group on Labor and Community, and he recently joined the steering committee of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees. Henry brings impressive talent and experience to Discount. He began his tenure with us in April of 2006, at which time he opened a new permanent office for Discount in Boston. Please contact Henry using this form.