Engaging & Supporting Community Based Organizations with Lucas Diaz

Who: Lucas Diaz, Community Engagement Specialist and Doctoral Fellow, Tulane University City, Culture and Community PhD Program

In this workshop, we discussed approaches to engaging community-based organizations and practice fund development skills. We explored strategies for working with organizations, creating an organizational role, and establishing mutually beneficial working relationships. Second, we learned and applied fund development skills, which include grant research & solicitation strategies, and grant narrative & budget development. Students learned and practiced developing grant components, such as rationale, project overview, goals and outcomes, line item budget and budget narratives. Students were encouraged to come with pre-written project/program narratives that could be used in class to develop a grant request.

About Lucas Diaz

Since 2000, Lucas has worked in the non-profit and public sectors. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of New Orleans and is currently a doctoral fellow in the Cities, Culture, & Community PhD program at Tulane University.

His professional development includes fundraising and community development. Between 2000-2007, Lucas worked as a professional fundraiser for various New Orleans institutions. He co-founded Puentes New Orleans in 2007, serving as the founding executive director through 2011. In 2011, Lucas joined Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu's team, serving as the founding director of the Mayor's Neighborhood Engagement Office for the City of New Orleans. As a current Tulane CCC doctoral fellow, Lucas is pursuing research on nation building processes, with a focus on inclusionary and exclusionary political practices, urban and national political participation activities, and democratic structures and processes.