Resilience is a growing interest among a set of foundations, and it’s a topic that’s becoming more pressing in the face of natural disasters and rising waters. At the same time, according to one recently released report, some of the people best demonstrating what resilience looks like—marginalized communities in the Southern United States—are being overlooked by funders.
In “As the South Grows: Weathering the Storm,” a joint publication by the National Committee For Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) and Grantmakers for Southern Progress, the authors spotlight communities in Southern Louisiana and Eastern North Carolina that are coming together to handle these threats, but with insufficient backing from philanthropy. The report points out disproportionately low per-person funding in these regions over a five-year period ($31 and $67, respectively, compared to $451 nationally) and only a small percentage of that funding going to strategies like community organizing and policy change. The Louisiana figure excludes Orleans parish, where philanthropy has focused since Hurricane Katrina, but far less so in surrounding areas.
Read the entire article in Inside Philanthropy.
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