Funding Community Organizing and other Contemporary Challenges

Robert FisherProfessor, University of Connecticut

Fulbright Professor, University of Innsbruck

Institute for Social Studies, The Hague, April 15, 2015

Community and community organizing are broadly proliferated since the “citizen participation

revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s.

“Once thought of as a destination for lefty radicals committed to living lives of low pay, frustration and bitter burnout, community

organizing is now seen by many young people as an exciting career.”

Sarah Rimer, “Community Organizing Never Looked So Good”, New York Times, April 10, 2009

“There is a desperate shortage of people who are expert at bringing

poor people together to build strong organizations and

movements for tackling the immense issues they face daily”

-Andrew MottCommunity Learning Partnership

Disconnect between need for CO and reassertion after 2009 of austerity political-economy

Neoliberal primacy of unbridled market

Mitterrand, Thatcher, Kohl & Reagan

Global Phenomena

Dismantling of state regarding social services & social change,

especially in USA

Neo-Liberalism & Community Organizing

Community-based efforts adapt to strictures of

neoliberalism

Comparative study ofUS, UK & Canada

One argument is neoliberalism produces moderated forms of community work in

these three countries

In U.S. moderated forms include:

• “NGO-ization” • Social capital and capacity

building• Asset-based models• Consensus organizing

Concludes with Key “Lessons” for CO1.Long History2.Cuts Across Spectrum3.Context Matters4.Community Matters5.Scale Matters6.Conflict Over Power7.United Front8. Critical Analysis9.Don’t Fear

Transformative Activism

No serious coverage of funding despite its importance

Dormant and Fine (2009, 2) argue there has been a growing public awareness of the existence and value of community organizing since the 2008 Obama campaign and election but “one of the most important questions facing organizers today… [is] can we translate this growing public awareness into serious funding that will propel growth and strengthen the field?”

Throughout the sector tasks are greater, problems deeper, and dollars fewer, but social justice and community organizing efforts are hit the hardest. The great recession continues to “cripple budgets of nonprofits just as demand for their services rose” (Boris, 2010, 1). In 2015 funding levels still below 2008.