Philanthropy Journal
October 20, 2010
Philanthropic investment in advocacy work yields big returns, a new report says.
Analyzing advocacy work by 20 local nonprofits in four states in the Pacific Northwest supported with a total of $23.2 million in foundation funding from 2007 to 2009, the report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy says those groups helped generated over $5 billion in benefits to poor and marginalized people.
For every dollar invested in advocacy, community-organizing and civic-engagement activities of those 20 local groups, the return was $150 in benefits such as wages, expanded services, state housing investments in Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho, says the report, Strengthening Democracy, Increasing Opportunities.
