Request for Proposals: Landscape Assessment for FSPs

About Foundation for Louisiana

Foundation for Louisiana (FFL) is a social justice philanthropic intermediary founded in 2005 as the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation to invest in the immediate recovery of Louisiana’s communities after hurricane Katrina. While FFL was founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, our founders recognized the need to address the longstanding inequities that have shaped life outcomes for the most marginalized of Louisianans. Our programs grew in response to these needs, and today FFL focuses on racial justice, climate justice, criminal justice reform, economic opportunity, LGBTQ organizing, and support for Louisiana's vibrant arts and culture via a three-pronged strategy:

• Invest: FFL makes grants and loans to support organizations and movements throughout Louisiana in our key program areas. We attract and invest resources to support on-the-ground projects, many of which can’t access traditional philanthropy. Through fiscal sponsorship, we support innovative ideas responding to unmet needs throughout Louisiana.
• Build: We build power to effect change in Louisiana communities. Our TOGETHER initiative convenes community leaders and provides training in organizing, policy change, leadership, public speaking, and facilitation to tackle issues of climate change, police accountability, health disparities, housing access, and more.
• Transform: By fortifying movements, we shift systems and shape regional and national narratives. We re-imagine how our communities are governed and funded in order to redefine how residents are able to thrive in them.

Since its inception, FFL has invested $55 million in more than 250 mission-critical nonprofit organizations working across the state towards building a more just Louisiana. As a social justice philanthropic intermediary, FFL’s work unapologetically advances racial justice while moving Louisiana forward. The foundation engages communities in both program co-design as well as its grant-making process, in order to expand opportunities and move communities towards a more just future.

Opportunity

Foundation for Louisiana is seeking a consultant to conduct a landscape assessment of grassroots organizations working on key social justice issues in Louisiana. We are particularly interested in learning more about organizations whose work focuses on or intersects with climate justice and/or disaster work.

Our goal is to commission a landscape assessment that achieves the following objectives so that we can better understand the need for our Louisiana-specific fiscal sponsorship program:

• identify trends in the operational experiences and mission-related work of grassroots organizations
• explore any shared causes of those trends
• ask communities how we can leverage resources to solve problems
• consider threats to the growth of a needs and opportunities-based fiscal sponsorship program
• identify potential strategic partnerships that could support the development of the program

Outcomes

Deliver a comprehensive report that identifies active grassroots organizations, their intersections in geography, values, and need, and makes recommendations for what a culturally relevant, accessible fiscal sponsorship program, including technical assistance, should include.