All posts by Cedric

I know you are asking today, ‘How long will it take?’…Somebody’s asking, ‘When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night…How long will justice be crucified, and truth bear it?’

I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’ How long? Not long, because ‘no lie can live forever.’

How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Speech from the steps of the state capitol
Montgomery, Alabama
March 26, 1965

Like many, I’ve looked at the arrival of 2012 with a sense of unease, knowing that the turbulence of a potentially nasty election season will soon begin in earnest. Then I had the good fortune to read a blog post by author and ideas man Seth Godin, The Chance of a Lifetime (thanks for the tip, Shawn Dove!):

A friend asked me the other day, “…given the sorry state of so much in the world, what’s possible to look forward to?” The state isn’t sorry. It’s wide open. Interest rates are super low, violence is close to an all time low, industries are being remade and there’s more leverage for the insurgent outsider than ever before in history. The status quo is taking a beating, there’s no question about it. That’s what makes it a revolution...

So stop thinking about how crazy the times are, and start thinking about what the crazy times demand. There has never been a worse time for business as usual. Business as usual is sure to fail, sure to disappoint, sure to numb our dreams. That’s why there has never been a better time for the new. (Read more here).

I’m excited by “the new” in 2012 here at the Kapor Foundation! We’re shifting some of our program priorities to better align with other areas of work underway at the Kapor Center; namely, we’re exploring how to better support information technology that will “accelerate or positively disrupt” mission-driven social change work. And riding off of the heels of Mitch’s appearance on CNN’s Black in America IV last November, we’re also getting positioned to play a role in diversifying the startup industry. Read more about our goals and 2012 priorities here.

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Since we keep getting inquiries about whether or not we’ve moved, I wanted to clarify – it’s coming! At this time last year; we had a mural unveiling at the new Kapor Center building in Oakland, which features the always-dazzling work of Favianna Rodriguez. We wanted to mark our presence on the corner of 22nd and Broadway and share our excitement about moving to Oakland. But we haven’t moved yet. The building will first undergo a complete and thorough renovation. We hope to move in June 2013.

Relax; you didn’t miss your invitation to the Open House.

Yes, that was “our” Mitch Kapor on last night’s Black in America 4: The New Promised Land – Silicon Valley on CNN. Mitch and Kapor Capital were major supporters of the NewMe Accelerator featured in the documentary.

The pre-screenings of BIA4 set off a controversy in the blog/Twittersphere about diversity in the information technology industry, especially regarding the distribution of startup capital to entrepreneurs of color and women founders. CNN posted a response here, and Mitch wrote a compelling post here.

Regardless of the illusions of meritocracy in Silicon Valley – that anyone can get financed, one just has to be smart and work hard – those of us who have an expansive vision for a functioning USA must press to ensure that underrepresented people of color and women are in the game, and that their brilliant ideas for job-and-services-generating business ventures are also capitalized and supported. Not only is this a matter of fairness, but it’s a smart business decision – we need all hands on deck to get this economy moving again.

Based in part on the experiences over the summer with NewMe, our board has charged the Foundation with beginning to explore how we can support the diversification of info tech and how tech tools can be used to further the impact of social justice work. Please stay tuned for more information about how this will unfold in 2012.

(And yes, we did get to meet Soledad O’Brien when the crew was in our offices taping! I’m a fan!)

For the past two weeks I’ve vacillated between glee, optimism, overwhelmedness, and disappointment around the Occupy movement.

I firmly support (my interpretation of) Occupy’s core tenets – holding financial institutions accountable for their role in exacerbating the economic meltdown, establishing a more just system for generating revenues that will support our domestic well-being, and disentangling corporate and private wealth from their stranglehold on our democracy. Those things are no-brainers.

Yet, as with many blossoming social movements, there are certainly nuances around Occupy’s strategy and tactics that need clarifying. How can those who can’t strike, who can’t (or won’t) camp out, or can’t sign online petitions participate in what could become the defining movement of a generation? How do we channel the rage (or opportunistic anarchy) into a disciplined, accessible, provocative force for change? It burned me up to watch the enormous goodwill and community-spiritedness of Occupy Oakland’s high points be vandalized and tear-gassed before the eyes of the world.

What are we going to do??

I’ve certainly learned a good deal from some of our key partner organizations that have played a vital role in Bay Area Occupy movements: APEN, Ella Baker Center, Causa Justa:: Just Cause, and EBASE. And next week, Van Jones will speak to a group of  local funders about philanthropy’s role in supporting social movements. I certainly look forward to learning from his expansive vision and experience.

These are questions and issues that must be addressed. Occupy’s autumn vs. Occupy’s fall lies in the balance.

We’re happy to announce that Justin Davis, our program coordinator for the College Bound Brotherhood, has been selected to participate in the 2012 Connecting Leaders Fellowship program of the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE). He’s one of ten African Americans foundation professionals throughout the nation to be inlcuded in this cohort. The fellows program is designed to “promote the professional mobility and visibility” of blacks in the philanthropic sector through personalized executive coaching, mentoring, and learning community discussions. This is a fantastic opportunity for Justin to take his leadership skills to the next level. Believe me, I know – I was a 2007 fellow, and it was a defining experience in my professional development. Please join us in congratulating Justin!

Eric Marshall of our key partner Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law just shared their new interactive Map of Shame, which “paints the picture of the threat posed by the rolling tide of vote suppression legislation.” This map is a terrific tool to learn more about restrictive legislation (standing and pending) in a large number of states, resources for voters to get required IDs, a petition for voters to push back against voter suppression, and links to state-by-state election rules.

The threat to voter access is REAL – as reported (in a partisan frame) by these frightening accounts in Rolling Stone magazine and the Washington Post. In the next year the Kapor Foundation will continue its nonpartisan focus on Elections Protection to ensure that every eligible voter can participate in our democracy!

Here’s an interesting article sent by our friends at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (who just celebrated their 35th anniversary with a bouyant reception at the Kapor Center). In the NCRP’s latest quarterly journal, Jan Masaoka, a Bay Area doyenne of nonprofit organizational management, offers suggestions for addressing the foundation/nonprofit power differential head-on. Save the occasional snarky wise crack, this is a necessary critique of a troublesome dynamic that lingers in the nonprofit/philanthropic sector.

While we at the Kapor Foundation we do recognize that our relationships with nonprofit grantseekers is “driven by institutional interests and fundamentally about money,” we nevertheless do try to speak sincerely about partnerships – to the degree they’re possible given the presence of financial resources as a “spoiler” of sorts.

And contrary to Masaoka’s last bullet-pointed piece of advice to nonprofits, some of us hate fawning and can smell it coming. Really. Just say no.

Read on.

We’re proud to share that Mitch was just inducted into/onto the Entrepreneurs Walk of Fame at MIT last Friday. Check out his blog post here. Congrats, Mitch! (Love his serene look and peace symbol socks!)

Just wanted to share more news of the alarming movement to disenfranchise large voting blocs through restrictive elections legislation across the nation. Check out Judith Browne Dianis, Co-Director of the Advancement Project (one of our key grant partners), speaking on MSNBC:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From Advancement Project: Our outreach is continuing to build Momentum, sparking more media coverage of the largest legislative effort to scale back voting rights in a century. In a September 15, 2011 Rolling Stone article, Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis examines these efforts as a coordinated strategy to ‘. . . undermine democracy by cutting off the voices of the people.’  Advancement Project remains steadfast in its determination to safeguard voters from these anti-democratic barriers to impede access to the ballot.

Note: Both Advancement Project and the Kapor Foundation approach voter access and elections protection as nonpartisan issues.