Grantmaking to Low-Income and Diverse Communities
This report offers an overview of 2011 grantmaking by the James Irvine Foundation that supported low-income populations and communities of color. In 2011, we awarded total grants of $65 million, approximately half of which was granted to organizations that focus exclusively on low-income people and/or communities of color. Grants that do not explicitly focus on these populations were not included in that category, although a majority of our other grants are also supporting low-income populations or communities of color by virtue of California’s demographics.
Download (January 2012) (PDF, 154 KB)
Grantmaking to Low-Income and Diverse Communities
This report offers an overview of 2010 grantmaking by the James Irvine Foundation that supported low-income populations and communities of color. Approximately 50 percent of our total grantmaking of $64.7 million in 2010 was granted to organizations that explicitly focus on these populations. Grants that do not explicitly focus on these populations were not included in that category, although a majority of our other grants are also supporting low-income populations or communities of color by virtue of California’s demographics.
Download (February 2011) (PDF, 504 KB)
The Four Ps of Marketing: A Roadmap for Greater Community Foundation Visibility
Visibility is vital to community foundations as they seek to gain credibility and attract new resources. But how can younger and smaller community foundations best use their limited marketing budgets? What audiences should they target first? How important is broad public awareness — and how much investment does it merit? This paper, written by Williams Group, addresses these questions and offers a tested model along with relevant examples and worksheets to help any community foundation create and manage its marketing program.
Download (January 2011) (PDF, 1.2 MB)
Reaching Out: Board Ambassadors for Growth in Community Foundations
It’s commonly known that board members can help community foundations grow assets and impact. But the trick is to help them engage fully — and confidently — as ambassadors who connect their community foundation to new donors and other key audiences. This paper, written by Williams Group, presents five essential elements in nurturing board ambassadors, and provides examples as well as tested exercises and tools to help strengthen board ambassadors in any community foundation.
Download (January 2011) (PDF, 1.1 MB)
Growing Smarter: Achieving Sustainability in Emerging Community Foundations
It’s a striking paradox: As community foundations grow their assets, their sustainability is often threatened. Younger and smaller community foundations can define a solid pathway to growth, and this paper, written by FSG, can help. It describes case studies and economic models that can inform community foundations of virtually any size. It also includes an executive summary and discussion guide, as well as an overview presentation introducing core concepts for board members.
Downloads: (October 2007)
Full Report (PDF, 2 MB)
Executive Summary (PDF, 175 KB)
Discussion Guide (PDF, 37 KB)
Board Presentation (PPT, 5.6 MB)
Grantmaking to Low-Income and Diverse Communities
This report offers an overview of 2009 grantmaking by the James Irvine Foundation that supported low-income populations and communities of color. About half of the Foundation's 2009 grantmaking of $67 million (or $33.5 million) was granted to organizations that explicitly focus on these populations. Grants that do not explicitly focus on these populations were not included in the 50 percent figure, although a majority of our other grants are also supporting low-income populations or communities of color by virtue of California’s demographics.
Download (February 2010) (PDF, 49 KB)
Convergence: How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector
This report highlights five key trends and how their coming together will shape the social sector of the future. Based on extensive review of existing research and in-depth interviews with thought leaders and nonprofit leaders and activists, it explores the trends (Demographic Shifts; Technological Advances; Networks Enabling Work to be Organized in New Ways; Rising Interest in Civic Engagement and Volunteerism; and Blurring of Sector Boundaries) and looks at the ways nonprofits can successfully navigate the changes. The monograph is by La Piana Consulting, a national firm dedicated to strengthening nonprofits and foundations.
Download (November 2009) (PDF, 855 KB)
What Helps Leaders Grow: Highlights from the Fund for Leadership Advancement
This report presents key insights from Irvine’s Fund for Leadership Advancement, an initiative to improve the leadership abilities of executive directors of selected grantee organizations. Based on an evaluation of the first 20 participating organizations, it finds that relatively small investments in leadership support can yield important gains in organizational effectiveness. And it suggests that the fund’s approach, which includes executive coaching and consulting on organizational development, is an effective one, although it identifies some areas for improvement. The evaluation was conducted by BTW informing change, a firm that provides information-based services, including evaluation, to the nonprofit and philanthropic sector.
