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 o
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
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 locati
As Communications Officer, Ray Delgado oversees various communications initiativ
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Jun 17, 2011
San Francisco — The Board of Directors of The James Irvine Foundation has approved 15 grants totaling more than $17.6 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.)
Advancing Innovative Ideas and Initiatives
Grants approved as part of the Arts program were made as part of the Arts Innovation Fund, which supports the state’s larger, established arts institutions, and included the Berkeley Repertory Theatre ($1 million), the Pacific Symphony ($850,000), and the San Francisco Ballet Association ($900,000). Irvine’s Arts program seeks to promote a vibrant and inclusive artistic and cultural environment in California.
Fostering Informed Public Involvement and Decision Making
Grants approved as part of the California Democracy program align with its Civic Engagement priority, including a grant to TransForm CA ($550,000) to engage diverse communities in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California in major land use decisions. Irvine’s California Democracy program seeks to advance effective public policy decision making that is reflective of and responsive to all Californians.
Jim is Irvine’s CEO. A native Californian, he is passionate about the Foundation
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May 12, 2011
From the Center for Effective Philanthropy blog, May 12, 2011
As I leave a conference marking the 10th anniversary of the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), I find myself reflecting on our progress as a field in understanding what exactly constitutes “effective philanthropy.” At the heart of CEP’s approach has been collecting data to learn more about the practices that may contribute to effectiveness. Through various research reports and survey instruments, CEP has helped many foundations, including ours, to understand our work better and, we hope, to make us more effective.
This emphasis on data collection is both commendable and necessary. However, we ought to consider what other attributes, often not grounded in data, may contribute to effective philanthropy. Let me propose three attributes that, while not lending themselves to easy measurement and far more subjective , strike me as vital to the success of any philanthropic enterprise: listening, synthesizing, and sharing.
Listening: Because of the resources at our disposal, we can meet with just about anyone we’d like to and obtain about any knowledge that is available. This access provides us with a unique platform for learning, but it also requires us to be active and authentic listeners. The power dynamic inherent to philanthropy makes it critical that we resist the temptation to talk more than listen, precisely because people will always listen politely to anything we have to say, regardless of its utility.
Jim is Irvine’s CEO. A native Californian, he is passionate about the Foundation
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Apr 01, 2011
Dear Friends,
Acknowledging and discussing failure in philanthropy — and the learning that can come from it — has been a central subject of numerous recent articles and case studies. Warren Buffett has even weighed in, suggesting that philanthropies that do not fail are likely “taking on things that are too easy.” There is much more to say about this subject, but I want to focus in this quarterly letter on one common theme that emerged from my reading of these reports and analyses about failure.
Not surprisingly, because foundations can tend to be insulated, one of the common lessons about philanthropic failure is that foundations must do more to listen to and to learn from their grantees and stakeholders. In examining the foundation initiatives that have been profiled as failures (including our own report on an after-school initiative), one key takeaway is that the feedback loops were not as robust as they could have been. Foundations simply did not do enough to listen and learn, and their partners often felt they could not come forward with criticism or bad news. Either way, as a philanthropic sector, we have much more work to do in this regard.
This issue has been on my mind as we prepare to share publicly the results of Irvine’s most recent Grantee Perception Report, conducted for us in the latter part of 2010 by the Center for Effective Philanthropy. We, and others in philanthropy, have used this survey tool to gather confidential, anonymous feedback from our grantees, with the ability to compare how our grantees perceive their work with Irvine to their work with other foundations. We have found the data from these surveys to be immensely valuable. As we did in 2006, we are not only posting on our website the full 2010 Grantee Perception Report, but we are also describing what we have learned from this feedback and how we intend to address areas where our performance as a foundation can improve. To that end, I invite you to watch a three-minute audio slide show narrated by our Vice President for Programs, Joe Pon.
A native Californian, Daniel Silverman leads the Foundation’s communications wor
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Apr 01, 2011
In 2010, as part of our regular process of gathering formal and informal feedback about perceptions of Irvine and our work, we commissioned a Grantee Perception Report (GPR) from the Center for Effective Philanthropy. The GPR provides comparative, anonymous feedback from our grantees, giving us a candid assessment of our work that we might not otherwise receive. We invite you to view the following three-minute audio slide show for a brief overview of what we learned from our grantees and what we are doing about it:
For more about the report, we invite you to read the following:
In addition to sharing these results with you, we are interested in learning from you and benefitting from your reflections and suggestions. Therefore, we have created a way for you to comment on this page. We appreciate any feedback from you and we thank you for your interest in the work of the Irvine Foundation.
Meet five extraordinary Californians who are successfully addressing significant challenges facing the state. As recipients of the 2011 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards, each of them will receive $125,000 to support their work benefitting the people of California.
As Communications Officer, Ray Delgado oversees various communications initiativ
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Apr 01, 2011
As audiences continue to decline for many arts organizations, a growing number of nonprofits are exploring the idea of community engagement as a way to attract new patrons and thrive in a changing economy.
Fortunately for Los Angeles' Cornerstone Theater, the concept is hardly new. Founded nearly 25 years ago, Cornerstone has long been producing plays that tell the stories of California communities, from Eureka to the Imperial Valley, by involving community members in the creative process. It's a successful model that is getting increased attention from other arts organizations.
"There are certainly more and more companies and artists taking this approach, from many different perspectives, in theater and other disciplines," said Artistic Director Michael John Garcés. A changing economic paradigm, he notes, is only one factor in spurring more mainstream theaters to reconsider their practice. The other is a desire to engage audiences at a more authentic level.
"I hope that you will begin to see it across the board, as people realize that it is healthier and leads to deeper relationships with audience — not to simply consider them 'audience.' We have to find better economic models for the structures of our companies, as the current, outdated ones aren't working. I think that the future is in engagement."
Most Cornerstone productions are community collaborations. Company artists immerse themselves in the specific communities where they're developing plays, creating a performance that combines professional actors with local residents. By working closely with these communities, they develop works that are informed by local issues, such as race, class, faith, poverty, human rights or social justice.
(Currently, for example, Cornerstone is collaborating with the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts on The Unrequited (Between Two Worlds), which opens in May.)
The resulting plays — either new works or adaptations of classics — are then performed in a local venue — sometimes in a theater, but more often in a nontraditional venue like a school auditorium. Admission is on a pay-what-you-can basis, exposing many attendees to an art form they may never have seen before.
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Jun 30, 2011
