Burgess Urban Fund

The Burgess Urban Fund (BUF), a grants program of the Episcopal City Mission supports grassroots community organizing in response to social injustice in Massachusetts. For close to 30 years BUF has supported the work to improve the lives of those in need.

BUF understands community organizing as a process that develops the power and capacity within a community to improve members’ lives. Strong organizing work includes:

Engaging members of the community in identifying shared concerns and setting goals for social change
Developing new leaders, especially among those affected by social inequality, and including them in the leadership of a movement
Undertaking projects that are likely to result in concrete results for the core constituency.
Articulating both the immediate and root causes of the problem. Working to change the unequal relationships and social patterns that underlie the issue.
Collaborating with other organizations, regional or statewide organizations/initiatives