On the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Alliance for Justice has issued a comprehensive report on the role that foundations can play in funding nonprofit advocacy efforts in the wake of major disasters, and the effect of those efforts on the long-term recovery of affected regions.
Entitled Power Amidst Renewal: Foundation Support for Sustaining Advocacy After Disasters, the 30-page document serves as a follow-up to Power Amidst Chaos, a report issued in 2007 by AFJ that discussed the value of funding advocacy programs in the wake of calamities like Katrina and the importance of foundation support in hastening the recovery process.
The new report, which draws on five years of hard-won experience by nonprofits, community advocates, and foundations in the Gulf Coast, can serve as a roadmap for funders and the nonprofit community in how to activate meaningful advocacy efforts before and after disasters strike
Among the report’s conclusions are:
– Building the capacity for advocacy, both before and after disasters, requires a long-term investment by foundations and individual donors.
– An important way for national funders to support long-term local organizing and advocacy is to strengthen local philanthropy so that it can sustain this civic activism long after the emergency appears to be over.
– The post-disaster environment provides new opportunities for foundation and nonprofit impact on the development of equitable public policy.
– Advocacy training should be incorporated into post-disaster funding.
– Advocacy agendas of local groups and outside funders sometimes differ after a disaster. National and regional funders must craft their grantmaking with significant input from local groups and the communities they represent.
– Training for nonprofits and foundations is a key component of sustained civic activism and should be incorporated into post-disaster funding.
– Coalitions of nonprofit organizations are natural vehicles for widespread, robust, and effective citizen activism soon after a disaster strikes and should be supported over time.
Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron hailed the release of the report, saying that “Hurricane Katrina was a wake-up call for the nonprofit and foundation communities, and demonstrated the enormous importance of incorporating advocacy strategies into recovery efforts, and of having a well-established capacity for activating local advocacy networks ready and waiting when the need arises. This report passes along the valuable lessons and successful approaches learned by the people of the Gulf region in the crucible of a great tragedy.”
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