Nonprofit Advocacy Generates Big Return on Investment for Funders, Report Finds
Philanthropy News Digest
January 20, 2012
Every dollar that foundations and other donors invested in advocacy, community organizing, and civic engagement over a five-year period provided a return of $115 in community benefit, a new report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy finds.
The report, Leveraging Limited Dollars: How Grantmakers Achieve Tangible Benefits by Funding Policy and Community Engagement (14 pages, PDF), examined a hundred and ten organizations in thirteen states over a five-year period and found that the groups leveraged $231 million in funding from grantmakers into $26.6 billion in benefits to low-wage workers, communities of color, rural residents, and other marginalized groups. To assist other funders interested in supporting advocacy to achieve maximum impact, the report provides suggestions on how to get started and explains why the strategies used by the organizations in the survey were successful.
Read the full article.