Lisa Ranghelli, director of Grantmaking for Community Impact Project, and Julia Craig, research associate at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) report in the NCRP Blog that they were so alarmed by the findings in research they are doing that they could not wait until their report is done. They are sounding an alarm on behalf of NCRP in The Cost of Foundation Disinvestment..”.

Rangheli and Craig are finding deep fissures in funding of non-profits. The economic impact of 2008 is still sending after shocks through community organizations. The writers tell of groups that have lost funding because their states are not “blue” enough. A group in Idaho was to be included in their study but folded before being interviewed. Two key funders pulled out. Idaho is highly dependent upon foundations based elsewhere. Gail Heylmun, executive director at the Fund for Idaho, is quoted as saying in the words of the researchers “that progressive foundations have pulled out of Idaho as it solidified as a red state over the last decade and as the recession took a bite out of their funding capacity.”

This important article also examines a case of late government payments having huge impacts in Pennsylvania.

Perhaps most important about this NCRP story is how it broadens the story of political policy choices influencing funding. The wounds to communities seem to go untreated and the impacts of cuts reach into the future. A question could be asked whether those choices may tend to contribute to polarization of the country as alternative voices (often very successful) grow silent.

Posted by Walter Davis