• Political, geographic, and demographic salience;

• Presence of other funder collaborative investments;

• Priority places for partner institutions; and

• Alignment with Convergence Partnership priority issues (at the time these included: resilient equitable development with a focus on transportation and housing, food systems, and prevention and health systems).

As a result, in 2018 the Partnership provided grants to seven organizations in six places that organize philanthropy and its constituencies to advocate for solutions that create equitable changes for diverse communities across the country. Grantees included six local and regional funders and one statewide grassroots network to support placed-based efforts that amplified investments in grassroots organizing; advanced local and regional policy and advocacy priorities; and shifted narratives to support racial justice quity:  

• Buffalo, NY — Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo

• California — The Miyako Group

• Chicago, IL — Elevated Chicago, and the Chicago Community Trust

• Kansas —The Kansas Health Foundation

• Greater Kansas City region — Health Forward Foundation

• Louisiana — Foundation for Louisiana

• San Joaquin Valley, CA — Sierra Health Foundation

In addition to funding these specific places, the Partnership brought on a set of national organizations to provide strategic support and technical assistance to the grantees, the Convergence Network, and the national partnership on narrative change, food systems and policy, local economic development, and grassroots organizing and power building. This robust resource team informed and supported local, national, and network-wide strategies and activities and accelerated Convergence-wide learning and progress by building synergy between efforts. The resource team consisted of Smart Growth America, Working Narratives, The Food and Agriculture Policy Collaborative* (FAPC), and the Center for Popular Democracy. 

*A partnership of Fair Food Network, Food Research & Action Center, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, PolicyLink, Reinvestment Fund, and The Food Trust

View the sidebar for descriptions of the funded work followed by links to longer stories that capture the experiences and impacts of this work from the perspectives of the community members, grassroots and community organizations, and funder partners involved.