California Nonprofit Showcases Free Disability and Accessibility Resources, Critical Support for Nonprofits, and $1 Million in Grants
Oakland, California – March 22, 2024 – California nonprofit Ability Central announced their annual Impact Report for 2023, sharing statistics and successes from another year of grantmaking, digital access, and nonprofit support. Ability Central offers funding and support for people with communication disabilities, their families and caregivers, and the organizations that serve them.
In 2023, the nonprofit’s 12 grantees reached 33,851 people with disabilities in California and around the world. More than $1,000,000 in funding from Ability Central enabled these organizations to create programs designed to meet the needs of Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent communities. These programs prioritized leadership training, disability training for healthcare professionals, and digital access initiatives.
The report presents highlights and testimonials from grantee programs, including a case study spotlighting the impact of Ability Central’s rapid response Access Improvement grants, which offer short-term, immediate funding to organizations and projects serving people with communication disabilities. Read the 2023 Impact Report to learn more about the organizations and programs funded by Ability Central.
2023 marked the first full calendar year of service for the Ability Central Portal, a collection of resources where people with disabilities, their loved ones, and anyone interested in learning more about communication disabilities can find critical information. Over the course of the year, more than 90,000 people from 155 countries visited the site to access free disability and accessibility information.
In addition to the grantmaking program and the Portal, Ability Central continued to grow their Cloud Consulting program, spending 1,000+ hours delivering $173,500 worth of Salesforce solutions to disability nonprofits in the United States. The Cloud Consulting program delivers and supports fundraising, program management, and service delivery solutions for nonprofit clients. Through infrastructure upgrades and business consulting, Ability Central helps nonprofits develop and expand their data capabilities through digital platforms like Salesforce.
“We’re so proud of the incredible impact our grantees, clients, and partners have made on the disability community in California and beyond,” said Matt Cherry, director of philanthropy at Ability Central. “As we celebrate the achievements of our staff and community in 2023, we look forward to another year of serving people with communication disabilities throughout 2024.”
Read the Ability Central 2023 Impact Report on their website.
Headquartered in Oakland, California, Ability Central is the philanthropic division of the California Communication Access Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2003. Ability Central is committed to serving as an educator, convener, and resource working to expand communication and information access for individuals who are Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent and communities of support. Ability Central also offers technical support to other nonprofits working to help people with disabilities and provides online information and resources for people with questions about disabilities and communication access. Since 2010, Ability Central has granted more than $13.5 million to 200+ projects, serving more than half a million people with disabilities.
Contact: Grant Barringer, Communications Manager
gbarringer@abilitycentral.org