Using Policy to Leverage Impact

One of the primary uses of policy in the foundation world is to extend the impact of funded projects. Willie Sutton robbed banks because “that is where the money is”; likewise, one of the most compelling reasons for foundations to become involved in policy is for the cash needed to bring projects to scale. Despite much talk over the past decades of government cutbacks, federal and state government resources continue to overshadow those of the nonprofit sector. The combined payout of the five largest private foundations in 1998 would have been insufficient to pay for one B-2 bomber—and the Department of Defense during that year was engaged in building twenty B-2 bombers. Securing a stream of governmental support for a project can quickly bring it to scale.

An excellent example of this phenomenon is the youth service movement in the United States. The idea of young people serving their nation as civilians as well as in the military is an old one, stretching back to the writing of William James in the nineteenth century and the experience of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. When World War II put an end to FDR's youth service experiments, the idea went dormant. In the early 1980s, Franklin Thomas, president of the Ford Foundation, began to advocate a return to youth service. Ford supported several pilot projects, along with providing start-up funds for an umbrella policy organization called Youth Service America. Soon Ford was joined by other funders, such as Kellogg, Mott, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. These foundations funded exemplary projects like City Year and the Youth Volunteer Corps of America, which defined principles of best practice in the field. The movement received a tremendous boost in 1989, when George Bush came to the White House and established the Points of Light Foundation to promote volunteerism. Working closely with the Points of Light Foundation and the new White House Office of National Service, a number of foundation and corporate funders advocated for increased government support of youth service programs. The result was the Community and National Service Act of 1990, which created the Commission for National Service. The commission served as the vehicle for distribution of $62 million per year to existing and new youth service programs. Then, in 1993, newly elected president Bill Clinton made it a priority to support the National and Community Service Act of 1993, which subsumed the Commission for National Service and existing federal organizations like ACTION and VISTA into the Corporation for National Service. The corporation, working through commissions appointed by governors in all fifty states, dispenses, as of this writing, $515 million annually to operate AmeriCorps (youth service) and Learn and Serve America (service-learning) programs across the nation. As a result of this bringing to scale, foundations have now mainly ceased funding pilot projects in youth service. Many, however, remain as funders of the Corporation for National Service, and some continue to do national service-related policy work.

It took more than a decade for the pioneering work done by the Ford Foundation to come completely to scale. This was achieved by the cooperative (and occasionally collaborative) work of more than twenty major funders, both foundations and corporations. It began with model project development. The creation of Youth Service America as a policy advocate, best practices arbiter, networker, and communications clearinghouse was an important step. Helping bellwether projects like City Year develop into major exemplars of practice was another strategic development. The most essential policy work was done in conjunction with the executive branch, first in the Bush administration through the Points of Light Foundation, then in the Clinton administration through the Corporation for National Service. Good policy work was also done in both houses of Congress, which set the stage for the passage of federal legislation in 1990 and again in 1993.

This story underlines several instructive lessons about using policy to bring projects to scale:

1. It is a time-consuming process that will take many years.
2. It is best done by a coalition of funders, not just one.
3. Many different models need to be created and tested, and the lessons learned from them must be shared.
4. It makes sense to create an umbrella organization to take the lead on policy work for the field.
5. It is important to develop allies in both the executive and legislative branches of government.
6. More than just dollars are required; the funder must be directly involved and provide personal leadership.

One other thing must be kept in mind: that which the government appropriateth, the government can cutteth. From 1994 until the end of the decade, Congress threatened at various times to reduce or eliminate altogether funding for the Corporation for National Service and the Points of Light Foundation. In response, the funders that had led the charge in model development formed the Grantmaker Forum on Community and National Service, an advocacy organization dedicated to building public support for the concept of service and the national and community service movement itself. This experience illustrates that even when funders are successful in bringing a project to scale, there is rarely a time when they can afford to follow Sen. George Aiken's advice about Vietnam, which was to “declare victory then go home.” They need instead to protect their past investments, occasionally by making grants but especially by being perpetually vigilant.