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Foundations have historically supported public policy efforts for two reasons: to leverage their resources, and to advance their mission. This section contains some background on each of these reasons, as well as links to further information.
Leveraging Your Resources
No one foundation or donor has the resources (funding, knowledge, or connections) to tackle or solve a deep-seated social problem alone. By supporting public policy advocacy, your foundation can serve larger numbers of people and help create longer-term solutions than you could through other types of grantmaking.
Support of public policy advocacy is critical to effective philanthropy. By supporting advocacy efforts and policy change, foundations can leverage their dollars to create the community and governmental support that is often needed to achieve substantive change.
In addition, public policy grantmaking can have a ripple effect in a community. Impacting and achieving real policy change can often be an empowering experience that will encourage longer-term community engagement in policy advocacy.
Useful Links
Interview with Luz Vega-Marquis, President, Marguerite Casey Foundation, Alliance for Justice
"Reflections on Public Policy Grantmaking" by Ruth Holton, California Wellness Foundation
"With Success Comes Responsibility" by Ruth Massinga and Luz Vega-Marquis, Marguerite Casey Foundation
Advancing Your Foundation's Mission
Foundations' missions are often broad and far-reaching. They reflect foundations' ultimate goals, such as ending hunger, for example, or ensuring the health of all children. Such broad goals expressed in foundations' missions often require systemic change.
Programs and direct services alone may show short-term benefits, but will often not get at the ultimate root of social problems that foundations wish to address. In contrast, foundations should view public policy engagement as a necessary counterpart to programmatic funding.
Furthermore, to ensure that foundatins achieve their goals, it is often necessary to look at the systemic context in which services are provided. For example, a foundation interested in ending domestic violence may fund battered women's shelters. However, if women are unable to navigate a complex intake system, they will not benefit from access to shelters.
If foundations and their grantees do not engage in public policy advocacy, they leave decisions about public policy up to those who may not understand community or constituency issues.
Building upon the above example, it is important for domestic violence survivors and advocates to be involved in the design and implementation of domestic violence services to ensure that the system reflects clients' needs.
Useful Links
"Applying Policy Tools to Achieve Long-Term Change" W. K. Kellogg Foundation
Interview with Emmett Carson, President, Minneapolis Community Foundation, Alliance for Justice
"Looking Upstream" by Dorothy Ridings, Foundation News & Commentary, COFFrom http://www.ncg.org/toolkit/html/gettingstarted/whyfund/print_whyfund.html
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