Neighborhood Funders Group

NFG REPORTS
SPRING 2001 ISSUE ONE• VOLUME EIGHT

Community Organizing Toolbox

NFG has released The Community Organizing Toolbox, a 121-page, one-stop resource guide on community organizing and funding strategies. The easy-to-use Toolbox is available in hard copy and electronically and is the result of many hours of work by NFG members. It encourages grantmakers to learn more about the vital contributions that community organizing (CO) has made to broader community development and renewal efforts, and to help grantmakers learn how to undertake CO grantmaking. The Toolbox should be useful to a broad range of funders. Two short Toolbox case studies, one featuring the work of the James Irvine Foundation, and the other the work of the Needmor Fund, appear below. Craig McGarvey will receive the Council on Foundation's 2001 Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking for his work described in the case study.

In the first section, Community Organizing: The Basics, there's solid background on CO, its history, the different types of CO organizations and what CO has accomplished over the years. The second section, Grantmakers and Community Organizing, provides a full picture of how and why funders get involved in CO funding, including information about how to choose groups to fund and how to evaluate CO funding.

The last section, Community Organizing Case Studies, showcases the activities of two foundations with a strong commitment to CO grantmaking: the Hyams Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. There are shorter case studies throughout the Toolbox.

All NFG members will receive a copy of The Community Organizing Toolbox. It is also available online through NFG's Web site at www.nfg.org,where there are links to the Web sites of many of the organizations mentioned in the text and an extensive resource list with links. You can search for specific information or download the entire document or sections to copy for board members and colleagues. Copies can also be purchased online or by e-mailing nfg@nfg.org.

Thanks to the Toolbox committee chair Henry Allen of the Hyams Foundation, who was joined by Jeannie Appleman of Interfaith Funders, Fabio Naranjo of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Frank Sanchez of the Needmor Fund, and Garland Yates of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in many months of discussion and thought to guide this new publication's development. Hubert Dixon of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Jane Downing of the Pittsburgh Foundation, Madeline Lee of the New York Foundation, Regina McGraw of the Wieboldt Foundation, and Mary Jo Mullan of the F.B. Heron Foundation reviewed the Toolbox as it was developed.

Toolbox Case Study:
THE JAMES IRVINE FOUNDATION

In 1996, the James Irvine Foundation targeted California's Central Valley as a place of particular need. Known as America's breadbasket, the Valley is the richest region of agriculture production in the history of the world. It is also home to many of the state's poorest residents, large numbers of whom are unnaturalized legal permanent residents. The Valley leads the state in unemployment rates, which have hovered nearly 50 percent higher than the state average since the 1970s. By focusing significant grantmaking on the Valley, the Foundation acknowledged that the region has been underserved by philanthropy.

Central Valley Partnership For Citizenship

The Partnership's work centers on citizenship - assisting newcomers to learn English and naturalize by means of experiential curricula in civic engagement. As complementary aspects of the overall Partnership strategy, member groups prioritized strengthening nonprofit leadership in the Valley and addressing public policy concerns. The partners have:

Created the Central Valley Forum to bridge a gap between grassroots civic organizing and state policy development. Nonprofit agencies commission papers from researchers and deliberate with political leaders about issues that impact Valley residents.
Created and organized the Small Grants Program to provide support to grassroots efforts that encourage civic participation. The program offers grants from $600 to $5,000, and encourages outreach by agency members to very rural areas.

Larry Ferlazzo, executive director of Sacramento Valley Organizing Community, a strong CO group that is affiliated with the IAF, is one of the key leaders involved in the Partnership. He believes that it offers far more than the sum of its parts:

"We're an organizing group, not a naturalization organization. But because of the Partnership we now have the technical resources to effectively assist people to become naturalized. Other groups that are tremendously proficient at naturalization are learning from us about civic participation."

Rather than devising an "innovative" grants initiative from outside the Valley, the Irvine Foundation regularly convened representatives of prominent community organizations inside the Valley. Many - including lead staff from several community organizing (CO) groups - had never met each other before. After many meetings, as a degree of trust developed among them, they found that they were pursuing similar goals and that they had much to learn from one another. Working together, the Foundation and the organizations formed the Central Valley Partnership for Citizenship - a "learning collaborative" with a common purpose: to build throughout the Central Valley voluntary, self-perpetuating capacity for naturalization and full civic participation.

The partners meet quarterly to teach one another, coordinate efforts and conduct joint campaigns. A faculty member from the University of California at Davis serves as the group's "learning coach." A communications consultant is helping the partners use video in outreach, training and documentation. A technology specialist assists in upgrading the computer systems of member groups, who are now using e-mail and a common web site to improve their communications across the far reaches of the Valley.

The Irvine Foundation provides core support for each partner organization and works strategically with them. It takes a seat at the Partnership table, but makes very clear that the community organizations are the key to the Partnership's success.

Craig McGarvey, the Irvine Foundation's program director responsible for the Partnership strategy, is very clear about the value of this collaborative work and of the importance of CO in building community. McGarvey believes that CO is synonymous with "experiential, community-based, adult education in democratic participation." He believes that CO, seen in this light, is the essential life-blood of achieving and sustaining healthy communities.

