The Irvine Foundation is dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California to participate in a vibrant, successful and inclusive society.
Having just returned from the Council on Foundations’ annual conference this past week in Los Angeles, I was able to join with 1,300 of my colleagues in philanthropy to discuss the challenges and trends we are seeing. Not surprisingly, there was a gr
It is well known that the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley have experienced rapid population growth followed by a severe economic downturn that left both regions struggling. The Irvine Foundation has prioritized these two regions for support
I am very excited about our new Opportunity Links for Youth initiative. This initiative is extending our work with Linked Learning to out-of-school youth in pursuit of the overall goal of the Youth program — to increase the number of low-income youth
Having just returned from the Council on Foundations’ annual conference this past week in Los Angeles, I was able to join with 1,300 of my colleagues in philanthropy to discuss the challenges and trends we are seeing. Not surprisingly, there was a gr
It is well known that the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley have experienced rapid population growth followed by a severe economic downturn that left both regions struggling. The Irvine Foundation has prioritized these two regions for support
I am very excited about our new Opportunity Links for Youth initiative. This initiative is extending our work with Linked Learning to out-of-school youth in pursuit of the overall goal of the Youth program — to increase the number of low-income youth
Social justice organizing is a complex undertaking every step of the way. And as we look back at victories, figuring out which factors contributed to success can be difficult. So, I and many others welcomed the clear, succinct and compelling account of two decades of organizing in Los Angeles after the 1992 civil unrest recently published by the University of Southern California Program for Environmental & Regional Equity and Liberty Hill Foundation.
Their report, “L.A. Rising: The 1992 Civic Unrest, the Arc of Social Justice Organizing, and the Lessons for Today’s Movement Building,” captures how organizing strategies and institutions evolved during these decades, and distills ten innovative elements of the organizing approaches that were critical to their success. While these elements emerge from the realities of Los Angeles, they certainly can be applied to today’s public engagement efforts in the Central Valley, Inland Empire and elsewhere in California. I also was gratified to see that the authors shared implications for funders of social justice organizing, identifying practices that best sustain the ongoing involvement of residents in shaping their communities.
The Council on Foundations Annual Conference was held in Los Angeles from April 28 to May 1 and was attended by more than 1,300 people who work in the field of philanthropy. Several Irvine grantees participated in panel discussions held on various days throughout the conference and we asked three of them to tell us what they discussed during their conference sessions.
Having just returned from the Council on Foundations’ annual conference this past week in Los Angeles, I was able to join with 1,300 of my colleagues in philanthropy to discuss the challenges and trends we are seeing. Not surprisingly, there was a great deal of conversation about the economy, growing income disparities, the effects of federal and state budget cuts, increasing polarization in our public discourse and other issues of shared concern. At the same time, there were some important, common themes that emerged and that serve as good reminders for how we can continue to enhance philanthropy’s contribution to addressing these various challenges.
One particularly resonant theme throughout the conference related to the power of storytelling. Good stories can shine a spotlight on our grantees’ successes and on the issues we care most about. Most importantly, stories might be the most effective way to encourage others to join us in forging solutions. The power of stories was evident in the conference’s opening video of rebuilding and recovery in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Detroit, showing the central role that philanthropy can play in rebuilding after crises and strengthening communities in the process.
I was reminded of the video’s images of communities working together when PolicyLink’s Angela Glover Blackwell spoke in Tuesday morning’s session on America’s vanishing middle class. Angela is a powerful voice in the national discourse on social justice and she dramatically advocated for society to see the widening gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” as the nation’s problem: “What happens to the people who the country has been too comfortable leaving behind will shape the future of our country,” she remarked, an important reminder of the need to include the disadvantaged in our ongoing narrative about the changing economy. (Please watch a video of Angela commenting on her panel, along with other Irvine grantees who were interviewed about the conference.)
At the end of the Monday morning discussion about the power of celebrities in support of causes they care about on day two of the conference, we got a beautiful surprise: the high, sweet and brilliant tones of Robert Vijay Gupta’s violin reverberating throughout the ballroom. When he concluded his piece as part of the conference’s “random acts of culture,” he spoke from his heart about his work as an artist not just in the Walt Disney Concert Hall, but on Skid Row when he teaches and plays music with people there. He spoke eloquently about the power of music reaching through the walls of mental illness or substance abuse to tap into the humanity of the person who was listening to his work and the way these experiences changed him as a musician.
Later, I spoke with both Ruth Eliel and Janice Pober, two grantmakers at the conference who love to sing but, like many people, feel embarrassed at their less-than-perfect pitch. They nonetheless bravely participated in the “It’s a Sing Thing” vocal music workshop and described it as a transcendent experience. Practicing and being coached along by the amazing vocalist Karen Hogle-Brown, Janice and Ruth soon felt their fears melt away as they breathed and crooned in rhythm with everyone else in the room.
