Participatory grantmaking has support from the left, as you would expect: Practitioners tend to focus on social justice and human rights. The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy hosted a webinar on the topic last summer.
Read the entire article in Nonprofit Chronicles.
Resilience is a growing interest among a set of foundations, and it’s a topic that’s becoming more pressing in the face of natural disasters and rising waters. At the same time, according to one recently released report, some of the people best demonstrating what resilience looks like—marginalized communities in the Southern United States—are being overlooked by funders.
In “As the South Grows: Weathering the Storm,” a joint publication by the National Committee For Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) and Grantmakers for Southern Progress, the authors spotlight communities in Southern Louisiana and Eastern North Carolina that are coming together to handle these threats, but with insufficient backing from philanthropy. The report points out disproportionately low per-person funding in these regions over a five-year period ($31 and $67, respectively, compared to $451 nationally) and only a small percentage of that funding going to strategies like community organizing and policy change. The Louisiana figure excludes Orleans parish, where philanthropy has focused since Hurricane Katrina, but far less so in surrounding areas.
Read the entire article in Inside Philanthropy.
“Philanthropy can take words and use them so much that they become meaningless,” remarks Rev. Mac Legerton, executive director of the Center for Community Action, based in Eastern North Carolina, in a report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP).
The NCRP report, authored by Ryan Schlegel and Stephanie Peng, is the third in an expected series of five reports called As the South Grows. This installment is titled “Weathering the Storm.” Legerton’s complaint is that the term “resilience” is being watered down by overuse.
Read the entire article in Nonprofit Quarterly.
It also based these changes largely on inputs from stakeholders, with more than 1,000 local nonprofit leaders taking part in surveys and interviews that informed the overhaul. The foundation landed one of NCRP’s 2017 Impact Awards for the way it incorporated feedback from its community during the revamp.
Read the entire article in Inside Philanthropy.
Social change philanthropy lost a giant this week as we learned of Alan Rabinowitz’s passing. A former board member of NCRP, Alan’s mark was profound. Though his academic specialty was urban planning, most in our field knew Alan through his activism, writing and funding.
Alan literally wrote the book on social change philanthropy. Published in 1990, Social Change Philanthropy in America was the first comprehensive look at giving designed to change systems, build power and confront inequality and injustice.
He helped found A Territory Resource (now Social Justice Fund Northwest) and Western States Center, and along with his wife Andrea supported and served on the boards of too many anchor progressive organizations to list, from the ACLU to the Highlander Center. Over many decades, Alan and Andrea opened the doors of their home to host fundraisers for many scores of groups, networking organizers and donors to build the base for long-term change.
We invite those of you who were touched by Alan’s work to share reminiscences below.
To strengthen climate resilience in the South, where poor communities and those of color are forced to live on land most vulnerable to flooding, pollution, and dislocation, foundations need to step up their funding of grassroots efforts, a report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and Grantmakers for Southern Progress finds.
Read the entire article in Philanthropy News Digest.
As the historic 2017 Atlantic hurricane season has demonstrated, extreme weather events can have devastating impacts. And such events are becoming more and more common as the effects of climate change take hold. But those impacts are heightened in the American South, which sits on the front lines of the global climate crisis.
Our newest report, “As the South Grows: Weathering the Storm,” explores opportunities for philanthropy to invest in environmental, racial and climate justice in the South. Using examples in Eastern North Carolina and Southern Louisiana, the report details how the organizing and mobilizing of Southerners around these issues is not matched by foundation investment in their communities.
“As the South Grows: Weathering the Storm” is the third report in the five-part As the South Grows series. The fourth report will be released in February.
We hope “As the South Grows” inspires you to look at the South as an important opportunity for deeper engagement, investment and partnerships.
Yna C. Moore is senior director of communications at NCRP. Follow @ynamoore and @NCRP on Twitter.
For Immediate Release
Foundation Support for Underserved Communities is Necessary to Address Impacts of Climate Change in the South
New As the South Grows report says funder support of grassroots organizing and mobility is key to addressing climate crisis
Washington, D.C. (11/29/2017) – The historic Atlantic hurricane season this year made clear the devastation that can result from extreme weather events. As climate change continues to send global temperatures upward, climate scientists expect severe hurricanes, rising sea levels, wildfires and other natural disasters to become more common and more frequent.
In the U.S., the South represents the front line of the climate crisis, particularly in poor communities and communities of color forced to live on land most vulnerable to flooding, pollution and dislocation. Unfortunately, foundations and other donors have not stepped up to support communities working to alleviate the impacts of climate change.
The good news is that donors who want to help these communities prepare, adapt and thrive in spite of these challenges while protecting the environment can do so by learning from those already doing important work and applying four recommendations found in a new report on climate justice in the South.
