About Us
SOUTHERN PARTNERS FUND
Democratic Philanthropy in Action
Democratic philanthropy is who we are. We are governed by a Board of Directors elected by our membership, made up entirely of people of color grassroots leaders from rural communities across our 12-state region.
We are a public foundation created to serve rural Southeastern communities and organizations seeking racial, economic and environmental justice by providing them with financial resources, technical assistance and training, and access to systems of information and power.
Operate democratically, controlled by a diverse membership of up to 100 leaders and supporters of grassroots organizations throughout the rural South.
Govern the Fund through a board of respected, competent and accomplished community leaders elected by the Fund’s membership.
Develop leadership through the participation of the Fund’s membership in all levels of decision-making and activities.
Greatly expand the dollars available for grantmaking, significantly impacting justice efforts in the South.
Draw on member expertise to help strengthen emerging grassroots organizations.
Serve as a new philanthropic model demonstrating that grantmaking decisions that reflect the experience of people living in the communities served are effective and powerful.
- Develop and nurture grassroots community-based leaders and organizers.
- Build the capacity of their organizations.
- Strengthen rural communities and people.
- Develop equitable peer relationships, which support real transformation toward a just society.
Using a grassroots perspective, we believe that culture is the essence of its people and should be valued, shared and preserved in the process. We must build our strength and unity by incorporating standards of integrity, respect, love, diversity, quality and interconnectedness.
- It is essential to address the cause, not just the symptoms of injustice. Why are people hungry?
- Neither wealth nor academic study confers immediate knowledge. The real experts are the leaders of grassroots community organizations who have a history and vested interest in that community.
- One cannot empower or give power to another; they already have it. We can help people know they have it, learn what to do with it and how to grow it.
- Real lasting social change only happens from the grass roots up. Policy developed without feet, without organized and exhibited support in local communities can only serve in the very short term.
- Community organizing is the most effective strategy to [sustain] lasting social change.
Our Story
In 1984, I started the Bert and Mary Meyer Foundation (BAMM). Our focus was rural grassroots community organizing in fourteen southeastern states.
My United Farm Worker (UFW) experience taught me the importance of addressing the cause, not just the symptoms of injustice (Why are people hungry?), and that the real expertise for solving community problems lies with a community’s own leaders; not with academic or large nonprofit institutions. So, I invited community leaders and others from the same race and class as the groups we intended to fund to join my family foundation board. Community leaders shared their lived experience, giving us insights we could never have gotten any other way.
Our first ten years of grantmaking convinced me that the real experts were grassroots community leaders with a history and vested interest in their community, and that community organizing is an essential strategy to achieving lasting change.
In 1994, the BAMM board invited eighteen carefully chosen grassroots community leaders from the rural South to explore their interest in forming a new grantmaking entity, which they would govern. They were stunned, but three meetings later they said yes.
During SPF’s four years of formation, we provided the container, a safe space for community leaders to build trust in themselves and in one another, and most importantly, relationships that would stand the test of time.
In 1998, SPF founders incorporated, creating their own bylaws and developing a grantmaking program focused on community organizing. In the process, they had created a revolutionary new philanthropic resource. While SPF’s footprint is local and regional, our grantee partners and funding model now impact policy on a national level.
-Barbara Meyer