The Giving List San Francisco Bay Area by Montecito Journal

the giving list San Francisco Bay Area

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Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Giving List San Francisco Bay Area.

ou are receiving this book because of your ability to impact philanthropy in the Bay Area. Whether as an individual, a professional working within a charitable foundation, or a financial professional guiding your clients’ charitable investment, your contribution to this region’s nonprofit sector is substantial. You have the means, intelligence, and experience to uplift the Bay Area through the direct power of your giving and your ability to influence your peers to focus on the causes that matter the most. We hope to be helpful in that endeavor. What you find in your hands is a compendium of stories describing the work being done by some of the most vital nonprofit organizations in this region. Organizations on the front lines of recovery, pressing for social and racial justice, uplifting our children and families, supporting the arts, and fighting to preserve our precious natural world. This book is in many ways the culmination of my personal and professional career on both sides of the Bay Bridge. I grew up in Berkeley and wound up – like my father – teaching at the university there at both the Graduate School of Journalism and the Goldman School of Public Policy, albeit at the lowest rung of the faculty ladder, as an adjunct. It was here that I founded the nonprofit news organization, Fostering Media Connections, which I ran for the past decade, growing it into a national presence. It was in the streets of downtown San Francisco that I won my first grant and cut my teeth in the hard, beautiful work of building a nonprofit from the ground up. Likewise, my partners at The Giving List, including our talented local writers, are steeped in the Bay Area’s vibrant philanthropic culture. The same is true of those featured in this book. From social sector leaders who constantly work to better this community, to the corporations that have baked social responsibility into their strategies, to the nonprofits that are doing the work on the ground, each has something important to say about why, how, and to which organizations we contribute matters. We have found that often giving guides are missing the most important aspect of connecting donors with causes: powerful storytelling. So, we have worked closely with each organization in this book to tell its unique story to you. Our world is changing rapidly. The racial injustice awakening wrought by George Floyd’s murder and the inequities laid bare by the pandemic have forced philanthropy to change. Alleviating these wounds requires the work being done by organizations we feature in The Giving List’s pages. It is for this reason that helping organizations of all shapes and sizes gain direct access to individual donors is not just important but critical. Because nothing is as impactful as giving locally, and the best way to change the world is to uplift our own beloved community. This book would not be possible without the help and support of some of the Bay Area’s premier institutions. We are deeply grateful to the Walter S. Johnson Foundation for supporting our matching grant program and to the Louis L. Borick Foundation for supporting some of the nonprofits that appear in our pages. Thank you to our lead partners: the Warriors Community Foundation, the Capital Group, City National Bank, Microsoft, Full Court Press, and Battery Powered. The impact of your ongoing commitment to supporting the Bay Area’s nonprofit community is immeasurable. We hope you are as inspired by reading this book as we have been in making it. Sincerely,

Daniel Heimpel

Executive Editor, The Giving List | www.thegivinglist.com |

Giving Back

e launched The Giving List to help the important nonprofits featured in this book spend less time fundraising and more time doing the critical work demanded of them. Healing from the wounds of the pandemic and the scars of racial inequity require the work of the community-based organizations that fill our pages. We have assembled their stories in the hopes that you will turn the page and find ways to engage. Many nonprofits, especially those that are earlier stage and grassroots, are too reliant on lopsided and overly restrictive funding. This impedes their ability to derive the predictable, unrestricted revenue they need to focus on what’s most important: the work. By sharing their stories with you, we have a chance to break that cycle. Please join us by supporting your local nonprofits on the front lines of justice, whether that be fighting racism; using the arts to change culture; helping children, youth, and families in need; or striving to preserve our environment. We will all be better for it.

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How to Read This Book

he Giving List was created to make it easier for you to navigate the dizzying array of worthwhile causes and nonprofit organizations here in the Bay Area. To that end, we have distributed 75,000 copies of The Giving List San Francisco Bay Area to people like you: individual donors, staff within the region’s small and large private foundations, and to philanthropic advisors, wealth managers, and estate planners. As you dive into this book, we want to point out some of its unique features, and of The Giving List program as a whole.

Curation Before we started outreach to any of the nonprofits featured in these pages, we consulted with a wide variety of leaders working as executives in private foundations, nonprofit board members, wealth management firms, and philanthropic advisors to ensure that we included a balanced cross section of some of the Bay Area’s most important nonprofit organizations. Notably, we sought to understand which nonprofits were leading in recovery as we endure the long tail of the pandemic and racial justice awakening sparked by the murder of George Floyd. The result is that – unlike other giving guides – the list we present to you is made up of not just large, well-funded, and established nonprofits, but many smaller grassroots organizations with deep connections to the communities they serve. If one or more motivates you to learn more or donate, just wave your phone’s camera over the QR code accompanying each in order to connect directly with that organization.

Matching The Giving List was created to help nonprofits create predictable, unrestricted revenue through storytelling. One tried and true method to accomplish this is matching challenge campaigns. Thanks to the Walter S. Johnson Foundation and other generous donors, you will find more than $395,000 in matching challenges being offered in The Giving List San Francisco Bay Area. We hope that you will be sufficiently inspired to help one or more of these organizations meet its matching challenge.

Ongoing Support Our partnership with the nonprofits does not end with the printing of this book. Each profile will live on TheGivingList.com through 2022, where we will be updating each profile once a month so that you can continue to track the important ongoing work of each and every Giving List organization.

Staying Connected We are building a community of people who cares deeply about philanthropy and understand the vital role it plays in our world, and we want you to join. If you would like to be included in our newsletter “The Fifth Estate,” please visit www.TheGivingList.com and follow the prompts.

You can also join our Newsletter by waving your phone’s camera over this QR code

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Contents

Capitol works and why it matters ��P.182

Profile – Fred Blackwell has spent his life trying to solve the Bay Area’s biggest problems �� P.180

Books are analog. And analog can be tricky when trying to create a table of contents. Our intention throughout The Giving List is that every organization – regardless of order – is equally important. For that reason we have reversed the table of contents so that the last nonprofit that is featured in the book appears here first. Don’t fret, the page numbers all correspond.

178

166

The Arts Crowded Fire Theater (CFT) is a critically acclaimed

company for new play production on the West Coast. Known for presenting works by the hottest up-and-coming playwrights, CFT contributes to the creation of a contemporary canon that reflects the diverse world in which we live �� P.174 a Black, Latine, and Asian led nonprofit organization, produces compelling theater that builds community, fosters cross-cultural dialogue, promotes social justice, and authentically reflects the experiences of communities of color and LGBTQ people ��P.172

KQED serves the people of Northern California with a communitysupported alternative to commercial media. KQED provides citizens with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions; convene community dialogue; bring the arts to everyone; and engage audiences to share their stories ��P.190

Stanford Social Innovation Review’s

mission is to advance, educate, and inspire the field of social innovation by seeking out, cultivating, and disseminating the best in research- and practicebased knowledge. With print and online articles, webinars, conferences, podcasts, and more, SSIR bridges research, theory, and practice on a wide range of topics, including human rights, impact investing, and nonprofit business models ��P.188

San Francisco Public Press is a nonprofit, noncommercial

news organization that publishes independent public-interest journalism about under-covered topics, with a focus on under-served audiences. Online, in a quarterly newspaper, and on community radio station KSFP-FM, the Public Press offers local investigative and solutions reporting ��P.186

Civil Eats is a daily news source for critical thoughts about the

American food system. Civil Eats publishes stories that shift the conversation around sustainable agriculture in an effort to build economically and socially just communities. ��P.184 is an award-winning, nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s State

Trusted Advisors Using the Media to Drive Social Change ��P.176

San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company,

The Fourth Estate

CalMatters

Social Sector Leader – Full Court Press:

Destiny Arts Center

believes that art and movement gives young people a vehicle for self and community expression. Destiny uses movement-based arts to uplift youth voice, supporting pathways for young people to express themselves; advocate for justice and equity; fight against the systemic racism that continues to impact Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC); and build a community where everyone feels seen, valued, and free �� P.170

Profile – For Charlie Casey,

philanthropy is a family business ��P.168

Social Sector Leader – Battery Powered:

Crowdsourcing Philanthropy �� P.164

160

Meeting Disaster National Disaster Search Dog Foundation’s

mission is to strengthen disaster response in America by rescuing and recruiting dogs and partnering them with firefighters and other first responders to find people buried alive in the wreckage of disasters ��P.162

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152

Environment Vida Verde’s

mission is to promote educational equity by providing free overnight learning experiences for students who don’t otherwise get the opportunity ��P.158

Plastic Pollution Coalition is a growing global alliance of

more than 1,200 organizations, businesses, and thought leaders in 75 countries working toward a world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impact on humans, animals, waterways, the ocean, and the environment ��P.156

Profile – Rhea Su – The Marin Community Foundation’s new CEO plans on bringing environmental justice home ��P.154

138

Lisa Ling

Homelessness Swords to Plowshares’ mission is to heal the wounds of war, to restore dignity, hope, and self-sufficiency to all veterans in need, and to prevent and end homelessness and poverty among veterans �� P.150

Five Keys – through the use of social and restorative justice principles – provides traditionally underserved communities the opportunity to improve their lives through a focus on the Five Keys: Education, Employment, Recovery, Family, Community �� P.148

“ What good is a platform, if you don’t use it for good to raise awareness about things that people might otherwise not have any idea of, and to be able to highlight people who are on the ground doing the work?”

