Mitchell Kapor Foundation Weblog

What makes someone a pioneer? Do they have to be the first in their field to do something — like being the first black man in space, the first black man to play in the Major Leagues, or even the first black president?  Are they trendsetters who are capable of revolutionizing an industry similar to what Micheal Jackson did for music and Micheal Jordan did for basketball?  I want to share a story of a pioneer whose name is not in the index of U.S. history books but what she was a part of definitely is.  Her name is Dorothy Jean (Fitzgerald) Brown.

As a young school girl in Topeka, Kansas, Fitzgerald, along with her cousin, Jean Williams, would make a daily trip across town to the all-black school because the school down the street from her home was all white.  Years later, they shared their experience with their uncle, Attorney Charles Bledsoe, and these girls became the catalyst for what would become the  legendary  Brown vs. Board of Education lawsuit.  Although these two women were college graduates by the time of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that struck down the concept of separate-but-equal segregated public schools, they were truly pioneers in their own right.  As a senior at Topeka High School, Fitzgerald was the first black to be a member of the Glee Club  and was also the first black soloist at the 1945 THS commencement.

Fitzgerald eventually moved to Vallejo, CA, were she taught elementary school.  As a teacher, Fitzgerald had the opportunity to educate children of all colors under one roof,  something that  was not even thought of when she was a young girl.  She even taught my mother and many of my mom’s siblings.  Ironically, none of them knew of Fitzgerald’s  journey and the influence she  had already had on their lives.  It was not until Mrs. Dorothy Jean Fitzgerald Brown passed away April 27th, 2010, that my family and many others in the Vallejo community became aware of this woman’s significance in U.S. history and education.  You always hear people who have accomplished great things acknowledge those before them who helped “paved the way,” and historically for blacks, this meant enduring discrimination, bigotry, and unimaginable levels of racism just so there could be equality and fairness across the board.  Mrs. Dorothy Jean Fitzgerald Brown definitely paved the way for all children, and her legacy in education and life shall not be forgotten.

Photo source: printed pamphlet

The San Francisco Foundation, in collaboration with National Community Development Institute, has launched a new directory of San Francisco Bay Area capacity builders of color.  This database includes all kinds of consultants and technical assistance providers of color, many of whom specialize in working in low-income communities and communities of color.  The directory was created to help community-based organizations, nonprofits, and foundations find consultants of color and to assist local consultants of color in marketing their services in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.

My favorite feature of the website is the Specialty Search.  Using this function, you can find consultants who specialize in everything from community organizing to health and technology.  This directory is a much-needed resource, so get the word out to your friends and colleagues.  If you or someone you know would like to be added to the database or have comments and suggestions about the database, please provide feedback using the ‘Contact Us’ link on the database website.

Image source: The San Francisco Foundation website

This past week at the University of California Los Angeles, UCLA’s  Black Male Institute hosted the 2010 Think Tank.  The two day conference consisted of thought provoking, sincere and unapologetic talk focused on African-American males and their educational development.  Having a platform to speak candidly about the educational and social disparities between black males and their racial counterparts provided me with an opportunity to hear from a select group of brilliant and inspiring speakers that are committed to a) identifying problems for why young black males are not succeeding and b) developing adequate and lasting solutions to increase the number of black males that are graduating high school and are college ready.

Speakers varied from principals and professors to community activist and PhD candidates. It is important to note that these accomplished, yet concerned and committed individuals were all African-American, and all were male, except for one.  Why is this relevant?  The fact that there were black males leading a discussion on the issues black males are facing demonstrates that black men are not only concerned about the future welfare of their younger brothers, but also want to find immediate solutions to help them knock down the educational and social barriers.  This is extremely important for the young black males in California,  in which  African-Americans perform far worst academically then any other racial group, and are consistently out-performed by their female counterparts.

The event’s keynote speaker was Dr. Shaun Harper.  Dr. Harper has done extensive research on black males in education and is currently on the faculty in the Graduate School of Education, African Studies, and Gender Studies at University of Pennsylvania.   Dr. Harper began with the question, “What do we need to do improve Black males access to college?” and then focused his talk around what actions need to be taken to answer that question.  Dr. Harper took serious issue with how research is being done to even  answer that question.   He believes that we need to re-frame and restructure the way in which research is being done and spend more time talking with individuals who have beaten the odds and are now doing successful things (i.e. Edward Smith Lewis – a West Oakland native that overcame tremendous obstacles in his pursuit towards academic and professional success ).  Dr. Harper also believes that more needs to be done to help prepare the black males who are moving on to higher education.  He illustrated that there is a college culture that black males often  struggle adjusting to and as a result often leave school.  Dr. Harper’s address ended with him emphasizing the importance of there needing to be just as much effort to get more African-Americans into graduate school as there is for undergraduate.  He insisted that for there to be real systematic changes there needs to be more African-American’s in powerful positions to address the concerns of African-American’s in education.

photo source: http://www.addmanagement.com/thinking%20man.jpg

I’m pleased to announce the launch of phase two of our College Bound Brotherhood!

Last year when we closed out the first phase of the Brotherhood, then called the Black Boys College Bound Initiative, we decided that we needed to be more inclusive of organizations that do not receive any of our limited grant money but would benefit from the greater community of people interested in and dedicated to young black men’s wellness. The renaming of the initiative to “Brotherhood” is meant to convey a larger movement of organizations, families, and individuals. I hope that everyone will join us – and vice versa – in creating this college bound culture in the Bay Area.  Sign up for our listserv (collegebound AT lists DOT mkf DOT org) to receive updates on workshops and events, both sponsored by us and by others we hear about.

We’re opening a call for grant requests between now and June 15, looking to provide $25,000 grants for up to 15 nonprofit organizations that work on college readiness with young black men in Bay Area public high schools. Click HERE for more information on how to apply!

I’m especially excited to spread the word about Collegeboundbros.org, an online searchable database of college readiness programs for young men. Over the next several months, we’re making a concentrated effort to encourage all appropriate Bay Area organizations to create profiles on the database, which we’ll then begin sharing directly with students and schools. Click HERE to add your organization to the database!

As we already know, creating positive opportunities for our youth – both young men and young women – is CRITICAL to the future well-being of black communities. In the spirit of Harambee, let’s all pull together to ensure that young black men, who are all too often in particularly perilous situations, know that we’re invested in their happiness and success! (And yes, our young brothas CAN and DESERVE TO be happy!)

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Council on Foundations Conference in Denver under the theme of “Intersections: Social Change, Social Justice, and Social Innovation.”  I got to hear great presentations and to network with some inspiring people, and the conference was filled with a stunning cadre of speakers like Al Gore, Geoffrey Canada, Ben Jealous, and more.

I started the conference with a session starring the Kapor Foundation’s Mario Lugay on ‘Organizing for Impact: Making the Case for Advocacy and Organizing.’  During the session, I listened to various foundation folks talk about their organizations’ efforts to integrate advocacy and social justice into their missions.  One foundation told a horror story of program staff wanting to do more progressive funding but having to ‘hide’ their social justice agendas in conservative language that got presented to a conservative, high-powered board.  Most of the board members had served 15-20+ years with no term limits. The board finally approved a 16-year term limit this year, but existing board members start the countdown anew.  After hearing this story and others like it, I am even more proud to work for a foundation that wears social justice on its sleeve!

I got to witness three great individuals get awarded by the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE), including Rashid Shabazz and our own Cedric Brown!  The third person was Crystal Hayling, ABFE’s James Joseph Lecture Award recipient, who mentioned the following ‘5 Things We Know But Keep Forgetting‘ in our work efforts.

1) Take more risks. Heart-stopping risks.
2) The time is now. Re-envision relationships and communities. The problems we’re facing are big and require new, outside-the-box approaches, conversations, and partnerships.
3) Design matters. Hayling mentioned the power of design in the example of an innovative $20 blanket solution to the high death rate of third-world low-birth-weight babies due to the unavailability of $20,000 incubators.
4) Technology is just a tool, but it’s a power tool.
5) We need new leaders. Hard power is getting people to do what you want.  Soft power is convincing and inspiring people to want what you want.

These are just a few nuggets I took away from the conference that I wanted to share with you.

Image source: Council on Foundations website

I’m pleased to announce another great learning opportunity for nonprofits.  I have been collaborating with Darlene Hall, Ph.D., from Intersections Consulting to deliver hands-on program evaluation workshops to a few of our key partner organizations.  Darlene also delivers these workshops to the larger nonprofit community and recently announced new program evaluation workshop dates.

This is a two-part training designed for nonprofit leaders who want to strengthen their skills in understanding the role and purpose of evaluation.  Leaders will have a chance to identify obstacles to the evaluation process, and learn ways to create an evaluation culture inside their organization, and learn about methodology, data collection tools, and basic analysis.  The two-part training includes opportunities for hands-on work on logic models, developing a evaluation plan, including an outcomes-based evaluation plan, and question development.  In order to keep the trainings interactive, participants will learn in a small group setting.  Trainings are held in the community in public transit-accessible locations in downtown San Francisco and downtown Oakland.  In these economically challenging times, Darlene tries to keep registration costs reasonable and accessible for nonprofits.  So, it only costs $50 to attend one workshop and $90 to attend both.  Of course it’s recommended that you attend both in order to get as much as possible from the experience.  The dates, times, and locations of the workshops are listed below.

Workshop 1:

5/20/10 Camp Fire (405 14^th Street, # 204, Oakland) 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

5/21/10  The San Francisco Foundation (225 Bush Street, 5^th Floor, SF Room A, San Francisco) 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Workshop 2:

6/15/10 Camp Fire (405 14^th Street, # 204, Oakland) 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

6/23/10 The San Francisco Foundation (225 Bush Street, 5^th Floor, SF Room A, San Francisco) 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

To register, please use this form: PrgmEvalWkshpRegistration.

Image source: http://www.utexas.edu/academic/diia/assessment/iar/programs/

Last week we had the fortune to host the CiviCon, the first gathering of open source programmers working on CiviCRM, the free relationship management software. CiviCRM provides online fundraising and donor management, event registration, membership management, email blasts, newsletters, and report generation. All for free!

Check out this hella cool message that Mitch recorded (and our colleagues at Kapor Creative illustrated and energized) explaining the achievements and merits of CiviCRM.

I just found out about this opportunity today and wanted to get the word out to interested folks.  Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group is offering the webinar: Integrating Social Media Into Essential Organizational Functions.  If you’re available from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. tomorrow and you’re interested in using social media for your nonprofit, you should check out this opportunity.

Here’s the session description:

In this session, we will look at the old way of doing business, before social media, and the “new” way of doing business. We will look at concrete examples of how nonprofits (and a few businesses) are integrating social media into organizational functions to improve the bottom line. Specifically, this seminar will focus on ideas for integrating social media into the following organizational function areas: human resources, program development, internal communications, member services, training, fundraising, and stakeholder engagement.  This seminar is intended for the nonprofit organization (or business) that wants to utilize social media, and has a level of familiarity with it.

During the webinar, we’ll discuss:

• Issues of cultural adoptions of social media, and best practices for adoption
• How social media affects all organizational functions
• Examples of function integration with social media
• The ROI of integrating social media with each organizational function
• Examples of fully-integrated “social” organizations
• Questions and answers

Takeaways:

• Understand how organizations can utilize social media in the areas of internal communications, service/program development, human resources, fundraising, and stakeholder engagement.
• Best practices for social media cultural integration
• One idea that you will implement in your organization
• A list of resources for exploring social media integration

Image source: http://denniswolff.wordpress.com

The overwhelming number of African-American males who are performing below or far below basic academic levels has led to an epidemic of young men that eventually drop out, do not qualify to graduate, or graduate without taking/passing college required courses.   The unfortunate reality behind the quandary of young black males and their education development is that it has been in a state of crisis for years.

Although young black men have been provided more educational opportunity than ever before, they have yet, for various reasons, been able to capitalize off of it.  As a result, majority of black males perform far worst academically than any other ethnic group during their K-12 experience.  This unfortunate trend in academic achievement for black students continues to be an issue for black males in the Bay Area.  Black male  from San Francisco and Alameda County are the least prepared to pursue higher education when compared to other ethnic groups upon graduating high school.  In a post-Brown vs. Board of Education era, where educational access and equality has been a right for nearly 56 years, it is about time that research is done to find new and creative strategies that will ensure a much higher percentage of black males are graduating high school and, more importantly, college ready.

Preparing black youth for college takes a collaborative effort from various sectors.  Responsibility surely lies with the individual and parents as well, but there needs to be an even greater role from community centers, non-profit sector, teachers, and most importantly, schools and the state.  The onus of achieving academic success cannot be placed solely on black students when there are a multitude of systemic factors contributing to their academic state.  So before labeling black youth as failures with little interest in pursuing higher education, consider the social, economical, and educational conditions that have contributed to their situation.  It is not enough to be content with a landmark decision established over 50 years ago, especially when there are newer acts such as No Child Left Behind, which some argue do more harm than good for low achieving students, in place.  If research can be done to identify the problems, then let’s take it one giant step further and infuse these strategies and concepts into the black community, communal organizations, and the educational system.  The future welfare of black men depends on what we do for our black youth today.

On Tuesday, May 18, the Foundation Center will be hosting a free training on Proposal Writing Basics (2:30-4:00 pm) followed by another free session called “Meet the Grantmakers: Funding for Educational Technology” (4:30-6:00 pm).

The proposal writing session will cover the following topics and more:

• What are the key components of a proposal to a foundation or corporation?
• Who should sign a grant request?
• How should the proposal be packaged?
• Should you contact a funder if your proposal is turned down?
• Where can you find more information on proposal writing, including sample proposals?

At the Meet the Grantmakers session, you will learn about Silicon Valley-based grantmaking initiatives regarding innovative uses of technology for the success of students and teachers.  Some foundations provide cash grants, technology, equipment, and professional development training to a wide array of educational programs, including K-12, higher education, after-school programs, etc. Local funders are also investing to increase educational attainment and contribute to the development of a skilled, diverse technology savvy workforce in the future. Attend the session to learn all about it!  In addition, a Silicon Valley Community Foundation grant is sponsoring the provision of free copies of The Foundation Center’s Guide to Proposal Writing and refreshments to all attendees.

Panelists for Meet the Grantmakers will include Miguel Salinas, senior manager, Adobe Youth Voices, Adobe Systems Inc. with other panelists pending.

Event location:

Santa Clara County Office of Education
1290 Ridder Park Drive
Milpitas Room
San Jose, CA 95131-2304