Carnegie
Corporation
of New York
Winter 2008
Since 2003, the Fund’s major funding partners have increased their support of the immigrant rights field in general, both through their individual grantmaking and through the Four Freedoms Fund collaborative, for a five-year total of approximately $80 million. Of that amount to date, 14 national and local funders have contributed a total of $23 million to the Four Freedoms Fund. Those funds include grants in hand for multiple-year commitments through 2009; contributions cover direct grants, evaluation, communications and management/administrative costs. It should be noted that administrative and management costs are relatively low at approximately 15 percent. The Fund accepts grant proposals by invitation only, two times a year (spring and fall). Grants are generally made for a one-year period and a priority has been given to past grantees that continue to fit the Fund’s guidelines and emphasis. Organizations approved for funding must meet stringent requirements and sign an agreement that outlines the terms and conditions of the grant. The Fund also requires grantees to submit written reports detailing their progress, expenditures and compliance, and the Fund’s staff members are diligent in their ongoing field work with grantees.
During its first three years of operation, the Fund targeted four regions—Southern California, New York, Chicago/Detroit and Florida—selected primarily for their large immigrant populations, degree of immigrant backlash and the level of community organizations using innovative organizing. In recent years, grantmaking has expanded to other regions, including Arizona, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Tennessee, Oregon, and Washington. This expansion has resulted in the identification of anchor organizations around the country that play key roles in local and national reform efforts, a main feature of the Fund’s grantmaking that allows for building support for its activities nationwide.
While existing grantees are given priority, the Fund’s portfolio is continuously reevaluated and not every grantee is invited to reapply. The staff seeks ongoing feedback on existing grantees as well as potential new groups within the current geographic focus. New grant applicants are considered based on recommendations from funders, other colleagues in the field, conversations with national immigrant rights organizations and through the staff’s knowledge of local and regional groups playing key roles in national efforts. Willingness and ability to link with allied organizations is a requirement for receiving funds.
Over this same period, the Fund has learned and evolved, according to Geri Mannion, and it now has multiple ways to support the infrastructure of the national field—which encompasses the same groups who in 2006 acted as the backbone of the largest peaceful demonstrations for social change in U.S. history. During the 2007 federal debate on comprehensive immigration reform, the movement endured many challenges, but unity among the grantees endured because the groups comprising the national infrastructure had more resources to work together as well as Fund-provided opportunities to meet in private and work out potential conflicts.