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Winter 2007
Philanthropy and Advocacy:
More Foundations Finding Role in Public Arena
by Sylvia Lindman
In the broad sense, advocacy involves speaking out in some fashion on matters of public policy. To some foundations, that means lobbying — assuming their organizational status allows it. To others, it means making grants to support advocacy activities. To many, it includes a vast range of tactics in between, from publications to speeches and op-eds to convening.
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Board and staff of The Sheltering Arms Foundation accept the MCN Responsive Philanthropy Award.
Photo courtesy of Scott Streble Photography.
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What a difference a decade makes. Not long ago, foundations and nonprofits shied away from advocacy, fearful that taking a public-policy position might jeopardize their tax-advantaged status. Today, advocacy has become a fundamental tool of philanthropy. "I think we consider advocacy something that is part and parcel to the entire makeup of the organization," says Stephen Roszell, chair of the board of trustees of The Minneapolis Foundation.
Foundations engage in advocacy to make their grantmaking more effective, developing messages and outreach that reinforce their own mission and their grantees' work. "We are doing advocacy work because it really helps our grantees succeed," said ellery july, who was just named consultant for interim leadership of National Network of Grantmakers and
is the former vice president of programs at Northwest Area Foundation.
Opening the Door to Advocacy
Efforts at the national and state levels have defused the anxieties and opened the door to advocacy. Alliance for Justice launched its Foundation Advocacy Initiative in 1995 and published a book, Myth V. Fact: Foundation Support for Advocacy, that same year. Marcia Avner, public policy director for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, wrote The Lobbying and Advocacy Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations, published by Wilder Publishing Center in 2002.
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"We realized that what we were doing in the community would have benefit only if public dollars were also aligned around similar priorities."
— Stephen Roszell, The Minneapolis Foundation
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The Minnesota Council on Foundations has added to that work with focused communications on foundations and advocacy, including "Lobbying & Public Policy: What Every Grantmaker Should Know" (2005) and "Legal FAQs: Lobbying" (2003, updated in 2006). Advocacy and public policy workshops have spread the word that foundations and nonprofit organizations have certain legal rights to advocate and that advocacy might even be considered a funder's responsibility.
The national Council on Foundations joined the movement to champion advocacy by establishing its Paul Ylvisaker Award for Public Policy Engagement in 2002. The award is given each year to a foundation that has used creative and effective strategies to affect public policy. Seven foundations (three shared the honor in 2003) have received the award, and two of those are Minnesota foundations. The McKnight Foundation won the first award in 2002 for helping welfare reform succeed in Minnesota, and the Blandin Foundation was honored in 2006 for integrating environmental sustainability with community economic development.
Permitted advocacy activities vary by the type of foundation, but as a general rule, community foundations, also called public foundations, may use up to a percentage of their annual spending in certain cases to lobby. Private foundations may support advocacy by public charities via general grants but may not lobby directly or
earmark a grant for lobbying. Neither type of foundation may engage in partisan electoral activities. Other types of advocacy, notably research and examination of broad social issues, are permitted.
Even so, some funders resist advocacy because its outcome seems intangible. In a results-driven era, advocacy resists measurement. "The time required to effect policy change can be decades," Roszell said. "Sometimes you have to sit back and observe and be thoughtful and build communication to your constituencies before you are able to effect meaningful change."
Recently, a group of Minnesota funders active in advocacy has been meeting to network. They include The Minneapolis Foundation, Northwest Area Foundation, The Sheltering Arms Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, Otto Bremer Foundation, Bush Foundation, Headwaters Foundation for Justice, The Saint Paul Foundation, the Grotto Foundation and others.
Reflecting Foundation Goals
Advocacy is most effective when it reflects a foundation's goals, july said. "Stay within your mission," he advised. "And if you have grantees doing policy, bring them together so they can talk. Listen to what they have to say, and be supportive with other resources beyond money." In addition, "be clear about what you want to accomplish, not just what you want them to accomplish."
