March 26, 2024

 

The emergence of Press Forward is an exciting development for community foundations.  

Focused on strengthening communities and democracy by supporting local journalism, Press Forward recognizes that the disappearance of local media has significantly weakened our democracies at the local – and state and federal – levels.  

To fill this growing void in public education and civic engagement, this nationwide initiative offers community foundations potential for support, models, and vehicles that better enable their communities to effectively self-govern.  By doing so, Press Forward is providing an essential part of the solution to our declining democracy.

Yet access to information alone does not ensure effective policymaking. Effective policymaking requires sifting through different perspectives; assessing the pros and cons of various possibilities; prioritizing the greater good over individuals’ interests; and making hard choices on complicated questions.  While access to relevant information is the essential core, to make the best decisions policymakers must recognize – and sense that their voting constituents can appreciate - what’s best for the long-term strength of their communities. 

Making the right decisions for the health of our communities is, of course, at the heart of community foundations’ missions – and where we also have tremendous policy expertise. We know the concerns, the community's needs, our nonprofits’ perspectives, and the gaps that remain after we grant our way to the most progress possible.  Yet most community foundations exercise excessive, arguably counter-productive, restraint when it comes to sharing information that can guide our policymakers toward the strongest paths forward for the communities we serve. 

A community foundation development director from the Midwest recently reached out to me about precisely this potential.  She noted at the beginning of the meeting that she wasn’t really sure why her CEO had suggested we connect. Yet by the end of our conversation, she could see the obvious benefits policy leadership has for her community foundation’s effectiveness, donor ROI, fundraising potential, and genuine ability to serve the community.  This was a complete revelation to this development director – despite having been on the community foundation’s leadership team for four years. At the same time, given our field’s history, it was completely understandable.

The potential for similar revelations seems possible among many community foundation leaders (and particularly development directors) across the country. So I’ll offer a little more about how our conversation unfolded, as a minor case study. Because it seems to reflect how your community foundation can – and should – engage your expertise on the issues at the heart of your mission, to help advance your priority issues in ways grantmaking alone simply cannot.

Whether or Not to Share Policy Information?

The conversation arose simply because the development director’s CEO (a longtime reader and sometime webinar attendee) suggested she talk with me. But the development director didn’t know why, or what help to expect from such a conversation.   

I explained I wasn’t a development expert, per se, but that I could see how her community foundation’s engagement with policymakers on their key policy issues could be an excellent development tool – for enticing new donors, strengthening the ROI for existing donors, and enabling the organization’s overall success.

The discussion revealed that in their rural jurisdiction, transportation is a major problem – and their organization’s priority. The community foundation has long recognized how the manifestations of this problem undermine progress in their region; assessed nonprofits’ proposals and provided grants seeking to address this systemic concern; and identified many of the specific shortcomings of their region’s existing public transportation system.

I explained to the development director that if she thought about it in this way, she’d likely realize that their community foundation was one of the most expert voices in their community about how it could improve policy to address these issues. As such, the community foundation could be an invaluable asset to the policymakers trying to identify not just how best to address the region’s transportation needs, but how addressing those needs could also strengthen the entire region. And because community foundations serve everyone in their regions, it could suggest approaches to the problem that navigate the interests and concerns of the entire region they serve.

I pointed out that the community foundation could have significant immediate impact just by seeing itself as an asset in this way. Without needing to become “partisan,” “political,” or even “advocates” – much less “lobbyists” – on the issue. 

I noted that if they simply shared what they knew, offered to be a resource, participated (along with non-profits and other community partners) in policy conversations, and encouraged their grantees and those they served to share what could help address local transportation concerns, responsible policymakers would find that extremely helpful - and be thankful for their engagement.

Because, as I also noted, policymakers need to think at a very broad yet shallow level across all of their work, because they have to decide on a wide variety of issues. I.e., Schools, transportation, health care, housing, environment, economic development, public safety, arts and culture, and more. (Done properly, policymaking truly is much harder than it might seem.)

To make the best decisions they can, across this vast range of issues, policymakers rely on available information, their staff, expert analyses, what key voices are saying, their sense of their voting constituents’ understanding of the issue, and their gut on the critical decisions they make - which have significant impact on the community’s immediate and long-term future. 

Yet policymakers' staff capacity is typically thin; relevant information increasingly hard to come by (hence Press Forward); and altruistic experts are rarely accessible.

As I explained to her, by taking its first steps into intentional engagement with policymakers, the community foundation would also begin to learn the actual mechanics of how policy is made in their community. (Spoiler alert: It’s a little alarming, yet also reveals the significant impacts smart engagement can enable.) By starting slowly and seeking to learn by doing so, community foundations tend to find their initial steps successful, if at small scale. And quite empowering when it comes to seeing the possibility of continuing to successfully engage at the next levels of policy conversation.

This made sense to her. She was able to see the possibilities as applied to her community foundation’s expertise on local transportation issues, and how engaging with policymakers really could make a difference on various levels.

I then also pointed out the counter-questions, which are just as essential to this way of thinking about community foundations’ policy expertise. 

Given all that your community foundation knows about transportation issues, needs, and even potential solutions in your community, I said, when you consider your mission wouldn’t it actually be irresponsible for your CF to stay silent on the most constructive ideas for improving local transportation?

In effect, if your community foundation didn’t engage in policy conversations on your priority issues, would you be withholding the information essential for effective governance from your local policymakers – who are, after all, community foundations’ partners in our regions' strength? 

I noted that the breadth and depth of information their community foundation has on this issue is far beyond what most individual policymakers tend to know – especially given the vast range of issues they must address.  And that it’s rare for policymakers to receive relevant and reliable information from an entity that’s also focused on the interests of their entire community. 

I also asked, wouldn’t withholding your understandings on your priority issues also shortchange your grantees and community members, who have shared the essential information for policy solutions with you - yet who lack your leadership standing and reach on these issues? Much less the reasons people who invest in your organization to advance your community’s needs on fundamentally important issues?

I urged her to consider that her community foundation’s effective policy engagement - at the speed the best suits them - is entirely within their power. And that it can make the critical difference between the existence of a systemic community problem and policymakers’ ability effectively address it. 

Ultimately, I asked her, what is your community foundation’s mission? Is it to provide grants? Or is it to enable your community’s strength by improving conditions on the specific issues you prioritize?

If it’s the latter, I said, sharing your expertise with policymakers and the public will seriously strengthen your organization’s effectiveness.  And declining to do so would seemingly neglect the fiduciary responsibility your community foundation has claimed on behalf of your region.

I said this not to guilt her, but to simply share a perspective that seems all too rarely shared – and more importantly, acted upon – within our field. And of course I noted that if her community foundation was interested, yet wanted some help figuring out the specifics of how to begin successfully engaging on policy issues, I’d be more than glad to share what I’ve learned throughout my career building and leading strategic advocacy efforts for the greater good.

As I type, I’m realizing this conversation lies at the heart of why I launched the Center for Community Foundation Policy Leadership. I did so because I recognized that community foundations increasingly see the tremendous potential of their policy engagement. And yet I also saw that it’s also all new enough, and complicated enough, to require a little coaching to enable these critically important organizations to see and begin to pursue the successful policy paths that lie before them.

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This feels like a great topic for discussion among this group of readers. If you'd like to explore this issue - and these questions -with community foundation colleagues from across the country, please join us on Friday, April 12, at Noon ET/11CT/10MT/ 9CT by clicking here or on the button below.

Hope to see you then!