Through their strategic planning work, many foundations have articulated the clear connection between their mission and voter engagement and civic life. Including voter engagement as part of priorities and outcomes sets a tone for the organization, can align programs and resources, and communicates the importance that participation plays in achieving mission-aligned outcomes.
Episcopal Health Foundation 2018-2023 Strategic Plan
The Episcopal Health Foundation’s plan includes an outcome that “community and congregation members actively shape healthy communities and influence health systems to improve health equity.” A core strategy to achieve the outcome is to support organizations to elevate the voice of community members to influence community health:
We will work with community organizations that are interested in and capable of engaging community members, particularly low-income and vulnerable populations, to become advocates for health. Our primary mechanisms for advancing this strategy include technical assistance to help organizations learn how to do meaningful community engagement work and financial support to organizations that work actively and effectively with community members.
Examples of work within this strategy include increasing the number and reach of grassroots community organizing groups that advocate for community health; supporting the development of new leaders within communities; ensuring that client-facing community partners have the skills and resources they need to actively engage those they serve as influential beneficiaries; developing new and strengthening existing health coalitions; and supporting community organizations in using hospital community benefit data to encourage investment in social determinants of health.
Fairfield County Forward: Fairfield County’s Community Foundation’s 2022 Strategic Plan
The Fairfield County Community Foundation developed a strategic plan that evolves its approach to philanthropy. The plan set out intentions to embrace trust-based approaches to grantmaking and community leadership and to work with the community on three goals:
- To understand and acknowledge racial history;
- Create a shared affirmative vision of a fair, antiracist, inclusive society; and
- Build civic, cultural, economic, and political power for those most impacted by inequities and injustices in our current systems.
The inclusion of civic and political power undergirds the Foundation’s priorities to invest in voter engagement.
Together We Thrive: New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Strategic Plan for 2022-2027
As part of its strategy to focus on equity, racial justice, and economic security, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation outlined five priorities including civic health.
Under civic health, the foundation aims to
- Work with partners to identify leverage points for the Foundation’s advocacy, communications, convening power and grantmaking to address polarization, misinformation and other forces that threaten our democracy. We will invest in efforts to expand leadership by and representation of people of color.
The Sapelo Foundation 2020-2025 Strategic Plan
The Sapelo Foundation celebrated its 70th anniversary, outlining a new strategic plan to guide its work. Among the strategic priorities were two goals:
- Catalyze systemic change through power-building strategies of policy advocacy, civic engagement, and grassroots community organizing. A just Georgia requires changes to the policies and practices that have oppressed marginalized communities, and power is built among those communities. We support promising efforts focused on strategies of policy advocacy, civic engagement, and grassroots community organizing, which result in tangible systemic change and power building.
- Support marginalized communities—particularly communities of color—so they are included in and benefit from the creation and implementation of just policies and practices. A just Georgia requires that we engage and lift the voices of those whose participation in our democratic society has been systematically denied—in particular, communities of color. We support efforts that meaningfully engage marginalized communities in the pursuit of systemic change.
