Charitable Foundations and Discrepancies Between Ideology and Needs There are ten steps that have been defined as critical components of community development: defining the professional's role; researching the community; entering the community; raising consciousness; assessing needs and assets; defining goals; building strategies; strategizing; taking action, and evaluating. While enacting these steps, engagement with the community is just as necessary as the community activist acting as an initiator and a teacher. The organizer can function as a mediator, supporter, and encourager of community-generated events, not simply a director and teacher. Although establishing ties with a community in need can be difficult and time-consuming because of the initial perception that the individual giving aid is an 'outsider,' because of the added credibility that working with insiders can give about the needs of the community, an integrated approach is usually advisable. Community change can seldom be imposed effectively throughout. There must be knowledge, both qualitative and quantitative, of what the community needs. Data based purely on 'outside' sources may be too broad, and there may be specific, community-based needs that should be addressed when determining how to use scarce financial resources.

Thus there is another critical step in aiding the community that must not be forgotten: soliciting funding is a necessary part of the development of any charity. Often there is a discrepancy between the ideological motivations...

For example, an anti-childhood obesity campaign funded by Nike may want to stress physical education and sports as a component of the program, even though it might be equally important to stress lifestyle components of physical movement such as walking to school and biking that are not necessarily sports in the traditional sense, but promote activity throughout the day. In this instance, the funding organization has a clear ideology (to promote total abstinence from drugs) which clashes with the perceived needs of the community, as advocated by the students who have been recruited by the program. They wish to stress harm reduction and talk about other issues of interest to high-risk youth such as violence, gang membership, and socioeconomic disenfranchisement. The designated role models for this program were chosen because they could present a realistic picture of the needs of the community. But to have true 'street cred' they must talk about community needs and bring their experience to bear upon their presentation in a realistic fashion.
Empirical research about the community can be used as one persuasive tactic to convince funders of the need to shift the emphasis of the program. For example, abstinence-only sex education programs have proven to be notably less effective than those which take a more realistic view of teen's sexual habits. Using the research that was involved in the design of the program might persuade the fundraisers that their original…