– Profile begins on P.106

Urban Alchemy

is a social enterprise that engages with situations where extreme poverty meets homelessness, mental illness, and addiction. ��P.146

Homeward Bound of Marin is the primary provider of Marin County homeless shelters and services for homeless families and individuals in Marin, California �� P.144

At The Crossroads reaches out to homeless youth and

young adults at their point of need, and works with them to build healthy and fulfilling lives. By bringing its services directly onto the streets, At The Crossroads cultivates long-term, unconditional relationships with young people who would otherwise be disconnected from consistent support �� P.142

Profile – California Black Freedom Fund is building Black nonprofit power in the Golden State �� P.140

126

To Your Health Shanti Project

exists to enhance the health, quality of life, and well-being of people with terminal, life-threatening or disabling illnesses or conditions. Through a continuum of services, including inhome and onsite patient and care navigation, emotional and practical support, and preserving the human-animal bond, Shanti strives to achieve the highest medical and quality of life outcomes for San Francisco’s most vulnerable �� P.136

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Seneca’s mission is to help children and families through the most difficult times of their lives. Seneca is driven by the fundamental belief that children and families do not themselves fail, but rather are failed by systems unable to meet their complex needs �� P.134

Rafiki Coalition’s

mission is to eliminate health inequities in San Francisco’s Black and marginalized communities through education, advocacy, and by providing holistic health and wellness services in a culturally affirming environment �� P.132

Profile – Lateefah Simon, philanthropy’s “Jerry Maguire,”

may just change the game �� P.128

National Center for Lesbian Rights is a national

legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, legislation, policy, and public education ��P.110

The Courage Museum

is designed to take visitors on a transformative journey, prompting them to rethink assumptions about how and why violence occurs, to see the individual and collective actions they can take to prevent violence from occurring, and how best to help survivors heal from its traumatic effects. Visitors will enter as witnesses and leave inspired and informed to step up, use their voices, and take action �� P.108

Profile – Lisa Ling

uses her celebrity and social media microphone to help fight Asian Hate and help victims �� P.106

116

Driving Social Change

Social Sector Leader – Microsoft:

On a Mission to ‘Activate’ the Bay Area’s Charitable Foundations Behind the Tech Needs of Its Black-Led Nonprofits �� P.102

Black Citizen was borne out of a desire to attain justice and

equality for Black people living in the Bay Area. Black Citizen is a social impact startup whose mission is to create impactful change and to transform the way we react and respond to concerns facing Black communities �� P.124

Facing History and Ourselves uses lessons of history to

challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate P.122

Brady | United Against Gun Violence unites people

of all identities, races, and ethnicities from coast to coast, young and old, progressive and conservative, and everything in between, fed up and fired up, to protect our country from what is killing it �� P.120

Profile: Drawing on family history, Sparks charts justice-charged path for Masto Foundation �� P.118

104

Teach The Children Well Northern California College Promise Coalition

is a regional effort to bring together leaders, practitioners, and resources and share leadership over the shape of college success efforts in the region �� P.100

Students Rising Above (SRA) community is dedicated

to impacting the future through the cultivation of extraordinary youth. SRA invests in low-income, first-generation college students who have demonstrated a deep commitment to education and strength of character in overcoming tremendous odds of poverty, homelessness, and neglect ��P.98

Mentors 4 College’s mission is to help students and parents

find and attend the ideal post-secondary educational program, help school counselors extend their college counseling reach, and build college-savvy communities – with services free to all! ��P.96

Justice For All Human Rights Watch (HRW) defends the rights of

people worldwide. HRW scrupulously investigates abuses, exposes the facts widely, and pressures those with power to respect rights and secure justice �� P.114

Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants

is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland with a mission to improve the social, emotional, psychological, economic, and physical health of refugees and immigrants from Southeast Asia affected by war, torture, genocide, or other forms of extreme trauma �� P.112

Center For Early Intervention on Deafness’ (CEID) mission is to maximize the communication potential

of children and adults who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing through early education, family support, and community audiology services �� P.94

Vision to Learn provides free eye exams and glasses to kids

in underserved communities. More than two million children in the U.S. do not have the glasses they need to see the board, read a book, or participate in class �� P.92

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Profile – Kathy Kwan reminds us that you need not be a philanthropist forever ��P.88

Social Sector Leader – The Warriors Community Foundation: An Honest Broker with a Big Megaphone ��P.84

Fostering Care Unity Care’s mission is to provide quality youth and family

programs for the purpose of creating healthier communities through lifelong partnerships. Unity Care’s goals are to provide safe, secure, and positive living environments; educate and support underserved youth; and prepare young people to pursue professions in which minorities are chronically underrepresented �� P.82

A Home Within

identifies, recruits, trains, and supports a network of licensed therapists who each provide free, weekly, one-toone therapy to a single foster youth “for as long as it takes.” �� P.80

San Francisco Court Appointed Special Advocate Program (CASA) transforms the lives of

abused and neglected foster youth by providing one consistent, caring volunteer advocate, trained to address each child’s needs in the court and the community �� P.78

Razing the Bar

believes that relationships are the key to successful youth development. Through mentorship and housing support, Razing the Bar helps transition-aged youth (TAY) achieve permanent connections and self sufficiency �� P.76

Charlie Casey “We had a call to action with our clients. There’s a huge need right now, across the nonprofit sector, in supporting core grantees so that they can keep their people employed at food banks, housing, homeless services – really across the board.”

– Profile begins on P.168

iFoster’s mission is to ensure that every child growing up outside of their biological home has the resources and opportunities they need to become successful, independent adults �� P.74

Profile – Emily Scott comes to the conversation curious as a

Community Action Marin makes it possible for people to

Postpartum Support Center’s mission is to provide a

Sunday Friends Foundation

Jewish Family and Children’s Services

philanthropist and advisor �� P.72

achieve well-being by providing the education, mental health, and vital services they need ��P.66

comprehensive support system and safe place for mothers/parents and families in need and to promote awareness and prevention of Perinatal Mental Health Disorders. The Postpartum Support Center strives to bridge the perinatal mental health treatment gap by normalizing and destigmatizing these disorders ��P.64

Family Ties empowers families to break the generational cycle of poverty by fostering positive development in children while educating and guiding parents to support their children’s life success �� P.68

exists to provide professional and volunteer services for the purposes of developing, restoring, and maintaining the competency of families and individuals of all ages ��P.62

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dedicated, respectful, equitable and just, loving, innovative, hopeful, and youth-centered ��P.52

Youth Law Center advocates to transform foster care and

juvenile justice systems across the nation so every child and youth can thrive ��P.50

Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) has, since 2011, been building community and

mobilizing young leaders in the movement to end youth criminalization and mass incarceration. Led by individuals who have lived through systemic violence and incarceration, CURYJ engages youth most impacted by the injustice, immigration, and foster care systems so that they can be the ones to close youth prisons and heal our communities ��P.48

Profile – James Head

and the East Bay Community Foundation are investing with an eye toward equity ��P.46

Lateefah Simon “ We weren’t funding them to win. So instead of giving $75,000 over three years, Akonadi said we’ll give $300,000 a year and get funding for every single partner you want funded.” – Profile begins on P.128

Help a Mother Out works to improve baby and family wellbeing by increasing access to diapers for families in need. Its vision is a day when every baby has a healthy supply of diapers �� P.60

Profile – Edgar Villanueva draws on his Native American

roots to help heal philanthropy by using money as medicine ��P.56

For The Youth Juma Ventures strives to break the cycle of poverty by paving the way to work, education, and financial capability for youth across America. Juma’s vision is that all young people have the opportunity to succeed, advance, and thrive in the career of their choice, competing in a job market that is inclusive, equitable, and diverse ��P.42

Pivotal has focused on creating better life outcomes for foster youth

in Silicon Valley for more than 20 years.  Pivotal has helped hundreds of youth graduate from high school and go on to college. Pivotal won’t stop until they’ve helped every foster youth in Silicon Valley who is ready to create a future they are excited about ��P.40

John Burton Advocates for Youth (JBAY)

improves the quality of life for youth in California who have been in foster care or homeless by advocating for better laws, training communities to strengthen local practices, and conducting research to inform policy solutions ��P.38

VOICES Napa provides young people aging out of foster care with

family-like support, acceptance, and accountability as they set their own goals and pursue them across VOICES’ youth-led core programs: Health and Wellness, Career and Education, and ILP-Independent Living Program ��P.36

Youth Justice Fresh Lifelines for Youth’s (FLY) mission is to prevent

juvenile crime and incarceration through legal education, leadership training, and one-on-one mentoring. In its work, FLY is accountable,

Profile – JaMel Perkins, using “whatever leverage” she has to help vulnerable youth ��P.34 Social Sector Leader – The Capital Group:

A Personal Commitment to Philanthropy �� P.30

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To learn more about joining The Giving List Community, please contact: partnerships@thegivinglist.com

For The Children California Children’s Trust seeks to reimagine the way

California supports children’s healthy development and social and emotional well-being by transforming services across systems, and scaling them to meet the needs of our communities ��P.28

Safe & Sound’s mission is to prevent child abuse and reduce its

CEO & Founder Gwyn Lurie gwyn@montecitojournal.net

East Bay Children’s Law Offices’ (EBCLO)

President & Founder Tim Buckley tim@montecitojournal.net

devastating impact ��P.26

mission is to protect and defend the rights of children and youth through holistic, vigorous legal advocacy. EBCLO strives to provide a voice for children in and out of the courtroom and to promote positive outcomes for them ��P.24

Executive Editor Daniel Heimpel dheimpel@thegivinglist.com Art Director Trent Watanabe

Social Sector Leader – City National Bank:

Helping Students Make Sense of Dollars and Cents �� P.20

Director of Partnerships Alexandra Stabler astabler@thegivinglist.com

The Feature –

The pandemic and a racial justice awakening forced big changes to local philanthropy. Will they stick? �� P.12

Copy Editor Lily Buckley Harbin Photography Edward Clynes Administration & Billing: Christine Merrick frontdesk@montecitojournal.net

“We honor my grandfather’s legacy by highlighting the need for a more diverse culture of philanthropy, both in terms of who participates and the ways in which we give.”

