 |
||
NCG Event Archive: 2003Philanthropic Strategies to End Homelessness The briefing will serve as a companion to a study of Bay Area philanthropy trends in grantmaking to address homelessness and affordable housing in the last decade, and a grantmaking guide issued in October 2003 highlighting effective funder initiatives and grants across a range of programs related to housing and homelessness. Just over a year ago, a group of Bay Area funders concerned about the continuing and growing problem of homelessness formed the Bay Area Foundation Advisory Group to End Homelessness. This briefing will coincide with the publication of the Advisory Group's study, Ending Bay Area Homelessness: The Philanthropic Role. The study is designed to illustrate solution-oriented approaches to funding homelessness, and to reinvigorate funders' investment in this important niche of human services funding. It recounts philanthropy trends in grantmaking to homelessness and housing in the last decade, and highlights some of the most effective grants and initiatives that have a significant impact on preventing or ending homeless. The study, and this briefing, argue the following positions: Homelessness can be ended. We now know how to end homelessness. There is a significant role for philanthropy in ending homelessness. Philanthropy must partner with government, business and nonprofit sectors to eliminate homelessness from our national landscape. Speakers will include:
Panelists include:
Following what we hope will be animated - and perhaps pointed - Q&A regarding the premise that homelessness can be ended in the Bay Area in ten years, participants will break for further discussion over lunch on topics including philanthropic investment in affordable housing, public policy, and supportive services that help people obtain and maintain permanent housing. Sponsors: Will The Show Go On? Arts and Culture Funding in California
OR
The California Arts Council took the extreme cut of 95% in this year's budget, leaving California in dead last place in term of per-capita public funding for the arts. This cut has forced those working in the field of arts and culture to reimagine their immediate and long-term future.
Please join Barry Hessinius of the California Arts Council, Prudy Kohler of the The James Irvine Foundation, Ellen Gavin of Brava! For Women in the Arts and Theatreworks, Jewell Gomez, of the Cultural Equity Grants Program of the City of San Francisco, and in Menlo Park join Ralph Lewin of the California Council for the Humanities in San Francisco and Barry Hessinius, Moy Eng, Program Director, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Ralph Lewin, Chike C. Nwoffiah, Executive Director, Oriki Theater and Dan Keegan Oshman Executive Director, San Jose Museum of Art for a discussion about how arts and culture organizations are responding to the extreme cuts in arts funding. Their perspectives will provide the local, regional and statewide perspective on how foundations and cultural organizations are moving forward in light of these dramatic changes to the ecosystem of cultural funding in California.
Objectives:
Sponsored by:
Dollars, Diversity and Democracy: The history of the campaign finance reform movement, unfortunately, is not one that reflects the racial, ethnic, and class diversity of this country. All too often, good government efforts such as campaign finance reform can appear to be a luxury, one that African American, Latino, and other communities cannot afford when their political capital already has so many demands upon it. Reform efforts, in turn, have suffered from the lack of real participation by such groups. Yet the problem of money in politics is actually one that deeply affects different races and ethnicities and threatens the core values of our democracy. Public Campaign's groundbreaking 1998 report, the Color of Money analyzed U.S. Census data alongside campaign finance report data for the first time, and demonstrated in region after region that the vast majority of contributions came from areas that are primarily white and wealthy. This pattern held in all 50 states. One of the starkest examples comes from Manhattan, where just one zip code, 10021, on the Upper East Side, was the source of $9.3 million in contributions, more than any other zip code in the U.S... There are only 107,000 people in that exclusive slice of Manhattan real estate and the vast majority, 91 percent, is white. On the other side of the lop-sided equation are 9.5 million residents of the 483 U.S. communities that are more than 90 percent people of color. They gave $5.5 million. Public Campaign's new 2003 Color of Money report greatly expands upon the first report, both in the analysis provided and in the coalition-building that is central to its dissemination and to strengthening campaign finance reform coalitions nationally. Public Campaign's partners in this project are the Fannie Lou Hamer Project and the William C. Velazquez Institute. These results bolster what civil rights leaders have been saying for years. Nelson Rivers, III, director of the Southeast Region, NAACP, explained the effect of money-based politics on his community. "We're impacted in a negatively disproportionate way. Since African Americans have decidedly less income, less disposable money than other people in the country, we're at a disadvantage when money is the deciding factor in whether you can participate… While other folk have the luxury of picking between two people who still might represent them in some way, for us it's a matter of having representation or none." Expected Briefing Outcomes
Speakers Will Include:
Sponsored by: The San Francisco Foundation, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, Columbia Foundation, & Tides Foundation Child Welfare Services Redesign The Foundation Consortium for California's Children & Youth, The California Endowment, Northern California Grantmakers, Southern California Association for Philanthropy, and San Diego grantmakers are pleased to invite you to a special philanthropic briefing the afternoon of November 3, 2003. The purpose of the briefing is to provide an overview of the Child W3elfare Service (CWS) Redesign to grantmakers like you who are committed to improving the lives of California's children and families. We will discuss the fundamental changes being made and identify how you can become a partner in this extraordinary effort to transform the state's child abuse prevention and foster care system. The briefing continues the dialogue that began at the March 2003 videoconference, "Bold Changes: A Shared Responsibility for Children and Families" which our five organizations sponsored. More than 70 grantmaking organizations and 19 First 5 Commissions attended that event. Some members of the philanthropic sector are already committed to supporting successful implementation of these improvements and the Foundation Consortium has formed a public-private partnerships. Speakers for the day include Rita Saenz and Dr. David Sanders. As a special guest, First Lady Sharon Davis will provide opening remarks. Sponsored by: The Foundation Consortium for California's Children & Youth, The California Endowment, Northern California Grantmakers, and Southern California Association for Philanthropy. Arts in Education: Are We There Yet? Thursday, October 16, 2003 Over the past decade, advocates for arts education in public schools have achieved some hard-earned advances. While more research is needed, collected studies demonstrate the value of arts education in improving overall academic achievement and point to particularly strong benefits for children from lower socio-economic status. The State of California developed and adopted State Standards for Arts Education, which schools now are obliged to address. School Districts like San Francisco's have adopted arts requirements for high school graduation and the University of California has adopted arts requirements for admission. However, few California public school students have access to quality arts education. Policies about teacher credentialing, limited district and school resources, and high stakes testing have raised significant barriers. Across the country, foundations and public agencies have grappled with initiatives that would re-infuse public schools with arts opportunities. Many of these were shaped around specific outcomes and have invested in evaluation. This briefing focuses on four such efforts-in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Silicon Valley. It will visit the shapes of these initiatives and their varied approaches and illuminate the lessons learned. It then will turn to challenges ahead in a time of diminishing school budgets, weakened arts organizations, and a decline in philanthropic dollars, asking: In a time of making difficult choices, how can this work be sustained? How can education and arts grantmakers make the best use of resources in these times? Laurie Schell, Executive Director of the California Alliance for Arts Education, will chair the panel. Speakers will be: Nancy Glaze, Arts Program Director, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation (about Packard's work in the Santa Cruz School District); Frances Phillips, Senior Program Officer, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund (about the San Francisco Arts Education Funders Collaborative); Dana Powell, Ed.D., Director, Creative Education Program, Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley (about a county-wide effort on the Peninsula); and Laura Zucker, Director, Los Angeles County Arts Commission (about a county-wide "Blueprint for Arts Education"). Learning Objectives:
Sponsored by: Walter and Elise Haas Fund, William Randolph Hearst Foundation & Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley New Challenges for Bay Area Philanthropy: Asian and Pacific Islander Communities Wednesday, October 15, 2003 "New Challenges for Bay Area Philanthropy: Asian and Pacific Islander Communities" examines the emerging social and economic issues rising out of the development and growth of the Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1990 to 2000. The report, released by the Northern California Chapter of AAPIP, presents snapshots and data on the various demographic shifts occurring in API communities in California and the greater San Francisco Bay Area based upon the Census 2000 and insight from a diverse group of community-based organizations working on the ground in API communities. San Francisco Briefing Panelists Include: Overview and Moderator: Professor Michael Omi, Chair, Ethnic Studies Department, UC Berkeley The report's key recommendations include:
Sponsored by: Making the Bay Area Affordable: Transportation Choices, Livable Communities As sky-high living costs continue to squeeze families out of the Bay Area, non-profit organizations are seeking new strategies for community development, and identifying how to put more expendable income in the hands of low-income families. Learning Objectives:
Presenters: Mark Leno, Assmeblyman, California State Assembly Sponsored by: Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Gaia Fund, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Women’s Foundation, & The Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund Special Briefing w/ CompassPoint Nonprofit Services: Executive Coaching is a process of supporting individuals to make more conscious decisions about their professional and personal lives. Executive coaches assist the executive in learning about themselves, their interpersonal relationships, styles of learning, leading, managing people, making decisions and managing conflict. While coaching has been a professional development resource in the business world, nonprofit leaders and staff have only recently come to realize the benefits of coaching for learning to cope with the multiple challenges and stresses of nonprofit management. Recently, CompassPoint embarked on a 12-month demonstration project of Executive Coaching with 25 Executive Directors in the San Francisco Bay Area. The program resulted in positive outcomes which promise to inform coaching in the nonprofit sector. A final evaluation by Harder + Company Community Research summarizing the key findings from this project will be presented. The study will be one of the first that demonstrates the impact of coaching on the nonprofit sector. Presenters include: Tim Wolfred, Director of Executive Leadership Services, CompassPoint Guest panelists include:
Sue Vandiver, S.H. Cowell Foundation Sponsored by: Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Peninsula Community Foundation, Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund, & S.H. Cowell Foundation Growing up in Foster Care - The Perils of Adolescence Among California's youth at highest risk for poor outcomes are the approximately 40,000 children and adolescents who enter California's foster care system every year. For those who emancipate at age 18 the risks of homelessness, unemployment, incarceration and serious mental health problems are well documented. In 2001, nearly 7,000 children between the ages of 11 and 15 entered foster care for the first time. Developmentally, this is a very vulnerable period as youth become simultaneously more independent and increasingly susceptible to peer pressure. At least in most urban environments, this is the age at which youth are first exposed to alcohol, street drugs, and sex and especially need consistent, thoughtful adult attention. However, at any point in time nearly 4,000 of these children live not with a foster family, but in a group home with several foster children supervised by an ever-changing staff that is likely to include counselors not many years their senior. Although far from ideal, group homes are likely to remain as an alternative to foster family living situations for the foreseeable future. This meeting will address some of the specific developmental, educational, and social issues facing this age group and the impact that foster care-group living in particular-can have on their healthy growth and move toward independence. Participants in this briefing will learn about:
Sponsored by the California Wellness Foundation, NCG, & Zellerbach Family Foundation Workforce Development & Criminal Justice Reform in California: Many criminal justice policies in California are undermining progress towards public safety, community well-being, family welfare and individual dignity. These policies are costly, yet ineffective in preventing recidivism. They disproportionately affect poor, marginalized communities and people of color. They frustrate ex-offenders' ability to achieve economic self-sufficiency. They hurt children and perpetuate the cycle of criminal behavior and poverty. New approaches to nonviolent offenses, however, are demonstrating positive results for offenders, their families and communities, while reducing incarceration and saving public resources for our criminal justice and public health systems. This educational briefing will introduce some innovative workforce development and advocacy models, and discuss their implications for local, state and national criminal justice policy and practices. The goals of this briefing are to:
Presenters: Michael Wald (moderator), William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Sponsored by the Tides Foundation, Abelard West Foundation & The San Francisco Foundation. NCG & the Foundation Incubator present Day 1: Introduction to Systems Thinking: Tuesday, September 9th - 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Shinnyo-En Foundation Please call The Foundation Incubator at 650-354-1600 to register. Cost Day 1: $45 for TFI/NCG members; $75 for nonmembers About Our Workshop
Day 1: Introduction to Systems Thinking Why is systems thinking important to grantmakers? This session will introduce participants to practical principles of systems thinking and tools for mapping a complex issue. Local grantmakers will offer examples of how they have used systems thinking to help them to identify leverage points for change and where systems thinking presents challenges for grantmakers. Unanticipated side effects of entering systems with inadequate knowledge and lessons learned will also be shared. Day 2: Optional Systems Thinking Application Clinic In this smaller, more informal session, the Sustainability Institute facilitators will use systems thinking tools to help the group look for leverage points in a philanthropy challenge of the group's choosing. The participants will pick a funding area (e.g., poverty, sustainable energy, the arts) and use tools presented in Day 1, such as behavior-over-time graphing and causal mapping to dig deeply to the system-wide drivers of change. The goal is to give participants a flavor of what it is like to engage in a longer-term exploration into improving strategy while using systems thinking methods. About Our Speakers Andrew Jones, Project Director, Sustainability Institute. Drew leads workshops and consults in forestry, community development, manufacturing, urban growth, global climate change, and other public interest areas. He has trained a wide range of leaders in systems thinking and simulation modeling, including nonprofit organizations, M.I.T., Arthur Andersen, and Visteon Corporation. He co-developed LEAD International's systems thinking. Edie Farwell, Program Director, Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program, Sustainability Institute. Edie brings organizational development, strategic planning, communication, and networking skills to the Sustainability Institute, a nonprofit, training, consulting, and research center that applies systems thinking and organizational learning to economic, environmental, and social challenges in order to accelerate transitions to sustainable systems in society, from local to global. John Kreidler, Executive Director, Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley. John brings a systems thinking perspective to the arts through the Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley, a funding and advocacy organization focused on improvements in public school arts education, advancements in the domain of avocational arts, and development of business and civic leadership supportive of the arts. For the two decades prior to this assignment, John worked for The San Francisco Foundation in the post of Senior Program Executive for the Arts and Humanities. While in this post, he began to design computer simulations of cultural policy and to write articles about the systemic nature of the American nonprofit arts environment. Steve Toben, President, Flora Family Foundation in Menlo Park, which supports the philanthropic activities of the descendants of Bill Hewlett, co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard Company. Interests of the Flora Family Foundation include international development, the environment, K-12 education, and arts, culture, and humanities. Before coming to the Flora Family Foundation in 2000, Steve served nine years as a program officer at the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation where he directed the Foundation's programs on