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Advocacy Field Guide for Lean Funders: How Small and Place-Based Foundations and Donors Can Make Big Change with Little Money

Success in the advocacy and policy arena depends on knowing who the decision-makers are, what motivates them, the best arguments and supporting data to use, the most effective voices and champions, and the best timing. These will be specific to every issue and will vary in every town, city or state. Therefore, to apply the principles and practices in this guide, you first need to choose a focus for your policy work — usually one or two issues you care deeply about — and then you need to learn everything you can about that issue. This, then, is the essential preparation for advocacy — focus...
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Foundations Facilitate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Partnering with Community and Nonprofits

This research study, commissioned by the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning by the D5 Coalition in 2012, investigates the systemic factors in the philanthropic sector that facilitate diversity, equity, and inclusion in grantmaking and nonprofit practice. In spring 2013, OMG conducted a qualititative study of nine foundations through in-depth interviews with executives, program officers, and nonprofit partners.
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Foundation Diversity Policy & Practices Toolkit

Changing demographics throughout the United States are redefining the role of diversity within the field of philanthropy. Foundations are embracing diversity in their grantmaking and organizational practices and thereby strengthening their knowledge of the communities they serve. This, in turn, broadens their perspective on the political, economic, and social problems they aim to resolve. A foundation that both reflects and acknowledges the myriad characteristics of its communities operates from a richer range of viewpoints toward successful grantmaking and as an authentic philanthropic...
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Disability Etiquette: Tips on Interacting with People with Disabilities

The United States Census Bureau reports that approximately 56.7 million Americans have a disability. This booklet is for anyone—with or without a disability—who wants to interact more effectively with people with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was conceived with the goal of integrating people with disabilities into all aspects of life, particularly the workplace and the marketplace. Sensitivity toward people with disabilities is not only in the spirit of the ADA, it makes good business sense. It can help you expand your practice, better serve your customers or...
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Building on a Better Foundation: A Toolkit for Creating an Inclusive Grantmaking Organization

The toolkit now in your hands is the product of many years of dialogue, debate and learning among a committed group of people at regional grantmaking associations across the country and their colleagues at member organizations. What began with talk about race and ethnicity in the 1980s eventually evolved into discussions of the broader issues of inclusion and diversity at grantmaking institutions. This toolkit takes the talk to another level, to walk the walk of inclusion by encouraging others to think about and pursue diversity in both their internal organization and their external work as...
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A Toolkit for Centering Racial Equity Throughout Data Integration

Societal “progress” is often marked by the construction of new infrastructure that fuels change and innovation. Just as railroads and interstate highways were the defining infrastructure projects of the 1800 and 1900s, the development of data infrastructure is a critical innovation of our century. Railroads and highways were drivers of development and prosperity for some investors and sites. Yet other individuals and communities were harmed, displaced, bypassed, ignored, and forgotten by those efforts. As railroads and highways both developed and decimated communities, so too can data...
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Philanthropy Advocacy Playbook: Leveraging Your Dollars

PAP.png Philanthropy Advocacy Playbook: Leveraging Your Dollars is designed to provide foundations with the information they need to both fund and conduct advocacy. The Playbook provides examples of how foundation investments have generated meaningful policy change, as well as links to other publications and fact sheets that will allow foundation leaders to quickly answer their questions and access additional information.
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Grantmaking with a Racial Equity Lens: A Practical Guide

Written by PRE Senior Fellow Rinku Sen and Executive Director Lori Villarosa with contributions from Maggie Potapchuk, Lisa McGill, and Makani Themba, this resource provides grantmakers with reflections, frameworks and tools built from the direct experience of activists and funders for advancing racial justice in any philanthropic setting. Download it here
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Advocacy Funding: The Philanthropy of Changing Minds

Grantmakers tend to be cautious about funding advocacy, and for good reason - yet advocacy can play a crucial role in advancing a foundation's mission. In this guide, contributors explain that advocacy includes a lot of opportunities to improve public policy through work that is well within the limits of the law. Whether your purpose is to advance an idea, argue a position, or enrich the policy debate, the guide offers resources and strategies for planning your work, reaching your audience, assessing impact, and more.
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Effective Grantmaking Practices that Support Nonprofit Sustainability

This research includes these four recommendations to support nonprofit sustainability: Continue to build on current efforts to establish strong relationships with grantees, listen, and respond. Seek short- and long-term feedback about usefulness and impact of capacity building resources provided to grantees. Consider using additional funding strategies, such as loan programs. Gather additional input about ways staff and organizational self-care can be fostered. Download the full report and two-page handout
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Best PracticeGrantmaking

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