Download (October 2009) (PDF, 470 KB)
The Strong Field Framework: A Guide and Toolkit for Funders and Nonprofits Committed to Large-Scale Impact
As part of its work to advance the multiple pathways approach to high school education, Irvine engaged the Bridgespan Group to develop a framework for assessing the nature and needs of the fields in which nonprofits operate. These agents of change often struggle to understand how to focus their field-building investments and activities because they lack a comprehensive and coherent map of the strengths and weaknesses of their field. This framework provides a guide for building more robust fields and can help foundations and nonprofits prioritize their investments.
Download (June 2009) (PDF, 742 KB)
Evaluation Kit for Trustees
A new survey of foundation trustees highlights the importance of improved evaluation techniques in order to meet their needs and increase the effectiveness of the foundations they lead. FSG Social Impact Advisors, with funding from The James Irvine Foundation, interviewed dozens of foundation trustees, CEOs and evaluation experts, with a particular focus on California foundations, to uncover critical issues and important ideas related to evaluation. The resulting Evaluation Kit for Trustees sheds light on what foundation trustees think about evaluation — and provides foundations with tools for engaging their trustees in exploring and informing evaluation strategies.
What’s the Difference, a summary of trustee perspectives on evaluation. (June 2009) (PDF, 742 KB)
Snapshots, brief case studies that illustrate how trustees are successfully using evaluations. (June 2009) (PDF, 704 KB)
Let’s Consider Evaluation, a simple self-assessment to capture trustee points of view on evaluation purpose, method and cost. (June 2009) (PDF, 484 KB)
Let’s Discuss Evaluation, a framework for leading a meaningful trustee dialogue on evaluation, including a facilitator’s guide. (June 2009) (PDF, 499KB and 481 KB)
Let’s Make Evaluation Work, a planning guide for unraveling common evaluation issues and indentifying strategies that might work for your organization. (June 2009) (PDF, 493 KB)
The Inland Empire Nonprofit Sector: A Growing Region Faces the Challenges of Capacity
Irvine engaged the Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management, University of San Francisco, to help identify strengths and challenges in the nonprofit sector of the Inland Empire, a vast region with a diverse and growing population. As this two-county region grows and changes, the infrastructure of its nonprofit sector is not keeping pace. This report documents the results of a five-year study of nonprofit contributions to the region, compares it with the nonprofit sectors of other Southern California regions, and looks at nonprofit fiscal health. Intended to help prepare civic, nonprofit and philanthropic leaders of the Inland Empire to take action, this report spotlights key issues and offers recommendations for strengthening the region’s nonprofit sector.
Full Report (March 2009) (PDF, 2.95 MB)
Executive Summary (March 2009) (PDF, 2.90 MB)
Foundations and Public Policy Grantmaking
An Irvine-commissioned white paper explores the range of ways private foundations can engage in public policy. The paper, by independent consultant Julia Coffman, who has worked with numerous foundations, proposes a framework for public policy grantmaking. The paper suggests specific lessons that foundations should keep in mind when considering policy-related grantmaking, and highlights four case studies illustrating the variety of approaches foundations should consider. Irvine is increasingly engaged in the public policy arena, so we commissioned the paper to deepen our understanding of policy-related grantmaking.
Download (March 2008) (PDF, 575 KB)
Deeper Capacity Building for Greater Impact: Designing a Long-Term Initiative to Strengthen a Set of Nonprofit Organizations
This briefing paper, prepared by TCC Group with funding from Irvine, offers guidance for funders about how to plan, implement, and evaluate long-term, capacity-building initiatives. These initiatives defined as sustained efforts to help a select group of nonprofit grantees reach a new level of effectiveness offer grantmakers an opportunity to increase their impact beyond project-based support. But they can also introduce much greater complexity into the grantmaking process because of the need for a longer time horizon, multiple sites, and issues of confidentiality. This paper helps funders navigate these complexities.
Download (April 2007) (PDF, 2 MB)
Foundation Giving in California: A Snapshot of Overall Giving, Asset Distribution and Regional Disparities among Private and Community Foundations
This report, commissioned by the Irvine Foundation and prepared by Putnam Community Investment Consulting, provides a comprehensive picture of private philanthropy in California. The report shows that many California counties are underserved by foundations, particularly in the rapidly growing Inland Empire and Central Valley. Many counties in these regions received less than $10 per capita in annual foundation giving compared with $102 per capita statewide. It also shows that community foundations are playing an important role in the state, providing more than 15 percent of the combined giving from community and private foundations.
Download (November 2006) (PDF, 3.3 MB)
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