Center for Community:Foundation Advocacy

We are at a pivotal point in American policymaking, with community (and private) foundations seeking to elevate community voices - and their own - to create needed policy improvements.   Yet as they've done so, many have encountered a serious policymaking learning curve, with few concrete supports available.

The Center for Community:Foundation Advocacy provides advocacy advice, supports, and resources to community and private foundations seeking to successfully understand and sustainably engage in reform efforts that truly serve their communities.  The Center's mission flows from my work with community foundations, yet has value to offer private foundations and community organizations as well.  As described in a recent email to a community foundation advocacy colleague:

The Center for Community:Foundation Advocacy was created to enable foundations of every type to:
- Understand their wide leeway to advocate without even "lobbying";
- Elevate genuine community voices in their jurisdictions' policymaking;
- Strengthen their organizations' strategic advocacy support for community members, community groups, and non-profits; and
- Attract and enable Community Foundation funding from their DAFs to develop these organizational advocacy supports, as a vehicle to serve the DAFs' and CFs' shared goals through community-engaged policy advances.   
 
Foundations are a fundamental part of America's power structure.  They exist to advance the greater good, yet are increasingly realizing that the most effective and important way to serve is to improve government systems and service those people in need, so they can experience opportunity and justice without needing charitable help.  At the same time, "advocacy" work is new to many of these organizations.  While eminently doable, virtually all foundations need education, training, and support to  successfully engage in advocacy that truly serves their intended communities, .  

The Center for Community:Foundation Advocacy leverages decades of nationwide experience in progressive advocacy, along with nearly a decade in philanthropic advocacy, to enable foundations to become part of the solution - and not remain part of the systemic problem - for opportunity and justice in America.