NFG Issue Briefs & Special Reports Archive

 September, 2010 | 30 Years of Helping Foundations Advance Social and Economic Justice

Thirty years ago, funders interested in social and economic justice came together with the idea of creating a place where they could learn how to be more effective in their work. The result was the Neighborhood Funders Group. During the past three decades the nonprofit organizations that our members fund have developed innovative strategies to engage and respond to the needs of their constituents. Download our new timeline showing NFG's 30 year effort to help funders advance social and economic justice. 

 September, 2010 | A Sense of Place - Place-Based Grantmaking in Practice

In this new Special Report, NFG looked at how place-based grantmaking works in practice and asked several foundations and funding collaboratives to describe their experience in this type of grantmaking. This report collects three examples of place-based grantmaking from Nexus Community Partners, the Cleveland Foundation, and the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities that illustrate the unique challenges and rewards of community-targeted philanthropy.   

 September, 2010 | Realigning Labor - Toward a Framework for Collaboration between Labor Unions and Day Labor Worker Centers

NFG's Working Group on Labor and Community Partnerships is pleased to present a new report, written by labor expert Nik Theodore. This Special Report analyzes the context that led to the development of a partnership between the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON) and the AFL-CIO, creating the National Worker Center–AFL-CIO Partnership, and examines some of the early successes of, and ongoing challenges facing, partnerships between unions and worker centers.

May, 2009 | The Foreclosure Crisis: A Blueprint for Foundation Intervention

This Special Report educates funders on the critical foreclosure issue plaguing our country and presents original data on foundation foreclosure interventions.  

July, 2008 | Preserving the Dream Understanding and Addressing the Subprime Mortgage Crisis

This briefing paper explores how this crisis developed, highlight strategies that some communities are using to mitigate its negative impacts, review recent federal proposals to address the situation and discuss possible intervention strategies that foundations can pursue to address the crisis. 

 | (August, 2006 Issue Brief) Defending the Dream How Funders Can Curtail Predatory Lending to Help Individuals and Communities

Predatory lending encompasses a set of pernicious activities that strip primary assets from vulnerable borrowers, most often those with few resources and little or no experience in the increasingly complex arena of mortgage finance. This issue brief aims to show why philanthropy should care about predatory lending and what role funders can play in deterring predatory practices, protecting low-income individuals and communities, and advancing wealth-building strategies in the process.

 | (July, 2006 Public Policy Paper) More than Shelter: A Grantmakers Guide To Housing Programs and Policy

This paper provides a brief overview of major issues in affordable housing, as well as examples of tools and strategies that foundations have employed to address housing issues. It also presents conceptual models grantmakers can use for creating housing and community-development strategies.

 | (2005 Special Report) Neighborhood Funders Group Celebrating 25 Years on the Path to Social and Economic Justice

NFG activities continue to reflect the values of its members and of the field we serve. Leaders and staff of the low-income community groups we support have developed innovative strategies to engage their constituents, build power and effectively respond to the needs of their communities. In this book, you’ll hear from a few of these groups and a few of the creative and hard working NFG leaders who have made the past 25 years possible.

 | (August, 2005 Issue Brief) Community Benefits Agreements

This policy brief explores an important new economic development reform—Community Benefits Agreements or CBAs—and its implications for funders. Because CBAs cut across such a broad range of issues—including living wages and workforce development, community and economic development, affordable housing, smart growth and livability, and environmental protection—they merit the attention of both local and national funders.

 | (April, 2005 Special Report) Worker Centers Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream

The goal of this study was to identify various worker center models, evaluate their effectiveness in improving the lives of workers and highlight their current strengths, weaknesses, challenges and potential. The Neighborhood Funders Group, which sponsored this research with the Economic Policy Institute, hopes this study will provide new information to funders, practitioners, labor unions, religious institutions and public policy-makers.

Page 2 (2000 - 2004)