– Profile begins on P.118 | www.thegivinglist.com |

Contributors: Dana Bartholomew, Les Firestein, Brenda Gazzar, Miranda Green, Stella Haffner, Alice Lloyd, Brian Rinker, Nick Schou, Dan Schifrin

the giving list is published by: Montecito Journal Media Group, LLC. Corporate Offices located at: 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite G Montecito, CA 93108 For inquiries: phone (805) 565-1860 email tim@thegivinglist.com

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Philanthropy Made Big Changes. Will They Stick?

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P BY DAN SCHIFRIN

andemic. Political and economic instability. A generational reckoning with racism. In the wake of the double blow of COVID-19 and the racial justice movement sparked by the murder of George Floyd, philanthropy here in the San Francisco Bay Area has changed the way it operates, sometimes dramatically. In many cases institutional and individual donors gave more than they had in the past to meet the historic needs. Foundations reconsidered the restrictions they put on grant recipients. And in response to the enormity of the moment, all corners of the social sector – nonprofit, public, and philanthropic – collaborated in new ways. The dearth of Black and Brown leadership as a priority within philanthropy was called into question. An answer was, in many cases, to increase funding to nonprofits led by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) leaders, and those serving communities of color. But looming above these shifts were fundamental questions: Which of these changes will be temporary, and which will have staying power? And, can the trials of 2020-21 enliven the Bay Area – with its incredible wealth, intellectual capital, tech savvy, and history of social innovation – to be the place where seemingly intractable problems can be solved? As part of The Giving List’s interviews with scores of nonprofit leaders, funders, and academics, a portrait of the future of giving in the Bay Area came into focus.

Giving More

uring a time of overlapping emergencies, many Bay Area foundations and funders dedicated themselves to giving more, and sooner. “Right now we’re putting as much money as we can out there,” says Kathy Kwan (p.88), who runs her family’s Eustace-Kwan Foundation in the South Bay. Over the last year the foundation has expanded its giving by 40%, part of a larger strategy to give away all of the foundation’s original $60 million endowment by the end of 2023. For Kwan, more funding begets more funding, especially through the magic of the matching grant. Kwan, a UC Berkeley Trustee, offered a $1 million match, which drew in an additional $1.7 million.

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The San Francisco Foundation (SFF), led by Fred Blackwell (p.180), leaned into this moment’s emergencies by increasing endowment spending to organizations engaged in crisis response. The foundation also created the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund to support nonprofits generally. Because of SFF’s 2015 shift toward advancing racial equity and economic inclusion, the expanded funding distributed through the pandemic targeted communities disproportionately impacted by the crisis. Recent studies bear out anecdotal evidence that philanthropic giving rose in 2020. The National Philanthropic Trust reports that foundation giving increased almost 20% nationally last year. But it’s not yet clear whether individual and nonprofit giving as a whole increased, or whether money has been redirected toward basic needs overall, as well as to supporting communities of color. For instance, a fall 2021 study by Bank of America and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy found that a quarter of affluent individuals “indicated that they had increased their giving to charitable organizations to help people in need of food, shelter, or other basic necessities and/or to charitable organizations focused on health and medicine.” The big question for nonprofits: Is the outpouring of support a one-time response during a time of crisis, or is this elevated commitment likely to be the new normal? Emma Mayerson, the founding Executive Director for the Oakland-based Alliance For Girls, thinks that it might be too early to tell. “We’re just starting to get good data now,” Mayerson says. At the same time, “it doesn’t seem like funding is necessarily going up across the board. It is for organizations working on issues that are more at the front of many people’s minds, like anti-racism training or larger Black-led organizations. But not for places like camps or art programs, which have already seen huge losses in earned revenue.”

Giving Flexibly

hile the jury is out on whether or not the philanthropic sector will maintain increased levels of giving longterm, the move towards unrestricted grants and less onerous application and reporting requirements just might. Frances Phillips, who manages the Creative Work Fund at the Walter & Elise Haas Fund in San Francisco, says she and many colleagues moved quickly to alter the terms of their grants so that organizations and individual artists could repurpose their money during this period of emergency. “We pivoted so that we could be flexible about the length of time, and how projects could be presented to the world, or rethink how they measure or get data,” Phillips says. Another developing strategy is impact lending, where pools of capital from donor-advised funds and foundations

(photo by Amogh Manjunath)

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Giving USA reports that foundation giving increased almost 20% nationally last year. But it’s not yet clear whether individual and nonprofit giving as a whole increased, or whether money has been redirected toward basic needs overall, as well as to supporting communities of color.

can support organizations through low-interest loans. At the beginning of the pandemic, the Bay Area’s Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund began a Community Impact Fund, which has already disbursed $17 million. This is on top of the organization’s $200 million in grants to hundreds of nonprofits, mostly in the Bay Area. This flexible giving dovetails with an ongoing move in philanthropy towards what some call “trust-based” philanthropy, wherein funders are more likely to ask what grantees need, as opposed to dictating the terms of the funding. Dr. Rena Dorph, director of the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley, appreciates both the partnership and flexibility of their funders during this period, as they found “creative ways | www.thegivinglist.com |

that advanced our mission and their philanthropic objectives” simultaneously. As a board member of many local and national nonprofits, Dr. Dorph understood the issues from both sides. The “unexpected outcome” of those conversations, she says, “afforded us opportunities to learn more about one another in ways that, I hope, will lay the groundwork for deeper and mutually beneficial partnerships beyond this crisis.” While financial support is critical right now, it’s easy for funders at all levels to become overwhelmed. Flexible giving doesn’t always have to include large financial gifts. “We should feel good about helping feed people on a Saturday morning, say, even if that’s not changing the root cause of food insecurity,” says Emily Scott (p.72), a San Francisco philanthropist who also advises funders on aligning their values with their giving. Eugenie Chan, an award-winning San Francisco playwright who combines theater with community-building, encourages funders to also consider the non-financial ways they can offer support. “Funders can be resources for ideas, a source of referrals to others, offer insights into the funding zeitgeist, decisionmaking, and organizational management insights,” says Chan, a grantee of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund’s Creative Work Fund.

Cross-Sector Collaboration

“T

his is a region where new ideas are recognized and valued more quickly,” says Nora Silver, adjunct professor and faculty director at the Center for Social Sector Leadership at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. The region’s start-up mentality means that “new ideas can more easily become new nonprofits or social enterprises,” with tech and other business sectors eager to partner and fund the most promising ideas. This orientation toward partnership means that “companies, nonprofits, and government work together productively, with leaders crossing lines of industry or category” to get things done, Silver says. The potential for business/nonprofit collaboration can be seen in an organization like iFoster (p.74), which supports current and former foster youth in California, and increasingly around the country. Founded by former Silicon Valley executives Serita and Reid Cox, the nonprofit provides a pipeline of pre-qualified candidates for part-time and full-time corporate jobs, while offering an economic lifeline to foster youth aging out of care. This “social network for foster care,” as Reid Cox describes it, means that at-risk youth win, socialservice agencies win, and companies win. Another model is Magnify Community, a network of funders including the Sobrato Family Foundation, the Grove Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Founded in 2018 to provoke Silicon Valley philanthropies to give more, and more locally, the goal was for funders to

pledge $100 million in additional giving to nonprofits in the South Bay, a region with swiftly widening levels of economic disparity. Many major Bay Area funders, including those with a global reach, simply don’t know that “90% of our philanthropic dollars go to organizations that don’t serve those who live and work in Silicon Valley,” says Catherine Crystal Foster, Magnify’s co-founder and CEO. Magnify had planned to sunset its operations this year. As part of its transition this fall, it announced a merger with The Philanthropy Workshop, an international organization with a strong Bay Area presence, after successfully prompting the Magnify network to increase local giving by $35 million in 2020 alone. Although no one can tell how sticky these collaborations will be, many see an altered landscape in which partnerships will be critical. Last year’s $18 million gifts to local school districts by Salesforce and the Someland Foundation (a project of Twitter co-founder Evan Williams), suggest an expanded sense of responsibility for programs previously funded primarily by government. iFoster’s Serita Cox sees her organization’s support of the state vaccination effort as a potential model of ongoing partnerships across sectors. Through its Americorps program, iFoster youth helped community clinics reach disconnected youth with critical vaccine-related information. Given the scale and complexity of the task, Cox says, it wouldn’t have been possible for any one type of organization to get everything done. As the country tries to dig itself out of its healthcare and financial challenges, “there’s no way these kinds of partnerships are going to go away.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Race and Equity

he racial justice movement has prompted many local foundations to push themselves further. One striking example is the California Black Freedom Fund (p.140), a five-year initiative housed at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which is raising $100 million to support Black-led organizations dedicated to eradicating systemic and institutional racism. In its first two rounds of funding, the Fund has already disbursed $15 million to 77 organizations. But this commitment from the largest community foundation in the country is far from ubiquitous. According to the National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy, between 2016 and 2018, $2.2 billion was given by 25 community foundations to nonprofits across 25 American cities, but only 1 percent of those funds were designated for organizations serving the Black and African American community. As president of the Akonadi Foundation, an Oaklandbased foundation dedicated to ending structural racism (and a California Black Freedom Fund participant), Lateefah Simon (see p.128) argues that financial support and justice are connected. “You can’t simply believe that we are going to change and implement new visions with small amounts of resources for one or two years,” says Simon. “I want us to do things differently.” For PWI’s, or Primarily White Organizations, a challenge is sometimes just learning about the existence of smaller

This flexible giving dovetails with an ongoing move in philanthropy towards what some call “trust-based” philanthropy, wherein funders are more likely to ask what grantees need, as opposed to dictating the terms of the funding.

organizations, often helmed by leaders of color. “There are 20,000 nonprofits in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties alone, and many of them are not connected to foundations,” says Larissa Robideaux, the outgoing executive director of the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits, based in Redwood City. “A lot of grassroots organizations that work on social justice issues don’t have the networks to raise capital or be recognized by lead foundations. When that’s the case, it’s hard to get in the door.” Sometimes the answer isn’t just more money, but a shift in the terms of use. “Philanthropies tend to create special initiatives and programs designed to serve organizations based in communities of color, but then the grants end after a year or two,” says Phillips of the Haas Fund. More helpful, she says, is giving more in unrestricted funding, which gives organizations additional freedom and agency in their work.

