Eliminate Barriers

Too often, what is valued by funders and policy makers is often not what works with the most marginalized populations. This sets up external barriers to organizations actually doing what creates meaningful, measurable, lasting change.

We must eliminate the policy barriers that keep highly effective practices from being applied widely, such as: the devaluing of essential elements; narrow and short-term outcome measures; inappropriate evaluation methodologies; and a lack of access to funding.

FFI works to eliminate these external barriers by educating government and major philanthropy about aligning major funding with effective practices (such as the set of strategies we call the Full Frame Approach and the Five Domains of Impact), addressing evaluation issues, and opening new funding channels.

Our strategies reinforce one another. By working in a network with organizations and allies, FFI has a forum to learn about the policy barriers that stand in the way of Full Frame and Five Domains work. We leverage the knowledge and experience of community-based organizations to identify negative trends in human services, and to frame productive alternatives. By generating knowledge and proof about what interventions lead to better results for marginalized people, we have concrete information to share with policy makers and funders.