Events
Webinar Series
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Grantmaking Strategies to Support Effective Policy Advocacy—Bolder Advocacy Series
December 11, 2024 @ 11:00 am – 12:15 pm PST
Join us for a webinar series exploring how funders can effectively support a wide array of advocacy strategies within a food and agriculture context. Organized in partnership with Alliance for Justice’s Bolder Advocacy Program, these 4-sessions will provide funders with practical information and skill building opportunities in supporting election season advocacy and policymaker engagement, and how to structure policy related grants.
We encourage attendance at all four webinars to maximize learning, though recordings will be made available for those unable to attend live. SAFSF will host a concluding reflection session to synthesize insights, discuss integrating learnings into 2025 funding strategies, and address ongoing challenges.
This webinar series is available as a benefit for SAFSF members. Not a member? Join our community by contacting our Senior Membership Associate, Holly Enowski at [email protected] to receive an application or for an information call.
Goals
This virtual programming series will enable SAFSF members to:
- Understand why engaging in policy advocacy is essential for foundations and investors to achieve their missions;
- Build support across the foundation for policy advocacy engagement;
- Understand characteristics of grantmaking that support effective policy advocacy;
- Understand how to comply with lobbying restrictions and build relationships with policymakers;
- Build relationships and learn from peers engaged in policy advocacy funding.
Outcomes
After attending this virtual programming series, SAFSF members should feel confident in:
- Recognizing the broad scope of activities and strategies that can be considered policy advocacy;
- Initiating or continuing conversations with foundation board members about prioritizing policy advocacy; and
- How to support grantees engaged in policy advocacy.
Part 3
Funding advocacy is different from funding programs. There are different rhythms, benchmarks, grantees, rules, expectations for funder actions – and levels of risk. Grantmaking structures, policies, and procedures that may have been initially set up to support programs must adapt to the different conditions and needs for policy engagement.
In this session, Bolder Advocacy Senior Counsel Sarah Efthymiou will share concrete examples of grantmaking practices that can empower grantees and create the conditions needed for policy change. Thornburg Foundation Executive Director Allan Oliver and RAFI Executive Director Edna Rodriguez will also speak about how their organizations implement funding for policy and advocacy. They will answer panel questions about board engagement strategies, measuring impact of policy funding, protecting grantees and movement leaders from threats posed by the incoming administration, and how they are thinking about policy funding in 2025 and beyond.
Resources:
Speakers:
Sarah Efthymiou serves as Senior Counsel for the Bolder Advocacy Program at Alliance for Justice. In her role, she provides technical assistance, resources, and training to help nonprofit advocates understand their rights and abilities to advocate, lobby, engage in election related activities, and fund advocacy.
Prior to joining Alliance for Justice in 2023, Sarah served as a Directing Attorney at Public Law Center in Orange County, where she provided legal assistance and outside general counsel services to nonprofit organizations and social enterprises.
Sarah holds a B.A. from University of Redlands and a J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law. She is a member of the State Bar of California and currently resides in SoCal.
Allan Oliver is the Executive Director of the Thornburg Foundation. He oversees the Foundation’s Strategic Initiatives in K-12 education, good government reforms, food and agriculture, water, homelessness as well as Community Funding grants for social service organizations.
In addition to serving as Executive Director for 11 years, he has served on Governor Lujan Grisham’s Education Transition team and was named to the Governor’s statewide Census Complete Count Commission and co- chaired the Census Funders group. He has been recognized by Albuquerque Business First as a C-Suite Honoree for his accomplishments. In 2021, Allan was named to the Points of Light Inspiration Honor Roll for his efforts in New Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before joining the Thornburg Foundation, Allan served as Cabinet Secretary-Designate and Deputy Secretary for the New Mexico Economic Development Department and Director of Cabinet Affairs and Deputy Communications Director for Governor Bill Richardson. He also established the Partnership for Responsible Business and the New Mexico Green Chamber of Commerce, a business association with over 1100 members supporting renewable energy technology and responsible business practices. Mr. Oliver earned a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and was named a William Hodson Fellow for International Public Service. He recently completed an Executive Education program at Harvard Business School focused on Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management. He also served as an NGO specialist and initiated the municipal development program for the US Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala and served as country director for the National Democratic Institute in Kazakhstan.
He serves on the board of the Santa Fe School for Arts and Sciences, Groundworks New Mexico, and the National Funders Census Initiative. Allan enjoys spending time in New Mexico’s incredible outdoors and most of all enjoys spending time with his son, Max.
Edna Rodriguez became Rural Advancement Foundation International’s Executive Director in 2017 following six years as Come to the Table program Director, Development Director, and Director of Operations. Edna has grown the organization’s capacity by overhauling financial systems, diversifying income, and organizing cross-programmatic teams for greater collaboration and impact. In her current role, Edna led RAFI through a strategic planning process centered around equity, launched and grew the Farmers of Color Network, and extended programs to the U.S. Caribbean territories.
Edna is a strategic thinker with the consistent goal of funding the movement more equitably, a value which most recently resulted — in partnership with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) — in a pool of granting funds devoted specifically to BIPOC-led organizations for climate and equity-centered policy work. In addition to serving on NSAC’s Organizational Council, Edna serves as Treasurer of the National Family Farm Coalition’s Executive Committee. Born in Puerto Rico to Dominican parents, Edna was raised between The Hague, Netherlands, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Before RAFI, Edna served as Senior Program Officer at the Atlanta Women’s Foundation and Director of Educational and Career Services at the Latin American Association in Atlanta, GA.
Edna holds a B.A. in Economics with a concentration in Latin American Studies from Haverford College. Edna lives in Chapel Hill, NC, with her husband, three children, and their growing puppy.