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(photo by Mike Von)

| San Francisco Bay Area |

(photo courtesy Akonadi Foundation)

No More Business As Usual

“T

here’s an army of folks, including donors and philanthropists and white folks who are demanding that we not go back to business as usual,” says Edgar Villanueva (see p.56), the global activist and author of the award-winning book Decolonizing Wealth. “Our systems are broken. Our communities are broken and torn apart,” he adds. “There’s so much pain and trauma everywhere, especially after 2020. The only way out of this is healing. And the only way that we will all thrive and heal is if we come together and accept the collective responsibility of our history and future.” James Head, outgoing CEO of the East Bay Community Foundation (see p.46), has helped steer the nearly 100-yearold institution toward a racial and social justice equity model. To respond to the immediate needs surfacing in early 2020, they launched a new initiative: COVID-19: A Just East Bay Response Fund, designed to offer immediate help as well as

“The only way out of this is healing. And the only way that we will all thrive and heal is if we come together and accept the collective responsibility of our history and future.” – Edgar Villanueva

address systemic issues. This fall, they intend to make this approach permanent with A Just East Bay Fund. And Head is optimistic. “I have become totally convinced,” he says, “that people with money, especially donors, will step up to the plate when asked.”

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Helping Students Make Sense of Dollars and Cents

C “At City National we believe it is critical that financial literacy is taught in schools. That’s why we’re dedicated to doing all we can to increase financial literacy and reduce inequity in our communities.”

ity National has always been about doing business differently, one relationship at a time. The company always places people and relationships before numbers, from their clients to their workforce to the communities in which they do business. That connection to uplifting communities runs deep, including among the bank’s colleagues. Nearly 80 percent of employees participate in their workplace giving program annually, with $1.6 million donated in 2020, a clear reflection of City National Bank’s P.R.I.D.E. values: People, Relationships, Integrity, Dedication, Entrepreneurs & Excellence. Since 2001, the bank itself has donated over $102 million to charities and civic organizations.

– KELLY COFFEY

City National Bank CEO

| San Francisco Bay Area |

With a long history in California dating back to 1954 when its first offices were opened in Beverly Hills and it became known as the “Bank to the Stars,” City National Bank now has offices across the U.S., including eight in Northern California, but still prides itself on feeling like the community bank of its roots. It’s with that community mindset that the company decided to create and offer its Dollars + Sense program, an initiative to bring financial education to school-aged youth from kindergarten through high school, and beyond. In 2009, City National Bank introduced a new way to help people of all ages understand how to manage money, build wealth, and pursue their dreams. Through Dollars + Sense, City National Bank colleagues volunteer their time to teach children across the Bay Area financial education in classrooms and the community.

“T

hat’s the real value of Dollars + Sense. It’s part of breaking the cycle of poverty, creating equity and access for marginalized communities. We can see how this curriculum helps students increase their financial knowledge and improve their financial habits.”

– JENNIFER NICKERSON

City National Bank Senior Vice President of Corporate Citizenship

“At City National we believe it is critical that financial literacy is taught in schools. That’s why we’re dedicated to doing all we can to increase financial literacy and reduce inequity in our communities. Our successful digital Dollars + Sense program is one of our most effective ways to help in this effort, providing instruction and resources to students to help them develop skills and confidence around financial matters,” says City National Bank CEO Kelly Coffey. In 2019, City National invested $1 million to expand the program into more schools. Participating school districts include Oakland Unified and Hayward Unified, both in the East Bay. This interactive online program allows teachers to integrate the curriculum into their classes and measure their students’ knowledge in the field of financial education. Students who complete the course receive a certification in financial literacy. To date, their efforts have delivered nearly 153,000 hours of financial education to 46,000 students. “It’s a core value of our company to help people be educated about how to save and budget money,” says City National Bank Senior Vice President of Corporate Citizenship Jennifer Nickerson. “We’re putting our money where our mouth is. We are helping to lay a foundation for success for multiple generations.”

There are multiple free programs offered to students that teach a mix of saving, investing, credit scores, and identity protection, and they are offered in both English and Spanish. Other specific classes focus on the stock market and one, created for 7th through 10th graders, focuses on entrepreneurship whereby students write their own business plan to try to get a virtual product to market. The Dollars + Sense program is focused largely on students in underserved communities. The focus is to offer students economic empowerment and to set them up for future financial success. “That’s the real value of Dollars + Sense,”

Nickerson says. “It’s part of breaking the cycle of poverty, creating equity and access for marginalized communities. We can see how this curriculum helps students increase their financial knowledge and improve their financial habits.”

SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CITY NATIONAL BANK www.cnb.com (800) 773-7100

Member FDIC

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| San Francisco Bay Area |

For the Children “When you look at what’s driving poor health outcomes for kids, poor outcomes period, it is social and emotional challenges. It’s putting kids in the emergency department at twice the rate as 20 years ago. It’s the leading cause of school failure. Our future hopes rely on more effective ways of helping young people deal with trauma and adversity. We see behavioral health as the essential tool for achieving a more just and equitable culture and society.” – Alex Briscoe Principal, The California Children’s Trust

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EAST BAY CHILDREN’S LAW OFFICES:

Compassionate Representation for Children and Youth

“I was one of those kids who thought he didn’t have a future.”

his is what Samuel Carter, now 29, remembers thinking when he first entered the foster care system at age seven. Pinballing from one Oakland home to another, he started getting in trouble at school, caught the attention of law enforcement, and was heading straight for the foster-care-toprison pipeline. That’s when he met attorney Kristin Mateer, executive director and co-founder of the Oakland-based nonprofit East Bay Children’s Law Offices, or EBCLO. “She saw something in me, some potential, at a moment when I didn’t see any way out of my situation,” says Carter, who is now a third-grade teacher at Lighthouse Community Charter High School in East Oakland, a school he once attended. Carter is one of thousands of East Bay children and youth whose lives have been changed by working with EBCLO. Dedicated to “holistic, vigorous legal advocacy,” EBCLO was created when the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office closed its dependency practice. Mateer and two colleagues stepped in to create an organization that could more effectively — and compassionately — represent traumatized young people and help them navigate the complex dependency court system.

Part of this is math. “We went from a lawyer representing 200 kids, to representing closer to 100,” Mateer says. But most important, perhaps, is the consistency of relationships. Instead of youth and families interacting with multiple advocates over many years, they now work with one trusted lawyer until they find a safe home, or age out of the system at 21. EBCLO’s team also includes social workers who specialize in areas like child development and mental health as well as attorneys who specialize in education law, allowing them to push into schools and other institutions to support youth in ways that were previously impossible. Mateer points to the organization’s motto — “Children should be seen and heard” — as another pillar of EBCLO’s success. “Our clients — our kids — have always been the experts in terms of what they need, in particular the teens,” Mateer says. In order to more systematically study and respond to youth needs, EBCLO is in the process of creating a youth advisory board to learn directly from the youth what they need and offer resources. This data will also help EBCLO in its national push to give all youth a right to legal counsel. “Youth and adults working together is the future, for young people and for the system,” says Mateer. Samuel Carter couldn’t agree more. Apart from teaching school, and earning his master’s degree in education, he recently joined the Board of Directors at EBCLO, offering a voice of experience when decisions are made about the program’s future. “My goal is to help kids understand, before it’s too late, that there are resources and help,” he says. “I want them to know that a place like EBCLO exists.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

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rowing up with other adults making every decision for you and your future is hard and uncomfortable because you think it’s your life, right? Nobody chooses the shoes they walk in. Taking back your life is when you start speaking up for yourself and advocating for what you want and making your own choices. I had the opportunity while in foster care to have an EBCLO attorney who was there for me fighting alongside me for what I wanted. Partnering with East Bay Children’s Law Offices now to create a youth advisory board is allowing youth like me to speak up and tell their attorneys how to better support them as clients. Seeing youth speaking up is seeing youth thrive. With EBCLO, thriving is a possibility.”

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he reasons I support the East Bay Children’s Law Offices (EBCLO) are very clear. I believe that all children deserve to live a life free from trauma, fear, instability and harm. I believe our most vulnerable segment of the population deserve a voice in the court system. I believe that no child should be forced to go to court alone. And I believe in the work EBCLO is doing to make this true for children.”

Children Should Be Seen & Heard!

– Katuri Kaye

Board Member

onations of all sizes can make an outsized difference in the lives of children and youth East Bay Children’s Law Offices serves. $5,000 ensures 25 children have vigorous representation in juvenile court hearings $2,500 supports 12 foster youth having uniquely tailored education plans at school $1,000 means immediate intervention and visits to five kids in juvenile hall $500 funds a stipend to a client who becomes a youth advisory board member $100 buys two backpacks stuffed with everything a kindergartener needs to be ready for school

MATCHING CHALLENGE!

Through Dec. 31, 2022, a portion of every donation will be matched thanks to a generous challenge grant from the Walter S. Johnson Foundation.

East Bay Children’s Law Offices www.ebclo.org 80 Swan Way, Suite 300 Oakland, CA 94621 (510) 496-5200

– Aleja S.