Here is a look at how some Minnesota foundations are using advocacy to help achieve their goals:
The Minneapolis Foundation: Speak Out for Your Community
The Minneapolis Foundation is so firmly committed to advocacy that two years ago the board inserted the word "advocate" into its mission statement. The passage now reads: "We are committed to be an effective resource developer and a responsible steward of those resources, an active grantmaker and convener addressing crucial community needs, and an advocate and constructive catalyst for changing systems to better serve people."
The directors agreed that advocacy made them a more effective catalyst for change. A dozen years ago, when past-president and CEO Emmett Carson arrived, the foundation began to evaluate its role in the community. "We realized that what we were doing in the community would have benefit only if public dollars were also aligned around similar priorities," Roszell said.
That led to an escalating commitment to advocacy activities. Initially, the foundation made grants to advocacy organizations. In 2003, when Minnesota faced significant human service budget cuts, the foundation took a more ambitious approach — a major public relations campaign titled "Deleted for Budgetary Reasons." The Minneapolis Foundation joined with the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits to create what became a highly visible and successful campaign using advertising, publications, public speaking and a website (GoodforMinnesota.org) to raise public awareness about Minnesota's long-term health.
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Stephen Roszell |
This year, the foundation has taken its boldest step yet, related to a current high priority, all-day kindergarten. "All of the research indicates that those who've had all-day kindergarten have much higher levels of success in elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, yet Minnesota is not one of the 29 states that fund it," Roszell said. To get the topic on the public agenda, board and staff met with all gubernatorial candidates. And now two staff members, interim president and CEO Karen Kelley-Ariwoola and program officer Ruth Parriott, have registered as lobbyists so they can talk to legislators directly. Board members also will join those discussions, but because they are not paid, they are volunteers and don't have to register.
"When we began to get involved [in advocacy], we were using everything short of political action," Roszell said. "So this is a fairly new initiative."
This spring the foundation expects to announce a new president and CEO to replace Carson, who has just moved on to head the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. "We're looking for somebody who has the ability to represent ideas and take a leadership position, and the courage to take on significant issues," Roszell said.
Advocacy is especially important for community foundations, he added. "Community foundations exist to improve and better the community," Roszell said. They know the needs of the community and are ideally positioned to bring issues to the attention of government. "I think public-private partnerships have a far greater chance of impact on the community than either public or private going it alone," Roszell said. "It just makes good sense to try to create the additional leverage you can by joining forces on issues."
Northwest Area Foundation: Spread Your Knowledge
Northwest Area Foundation pursues its goal — poverty reduction — in three ways, as the foundation's website proclaims: "We identify, share and advocate ‘what's working' to reduce poverty for the long term."
Advocacy has had some notable successes for the foundation. For example, in recent years, its grants to nonprofit organizations advocating for a raise in the minimum wage helped bring about positive information about the impact of raising the minimum wage in states where NWAF makes grants.
Another key way the foundation works toward policy change is by conducting research that identifies what policies need to change and why. Recent research has made it clear that public policies often inadvertently keep people in poverty. So a year ago, the foundation completed a survey that shows Americans strongly believe their locally elected officials have an important role to play in reducing the number of those who are struggling to make ends meet. In addition, NWAF began working with a University of Washington faculty member and public policy expert, David Harrison, to help researchers develop new governmental policies to combat poverty. Harrison, whose position is supported through a five-year grant to The Seattle Foundation, is looking at the issues at both the federal and state levels. That work, if successful, will benefit all of the foundation's grantees, in turn helping the foundation fulfill its mission.
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"We are doing advocacy work because it really helps our grantees succeed."
— ellery july, Northwest Area Foundation
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The foundation also learned that many people remain in poverty because certain regulations unintentionally limit their opportunities to make a living. For example, the federal welfare program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families promotes work but has rules that inhibit entrepreneurship. "Many people on TANF have a deep entrepreneurial spirit," july said, "but starting a business is almost impossible given the rules that are in place. Once you start a business, they literally can kick you out of the system, no matter what the income of the business is — and all businesses take time to get going."
