Cohesion Strategy is a year old!
As we mark and celebrate this anniversary, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the incredible journey we’ve had since launching on October 12, 2023. Against a backdrop of ever-increasing attacks on democracy, hate crimes, and global conflict, our work this year has been filled with meaningful collaborations and impactful research that continues to shape the intersection of faith, philanthropy, and civic engagement. I continue to be grateful and energized by all who I have the pleasure of working with.
Here are some highlights from our first year:
Honorary Research Fellow at Kaufman Interfaith Institute
I was delighted to serve as an Honorary Research Fellow at the Kaufman Interfaith Institute. This collaboration led to the development of our forthcoming paper, The Ecosystem of Faith-Inspired Grantmaking, which we will be presenting at ARNOVA this November alongside research partner Brad R. Fulton.
This research identifies the field of faith-inspired grantmakers, showing that a whopping 28% of private grantmaking foundations and 17% of public charities that give grants have a religious identity of some kind. We also matched a subset of about 1,000 grantmakers to their grantees, identifying their field of work and religious affiliation. About 53% of the faith-inspired grantmakers are Christian, 27% Jewish, and the remainder undetermined or minority faith. We found that about 65% of their funds go to other faith-inspired organizations and the remaining 35% to secular grantees.
The biggest takeaway is that the field of faith-inspired grantmakers is large and second that it is internally diverse across religious identity and grantmaking patterns. There are many opportunities for additional research in this field!
Research Fellow at the Center for Faith, Identity, and Globalization
My fellowship with the Center for Faith, Identity, and Globalization allowed us to apply insights from my graduate work on metaphors of disease in the body of society in the ancient world to modern cases of exclusion around immigration in America, religious difference in China, and caste different in India. The central insight is that the metaphors we use to describe “us” have real policy impacts on “them” and why and how societies exclude their neighbors.
Insights like these shape how we support our clients in developing and implementing functioning strategies for inclusion, belonging, and pluralism.
Publication in The Foundation Review
This week, I'm excited to announce the publication of our paper, "Advocacy and Bridging Strategies Are Failing on Their Own. Multifaith Nonprofits Embody Six Solutions for a Pluralistic Democracy," in The Foundation Review. This work sheds light on the innovative strategies multifaith nonprofits are using to foster a more inclusive and participatory democratic process.
Insights from this research shape how I support clients in developing strategies for change that survive the next election season and the next political swing. Because polarization is so high, policy or social change wins today may get overturned in the next election unless coalitions are broad and ideologically diverse going in.
Facilitating Community Gatherings
I facilitated impactful gatherings for the Kaufman Interfaith Institute and the Long Island Unitarian Universalist Fund at the New York Community Trust, furthering our commitment to fostering dialogue and collaboration across faith traditions.
Utilizing and deepening my skills of facilitation among diverse or polarized communities continues to be one of my favorite things to do for clients.
I have a knack for developing logistically smooth and personally warm programming that allows conflict to come to the surface and become productive rather than simmer until it boils over. Conflict may mean anything from deeply polarized and emotionally charged issues to simple differences in tactics. Either one can spoil a team or a collaboration, so getting the right facilitator is important.
Market Research for Interfaith America
We are just finishing up some market research for Interfaith America that will contribute to their strategic planning. In this project, we held a number of focus groups and individual interviews to understand the nuanced views of our clients’ audiences.
Research like this can help understand a field of actors, identify gaps or potential areas of collaboration, or form the preliminary step in developing a new strategy.
Outcome Harvest Evaluations
We’ve been conducting two ongoing Outcome Harvest evaluations for The Fetzer Institute and Multi-Faith Neighbors Network, helping these organizations assess and maximize their impact.
We use the evaluation methodology of Outcome Harvesting at Cohesion Strategy because it gets right to the hardest nut to crack in social change – behavior change for people and institutions. Outcome Harvesting also gets at all those unexpected nooks and crannies of social change work by asking not “how well did we do what we set out to do,” but “what happened,” including all the good or bad and the unexpected. This kind of evaluation allows an organization to level up by getting a more expansive picture of what their programming is doing in the world.
Outcome Harvesting also avoids the problem of focusing on feeling change, which is lovely but doesn’t actually create impact itself. This is an issue in evaluating pro-democracy work, which I bring up in my piece in Democracy Takes, described below.
Published Writings and Hosted Webinars
We’ve had the privilege of contributing to Democracy Takes and Women in FoRB, offering thought leadership on critical issues at the intersection of faith, democracy, and gender rights. Getting the conversation started on these topics is only the first step. I hope you’ll take a look at these writings if you haven’t already and join the conversation.
Additionally, we’ve hosted webinars providing an introduction to creative depolarization collaborations and exploring the effectiveness of bridging programs. Click on those hyperlinks to watch the full recordings.
I am also thrilled to be moderating a webinar on “Rethinking Religion and Nationalism in the Global Landscape” with some of the giants in the field of religious studies next week (10/28). You can register to attend here!
Advising Faith In/And Democracy
As advisors to Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement’s Faith In/And Democracy initiative during its final year, we moderated a discussion on navigating values differences in pluralistic work. It’s one of the themes that lies at the core of effective change, and that tends to be avoided for fear it will go awry. But as mentioned above, we believe in the value of productive conflict, and navigating values differences is a skillset for life and work.
Building Our Team
This year, Cohesion Strategy has also grown our team! We welcomed a Communications Manager, Abbie Haug and brought on two dedicated interns, expanding our capacity to take on new projects and deepen our impact.
As we look ahead, we’re excited to expand our services and grow our partnerships. Whether advising on strategies for success in a pluralistic world, facilitating cross-cultural convening, or performing research, we remain committed to helping organizations navigate complexity with integrity. And we are currently accepting proposals for work! Get in touch if you think your organization could benefit from our services.
Together, we can build bridges, strengthen social cohesion, and continue moving toward a future where diversity is a source of strength. To everyone who has been part of this journey—thank you for your support, collaboration, and shared vision for a more inclusive, pluralistic world.
Stay tuned for more updates and join us as we continue to innovate and advocate for meaningful change. There is more coming very soon!
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