EBCLO Client

Contact:

Kristin Mateer, Executive Director (510) 496-5261 Kristin.Mateer@ebclo.org | www.thegivinglist.com |

EBCLO’S CHAMPIONS FOR CHILDREN Victoria Bullock & Maria Rodriguez* Samuel Carter** Sue Cody* Becky & Chip Conradi*** Hartog, Baer & Hand* James Isbester** Linda Jenson* Katuri Kaye** Daniel Kim & Charmaine Wong*** Matt & Jill Korpita* Jennifer Lee** Reichi Lee** David Madson** Marta McLeod & Angie Remington* Greg Roberts** Jen & Steve Roop* Shalaya Shipman** Katherine Steadwell** The Younger Family* *Major donor | **Board member ***Major donor and board member

SAFE & SOUND:

A Child Abuse-Ending Ecosystem

ot long after the pandemic immobilized supply chains, causing a shortage of basic necessities at San Francisco Bay Area food banks, Katie Albright, CEO of the children’s advocacy organization Safe & Sound, was in her car with 192 rolls of toilet paper she had sourced through her network. That toilet paper bounty enabled the 45-year-old nonprofit to launch a distribution center at its garage on Third Street, delivering other essentials like diapers and baby formula to families in need. “If you are a mom and you are no longer breastfeeding, how scary would it be not to have baby formula?” Albright asks. Over the following year, Safe & Sound mobilized more than $13.1 million in government and private funding, as well as inkind donations, and partnered with city agencies and 26 family resource centers to reach more than 43,000 families to provide those necessary family supplies and also help with housing, job development, and mental wellness. Safe & Sound was founded more than four decades ago by Dr. Moses Grossman, Chief of Pediatrics at UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital, with the mission to protect kids from child abuse and to support families. By offering support, services, and a community-based approach, Safe & Sound aims to reduce child abuse and neglect and help children and their families heal and thrive. It began as a telephone support line for families and has evolved over the decades to include directly supporting families, teaching workshops on child safety, and advocating for childrenand family-first policies. At the end of June 2021, Safe & Sound merged with the Center for Youth Wellness, an organization founded by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, the first and current Surgeon General of California. The center is dedicated to advancing pediatrics and raising awareness around Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress. Together, Albright says, “we will provide innovative care and supportive services for children and families. Our work will be focused on an ecological model and public health approach that puts children at the center and strives to create conditions in communities and interconnected governments that allow families to thrive.” Safe & Sound’s ultimate aim is to prevent child abuse in the first place. To do that, the organization is creating as many access points as possible. That means continuing to broaden its mission by building more connections between pediatric clinics, schools, and family resource centers. This includes becoming a network leader and partnering with existing family resource centers and early care and education centers; expanding programming and critical response, particularly for families living in Bayview-Hunters Point; and integrating behavioral health, pediatric care, and family support under one roof — to provide more safe spaces for families to share their stories. “We want to create an ecosystem of care and support for families in the San Francisco Bay Area,” Albright says.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“I

was still in high school when I had my daughter and I am not lying when I say it’s been hard on me and her dad. We tried so many times to make it work and we really did not mean to put her in the middle of our fights about custody and everything else – but, that’s what happened, and I can now see how hard it’s been on her. The Kids’ Turn workshops and the caring support we got opened our eyes and turned it around for us. I now understand that my daughter needs us to put her first.”

– Wendy

(name has been changed for confidentiality reasons)

“A

s family stress escalates, so does the risk of child abuse. We have learned from tireless work and research that Safe & Sound’s model works: supporting the entire family, building protective factors, and working upstream before children are hurt. I proudly support Safe & Sound as we work at the national, state, regional, and local levels to create a child and family well-being system focused on prevention and addressing the disparate impact of child welfare involvement with families of color. My commitment holds fast as I witness the impact of Safe & Sound in strengthening families and building communities.”

– Laura Harrison Ward

Partnering with Families to Keep Children Safe

afe & Sound is raising $5.5 million over the next two years to best support children and families of San Francisco, and to create lasting and transformative change to how health and wellness services are delivered to the most vulnerable in our community. The funding will go toward strategic planning, clinical support, and expertise, as well as SCAN TO MAKE hiring clinicians who would work one-on-one A DONATION... with families and the community. Another key component will be raising up the voices of those who have lived experiences. “We really want to understand what the community needs and how we can partner together with families to create the greatest impact for children,” Safe & Sound’s CEO Katie Albright says.

... AND LEARN MORE ABOUT SAFE & SOUND

Safe & Sound

(415) 668-0494 www.safeandsound.org

Contact:

Brian Byrdsong, Chief Development Officer Brian.Byrdsong@safeandsound.org (415) 213-7405

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KEY SUPPORTERS Bella Vista Foundation Brenda Bottum S.H. Cowell Foundation Dagmar Dolby Negley Flinn Charitable Foundation Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Mimi and Peter Haas Fund Robert and Ruth Halperin Foundation Hellman Foundation Help For Children Junior League of San Francisco LSP Family Foundation Jillian Manus and Rob Chesnut Morgan Stanley Wayne Osborne and Gregory Price John Pritzker Family Fund Quest Foundation George H. Sandy Foundation May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust SoMa Equity Partners Laura and Greg Spivy Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation David and Sue Tunnell Viragh Family Foundation The Anne Wojcicki Foundation

CALIFORNIA CHILDREN’S TRUST:

Forever Changing California’s Commitment to the Emotional Well-Being of its Children

riving real, lasting social change requires clear vision, an ability to articulate that vision, and then the ability to ensure it all becomes reality. When it comes to California’s children, Alex Briscoe – a man who has led a $700 million county health department, high-level philanthropic initiatives, and now the California Children’s Trust – has done all three. Around him, Briscoe has built a brain trust of cross-sector leaders all committed to using their experience and expertise to reform child-serving systems in the state to improve children’s emotional wellness. The need could not be more acute. And the Children’s Trust’s gains in the three short years since launching are stunning in scale and promise. “When you look at what’s driving poor health outcomes for kids, poor outcomes period, it is social and emotional challenges,” Briscoe says in his typical cataract of semantically laden words. “It’s putting kids in the emergency department at twice the rate as 20 years ago. It’s the leading cause of school failure. Our future hopes rely on more effective ways of helping young people deal with trauma and adversity. We see behavioral health as the essential tool for achieving a more just and equitable culture and society.” The vision is clear and well-articulated, but what of the results? The Children’s Trust sees tapping Medicaid, the huge, open-ended federal entitlement that funds healthcare for the poor, as a clear path to unleashing the flood of dollars needed to meet the staggering mental health crisis afflicting California’s children. In particular, Briscoe and the team are focused on the Early and Periodic, Screening, Treatment and Diagnostic (EPSDT) benefits carved out of the massive 1965 law by the military, which recognized that a strong army requires emotionally stable children.

Currently a mere 5% of children on Medi-Cal (California’s version of Medicaid) receive a behavioral health service. The Children’s Trust’s strategy is to change the rules, so that the trigger for services is like a vaccine, preventative not responsive. “We need to change the definition of mental health from a response to pathology,” Briscoe says. “Because what is making kids sick is not their pathology. It’s a culture that equates fame with merit, and wealth with value.” So, the Children’s Trust engineered the “most fundamental change to the definition of medical necessity in California’s history,” Briscoe says. This was done by rewriting the medical benefit to remove diagnosis as a prerequisite, unleashing $4.4 billion in the state’s 2021-22 budget. The Trust also created a practical guide for school districts – downloaded 20,000 times – which, coupled with budget changes in Sacramento, will help draw $12 billion in social and emotional supports for California students. But what Briscoe and company are most proud of is the fact that they have also helped to change who can be mental health providers. “The essential strategy for equity and justice and children’s mental health is the shifting of agency and power away from a healthcare system that pathologizes low-income communities of color and is primarily run by a white professional class,” Briscoe says. Thanks in part to the Trust’s advocacy, the state, in its 2021-22 budget, has created four new classes of mental health workers, all paraprofessionals who can be hired from the very communities most afflicted by social and emotional stress. Briscoe sums it up with a series of fast-fire questions. “Did we remove the diagnosis? Do we generate a multibillion-dollar investment? Did we send it to our schools? Is the boulder rolling? Yes. “What we’re going to spend our last three years doing is focusing on shifting agency and power through the mechanism of these new provider classes.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“Z

ellerbach Family Foundation was committed to finding a solution to California’s children’s mental health crisis. In 2017, we convened a group of stakeholders that resulted in seed funding to jump start and help grow California Children’s Trust (CCT) as a policy advocacy coalition to re-imagine California’s approach to children’s behavioral health and use Medi-Cal as a tool for equity and justice for historically marginalized and underserved children. Fast forward to the 2021-2022 state budget with nearly $10 billion committed to the behavioral health and well-being of children – in schools, health care, early childhood programs, child welfare. Although no single coalition or effort can take responsibility for this unprecedented investment and state-level commitment, CCT has become a leading voice with policymakers, and its strategic and persistent advocacy helped change minds and pave the way for a reimagined children’s behavioral health system that includes structural and cultural changes along with increased investment.”

“I

worked with the California Children’s Trust through their support of the Blaze Forward Fellows Program, which mentors and trains youth to use their personal experiences to advocate for change in the systems that are supposed to support us. As a former foster youth, I know how the child welfare and mental health systems fail children and youth. I want to use that knowledge, and my personal stories, to make sure others don’t have the same bad experiences that I had. Alex Briscoe, the head of California Children’s Trust, has been an amazing mentor for me and all of the Fellows. He has helped me confidently share my truth, that my siblings and I should have had mental health support earlier to help us understand why we felt and acted the way we did. We just thought something was wrong with us.”

