When it comes to private philanthropy in California, not all regions of the state are treated equally. A recent study commissioned by the Irvine Foundation found a wide disparity in foundation giving across the state: Nearly a third of counties in California received less than $10 per capita in annual giving, while the average for the state as a whole was $102 per capita.

One important way that the Irvine Foundation is addressing this disparity is through our support for community foundations, which are uniquely suited to stimulate charitable giving and build philanthropic resources in underserved regions of California.

"As a statewide funder, it's hard for us to fully understand the local context," says Martha Campbell, Irvine's Vice President for Programs. "Community foundations have a far better appreciation of — and can be more thoughtful about — the needs and aspirations of their own community."

Community foundations are tax-exempt charitable organizations created and funded by people to address the unmet needs of their community. Donors contribute a variety of assets and may recommend grants to local projects or nonprofit groups. Because of their local knowledge, community foundations can be more responsive to community needs than larger philanthropic organizations outside the area, while also serving as valued partners and resources to those non-local organizations.

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Daniel Foster often feels like he's running a marathon at a sprinter's pace.

As the executive director of the Riverside Art Museum in the booming Inland Empire region, Foster feels constant pressure to keep up with the region's rapidly changing art demands. He speaks of the need to develop a "much larger regional sense of identity" to appeal to an ever-expanding populace of 4 million residents. And he echoes a theme common to arts organizations across the state of having insufficient resources to meet evolving demands as technology and other changes have intensified competition for consumer attention.

"The challenge is to go from a traditional, local-audience-based support system and expand programming and marketing to be more regionally focused," said Daniel Foster, Executive Director of the Riverside Art Museum, one of 12 arts organizations in Southern California that received grants as part of Irvine's new Arts Regional Initiative.

Foster's efforts to further develop the museum's recognition as a leading arts organization in the Inland Empire is now supported by a $300,000 grant from the Irvine Foundation. The museum is one of 12 arts organizations located in Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Orange counties that received grants as part of Irvine's new Arts Regional Initiative, which aims to support the artistic leadership of regional arts organizations.

With the initiative, Irvine is focusing on regional arts organizations located outside of the state's major metropolitan areas. The initiative specifically targets leading arts institutions that may be under-capitalized and vulnerable to decreases in government and donor funding. The grants support an array of capacity building activities such as programming, technology, institutional governance, and communications.

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Across California, a small but growing number of high schools are experimenting with a big idea: blending technical courses with the academic curriculum as a way to engage more students in the challenge of reaching college and succeeding in the workplace.

At Lancaster High School, for example, in an area 70 miles north of Los Angeles where the aerospace industry is the major employer, students are being introduced to the world of engineering through courses like "Principles of Engineering," "Digital Electronics," and "Integrated Manufacturing." And many of those students are part of a team that competes in an annual, international robotics design competition.

"Work-based learning gives students the opportunity to practice an academic skill in the real world, which most of us don't get to do until we've finished college," says Laurel Adler, Superintendent of the East San Gabriel Valley ROP and Technical Center. "It reinforces the importance of those academic skills, as a response to students who say 'I don't need to learn this.' "

"It helps them see the practical reasons to be interested in academics," says Cheri Kreitz, the school's Principal. "The number one question our math teachers get from students is, 'Why do I need to know this?' If teachers can give a good answer, students will get engaged. We need to help kids see the connections."

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The fierce heat of California's Central Valley sears the flat, nearly empty streets east of downtown Fresno on a September afternoon. But around the Spanish-style buildings of the Roosevelt High School campus, the temperature barely mutes the after-school energy. Students bustle in and out of the library. A squad of girls practices
drill-team moves. The deep rasp of a tuba drifts from the open door of a building.

It's an ordinary high school, and yet it's under a microscope. Like many California schools and an increasing number across the country, Roosevelt teaches a high percentage of students whose native language is not English and who face a distinct set of challenges as a result.

"Some organizations parachute into areas. But Springboard has built the capacity to do the work on the ground, working with folks in the area to be part of the community." – Anne Stanton, Irvine's Youth Program Director

In California, a quarter of public K-12 students a total of 1.6 million students are English language learners, more than in any other state. And the proportion is higher in the Central Valley and Inland Empire, where many more students come from poor, immigrant backgrounds. At Roosevelt, for example, 40 percent of students are English learners and 78 percent are from low-income families.

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It's good orchard land here along the banks of the Sacramento River, nearly 70 miles north of Sacramento, as a recent planting attests. Ranks of young trees sink their tap roots into the rich loam. In a year or two, these saplings will tower over the two men who now walk the rows, evaluating the progress of their project.

This bucolic agrarian scene is interrupted abruptly by the appearance of a black-tailed deer bursting through the foliage. It's a big buck, with sunlight glinting off its impressive set of antlers. In a few stiff-legged bounds, it disappears from sight.

Deer in an orchard usually isn't the kind of sight that gladdens a farmer's heart, but the two men surveying the planting smile broadly. "Wow, that's a nice buck," says John Carlon, as his partner, Tom Griggs, nods appreciatively. "And it's a good indicator that we're on the right track."

