How Small and Place-Based Foundations and Donors Can Make Big Change With Little Money

Funders with few or no staff are perfectly positioned to fund and engage in advocacy. Smaller funders have deep ties to their communities, can act quickly to respond to emerging opportunities, and can focus in a laser-like way.

Donors and trustees can leverage their relationships with elected leaders in their cities and states. Their knowledge, insight, and reputation are powerful assets in policy work. When benefactors and trustees testify, write op-eds, and meet with legislators, their voices carry weight.

This field guide helps you put these unique and powerful assets to use. Lean funders who engage in policy achieve huge returns on investment. Grants as little as $5,000, combined with targeted investments of time, effort, and imagination at just the right moment, can yield investments in the millions of dollars.

The core of this guide is a set of 7 practical, field-tested steps for funding and engaging in advocacy, including how to find and use effective data, and recruiting unexpected messengers. Learn the fundamentals of advocacy, the diverse ways you can engage, and how to make a case to your board. At every step, we describe strategies and practices in a way that opens doors to opportunity, builds consensus, and inspires with stories from small funders.

Lean funders who use this guide can ultimately have a greater impact on urgent issues through real and substantive policy change and reform.

Get knowledgeable, get connected, get engaged.

Preview the Introduction and Table of Contents