We envision a State where foundation leaders from every region are engaged in aligning and leveraging resources, developing and implementing inter-sectional approaches to community challenges, and being allies to advocates and community organizers who are addressing the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities throughout New York.
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Dear Colleagues,
In early 2019, the vision for Engage New York expanded. With the successful launch of the New York State Census Equity Fund, the first-ever truly state-wide pooled fund, along with the support the network was providing to advocacy efforts in housing, immigration, and criminal justice proved the value of the network and that it was too invaluable to lose. This recognition prompted the advisory committed to begin raising not just operating dollars, but resources for projects that would support the goal of strengthening the state-wide organizing and advocacy infrastructure with a focus on equitable progressive policy. As the network prepared for 2020, we were excited to announce the creation of a pooled fund to advance principles of equity, the development of an interactive advocacy mapping project, a partnership with Neighborhood Funders Group to commission a landscape scan focused on rural policy and convening a working group on combating the rise of white nationalism, all of which are highlighted below in the body of the newsletter.
However, this year didn’t start as planned. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, we paused our programmatic plans and turned our attention to supporting the COVID-19 relief response efforts across the State. First by collecting information, then by advising state-wide and national foundations on where relief was desperately needed. We were also asked by a national foundation to launch a grantmaking process to move resources to communities across the State overlooked by other relief efforts (also highlighted below). But COVID-19 isn’t the only story of 2020. We also witnessed the murder of George Floyd on television, which resulted in people pouring into the streets demanding that cities, the State, and the country deal with systemic racism once and for all.
Over the past two weeks, I attended both the Funders Committee for Civic Participation and the Neighborhood Funders Group virtual conferences. Both conferences featured speakers like
Alicia Garza
,
Ash-Lee Henderson
, and
Mary Hooks
that asked philanthropy to be bolder in funding organizers prepared to demand accountability, policy change, and the dismantling of systems that were strategically designed to suppress people of color. They asked philanthropies across the United States to invest in black-led movements and to fund them like we want them to win. They challenged our field to consider how it could move its resources – how we could use all of our resources – to invest in the change we give lip service to in our newsletters, social media pages, and in our board books. The call to action included us changing our grant and reporting processes, our investment strategies, and they urged us to move swiftly. The demands for actions are now – the time for action is now – and they assured us that change doesn’t follow our typical board cycles. Needless to say, the calls to action were powerful.
The two pandemics in front of us – COVID-19 and racism – have assured our network our work is critical in moving our State forward by supporting movement building and community organizing by investing in groups that are building people-power and amplifying voices of the most marginalized and most vulnerable. We are committed to this work, and invite you to be part of it. If you haven’t been involved in our work and want to be, let’s talk. The fight ahead is going to take all of us, all our resources, creative thinking, and a united front. The question I keep asking myself is if not now, when? I hope you feel the same sense of urgency that our network feels.
In Solidarity,
Lisa Fasolo Frishman
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What Happens When Communities Organize Through A Crisis
is
a tool to advocate for support of mutual aid embedded in the work of groups that tie that work with community organizing and power building. Grassroots and neighborhood-based organizations are hubs for support, care, and solidarity. But not only are they centers of mutual aid—these organizations are mobilizing New Yorkers to advocate for systemic changes needed to address the root causes of inequity that have been multiplied by this pandemic. This tool was inspired by the New York Foundation's research
What Happens When Communities Organize,
which is listed below.
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As communities across the State grapple with how to support organizations, residents, and nonprofits in the face of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement, foundations are wrestling with what their role should be in supporting the change that New Yorkers are demanding. The three projects below, all supported by New York based foundations, illustrate the need for more investment in community organization and power-building. Only when voices of the community drive change, is the change effective and meaningful. All three projects have been instrumental in Engage New York developing new strategies for supporting and strengthening the community organizing and advocacy infrastructure throughout the State. We invite you to read these reports and share them with your board of directors about how to support transformational change.
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This report explorers the set of conditions that provided an opportunity for the rapid policy changes that took place in New York State in 2019, and what funders can do to maximize and expand the shift towards policies that address racial and economic inequality.
Report supported by Unbound Philanthropy and the Long Island Community Foundation
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This report looks at the successful campaigns of Green Light NY and Housing Justice for All, and highlights the importance of statewide organizing, centering directly-impacted people from low-income communities of color in leadership and decision-making, and leveraging community power through grassroots organizing.
Report supported by North Star Fund and the New York Foundation
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This research report illustrates how the city's community organizing and advocacy groups— large and small—are often the connective tissue between community members and campaigns to win significant public policy change.
Project supported by the New York Foundation
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Engage New York Launches
Equity Focused Projects
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Engage New York Grants
$1 Million to COVID-19 Relief Efforts
In early April, Engage New York received a $1 million dollar grant from a national foundation interested in supporting community based groups in New York. Organizations that were prioritized in this grant process have a proven track record of working in communities most adversely affected by COVID-19 and the related economic crisis, center racial and gender justice in their theory of change, and in their programmatic work. Most of the groups that were awarded grants had not yet identified significant sources of funding, and/or their work with constituents was overlooked by other funding sources. Most importantly, the organizations awarded can connect their relief work to on-going efforts to address systemic inequity particularly as it relates to health, housing, criminal justice, racial justice, immigrants’ rights, and economic justice. The first round of grants was awarded in May, and the second round is being awarded in July. A final list of grants will be shared with the network in a future update.
