Advocacy for Funders

A national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to homelessness

Advocacy for Funders

As a 501(c)(3), Funders Together advocates for public policy and systems changes that align with the work of our Foundation members. We also provide our members with useful information about the ways in which grantmakers can and should pursue their own advocacy activities.

Please contact Anne Miskey if you would like to discuss advocacy issues further.

What's New

Stable earned income is a critical tool in the fight to end homelessness.

Read more about funding strategies that can connect job seekers with employment and training opportunities.

Our Funder-Focused Resources

We need both philanthropy and government, working together, to truly end homelessness. The resources below will help you start the conversation with government partners in your community.

The Advocacy Spectrum and Tools

Campion Foundation's Blog on Bolder Advocacy

Campion Foundation's Journey to Advocacy

We know that sequestration is hurting homelessness services and low-income housing around the country.

As funders, you can respond by:

Prioritizing evidence-based programs;
Initiating or re-engaging in a systems change conversation at the local level;
Sharing your story on the Funders Together blog so we can learn from each other; and
Educating your elected officials about the impacts of sequestration on your community.

We want to hear from you. If sequestration is affecting services/programs for the homeless in your community, tell us how.

Adequate and stable housing is fundamental to health, childhood education, employment stability, and many other basic needs. As our interactive map demonstrates, many families in need do not receive any cash assistance, even though they do not have adequate income to pay for housing and other basic living expenses. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) payments do not cover Fair Market Rent in any state. In fact, current TANF payment levels leave many families with children in highly precarious housing situations and at an increased risk of homelessness.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Fails to Meet Basic Needs: How Inadequate and Inconsistent Funding is Driving Americans into Homelessness

Coming Soon!

Do's and Don'ts of Advocacy for Funders

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Alexis Perlmutter published this page in Funder Resources 2013-09-17 17:12:10 -0400

We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation