All posts in Philanthropic Sector

Throughout my career in the nonprofit and foundation sectors, I’ve constantly been annoyed by the notion that we’re second-tier workers doing lesser priority work, compared to our corporate/for-profit/”real job” counterparts. We give too much credence to the formula of nonprofit = charity = hand-me-down = second-class. I even had to correct a visitor whom I overhead saying that the Kapor Center “isn’t a real nonprofit because this office is too nice.” Baloney, to put it mildly.

I was happy to come across this recent post in the Chronicle of Philanthropy by David Greco of the Nonprofit Finance Fund. The point that resonated most with me suggests switching up the rules by which we view nonprofit viability:

One step is to change the language nonprofits use. We should never view ourselves as second-class citizens begging for scraps. Nonprofits are corporations that produce jobs, stimulate the economy, and promote more sustainable and vibrant communities. Nonprofits are businesses that exist to fill voids that cannot or should not be filled by for-profit corporations or government.

I am pleased to see that change is happening. Nonprofit leaders are talking more about their capacity to carry out their missions and less about overhead. More and more grant makers recognize the need for nonprofits to have a surplus and build reserves. Donors and boards recognize that growth isn’t always good, and buying that building isn’t always such a great idea after all.

As a fan of the nonprofit sector, I also recognize that nonprofit and for-profit work doesn’t have to be oppositional.  I’m curious to watch emerging trends in the nonprofit sector as social ventures continue to blur the formerly-distinct lines between mission and profit.  And let’s remember who keeps the “civil” in civil society!

[Climbs off soapbox.]

More grist for the mill:  Job Crunch Sends More Young People to Nonprofit Work

This past Wednesday I had the honor of meeting with Oakland Mayor Jean Quan to hear about her administrative priorities and to examine how the City and the philanthropic community might work together. This gathering was organized and hosted by Quinn Delaney of the Akonadi Foundation, Nicole Taylor of East Bay Community Foundation, and James Head of the San Francisco Foundation. They invited senior staff from ten or so local foundations and philanthropic entities who make grant and program investments in Oakland.  While preparing for the meeting, I was pleased (and a little surprised) to find that over the past four years the Kapor Foundation made about $2 million in grants to Oakland-based nonprofits, many of whom are our key partner organizations.  This track record is important to us, as we want to be an appropriate and useful contributor to our future home community.

In her presentation, Mayor Quan highlighted the priorities outlined in the New Dreams, New Ways plan for the city, focusing on three in particular: transparent and efficient government; city and school district alignment and support of the most “at-risk” youth; and neighborhood safety. She acknowledged the complex challenges of implementing this agenda in the city’s current fiscal and political climate, but seemed completely undaunted by those potential barriers and prepared to move thoughtfully and determinedly ahead.

I was probably most impressed by the way Mayor Quan connected her personal journey as a social justice activist to her plans for governance. It was quite clear that she deeply loves and is committed to the city of Oakland. Most of the attendees, in our introductions to one another, also expressed a great appreciation for Oakland as an already-vibrant community with great potential. I left the meeting hopeful that as the government, business, philanthropic and nonprofit sectors continue to work together, we can bring about the changes and growth that the Mayor envisions. Go Oaktown! Go Oaktown!

Please help spread the word to people in your network about the call for nominations for the $100,000 Purpose Prize.

In its sixth year, The Purpose Prize provides major recognition to community leaders, 60 years and older, who are creating new ways to solve our most pressing social issues – from health care to the environment, poverty to education. It is the nation’s only large-scale investment in social innovators in the second half of life.

I’ve served as part of the selection process for the past three years, and the nominations and work from people throughout our communities is amazing, as are the entrepreneurial ideas that people develop.

Nominations – including self-nominations – are due by March 31, 2011 at www.encore.org/prize.

The San Francisco Foundation is now recruiting for the 2011-2013 Multicultural Fellowship Program.

The Multicultural Fellowship Program is a two-year, full-time program that aims to increase diversity in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. Successful candidates are young professionals of color with the promise and passion to create significant social change. The Fellowship provides challenging work and professional development experiences, on-the-job training, and opportunities to enhance skills in grantmaking, convening, project management, and a variety of other areas. Fellows are an integral component of the Foundation’s grantmaking Program staff. Additionally, Fellows benefit from networking, mentoring, trainings, seminars, professional conferences, and interactions with a wide array of nonprofit, community, and philanthropic leaders.

The Fellowship Program is seeking three Fellows with expertise in the following areas: Arts and Culture, Civic Engagement, and Community Health . The deadline to apply is January 20, 2011. The Fellowship positions will commence April 4, 2011. To see detailed information about the Fellowship application process, please click HERE.  Feel free to forward this announcement to those you think may be interested in applying.