NWAF is encouraging advocacy among the nonprofit organizations it supports "to help them figure out where the boundaries are, related to advocacy and lobbying," july said. The foundation made a grant to the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest to provide training throughout its funding region. "We here in Minnesota are very blessed with high-quality nonprofits who know the rules of engagement," july said. "But some of the states we're in have less knowledge and more apprehension about those rules."
NWAF's growing expertise around poverty had created opportunities for another kind of advocacy: educating public officials and the general public. Elected officials from across the region have knocked on the foundation's door to learn about poverty reduction. The foundation has also made its resources available through national associations of county and state officials. As a private foundation, july said, "we can't create, propose or endorse any specific legislation, so we have to be really careful, but we can provide information, which we have a lot of."
Frey Foundation: Enhance Your Grantmaking
The Frey Foundation is a small family foundation, but its voice on the issue of affordable housing is clear and loud. James Frey, president and CEO, said the foundation decided two years ago that "rather than just respond to requests, we would take a more strategic approach and try to address a major issue." Partly because family members had been longtime volunteers in homeless shelters, affordable housing rose to the top of the priority list. "We had 100 percent internal agreement," Frey said.
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James Frey |
Minnesota was just embarking on its first initiative to end homelessness by 2010, and Frey wanted to see it work. He doesn't pretend to be an expert on the issue, so the family board sat down with representatives from the Family Housing Fund, Minnesota Housing Finance Agency and the Corporation for Supportive Housing. Supportive housing — supplying basic services that can help people overcome problems that might otherwise put them back on the street — seemed like a perfect fit.
"That led us to kick off an affordable housing initiative that has an emphasis on supportive housing," Frey said. Over five years, the foundation will contribute $5 million first to housing. The grant is considered instrumental in bringing other funders and the Minnesota Legislature to the table.
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"If I'm doing any kind of advocacy work, it takes the forms of talking about the urgent need for individuals, foundations and the public to step up and play their parts."
— James Frey, Frey Foundation
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"The process has been slow, but we've been encouraged by the fact it continues to receive public attention," Frey said. "And it did change the ways we look at other grants that have nothing to do with housing." For example, the foundation decided that, rather than wait for an application, family members who saw a need would take the initiative to go out into the community and learn the facts to find out how they could participate.
Frey doesn't think of the foundation's activity as advocacy so much as it is common sense. "If I'm doing any kind of advocacy work, it takes the forms of talking about the urgent need for individuals, foundations and the public to step up and play their parts," he said.
The Sheltering Arms Foundation: Be a Good Partner
When Denise Mayotte arrived as executive director three-plus years ago, Sheltering Arms' trustees had only recently decided to use advocacy to increase the effectiveness of their grants in support of children's well-being. They had formed an advocacy committee; Mayotte was charged with figuring out how the foundation could use advocacy to make the most impact with its limited dollars.
"People realized early on that one way to do advocacy work is through partnerships," Mayotte said. "I was given free rein to discover who the important partners were in our area of interest, early childhood."
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Denise Mayotte |
Mayotte, who previously worked at The McKnight Foundation, learned from the late Nancy Latimer about some of the children's advocacy organizations in the community and, in turn, the foundation became part of them, including Ready 4 K, Congregations Concerned for Children and the Early Childhood Funders Network. "We decided to link our legislative agenda with the agenda Congregations Concerned for Children had been developing," she said.
In addition, the foundation increased the number of grants it was making to advocacy organizations. "This past year a third of our grants were in the advocacy area, and we anticipate that will increase," Mayotte said.
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"People realized early on that one way to do advocacy work is through partnerships. I was given free rein to discover who the important partners were in our area of interest — early education."
— Denise Mayotte, The Sheltering Arms Foundation
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The foundation has only one grant cycle yearly but maintains a special opportunities fund to support key opportunities for advocacy that arise in the interim. One such grant, to Ready 4 K, went toward early childhood legislative caucuses forming around the state. "It's critical to educate legislators," Mayotte said, "because if they go in front of constituents, they have to know what they're talking about." Last year United Way picked up the initiative and is supporting the legislative caucuses.
