How can we best support grassroots organizations?

As organizations become bigger they inevitably have more access to financial resources and their ability to influence political and financial power also grows. But they also can lose some of the strength they draw from the actual interaction and knowledge of those who are most impacted by the problems they seek to solve and the possibilities they seek to realize. In other words, not all organizations need to become large to have a lasting and sustainable impact.

Artemisa Castro, the executive director of the Action in Sulidarity Fund in Mexico, and I consider how to strengthen and work with organizations on the actual challenges they face by working within and understanding how trust and confidence can be built among and between grassroots organizations. Looking beyond the financial resources they need, the article “Lessons from Grassroots Organizations” considers social capacity as one of the most important factors leading to a healthy, engaged civil society that can not only innovate and address local inequities but can sustain positive changes for their communities.

The article is available here: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1225&context=tfr