A Policy and Advocacy Primer for Foundations and Nonprofits

by Mary Phillips, in preparation for a panel discussion by this title at the Students4Giving’s 2013 Social Impact Conference at Northeastern University on March 11^th

Foundation trustees often become frustrated by funding the same direct service programs over and over again without seeing significant progress.   The underlying problems are systemic and complex, requiring a multi-pronged approach including government policy changes.  To be strategic, grantmaking programs should include funding for advocacy.

Advocating for public policy changes can complement and increase the effectiveness of a foundation’s grantmaking agenda.  Some trustees approach the idea with caution because of the prohibition on lobbying by private foundations.    Fortunately there are many ways to fund advocacy and practice advocacy without lobbying. 

In fact, if foundations truly want to be change agents, they have to address the public policy implications necessary for successful implementation of new approaches.   For example, Continue Reading »

CLIENT ADVISORY

Summary

How does collaboration with other funders affect a foundation’s grantmaking strategy?

Champions of funder collaboratives point to visible results – to the large-scale impact that comes from pooling resources and to the institutional learning that comes from sharing information and engaging many and diverse perspectives. But there is more. This collective work also creates the conditions for participating foundations to take bigger risks and for their trustees to move beyond their comfort zones.

As charitable giving seems increasingly dwarfed by intractable and complex problems, collaboration with other foundations may be an essential component of an effective grantmaking strategy. For all but the largest foundations, though, the downsides of funder collaboratives are real. They may be time consuming, costly, ego-draining and they mean a loss of autonomy.

The rewards, however, should be considered.   

                    Continue Reading »

Labor rights and workplace fairness figured prominently in the the recent grant awards of the Sociological Initiatives Foundation.

The research and organizing projects supported by the foundation will investigate wage theft, working conditions for temporary and domestic workers, hiring discrimination, and the challenge of making fair labor practices a part of the growing sustainable food movement.

Most of the projects supported community-academic partnerships and were designed to support regulatory or legislative advocacy campaigns.

To view the grants list, click here.