– Amy Price

Program Executive, Zellerbach Family Foundation

– JJ

Alumnus of Blaze Forward Fellows

A Catalytic, Exponential Investment in California’s Children

he California Children’s Trust is a time-bound initiative. Over the next three years, if Principal Alex Briscoe and the team are right, California will be well underway towards a children’s social and emotional SCAN TO MAKE well-being rebirth. A DONATION... Unlike so many nonprofits, what donors get from their investment in the Trust is not meals delivered, young people trained, or even trees planted. It is catalytic, leveraging enormous untapped federal funding streams and creating new ones at the state level that promise to change the future for millions of California children. ...AND LEARN MORE The team seeks $350,000 to ABOUT CALIFORNIA support its important work to this CHILDREN’S TRUST end.

California Children’s Trust Alex Briscoe alex@cachildrenstrust.org (415) 629-8142 www.cachildrenstrust.org

KEY SUPPORTERS Jennifer Tracey, Zero to Three Ben Miller, Well Being Trust Deborah Kong, David and Lucile Packard Foundation September Jarrett, Heising-Simons Foundation Lisa Stone Pritzker, Lisa Stone Pritzker Foundation Rajni Dronamraju and Elizabeth Hawkins, Genentech Shirin Vakharia, Marin Community Foundation Sarah Crow, First 5 Policy Center Chandrika Zager, Marin County Behavioral Health Dan Tuttle, Stupski Foundation Theresa Zighera, First 5 San Francisco Jay Liao, Our Children Our Families Council Katie Albright, Safe & Sound Kimberly Ricketts, Casey Family Programs Chevon Kothari, Sacramento County Health Care Services Agency Thanh Do, First 5 Santa Clara Kim Belshé, First 5 Los Angeles Catherine Teare, California Health Care Foundation Pedro Arista, Hellman Foundation Susannah Sarlo, The Susie Sarlo Family Fund Cecilia Oregon, Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy Studies Dr. Anda Kuo, UCSF Center for Child and Community Health

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A Personal Commitment to Philanthropy

“One of the important benefits of having a generous and robust charitable giving program in Capital Group’s mind is that it helps position our associates, particularly the next generation, to be civic leaders,” says John Armour, president of Capital Group Private Client Services. “We want our legacy to be more than just giving away money.”

hen John Armour joined Capital Group Private Client Services more than 20 years ago, one of his first assignments was to help manage The Rape Foundation’s endowment. In that role, Armour provided thoughtful financial management services and helped establish key policies aimed at the longterm growth and preservation of the foundation’s assets. But as is so often the case with Capital Group Private Client Services and its associates, Armour’s relationship with the organization and its founder, Gail Abarbanel, grew. Abarbanel, a social worker by training, was a pioneer in offering support for victims of rape. “I was so impressed with the work that Gail and the foundation were doing for victims of these terrible acts,” Armour says. Taking advantage of Capital Group’s generous matching opportunities for its associates and the nonprofit organizations they champion, he was able to amplify his donations to the foundation. But that was only the start. Abarbanel soon invited Armour to join the board, a position he has held for years.

“I started as an advisor,” Armour says. “But it became much more personal than that. I suspect I will be on the board long after I retire.” For Abarbanel, Armour’s service on the board’s executive committee has been exceptional. “John’s knowledge, insights and guidance as a board member have been very helpful to the foundation,” Abarbanel says. “The relationship with Capital Group has been outstanding. Their contributions have helped make it possible for the foundation to respond to critical needs in our community, including meeting the special needs of rape victims and sexually abused children during the pandemic.” Today, Armour is the president of Capital Group Private Client Services, which at the end of August 2021 had 192 associates and managed $36.5 billion in assets for highnet-worth individuals and their families, charitable foundations and nonprofits. The company is an integral part of Capital Group, which was founded in California in 1931, when the Depression was only two years old and the drought-ravaged Southern Plains had been dubbed the “Dust Bowl.” The firm has since grown exponentially, with 8,000-plus employees around the globe at year-end 2020 and more than $2.6 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, 2021.

“W

e could not do what we do without the support of Capital Group and all the people they have introduced us to who now support our efforts and cheer us on as we reach more and more kids with the power of sports with a trained coach.”

– JANET CARTER

Coaching Corps CEO

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Beyond its investment and financial services, Capital Group has a focus on philanthropy that empowers its associates to give to charities that matter to them, serve on nonprofit boards and become the civic leaders of today and tomorrow. In the past decade, the firm gave away more than $250 million through direct grants, matching gifts stewarded by its associates and volunteer hours. And in the pandemic year of 2020, when the need was greatest, Capital Group doubled down, deploying more than $30 million – a commitment that rivals the generosity of some of the nation’s larger charitable foundations. “Supporting philanthropy is in our DNA at Capital Group and has been throughout our 90-year history,” Armour says. Beyond direct work that necessitates a deep understanding of philanthropy, Capital Group Private Client Services associates are encouraged to join nonprofit boards and make donations, which the firm matches. Some 450 Capital Group associates sit on nonprofit boards. “One of the important benefits of having a generous and robust charitable giving program in Capital Group’s mind is that it helps position our associates, particularly the next generation, to be civic leaders,” Armour says. “We want our legacy to be more than just giving away money.” This emphasis on service also creates a veritable think tank of shared experiences that are deployed when serving social sector clients, whether nonprofits, charitable foundations or philanthropically engaged individuals and families. In Armour’s view, nonprofits should be run like for-profit businesses, where financial risk and reward are weighed and farsighted planning helps promote sustainability and growth. “But a problem for nonprofits and their long-term financial stewardship is

rotation of board members, and especially the finance committee,” he says. When those committees roll over, Capital Group Private Client Services and its associates are there to help nonprofits stick to their existing financial plans. Maintaining this focus can help organizations grow their endowments and reassure donors that their gifts are being used wisely. David Wiener is the regional director of the firm’s office in San Francisco, which he describes as “a city of great wealth but also great need.” For Wiener, who has spent years in both finance and fintech, Capital Group’s bottomup approach to philanthropy has been one of the most rewarding experiences of his job. “Capital Group’s philanthropy is really grassroots,” he says. “It’s not the firm deciding what causes to support, but a reflection of the organizations our associates want to support. Our process creates a mosaic of important causes. Last year, we supported causes including racial justice, food insecurity, our veterans, autism, education, the environment and many others. I’m lucky to be involved in a way where I can often see the effect these organizations have on the community.” One example is Coaching Corps, a nonprofit that trains coaches so that children

SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CAPITAL GROUP PRIVATE CLIENT SERVICES David Wiener Senior Vice President, Regional Director David.Wiener@capgroup.com (415) 646-7540

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from under-resourced communities “can benefit from the positive impact coaches can have on their lives through sports.” For Wiener and Capital Group, the connection came through John Levin, who is a firm client and a Coaching Corps board member. Beyond advising charitable foundations and nonprofits, Capital Group Private Client Services works closely with wealthy families, including devising strategies to help them efficiently maintain and grow their philanthropic legacies. As Wiener and his colleagues Bill Ring and Tom Anderson learned more about Coaching Corps and its mission, they each personally stepped up as donors. “We are often able to help charities three ways,” Wiener says: Capital Group may provide a grant, associates make personal contributions, and then Capital Group comes back in to match those associate donations. Such deep, personal engagement may be one reason Capital Group Private Client Services’ client retention rate was 97% as of December 31, 2020. For Coaching Corps, the firm’s commitment has been transformational. “We could not do what we do without the support of Capital Group and all the people they have introduced us to who now support our efforts and cheer us on as we reach more and more kids with the power of sports with a trained coach,” says Coaching Corps CEO Janet Carter. That thoughtful approach to long-term planning aligns with Capital Group’s culture as a whole. It is a place where giving back is not only celebrated and reinforced, but pumps through the veins of the firm’s employees, from young associates to the highest levels of leadership.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

For the Youth “I’ve always believed in the transformative power of government. This isn’t the time to be ambivalent about the power of the public sector.” – Amy Lemley Executive Director, John Burton Advocates for Youth

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Using ‘Whatever Leverage’ She Has to Help Vulnerable Youth by Dan Schifrin

fter 40 years of leading organizations dedicated to stopping domestic violence and supporting imperiled youth, JaMel Perkins knows a thing or two about the field and her adopted city of San Francisco. Among other positions, she had been president of the board of the San Francisco Education Fund, which supports at-risk students, and Partners Ending Domestic Violence. But Perkins was shocked to discover that one part of the youth health puzzle had been mostly invisible to her – sex trafficking of youth in her own backyard. “When I thought of sex trafficking, I just assumed it was an international issue, not a domestic one,” Perkins says. “But the truth is that the majority of youth affected by sex trafficking in the United States are American-born. When I first heard this, it was a real ‘aha’ moment for me.” To combat this threat, in 2016 Perkins co-founded Freedom Forward, an organization dedicated to supporting the hundreds of Bay Area youth involved in sex trafficking and the thousands more at risk of trafficking and abuse. The San Francisco-based nonprofit supports the work of multiple local agencies, with the goal of attacking the root problems of sex trafficking. Among their signature successes is co-authoring a $9.3 million state contract for the city of San Francisco. Coming into city coffers just before the pandemic, the grant brings together several organizations and agencies to provide coordinated, comprehensive support to youth who have experienced or are at risk of commercial sexual exploitation, especially those most vulnerable due to homelessness and those involved in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. “Any young person who is homeless or experiencing exploitation in our streets is one too many,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced, in response to the grant and the problem the funds are meant to help solve. “We must do better.” Freedom Forward’s theory of change, and the way Perkins has approached the art of collaboration, offers lessons for philanthropic leaders interested in making a difference.

