Grass-Roots Organizing Helps to Produce Effective Leaders

To the Editor:

The lead article in the September 19 edition, “Grooming the Best and Brightest,” failed to identify one of the most-effective leadership-development strategies being supported by a large number of foundations: community organizing. In hundreds of low-income communities across the United States, thousands of residents are being trained as effective leaders.

At the Neighborhood Funders Group conference in Washington November 1-3 we will spend an entire day looking at three related models used by community organizations to develop leadership skills in low-income residents. These models have one thing in common: that leadership training is ongoing and is the most critical element in building strong communities.

We agree with Rick Foster, of the Kellogg Foundation, when he asks the question in the Chronicle’s article, “Do you build leadership for the sake of the individual, or do you build leadership capabilities for the sake of the communities they serve?”

We believe it is for the sake of both the individual and the communities they serve and it takes powerful individuals to lead powerful organizations. We also believe that the most effective leadership development occurs in the context of community action and requires the expertise and systematic attention of professional community organizers. Low-income leaders develop as they build strong and powerful organizations that can affect the lives of people living in their communities. From our experience as funders of this work, we think that there are three important elements that mark the best leadership training:

• Leaders learn intellectual, organizational, and interpersonal skills through active engagement in the public arena and the democratic process. These skills help leaders turn community problems into winnable issues, weigh alternatives, negotiate differences within the organization, and learn how to negotiate and develop strategic plans. They learn how to recruit new members, select issues, and speak to the media.
• Leaders learn interpersonal skills such as building meaningful relationships and other community-building activities that, combined with the moral authority and values they draw on, sustain them.
• These newfound skills enable community leaders to build powerful organizations that hold public officials accountable to the poor, working-class, and middle-class residents who are most affected by the quality-of-life decisions they make. Through these skills, ordinary people become effective leaders in the public arena who are actively engaged in the democratic process.

Community-organizing leadership training is not a passive “civics” lesson but rather a part of ongoing organizational activities in which participants practice what they have learned in real-life activities, evaluate their actions, and get feedback from their peers. True leadership development does not happen in a vacuum. Participants must be linked to others who support them, challenge them, and hold them accountable. We strongly concur with Mr. Foster when he states that many leadership-development programs supported by foundations are “robbing the human resources out of the very communities that we are trying to build.”

If we as funders are going to play an effective role in developing the next generation of leaders who are working to develop viable neighborhoods and communities, we need to step back and reflect on the strategies we are supporting. Are we providing the necessary skills and valuable experiences to the best and the brightest only to have them move out of their neighborhoods of origin to higher-paying jobs? Or should we support leadership-development activities that provide opportunities for a larger number of low-income residents to learn skills and valuable experiences that will build lasting, positive change in their communities?

Spence Limbocker
Executive Director
Neighborhood Funders Group
Washington, D.C.

Jeannie Appleman
Executive Director
Interfaith Funders
New York