Grantmakers need to step up
“As the South Grows: Weathering the Storm,” a new report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP; www.ncrp.org) and Grantmakers for Southern Progress (GSP; http://www.nfg.org/as_the_south_grows) explains why national and Southern grantmakers must invest in Southern climate resilience and how they can do so effectively and sustainably.
The report tells the stories of nine Southern community leaders in Eastern North Carolina and Southern Louisiana who are working to address the environmental threats caused by climate change. However, their efforts aren’t being matched by support from foundations, especially work that involves grassroots community organizing and advocacy.
“Climate change presents an exponential and existential threat for people across the South – and for the nation more broadly – but foundation grantmaking to date does not reflect that reality,” report authors Ryan Schlegel and Stephanie Peng wrote. “Southern communities’ and our national complacency with racialized poverty puts whole communities and the whole region in greater danger from climate crises.”
Funding per person in the region by the country’s grantmakers is only a small fraction of the national funding rate.
The country’s grantmakers gave the equivalent of $31 in funding per person in Southern Louisiana (excluding Orleans Parish) and $67 in funding per person in Eastern North Carolina from 2010-2014. Compare this to the national funding rate of $451. Source: Foundation Center.
Between 2010 and 2014, only 4 percent of foundation funding in Eastern North Carolina went to community organizing, policy change and other strategies that seek to address problems that put vulnerable communities at risk. In Southern Louisiana, only 8 percent of funding went to such strategies; outside New Orleans that number was just 0.3 percent.
How can foundations step up?
“As we contend with the very real and devastating impacts of climate change in the region, philanthropy must not only name equity and inclusion as a strategy, but commit to deep institutional learning and practices that center people of color, low-wealth communities,” said Lavastian Glenn, co-chair of GSP and program director at the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. “In particular, funders of the environment and concerned with climate change must engage the people who have been pushed to these low-laying lands prone to flooding, or exposed to toxic dumping from coal-fired power plants because of institutional racism, as allies and as part of the power-building equation that saves us all in the end.”
Schlegel and Peng interviewed dozens of community leaders, nonprofits and grantmakers about their experiences with philanthropy in Eastern North Carolina and Southern Louisiana.
From these conversations, they developed four key recommendations for donors who are ready to invest in strategies to address the effects of climate change in the region:
“It is time for other foundations – both in the South and nationally – to meet these pioneers where they are and bring their own resources to the table,” Schlegel and Peng wrote. “Any funder concerned about health, economic prosperity, access to opportunity or the physical and spiritual survival of coastal communities can and must find a way to invest in Southern climate resilience.”
“As the South Grows: Weathering the Storm” offers practical tips and resources, including a list of Do’s and Don’ts that will help grantmakers and donors to have lasting impact through their climate philanthropy. The report, as well as the first in the series, “As the South Grows: On Fertile Soil,” and the second, “As the South Grows: Strong Roots,” is available on www.ncrp.org. The final two reports will be released in 2018.
About NCRP
The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy amplifies the voice of nonprofits and the communities they serve in the philanthropic sector. Through research and advocacy, it works to ensure that grantmakers and donors contribute to the creation of a fair, just and equitable world.
About GSP
Grantmakers for Southern Progress is a network of southern and national funders who are committed to fostering thriving communities in the American South, characterized in part by racial and gender equity.
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Media Contacts:
Yna Moore: (202) 557-1381 or ymoore@ncrp.org
Peter Haldis: (202) 328-9351 or phaldis@ncrp.org
Today is #GivingTuesday, and I know many of us are thinking hard about how we can build a better world.
The truth is: We pursue the common good in America through philanthropy and through government. Government policy, and especially our taxing and spending decisions, is how Americans collectively and publicly work to bring about what is beneficial for our society. We do so privately through philanthropic giving and the charitable sector. Both are essential for building a fair and just society.
But the GOP tax plan undermines philanthropy and government and threatens what progress we’ve made toward a more equitable and sustainable future for our country.
Tell Congress to prioritize tax policy that serves the common good, not the wealthy. 
The Republicans’ tax bill:
If the Republicans enact their radical tax agenda, it will mean drastic cuts for social safety net programs that low- and middle-income Americans rely on to get by. And it will mean an unprecedented payday for multi-national corporations, the super-wealthy and the GOP’s donor class.
We can’t let the GOP turn #GivingTuesday into #TakingTuesday.
NCRP is standing with its allies at Americans for Tax Fairness by calling on all who care about a healthy, functioning democracy and a just tax system to oppose the new Republican tax plan.
The time is now. Call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to vote “NO” on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Bill.
We at National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) appreciated Alliance’s September 2017 issue highlighting the fact that communities served are not reflected in grantmaking programme staffs.
The systemic inequities that perpetuate barriers to opportunities for communities of colour is not a new problem for US philanthropy, but we’re having more explicit conversations about why foundations haven’t been able to effectively address this issue in the face of a new administration where white nationalism has resurfaced in our political consciousness. We’ve written about this in response to the Charlottesville, VA attack.