Nonprofit Foundations and Grassroots Organizing: Reshaping Urban Governance

Abstract

Collaborative urban governance has increased the role of community organizations in local decision-making processes. These organizations need financial resources in order to participate in urban governance. In this article, I examine the impact of foundation grants on the relationships and agendas of four community organizations in one neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota. Drawing on interviews, observations of organizations, and archival research, I demonstrate that in the 1990s, nonprofit foundations had a significant impact on the formation of new organizations and on their agendas in the neighborhood. Foundations are, therefore, an important player in urban governance, shaping a “neighborhood policy regime.”

Key Words:

• community organizations
• urban governance
• nonprofit foundations
• urban regime theory

Notes

1 Thomas-Dale is the official, planning-designated name of the area; many residents also use the historic name of Frogtown. I will use both in this article.

2 Archival materials included media accounts of organizational activities and events, organizational reports and flyers, and notes from board and committee meetings observed by the author. Interviews were open-ended, in-depth discussions about organizational histories, neighborhood character, and the role of neighborhood organizations in community development in the neighborhood. Interviews with foundation staff focused primarily on the relationships of the foundations to the groups in the neighborhood; interviews with city staff addressed the relationships among and roles of the organizations in city planning and development programs. I analyzed this material by examining the historical development of the organizations, particularly in the early 1990s, and in light of the role of outside supporters in defining the agendas of the four groups. Information from interviews was cross-referenced with other interviews and with relevant archival materials.

3 Of course, foundations serve a wide variety of constituencies; my focus here is on local and national groups that support neighborhood or community-based organizing and services.

4 The information in the following section is derived from several interviews by the author in 1996–1997 with organizational leaders, staff, and foundation supporters. In the interests of confidentiality, I do not identify them here.

5 McKnight also provided funds to other organizations in the neighborhood in the 1990s, including general operations and youth programs for the Thomas-Dale Block Clubs.

6 As in the earlier section on the history of Thomas-Dale organizations, the information presented here is derived from interviews conducted by the author in 1996–1997 with foundation staff, neighborhood residents and business representatives, and staff of the City of St. Paul. In the interests of confidentiality, I do not identify them here.

*Thanks to Helga Leitner for the encouragement to proceed with this topic, and Sarah Elwood for her insightful editorial input. Errors and omissions remain my own.