Qualifications

• Self-directed, team-oriented, and leadership qualities
• Volunteer and/or work experience in a specific Program area as specified below
• Eagerness to learn about the philanthropic sector
• Ability to interact effectively with diverse audiences from varying socio-economic backgrounds
• Demonstrated interest in fundraising, donor development, and nonprofit or public service
• Strong oral and written communication skills and analytical skills
• Ease in producing high quality work in a high-production, multiple-project environment
• Strong computer/software skills, including Windows and Microsoft Word and Excel
• Familiarity with Raiser’s Edge a plus
• A Master’s degree in a relevant area or equivalent research and analysis experience preferred
• A minimum of five years of related work experience is required in addition to the specific requirements for each of the program areas noted here

Image source: The San Francisco Foundation website

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.

For the past few years, there have been numerous conversations, papers & articles, and conference sessions about the leadership vacuum that exists within the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.  As a response, groups focused on the next generation of leadership have sprung up all over the place.  Now, two young, Black, female pioneers on the topic have joined forces to publish a new book: How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar: 50 Ways to Accelerate Your Career.

Rosetta Thurman, popular nonprofit blogger and consultant, and Trista Harris, executive director of the Headwaters Foundation for Justice and ABFE Connecting Leaders Fellow alumnus (along with our very own CEO, Cedric Brown) have published this book to share the things they wished they knew when starting their journeys within the nonprofit sector.  The book, which has already garnered some great reviews, is available in electronic and paperback form.

To buy the book or for more information about it, click HERE.

We’re excited to share that Mitch and Freada Kapor were interviewed and featured in the Fall 2010 edition of Responsive Philanthropy, the quarterly journal of the National Center for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). This article is an insightful glimpse into what drives their perspectives on philanthropy, both the sector and the personal practice.

NCRP promotes philanthropy that serves the public good, is responsive to people and communities with the least wealth and opportunity, and is held accountable to the highest standards of integrity and openness.  Read the full article HERE. (And never mind that photo – we were just jokin’ around.)

From October 26-29, 2010, Justin and I were in New Orleans attending the Grantmakers for Education 14th annual conference.  I was also able to spend some quality time with my mom and her best friend, who flew over from Georgia to see me. It was quite ironic to be in New Orleans (given the national response to Katrina) attending a conference entitled: The Fierce Urgency of Now – Fulfilling the Promise of Excellence & Equity.  That aside, we saw a lot of good presentations while at the conference.

The conference was opened with an engaging speech by Hilary Pennington from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who spoke about how many higher education institutions are “college drop-out factories” and that while the college access rate has been increasing, the time it takes to complete college has increased, and college completion rates have gone down.  Pennington advocated for philanthropy to work toward  (1) restructuring the student experience to be more relevant for the modern-day students who may have different needs than students did years ago; (2) making teaching and learning more effective; and (3) using data to target interventions to where they can make the most difference.

At a session on philanthropy and racial equity, we heard from the African American Policy Forum, which produced an illustrative cartoon that uses a track metaphor to demonstrate the Unequality of Race.  This session highlighted the importance of context in promoting an understanding of structural racism. The speaker pointed out that, too often, youth as individuals are blamed for their educational outcomes when issues like nutrition, economics, and state and local policy, among other contextual factors play a significant role in academic achievement.

We also heard from Diane Ravitch, who urged those of us who went to see or plan to see Waiting for Superman to check out her review of the film, which  points out that the film presents some false and misleading data that can paint an unclear picture about the nature and success of charter schools.

Throughout the various sessions we attended, we heard recurring themes that philanthropy should focus efforts to systems and policy change in addition to more direct-service-oriented efforts to achieve educational equity for all students.  We also consistently heard that color-blind efforts toward education reform are no longer sufficient in eradicating the racial achievement gap or in keeping the United States competitive in a global economy.

For those of you who want more information about the conference, click HERE.

We are excited to host our third annual What Works! Convening November 8-9, 2010 at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. This year’s convening will bring together organizations from across the country working at the cross-section of race, civic engagement, and criminalization. Angela Davis – scholar, life-long activist, and co-founder of Critical Resistance – will be the keynote speaker.

As the national conversation about race has become inundated by the reactionary, exclusive, and xenophobic, the Kapor Foundation sees a critical opportunity to bring together organizers from across the nation – New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, New York and Oakland among others – to deepen their relationships and build a meaningful network of support for the collective well-being. The convening also aims to inform a cross-race and cross-sector national agenda to build political and economic power with low-income people and people of color.

The Kapor Foundation is committed to creating meaningful spaces for its allies and colleagues to share and learn what has worked in their efforts to build power in low-income communities of color. What Works! is the annual manifestation of this commitment. We’re especially pleased that our 2010 gathering is in partnership with the Ford Foundation, Solidago Foundation, and Surdna Foundation.

Panels showcase a range of community-based work: youth organizing in the Bay Area and New York; worker organizing of Black workers in the Midwest, immigrant workers nationally, and cross racial organizing in San Francisco; and long-term civic engagement illustrating the relationship between Oakland and Albuquerque.

What Works! is open to staff and membership of community based organizations, funders, students, academics, and the interested general public. Space is limited. General admission is $50. There is free admission for students (with valid ID) and for staff of grant recipient organizations of the Ford, Kapor, Surdna, and Solidago Foundations. To register for What Works!, go to whatworks2010.eventbrite.com.

Please click the following link to see the convening agenda and speaker bios:  What Works! 2010 Program Booklet