Archive for June, 2010

We’re very proud to share that our own Carmen Rojas has been tapped to serve on the EPA’s Environmental Education Training Program Task Force, one of five people in the *nation* to serve in this capacity!! The task force is charged with reviewing education materials that are developed and distributed to low income communities on pressing environmental issues. Many congrats to Carmen for representing community interests at the local, state, and federal levels!

Just wanted to thank Adrian Henderson and the M. Robinson Baker YMCA in Oakland for presenting me with a Community Service Award at their Juneteenth celebration last Saturday (the Kapor Foundation has underwritten their college fair costs for the past two years though the College Bound Brotherhood).

This is a definite honor, considering that these are folks who embody community service through their everyday work in the heart of West Oakland. So the feeling is mutual – thank YOU for your thoughtfulness and dedication to community! (And my apologies for wearing shades onstage, lol).

Late last year, CompassPoint released a wonderful study: Creative Disruption: Sabbaticals for Capacity Building and Leadership Development in the Nonprofit Sector (download here). The report analyzes the myths and actual benefits of  nonprofit leaders being able to step away for a well-planned break – a sabbatical – during which the individual benefits from a period of rejuvenation and the organization’s “second tier” of managers get to further develop their leadership skills.

Here at the Kapor Center (which includes our sibling organizations, Level Playing Field Institute and Kapor Enterprises), we’re testing out a new sabbatical program, and yours truly has the privilege of being the pioneer. As this Thursday, July 1, I’ll be out of the office until September 1st.

Of course I’m looking forward to it, since I haven’t had an extended break (beyond a two week vacation) in 17 years. And while I know that this will be a challenge in many respects (dealing – or not dealing – with email is a big one!) I’m fully confident in my staff colleagues to hold down the fort until we’re all together again. So please feel free to continue to contact the appropriate Foundation staff with questions; they’re prepped to answer own their own and in my stead. Meanwhile, have a great summer! Namaste.

I just sat in on a webinar entitled ‘Affordable Video Production for Nonprofits’.  It was hosted by Nonprofit Webinars, a company that provides all kinds of low-cost and free webinars to nonprofit organizations.  In just an hour, I learned some cool information that I wanted to pass along to you.

Online video is becoming more and more prominent.  The webinar speaker cited a 2009 study from the Pew Research Center that showed that far more people were using video-sharing websites, like YouTube, than even social networking sites, like FaceBook and Twitter.  That being said, it’s understandable that lots of nonprofits are trying to boost their video presence.

Here are four unique vide0-related opportunities out there for nonprofits:

1. Flip Video Spotlight Program -  provides steeply discounted access to selected Flip Video products to qualifying charitable organizations. To start, charitable organizations apply online to become a Participating Partner. If approved, Participating Partners join our online community and receive access to the Flip Video Spotlight storefront. For each Flip Video Ultra camcorder purchased through the storefront, Flip Video Spotlight donates a free unit.  Click HERE for program guidelines.

2. YouTube Nonprofit Program – provides premium branding capabilities and increased uploading capacity, the option to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout “Donate” button, a listing on the Nonprofit channels and the Nonprofit videos pages, and other benefits.

3. Animoto – produces creative and unique videos from your photos, video clips, and music for free!  They have a professional option available for a quarterly or yearly fee.

4. Lights. Camera. Help. – nonprofit organization that is dedicated to encouraging other nonprofit and cause-driven organizations to use film and video to tell their stories. They do this through education, volunteer match programs, screenings, and an annual film festival. The goal of the volunteer match is to connect nonprofits in need of films with film makers who are willing to donate or discount their services.

If you’re curious, check out these tools to try your hand at using video to promote your organization’s mission.

Last week, Justin, Carmen, and I had the unique opportunity to attend Ernst & Young’s Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year Award ceremony in San Jose.  We were guests of the founder and CEO of Universal Giving, Pamela Hawley, who was one of the finalists for this prestigious award.  Pamela was recognized for her social entrepreneurship in creating an organization that allows people to give to and volunteer with top-performing projects all over the world.  We are proud of Pamela’s work and were excited to attend the event on her behalf.