environment and conflict resolution. Marianna Grossman Keller is a Partner with Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2). She studied systems thinking and policy at Dartmouth College. She has worked for both public-benefit organizations and for large corporations in the computer and automotive industries. Currently, she invests in high-tech startups and advises companies on sustainability as a partner in Minerva Consulting and founder of the Biomimicry Design Center. Youth Development & the Arts Arts and culture are increasingly being used in new and innovative ways to connect with youth clients. This session will explore the ways in which art and culture often serve as effective vehicles for youth development through self-discovery. Arts programs are often used to nurture the development of youths' individual voices. The arts are also increasingly being used for outreach - performing and visual arts programs often allow youth groups to engage under-served youth populations that are often overlooked. Art programs have also shown to be an effective forum for cross-cultural education and awareness. Exploration of the self and surroundings is often now intentionally linked with social dialogue and community change efforts through some youth arts programs. Panelists from Bay Area youth arts programs will share stories about how their organizations use arts and culture as ways for youth to discover and explore themselves and their communities. Panelists will also discuss challenges and benefits of using arts and culture to impact youth development outcomes and community change efforts. Participants in this session will:
Speakers for this session will be: James Kass is the Founder and Executive Director of Youth Speaks. Since 1996, James has facilitated creative writing workshops in over 250 Bay Area high schools, numerous universities, the SF public library system, juvenile detention centers, and through the extensive network of Youth Speaks workshops in the three Youth Speaks Chapters (SF, 96; NYC, 99, SEAT, 01). Presenter of the annual Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam, The Living Word Festival, and the Bringing the Noise reading series, James also coordinated the Youth Stage at the now-defunct SF Bay Area Book Festival. James is a founding member of the San Francisco Poet Laureate Executive Committee, and has been a panelist for the California Arts Council Spoken Word Fellowship, The Oakland Creative Arts Spoken Word Fellowship and the San Francisco Arts Commission Creative Space Award. Karen Ransom Lehman joined the Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA) as Associate Director in August of 2002. Karen oversees MOCHA's three program focus areas - education, community, and on-site programs. Karen's work includes the development of integrated programs, curriculum, and training between and among departments, supervising program personnel, managing program budgets, and working with the management team to develop new and expand existing programs, and developing new programs in collaboration with other institutions and agencies. For more than 15 years, Ransom Lehman has been a professional nonprofit arts manager with progressively responsible experience in fundraising, events, program development, market research and evaluation. Cynthia Taylor, Associate Curator, School & Youth Programs at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts began managing the multi-disciplinary urban teen art and job training Young Artist at Work program (2002 Coming Up Taller award recipient from the President's Committee on Arts and Humanities) in 1999. Cynthia has worked in the San Francisco Bay Area's arts & music scene in various artistic, administrative and production roles since 1992. A professional vocalist, she currently performs with the Charming Hostess vocal group locally and in New York City. Cynthia holds a BA in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in Creative Arts: Music Performance (opera/classical voice) and Arts Administration from San Francisco State University. Lynn Johnson is a youth development specialist for Community Network for Youth Development (CNYD) where she just recently designed and led a training series entitled Youth Development and the Arts which led San Francisco and Oakland based practitioners through an exploration of the powerful role that arts play in the healthy development of young people. Lynn came to CNYD in September 2002 after over a decade as a community-based theater arts educator. Sponsored by the United Way of the Bay Area, Tides Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, & Community Network for Youth Development. NCG presents a special briefing in partnership with the Foundation Funding for Latino Communities The Foundation Center-San Francisco presents a special lunchtime reception in honor of its first Spanish language publication: Guía para escribir propuestas (a translation of our very popular Guide to Proposal Writing). Join us in celebrating this important milestone by learning from an expert panel about funding and demographic trends in California's Latino community. Whether you are fundraising for support services to Latino audiences or considering funding in this community, this program will provide unique insights on serving this growing population. Thanks to sponsorship from the James Irvine Foundation, free copies of the Foundation Center's new Guía para esribir propuestas will be available to participants at this event. Speakers: Sandra Hernandez, San Francisco Foundation; Theresa Fay-Bustillos, Levi Strauss Foundation; Marcela Davidson Aviles, Latino Community Fund; and Lucia Corral Peña, Funders' Collaborative for Strong Latino Communities - a program of Hispanics in Philanthropy. Moderated by Mike Cortés, University of San Francisco Institute for Nonprofit Management. Agenda: 12-12:30 p.m. Lunch and informal networking (lunch provided) 12:30-2:00 p.m. Special Briefing: "Classification by Race, Ethnicity, Color, Friday, July 18, 2003 The purpose of this briefing is to bring together proponents and opponents of the "Classification by Race, Ethnicity, Color, and National Origin" ballot measure scheduled to be included on the March 2004 ballot in California. According to its author, the purpose of the initiative is to ban state and local governments, as well as school districts, the University of California, and California State University from classifying people according to race, ethnicity, color or national origin. The briefing will bring together a representative of the initiative and an opponent of the initiative to speak to the respective positions and to answer questions. The panelists will include Ward Connerly, a regent of the University of California and author of this initiative. Mr. Connerly was also author of proposition 209, the successful ballot measure that prohibited affirmative action programs. Dorothy Ehrlich is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and an outspoken opponent of the initiative. The panel will be moderated by Sara Diefendorf, President of the League of Women Voters of San Francisco. Objectives:
In the second part of this briefing NCG's Public Policy Committee will release its new report , The Private Foundation's Guide to the California Initiative Process. Rosemary Fei of Silk Adler & Colvin & Diane Fishburn of Olson, Hagel & Fishburn, who led the research process for this report, will address private foundation members about the IRS and Fair Political Practices Commission regulations and how they apply to advocacy issues for private foundations. (Public foundations please note that a similar report is being developed on issues for public charities; a briefing will be held upon its release this fall.) This special set of briefings in July is being sponsored by the joint affinity groups (AAPIP, BABIP, HIP, NAP, & GCIR) and NCG and the NCG Public Policy Committee. Special Briefing: Youth Participation in Philanthropy This briefing will examine current trends for youth participation in philanthropy. Case studies of distinct youth grantmaking programs, along with efforts to integrate young people into leadership decision-making roles in foundations will be used to illustrate the major youth philanthropy approaches. Through discussions of goals, outcomes, and challenges, participants will have opportunities to consider if and how young people can figure more prominently in the work of their foundations. This briefing is sponsored by Marin Community Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, and the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health. Speakers to include Diane Frankel, Program Director, The James Irvine Foundation; Jose Tardencillo, Youth Board Member, Student Action Fund of the Youth Leadership Institute; and other youth and adult grantmakers. Chantel Walker, Program Officer at Marin Community Foundation, will offer opening remarks. Special Seminar: Transitioning from For-Profit to the Nonprofit Sector & Philanthropy-Sector-Switchers Who Want to Work in a Foundation or Consult to Nonprofits Wednesday, July 9, 2003 Are you approached by job seekers who want informational interviews? Here's a resource for you. This seminar is aimed at those individuals who are considering a career change from one in the for-profit sector to one in the nonprofit sector as either a consultant or with a foundation. Current funders and nonprofit consultants will present an insider's view of what nonprofits and foundations are looking for, discuss which skills from the corporate or government worlds translate well and which don't, what types of jobs to pursue, and key issues to weigh such as salary scales and work culture differences. This seminar is cosponsored by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and Northern California Grantmakers. Northern California Grantmakers & Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco present Funding Child Care & Youth Programs: A Continuation of the Federal Reserve's Bank/Foundation Initiative Tuesday, July 8, 2003 Continuing an initiative launched by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to bring together banks and foundations in the Bay Area to find areas of mutual interest and possible collaboration, the Federal Reserve and NCG have scheduled a Special Briefing on Funding Child Care and Youth Programs. Please join us to learn more about banks' CRA-related child care and youth program funding activities, share your related work with the banking community, and engage in dialogue about possible collaboration. At the session, you will:
Speakers:
Sponsorsed by: Citibank, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Tides Foundation Much Ado about Nothing?: A Forum on Administrative Expenses and Foundation Payout Wednesday, July 2nd, 2003 NCG is initiating a series of member dialogues on foundation administrative expenses, payout and related issues. This is a rare opportunity for members of the funding community in Northern California to hear a variety of perspectives, an update of the economic forecast and the latest news on pending legislation. Come prepared to share your thoughts and concerns. From this first gathering, NCG will extract the themes and issues for subsequent discussions. Speakers will include:
Special Briefing: Asian American Women: Issues, Concerns, and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy Asian American women of all social and economic classes suffer from a multitude of injustices such as domestic violence and work force exploitation. These women's health and lives are endangered due to prevalent but incorrect stereotypes about Asian women. Published by the Ford Foundation, Asian American Women: Issues, Concerns, and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy captures the suffering and also the fighting spirit of Asian women who have waged campaigns and founded organizations to right the wrongs inflicted against them. The book reveals the struggles of Asian American women at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder where hunger, illness, sweatshop labor, exposure to hazardous chemicals, and even involuntary servitude are everyday realities. The book was written as a call to action to Asian Americans, policy makers, and the civil rights and philanthropic communities to support Asian American women in their struggles to advance their social justice agenda. Please join us for a lively conversation on issues facing Asian American women with the author, Lora Jo Foo, Patty Chang, president and CEO of The Women's Foundation, and Peggy Saika, executive director of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy. Copies of the book will be available at the briefing, but if you would like a copy in advance of the briefing, please