Irvine Arts Program Director Josephine Ramirez, along with other Irvine staff, is attending theCouncil on Foundations annual conferencein Los Angeles this week. Following is a post she wrote for the council'sRE: Philanthropy blogoffering her thoughts and reflections about the conference's opening day:
What an amazing first day of the conference! From the compelling opening plenary on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding communities to the terrific dance party with Ozomatli during the evening reception, there is a palpable feeling of excitement for what still remains to come at the conference.
The opening plenary effectively used a multiple-perspective lens on city/regions at varying stages of recovery from the effects of crisis: Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Detroit. As an Angeleno, I've been deluged lately with all the "20th anniversary of the riots" local media pieces. It was nice to hear from moderator Manuel Pastor, a professor at USC, and the three great panelists who so capably described the community reaction to the riots: Marqueece Harris-Dawson, my longtime buddy Stewart Kwoh, and Antonia Hernández.
It is well known that the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley have experienced rapid population growth followed by a severe economic downturn that left both regions struggling. The Irvine Foundation has prioritized these two regions for support because they are so drastically under-resourced by philanthropic dollars and have so much need. Within our Arts program, we created our new Exploring Engagement Fund for Priority Regions as part of our commitment to these two regions, and I was pleased to see the enthusiasm for the fund during two recent meetings I attended in Fresno and Redlands to answer questions about the fund.
The Exploring Engagement Fund for Priority Regions will enable us to work with local arts nonprofits to increase the engagement of Californians in these areas of the state. It is similar to our statewide Exploring Engagement Fund but is only open to nonprofits located within the ten counties of the San Joaquin Valley and the two counties of the Inland Empire. These nonprofits will fill out a slightly different application than the statewide fund and will also receive additional technical assistance in filling out the applications, if so desired.
For the information session in Fresno, we partnered with the Fresno Regional Foundation. Senior Program Officer Sandra Flores and Foundation Support Specialist Sarah Soberal helped coordinate the session and helped spread the word about the sessions to local arts groups. Irvine's Senior Program Officer Jeanne Sakamoto joined me in Fresno on April 12 for the San Joaquin Valley information session that was attended by more than 40 arts leaders in the region.
I am very excited about our new Opportunity Links for Youth initiative. This initiative is extending our work with Linked Learning to out-of-school youth in pursuit of the overall goal of the Youth program — to increase the number of low-income youth in California who attain a postsecondary credential by the age of 25. Three dimensions of this initiative are particularly notable:
1. Keeping young people at the center as we extend our work
In all of the Youth’s program work, students are at the center of our thinking. How can we shape their learning experiences to achieve the highest possible outcomes? One essential element of the Linked Learning approach is to make education more engaging, so that students are motivated to stay in school. This was informed by listening to youth who had dropped out, and hearing that relevancy — learning that actually reflects students’ interests and aspirations — is key to maintaining motivation and connection to school. By advancing Linked Learning across high school districts in California, we believe that the majority of low-income youth who are still in school will remain on a path to high school graduation and success in college and a career. Keeping this youth-centered lens, and using the same principles of Linked Learning, the Youth program is now exploring how to support the aspirations of out-of-school youth age 18-24 through the Opportunity Links for Youth initiative.
Two years ago, the Irvine Foundation joined a group of nine other foundations in a collaborative effort to increase civic participation among communities of color and other underrepresented populations in four California counties – San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside. The work, led by the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, aligns closely with Irvine’s focus on civic engagement.
The collaboration, called the California Civic Participation Funders, has several unusual aspects. For one, its members are quite diverse. Participating foundations run the gamut from large to small; focus on a wide range of issues, from community health to economic justice to women’s rights; and include both 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 organizations. Another distinctive aspect is its approach, which allows a high degree of autonomy among participating funders, while pursuing a common strategy and goals.
As of January 2012, the California Civic Participation Funders had invested $1.2 million to support nonprofits in the target regions so that they can more effectively mobilize and engage underrepresented populations in public decision-making. A new report, Bolder Together, examines lessons from this ongoing effort that other funders might apply in their work.
Over the past six years, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with a set of small, young community foundations in under-resourced parts of California as they aim to grow faster, smarter, and increase the positive impact they are having in their communities. With Irvine’s Community Foundations Initiative II (CFI II), I have learned one indelible lesson from these small but mighty organizations: take a deep breath and try it.
The “it” can be whatever you see that has the potential to change your organization and your community. Try new ways of engaging donors. Be bold and ask board members to give more. Bring people together to talk about thorny issues. Experiment with social media.
Through CFI II, we invested $12 million over six years in the growth and leadership of seven small California community foundations, with impressive results. Between 2005 and 2011, the group grew their collective assets 12 percent annually (going from $73 million to $131 million), compared to seven percent for their peers nationwide. At the same time, they increased their grantmaking, awarding $4 million more in grants each year for projects in their communities.
Tags: Civic Engagement, Philanthropy and Nonprofits
