Sharing thoughts and news about our work.
February 25th, 2010 | by Cedric | Published in Foundation, Foundation-wide, Green Access, Racial Justice, Social Justice, Special Initiatives, Voting Access
We’ve just completed a process to identify new key partner organizations. And while the bulk of our funding will support this cohort, I want to reiterate to the broader community that we are still able to consider quarterly grant requests for special opportunities and efforts like convenings and tech-related work.
If you’re interested in learning more, please feel free to check out our regularly-updated guidelines (or keep reading the blog) and contact us to discuss your ideas.
January 25th, 2010 | by Tiffany | Published in Foundation-wide, Professional Development
I was glancing through the latest issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy and came across an interesting news briefing that said Americans who volunteer donate 10 times more money than those who don’t volunteer. This was based on a study that Harris Interactive, a consumer research firm, conducted on behalf of Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund. I would presume that individuals who care enough about a cause or organization to volunteer time may have a deeper connection to that particular cause than someone who does not. It’s common knowledge that volunteers provide lots of in-kind support to organizations, with some organizations being completely volunteer driven. But, this study shows that volunteers don’t just give their time. They give their treasure as well. I never thought much about this in the context of fundraising and the potential impact that volunteers can directly have on an organization’s bottom line. But, this study suggests that it may pay to invest in building up your volunteer base, if your organization can support the use of volunteers. For those of you who want to improve your volunteer outreach strategies, here are a couple of resources that may help: CaliforniaVolunteers, VolunteerMatch, and Volunteer Center.
January 14th, 2010 | by Cedric | Published in College Access, Foundation, Foundation-wide, Green Access, Racial Justice, Social Justice, Special Initiatives, Voting Access
You may have noticed (or maybe not) a few new changes and updates on our website, such as the goodies on the Assistance & Advising page and the simplified grant application (in Cybergrants).
We also have important news to share about a shift in focusing on key partner organizations whose work is most closely aligned with our own. Please read the longer announcement here.
As stated, we remain an eager partner in helping to build equity, access, and fairness for communities of color.
Image from all-free-download.com
January 13th, 2010 | by Carmen | Published in Foundation-wide
Raj Patel & Cedric Brown
Over the course of the last couple of weeks, particularly in the midst of the holiday shopping madness, I’ve spent some thinking about how and what we value. I keep coming back to this question: Do Americans value consumption over citizenship? Believe me, these are not my random thoughts.
It all started with this story on National Public Radio about a 3-D television that would make the Super Bowl a ‘greater’ experience for sport fans. I turned to my husband and was outraged that advances in technology could allow us to watch football practically live in our living rooms, but that we, as a society, did not prioritize preventing voter fraud or providing all people with accessible quality organic food over this experience. It all seemed crazy.
Thankfully, there are people like Raj Patel in the world who are thoughtful about these contradictions and are able to offer some insight on how we can transform this madness. Raj Patel is what my graduate school adviser would call a ‘double-agent’. He worked at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and is now at the forefront of battling these institutions by calling into question how we come to value goods in our current economic and political configuration. In the ‘The Value of Nothing: How to reshape market society and redefine democracy,’ he asks a simple question: Do we really know what goods and services cost in our society? His response is no and that we really need to wake-up and smell the impact of not knowing this cost soon or we’re going to be in serious trouble.
In his recent talks and interviews throughout the Bay Area, he gives the example of knowing the cost of how and what we eat. One in five health care dollars in the United States is spent treating someone who has diabetes. We know that there are food choices that can transform the impact of diabetes, but we do not place a value on trying to eat well nor in staying away from processed sugars or fats. On the contrary, it actually costs more to eat better. He offers the solution of having a tax on goods that we know have less value on our health. Just imagine a soda tax or a juice benefit! The world is already a little better.
P.S. from Cedric: I’ve known Raj for about four years through his wife/partner Mini Kahlon, one of my former colleagues at the Level Playing Field Institute. Lots of brainy pizazz in that family! I’m so proud of him!
