Collective Resilience Initiative

About

Northern California nonprofits are the driving force and backbone of our collective efforts to address the social justice issues impacting the region. NCG's Collective Resilience Initiative supports this backbone and strengthens the nonprofit sector. This begins with focusing on the key factors impacting nonprofit sustainability in the region to shift grantmaking practices and support evolving organizational needs.  

Many nonprofits, particularly those led by Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, are chronically underfunded making it difficult to invest in the talent, systems, and other foundational capacities they need and leaving them without cash reserves to handle a crisis. Long standing funding practices such as not funding full costs, intensive application and reporting processes, not providing support beyond grant dollars, and delays and restrictions in government contracts and payments prevent nonprofits from achieving long-term sustainability.  

Focus Areas

NCG supports our member community to adopt giving practices that center racial equity, shift power, and build trusting, responsive relationships with nonprofit partners to create a strong ecosystem of organizations well-resourced to meet changing community needs and advance transformational systems change. Through this initiative, we will provide programming and education around our 4 focus areas: Workforce, Public Funding, Organizational Resiliency, and Space.

Workforce

• Vision: Developing and sustaining a thriving workforce through systemic solutions.
• Philanthropic Role: Advance systemic solutions to support the nonprofit workforce (e.g. change public and private funding practices); Shift narrative away from the expectation of nonprofits as a low wage sector. 
• Voices from the Field
  • We went in Search of Funders Prioritizing Nonprofit Pay and Benefits. The Results Were Underwhelming 
  • What Funders Can Do to Fight the Nonprofit Worker Burnout Crisis 

Public Funding

• Vision: Support advocacy, policy work, technical assistance, and infrastructure to access available funding. 
• Philanthropic Role: Increase support for local advocacy that increases public funding for nonprofits (e.g. contracting, reimbursement rates); Support adoption and implementation of local and state level policies that support nonprofits and their workforce; Support grassroots and small nonprofits’ access to public sector recovery funds.
• Voices from the Field
  • California Nonprofit Equity Initiative 
  • California Coalition on Government Contracting Letter: Improving nonprofits-government contracting will benefit communities across California 

Organizational Resiliency

• Vision: Resourcing and strengthening organizations through responsive grantee centered initiatives.
• Philanthropic Role: Increase capacity building funding that responds to the needs of the sector through innovative initiatives; Increase capacity building support for nonprofits in low resourced geographies, and funding for these regions.
• Voices from the Field
  • Should we Cancel Capacity Building? 
  • Capacity Building as a Tool for Transformation 
  • Building Resilient Organizations 

Space

• Vision: Investing in shared space, shared services, and community owned real estate.
• Philanthropic Role: Increase funding (grants and impact investments) for long term affordable space solutions, with a focus on shared space and nonprofit centers; Increase funding that supports community wealth building through community control of community assets.
• Action Opportunities: California Community Owned Real Estate Program (CalCORE) 
• Voices from the Field
  • From Scarcity to Inspiration: Rethinking the Value of Nonprofit Facilities 
  • New Funding Model Gives Arts Groups Firmer Footing in Downtown S.F. 
  • Community Ownership of Real Estate: A Los Angeles Story 
  • Transforming Investment to Build Community Wealth: A conversation with the Restorative Economies Fund 

Regional Advisors

Debbi Lerman 

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Debbi Lerman is the Director of the San Francisco Human Services Network (HSN), a public policy association of about 80 community-based nonprofit agencies dedicated to addressing issues critical to the health and human services sector and the people they serve. She has worked in the nonprofit sector since 1980 and joined the staff of HSN in 2001.

She previously organized and coordinated two job training and placement programs for low-income persons and women in the construction industry, including serving as the Executive Director of the Seismic Retrofit Employment Consortium. She also spent fifteen years with environmental organizations, including Executive Director of the Toxics Coordinating Project, and positions with Rainforest Action Network and the California League of Conservation Voters.

Debbi has been a member of the California Bar since 1984. She holds a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.S. in Earth Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Solomon Belette 

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Solomon Belette is a seasoned senior-level strategic leader with a diverse background spanning the nonprofit, civil, educational, and philanthropic sectors. Belette is fueled by a profound commitment to human dignity and social justice. Throughout a dynamic career, Belette has dedicated his efforts to serving the most vulnerable, demonstrating resourcefulness, collaboration, and a track record of success. He has earned his undergraduate and graduate level degrees from Saint John’s University and John F. Kennedy University respectively. Belette’s entrepreneurial drives have inspired him to establish two consulting firms, SISAR and USAFI, designed to assist both domestic and international organizations in capacity development and resource mobilization. He currently holds a Visiting Professor position at the University of Juba and has served as Adjunct Instructor at Santa Clara University. His other professional experiences include serving as Managing Director for the East Contra Costa Community Alliance (ECCCA), Founder of the US Africa Initiatives (USAFI), Director of the Sanford Institute of Philanthropy, CEO of Catholic Charities of the East Bay, and Regional Director for Migration and Refugee Services. He currently serves on the board of the Village Community Resources Center, Man2Man Urban Youth Advocate, as Board President of the Antioch Community Foundation, and Regional Advisor for NCG’s Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative. 

Belette is a dynamic leader whose strategic vision and commitment to positive change have left an indelible mark across diverse sectors.

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