All posts in Foundation

Proud to have been a sponsor of this recent Code for Oakland hackathon, which has been profiled in Forbes and was picked up by SF Gate. We’re looking to increase our involvement in tech-for-social-impact convenings in the future; stay tuned!

Hmmm. This is interesting. The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP)  has just released a report, Grantees’ Limited Engagement with Foundations’ Social Media, saying that “only 16% of grantees surveyed report using social media created by funders or their staff.” Last year CEP surveyed more than 6,000 nonprofits about their experiences with one of the 34 foundations in this study. The top findings were:

• “The majority of foundations use social media tools in their work.
• Very few grantees use social media from their foundation funders or their funders’ staff.
• Grantees that do use foundations’ social media find those resources less helpful than other communication resources for learning about the foundation.”

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This opinion column, Virtual Becomes Personal, is hot off the press in the July 1 issue of The NonProfit Times. I think the last paragraph is particularly relevant to the Foundation’s future direction:

The nonprofit community would do well to pursue three recommendations toward a unified goal of strengthening advocacy campaigns. First, traditional and digital organizers need to emerge from their respective silos and come together in forums to learn from each other how to leverage both forms of advocacy. Second, nonprofits should incorporate both traditional and digital organizing within a coherent strategy to broaden and deepen public participation, either developing the capabilities themselves or negotiating partnerships with others. Third, private foundations and nonprofit research institutions can add value to the field by undertaking more systematic research around the possibilities of digital organizing and online advocacy.

Read the entire article here (pdf). More details about our development will be forthcoming in the fall.

At 6’8″ flying can be a rather uncomfortable experience. There’s little leg room for individuals my size. Even after leaning my seat back there is little comfort;  I feel the knees of the person behind me probing the dense foam of my seat (SIGH!).  Overcoming this discomfort has required a simple but effective strategy – kicking off my shoes and falling asleep before the wheels leave the ground. As long as I am sleep before the wheels start moving I’m good.

My strategy was in full effect last week on my flight to Philadelphia to participate in A Gathering of Leaders: Cultivating Connections & Changing Conversations conference. This  two day convening, hosted by Frontline Solutions and sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, brought together several practitioners, grantmakers, and change agents who are working to improve the conditions and outcomes for males of color.  Nearly half of the participants were from the philanthropic sector, with Education and Youth Development being two of the most represented program areas. Despite the heavy influence of folks working in the education space, topics such as youth imprisonment, LGBQT issues, mental health, historical and cultural awareness were heavily touched on.  With over 44 cities represented and several voices from various sectors and communities, conversations were rich and real.  I credit Marcus Littles, Senior Partner of Frontline Solutions, with designing a format that allowed participants to convene with their particular sector (i.e. Philanthropic, media, or higher learning) to address the challenges, opportunities, and next steps in our respective sectors.

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I’m so excited to share that the Kapor Foundation, along with our sibling organizations, is moving to Oakland on August 1st!

2201 Broadway, Suite 727
Oakland, CA 94612
510-255-4650

Our email addresses will remain the same, of course.

*We’d hoped to begin construction on the building that we purchased at 2148 Broadway, but we’ve had to alter our original timeline for a move-in. We’re steadfastly working to address assorted development challenges so that we can move into our new home in the near future.

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Congrats to our own Justin Davis for being featured in this week’s Bay Citizen: “Former basketball pro urges teens to prepare for college.” Thanks to reporter Lousie Rafkin for the coverage. Not only can we use more “can do” messages to youth of color, we also need more stories that frame the tough realities (and remote possibilities) of a professional sports career. Stay tuned for more from Mr. Davis and the College Bound Brotherhood in 2012-13.

Photo by Sarah Rice for The Bay Citizen

Thanks to the organizers of the  AT&T Education Mobile App Hackathon for letting us observe, as well as to the great coders & biz developers who chatted with us today. Learned quite a bit; looking forward to putting this to use. (And pardon the bootleg sound doctoring on this video!)

Congratulations to *our* board chair and benefactor, Freada Kapor Klein, for being elected to the board of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC!

Former Congresswoman, Philanthropist Elected to Joint Center Board of Governors

WASHINGTON, DC – The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, one of the nation’s leading research and public policy institutions, has announced that former Michigan Congresswoman Carolyn C. Kilpatrick and Freada Kapor Klein, Ph.D., a philanthropist and an expert on issues of discrimination and diversity, have been elected to three-year terms on its board of governors.

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Our own president and founder was just named by Forbes as one of the most influential angel investors on AngelList, an info platform to match up startups and potential investors. The brief article states “These investors, each for different reasons, bear watching as arbiters of what’s next in technology.” We already knew that.

While this isn’t directly related to our foundation programs – except for the fact that we’re able to do this work in part because of those investments – we’re already working to start aligning tech and social change on both sides of the for/nonprofit spectrum. Stay with us as this unfolds.

For the past two years, I’ve had the honor and pleasure of being asked to give the keynote address at the SF Achievers Awards recognition ceremony. Dr. Henry Safrit – the program’s founder, Jefferson Award winner, humanitarian, and fellow North Carolinian – has hounded me to share this speech since he heard it a year ago. And for those who know Henry, he’s persistent if nothing else! So after a wonderful event this past Wednesday at the African & African American Art & Cultural Complex, where SF Achievers celebrated 13 scholars, I’m happy to finally comply with Henry’s wishes. lol

FIVE CHARGES FOR BROTHER GRADUATES

READ.
Read the newspaper. Read a book or a blog. Read on the Kindle. Read on the bus or the train. Read aloud, to yourself or someone else. After a movie, read the reviews. Before the test, read the textbook. Read something on the bestseller list and read something that somebody down the street wrote. Read to learn both new information AND new words. Read for as long as you can see, and after that, learn to read in braille.

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