Listening, Especially to Youth The first lesson for philanthropic leaders is simply the power of listening, and looking for the potential for insight and empathy bubbling beneath it. When Perkins came to San Francisco from Chicago decades ago, she knew little about domestic violence. For her, as for many, the problem was mostly invisible. But a newspaper article about domestic violence training caught her eye, and after listening to the stories of women in her new city, she rolled up her sleeves and got to work. It was years into this commitment that Perkins had a conversation with Kamala Harris, who was then California’s attorney general, and with whom Perkins served on a nonprofit board. “When she told me the numbers and how much of the problem took place here, I couldn’t believe it,” Perkins says. This conversation sent her on a long listening tour, which included colleagues and experts in law enforcement, social service agencies, and politics, until she came to scholar and activist Alia Whitney-Johnson, then at McKinsey & Co., who had previously founded an organization that works with survivors of sexual abuse. They spent an afternoon trading stories and ideas, and soon after, the two of them – along with Natasha Dolby who was also doing research in the field – founded Freedom Forward a year later, with Whitney-Johnson as the executive director. That early collaboration among the three co-founders became embedded in the DNA of the organization. As the organization took shape, the focus on listening deepened as the co-founders committed to developing systems that were responsive to the young people whom Freedom Forward was dedicating to serve. Among their first initiatives was the Forward Fellows, a yearlong, healing-centered leadership development program for youth impacted directly or indirectly by trafficking to support them in influencing policy and shifting the narratives that most affected them. They were selected to the Youth Advisory Board for the San Francisco Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking, where they would offer ideas and guidance on helping other youth and received rec-

| San Francisco Bay Area |

ognition from Sen. Dianne Feinstein for their work. As Freedom Forward took shape, the founders heard stories of youth working hard to navigate services in a complex landscape. Survivors of trafficking wanted a place that was youth-friendly to meet their needs. If they’d had such a place, maybe they wouldn’t have been trafficked. Exploiters find ways to alienate youth from systems of support. Youth emphasized the importance of making it easier to access resources and investing in trust-based relationships. True to their values, Freedom Forward listened. They hired a cohort of youth for 15 weeks to help design and launch a drop-in center, known as the HYPE Center (Helping Young People Elevate), that provides services, resources, and opportunities to young people. The design goal for both projects, says Perkins, was “to amplify the voices of youth who are often ignored” in the policies meant to help them.

Bring the Right People to the Table A sign that Freedom Forward was approaching these problems with a high degree of inspired listening was its partnership with IDEO.org, the social service spinoff of the legendary design thinking firm IDEO. After IDEO put together a package of potential design solutions for the new organization, says Perkins, “They decided not to charge us a dime. Instead, their creative director, Patrice Martin, joined our advisory board.” Indeed, bringing the right people to the table is another central lesson for Perkins. The first critical element of this kind of collaboration, especially in the social service sector, is including the voices of those directly impacted by the issues. The other element includes the activation of networks that can make practical, actionable collaboration possible. To address the root problems of youth abuse and sex trafficking, “we had to get people to collaborate instead of working in silos,” says Perkins, who pushed hard with “whatever leverage I had in the mayor’s and district attorney’s office, with law enforcement and with city agencies.” They also knew that in tackling a system of exploitation, they would confront deeply embedded issues like sexism, patriarchy, racism, oppression, and larger forces that are part of the capitalistic system in which our society operates. While it was important for them to map these forces and understand their interplay in impacting vulnerable, often poor, young people of color, they knew a small organization couldn’t begin to make a dent in these centuries-old issues. They used a “systems-thinking” model that allowed them to look into the levers that they could influence rather than focusing on issues that seemed unsurmountable for a small team with a limited budget. That translated into questions like, if young people who are coming from the foster care system are disproportionally represented in survivor numbers, what can

we do where those two systems meet to reduce that youth’s vulnerability and improve their chances to thrive? All this led to, among other things, Perkins participating in the San Francisco Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking and the San Francisco Collaboration Against Human Trafficking. This collaboration has made itself felt in the staffing of the HYPE Center, which didn’t attempt to duplicate the core competencies of legacy organizations like Bay Area Legal Aid and Huckleberry Youth Programs, but invited them in as a partner so that youth could access a variety of services under one roof. The use of the HYPE Center, in Potrero Hill, has been donated to Freedom Forward by Natasha Dolby’s family, who has also been very supportive of the group’s efforts from the get-go.

Replication and Scaling Up Another tenet of Freedom Forward is replicability. Why move the needle on a seemingly intractable problem, says Perkins, “without being able to share best practices” with other cities, regions, or even countries. An explicit goal of California’s $9.3 million grant is statewide replication. The organization has a deep commitment to openly sharing lessons learned to enable other organizations to build on their work. The potential of scaling is at the heart of another Freedom Forward initiative called Launchpads, an Airbnb-like platform that will connect individuals who have extra space in their homes with youth in extended foster care who need housing. In California, one in four young people exiting foster care as young adults end up homeless within two years, and Launchpads is designed to expand the network of potential housing for youth at a moment of great uncertainty in their lives – a time when they might otherwise fall into sex trafficking. Perkins has often noted how proud she is of her son Alec, who was previously a teacher in San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, as well as the former board chair of Tipping Point, a collaboration-based partnership to invest money in at-risk communities. Helping create an inter-generational philanthropic conversation “is an important part of our legacy, for both Tom and I,” Perkins says, referring to her husband. Despite all the work behind her, Perkins shows no sign of slowing down. “I have resources, I have time,” she says. “I want to meet the right people and use what I know to help someone else.”

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VOICES NAPA:

‘Let the Youth Lead’

n 2005, Napa County officials came to On The Move, a local nonprofit, desperate to move the needle on positive outcomes for foster and homeless youth. “Back then, foster youth were hitting the streets at age 18 with a garbage bag filled with all of their possessions, and too many of them ended up homeless,” says Amber Twitchell, the current Director at VOICES Youth Programs. On The Move firmly believes that to really make a difference, current and former foster youth need the opportunity to use their own voice, and a chance to develop and lead their own programs. “Let the youth lead,” they told them. Napa leaders agreed, and VOICES was born. Since that time, VOICES has stayed true to its commitment to authentic youth leadership and believes the ultimate goal is to support youth to believe that they are capable, lovable and worthy of great things. Twitchell gives much of the credit of VOICES’ success to participating youth, who not only provided the blueprint for their own services, but joined the organization as staff members, channeling their deep knowledge of the issues and empathy for their peers into a scrappy but effective nonprofit. Almost all staff are formerly foster and/or homeless youth, running everything from coordinating psychiatric services, managing cases, and functioning as frontline responders. Since its start in the oughts, VOICES Napa has been replicated in Sonoma County and Solano County, and VOICES programs have taken root in Santa Clara and Monterey coun-

ties as well. In recognition of this work, in 2016 Twitchell received the Nonprofit Leadership Award from the North Bay Business Journal. Thirteen years ago, Odelia Bueno was on track to become a statistic. The youngest of 11 kids in a family roiled by violence, she entered foster care at 15. Seeing her leadership potential, VOICES hired her, and she has since worked her way up to become VOICES Napa’s Independent Living Program Case Manager. Part of what she does is logistical, and usually urgent. “I help youth figure out immediate goals like housing and food,” Bueno says. “What do they do if they will be homeless in two weeks? Sometimes I drive a youth in my car to find housing. Sometimes I get them gift cards for food.” The other part is helping them believe that things can improve. She is living proof. “When I visit youth in juvenile probation, I tell them that I have been through similar experiences. I have six brothers who have been in and out of prison. I open up to them, and they are like, ‘Wow. You came from a family like this, and you made it through!’” Now a mother of a two-year-old daughter, Bueno has even more motivation to help others, and keep herself on track, listening to her own voice as well as those of her mentors and peers. “Growing up with VOICES has given me so much, and the only thing I want to do now is give back. As I tell the youth I work with, every day is still a struggle, but I know I can make it through the day,” Bueno says.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“I

first discovered VOICES when I moved up to Napa, and was looking for a place to donate furniture from my home. They turned on a dime to make use of that offer. Since then, I’ve wanted to put my skill set — solving complex, gnarly problems — to use helping improve housing for foster youth, which is perhaps their biggest issue. But whatever your particular skill set is, VOICES will find a way to work with you to make a difference for these young people.”

– Susan Johnson

“W

hen I was 16, I was placed in foster care in a group home in Stockton, where I knew no one and was all alone. After months of despair, I got a call from VOICES, which supported me in my return to Napa, helped me register for classes, and provided me with guidance and support at a time I had none. Their support helped me graduate from UC Berkeley with a degree in social welfare. I have supported the work of VOICES whenever I can, including becoming a board member for VOICES’ parent organization, On The Move.”

The Comforts of Home

OICES can help support our community’s emerging leaders, among whom are current and former homeless and foster youth, in ways large and small: • Conversation and mentorship: When responsible adults take time to offer our youth the benefits of their insights and experiences, new worlds open for them. Learning how the business world works, or how to repair a toilet, or even how to cook are valuable gifts to youth who may not have access to these kinds of skills and experiences. • The comforts of home: Many of our youth, because they move around constantly or live in group homes, don’t have basic furniture or dishes or books. If you are moving, or downsizing your home, VOICES might have a need for many of the items that might not otherwise seem valuable. • A home in their own community: Systemic change is necessary to help all of our youth find safe and affordable places to live. VOICES is looking for transformational gifts to create a local center for living and services so current and emancipated foster youth can live in safety in their home communities.

