As part of our Special Initiatives grantmaking, we fund research on occasion that can help us understand the trends and issues facing the nonprofit sector. After all, we can only accomplish our mission through the hard work of the nonprofit organizations that we partner with. Understanding the nonprofit environment helps us do a better job of aligning our grant support with their needs and opportunities.

A great example of Irvine-funded research along these lines was released on January 31 by the UCLA Center for Civil Society. Since 2003 the center has published annual reports on the state of the nonprofit sector in Los Angeles; this year’s report focused on how the recession is affecting  human service organizations. The report, Stressed and Stretched: The Recession, Poverty and Human Services Nonprofits in Los Angeles, shows how reduced revenues from government and individuals has caused nonprofits to do more with less at a time when the number of Angelenos in need of social services is growing. Nonprofits serving the lowest income neighborhoods, and those serving African Americans in particular, have been hardest hit.

State budget cuts have forced California school districts to take drastic measures in recent years. But in the sprawling Lodi Unified School District, a proposal to eliminate 32 staff positions providing bilingual services was still a shock to Ger Vang, CEO of the Lao Family Community, when he learned it was on the agenda for the district’s June board meeting.

The proposal, he knew, would be a blow for the district’s 49 schools, which have one of the state’s most diverse student populations. But it would be particularly devastating to a growing effort to involve the district’s parents in their children’s education. Many of these parents speak a language other than English as their primary language, including Spanish, Hmong, Cambodian and Vietnamese.

“Parents want to support district policies,” recalls Vang, a Hmong refugee from Laos whose organization is one of the leaders in the parent-engagement effort. “But when there are no interpreters during meetings, parents feel excluded and stop participating.” He knew it would be important for the Lodi school board to hear from these parents before voting on the measure.

Many parents in the San Joaquin Valley’s low-income and ethnic communities are not accustomed to having a voice in debates like these. Yet studies show that when parents do speak out at school board meetings or organize themselves, they can make a difference. Their efforts have contributed to changes in educational policy and funding decisions in counties throughout the state.

The Irvine Foundation, as part of its focus on increasing civic engagement in underrepresented communities in California, launched its Families Improving Education Initiative in 2008 to promote this kind of involvement. The initiative is managed by Families In Schools, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that, in turn, is working with 11 community organizations in the Central Valley and Inland Empire.

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.