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Anti-White Nationalism Working Group
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On June 4th, Engage New York kicked off a statewide working group of sector leaders interested in working together to combat the rise in white nationalism taking place across New York. In partnership with Engage New York member, the Daphne Foundation, the first working group meeting took place on June 4th and attracted 18 different foundations and nearly sector 25 leaders. The network engaged in dialogue with Eric Ward, Executive Director of
Western States Center
, who shared his expertise in the relationship between hate violence and preserving democratic institutions, governance, and inclusive societies.
The working group also spoke with Tarso Ramos, Executive Director of
Political Research Associates
(PRA). With support from New York based foundations, PRA will be interviewing nonprofit leaders across our State and conducting research that will be compiled and shared in a report on white nationalism's impact on communities across the State. The goal of this body of work is to develop a set of recommendations for the field, develop a set of tools for nonprofits, and to provide a working space for foundation leaders to work together to combat hate across the State.
The next working group meeting will be taking place on July 14th. If you are interested in joining this working group, contact
Engage New York.
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Engage Launches Racial Equity Pooled Fund and Prepares to Support Local Capacity Building
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In mid-June, Engage New York released an invite-only RFP to organizations and coalitions that are well-positioned to advocate for equitable policies at the state level using data about how COVID-19 is disproportionately impacting communities of color across the State. Applications are due in mid-July, and it anticipated that the first cohort of grantees will be announced in August.
Before COVID-19, the original goal of the racial equity pooled fund granting opportunity was to provide resources to organizations in parts of the state with limited organizing infrastructure to connect into established campaigns and coalitions. Given the need to ensure that as lawmakers in Albany are using data to develop new policy in the face of the pandemic, as well as continue to implement policy gains made in 2019, the Committee developing the RFP decided it was important to change course. Instead of supporting local groups, they re-imagined the RFP to provide more support for established groups to help them expand their geographical reach, diversify their policy agendas, and their governance structures as they seek equitable policies.
However, the Committee didn't want to lose sight of their desire to support local groups and increase their advocacy capacity.
To support the goal of increasing the community organizing and advocacy infrastructure, Engage New York will be launching a capacity-building project this Fall for a select group of nonprofits interested in being part of a cohort that will be trained in advocacy and policy-related work. Through a partnership with the Advocacy Institute (AI), the goal is to train between 20-25 nonprofits that have not had the opportunity to participate in an AI training in the past and are interested in learning more about the legislative process in New York. and how they can advance their goals through effective advocacy efforts. The goal would be that place-based foundations support their grantees in maintaining a relationship with AI through membership so the staff can continue to learn and take advantage of the one-on-one support the AI team provides, as well as supporting their engagement in state-wide campaigns.
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NYS Advocacy Mapping Project
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In 2019, members of the Engage New York Advisory Committee laid the groundwork for a new project that will help foundations identify where groups that are focused on advocacy, policy, and power building are located throughout the State by issue area.
This Spring, Engage New York has engaged a cartographer to develop an interactive map that will be a resource for foundations and nonprofits alike. With a goal of increasing financial resources to organizations leading advocacy efforts, creating more connectivity between organizations to strengthen policy campaigns, and to break down regional silos, the mapping project offers an opportunity to assess the statewide advocacy infrastructure. The project seeks to map where the infrastructure is strong, and where there are opportunities for investment.
Data collection is expected to start in July and Engage New York plans to share the results of this project with the foundation community in the later part of 2020.
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Engage New York, in partnership with
Neighborhood Funder's Integrated Rural Strategies Group
, is supporting a landscape scan to make the case for more investment in rural New York, especially agencies using a community engagement strategy and centering Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities and leaders. The landscape scan not only seeks to create an overview of rural philanthropy, organizing, and advocacy to create a shared understanding of the ecosystem in the State, but also to identify points of engagement and strategy especially around recent State policy wins that are impacting rural communities, and the opportunities and challenges that exist through their implementation.
The landscape scan is expected to be completed by the end of 2020 and will be widely shared with a presentation to follow to allow foundations to review the research and recommendations.
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Promoting a Lead Free New York
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For over two years, Engage New York has been supporting the Lead Poisoning Prevention Statewide Advocacy Network in convening leaders from different regions of the State that are focused on eliminating lead poisoning in children. In May 2018, sector leaders representing foundations, nonprofits, legal clinics, university research offices, and advocacy organizations came together for a day-long retreat that resulted in the development of a strategic framework that offered a path forward on reducing lead exposure in children. The result of this network's convening and strategic discussions resulted in four community foundations to create an aligned funding strategy to support state-wide advocacy.
In April 2020, the New York Community Trust, the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, the Central New York Community Foundation, and the Community Foundation for Herkimer & Oneida Counties selected the Lead Free New York Coalition to receive a two-year grant to support advocacy efforts to move New York to a primary prevention state. By working together, leveraging and aligning resources, the Foundations are seeking regulatory and policy change that protects New York's children. The Coalition will develop a campaign that utilizes local information and builds local networks to create state-wide power focused on policy change. We look forward to keeping you informed of the Coalition's process.
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Articles, Research and Reports of Interest
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Articles
Research
Reports
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