November 5th, 2009 | by Cedric | Published in College Access, Foundation, Foundation-wide, Green Access, Voting Access
Yes, it’s true that we’ve been falling off with our blog entries. As some of you have already heard first hand, we’re (hopefully) in the final stages of our program planning for 2010, which we started in earnest last July.
When this grantmaking program structure was launched in August 2007, we decided to learn about and participate in the respective program arenas, green justice and civic engagement, by meeting key players and supporting promising work by effective organizations. This learning process would allow us to evaluate our work and make better decisions about how to better target our resources and efforts for the long haul in the progressive movement. In trying to maintain the equilibrium between our capacity, our interests, and the revenue available for grantmaking and programs (which was cramped by the economic recession, of course), this may mean that we work with fewer organizations over time toward a commonly-identified goal. As a matter of fact, all of the supplementary research and thinking that we’ve done thus far supports that strategy. But our plan ain’t finished cookin’ yet.
By the beginning of December, we hope to have our 2010 program plans in place. Our three core program areas – Green Access, VoICE, and the College Bound Brotherhood – will stay the same. We will still have a general request for applications. But we will most likely have other, deeper changes in store.
Please stay tuned and check back with us (via the website) in December about moving forward in 2010. We’re getting ready by spending more time planning and less time blogging!
(Artwork borrowed from thewritingloft.com)
September 28th, 2009 | by Tiffany | Published in Foundation-wide
Each year, the James Irvine Foundation recognizes individual leaders from any sector — nonprofit, public or private — and in any field, such as education, health, housing, economic development or the environment, who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant California issues. Four to six award recipients will each receive $125,000 in organizational support and assistance in sharing their effective program models with policymakers and other practitioners.
Nominations for the 2010 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards are due by October 13, 2009, and awards will be announced in April 2010. Nominations are welcome from people who are well-acquainted with the leader or leadership group and can verify their qualifications for the award. More details about the awards are given at the James Irvine Foundation website along with selection criteria, profiles of past recipients, and answers to frequently asked questions.
Again, the deadline is October 13, 2009.
September 15th, 2009 | by Tiffany | Published in Foundation-wide
We heard you loud and clear. Some of you mentioned wanting to have an electronic version of our grant application prior to going into our online system to make it easier to cut and paste responses. So, we have added an electronic sample grant application, which can always be found under ‘Submit a Request‘ in our ‘How to Apply‘ section. We’re constantly tweaking our process to make things as smooth and seamless as possible, so thanks for all the feedback you give us in your final reports. It’s really valuable!!
September 4th, 2009 | by Cedric | Published in Foundation-wide
(In response to an email I recently received)
When I get ready to go before my board with grant recommendations, I bring the ones that I think are the best bet – solid leadership, goals, plans, strategies, evaluation and, yes, even a decent website in this 2.0 age!
Has it ever dawned on you that I can’t make a case – even to myself – for supporting your program if you don’t come correct? I should get the money because I’m on the front lines in the community is NOT a viable nor justifiable rationale! The Give me the money because I know what to do approach doesn’t cut it either. Typos and muddled language do not help. Disregarding the guidelines does not help. Having no website, no financial systems, no org chart, and no strategic or operations plan DOES NOT HELP. And if you don’t know how to do these things – or don’t even know what you need to know – rather than dropping the quite tired excuse of Blaming the System, you betta ask somebody! CompassPoint and the Foundation Center are two of the resources that provide these “best of the basics.” Or even still, ask a program officer to arrange 30 minutes for some coaching or feedback.
Yes, there are a lot of things wrong with the philanthropic sector. I was in a meeting yesterday when the presenter said the word “racism” and I could see some of the other folks recoiling. We have much work to do in this field. But just as we need to step up while working on the inside of this sector, some of you need to tighten up on the outside!
Rant over. Lawd have mercy, where are my blood pressure pills??
