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
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
We occasionally invite outside writers to contribute a post on topics relevant t
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Sep 26, 2012
By Ralph Lewin, Cal Humanities
As 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 share your reactions below.
Today, ongoing wars, the housing crisis and the recession have hit many of us hard. Thousands have lost homes, retirement savings, jobs and even loved ones. And yet I've noticed some unexpected and heartening after-effects — bright spots amidst this darkness. Many friends have made drastic changes in their lives, prioritizing long-neglected passions or making courageous career leaps into profoundly meaningful work. Others have engaged more deeply with their families and communities.
Historically, our darkest hours on Earth have given birth to some of our most brilliant moments — our brightest ideas and most illuminating conversations. Steinbeck, Picasso and Einstein worked from such eras: the Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War, World War II. The voices of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Anne Frank, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. have called to us from the edge of the abyss and inspired empathy, reflection and change.
Perhaps suffering great hardship and loss reminds us of what’s most beautiful and precious, compelling us to take risks, speak out and spend time on what matters most. Perhaps it is time to fundamentally re-examine how we've come to assign value as a society, and to work creatively in order to protect what matters from extinction.
Jim is Irvine’s CEO. A native Californian, he is passionate about the Foundation
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Sep 20, 2012
By Jim Canales
It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Don Howard as Executive Vice President at The James Irvine Foundation.
In this expanded leadership role, Don will assume oversight for all of the Foundation’s program and grantmaking activities and will also help to lead the Foundation’s ongoing efforts to deepen, extend and amplify our mission of service to the people of California. As I described in a July blog post, the Foundation is in the midst of a planning process aimed at refining our approach in order to maximize Irvine’s impact. Don will play a critical leadership role as we move these plans to execution and demonstrate the kind of nimble and adaptive strategies that will be essential to Irvine’s success in the years ahead. Given the many challenges facing California today, and our unique role as the largest multipurpose foundation dedicated exclusively to the state, Irvine will need to continue to embrace an ambitious agenda to advance the changes that our state desperately needs.
Don currently serves as a Partner and head of the San Francisco office for The Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit strategy consulting firm helping other nonprofits and philanthropists achieve breakthrough results. Prior to joining Bridgespan, Don spent the first part of his career at Booz Allen Hamilton, an international management consulting firm. Don earned his undergraduate degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University, and his MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.
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Sep 19, 2012
By Angela Glover Blackwell, PolicyLink
As 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 share your reactions below.
At a hearing of the California State Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color last spring, Joshua Ham, an African American 11th grader, described a typical day at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. Ninety-nine percent of students are Latino and African American, and as they approach the building, “tall prison-looking gates with large hooks on the top” point toward them. Police cars cruise the streets. Security guards search backpacks. Classrooms are under-resourced and teachers are overwhelmed. “How can we truly be expected to achieve at a high academic level when we are experiencing conditions that are more like a prison and less like a school?” Josh asked the committee.
Young people like the Manual Arts students are the future of California, and California is the future of America. The state has led the country in the most significant demographic transformation in United States history — a majority of Californians are people of color, a shift that will occur nationwide within 30 years. Seventy-three percent of Californians under 18 are youth of color. They must succeed if our state is to succeed.
California can show America how to respond to, and invest in, these changes by blazing the trail toward a new economic model focused on equity, inclusion and prosperity for all. And we must begin by listening to the voices of tomorrow.
Read more >>
As Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer, John directs the Foundation’s $1.6 bi
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Sep 13, 2012
Our ability to achieve our mission depends on a variety of factors, but one of the most fundamental is the performance of Irvine’s investment program, which produces the resources that allow us to make grants. For this reason, we’d like to draw attention to the annual letter from Chief Investment Officer John Jenks that was included in our recently posted 2011 Performance Report. It offers insights into how we manage our $1.6 billion endowment in today’s challenging financial markets and outlines some of the steps Irvine’s investment team is taking to produce a consistent rate of investment return in support of the Foundation’s mission.
Letter from the Chief Investment Officer and Treasurer
2011 was a challenging year for the global economy and most financial markets. Consequently, most private foundation endowments earned less in 2011 than they paid out. Irvine’s investment portfolio performed better than most — our returns were in the top 20 percent — but even that was not good enough to produce returns high enough to cover the Foundation’s target payout of 5.5 percent. I’d like to use this annual letter to describe some of the challenges we faced in 2011 as well as some of the steps Irvine is taking to produce a higher rate of return going forward.
While extremely low interest rates aided many homeowners and the economy in general, they had an adverse effect on many foundations’ long-term investment programs. Returns on the vast majority of fixed-income investments, the safest and most predictable part of typical large investment portfolios, were much less than the payout rates of foundations, and that had the effect of pushing many to invest more in generally riskier investments like equities. Although Irvine largely resisted this move and benefited from that, 2011 showed just how challenging it is — and likely will continue to be — to earn even the IRS minimum required payout of 5 percent, let alone offsetting the effects of inflation.
