Abstract
A recently released study commissioned by the James Irvine Foundation, Foundations for Public Policy Grantmaking, provides a good review of this issue. A 2004 report, Foundations and Public Policymaking: Leveraging Philanthropic DolAmy Carlin, doctoral student and Sillerman Fellow at Brandeis University, is finishing a study documenting the challenges and rewards of policy-relevant philanthropy in the Boston-based Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation (2006 assets: $228 million). The study deals with how a local foundation with a relatively small staff used its leadership and investments to influence the direction of housing and homelessness policy for families and young adults and others in Massachusetts. Carlin shows that foundations of any size can be instrumental in policy development by influencing public opinion and by helping to shape how legislators define an issue. In this case, the foundation worked with others in a public-private partnership aimed at ending homelessness in Massachusetts through a collaborative called the One Family Campaign. Policy is not some radical new philanthropic focus. Julia Coffman, author of thr Irvine Study, teaches us that much of what foundations are doing already is connected to policy, although it goes unlabeled or is accomplished without fanfare. Investments in a small subset of policy-relevant foundation strategies such as regulatory feedback, litigation, model legislation, testimonies and voter outreach - are policy roles of the most direct kind. I admit they may be controversial.