Money Won’t Kill the Altruistic Spirit of Grassroots Groups

To the Editor:

David Horton Smith is right on when he says that foundations, corporate grant makers, and governments that wish to promote pluralism, participatory democracy, and social institutions in the United States need to focus more than they currently do on grassroots organizations (“Grassroots Associations: the Lost Non-Profit World,” My View, September 18). He is, however, completely off when he claims it is a mistake to finance them directly.

Mr. Horton states correctly that 90 per cent of the non-profit groups in the U.S. are grassroots associations. Of those that work on poverty issues, however, only the nationally known Washington- or New York-based organizations that purport to speak in behalf of poor people ever get funded. Why? Because social commentators argue that funding smaller, grassroots organizations distorts their altruistic, volunteer-based work.

This is nonsense. We fund between 30 and 50 membership-based community grassroots organizations each year that are membership-driven, accountable to their communities, and effective in addressing the issues they take on. Unlike national groups who have no ties to the grassroots, these groups do not just represent their communities; they are the communities. They are the experts in the field because they are living the problems they are trying to address, from bad schools for their children to violence in their communities.

These groups are desperate for funding because they can only access a limited pool of money from a handful of community and small nation- al foundations. Larger funders tend to see them as too small to be effective and often too plain-spoken about the sources of their problems. These groups need funding and full-time staff to help develop leaders, help brainstorm about how to be heard by the decision makers, and generally maintain the workings of what our nation was founded on: participatory democracy.

Funding won’t destroy the altruistic aims of grassroots organizations as Mr. Horton claims. It will only help strengthen them.

Diane V. Feeney
President
French American Charitable Trust
San Francisco