At Trepwise, we work alongside nonprofits and foundations to help clarify strategy, engage communities, and build lasting impact. Increasingly, our clients engage us to help them move towards more “community-led” practices. But what does “community-led” really mean in practice?
While Trepwise works with organizations across North America, our home base is New Orleans, a city shaped by its neighborhoods, second lines, mutual aid traditions, and the creative resilience of Black communities. To be “community-led” here requires more than good intentions; it requires honoring that legacy by learning from it and by actively shifting who holds power in decision-making.
For purpose-driven organizations everywhere, being community-led means involving community members not just as advisors or participants, but as strategists. It means sharing decision-making power in how programs are designed, delivered, and evaluated. That can look like:
- Partnering with trusted community leaders early in the planning process – during agenda setting, vision creation, and resource allocation – not just presenting ideas once they’re already baked.
- Co-creating goals and outcomes based on what communities say they need, not just what funders require.
- Investing in community members to serve as researchers, facilitators, and storytellers.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, for example, Broadmoor—a historically Black, working-class neighborhood in New Orleans—was marked for demolition and “greenspace.” Residents quickly mobilized under the Broadmoor Improvement Association. They organized block captains to reconnect with displaced neighbors nationwide, partnered with local faith-based groups for resources, and launched a comprehensive recovery plan focused on education, housing, and cultural preservation. This community-driven effort reopened their school, revived the Rosa F. Keller Library with substantial grant support, and established a community-run café (Johannessen, 2020). It’s one of many examples that show when given the right support, communities can lead bold, effective strategies that meet their pressing needs.
Of course, getting there takes intention and preparation. In order to effectively implement community-led strategy and planning, organizations must:
- Redefine expertise. Treat lived experience as expertise—not as anecdotal evidence, but as a foundation for strategy.
- Create real feedback loops. Ask: how are we reporting back what we heard? Are we acting on it?
- Invest in participation.That means compensating community members for their time, covering transportation and childcare, and scheduling around their availability.
- Share evaluation power. Let communities define success and help collect and interpret data.
We saw this in action while supporting the development of the New Orleans Youth Master Plan in partnership with the New Orleans Children & Youth Planning Board. From the outset, the approach centered around youth and community voice—not as advisors, but as architects of the plan. Cross-sector working groups, community conversations, and a youth review team drove the creation of solutions across six focus areas. Over 100 youth, parents, and system leaders collaborated to design outcomes and implementation plans that are now being stewarded by local institutions. Today, the plan is in its fifth year of implementation, with solutions actively shaped and carried forward by those most impacted.
One helpful resource is the “Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership” framework, originally adapted by the Facilitating Power and Movement Strategy Center. It outlines a continuum of engagement that ranges from informing and consulting communities to full community ownership of decision-making. Nonprofits can use this framework to assess where their current practices fall and identify actionable steps toward deeper power-sharing.
The Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership, developed by Rosa González of Facilitating Power. Source: Facilitating Power & Movement Strategy Center.
Because traditional methods of community engagement frequently fall more into the “Consult” or “Involve” stage, graduating to the “Collaborate” or “Defer to” stage may mean reimagining decision-making structures within your organization. This shift demands more than occasional feedback loops or advisory roles; it requires ceding power in ways that are often uncomfortable for institutions used to controlling decision-making. As Bernice King said, “Even the statement, ‘Let’s invite more Black people to table,’ implies ownership of the table and control of who is invited.” True community power-sharing means going beyond invitation—it means co-creating the menu, determining the purpose of the gathering, and sometimes even deciding whether a table is the right metaphor at all.
Whether you work in housing, health, education, or the arts, the lesson is the same: lasting solutions come from the ground up. Especially in cities like New Orleans, with deep cultural roots and long histories of exclusion, nonprofits have a responsibility not just to serve communities, but to be shaped by them.
Want to explore how your organization’s work can become more community-led? Reach out to us here.
Citation:
- Johannessen, E. (2020). The Green Dot Effect: Neighborhood Recovery after Hurricane Katrina. Conflict Urbanism, Columbia University.
Facilitating Power (n.d.). Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership. Movement Strategy Center.
