posted on: Wednesday, January 14, 2009

By Niki Jagpal

What is community organizing? Why do foundations support it? How can a new grantmaker begin funding community organizing? Can organizing be evaluated? Find the answers to these questions and more in a new publication, Funding Community Organizing: Social Change Through Civic Participation, produced by GrantCraft and the Center for Community Change’s Linchpin Campaign. As a grantmaker quoted guide states: “Our nation and society are built on democratic participation….yet we don’t do a very good job of teaching how the ordinary resident can participate fully in democracy.” How can philanthropy address this challenge? According to the guide, “community organizing fills that gap by bringing people into the problem-solving process, including those who are least likely to raise their voices: members of historically marginalized groups, newcomers to the society, or people who don’t believe their participation will make a difference.” Using information from grantmakers and organizers, the guide highlights community organizing as an effective strategy that encourages civic participation and focuses on ‘people power.’ And foundations sharing their experiences with funding organizing offer real-world examples for interested funders to see the broad impact and long-term sustainability of organizing efforts.

This new resource for grantmakers makes a much-needed contribution to institutional philanthropy’s knowledge base about a type of work that has matured significantly, operating in more sophisticated ways than many believe and the importance of managing and supporting the relationship with organizing grantees. It encourages more foundations to increase or consider beginning funding using this guide. It includes, e.g., four case studies about grantmakers who made their first organizing grants and the guide is transparent about the challenges of funding of organizing but provides many tools to manage these effectively. It highlights the organic and iterative nature of community organizing and the effective tools for foundations to seriously consider substantially funding this work. Reading the guide offers grantmakers the opportunity to increase the impact of their giving. Bottom line? This is a much-needed resource that will help more funders maximize the social benefit of their charitable contributions.

Many foundations fund community organizing “as a way to encourage a more vibrant democracy” and the guide highlights that organizing “holds the promise of leaving communities stronger and individuals better able to advocate for themselves.” Noting significant advancements in organizing, the guide contends that this work has more power now than ever before. And there are benefits for funders too as noted by a grantmaker who highlights that philanthropy has also matured, stating that “the country’s ready for community organizing, and foundations are ready to take it on.”

NCRP is very encouraged to see more grantmakers willing to share their positive experiences with funding community organizing. Organizing groups are persistently under-funded and if foundations are really ready to take community organizing on, it will only strengthen all our communities and our democracy.