contact Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy at aapip@aapip.org. This briefing is sponsored by Asian American and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, The California Wellness Foundation, The California Endowment, and The Women's Foundation. Brown Bag Philanthropy Series at Stanford University Foundations are important players in the public arena. Emerging from private wealth, they seek to solve important public problems. But how are these private and public roles reconciled? This brown bag lunch series will address such questions as: How do foundations determine public needs? What criteria are used for assessing success in meeting them? What is the right balance between the voluntaristic and democratic impulses in philanthropy? Come join leading thinkers and foundation practioners in exploring these and other fundamental questions of contemporary philanthropic practice. The series is co-sponsored by The Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Center for Social Innovation with support from the Community Foundation Silicon Valley and Northern California Grantmakers. High Impact Philanthropy: How to Positively Impact Millions of People’s Lives on a Shoestring Budget Leadership Conference: Creating Space IV In an increasingly complex world, we cannot succeed alone. Only by learning together will we deepen our knowledge about how to develop leadership that can transform society. In this spirit we invite you to Creating Space IV, the national meeting of the Leadership Learning Community. We offer you a rich opportunity for reflective inquiry with others engaged in leadership development. We are a community of learners and ask all to come with a willingness to explore, inquire, contribute and be curious about what others are learning about leadership development. Creating Space IV will provide a variety of inquiry and working sessions. We will be supported in our learning by key conversation catalysts. They will share the results of their own inquiry and experience.
Conference attendees will have an opportunity during working sessions to share, test, and collectively discuss a number of tools, curriculum components, leadership and change theories and evaluation approaches. We believe in the self-organizing capacity of the community so time will also be devoted to facilitating connections and open space technology. This event is cosponsored by NCG. Creating Better Futures The Great Valley Center is pleased to announce the 6th annual Great Valley Conference, "Creating Better Futures" to be held May 14-15, 2003 in Sacramento. The theme of this year’s conference refers to both the increasing knowledge of the importance of the region in California’s future and encouraging Valley residents to consider the challenges of the future and how best to address them. We expect more than 800 business, community, and government leaders from throughout the region to attend. Featured speakers include Kevin Johnson, Saint Hope Corporation; Joel Garreau, cultural correspondent for the Washington Post and author of the book Edge City; Philip R. Lee, MD, professor emeritus of Social Medicine, University of California, San Francisco; Dr. Marvin J. Cetron, futurist and author; and Bill Riggs, the world’s first and only dis-illusionist. The Conference also includes a chance to participate in a taped PBS-MacNeil/Lehrer Productions town hall forum on what America’s international role should be with regard to food policy and a panel offering insights on the Future of the Valley through 2025. This program is co-sponsored by The California Endowment, California Department of Transportation, California Department of Water Resources, KVIE Channel 6, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Raley’s Family of Fine Stores, San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, Sierra Health Foundation, and USAA Foundation.
Special Briefing: Charter Schools: How to Chart the Charter School Map The charter school movement is in full swing and, while not without controversy, funders are being inundated with requests for support. This briefing will help funders navigate the field of charter schools with presentations from leaders and providers in the charter school movement, including representatives from a number of independent schools and charter school management organizations in the Bay Area. The briefing will be of interest to funders who may be considering funding charter schools, as well as to those whose foundations may be at the critical crossroads of whether to continue, expand, or exit funding in this area. Issues to be addressed will include:
After a moderated discussion with providers, a funders-only panel will offer peer learning from foundation colleagues with experience in this arena. Participants will learn why and how their peers decided to fund charters, how board buy-in was achieved, how and where foundation grants can have the most impact, and questions to ask when evaluating models and proposals. At the end of the session, participants will be familiar with the various charter school models, will take away lessons learned by peers who have funded in this area, and will have a better understanding as to what role, if any, their foundations might play in funding charter schools. Presenters will include: Sponsors: Fleishhacker Foundation, Koret Foundation, Pottruck Family Foundation and the Stuart Foundation. Special Briefing Thursday, May 8, 2003 Increasingly, public health policies directed from federal agencies including the Department of Health & Human Services and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention limit or outright ban strategies and approaches to public health that have been proven scientifically effective. This is especially true for family planning and reproductive health, as well as HIV/AIDS and substance abuse prevention and treatment programs. The current Administration’s preference for "abstinence-only" programs and the controversy surrounding the influence of socially or religiously conservative political agendas signals a changed federal approach to preventative health as it applies to women, youth, and people with HIV/AIDS. The goals of this briefing are to: 1) raise awareness and provide educational outreach to funders and providers on this issue; 2) offer data and information on the budget and policy implications; and 3) discuss prevention programs, policy advocacy, communication and other strategies that promote sound public health policy and practice. The briefing features public health providers and funders from the fields of reproductive rights, drug policy and HIV/AIDS who will provide the context of current budget and policy debates and address how the new federal policies have impacted their service delivery and philanthropic programs. Topics include:
