Empowering Community: A Closer Look at Place-Based Giving

Traditional approaches to solving various social and environmental problems taken by government, philanthropy, and nonprofits have tended to focus on specific areas like housing, education, or health. But experience has shown us that these problems don’t exist in a vacuum. A recent article published in SSIR talks about the importance of placed-based strategies for addressing challenges faced by communities and outlines several new approaches being pursued to uplift these communities. Some organizations are achieving remarkable change by focusing on transforming place first and foremost, rather than focusing on specific problems or goals in a siloed manner. They pursue holistic place-based systems change. But what does this place-based approach look like in practice? And how can we help leverage resources and relationships to empower community and achieve lasting and transformative change?