"River Partners reminds us that, as insurmountable as some challenges may appear, solutions are in reach." – Amy Dominguez-Arms, director of the Irvine Foundation's California Perspectives program

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In the heart of the nation's entertainment industry, a new venue has emerged for regular folks to sing their hearts out, strut their stuff and play a sour note or two. It's all happening in downtown Los Angeles, where the Music Center is hosting a variety of informal public arts programs that put amateurs center stage.

On a recent evening, several hundred people, many dressed in their 1930s-era finest, jockeyed for space on the temporary dance floor erected in the Music Center's large outdoor plaza. As the swing music played, an instructor patiently described the intricacies of the "rock step" to the beginners and provided a brief history of the dance.

"With Active Arts, the Music Center is transforming its identity from a performing arts center to a civic cultural center and using the arts and its public space to build community." – John McGuirk, Irvine's Arts Program Director

The event was part of the Music Center's Active Arts series. Now in its fourth season, the series offers participatory programs in dancing, singing, playing instruments and storytelling. Hundreds of people gather in the large outdoor plaza on Friday nights and weekends from April through December for the mostly free events.

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All politics are local – it's an old adage but it's also the key to mobilizing the state's large number of infrequent voters, according to an assessment of Irvine's California Votes Initiative, a multi-year effort to encourage higher voter participation, particularly in communities with traditionally low voting rates.

As part of the initiative, Irvine funded a study, conducted during the June 2006, November 2006 and March 2007 elections, to find out which strategies work best to engage infrequent voters. Irvine recently released the preliminary findings. (View the full report here.)

What works best, the study found, is personal contact, particularly by someone from the voter's community or neighborhood. Creating a relationship with the prospective voter is critical, and in most cases, that rapport is stronger when it comes from face-to-face contact, although it also can be created through personal phone calls.

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A culture clash is coming to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and they wouldn't have it any other way.

The nation's largest orchestra is planning an ambitious series of performances that will blend contemporary orchestral music with other art forms that include film, jazz, spoken word, pop, dance, and hip-hop over three seasons starting in 2008. The hope is that these efforts will engage concert-goers in a variety of ways and draw an entirely new audience to a traditional genre of music.

"We believe this is an exciting experiment," said Irvine Arts Program Director John McGuirk. "Each innovation is truly relevant to the organizations and may serve as a model for specific artistic disciplines or for the broader arts field."

Across the country, orchestras are facing a common problem: how to cultivate a younger, modern crowd without alienating an established audience and still compete in a dynamic cultural landscape. The L.A. Philharmonic's Seasonal Platforms series offers an innovative answer to that question that could serve as a model for future classical music programming.

It is the kind of experiment that The James Irvine Foundation seeks to support through its Artistic Innovation Fund (AIF). The L.A. Philharmonic is one of five premier cultural institutions in California that together received more than $3.8 million in June as part of the second round of AIF funding. They join seven other arts institutions that received grants last year during the initiative's first year.

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Tulare County, in the San Joaquin Valley, is a place most Californians pass by without much reflection on the drive between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Sprawling over the flatlands and foothills east of Highway 5, it claims the title of the world's center of milk production. Until recently, the county's 400,000 dairy cows outnumbered its humans.

Tulare's 300 dairies produce wealth for some, but not for the majority of its residents, more than half of whom are Latino. Four in ten local adults never graduated high school. According to the 2000 U.S. census, Tulare has the highest poverty rate of any county in the state.

"When local residents are not at the public meetings, nobody speaks to their issues. But when they're present, they can speak for themselves, and have a greater chance of sharing in Tulare County's future prosperity," said Caroline Farrell, managing attorney in the Delano office of the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.

Residents often must endure unhealthy air. The San Joaquin Valley has the state's worst smog, and particle pollution from the dairies is likely a factor in Tulare residents' exceptionally high rates of asthma. Schoolchildren have become ill from pesticides sprayed on fields close to their classrooms. On summer days, when temperatures commonly exceed 110 degrees, dust from the traffic on unpaved roadsides fills the air.

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Preparing the next generation of leaders is an important challenge for any community, but for the black clergy in Los Angeles, the stakes seemed particularly high a few years ago.

Since the civil rights era, the church has been at the center of community and civic life for African Americans, serving as a base for the struggle against oppression and inequity. In Los Angeles, in particular, the black church has been a leader on social issues. It has promoted the economic development of low-income neighborhoods and helped to heal the city in the wake of the 1992 civil unrest.

This effort is important because the essence of the struggle for black equity has always been based in the black church, said the Rev. Cecil Murray, who directs the Passing the Mantle program at USCs Center for Religion and Civic Culture.

A number of black clergy have emerged as community leaders in Los Angeles, but few better exemplify this tradition of leadership than Rev. Cecil Murray, who until recently presided over the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Los Angeles. During his 27 years there, he grew its tiny congregation of 250 into a major community force with more than 18,000 members.

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