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Building Community Strength Report
National Coalition of South Asian Organizations
Providing services to, organizing, and advocating on behalf of South Asian communities
In August 2007, SAALT released a report, Building Community Strength, which provides critical insights into the needs and opportunities faced by organizations serving, advocating for, and organizing South Asians in America.
Building Community Strength synthesizes the results of a needs assessment and interviews with 31 community-based organizations serving South Asians around the country, while highlighting best practices and recommendations for stakeholders to better assist South Asian organizations - and by extension - South Asian community members. Below are a few of the findings:
Read the full report here.
Providing services to, organizing, and advocating on behalf of South Asian communities
In August 2007, SAALT released a report, Building Community Strength, which provides critical insights into the needs and opportunities faced by organizations serving, advocating for, and organizing South Asians in America.Building Community Strength synthesizes the results of a needs assessment and interviews with 31 community-based organizations serving South Asians around the country, while highlighting best practices and recommendations for stakeholders to better assist South Asian organizations - and by extension - South Asian community members. Below are a few of the findings:
- South Asian organizations are relatively young.
- Nearly three-quarters of the groups surveyed were established after 1990 to respond to visible and immediate needs. Groups need adequate resources and training to develop internal infrastructure and processes related to governance, fiscal management, and organizational development.
- The majority of South Asian organizations operate on budgets of less than $500,000.
- Groups do a lot with little. Regardless of budget size, groups identified development support as a high priority need, with particular emphasis on cultivating relationships with individual South Asian donors.
- South Asian organizations observe the need to link service provision with organizing and advocacy.
- Organizations conduct a range of activities that stretch them beyond their mission statements. Groups identified issues related to immigration and the treatment of immigrants as core concerns that need to be addressed through a variety of strategies.
Read the full report here.