McGarvey says that, "Only collective community problem-solving can lead to positive and needed change. People come together, often guided by a community organizer, to identify issues important to the quality of life in their communities, to make and implement plans for improvement. Through this shared experience, they develop skills, knowledge, attitudes and relationships. These are the building blocks of community. … The organizer is a lead educator, not teaching at the front of a classroom but behaving in such a way that others are encouraged to take responsibility to learn. The learners encourage others to learn." The Partnership stresses:

The importance of human dignity and difference - each person has the right to be educated; and
The importance of human inclusion - people should learn together, building relationships across the lines that can divide them.

For McGarvey, "the assessment standards for CO work are no more and no less than the authentic measures of success for our best educational institutions." In short, CO is education and hands-on guidance for active and responsible citizenship.¹

Toolbox Case Study:
THE TOLEDO/NEEDMOR CO PROJECT

In 1995, the Needmor Fund - a small national family foundation based in Boulder, Colorado - approached the Toledo (Ohio) Community Foundation (TCF), proposing that the two institutions combine their efforts to strengthen CO in Toledo, with grant funds to be provided by Needmor. The Needmor Fund is a longtime supporter of CO groups; it was established and operated for many years in Toledo. The TCF agreed to join forces with Needmor and, working together, they set up the Toledo/Needmor Community Organizing Project.

The TCF had no experience with CO prior to Needmor's offer to fund Toledo-area groups' CO efforts. The TCF needed and wanted to move into CO funding on a careful, step-by-step basis. To guide the process, a local Needmor Advisory Committee, staffed by the TCF, was set up. It considered grant requests, made funding decisions and monitored the progress of funded programs. The Advisory Committee's members included TCF board members and several community representatives knowledgeable about CO. TCF also conducted baseline research regarding the status of local CO efforts to answer questions such as "who's doing what?" and "is it really community organizing?"

More Lessons for Funders New to CO

In the past, CO funders have met with organizers and others to discuss funding needs for the entire CO field or for CO in their particular regions. Proceedings and other information about some of these gatherings are available from the grantmakers involved.² Occasionally funders and organizers have formed partnerships to jointly plan and carry out activities designed to attract increased resources for CO. These partnerships may hold important lessons for funders new to CO. NFG staff and leadership can provide helpful information on these partnerships.³

During 1996-97, the Advisory Committee approved grants to support the salaries of organizers and some operating expenses for CO efforts proposed by three community development corporations (CDCs), each operating in different neighborhoods. Two of the them, the LaGrange Development Corporation and ONYX, are continuing grantees of the Project; the third was dropped after first-year funding. The TCF also completed its research and, in consultation with its grantees, the Advisory Committee determined that with expert technical assistance and training, CO could be further strengthened.

At the end of 1997 the Advisory Committee and the grantees selected ACORN as its technical assistance/training provider and hired an evaluator to monitor and assess the technical assistance and training program.

The evaluator's first-year progress report provided the TCF and the committee with data that suggested very positive results had been achieved through ACORN's work with the CDCs. Each now operated under a common definition of organizing and a much better understanding of CO; each identified opportunities to work together for the first time across neighborhood lines; CO was being integrated with the overall work of their organizations; and two highly trained organizers were now working effectively in the Toledo area.

The project operates with continuing guidance from the Advisory Committee. The two CDCs and ACORN decided to initiate a citywide organizing effort. ACORN is to open a field office in Toledo by the end of 2000, eventually employing two organizers, with the lead organizer a Toledo native. A sponsoring committee of residents is being formed to oversee development of the local operation. Members of the project's advisory committee are serving on this new body. ACORN will assume fiscal and programmatic responsibility for the Toledo CO effort. Needmor's grants will go to ACORN via the TCF and ACORN will disburse funding to the CDCs, taking responsibility for meeting all grant requirements.

Many of us really didn't have a sense of CO and what it could provide for our community. The Needmor Fund - and our own Steve Stranahan, whose family started Needmor - were the driving forces. Needmor provided the financial support for these local organizing efforts and we have been privileged to "come along for the ride." In providing local administrative and staff support, interacting with the Advisory Committee and talking about the Project with community leaders, we have learned a great deal. Our learning continues as the Project is still evolving. We are very encouraged by the progress to date and anticipate providing continuing and possibly increased support for CO in the future.⁴

¹ Drawn from the James Irvine Foundation's 1998 Annual Report and a forthcoming paper written by Craig McGarvey.

² Over the past decade or so, the following grantmakers are among those who have convened or participated in meetings to discuss funding needs of the CO field: Ford, James C. Irvine, San Francisco, Surdna, New York, New World, Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, Public Welfare, Jewish Fund for Justice, Charles Stewart Mott, and many others, as well as the Neighborhood Funders Group and the National Network of Grantmakers.

³ Two of these currently operating are: an effort coordinated by the Southern Empowerment Project (SEP) in Tennessee that involves numerous CO groups and several foundations; and an effort sponsored by the French American Charitable Trust with its ten anchor groups.

⁴ From materials provided by The Toledo Community Foundation (TCF) and discussion with TCF's Executive Director Pam Howell-Beach.

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