The Sheltering Arms Foundation also began statewide partnerships with the Minnesota Initiative Funds. "We helped to fund their work around early childhood and also worked with them as partners on numerous things, such as a statewide conference around early childhood," Mayotte said.
This year Sheltering Arms will develop its own legislative agenda, expanding beyond early childhood. The foundation has been supporting a coalition of youth organizations, Youth Community Connections, which this year will finally be ready to present its out-of-school-time agenda. "We want to be part of that," Mayotte said.
Direct service remains the heart of Sheltering Arms' work. But, Mayotte said, "we see it's possible to educate some direct service grantees around the possibility of advocacy." For example, the foundation made advocacy the center of its annual grantee convening this year. And Mayotte has a success story to tell.
"We fund a small bilingual preschool, and a couple of years ago we invited them to advocacy training," she said. "They said they are very small and so busy taking care of their program it was hard to have the time to have the impact. But they came and listened, and by the end of the year they were called on to go to the legislature to testify about issues for child care providers. This kind of thing makes us realize that these small gestures and conversations and relationships and nurturing people along can really make a huge difference."
This year, Sheltering Arms' advocacy efforts were honored with the Responsive Philanthropy Award from the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits. "It was a confirmation for our trustees that this is a good direction for us," Mayotte said.
Wells Fargo: Take Care of Business
Corporate givers like Wells Fargo may have different reasons for getting involved in public policy
— they pay special attention to issues that affect their business, their employees and their customers
— but the result is similar: they help raise awareness and foster debate.
"We have a simple premise: that our business is only as successful as the communities in which we do business," said Jon Campbell, CEO of Wells Fargo's Minnesota region, "so we have always felt responsible to be actively engaged in community and regional activities."
Before the 2006 election, Wells Fargo's Minnesota leadership council decided it could not ignore Minnesota's transportation amendment, which was to appear on the ballot. "Wells Fargo takes public policy positions on things other than specific industry issues when we think it has an impact either directly on our customers or team members and shareholders," Campbell said. "In the case of transportation, we saw it having an impact clearly on both customers and team members."
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Jon Campbell |
Wells Fargo contributed corporate dollars to the "Vote Yes" campaign and conducted an internal education campaign for bank employees via e-mail. The internal campaign did not take a position but was tied to a "Get Out the Vote" effort. "We told team members why we felt transportation was an issue Wells Fargo should be engaged in, and we tried to be fair in talking about the pros and cons of the amendment, but we clearly didn't say this is how you should vote," Campbell said. "We made it clear it was a personal choice."
Campbell personally co-chaired the "Vote Yes" campaign, giving speeches, meeting with Wells Fargo managers and employee groups, and writing op-eds. As co-chair he was not representing the bank, he said.
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"We have a simple premise: that our business is only as successful as the communities in which we do business."
— Jon Campbell, Wells Fargo
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A longer-term advocacy relationship for the bank is the Itasca Project, a business-led initiative focusing on projects and goals that improve the Twin Cities' quality of life. Transportation is a longstanding priority for the Itasca Project and dovetails with a corporate-retention effort, Grow Minnesota. Campbell has observed that transportation is one of the top issues on business people's minds. "It's emerging on business leaders' minds as an issue that needs some sort of sustained form of funding," he said. "So there's a direct correlation. Grow Minnesota helps build the public policy agenda for the business community in the state."
The passage of the amendment doesn't end Wells Fargo's interest in transportation, Campbell said. "This was an extremely important first step," he said, "but I don't think the transportation situation is fully resolved. We will continue to watch what happens, and most likely we will be involved."
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Information from the
Winter 2007 Edition of Giving Forum
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Thank you to the sponsor of this issue of Giving Forum:
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| $1,000 Supporter |
The Minneapolis Foundation
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© Copyright 2007 Minnesota Council on
Foundations
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