A number of compelling conversations have been taking place over the last several weeks as a result of some very thoughtful blog posts about our Arts grantmaking strategy. (Nina Simon kicked it off with this post and then linked to related posts here.) What I find most exciting about all of this is the fact that a range of thoughtful leaders are e ...

Late last year, our board approved 19 new grants as part of our statewide Exploring Engagement Fund and another five grants as part of our more targeted Exploring Engagement Fund for Priority Regions (focused on the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley). We now have 52 grantee partners that are providing an array of exciting new arts engagement opp ...

Last week, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan joined ArtPlace director Carol Coletta in touring the Oakland neighborhood that was designated one of America's Top 12 ArtPlaces. As she announced the award at the press conference, Carol made the point of saying this award was data-based and in fact entirely statistical. Since it’s not biased or subjective, the ...

Staying relevant amid a shifting landscape is an obstacle that’s very familiar in our field: arts organizations are challenged to meet the changing expectations of communities they serve. My predecessors at Irvine responded to that growing relevance gap in 2006 and launched the Arts Innovation Fund (AIF), a multiyear initiative that provided suppo ...

There’s only one week left before the December 3 deadline to apply to our Exploring Engagement Fund, and we are looking forward to reviewing the creative proposals that many arts nonprofits will submit. As we’ve noted before, this is the only opportunity to apply to the Exploring Engagement Fund until December 2013, so we hope you'll consider appl ...

At Irvine, we believe a healthy democracy depends on decision making informed by the views and experiences of a broad cross-section of our communities. That’s why we’re heartened by the many public officials and civic leaders who place a high value on public participation and are interested in exploring new strategies to engage the public in decisi ...

The USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration just released a new report titled What's at Stake for the State: Undocumented Californians, Immigration Reform and Our Future Together. Funded in part by the Irvine Foundation, the report calculates the potential economic gains to California overall and in specific regions through national immig ...

A new report by Harder+Company Community Research on Irvine’s Families Improving Education (FIE) initiative offers fresh insights into the impact of parent and community involvement in educational policymaking. The report highlights how equipping parents with data, engaging them in discussions with school officials and connecting them with others i ...

As my colleague Tim Silard of the Rosenberg Foundation wrote so eloquently earlier this week, Californians have a tremendous stake in the national discussions underway on immigration reform. We are a state of immigrants, with immigrants and their children comprising 40 percent of California’s population and immigrant workers totaling over one-third ...

By Doug Chapin – Director, Future of California Elections On January 23rd in Sacramento, the Future of California Elections (FOCE) hosted its first public event. FOCE initially formed in late 2011 with help and support from the James Irvine Foundation and is now setting up shop as an independent entity. This meeting was our opportunity to introduc ...

By Hilary McLean, Deputy Director of the Linked Learning AllianceWe recently hosted a convening for our Youth program grantees who are working together to advance Linked Learning in California. We asked attendee Hilary McLean, Deputy Director of the Linked Learning Alliance, to share her impressions of the convening.After two days spent this week w ...

As a grantmaker, I get the opportunity to hear about how organizations are tackling some of the most pressing issues facing youth in our state. One of the events that I look forward to most is the annual Grantmakers for Education conference, because it gives me the chance to learn how other funders are thinking about systemic education reform, and ...

Our Opportunity Links for Youth initiative is an effort to extend Linked Learning to reach out-of-school youth. I previously described Irvine’s intention and thinking behind the initiative’s design: exploring new collaborations among nonprofits, postsecondary institutions and employers that can reconnect out of school youth to college and career o ...

Our recent webinar on the benefits of career-focused dual enrollment drew nearly 200 attendees from around the country, including college and high school administrators and faculty, as well as federal, state and local policymakers. For those who were unable to attend, we’re pleased to make available a recording of the Sept. 10 webinar. Panelists di ...

A free webinar on September 10 will share findings and recommendations from a report we recently released about the benefits of dual enrollment courses, which allow high school students to earn college credit. Although historically geared toward high-achieving students, the report found that dual enrollment courses can also benefit underachieving s ...

As the San Joaquin Valley’s economic, social and educational challenges have gained more national attention, it’s easy to get lost in the myriad of well-documented problems and issues facing the valley. However, we have also seen a groundswell of new energy and creative ideas bubbling up in the region. New leaders are harnessing the valley’s longst ...

One of the most fundamental values we hold at Irvine is to share what we’re learning. We want our colleagues — both nonprofits and other funders — to be able to apply the most promising ideas, approaches and strategies to their work – and to also avoid the ones that aren’t working. We will be putting this value into action at the upcoming Council o ...

