Dear Friends,

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2013 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. The awards recognize Californians who are implementing innovative, effective solutions to critical state issues. This year’s recipients are particularly collaborative in their approaches and excel at building upon the resourcefulness and determination of California’s residents to improve the future of our state.

They are:

I have written before about the importance of developing an honest and engaged partnership between nonprofit boards and staff leadership. Unfortunately, we sometimes see stark reminders of the tragic costs when such a partnership is lacking. The Penn State tragedy is such a case. I recently authored an op-ed in the Chronicle of Philanthropy to encourage nonprofit leaders to learn from this tragedy and do everything in their power to ensure that it never happens again. The full text of that op-ed is reprinted below. You can read it on the Chronicle website here. I welcome your comments.

Posted on The Chronicle of Philanthropy website on July 16, 2012

Damage Done by a Culture of Deference: Leadership Lessons From the Penn State Tragedy
By James E. Canales

The child-abuse scandal that unfolded at Penn State University over the past decade and half is a tragedy of epic proportions. Nobody can disagree with that after the report last week by the former FBI director Louis Freeh provided clear evidence that the crimes committed by Jerry Sandusky could have and should have been averted.

What is particularly distressing in reading the 267-page report is how the lessons nonprofit leaders should have learned from previous scandals continue to go unheeded.

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.)

The following op-ed article by Jim Canales, Irvine's President and CEO, ran in the Sacramento Bee on February 6, 2011.

To some, the stage might appear to be set for the same disenchanting story. A new governor has arrived in Sacramento, only to find the state facing another enormous budget shortfall – $25 billion over the next 18 months. As always, the governor's proposed budget is provoking disagreements. Sides are chosen, lines are drawn, positions harden, and billions in potential spending cuts and taxes are once again the talk of the town.

But this time, for those of us who firmly believe we can find a way to make our government work more effectively, there is a much rarer commodity that is cropping up in the Capitol: hope.

It's difficult to speak of hope when it comes to fixing our state government without sounding naive. Yet, we see before us a confluence of forces that is creating one of those unique – perhaps once-in-a-generation – opportunities to rise above the political fray and shape the future of our state.

Dear Friends,

Last year, the philanthropic community was engaged in a vigorous debate about diversity and whether private foundations in California were investing sufficiently to support minority communities. This dialogue was prompted in large measure by a proposed California law which would have required large private foundations to collect and report race and ethnicity data about themselves and their grantees. Although Irvine and a broader coalition of private foundations opposed the bill for a number of reasons, the debate it generated identified some important underlying issues and, ultimately, led Irvine and others to take specific, constructive steps to address these issues. This quarter’s letter provides an update on our activities in this regard.

Most significantly, last year’s debate helped to surface a broad need to augment support to nonprofit organizations serving low-income people and communities of color across the state. The discussion also focused on the need for strong leaders and effective organizations in these communities. So, as an extension of our various efforts already dedicated toward this end, Irvine partnered with the Packard and Hewlett foundations to launch the Community Leadership Project, an $8 million commitment by our three foundations over a three year period. The focus of this collaboration is on strengthening organizations, building capacity and developing leadership in three regions of shared interest to our three foundations: the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Coast and the San Joaquin Valley.

In June, our three foundations announced the first round of grants to nine intermediary organizations, totaling $5.7 million. The Community Leadership Project works through intermediary organizations, where possible tapping the expertise of community foundations because of their understanding of the needs of the targeted communities. During the summer, we requested letters of inquiry for a second round of grants. Not only did we receive a large number of applications, but the proposed ideas are creative and compelling, and the applicants have strong networks in the targeted regions. As a result, the three foundations have agreed to contribute an additional $1 million of funding to support some of these proposed projects, bringing the level of funding to $9 million. We expect to announce a new set of partners later this year.

Dear Friends,

Every year, I look forward to the time when we announce the recipients of our annual Leadership Awards, knowing that from a large pool of outstanding nominees will emerge a handful of exceptional Californians who are effectively addressing critical issues for our state. This year’s recipients take on added significance, given the recession and our state’s dire budget crisis, in that they remind us that the ingenuity, resourcefulness and determination needed to solve difficult challenges exist throughout our state.

These leaders are helping to improve the lives of thousands of Californians every day, and in many cases they are demonstrating how to save public dollars at the same time. The Leadership Awards were designed not only to celebrate individuals but also to draw attention to effective approaches and to encourage leaders in Sacramento and communities throughout the state to consider how to apply elsewhere the lessons of these successful undertakings.

Accordingly, this year, for the first time, we announced the Leadership Award recipients at a luncheon in Sacramento to give public officials and other civic leaders a chance to learn firsthand about the effective approaches implemented by these leaders. The awards were presented by top public officials, and I invite you to view any or all of the following short video clips of the presentations, and also to read more about the work of the individual recipients by clicking on the accompanying links.