Dear Friends,

Rapid changes in technology and new approaches in how we share information encourage all institutions to consider how they might be more effective in communicating with their constituents, and so it is with us at the Irvine Foundation. In recent years, we have invested significantly in our website as the primary tool for communication, reducing our reliance on printed reports, aiming to write about our work in more easily digestible lengths and formats, and introducing the use of video and other features that animate the work we are privileged to support.

We now continue this evolution in early 2012 with the introduction of a new section of Irvine’s website, News & Insights, which offers a more interactive, user-friendly place to feature a variety of perspectives from inside the foundation, bring in some outside voices from time to time, and perhaps most importantly, encourage and facilitate more of a two-way dialogue with you, our audience.

The News & Insights section will serve as a central, blog-style news hub for Irvine staff to provide news, updates and reflections about our work. As we did in the old news sections of our site, including the Irvine Quarterly newsletter, we will use News & Insights to share thoughts about what we’re learning and to highlight the inspiring work of our grantees and partners. But we think our new approach will have a number of other important benefits, including the following:

More than $4 million in grants was approved last week by the Irvine board at its quarterly meeting. The board approved 10 grants — four in the Arts, four in California Democracy and two in Youth — and signed off on a total grants budget of $68 million for this year. Here are a few grants that we’re particularly excited about:

California Calls — With California’s finances in an historic bind, an alliance of civic and community organizations, known as California Calls, is pursuing an ambitious plan to help turn things around. Partnering with 25 organizations in 10 counties, the alliance has been educating working class people on issues of state fiscal policy that are normally the province of policy experts and think tanks. With an $800,000 grant, its second from Irvine, California Calls aims to expand its growing alliance to other parts of California, with the goal of reaching half a million voters and energizing them around the cause of improving the state’s fiscal system. The grant, part of Irvine’s California Democracy program, was made to the Los Angeles-based Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education, the lead organization for California Calls.

California School Boards Foundation — Our Youth program promotes Linked Learning as a new approach to high school education that combines strong academics with real-world experience in a wide range of fields. With a $400,000 grant, the California School Boards Foundation will raise awareness of Linked Learning among California school board members and district leadership teams. CSBF plans to implement a statewide educational program for newly elected and veteran school board members and district governance teams to showcase the Linked Learning approach. It also plans to identify obstacles to implementing Linked Learning and assist governance teams in developing policies that ensure its success, part of a broader effort to build the Linked Learning field in California and make it an option for more students.

Cornerstone Theater — The Los Angeles-based Cornerstone Theater takes community-based theater in California to an entirely new level. Under one of its programs, long supported by Irvine, Cornerstone each year selects an underserved California community for an in depth collaboration. Professional artists live and work alongside local residents to create a new play informed by local issues. The play is then performed by professional and amateur actors at performance sites central and meaningful to the community. The company has already produced eight well-received plays in California communities, and with a new $425,000 grant from Irvine, Cornerstone will bring its unique approach to the cities of Arvin (Kern County) and Salinas.

Note: This chart excludes special opportunity and discretionary grants, memberships, sponsorships and foundation-administered projects.

We now have three years of data about our grantmaking to low-income and diverse communities. These data show that the Foundation has been consistently focusing just over half our grants on low-income people and/or communities of color. However, we also see variations year to year and by program area. Many of these variations are a result of multiyear grants that are awarded in one year but where activity continues for several years into the future.

San Francisco — The Board of Directors of The James Irvine Foundation has approved 45 grants totaling just over $19 million in support of the Foundation's mission of expanding opportunity for the people of California to participate in a vibrant, successful and inclusive society. (For a list of approved grants, click here.)

Supporting Regranting to California Arts Organizations

Grants approved as part of the Arts program include a $1.125 million grant to Center for Cultural Innovation to support regranting to California artists, organizational strategic planning and new project incubation. Irvine’s Arts program seeks to promote engagement in the arts for all Californians.

Improving State and Local Governance

Grants approved as part of the California Democracy program include two grants totaling more than $3 million to Public Policy Institute of California for its public survey series and related policymaker education activities and to PICO California to support and coordinate the local affiliates’ work on state-level issues and provide capacity-building assistance. These grants are part of the program’s Governance Reform and Civic Engagement priorities, respectively. Irvine’s California Democracy program seeks to advance effective public policy decision making that is reflective of and responsive to all Californians.