Initiative Aims to Spur More Advocacy Funding
By Todd Cohen
Philanthropy Journal
January 6, 2009
Foundations and other groups invested more than $2.6 million over five years to help 14 New Mexico nonprofits in their work involving advocacy, community organizing and civic engagement, an investment that generated $16.6 million in benefits for state residents, a new study says.
That return of $157 for every $1 invested underscores the big impact advocacy grantmaking can have, says the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the watchdog group in Washington, D.C., that sponsored the New Mexico study and now plans to study and promote advocacy grantmaking in North Carolina.
A similar effort in North Carolina that aims to increase to $50 million the state housing trust fund for affordable housing has helped boost that fund each of the past four years to a current total of $17 million from $3 million.
Working with local partners, which are likely to include the N.C. Center for Nonprofits and the North Carolina Network of Grantmakers, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy aims to identify 15 nonprofits in the state to participate in the study, says Lisa Ranghelli, senior research associate for the national group.
The report, which likely would be released next spring, would quantify advocacy funding by foundations for those nonprofits over five years, identify those nonprofits' advocacy activities and quantify their impact.