August 27th, 2009 | by Carmen | Published in Foundation-wide, Green Access, Social Justice
Looking for some food justice? How about a good fight for the planet? Or maybe seeking out a venue to hear your favorite activist or poet give a 20 minute talk? If your answer is yes to any of these, here go 3 places you should be at at in the next couple of months
August 28-30, 2009
Jack London Square, Oakland, CA
Street food, fresh summer fruits and veggies, live music, handcrafted local beers, ice cream sold from the back of a bicycle. Come find it all and more at Eat Real, a free festival, taking place August 28-30 at Jack London Square. Buy from your favorite street food vendors, pick up a ticket for the Beer Shed and sample from among the 40-something microbrews, or shop in the Market for local produce and artisanal snacks. In between the good eats, enjoy the non-stop entertainment and activities that include chef demonstrations, dance performances, bands, films, food competitions, and lots more, for free
Proceeds from the event benefit People’s Grocery, La Cocina and Community Alliance with Family Farmers
September 7-9, 2009
W Hotel, San Francisco, CA
Momentum brings together some of the world’s most innovative thinkers and dedicated activists to challenge, inspire, and energize each other. It’s a conference and it’s a community where ongoing connections are built between key social issues and strategies. Tides first convened Momentum in 2005 as a way to keep the energy and dialog from the 2004 elections open and productive. From that first gathering of donors, Momentum has evolved to embrace the larger Tides community in active, authentic dialog. In 2008, Momentum was re-envisioned with a unique format, placing the spotlight on innovative, emerging and challenging ideas while fostering collective experience. With each Momentum gathering, the forum expands and evolves to embrace a broader vision of community. Momentum’s engaging and brilliant speakers share their passion for new approaches to familiar problems, giving their most intriguing presentations in just 20 minutes.
September 25- October 1, 2009
Landmark Lumiere, San Francisco, CA
Three years in the making, Crude is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet. The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film subverts the conventions of advocacy filmmaking, exploring a complicated situation from all angles while bringing an important story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.
The landmark case takes place in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador, pitting 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers against the U.S. oil giant Chevron. The plaintiffs claim that Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – spent three decades systematically contaminating one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, poisoning the water, air and land. The plaintiffs allege that the pollution has created a “death zone” in an area the size of the Rhode Island, resulting in increased rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and a multiplicity of other health ailments. They further allege that the oil operations in the region contributed to the destruction of indigenous peoples and irrevocably impacted their traditional way of life. Chevron vociferously fights the claims, charging that the case is a complete fabrication, perpetrated by “environmental con men” who are seeking to line their pockets with the company’s billions.
IN OTHER NEWS!
Carmen and I (Tiffany) attended CompassPoint’s Nonprofit Day today. It was an exciting day that started out with an inspiring opening plenary by Benjamin Jealous, CEO of the NAACP. Ben got everyone even more jazzed about movement building with strong statements about being clear about our convictions, being clear about who shares our conviction, and always trying to act like ‘converts’ who are passionate about the causes we’re working for. My favorite quote from his speech was about Ben’s pastor who said, “Success is going from failure to failure without lack of enthusiasm.” Now THAT’S conviction!!
I also listened to a strong panel of experts who also spoke about movement building, learned about how to build coaching into my communication with colleagues and others, and many other hot topics. If you went to the event, I hope you gained some great networks and kernels of wisdom just like I did!
See you at the next event!!
August 13th, 2009 | by Carmen | Published in Foundation-wide, Green Access
Mitchell Kapor Foundation grantee’s have been on the move this summer. The work of VoICE and Green Access grantees has come together through the national Green the Block campaign . On August 4th, Green For All and the Hip Hop Caucus announced the launch of their new partnership ‘to educate and mobilize communities of color to ensure a voice and stake in the clean-energy economy’. The four pillars of the Green The Block campaign are:
These organizations are working together because they understand that a clean energy economy can address both the crisis of poverty and pollution and we agree. Congratulations Green for All and Hip Hop Caucus for your leadership in our communities!
IN OTHER NEWS, Compasspoint’s Nonprofit Day is just around the corner! It’ll be held on August 27th at the San Francisco Hilton. NAACP (one of our grantees) CEO, Ben Jealous, will be the keynote speaker at the conference, and there will be numerous opportunities to learn about 
nonprofit leadership, movement building, and how to cope during these difficult economic times. Plus, there are always great networking opportunities at this event. If you haven’t registered already, do it fast!! Registration fees increase after August 14th!! See you there!