Mitchell Kapor Foundation Weblog

The times are fast changing.  A couple of weeks ago, my mom sent me a text message asking me, “How do u Twitter?” Aside from being side-splittingly hilarious, it was yet another loud and clear signal that the information age is in a new dimension. I know I sound really old right now, but it used to be that if you wanted to understand a topic, you could go to the library or to your personal handy stash of World Book Encyclopedias that your parents bought from a traveling salesperson to get the most comprehensive information about a topic. Then, it shifted to online versions of encyclopedias.  Now, if you’re not checking out blogs or following ‘tweets’ on a regular basis, you’re just not getting the latest and greatest information on anything.  So, in the spirit of making sure you have access to some of the popular blogs out there on philanthropy, here’s a list that we’ve compiled.

Note: The views represented in these blogs are not necessarily the views of the Mitchell Kapor Foundation.

(Photo from ScienceBlogs) Read more…

…or is anyone else tired of the word “partner” used as a verb? I think I hear or read it every day, and it has now crossed the line into Lingoland:

“We hope to partner with…”

“Thanks for partnering on…”

“The CBOs partnered to…”

I guess it’s appropriate, but sheesh.

Back to more important things.

(Photo by Mo on Flickr)

I’m late with this posting; so much is going on here! Whew! Just wanted to share some of the happenings from our professional affiliate groups.

NAACP:

This past Thursday, we were fortunate enough to land an audience with Benjamin Jealous, national NAACP President, who joined us to speak with Bay Area Blacks in Philanthropy members about “the Civil Rights Agenda in the Obama Era.” Jealous, a board member of the Association of Black Foundation Executives who left San Francisco’s Rosenberg Foundation to run the NAACP, certainly understands the intersection of the philanthropic community and the civil rights movement,and has a unique platform to call funding organizations into further action around civil and human rights issues. Jealous gave the assembled group a brief overview of the NAACP’s achievements and priorities during his eight months on the job. When asked what laypeople can do, he pointed out four actions people can take: 1) sign up for NAACP web actions, 2) donate, 3) spread the word about the NAACP’s work, and 4) have patience – there’s much to do!

NCG:

Two weeks ago, the Foundation hosted a Northern California Grantmakers panel discussion on “The Truth about Implementing New Technologies in Family Foundations.” This was an information exchange on how family or small-staffed foundations use technology to manage and improve their grantmaking, communicate internally and externally with key constituents, and engage their boards.

I was joined on the panel by two other guests: Elaine Gold, Executive Director of the David B. Gold Foundation, discussed how they developed and now utilize an online application to help drastically reduce the reams of paper that the old hard copy process required. Dana Marcus, Executive Director of the Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation, demonstrated how their board uses online tools to communicate with one another remotely while keeping fastidious track of their documents and conversations. Most fascinating to me is their Virtual Site Visit video gallery – they’ve been able to use low-cost tools and freeware to help grantee organizations to develop videos and a web 2.0 presence, and the site is chock full o’ useful DIY information!

And finally, I shared the story of the Kapor Foundation’s conversion to a web-based grant application, and the creation of our blog as a means to increase our transparency and communication with interested readers. Of course, with our founder being who he is, tech-based solutions are an everyday part of our problem-solving. While all of the panelists were quick to say that tech just for tech’s sake isn’t helpful, tech usage as part of a larger plan for efficiency and good operational practices sure is! Good stuff!

Both of these events and involvements underscore the importance of networking and sharing as part of movement-building. We’re glad to be in the mix!

On Tuesday April 7th, we hosted over 50 nonprofits from throughout the Bay Area to learn more about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka The Stimulus) and the opportunities it offers their communities. Radhika Fox and Ruben Lizardo from PolicyLink presented an impressive overview of the stimulus and the opportunities nonprofits have to position themselves as drivers and advocates for stimulus dollars. Before listing out all of the resources available, here are some quick tips for nonprofits:

• Translate the equity principles, working models, and policy wins you have made through organizing into the standards and best practices for implementation of stimulus projects in your community and region.
• Insist that existing equity and environmental mandates are adhered to in implementation of stimulus-related programs.
• Take advantage of in-roads made in decision making at municipal, county, state, and federal levels.

And now to the goods, below you will find a list of supporting and supplemental documents and weblinks from the Stimulus 101 convening. The following documents can be found at www.mkf.org/grants/BlogDocuments.html:

• Bringing Home the Green Recovery
• Green Jobs Criteria
• Recommendation for Prevention & Wellness to Obama Administration
• Stimulus Resource List
• Environmental Justice & Stimulus Report and Recommendations
• Green for All Recovery Tool Kit
• Recommendations to Gavin Newsom
• Stimulus 101 Handout (PolicyLink Power Point for Stimulus 101)

Additionally, the following can be found on other sites:

• Environmental Justice & the Stimulus
• California Green Stimulus Coalition

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Over the past month, the Foundation’s staff members have been involved in a number of outreach events to share what we think makes for good relationship-building with funders.  Here’s the first of a two-part article appearing in The Globe, an East Bay-based community paper (thanks to Mel and Pearl Shaw for inviting me to participate).

I also stumbled (really!) across this link while on the Foundation Center website: Meet the Grantmakers Panel Discussion.  My comments are about a third of the way in.  Most of the information still holds true, but always check our website for the best updates.

UPDATE: Here’s the second half of the two-part article.

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Last Friday March 27th, Tiffany, Stephen, and I took a trip to the city of Richmond to hear about the amazing work and prospects of one of our grantees, Solar Richmond.  If you haven’t heard, Solar Richmond promotes and inspires the use of solar power and energy efficiency in order to bring the economic benefits of the green economy to the city of Richmond.  This organization, with the leadership and vision of Michele McGeoy, is at the forefront of  the green workforce development movement .  By providing training and leadership opportunities to city residents, they are transforming the face of the green movement to include  faces from communities of color and low income communities.

After a very informative presentation on the potential of establishing a solar grid in Richmond and the feasibility of putting solar panels on nonprofits throughout the Bay, we took a tour through their neighborhood on an amazing yellow bio-diesel bus.  We met participants whose lives were changed by the training program and opportunities provided by Solar Richmond.  “You know some of these folks come in here and say, ‘this is my second chance at a first class life’.”  That is how Program and Training Manager Angela Greene described the impact of Solar Richmond’s work.  There was the Richmond job seeker seeking to expand her horizons, the single father from Seattle that got a late night call from his father in Detroit  and moved to Richmond to join the program, and the Floridian who came to Richmond to gain tools to take back to the sunshine state; all in all the program has been successful in drawing the attention of  job seekers, decision makers, and policy advocates across the country.  With a wait list of over 300, the program is in an amazing position to expand to a community, neighborhood, and city near you.

Okay folks, here’s my first rant (at least on this blog). Mitch Kapor was recently a guest on a panel where the moderator repeatedly mispronounced his – and the Foundation’s – name. Mitch is too polite to razz people about it, so I’m going to! I’ve heard this mistake multiple times, even after I’ve corrected people. And since I have a name that folks used to mispronounce before the ascent of Cedric the Entertainer, I’m empathetic to the cause of correct name pronunciation.

Kapor is pronounced KAY-por: kay like the eleventh letter of the English alphabet, and por like the phonetically-spoken Spanish word for “through.”

Being near Silicon Valley, I know it’s tempting to give a nod to our Hindustani brothers and sisters by saying “kuh-POOR,” but Mitch is Jewish and from Long Island, so it’s KAY-por.  KAY-por! KAY-por! KAY-por!

Okay, I’m through. Thanks for reading and praticing.

And by the way, my name is SED-rik, not SEED-rik.

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