6.18.2009

Report Touts Nonprofit Advocacy in NC

A recent report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy’s Grantmaking for Community Impact Project focused on a group of North Carolina nonprofit organizations.  The report is available in full online; here is an excerpt from the executive summary:

“NCRP studied 13 organizations that worked with underrepresented constituencies in North Carolina on a range of issues, including poverty, worker issues, education, health care, housing, environment and civil rights.  These organizations used a variety of strategies to achieve change, including building coalitions, mobilizing affected communities, partnering with policymakers, conducting research, reaching out to the media, creating new institutions and employing legal strategies. The report examined the groups’ accomplishments over a five-year period (2003–2007):

• For impacts that could be quantified, the aggregate monetary benefit of the groups’ accomplishments was more than $1.8 billion.
• For every dollar invested in their advocacy and organizing work ($20.4 million total), the groups garnered $89 in benefits for North Carolina communities.
• Foundations provided critical support to these successes, contributing $17.5 million or 86 percent of all funding for advocacy and organizing among the nonprofit sample.

These numbers and equally important non-quantifiable impacts translated into concrete improvements in people’s lives. For example, homeowners avoided losing their homes to foreclosure. Senior citizens gained access to affordable medications. Low-wage workers earned more income and the unemployed received temporary compensation until they could find new jobs. Students benefited from supplemental education services and renovated schools. Youth had training and summer job opportunities. Farmworkers and other residents had decreased exposure to toxic chemicals and pollutants. Rural communities made progress in building sustainable local economies. Same-sex partners secured the right to visit their companions in the hospital. Communities became more socially cohesive, building bridges across race, class and other divides.”