The View From Here

High Stakes, High Hopes for Philanthropy

By: Shirley Sagawa

Shirley Sagawa, visiting fellow, Center for American Progress

It’s unusual for federal legislation to contemplate an important role for philanthropy. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act signed in April 2009 is a rare exception.

Of particular note, the bill’s Social Innovation Fund underscores the new administration’s commitment to trying new approaches to solving urgent problems. It uses a unique allocation mechanism so federal dollars match the funding choices of grantmakers, including foundations, rather than the other way around. In this way, funding decisions are made not by the federal government, but by grantmakers with experience making data-driven decisions for investing in communities.

The fund will work like this: The Corporation for National and Community Service will award grants in the amount of one to 10 million dollars on a competitive basis to grantmakers, or partnerships of grantmakers, taking into consideration the quality of their proposed grantmaking processes, their capacity to manage a fund, and their potential to sustain the fund after the grant period.

Then, funded grantmakers will make multi-year, substantial subgrants to innovative organizations to expand or replicate proven programs or support promising new initiatives in low-income communities. Subgrants may be focused on a specific local geographic area (for example, a neighborhood, group of rural counties, city, state, or an identifiable region), or address an issue such as education, child and youth development, poverty reduction, health, resource conservation, civic engagement, or crime.

Grantees will match funds dollar for dollar, as will subgrantees. In FY2010, $50 million is authorized. While the President has included funds in his budget, in order for this money to be available, Congress must still approve this request through the appropriations process this year. The annual authorized funding, subject to appropriations, increases to $100 million by FY2014.

Other features of the new legislation underscore the importance of service as a strategy to solve America’s education, energy, health, and economic crises by growing AmeriCorps from 75,000 members to 250,000 over the next decade and tying new issue-focused funds to specific outcomes. Philanthropy can play an important role by supporting recipient organizations with matching funds, as well as helping those organizations build their data collection and evaluation capacity so they can take full advantage of this opportunity.

The legislation also recognizes the value of service as a way to change the lives of those who serve. It targets veterans and older adults, for whom service has been proven to improve both physical and mental health. It also focuses on youth, whose motivation to achieve and pursue a life purpose can be developed through service. A new demonstration program that would make a summer of service a “rite of passage” holds particular promise for youth transitioning from middle school to high school—a time of both peril and opportunity.

Foundations would do well to help the nonprofits they support to get ready to engage AmeriCorps members, older adults, youth, and other community volunteers productively. All evidence suggests the supply of those ready to serve will be high.  Whether that is due to the “Obama effect,” unemployed workers looking for something to do, or a growing desire to make a difference in the face of increased suffering, the volunteer management funds in the bill could not come at a better time.

The success of these programs may well depend on foundations’ willingness to ensure that strong organizations can grow with these new human or financial resources. Even organizations that receive substantial government funds need private-sector dollars to enable them to support functions such as evaluation, development, innovation, and advocacy. Foundations could leverage their resources by supporting these efforts.

The Serve America Act, if fully funded by Congress, can make service and social innovation a central part of our national recovery and new way forward as a nation.  Foundations are critical partners in unlocking that promise.

Shirley Sagawa is a visiting fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Partnerships Are Our Lifeblood

By: Terry Mazany

Terry Mazany, President & CEO, Chicago Community Trust

The following is taken from “A Framework for Community Foundation Leadership in the Economic Recovery.”

Community foundations are uniquely positioned to serve our communities through our deep knowledge of the most pressing needs of our community residents and of the nonprofit organizations providing direct services to the most vulnerable. We are also well connected to the networks of philanthropic partnerships organized for research, planning, and development of innovative solutions to the major challenges of our times.

Community foundations support a host of promising and proven pilots that can be taken to scale in areas such as workforce development, early childhood education, green energy, social entrepreneurship, health care access, and many more. We often serve as catalysts to forge new priorities and plans for communities across stakeholder groups. These include investment in metropolitan development and small business, developing mixed income communities, and new approaches to poverty alleviation, among other areas.

The Blueprint for American Prosperity—the policy framework developed by the Brookings Institute to promote an economic agenda that will revitalize our national economy—can serve to structure important work for community foundations. The blueprint recognizes the role of partnerships in this revitalization. As stated by the Brookings Institute:

There is an opportunity to forge a new partnership between metropolitan areas and the federal government. This partnership will empower families, workers, businesses, and leaders in metropolitan areas to achieve productive, inclusive, and sustainable prosperity, and we recognize that this rich and durable prosperity requires commitments from all levels of government.

Community foundations have the capacity to span metropolitan areas and larger regions to help forge a common agenda to address challenges that are larger than a single community. For example, a group of 12 community foundations across the Midwest have already convened to focus on common priorities such as global competitiveness, high-speed rail, immigrant integration, and higher education. Each region has unique opportunities that would benefit from collaboration. We have already helped to stimulate these regional dialogues, as has the work of the Funders Network and various regional associations.

Terry Mazany is the president and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust.