All posts by Mario

The Mitchell Kapor Foundation is looking forward to celebrating 15 years of inspired work and impact by the Ella Baker Center, as well as to celebrating this year’s Ellas award winners, Favianna Rodriguez (among other things, the artist responsible for the murals at the Kapor Center’s Oakland site), APEN (a Kapor Foundation key grant partner), and Akaya Windwood, President of the Rockwood Leadership Institute.

We hope to see many of you there!

Ella Baker Center’s Anniversary Celebration and Award Ceremony

This year’s Ellas will feature a Community Reception, Art Exhibit of works by Favianna Rodriguez, our Awards Dinner, the announcement of the 2011 Van Jones Scholarship Winner, and much more.

WHEN: Thursday, September 22, 2011. 6:00 – 9:30 PM
WHERE: Oakland Marriot City Center, 1001 Broadway, Oakland

The 2011 Ellas also marks our 15th Anniversary of giving people the skills and opportunities to work together to strengthen our communities so that all of us can thrive.

The Annual Ella Awards Dinner will honor social change leaders whose inspiring and ground-breaking achievements build community strength and promote peace, justice and opportunity. People-powered action, driven by hope and the belief thatthings can and should be better, is how change happens.

Last week, I had the chance to attend one of the White House’s Community Leaders Briefings, which are part of a larger effort organized by the Administration’s newly created Office of Public Engagement to “create and coordinate opportunities for direct dialogue between the Obama Administration and the American public, while bringing new voices to the table and ensuring that everyone can participate and inform the work of the President.”

For many in the audience, who represented a broad spectrum of organizations from throughout the country, the opportunity simply to be recognized, invited to the White House and heard (the meeting started with a good hour of allowing participants to share thoughts, ideas, concerns and questions with the director of the Office of Public Engagement, Jon Carson), was itself meaningful.

For the Administration, it was a chance to directly share the ways in which they have been working to have their efforts be more accessible and invite community leaders to, at the very least, take advantage of newly created opportunities to best make use of government programs and initiatives, as well as potentially work in coordination or complimentary fashion around policy goals. Towards the former, I share with you all the following, which participants recently received:

Helpful links:

Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships within the Domestic Policy Council works to form partnerships between the Federal Government and faith-based and neighborhood organizations to more effectively serve Americans in need.

• To learn more about Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, visit:http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ofbnp

Office of Public Engagement

Visit the Office of Public Engagement’s (OPE) new website, which is your one-stop-shop for all the different programs and resources from OPE: http://www.whitehouse.gov/engage

Champions of Change

The Champions of Change series is designed for people to look into their communities and nominate everyday heroes who are demonstrating commitment to improving their own communities.

• To view current Champions or nominate someone, visit: www.whitehouse.gov/champions

Let’s Move!

A initiative, launched by First Lady Michelle Obama, dedicated to solving the problem of childhood obesity in a generation so that kids born today will grow up healthier and able to pursue their dreams.

• To learn more about Let’s Move and how to take action, visit: http://www.letsmove.gov/action
• For information about Let’s Move! Programs (including Let’s Move: Cities and Towns, Let’s Move Outside and Let’s Move in Indian Country), visit:  http://www.letsmove.gov/programs

Joining Forces

A national initiative that mobilizes all sectors of society to give our service members and their families the opportunities and support they have earned.

• To learn more about Let’s Move and how to take action, visit: www.joiningforces.gov

Startup America

A White House initiative to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation.

• To learn more about Startup America, visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/startup-america

Change the Equation

Change the Equation, is a CEO-led effort to dramatically improve education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), as part of the “Educate to Innovate” campaign. 

• To learn more about Change the Equation, visit:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/educate-innovate

White House Live

White House Live is your portal for viewing live events at the White House on a daily basis as well as past events that you were not able to see. Visit White House Live at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live

In the spirit of twitter’s #FollowFriday, here’s one from me.

We at the Kapor Foundation know Jordan Thierry well from his role as staff member of the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation. But for the past 5 years, he’s also been director of the Black Fatherhood Project.

Most recently featured on the Open Society Foundations’ website, the Project is both a film and a nonprofit organization working to uplift a historical and present-day exploration and conversation about fatherhood in Black America. Ultimately, it will provide ”insight on how communities can come together to ensure the power of a father’s love is not lost on America’s Black children.”

As my colleague Justin Davis says about this project, “black men, fathers in particular, play an important role in the black family and within black culture. It is necessary that we understand the context for which this is so and why black fathers will have an even more significant role in the progression of the black community.”

This Friday and moving forward, you can follow Jordan and The Black Fatherhood Project by signing up for updates on his website, http://blackfatherhoodproject.com/?page_id=133.

Have a great weekend!

Cedric moderating "Quick Wits" at FCCP's Spring Convening

Taking place in Portland, Oregon, the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation’s annual Spring Convening allowed Cedric (FCCP Steering Committee member) and myself (former program director at FCCP) another great opportunity to learn about the latest and greatest happening in the field of civic engagement and to do so alongside our philanthropic colleagues.

Among many things discussed, one in particular has been of particular concern – voter suppression as a point of intersection, as an issue where separate attacks on various communities add up to something more insidious.

All data points to a new demographic reality by 2045. It’s around that year that people of color are expected to comprise the majority of the population. By most definitions, a healthy democracy would demand a parallel trend in the demographic composition of the electorate and of who votes.

This, though, isn’t the way our country is moving forward. There’s a fight right now over the composition of our electorate, both directly and less so. Here are three arenas where those fights are taking place and recent links to learn a little more about each:

• Voter ID Laws and the Voter Fraud Bogeyman – “How States are Rigging the 2012 Election” by EJ Dionne in the Washington Post
• Mass Incarceration within the U.S., namely 1 in 15 African American males ages 18 & older (combine this with voting laws disenfranchising formerly incarcerated individuals) – “[Infographic] Combating Mass Incarceration – The Facts,” ACLU
• Criminalization of Immigrants (combine this with denial of citizenship status) – “Immigrants for Sale” Video, Cuentame

The prospect of an increasingly unrepresentative electorate raises large questions, including for me: how does the ratio of residents to eligible voters, particularly if these attacks continue and succeed, compare historically? How does the ratio of residents to eligible voters compare across countries? Given the answers to these questions, how will people and parties respond to the implications of these numbers? How will they respond to the implications about what the numbers say about who we are as a country, where we’re headed and how and by whom our country will be governed?

Yesterday, we were happy to see the Level Playing Field Institute‘s new report, ”The Voice of Nonprofit Talent: Perceptions of Diversity in the Workplace” get top billing in the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s daily update.

Please check out this timely piece by our colleagues at Kapor Enterprises and its implications for building, sustaining and growing diverse organizations.

Here’s a small excerpt to get you started …

Across the nonprofit sector, most employers share the belief that racial diversity is a key component of organizational health, performance, and outcomes. Yet, according to today’s nonprofit talent, few organizations are doing enough to attract and retain professionals of color. There is a perceived gap between the intentions and actions of nonprofit organizations when it comes to promoting staff diversity.

A common perception held by nonprofit professionals is that their employers value diversity, but that those values are not being translated into actions resulting in the creation of diverse and inclusive workplaces. For organizations seeking to increase the racial diversity of their staff, or retain their current employees of color, the ineffectiveness of mere “good intentions” around issues of diversity and inclusiveness presents a looming problem. Download the full report.

As many of us now know, Arizona has long been a laboratory for anti-immigrant legislation, driven and funded by prison companies and their profit motives. Tonight I’m headed back to the state. I’ll be visiting for the first time since shortly after SB1070 passed, supporting a delegation of allies on a learning tour both in Phoenix and Tuscon.  I hope to share reflections from this trip in a future post, but wanted to call attention here to another Arizona related headline.

In addition to being a laboratory for anti-immigrant legislation, the state has also been a laboratory for public financing legislation, but in this instance, increasing rather than criminalizing political speech and opportunity.  Arizona did this through their Clean Elections public financing law and its matching fund provisions.  It’s the constitutionality of this law, though, that the U.S. Supreme Court is now considering.  Below is a an update on this critical case, McComish v. Bennet, by Marc Caplan, program officer of the Piper Fund, a Mitchell Kapor Foundation grant recipient:

Piper Update – March 28, 2011 – Marc Caplan

The Supreme Court will hear oral argument today at 10:00 AM on the most important public financing case the Court has heard in more than 30 years.  The case, McComish v. Bennet, marks the first time that the Supreme Court has considered the constitutionality of a public financing measure since the landmark Buckley v. Valeo decision in 1976, which upheld the presidential public financing system and other reforms. For that reason, it could have a profound impact on the ability of all levels of government to offer reforms which counteract the influence that powerful interests have over elections.

The McComish case challenges the matching fund provision of Arizona’s Clean Elections public financing law, which was enacted by voters through a ballot referendum in 1998.  The matching funds provision is “triggered” when non-participating candidates in an election spend above the amount of grants provided to publicly financed candidates and also can be triggered when independent expenditures are made against a publicly financed candidate.  In those cases, the publicly financed candidates receive additional grants. Through the 2008 election cycle, the law was used increasingly by candidates in Arizona, with solid majorities of both legislative and statewide candidates opting to run utilizing the Clean Elections law.

Despite the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in May 2010 that the Arizona matching-fund provision was indeed constitutional, the Supreme Court nevertheless intervened in June 2010 to block Arizona from making any “triggered” matching fund grants for the 2010 election cycle.  Following that action by the Court, many observers predicted the Court would decide to consider the legal issues presented in the McComish case, which they did in late November 2010.

The attack on the trigger provisions of the Arizona public financing law is part of the well-coordinated and financed multi-year assault led by right-wing legal centers on all aspects of campaign finance reform designed to empower moneyed interests with even greater influence over our country’s elections than they already have.   …

For the full update, including a summary of responses by public interest legal centers, the Brennan Center and the Campaign Legal Center, email Marc Caplan at mcaplan at proteusfund dot org.

Soon after college, I was taught and trained in a model of community organizing that had five core elements: base-building, campaigns, organizational development, alliance-building, and leadership development.  This last element, leadership development, has since been an area of work within the social justice field where I’ve found that I can both be incredibly inspired, but also incredibly frustrated.

So I was glad last Friday to attend Urban Habitat’s Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI)’s information session in Oakland. [Read more about BCLI here.]  From the beginning of the presentation, it felt like leadership development done right. Many of the reasons why are evident in BCLI’s materials and on their website. I thought, though, that I would highlight two reasons that I hear us talk less about when looking at leadership development.

First, BCLI answers the question of exactly when and where their graduates will be able to practice the skills and use the knowledge learned through their program. It almost feels silly to credit them for this, as it’s why they exist at all, but I just don’t see that link too often. Groups that I’ve worked with have dozens of youth and adults go through their leadership development programs, but, and not to their fault, it wasn’t always clear where these members would then be able to all assume leadership roles.  Certainly the organizations themselves, with few resources and limited capacity, didn’t have enough open staff positions or even member leader roles available. Given this, BCLI not only points to the places where their leadership development program graduates can use newly acquired skills and knowledge, but also where all graduates of social justice leadership development programs throughout the Bay can now, if interested, play leadership roles and be supported in doing so.

Second, BCLI starts with the recognition of its participants, particularly poor and low-income communities of color, as being leaders in the room whose contributions and experiences will benefit their community, given the opportunity. This quality is one that has stuck with me from working with immigrant youth. It’s what I’ve understood to be the role model versus gang approach. While the former can provide a glimpse of a new reality for an audience, it could still also feel foreign and far off if their isn’t a deep connection with the speaker. The latter’s approach, on the other hand, proved instructive once we came to understand the appeal of gangs to Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee youth in the Northwest Bronx.  Rather than preparing youth to be leaders at some unknown time in the future, gangs, albeit tragically, offered responsibility and recognition almost immediately, allowing a place for them to apply and be recognized for the knowledge and maturity they had acquired growing up as the bilingual bicultural advocates of their community. Good leadership programs shouldn’t be gangs, of course, but I do think that they should include an approach that begins with recognition of existing leadership experiences and a trust to fulfill responsibilities based on this.

As someone new to the Bay area and to BCLI, I’m looking forward to learning more and seeing all that directly and indirectly comes out of this work.

* Title inspired by Paula Gidding’s book, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America.

NAACP LDF "Redrawing the Lines" Video

With the release of new population data from last year’s decennial Census, district lines within states will now have to be redrawn so that every district is roughly equal in population size and, as a result, each person is equally represented in governemnt.  This process of redistricting will figuratively and literally shape the conditions within which we work and live, affecting all levels of government from local school boards and city councils to state legislatures and the United House of Representatives for the decade to come.

Unfortunately, redistricting has proved less straightforward and less fair than we might hope for in a representative democracy.  Section 2 and Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, in fact, were specifically written to address prevalent partisan and discriminatory redistricting practices.

Below are two resources, a website and a guide, that each serve as primers on what redistricting is and what the responsibilities are of us, of elected officials and, in California, of redistricting commissions to ensure a just and equitable redrawing of political lines. We hope you’ll take the time to learn more and participate in the process where possible.

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.: www.redrawingthelines.org |  Brennan Center:  A Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting

From December 6-8th, Cedric and I had the opportunity to attend the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP)’s 2010 Winter Convening, Is there a New Normal. As all FCCP conferences do, this one provided us with a space to learn, to think, to build and deepen our relationships with funder colleagues… in short, a space to increase our capacity to be effective and informed civic participation funders.

The breadth and scope of topics covered, concerning the range of interconnected, and often interdependent, issues that fall under a large civic participation umbrella, are much too large to cover all here.  Instead, and in the spirit of the conference’s theme, I thought I’d share a few links that can provide a glimpse of the new normal at this year’s gathering:

• Consideration of the Relationship between Culture & Politics:  “Cultural change is often the dress rehearsal for political change. Or put in another way, political change is the final manifestation of cultural shifts that have already occurred.” – Jeff Chang

• Testing out Technology Tools Transforming Civic Engagement:  National Field |  Sunlight Foundation |  Presente.org |  Voting Information Project

• Exploring Race and the New Normal, Particularly in this Year’s Political Campaigns:  Featuring the work and people (Ludovic Blain and Camille Zubrinsky) of the American Values Institute

Enjoy!

Keynote Speaker Angela Davis and Kapor Foundation CEO Cedric Brown at What Works! 2010

This year’s sold out What Works! Convening brought  together more than 100 organizers, academics and funders, showcasing some of the most innovative and exciting social justice efforts happening in communities of color across the country – including, New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, New York, Oakland, and San Francisco among others – while also providing dedicated time and space for strategic dialogue (and socializing!) across sectors of the social justice movement.

As conveners of this event, we were immensely fortunate to work alongside and benefit  from the expertise of our Kapor Enterprise colleagues, our co-sponsors of this years convening, the Ford Foundation, Solidago Foundation and Surdna Foundation, and each of our key grant partners and invited speakers who made What Works! 2010 possible.  A heartfelt thanks to all.  We look forward to collaborating again soon.

And,  don’t forget to check back here for more from What Works! 2010 in the coming weeks.