1. Identify leaders on the ground
2.Strengthen them with grant investment and intensive on-the-job leadership training
3. Build strategic alliances so they can forge common agendas for change
Liberty Hill holds itself accountable for smart strategic investment of its grant funds and other programmatic activities. Charity Navigator has awarded Liberty Hill four stars, its top rating.
Liberty Hill is widely known for its use of community advisors to help us make our grant decisions. These advisors, known as Community Funding Boards, keep Liberty Hill’s knowledge of communities close to the ground, allowing us to identify strong leaders who often are not receiving foundation support. (Review the list of 2010 Community Funding Board members.) Our grant evaluations are also informed by site visits, final reports (if the organization is a prior grantee), and the expertise of our program officers. Liberty Hill has 30 years of experience observing social justice grantee organizations.
Every grant contract includes goals and expectations. Oftentimes additional resources are provided to grantees to help them succeed. If programs fall below expectations, our concerns are discussed with grant recipients. If performance does not improve, funding will be reduced or ended.
Our new Leadership Institute training programs are being carefully monitored with pre- and post-tests to measure the degree to which skills are implemented within organizations and whether the organizations are strengthened as a result. We will use this information to make improvements to our training programs.
An exciting analysis assessing return-on-investment to communities of community organizing was released in March 2010. The study, Strengthening Democracy, Increasing Opportunities: Impacts of Advocacy, Organizing and Civic Engagement in Los Angeles County, was led by the National Center for Responsive Philanthropy. Nine of the 15 organizations assessed in the study received their first foundation funding from Liberty Hill. The study's key finding: For every $1 invested in L.A. community organizing, L.A. saw $91 in benefits in return.
Liberty Hill's approach to grantmaking using community input is described in a recent book, Change Philanthropy by Alicia Korten (Jossey-Bass, 2009).
In 2004, Ford Foundation hired a team of evaluators to assess its investments in community organizing including Ford Foundation's investment in Liberty Hill.
More on Liberty Hill grants and programs
More on Liberty Hill’s Wally Marks Leadership Institute
More on Liberty Hill’s work building strategic alliances
Reports documenting Liberty Hill’s groundbreaking work building strategic alliances for environmental justice and support for social justice philanthropy.