Some of the other entrepreneurs being recognized were the founders of Method Products, Inc., Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan; the founder of the Flip video camera, Jonathan Kaplan; and the co-founders of SunRun, an organization that provides solar installation to consumers at no initial cost, leasing the equipment to them, making it easier for folks to live sustainably.  These were just a few of the amazing entrepreneurs we heard about.  One of the most amazing entrepreneurs was a 13-year old boy who created a special gate to be used with sliding doors.  Amazing!

The most important thing I took away from this event is that it doesn’t pay to just come up with a great idea.  We need to put ideas into action in order to add value to the communities we live in.  In the words of Thomas Edison, “Vision without execution is hallucination.”  Be inspired.

Pictured in photo: Carmen Rojas, Pamela Hawley, and Tiffany Price

Over the last couple of years the city of Oakland has become home to numerous blogs discussing the pressing political, community, and economic issues of the day.  These include Oakland Focus, A Better Oakland, Oakland Local, and Living in the O.  These blogs provide a much needed space for everyday people in the city to connect to each other, engage in city life, and sadly fill the space of our lacking newspaper.  I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about citizen journalism- on the one hand I think they provide an important look into how different people live and experience the city and on the other I feel like they too often mistake commentary with in depth journalism.

That said, last week I was invited to be a guest on OaklandSeen and had a great conversation with Aimee Allison on the state of Oakland.  We had an interesting conversation on issues ranging from the city’s gang injunction to economic development opportunities for the city’s long term residents.  Listen HERE and let us know what you think.

On a panel at the Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy pre-Council on Foundations Conference in April, I presented four suggestions for social justice funders to consider.  Last month, I wrote about the first of these, Find a Political Home.  Below, I share the second of four suggestions.

2.  Build the Vehicles to Move us Forward

The story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott is undoubtedly a powerful one.  But while the courageously repeated and mass act of refusing to cooperate with a racist bus system dominates the popular narrative about the boycott, it is that other side of the story that continues to captivate me.

For African Americans in Montgomery in the 1950s, the bus system allowed them to travel from one place to another, usually from their homes to their jobs (which often were at the homes of white residents).  It came, though, at a heavy price.  By segregating the ridership and requiring African Americans to give up their seats to white riders, bus drivers made African Americans pay their bus fare plus the added indignity that comes from suffering unjust acts.  They were, in short, not allowed to bring their full selves on their daily commute.

In response, the Montgomery African American community decided not to remain complicit, choosing instead to boycott.  In order to make possible and sustain a bus boycott, civil rights leaders had to create and organize a massive car pool system, up to 350 cars daily, that required immense financial and human resources from an already under-resourced black community.  It is this car pool system that seems particularly instructive.

Set-up by a newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association, the car pool system, like the bus system, also offered African Americans the ability to travel from one place to another. The difference, however, was that the car pool system did so in ways that did not cost African American passengers their dignity. It brought together the fractious classes of Montgomery’s African American community in what Taylor Branch described as a “radical act of togetherness.”  And, just as importantly, the car pool system advanced a social and racial justice agenda, offering all the residents of Montgomery a much needed level of redemption.

For those of us in philanthropy, foundations, like the bus system, offer opportunities to move individuals, communities, organizations, and/or ourselves from one place to another.  In our case, it has the ability to move us closer to the social justice ends that we might seek.  But for so many reasons, whether those be legal, financial, or political, what or how we move forward can be structurally and culturally constrained.  If this is the case, then it begs the question, what’s our car pool system?  What are the additional vehicles or ways of moving that we need to create, as funders, that will get us to where we need to be and that will sustain our organizing efforts to get there? Creating such vehicles seems to be the task at hand for social justice funders.  It is the task being undertaken by those organizing within the philanthropic sector, whether through affinity groups, study groups or spaces such as the Bay Area Justice Funders Network or Bay Area Blacks in Philanthropy. It is, perhaps, our own small and necessary acts of radical togetherness.

