1995-1999: Formation
Screenshot of the first website courtesy of the WayBackMachine
How a critical reckoning with traditional philanthropy sparked a new model for trusting and funding grassroots leaders.
The Grassroots Fund did not begin with a mission statement. It began with a critical self analysis by philanthropic leaders. In 1995, a cross-sector initiative known as the “Environmental Futures” process brought funders and activists together to rethink how environmental philanthropy worked in New England and the group arrived at an uncomfortable conclusion: traditional foundations were too far removed, too bureaucratic, and too narrow to reach the people actually doing the work of protecting their communities.
Out of that reckoning the New England Grassroots Environment Fund was launched as an experiment in funding “real grassroots” organizing in northern New England. It was formed as a special project of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and steered by a small circle of committed philanthropic leaders.
At the start, the Fund focused on the northern New England states and the conflict in conservation and community land use that was unfolding there:
“In the mid-1990s, we were watching massive environmental and economic changes sweep across the Northern Forest, including paper mills closing, land being sold off, development pressures rising, and decisions about the future of these communities being made farther and farther away from the people actually living there.
What many of us recognized was that the people most affected by those changes were largely missing from the conversation.
That realization contributed to the genesis of the Grassroots Fund. We needed something different: an organization that would stay connected locally, support small grassroots groups, and trust the wisdom of people closest to the issues.
Looking back now, it’s remarkable how much philanthropy has moved toward those same ideas. Larger funders are trying to figure out how to share power with communities most affected by environmental, economic, and social change.
The Grassroots Fund has been modeling that work for decades.
It’s not only about making better funding decisions. It’s about building community around decision-making itself.”
- Dick Ober, Former President & CEO, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, lifetime conservationist and writer, and participant of Environmental Futures project (Photo from 1995)
