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Subscribe to feed Viewing entries tagged Community Foundations Initiative II

SPECIAL INITIATIVES

A Blueprint for Community Foundation Impact

BY Anne Vally | Aug 06, 2012 1

One of the most fundamental values we hold at Irvine is to share what we’re learning. We want our colleagues — both nonprofits and other funders — to be able to apply the most promising ideas, approaches and strategies to their work – and to also avoid the ones that aren’t working. We will be putting this value into action at the upcoming Council on Foundations 2012 Fall Conference for Community Foundations.

We know that all community foundations want to grow assets and create positive changes in their communities, and Irvine will be hosting a special workshop to share strategies on how to make this happen. The workshop is built around the lessons and approaches developed over six years of intensive work to help a set of emerging community foundations in California become stronger leaders in their communities as part of our Community Foundations Initiative II. Between 2005 and 2011, this group grew their collective assets 12 percent annually (from $73 million to $131 million), compared to 7 percent for their peers nationwide. At the same time, they increased their grantmaking, awarding $4 million more in grants each and every year for projects in their communities.

We began sharing some of the lessons and tools from this work in 2007, with our Growing Smarter report, and over the years, we have hosted sold-out webinars and conference programs in partnership with the Council on Foundations to disseminate this knowledge to the field.

SPECIAL INITIATIVES

Napa Valley Community Foundation Opens Dialogue on Immigration

BY Anne Vally | May 24, 2012

Earlier this month, I was part of an event in Napa County that shows why a creative and resourced community foundation is one of the most important assets a community can have. More than 150 civic leaders, business people, teachers and community members attended a gathering hosted by the Napa Valley Community Foundation to talk about immigration and look at a new report the community foundation commissioned that examines the fiscal and economic impact of immigrants in the region.

To most of us, Napa Valley brings to mind wine and tourism; and indeed, those are two of the most important industries in the county. But because the Irvine Foundation seeks to expand opportunity for disadvantaged Californians, I also think of changing demographics when I think of Napa County.

Napa will experience one of the most profound demographic shifts in the state over the next 40 years. The Latino population is estimated to grow from 23 percent to 70 percent of residents by 2050, and Napa will become the first county in the Bay Area to have a Latino majority. How the community handles these shifting demographics will be critical to the county’s economy and quality of life. Will the community welcome this increased diversity or will it become a source of division? Will public schools be able to close the achievement gap between Caucasian students and students of color, or will inequalities become exacerbated?

SPECIAL INITIATIVES

Small Calif. Community Foundations Get Big Results

BY Anne Vally | Apr 16, 2012 2

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.

SPECIAL INITIATIVES

Community Foundations Rise to Recession’s Many Challenges

BY Ray Delgado | Sep 22, 2009

For Terence Mulligan, the first signs of trouble began to appear two years ago — in what now seems like a familiar story.

Housing foreclosures in Napa Valley, where he serves as president of the local community foundation, inexplicably started to spike. In 2006, just over 20 homes in the entire county were taken over by banks or lenders when their owners couldn’t make payments. But by the end of 2007, while economists were arguing about whether the country had slipped into recession, that number had jumped to more than 200.

Over the next year, as the housing bubble burst and the unemployment rate grew, the large population of low-income agricultural and service workers in Napa bore the brunt of the impact. Applications for food stamps were up. Mental health and domestic violence counselors were suddenly in greater demand. And the housing market — once considered a pillar of local stability — continued to crumble. By the end of last year, there were nearly 800 foreclosures in Napa County.

“As the recession hit last year, it seemed like, ‘Holy cow, the world is coming off its axis,’” recalls Mulligan, whose organization, the Napa Valley Community Foundation, scrambled to find ways to meet the growing community needs. The community foundation has been a major supporter of the county’s largest safety-net organizations, such as food banks, homeless shelters and family centers.

SPECIAL INITIATIVES

Irvine Initiative Builds Philanthropy In State's Underserved Regions

BY Alex Barnum | Jan 22, 2008

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.

In Mendocino County, women artists design story quilts as part of the “Threads of Life“ project in Anderson Valley, supported by the Community Foundation of Mendocino County. (Photo by John Blaustein)

"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.

SPECIAL INITIATIVES

How Community Foundations Are Acting as Agents for Local Change

BY Alex Barnum | Jan 22, 2004

You're the CEO of a community foundation, and your community faces one of the following situations: Regional anti-growth and pro-growth advocates are clashing, to the detriment of smart growth efforts. A prominent politician is trying to organize community leaders to address rising crime. Skirmishes between city and county officials have brought efforts to build a homeless shelter to a standstill. The region's economy is tanking and most players are too stuck in yesterday's grudges and skepticism to make any headway.

What is the role of the community foundation here?

Increasingly called upon to help address local needs, community foundations have been stepping into a new role: community catalyst. The phrase has found a permanent place in the community foundation world's lexicon. Many questions remain however about what catalyst activity looks like in practice and how to do it effectively. What skills and capacity do foundations need to do this work well? What are examples of successful efforts? How can such catalytic activity best be supported? To help address these questions, a new report, Community Catalyst: How Community Foundations Are Acting as Agents for Local Change (PDF file), is designed for community foundations interested in learning more about this work and for private foundations interested in supporting them.

Increasingly called upon to help address local needs, community foundations have been stepping into a new role: community catalyst.

By commissioning a broad evaluation of The James Irvine Foundation's Community Foundations Initiative (CFI)-a seven-year effort begun in 1995 to support seven California community foundations seeking to accelerate growth, build capacities and generally become more effective in serving their communities-to identify what worked, what didn't and why, everyone involved in the process learned how to enhance the impact of philanthropic work. Community Catalyst tells the story of how four local foundations helped their communities meet challenges and make progress, and it explores what they learned about how to do this important work.

SPECIAL INITIATIVES

Eyes Wide Open: Deciding When to Launch a Community Initiative

BY Ray Delgado | Sep 21, 2003

Imagine for a moment that you are a staff member of a community foundation, and a program officer from a private foundation calls with a tantalizing offer of funding for a special community initiative on after-school programs. Or, that you are approached by a group of community members who are concerned about problems facing the local economy, and they ask your community foundation to take on the issue as a major community project. How do you choose the best course of action?

Many community foundations find it hard to resist such opportunities and run into trouble because they rush into initiativesrather than approaching these opportunities with more care and purpose and reflecting on their readiness and commitment to carry out such efforts.

"Eyes Wide Open" provides simple guidelines and a helpful checklist.

"Eyes Wide Open" presents a simple tool in the form of guidelines and a helpful checklist for community foundations to use in the important due diligence that should come before giving any initiative the green light. The third in a series, this report comes from the experience and evaluation of The James Irvine Foundation's Community Foundations Initiative (CFI), a multi-year effort that has supported participating California community foundations seeking to accelerate growth, build capacities, and generally become more effective philanthropies.