Donor Survey 2007: Key Findings

1. Donors are opening their wallets to community organizing.

As we entered this research phase, one of our working assumptions was that many individual donors were simply not giving to community organizing. The survey seems to shatter that assumption, and instead indicates that very few surveyed donors are not giving to community organizing. Of 108 donors surveyed, 94 percent make financial contributions to community organizing.

2. Individual donors have very favorable opinions of community organizing.

The survey indicates that community organizing has come of age, maturing into a well-respected component of the progressive social movement. Ninety-two percent of surveyed donors think that community organizing can play a critical role in achieving their philanthropic goals, and few cited any of the negative stereotypes that once afflicted community organizers. In a sure sign of widespread approval, a mere 10 percent of donors feel that community organizing is too confrontational to address problems that require a cooperative solution. 

Donors tend to associate community organizing with important political activities such as creating diverse coalitions, running public policy campaigns and providing a voice in politics for disenfranchised communities. In perhaps the strongest indication of how far community organizing has come, 90 percent of donors agree that community organizing is about building a foundation of lasting relationships and trust that allows a community to mobilize on important issues.

Practically all donors surveyed agree that new technologies have not replaced community organizing. All but one donor disagreed with the statement “Technology and media have made traditional ‘face-to-face’ community organizing obsolete and unnecessary” – and nearly half strongly disagreed.

3. Donors see the benefits of short-term community organizing, but are not seeing the bigger picture.

Eighty-five percent of respondents feel that community organizing is effective at increasing voter turnout, and donors tend to associate organizing with images of concrete activities, such as creating coalitions and campaigning. However, there is widespread concern among donors (75 percent) that community organizing is not being used enough to build a true popular base for the progressive movement. 

In contrast to their highly favorable views on most aspects of community organizing, donors did report significant doubts and ambivalence on the efficacy of community organizing for broader social impacts. While 50 percent of the respondents agreed that “community organizing is the most effective way to change institutional or community values over the long term,” nearly as many (41 percent) simply answered “neutral” – a significant deviation in this survey, as most respondents agreed or disagreed with most of the other statements we presented to them. For most questions, fewer than 12 percent replied “neutral”.

Examples of community organizing successes cited by donors in the survey:

• Beyond Ground Zero coalition campaign to get Bellevue hospital in New York to set up screening and treatment for low-income sub-contractors who worked on post-9/11 cleanup.
• LAANE getting a living wage ordinance in Los Angeles.
• Immigrant (especially Latino) get-out-the-vote efforts.
• Colorado Progressive Coalition and their allies’ passage of minimum wage increase in Colorado (2006).

4. Donors believe that it is difficult to measure the effects of community organizing.

Many donors also feel that it is very difficult to measure the impact of community organizing; 41 percent agreed with the statement “It is very difficult to measure the impact of community organizing” and nearly 21 percent replied “neutral.” This opinion no doubt undermines their ability to see the “bigger picture” and the more abstract social benefits of organizing.

5. Donors are motivated to give by outcomes – they want to make the world a better place.

A majority of respondents answered the open-ended question about what motivates them to give with some variation on the idea that they want to make the world a better place or make a difference in their communities. They are more focused on the end result achieved than the process for achieving it. This point was reinforced by the kinds of examples of successful organizing that respondents cited, which were often “wins” like living wage agreements, minimum wage victories, other policy changes, etc.

6. Donors want more direct contact with community organizers.

Consistent with the notion that donors are most likely to give to organizations or programs they are personally familiar with, 50 percent of surveyed donors reported that would prefer site visits and 64 percent would like donor briefings with other donors in order to learn more about community organizing. Methods such as Web sites and videos were selected by very few donors (27 percent and 19 percent, respectively) and are unlikely to be highly effective for engaging these donors.