In April 2012, the following published articles mentioned the work of the Foundation or our grantees:

• Tim Carpenter: Social Entrepreneur Is Revolutionizing Senior Housing
  (Huffington Post, 4/30/12)
• REGION: Area Nonprofits Historically Underfunded Despite Need
  (Riverside Press Enterprise, 4/27/12)
• Joseph J. Haraburda, My Word: Oakland Test Scores Up, But the Budget's Down
  (Oakland Tribune, 4/21/12)
• New Program to Train Local Teens For Careers
  (Santa Monica Daily Press, 4/21/12)
• Fresno State Receives $800 Thousand Grant
  (KFSN-TV Fresno, 4/13/12)
• Foundation Grants $800K to Fresno State Program
  (Fresno Business Journal, 4/12/12)
• Berkeley Rep Announces Artists for Summer Lab
  (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/9/12)
• Redlands: Arts Grantmaker Coming to Town
  (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 4/6/12)
• Hot Playwrights Star at Berkeley Rep’s New Summer Lab
  (San Jose Mercury News, 4/6/12)

Irvine Arts Program Director Josephine Ramirez, along with other Irvine staff, is attending the Council on Foundations annual conference in Los Angeles this week. Following is a post she wrote for the council's RE: Philanthropy blog offering her thoughts and reflections about the conference's opening day:

What an amazing first day of the conference! From the compelling opening plenary on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding communities to the terrific dance party with Ozomatli during the evening reception, there is a palpable feeling of excitement for what still remains to come at the conference.

The opening plenary effectively used a multiple-perspective lens on city/regions at varying stages of recovery from the effects of crisis: Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Detroit. As an Angeleno, I've been deluged lately with all the "20th anniversary of the riots" local media pieces. It was nice to hear from moderator Manuel Pastor, a professor at USC, and the three great panelists who so capably described the community reaction to the riots: Marqueece Harris-Dawson, my longtime buddy Stewart Kwoh, and Antonia Hernández.

It is well known that the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley have experienced rapid population growth followed by a severe economic downturn that left both regions struggling. The Irvine Foundation has prioritized these two regions for support because they are so drastically under-resourced by philanthropic dollars and have so much need. Within our Arts program, we created our new Exploring Engagement Fund for Priority Regions as part of our commitment to these two regions, and I was pleased to see the enthusiasm for the fund during two recent meetings I attended in Fresno and Redlands to answer questions about the fund.

The Exploring Engagement Fund for Priority Regions will enable us to work with local arts nonprofits to increase the engagement of Californians in these areas of the state. It is similar to our statewide Exploring Engagement Fund but is only open to nonprofits located within the ten counties of the San Joaquin Valley and the two counties of the Inland Empire. These nonprofits will fill out a slightly different application than the statewide fund and will also receive additional technical assistance in filling out the applications, if so desired.

For the information session in Fresno, we partnered with the Fresno Regional Foundation. Senior Program Officer Sandra Flores and Foundation Support Specialist Sarah Soberal helped coordinate the session and helped spread the word about the sessions to local arts groups. Irvine's Senior Program Officer Jeanne Sakamoto joined me in Fresno on April 12 for the San Joaquin Valley information session that was attended by more than 40 arts leaders in the region.

I am very excited about our new Opportunity Links for Youth initiative. This initiative is extending our work with Linked Learning to out-of-school youth in pursuit of the overall goal of the Youth program — to increase the number of low-income youth in California who attain a postsecondary credential by the age of 25. Three dimensions of this initiative are particularly notable:

1. Keeping young people at the center as we extend our work

In all of the Youth’s program work, students are at the center of our thinking. How can we shape their learning experiences to achieve the highest possible outcomes? One essential element of the Linked Learning approach is to make education more engaging, so that students are motivated to stay in school. This was informed by listening to youth who had dropped out, and hearing that relevancy — learning that actually reflects students’ interests and aspirations — is key to maintaining motivation and connection to school. By advancing Linked Learning across high school districts in California, we believe that the majority of low-income youth who are still in school will remain on a path to high school graduation and success in college and a career. Keeping this youth-centered lens, and using the same principles of Linked Learning, the Youth program is now exploring how to support the aspirations of out-of-school youth age 18-24 through the Opportunity Links for Youth initiative.

Two years ago, the Irvine Foundation joined a group of nine other foundations in a collaborative effort to increase civic participation among communities of color and other underrepresented populations in four California counties – San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside. The work, led by the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, aligns closely with Irvine’s focus on civic engagement.

The collaboration, called the California Civic Participation Funders, has several unusual aspects. For one, its members are quite diverse. Participating foundations run the gamut from large to small; focus on a wide range of issues, from community health to economic justice to women’s rights; and include both 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 organizations. Another distinctive aspect is its approach, which allows a high degree of autonomy among participating funders, while pursuing a common strategy and goals.

As of January 2012, the California Civic Participation Funders had invested $1.2 million to support nonprofits in the target regions so that they can more effectively mobilize and engage underrepresented populations in public decision-making. A new report, Bolder Together, examines lessons from this ongoing effort that other funders might apply in their work.

Read Bolder Together.

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 indelible lesson from these small but mighty organizations: take a deep breath and try it.

The “it” can be whatever you see that has the potential to change your organization and your community. Try new ways of engaging donors. Be bold and ask board members to give more. Bring people together to talk about thorny issues. Experiment with social media.

Through CFI II, we invested $12 million over six years in the growth and leadership of seven small California community foundations, with impressive results. Between 2005 and 2011, the group grew their collective assets 12 percent annually (going from $73 million to $131 million), compared to seven percent for their peers nationwide. At the same time, they increased their grantmaking, awarding $4 million more in grants each year for projects in their communities.