Speakers:
The briefing is sponsored by: The California Wellness Foundation, Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Levi Strauss Foundation, Northern California Grantmakers AIDS Partnership California, and The San Francisco Foundation. Special Briefing Ingrid Mittermaier, a principal in the San Francisco law firm, Silk, Adler & Colvin, will present an informative session on private foundation rules regarding self-dealing, excess business holdings and jeopardizing investments. Silk, Adler & Colvin specializes in the representation of nonprofit organizations and their donors with an emphasis on tax and corporate matters. Some of the critical issues to be covered will be: Self-Dealing (IRC Section 4941) Sponsored by Community Foundation Silicon Valley, The Foundation Incubator, and Northern California Grantmakers. seminar fee: $45.00 Balancing Innovation, Risk, Outcomes and the Public Trust Issue Briefing: The Budget Crisis - What it Means for Silicon Valley Philanthropists Assembly member Joe Simitian and other local leaders will be our special guests on at a special briefing on the state and local budget crises and their impact on the public benefit agencies we support. Community Foundation Silicon Valley and the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits are hosting this event for our donors, family and private foundations, corporate funders, and others. We’ll get the latest news from Sacramento and the local level on the budget crisis, and Peter Hero will lead a discussion of what role philanthropy should play as the fiscal situation unfolds. If you serve on a local nonprofit board, are an active volunteer, or want to get the latest update on the budget situation, don’t miss this critical briefing. Public Accountability and the Public Good NCG Workshop on Foundation Investments: Meeting Today's Foundation's Needs While Preserving Tomorrow's Endowment Thursday, March 27, 2003 Today's volatile market environment has forced many organizations into uncharted territory. Northern California Grantmakers invites you to a special seminar for members on fulfilling your organization's fiduciary responsibilities in the face of challenging market times. Panelists will discuss the importance of staying the course, helping participants focus on their organization's long-term strategy and mission. The seminar also will help participants focus on their organization's investments and on maintaining a long-term discipline, a prudent asset allocation plan, and exploring alternative asset classes. The program also will cover the importance of keeping an investment strategy consistent with the organization's long-term philanthropic mission. The following issues will be explored:
Heart of Philanthropy Retreat/ Bearing the Bear Market! A Look at the Many Ways Foundations are Speaker: We have all heard recently the reports about the financial setbacks experienced in recent months by many foundations across the country. In short, billions of dollars in assets have been lost, and as a result, millions of dollars in potential grants will not be allocated. Traditionally, private foundations are established with large endowments that are intended to cushion them from the ongoing burden of raising funds for programs and operations. Allowing them the freedom to make long-term commitments, take unpopular positions and support risky or innovative approaches. Nevertheless, endowments do not assure invulnerability to economic downturns or bear markets. Foundations' annual budgets are tied to the current value of their asset bases, and whether foundations can expand grantmaking and programs is always going to be based largely on investment performance. Please join us in discussion as we explore:
Being a Social Change Agent: Foundation Support for Northern California Grantmakers & Leadership Workshop Agenda: The Calculated Use of Fear and the Changing Faces of For the past three years, a group of statewide ecumenical organizations in eleven Western States have worked together on an initiative focused on the misuse of Scripture to advance the hate movement. The initiative, funded by the Greenville Foundation, has included a conference, mini-grants and ongoing grass roots activities that have addressed hate crimes. On March 18th, a second consultation will take place as ecumenical organizations, resource people, and the funding community come together to examine the role of ecumenical and inter-religious organizational response to movements of hate in our nation. This consultation will provide the opportunity to meet representatives from 11 states in one setting and to discuss what is happening in our community as it experiences greater levels of fear and response to the 'war on terror.' The morning sessions address the anti-government movement and the discrediting of government through economics and devolution; the war on Iraq and homeland security; war on the environment; and fear, focused on diversity and colorization of America. A session from 3:00pm-5:00pm will include response from foundations as they talk about their motivation to support anti-hate movement work and what they perceive as the role of communities of faith in anti-hate work. Funders will have an opportunity to have insightful conversation and share strategic thinking around anti-hate work with ecumenical leaders from around the West Partner organizations: Washington Association of Churches, Montana Association of Churches, The Greenville Foundation Bold Changes: A Shared Responsibility In collaboration with the California Department of Social Services, and funded by Casey Family Programs, Stuart Foundation, and The California Endowment, Bold Changes seeks to improve the well-being of California's children by fostering dialogue and inspiring new partnerships around the recent findings of the Child Welfare Services (CWS) Stakeholders Group, which has worked over the past several years to determine how we can better ensure that "every child in California lives in a safe, stable, permanent