Building leadership is one of Irvine’s core values, and one of the ways we try to realize that value is through the Fund for Leadership Advancement. Started in 2005, the fund supports the development of individual leaders as a way to increase the impact of existing Irvine grantee organizations. Although the fund has been on hiatus while we conducte ...

Earlier this month, I was part of an event in Napa County that shows why a creative and resourced community foundation is one of the most important assets a community can have. More than 150 civic leaders, business people, teachers and community members attended a gathering hosted by the Napa Valley Community Foundation to talk about immigration an ...

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 indelibl ...

Hot off the heels of Irvine’s 2013 Leadership Awards announcement, nominations are pouring in for the class of 2014. We can’t wait for the review process to start. Year after year we are wowed by the innovative nominees and how well they are addressing important challenges in their communities.But it looks like we’ll have to wait just a few more da ...

The 2013 Leadership Award recipients are making headlines. In the month since the awards were announced, media outlets across the state have been spotlighting the work of these extraordinary individuals who are advancing innovative solutions to some of California’s biggest challenges.Vida en el Valle, a weekly Spanish language paper serving the Sa ...

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 ...

Five years ago, John Carlon and Tom Griggs were recognized with a James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for their innovative work restoring the river ecosystems of the Central Valley while improving protection of populated areas from potentially devastating floods. Increasingly, farmers are pulling back from the region’s rivers, unwilling to ri ...

Today we kick off an exciting month for the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. We are pleased to announce that nominations are now open for the 2014 Leadership Awards. And in just a few short weeks, we’ll announce the recipients of the 2013 Leadership Awards. It’s going to be a celebratory, inspiring month! Each year the Leadership Awards ...

Last week the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invited a diverse group of foundation staff, evaluation professionals and social media experts to talk about measurement and evaluation of social media. You can get a feel for some of the topics and ideas that were shared by reading the Twitter activity captured by the hashtag #SM_RE. RWJF has also captu ...

In April 2013, the following published articles mentioned the work of the Foundation or our grantees: Reducing traffic: Cities Can Promote Use of Transit and Cut Down on Costly Parking Spaces(San Jose Mercury News, 4/28/13)AUSD is Leading the Way(Antioch Herald, 4/23/13)Dual Enrollment Gives Struggling Students a College Try(Kitsap Sun, 4/19/13)Sta ...

Dear Friends,Here are four views of California from the national media, just in the past month:“Far from presiding over a Greek-style crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown is proclaiming a comeback.”Paul Krugman column, The New York Times, March 31“You can laugh at the sunbaked barbarians, even wish them ill. But you should not fail to see in their fledgling r ...

I am pleased to share two exciting developments for us at The James Irvine Foundation.First, effective today, we relocated our San Francisco headquarters to a new home in downtown San Francisco. We have moved across the street from our former location at 575 Market Street to One Bush Street, at the intersection of Market and First streets. This re ...

In March 2013, the following published articles mentioned the work of the Foundation or our grantees: Elk Grove Unified Starts New Career Program(Elk Grove Citizen, 3/28/13)Cathie Anderson: Sacramento Recycler Sees Businesses Upgrading Tech Equipment(Sacramento Bee, 3/25/13)Linked Learning Study Shows Narrowing of Achievement Gap(KPBS, 3/22/13)Most ...

By Manuel Pastor, University of Southern CaliforniaAs part of our 75th anniversary, Irvine commissioned a series of posts from California experts and thought leaders about the state’s most important trends and how we might collectively respond to them. This post is the last in the series. We invite you to read other posts in the series and share yo ...

By Stephen Levy, Center for Continuing Study of the California EconomyAs part of our 75th anniversary, Irvine commissioned a series of posts from California experts and thought leaders who discuss the state’s most important trends and how we might collectively respond to them. This is one of those posts and we invite you to check back throughout th ...

By Karthick Ramakrishnan, University of California, RiversideAs part of our 75th anniversary, Irvine commissioned a series of posts from California experts and thought leaders who discuss the state’s most important trends and how we might collectively respond to them. This is one of those posts and we invite you to check back throughout the fall to ...

By Lisa García Bedolla, Graduate School of Education at BerkeleyAs part of our 75th anniversary, Irvine commissioned a series of posts from California experts and thought leaders who discuss the state’s most important trends and how we might collectively respond to them. This is one of those posts and we invite you to check back throughout the fall ...

By Ralph Lewin, Cal HumanitiesAs part of our 75th anniversary, Irvine commissioned a series of posts from California experts and thought leaders who discuss the state’s most important trends and how we might collectively respond to them. This is one of those posts and we invite you to check back throughout the fall to read more of these entries and ...