Professional Development

This course is designed for community foundation staff with at least two years of experience in the field and with in-depth understanding of the intricacies of their foundation, the community foundation field and the civic infrastructure of their communities. Staff or board members of any size community foundation can benefit from this course.

Detailed Agenda

Overview

The Public Policy for Community Foundations course is intended primarily to address community leadership-related advocacy and policy work (known as mission-related advocacy), policy that relates to program, community, or social issues. This course is equally suited to community foundations that aspire to large-scale advocacy campaigns as those that are starting small. It will start with the big picture question of why community foundations engage in public policy activity, review what public policy engagement by community foundations looks like, and proceed to drill down to promising approaches of how to engage in some of the most important components of public policy practice and preparation. We will first consider the broad range of policy activity and then focus on activity that advocates and aims to affect policy outcomes.

This two-day course, created and led by experienced leaders in the community foundation field, covers topics including:

• public policy as a community leadership strategy
• policymaking context
• public policy roles and activities
• advocacy coalitions
• lobbying
• legal issues
• advocacy planning, assessment and partnering.

Plus, this course provides valuable resources and enables participants to establish new professional contacts.

Questions? Contact Sophie Dunbar at leaders@cof.org or 703-879-0768.

CCFE Faculty Roster

Courses

Community Foundations Affiliates

Community Foundation Fundamentals

Community Leadership for Community Foundations 

Financial Administration for Community Foundations 

Making a Difference: A Community Impact Series 

Public Policy for Community Foundations

Resource Development for Community Foundations 

Schedule of Center for Community Foundation Excellence courses