Organization means hope for people. It means making their institutions relevant. But most of all, organization means power. It means being able to do something about things they've been frustrated about all their lives.1

-Ernesto Cortes, Industrial Areas Foundation

Community organizing explicitly seeks to build the power base of the poor so they can affect and change the public policies and private market forces that create and sustain social and economic inequality.2

-Henry Allen, Hyams Foundation

The United States enters the 21st century with a level of income inequality and wealth polarization that is now wider than at any time since World War II. Even in today's economy, wages continue to stagnate or erode for those in the bottom half of the nation's income distribution. Close to 43 million Americans are medically uninsured - and poverty remains entrenched - in inner-city and rural communities across the country. Meanwhile, the income and wealth of those at the top have grown exponentially. Those in the Forbes 400 now hold as much wealth as the 50 million households in the bottom half of the population.³

Such large-scale inequities are mirrored in other dimensions of American life as well, most notably in the realm of political participation and democratic engagement. Study after study has documented that political participation in and beyond the voting booth is skewed by class, with upper-income and more educated citizens participating more frequently and at higher rates than those with fewer financial resources and years of schooling. To paraphrase one observer of the American political landscape, the heavenly choir of American interests continues to sing with an upper-class accent.

Community organizing - or CO, as we will refer to it throughout this Community Organizing Toolbox - is one of the few strategies working to build grassroots leadership, community initiative and constituent influence in neighborhoods and communities that are often forgotten or ignored by those in power. The Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG) considers CO an important strategy for change. We encourage grantmakers to learn more about the vital contributions that CO has made to broader community development and renewal efforts.

Nationally, CO groups have:

CO has also nourished and supported local leadership by teaching people how to convene meetings, conduct research, analyze public policy positions, negotiate with public and private officials, register people to vote, develop a common vision for struggling or distressed communities, and implement a work plan to address and resolve important issues or problems. For a more extensive discussion of CO results go to CO Accomplishments section on page 33.

CO's growth, increased sophistication and impact have momentum. CO groups are now paying far greater attention to educating opinion-makers and to pursuing more thoughtful communications strategies. An increasing number of foundations with more traditional service-oriented grantmaking programs are now exploring and investing in CO. This underscores CO's increased visibility and importance, and helps to spread the knowledge of CO's value to previously uninformed sectors of society, including grantmakers.