Building Community Power is The Key to Equity and Justice in California

The publication below is an original opinion piece produced for SCG by a contributing writer from our network. If you would like to contribute an opinion piece to share with our community, please email eddy@socalgrantmakers.org

If we want a healthy, equitable, and racially just California, we must build power in communities that have historically been most impacted by inequity and injustice. 

There are people and entire institutions in philanthropy committed to advancing health equity, racial justice, and the greater good. I consider myself one of them. And, if I’ve learned anything in my 12 years at The California Endowment, it’s that this type of work is only possible by building people power from the ground up. 

My background in public health prior to TCE shaped my understanding that community power is a clear determinant of health. This perspective was key in TCE’s decade-long mission to improve health outcomes in some of the most historically disinvested communities in the state through direct investments in grassroots groups and community organizers. 

All the lessons from that initiative, called Building Healthy Communities, have shaped how we approach transformational changes through power building – now and for the future. Here are some of the most valuable things we learned.

Building power starts with honoring communities

Philanthropy has tended to operate with a top-down view on improving health outcomes and correcting injustices. In many cases, people with no direct tie to a problem arbitrarily ideate solutions and plan their implementation.

This is seldom an effective approach.

One of the most potent aspects of Building Healthy Communities was our proximity to the people working to effect change on the ground. Philanthropy must remain humble and genuinely listen to the communities they serve. And I don’t mean “listening” as a routine box on a checklist. I mean listening in a way that honors the perspective and lived experience of those who have seen the most significant harm from injustice and inequity.

Our communities know the challenges and barriers they must overcome for long-term, meaningful change. Funders must listen to their wisdom if they hope for improved outcomes that will persist into future generations.

By remaining humble, listening carefully, and adjusting as you go, foundations can construct an effective power-building infrastructure for long-term transformation.

Building power uses an ecosystem approach 

Building Healthy Communities showed us that change doesn’t happen in a vacuum – there must be an entire ecosystem of grassroots organizations, support, and funding to drive transformational change. So, at The Endowment, we use a framework that ensures that our grantee partners remain in the middle of an ecosystem.

However, listening to and honoring our communities is only one critical step in a broader framework. Funders must focus on building coalitions and networks of organizations doing the work for improvements to be sustainable. We truly have the power to reimagine and change inequitable systems through collaboration, community, and the influence of many voices as one ecosystem. 

“The system adapts to make it harder for us to fight for the change that we need,” said Tracy La, Executive Director at VietRISE, one of our grantee partners. “We’ve always been able to devise new creative ways to fight for the necessary changes. But, we’re at a moment now where we need the resources, we need the investments, and we need the connections between communities from all across the state to make and develop the models that will be effective to respond to these current conditions.”

Building power prioritizes transformational changes

Historically, philanthropy has often been focused on funding work toward single policy wins. Of course, any movement toward equity and justice is a victory – but it’s equally important to think about the long haul. Funders must focus equally on building a sustainable, robust infrastructure that builds capacity and support beyond a single campaign. 

As funders, we can do this by strengthening organizational skills, building pipelines of organizers, and learning the resources needed by those on the ground. With this approach as a driver, we can co-create a racially just and healthy California for all where everyone belongs. 

In other words, power building doesn’t just chase policy wins alone – it helps create the infrastructure that can last generations and is powerful enough to transform entire systems.

Building power requires long-term commitments 

Truly building power can be challenging for philanthropy as it requires much more than a two- or three-year commitment to our grantee partners and goes beyond campaign-based thinking. Creating infrastructure that supports health and equity is truly generational work.

If I could change anything about how philanthropy approaches this type of work now, I would encourage funders to take a much longer view of power building. If we’re talking about changing conditions, we must think on timelines much longer than we’re used to.

One of the most significant shifts during Building Healthy Communities was focusing on helping communities build capacity and infrastructure beyond just a single campaign. This type of long-term thinking creates groups that are much more sustainable. Over time, these sustainable organizations and ecosystems can achieve the power to transform communities, regions – and even states.

I love the way Joseph Tomas McKellar, Executive Director at PICO California – another grantee partner – puts it:

“Philanthropy needs to help us build the capacity of our organizations to create a deep, beloved community and build power as entities so that we can take on long-term fights necessary to fundamentally shift the politics and economy of our state.”

Building power means learning and adapting

All philanthropic organizations have been raised in a culture that perpetuates inequity. To truly build power, support communities, and change systems, we all must do an equal amount of learning and unlearning. We must learn effective ways to build power and unlearn all the deeply held and perhaps subconscious beliefs that are barriers to transformative change.

A critical part of this process is to look in the mirror and analyze what types of policies and practices we have that continue promoting inequity. This isn’t easy, but it’s crucial for being a good partner to grassroots organizations and communities. The Endowment is committed to becoming an anti-racist foundation and, as a result, has entered into a Somatics Abolition training to help staff at all levels understand what that truly means and how we can make changes internally to address systemic racism.  

Another important aspect is to know how to adapt on the fly. We try not to “overcook our work” with inflexible plans that can’t be changed. A more nimble and iterative approach is powerful, particularly when combined with humble listening and ecosystem building. Power building in communities is complicated, and a rigid strategy isn’t going to be practical or successful. 

Power building trusts the communities closest to injustice

One of the most critical factors in community power building is what we call trust-based philanthropy, which diverges from how philanthropy typically operates. Instead of handing down solutions, we prioritize sharing power and being guided by our grantee partners. After all, they’re the closest to the effects of inequity and injustice.

A specific example of this that I’m proud of is Powerful Innovations for Voter Organizing and Transformation (PIVOT), an initiative to strengthen California’s multiracial democracy and address structural racism. This initiative is explicitly co-led and co-governed by power-building organizations and funders. Through PIVOT, California’s leading organizers and funders are forging deep partnerships, learning together, and collaborating to raise funds for the Powerful Innovations for Voter Organizing and Transformation Pooled Fund.

Organizers working to change their community and build power infrastructure developed the grantmaking priorities for the fund. Funding decisions are made by the steering committee comprised of funders and power-building practitioners. It’s just one example of how shifting power toward organizers results in effective relationship-building and change.

Building power isn’t just a means to an end

Before Building Healthy Communities, we thought of power as a way to get to systems-level change. But through learning and adapting, we changed our thinking to understand that power can be an end in itself – not just a means to an end.

Changing systems that perpetuate inequity, injustice, White supremacy, and racism can seem daunting, but only from the perspective that a series of policy wins is the answer.

Instead, we must shift our focus to the most marginalized communities throughout California. They know exactly what they need to thrive. They know how to develop their own solutions, build power, and blossom into networks of trained organizers on the cusp of transformational changes.

Philanthropy’s role is to intentionally and humbly invest in community and people power. We know that it works. The only question is whether we’re willing to do what it takes to make it happen.