The Philanthropy Roundtable's Economic Opportunity Breakthrough Group serves donors who seek to increase economic opportunity for individuals and  families who face adversity. The program focuses on five sets of philanthropic strategies in its conferences, publications, and customized donor services:

1. Philanthropic strategies to encourage entrepreneurship and economic growth, including:
   •    Business formation among low-income populations;
   •    Entrepreneurship education and mentoring;
   •    Legal, financial, incubation, and peer-learning services for entrepreneurs; and
   •    Removal of regulatory and cultural barriers to business creation and growth.
2. Philanthropic strategies to encourage job training, placement and advancement, with a special emphasis on private-sector work. This will include a focus on employment programs for specialized populations, such as ex-offenders, legal immigrants, welfare recipients, and people with disabilities.
3. Philanthropic strategies to encourage ownership of assets. These include:
   •    Programs to increase sustainable home ownership and protect against foreclosure;
   •    Programs to encourage savings for retirement, ownership, and emergencies; and
   •    Financial literacy and management, including programs to foster credit-worthiness.
4. Philanthropic strategies to foster personal responsibility and life skills that help people to help themselves. These include:
   •    Character-building institutions such as Scouting and youth sports;
   •    Mentoring and other programs that emphasize skills and responsibility;
   •    Programs that reduce alcohol and drug abuse; and
   •    Programs that support and strengthen families.
5. While most of our work on economic opportunity focuses on the United States, our program also works on a limited basis to advance philanthropic strategies to encourage enterprise-based approaches to third-world development, including:
   •    Microfinance and microfranchising;
   •    Investment funds to encourage growth of larger enterprises in promising business sectors; an
   •    Promotion of rule of law, freedom of international trade and investment, and other institutions that permit business creation and growth to flourish.

Resources

• To view past and upcoming meetings for donors on the topics above, click here.
• To view or download a full digital copy of Michael E. Hartmann's Helping People to Help Themselves: A Guide for Donors, click here.
• To view or download a special report from a 2009 meeting on entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, click here.

Program Information

The Economic Opportunity Breakthrough Group has its origins in Helping People to Help Themselves, by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation's Michael E. Hartmann, published by The Philanthropy Roundtable in 2005. The Roundtable’s Annual Meetings have also included several sessions related to these themes. The Roundtable took this work to the next level in 2007 by creating a new Breakthrough Group—known as "Helping People to Help Themselves" until 2010—under the direction of John Mecham, who led the program from 2007 to 2009. He was followed in 2009-10 by Leah Vincent.

For more information about Helping People to Help Themselves, contact us at 202-822-8333 or main@PhilanthropyRoundtable.org.