The Community Foundation Opportunity Network (CFON) recently announced the inaugural cohort of community foundations that will take part in the Aligned Action Network, a collaborative effort to dismantle structural and systemic racism and achieve equity in social and economic mobility in American communities.
Who’s involved?
We’re excited to share that the Cleveland Foundation has been selected as a member of this cohort, joining our peers at Central Indiana Community Foundation, Connecticut Urban Opportunity CF Network (a collaboration between Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, and Hartford Foundation for Public Giving), Hawaii Community Foundation, Lincoln Community Foundation, Minneapolis Foundation, Seattle Foundation, and Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
The participating foundations were selected by an independent review panel for their leadership and standing in their community, track record of evidence-based strategies resulting in measurable impact, and support from donors and other funders.
What does this work look like?
Together, we will align our respective goals, strategies, and metrics to increase our individual impacts and demonstrate the aggregate impact that community foundations can have on our communities and our country.
There are four phases to the Aligned Action Network’s work:
- Design – concluded in Sept. 2020
- Build – currently underway through early 2021
- Test – beginning in the second quarter of 2021
- Scale – additional community foundations will join in 2022
Through the Design process, two systems of focus were identified: income and wealth and power and leadership. These systems were selected based on the track record and expertise of the participating foundations; the fact that they are foundational to other systems, like housing, education, health and justice; and the availability of common metrics that will allow us to align our actions and measure progress consistently. Sample outcomes and common metrics for success have also been identified based on the work of the Urban Institute’s report Boosting Upward Mobility: Metrics to Inform Local Action.
To achieve our goals, the Aligned Action Network will seek to attract and deploy significant philanthropic capital to accelerate work in selected communities that dismantles structural and systemic racism and produces measurable improvement in social and economic success.
Learn more about the Community Foundation Opportunity Network here, and stay tuned as the work of the Aligned Action Network continues!