Next post in the series: 3) Develop Your Skills as an Organizer

BP’s trial and error approach to cap the unmanageable oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is damaging more than just BP’s financial outlook.  The oil spill has leaked between 19.7 million and 43 million gallons, according to government estimates.  BP will undoubtedly recover financially from what is being considered the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, but unfortunately this disaster may render irreversible damages to the environment and an economic trade that is supplemented by natural resources.

While wildlife will suffer the most visible effects of this calamity, those who inhabit the coastal lands of Louisiana will have to endure the economic and environmental effects associated with this spill, most notably Native Americans.  For many of these coastal tribes, fishing is a big part of life.  For the Pointe Aux Chenes Tribe, who resettled in the Louisiana marsh lands after being forced from their lands more than a century ago, seafood is not only a big part of their dietary intake, but also their primary export.  Having little to no resources to combat the spill and hurricane season approaching, the tribe, along with many other coastal inhabitants, is in great danger of having a low surplus of food for the upcoming months and potentially suffering from water contamination.

This spill is a call for government to become more active in pursuing alternative ways to attain oil and, more importantly, invest more money in developing a green energy plan that focuses on renewable energy sources.  But until the government puts talk into action, organizations across the country need to continue being vocal about environmental issues and the benefits associated with going green.  In addition, society must become more cognizant that low-income communities of color are suffering at a disproportionate rate from environmental injustice.  Our Green Access program at the Mitchell Kapor Foundation seeks to create meaningful opportunities for low-income communities of color thus ensuring fairness and sustainability.  Every community, regardless of class or race, should be afforded green and sustainable living, free from financial exploitation from large corporations.

photo source: Micheal Murphy, Examiner.com

Seven years ago, I was brought into the field of community organizing as a volunteer with Domestic Workers United (DWU).  At that time, DWU’s organizing efforts were among the most inspired and strategic in New York City, fresh off the passage of a city-wide domestic workers bill of rights.  Seven years later, the domestic workers movement – at the intersection of race, gender, immigration and labor – is among the most inspired and strategic movements in the country. With the founding of the National Domestic Workers Alliance at the 2007 United States Social Forum, the influence and impact organized domestic workers are having grows larger each day, offering both a scathing critique of the status quo and a road map to get us somewhere more just and equitable.

On Tuesday, the domestic worker movement took a huge step forward.  In their own, words …

Dear friends,

On June 1, about 100 domestic workers and supporters got on buses headed for Albany to urge senators one last time to vote YES for the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights during today’s session. With truth on our side, we educated thousands of Albany residents and legislative workers about the conditions faced by domestic workers and the urgency of basic rights and protections. We hit senate offices to remind them about the vote, to address any last-minute concerns, and to urge them to vote in favor of the bill.

After two hours of deliberation, filled with impassioned and moving speeches by members of the Democratic conference recalling the struggles of their mothers and grandmothers who had been domestic workers, desiring to reclaim New York’s pioneering leadership in workers’ rights, and highlighting the moral significance of this bill, the New York State Senate finally came down on the right side of history. That night, the New York State Senate voted 33-28 to pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

We have come so far, since we first set out on this journey. We have gotten everyone to learn about the domestic workers’ plight and the history of exclusion. We have built and deepened strong alliances with many different sectors of our society. Everyone has been touched and moved in some way. We could not have accomplished all that we have without your support and without you standing alongside us in this struggle.

We ask you to stay with us, as we enter the last phase of our campaign for justice. Now we must get the Assembly and Senate bills reconciled so that the governor can sign into law much-needed and long overdue basic rights and protections for the workers who make all other work possible.

Priscilla Gonzalez, Director, Domestic Workers United

“We have a dream that one day all work will be valued equally.”

Check out DWU featured on the front page of the NY Times!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/nyregion/03nanny.html?hp

Update:  Good summary of the legislation by the Progressive States Network here.