Category: Perspective

“You have little power over what’s not yours” – Zimbabwean proverb  As evaluators we’re often brought in to assess the success of programs that are implemented in vastly different cultural contexts. So, to ensure that our evaluation is relevant, effective, and useful – how do we integrate the individuals closest to and most affected by … Continued

National funders have long sought ways to make positive social change happen in local communities. However, for some of these funders, place-based philanthropy encompasses pre-determined strategies, directive relationships with community “partners,” and strict accountability measures allowing little or no space to accommodate the particularities of local contexts. The all too frequent outcome of this type … Continued

Place-based work has been an essential cornerstone of investing since philanthropy’s inception; it allows funders to address the unique issues and needs of a specific geographic area or community.  It involves directing resources toward community organizations, initiatives, and projects to create positive social impact and improve the health of a specific area or region. While … Continued

The following article was originally published in Stanford Social Innovation Review as part of their “Recognizing Leadership in All Its Forms” series. To read the article in its entirety visit SSIR with your subscription information or download a PDF. The social sector generally considers leadership development a good investment, especially when it comes to cultivating systems-level change. But … Continued

We know that many funders are consistently determining how to best implement some of their lessons learned, while looking for jumping-off points for where and how they can go deeper in their work. Some of the questions we hear are: How can we improve our grantmaking to be in-line with trust-based philanthropy?  How can we … Continued

For decades, policy advocacy organizations have operated in America on behalf of workers, immigrants, families, and the environment, to name a small subset. Now that we have reached the 2020s, and a time of transformational social and policy change, the policy and advocacy campaigns of these groups are more important than ever. Increasingly, funders are … Continued

Like it or not, policy advocacy is a large group project.  Different advocacy organizations supporting the same policy bring different insights, resources, skills, and abilities to do the work. The form of these advocacy group projects is often advocacy coalitions.  More than 10 years ago, we first started examining advocacy coalitions. We identified ways to … Continued

We only arrived in this decade a few years ago, and already the 2020s are a time of transformational social and policy change. A pandemic, the increasing threat of climate change, and significant racial justice awareness have increased the importance of policy and advocacy campaigns more than ever. With a vibe shift in the field … Continued

  How do you inspire action in your advocacy work with your clients at TCC Group?  The responsibility to take action lies with all of us.  We want our clients to be able to immediately leverage our work so they themselves can take action.  That can take the form of a TCC Group-created decision-making tool … Continued

As we’ve been sharing recently, TCC Group conducted three research studies over the last year about good practices for supporting or conducting advocacy in modern times. These pieces focused on understanding how funders can best support advocacy coalitions, how funders can best support grassroots organizations, and the best ways to work towards durable policy wins. … Continued

We, as evaluators, have a responsibility to “to help transform the systems, policies, and practices that have created today’s challenges, and help build toward a more equitable, sustainable future.” This was the overarching message at last week’s American Evaluation Association (AEA) conference. The conference focused on three significant shifts that are currently influencing the social … Continued

A hallmark of a good convening is that it reflects the group’s culture and takes an energizing, inspiring approach that shares the aspirations of the convening itself. TCC used song titles from Black artists from across genres and generations to frame the co-creation of sessions of the inaugural Black Women’s Working Group to Reframe Risk … Continued