Carnegie
Corporation
of New York
Winter 2008
According to Higashi, the shift of newcomers to non-historical
gateways meant the immigrant policy field needed to be much stronger,
with powerful local voices driving the debate. This meant building up
infrastructure where it had never existed before. “National now
means North Carolina and all over the country,” she explains. Focusing
on new immigrant-receiving states and regions, such as the Midwest, the
South and Northwest, the Fund’s mission was dedicated to growing
the capacity of state-based groups to:
Advocate for
local and state-based policies supporting immigrant integration, including
social, political and economic integration;
Communicate to the public and policymakers the economic, political and
social contributions of immigrants;
Connect state-based immigrant integration groups with those working on
similar federal integration policies (and vice versa) and
Encourage civic integration of immigrants including access to naturalization
services, English-language programs, civic education and, for those eligible,
voter registration and voting.
The Four Freedoms Fund works by pooling large grants from individual foundations and making smaller grants to state and local immigrant advocacy organizations for strategic planning, board development, fundraising, policy analysis, organizing and media training. While it takes no positions on specific bills or provisions, the Fund is considered a crucial “link-tank” connecting groups at the local and regional level with national groups in Washington, D.C. Given the limited staffing of most national foundations, an intermediary such as the Four Freedoms Fund simplifies the process of making a large number of grants directly to grassroots groups, while encouraging funder collaboration for strategic grantmaking. In fall 2007, for example, fourteen regional organizations from coast to coast received grants of between $40,000 and $75,000—a lineup most major foundations would find difficult to manage. “Although awarding a single grant that will be regranted in many small pieces does involve relinquishing some control,” Mannion says, “for a national foundation like the Corporation, making grants through a funding collaborative minimizes the fundraising burden for the grant seekers and at the same time allows the foundation to reach small groups and to affect a larger number of states. This saves the Corporation and its grantees time and money.”