Regional Association of Grantmakers
Broadening Foundations' Engagement Beyond Taxes.
The Challenge:
The Philanthropy Practice believes in the power of foundation storytelling. Our work is based on the premise that one important way to build Congressional support for foundations and philanthropy is to ensure elected officials understand the work foundations are doing in their states and districts, and the impact philanthropy has on their constituents.
We believe regional associations of grantmakers (RAGs) have a huge role to play in this outreach, because they give individual foundations with concerns about advocacy and “lobbying” a degree of separation — it’s the membership group (a public charity) organizing the meetings, as opposed to the foundation staff itself.
Given this premise, we've worked with prominent RAGs to organize their annual Foundations on the Hill (FOTH) visits around local issues of importance, as opposed to the traditional visits with FOTH meetings focused on nonprofit tax issues.
For example, we worked with one prominent RAG for two successive years to organize their FOTH meetings around local issues, first on the 2020 Census and then on health care and housing issues.
Incorporated in this work, VSA did the following:
· Developed an advocacy training for foundation staff and grantees.
· Drafted talking points and preparatory content.
· Scheduled all meetings and created personalized itineraries for each participant.
· Attended meetings, captured action items, and managed follow-up.
The Results:
What the focus on issues allowed us to do was get more involvement from senior staff and Members of Congress.
One year, we secured Member meetings with half the Congressional delegation, whereas these meetings are usually exclusively with junior staff. This shift in emphasis towards on-the-ground impact allowed us to explain the work of philanthropy, instead of just focusing on how tax policy impacted philanthropy. The attention to grantmaking enabled us to meet with more senior staff and led to more opportunities for follow-up and relationship building.
Developing a Policy Agenda: Veterans’ Service Organization
Organizing Grantees for Fly-In Days: Private Foundation