In 1937, California’s population was approaching six million residents, the most iconic bridge in the world made its grand debut and a wealthy agricultural pioneer decided to give back much of his fortune to Californians by founding The James Irvine Foundation. As the Irvine Foundation marks its 75th anniversary this year, we naturally look back on our decades of grantmaking with a sense of pride in the accomplishments of our grantees who have worked so hard to help improve the lives of Californians. But we also use the occasion to look ahead and explore what is possible for this great state and how we might continue to play a role in expanding opportunity for the people of California.
We commemorate our 75th anniversary with a new timeline of significant moments in the history of the Irvine Foundation and our grantees, including photos that capture the role of Irvine grantees in responding to some of California’s biggest challenges. Take a look and let us know what you think — we hope you are inspired by the impact our grantees have had on a diverse range of issues over time, representing the freedom that James Irvine provided to the Foundation’s trustees to adapt and evolve the organization’s focus based on the changing needs in California.
What strikes me about the timeline is how it documents our evolution from a somewhat insular institution that funded causes close to home, to a strategic partner to our grantees, working with them to tackle the biggest issues of the day. This transition mirrors the century-long evolution of private philanthropy as the sector has recognized the opportunity and the responsibility to be bolder in our aspirations and to take a strategic approach to solving societal problems. For Irvine, the days are long gone when our Board of Directors would decide which organizations to fund based largely on personal connections or institutional profile.
By Mark Baldassare, Public Policy Institute of California
As 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 share your reactions below.
With fiscal crisis and a fragile economy the focus of concern in California, it is easy to overlook the state’s other challenges. But three troubling trends deserve attention because they threaten the well-being of Californians and the state’s prosperity for years to come. These threats also present opportunities—for state leaders and residents to step up and forge a new vision for California.
First, the state’s education system is failing to keep up with the changing demands of the state’s economy. California — which built the most admired public higher education system in the country — now lags other states in the production of college graduates. This is happening at a time when changes across industries require more highly educated workers than ever and as the Baby Boom generation — a relatively well-educated one — is being replaced by demographic groups with historically low rates of college completion. Projections suggest that, if current trends continue, the state economy will require one million more college graduates in 2025 than the state can produce. If we fail to change this trend the result is likely to be a less productive economy and less tax revenue for the state.
Vince Stewart was a Senior Program Officer for the Youth program at The James Ir
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Aug 27, 2012
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 students and those underrepresented in higher education, especially when these offerings have a career focus. The webinar will outline recommendations for education practitioners and will also address policy matters related to dual enrollment programs.
If the demonstrated benefits of career-focused dual enrollment are to reach more disadvantaged students and have lasting impact on California education, state policymakers and community leaders will need to reduce current barriers to program development and student participation. Based on the experience and outcomes attained in high schools and colleges across California, here are three high-value policy recommendations:
A native Californian, Daniel Silverman leads the Foundation’s communications wor
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Aug 22, 2012
We are pleased to share with you our 2011 Performance Report in a new online format. While it includes many of the features of a traditional foundation annual report, our aim with this publication is to go beyond that approach and give you a deeper look at the Foundation’s progress toward its long-term goals.
This report is based on the Annual Performance Report that we make each year to Irvine’s Board of Directors as a way to measure our impact and hold ourselves accountable. It examines the progress we’re seeing in our core grantmaking programs, as well as other areas that we believe contribute to our impact as an institution. If you’re interested in reading this longer, more detailed document, it is available on our website.
This year we are experimenting with a new online format that we think will prove more inviting and accessible to our readers. At the heart of the report is the Program Impact section, which offers highlights of key developments in each of our three grantmaking programs and Special Initiatives. In the Leadership section, we describe ways we have used Irvine’s voice to enhance the work we’re supporting through grants. And finally, we look at Irvine’s financial and organizational health using a variety of quantitative measures.
This online publication represents the latest evolution in our approach to reporting on our impact. In that sense, it is a work in progress, and we welcome your thoughts and ideas about how to make it better.
As Director of the California Democracy program, Amy leads strategies aimed at i
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Aug 16, 2012
Tim Carpenter, a 2011 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award recipient and founder of EngAGE, is featured in a New York Times article, one of its “Fixes” series, which looks at solutions to social problems. The feature also includes the Irvine Leadership Award video about Tim’s work. The James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards recognize and support Californians who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant state issues. To learn more about Tim and other Leadership Award recipients’ effective approaches, visit here. To receive updates about Leadership Award alumni and their work, subscribe to Leadership Award News.