home, nurtured by healthy families and strong communities." As you know, the result of their work is a new paradigm shift in child welfare programs, one that stresses family strengthening, best practices, and prevention, and strives to overcome assumptions and misperceptions of children and families experiencing child abuse and neglect, foster care, and "aging out" of the system. This new approach to improving child welfare will require commitment, leadership, and strong community partnerships in making the changes a reality for children and their families. In particular, changes in the child welfare system will significantly impact the community environment in which foundations conduct their grant making, and it is critical to provide this sector with more information about this issue, offering opportunities to discuss implications and generate ideas to make the most of philanthropic resources. Bold Changes is designed to serve as a starting point for this collaborative process, providing an open, interactive forum for learning about these changes and opportunities for local action and involvement. Over 300 foundation CEOs and program officers, Proposition 10/First 5 California Children and Families Associations and Commissions, county child welfare directors, and county children's collaboratives will be invited to participate in this unique and important dialogue. We would be honored if you would be willing to share your expertise in child welfare issues at this meeting, which will take place in Sacramento, California from 8:00am to 12:30pm and will be broadcast through video conference to five other locations across California: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, and Orange County. [insert specific sentence about the speaker's requested topic and alter next sentence as appropriate] The program will also include an opening presentation and overview of the changes in the child welfare system, followed by a keynote and a panel presentation, which will cover best practices in efforts to strengthen and restore families, to prevent child abuse and neglect, to provide youth with the tools they need to become self-sufficient adults, and to develop strong community partnerships that support these programs. There will be a conference-wide question and answer period, as well as concluding regional site discussions, where participants can focus on how they might work together locally to address these issues. Constant Elevation: The Rise of Bay Area Hip-Hop Activism The term ‘Hip-Hop Activism’ describes a new generation’s movement for social change, and nowhere is that movement more vibrant than here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Young people are transforming philanthropy, the arts, community organizing, popular education and youth development by using hip-hop culture as a means toward developing political consciousness and stimulating progressive social change. By shining a spotlight on some of the country’s most innovative programs and thinkers, this interactive briefing is designed to capture the ideas and energy of this vibrant, nationally emerging movement. This briefing is part of a national discussion first started in New York City at the Open Society Institute in July to explore dynamics ways to engage young people in the political process. Come hear and see how youth programs in the Bay Area are bringing together civic participation and culture to impact their schools, neighborhoods and community centers. Moderated by: Featuring: Special Performance To Follow Featuring: Northern California Grantmakers'Public Policy Committee presents: California's Governor and Legislature are struggling to close a budget shortfall of nearly $35 billion. Historic budget decisions lie ahead that will significantly affect the health and well-being of communities, the provision of critical services, and the ability of foundations to advance their missions. Please join us to discuss philanthropy's role in shaping the budget debate and moving beyond the current crisis. The Budget Crisis and Beyond features leaders from philanthropy, government, and nonprofit organizations who will analyze the state budget shortfall and underlying structural issues limiting policy options, forecast the impact of budget cuts on programs and populations, and explore proposals for ending the crisis. Foundation and nonprofit organization leaders will provide examples of policy-related grantmaking strategies, including research and analysis, collaboration, promoting public debate, and advocacy. The morning session will focus on the current budget crisis and its impact on various sectors. The afternoon session will address how foundations can leverage their resources to shape the current budget debate and influence future solutions. Conference topics include:
Speakers Include Special Briefing on Violence Prevention Despite progress made, violence continues to undermine safe communities across the country, as evidenced by the following:
How can you make a difference? As a grantmaker, you can strategically impact these rates by supporting violence prevention activities and prevention efforts such as after- school programs, family support services, community development efforts, arts programs, public health initiatives, mentoring, advocacy, and community organizing. Please plan to join us at this special briefing to learn how your grantmaking strategies can be used to address the root causes of violence in California communities. Learn a framework for understanding where communities are developmentally in their efforts to prevent violence, and how to strategically support appropriate community-driven solutions that promote peace. Speakers include: Linda Bowen, executive director of the National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention; Victoria Gwiasda, director of knowledge enhancement for the National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention; and Marcy Mistrett, director of training and evaluation for the National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention |
||
You are here: Events > Event Archive 2003
In this section: Full NCG Event Calendar | Other National Philanthropic Events | Events Before 2004
Home | About NCG | News | Events | Resources | Programs/Services | For Members | Contact Us | Site Map
©2003 - 2008 Northern California Grantmakers. Site development by ChangeInMotion.