VOICES Napa

780 Lincoln Avenue Napa, CA 94558 (707) 251-9432 Fax: (707) 251-9509 Voicesyouthcenter.org

– Alex Tavizon

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT VOICES NAPA

Contact:

Amber Twitchell, Director of VOICES (707) 570-7769 amber@onthemovebayarea.org

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KEY SUPPORTERS Walter S. Johnson Foundation May and Stanley Smith Charitable Fund Meyer Family Fund Shafer Vineyards Libby Shafer Graham & Marilyn Alcott Debbie Ray Susan Johnson Brad Nichinson Rick Turko Mike and Gail Forte North Napa Rotary Junior League of Napa-Sonoma Napa Valley Community Foundation Community Foundation Sonoma County Solano County Community Foundation In-N-Out Burger Foundation Mary’s Pizza Shack

JOHN BURTON ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH:

The Power of Policy Change

hat if you could invest in an organization that, with an annual budget of $2 million, has produced $3.3 billion in new support for California’s most vulnerable youth over the past 17 years? John Burton Advocates for Youth – or JBAY for short – is it. Founded in 2004 by John Burton, a former state assemblyman, state senator and congressman from San Francisco, JBAY is laser-focused on policy, evaluation, and research in service of supporting California’s foster and homeless youth. Based in San Francisco, JBAY has been the driving force behind countless state bills and public partnerships that have helped foster youth gain safe housing, food security and access to post-secondary education. With statistics showing that foster youth are much more likely than their peers to struggle during the fitful transition into adulthood, JBAY-linked programs have been a lifeline for many thousands of young people. Just ask Luz Hernandez. In an interview, Hernandez says that she was brought to San Francisco by her father

when she was 14, forced to work 12-hour days in a laundry and bakery while her father pocketed the money. While still a minor, her father went back to Central America, leaving her homeless in a public park with no money. Luz was fiercely determined, dreaming of the chance to attend college. And JBAY was there, supporting her as a Guardian Scholar at San Francisco City College; getting her textbooks through the Burton Book Fund; and perhaps most importantly, finding her stable housing so she could turn her attention to school. “When I started at City College I was living in a garage, under terrible conditions, and working two jobs even to make that happen,” Luz says. But getting secure housing “changed everything. Simply having a roof over my head meant I could pass my classes without having to constantly worry about becoming homeless again.” Luz eventually graduated with honors from SF State, and was admitted into the Master in Social Work program at U.C. Berkeley. She is currently a housing case manager for homeless youth in San Francisco, using the webinars and other resources

| San Francisco Bay Area |

that JBAY created to reach homeless foster youth like herself. Amy Lemley, JBAY’s executive director, is immensely proud of Hernandez. “So many of our foster or homeless youth have a strong drive to succeed, and I feel we have the responsibility to meet them halfway,” Lemley says. And how should society do that? “I’ve always believed in the transformative power of government,” Lemley explains. “This isn’t the time to be ambivalent about the power of the public sector.” Through 2022, JBAY will push hard to extend state support of foster and/or homeless youth in college, advocating for policies and rules that don’t disadvantage young people who have already suffered so much. “When we as a society put these supportive policies in place, foster youth can make great things happen.”

“T

he impact of JBAY can’t be overstated, particularly during one of the most difficult years in California’s history. JBAY is truly making a better future for youth, by directly helping youth today and changing policies that will impact generations to come. That’s why our family is proud to support JBAY.”

– Rick Mariano, Katherine Feinstein, and their daughter Eileen

“J

BAY is an organization that truly cares about young people and believes in their success. The organization is not afraid to stand up for, and battle for, necessary systematic policy change that directly affects the lives of the most vulnerable. From housing to education to quality of foster care, you can count on a member of the team to provide you with the resources specific to your need. The best part of JBAY is that they partner with young people to capture the real need, making life easier in a tough world.”

Help Foster Youth Thrive

elp JBAY improve the quality of life for youth in California who have been in foster care or homeless by advocating for better laws, training communities to strengthen local practices and conducting research to inform policy solutions.

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...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT JOHN BURTON ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

John Burton Advocates for Youth

www.jbay.org 235 Montgomery, Suite 1142 San Francisco, CA 94104

Contact:

Amy Lemley, Executive Director (415) 348-0011 amy@jbay.org

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– Alexis Barries Former foster youth

KEY SUPPORTERS Melanie and Larry Blum Kimiko Burton and Stephen Reynolds Art Carter Jeffrey and Marcy Krinsk Donna and Greg Lucas George and Judy Marcus Rick Mariano and Katherine Feinstein Marc and Nicole Scholvinck Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation Diane Wilsey Tahbazof Family Foundation Tipping Point Community Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Walter S. Johnson Foundation Stuart Foundation May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust Ernest Gallo Foundation College Futures Foundation Pritzker Foster Care Initiative Ticket to Dream Foundation Help for Children Pinpoint Foundation

PIVOTAL:

Indelibly Changing the Lives of Silicon Valley Foster Youth

hen the pandemic forced the world to go virtual, the team at Pivotal – a nonprofit offering long-term coaching, scholarships, internships, and more to help foster youth succeed – quickly found out just how deep the digital divide was for the young people it serves. “We knew that young people didn’t have as much access to WiFi and laptops as their peers outside of foster care,” says Pivotal’s Director of Coaching Programs Savonna Stender-Bondesson, “But during the pandemic, we saw the digital divide was a crater.” Pivotal serves roughly 500 foster youth across Silicon Valley every year. Its goals are to help foster youth graduate high school and then get into and complete college, with an emphasis on creating and realizing career goals. A key component is longterm coaching that builds meaningful, long-lasting bonds of trust between Pivotal coaches and the young people it works with. Before the pandemic, the bulk of that important work happened in person. When coaching went virtual, engagement between coaches and youth “fell off a cliff,” Stender-Bondesson says. Coaches sprung into action, she adds, finding creative ways to maintain the steadfast connections that are a hallmark of Pivotal’s groundbreaking approach. Sometimes that meant texting funny memes and videos. “Literally, we were sending them hilarious TikTok videos,” Stender-Bondesson says. The young people would quickly reply over text, which meant they were more likely to pick up when one of Pivotal’s coaches called. Memes aside, Pivotal takes coaching very seriously. The organization sees it as a primary driver to guide foster youth not only toward college and a good job, but maybe most importantly to feel confident. “We work side-by-side, hand-in-hand with these young people, sometimes over a decade, until they feel they have achieved their

educational and career goals,” Pivotal’s CEO Elise Cutini says. The foster care system is regimented and, by design, proscriptive, leaving many young people feeling like they are always being told what to do and how to do it, Cutini says. But Pivotal’s coaches are focused on self-agency, supporting youth as they make the life choices that are best for them. With Pivotal’s coaching, which starts as early as the 9th grade and is coupled with scholarships and internships, Pivotal scholars are 10 times more likely to graduate college than their peers in foster care. But this is just one piece of the puzzle. For Cutini, who has led the organization for 15 years and has seen thousands of young people succeed because of it, the fuller picture of organizational success hinges on seeing foster youths’ full potential actualized. “Pivotal scholars prove that being in foster care doesn’t have to equal a lifetime of disappointment,” Cutini says. “We help them get there by making a long-term commitment to their success. We stick by them throughout high school, college, and into their careers, and help them get the life they want for themselves.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“L

i ke many other foster kids, I have been forced to live in what I call survival mode… We are so focused on trying to survive today that we forget about surviving tomorrow. And that is why my story without the help of Pivotal would be nothing but just a story. I know – to you – Pivotal may be just an organization. But to me and hundreds of kids, this is a family, a blessing. Here I found love, attention, someone to listen to me, someone that is there to guide me.”

– Victor Pineda

Pivotal Scholar and UC Davis senior

“T

he 1:1 personal relationship between scholar and coach is the Pivotal difference. I’ve seen first-hand how this support impacts students’ determination to be successful.”

KEY SUPPORTERS

– Lisa Sonsini

Pivotal donor and board member

Double the Impact: Help Foster Youth Go to College

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION!

ivotal provides over $450,000 in scholarships for foster youth each year. Pivotal’s education and career coaching help scholars succeed. Pivotal awards annual scholarships of up to $5,000 and $25,000 over the course of a scholar’s college journey. Thanks to the generosity of Lisa and Matthew Sonsini, all donations up to $50,000 will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Give now at www.pivotalnow.org.

Pivotal

www.pivotalnow.org 75 E Santa Clara Street, Suite 1450 San Jose, CA 95113

MATCHING CHALLENGE! $50,000 Contact

Elise Cutini, CEO elise.cutini@pivotalnow.org (408) 484-6201 | www.thegivinglist.com |

Bette & Dave Loomis Dianne & Regis McKenna Epic Foundation George G. & Jeanette A. Stuart Charitable Fund Jeanne & Louis Hanover John & Marcia Goldman Foundation Laura & Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy Fund Lisa & Matthew Sonsini Mark & Mary Stevens May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust Paul & Debbie Baker Ranae DeSantis Resonance Foundation for Children’s Health Sanders Dickinson Foundation Sobrato Family Foundation #StartSmall Tammy & Bill Crown The David & Lucile Packard Foundation Tipping Point Community Voorhis Foundation Warmenhoven Family Foundation Janelle Blakely, Vice President of Institutional Advancement janelle.blakely@pivotalnow.org (408) 484-6202

JUMA VENTURES:

For Young People, Juma is More Than a Job

It’s a Stepping Stone to Success

lvin Yu wanted to be the first in his family to go to college. But he needed a job to save money. Without a lot of job opportunities for a 16-year-old from San Francisco’s Sunnydale neighborhood, Yu caught a break thanks to the local nonprofit Juma. They employed him at a concession stand at Oracle Park – a first job that would set him on a road to success. At Juma, the first job experience is key to unlocking young people’s potential. Juma was founded in 1993 with the aim of creating a supportive work environment for low-income and disconnected youth. Their mission is to help young people learn vital job skills, earn an income, and learn to manage their money while laying the foundation for a successful career. After a baseball season of slinging hotdogs, sodas, ice creams, and other ballpark favorites, Yu saved up enough money to go to San Francisco State University where he studied business management and operations. “Juma broke down a lot of barriers for me,” Yu says. “It gave me my first job in customer service and taught me soft skills and how to manage conflict.” The fact that Juma employs young people like Yu means its expert staff are trained in managing young workers who face multiple barriers to work. They have control over the hiring and retention of them. “If a young person is chronically late in any other work environment, they’d get a number of dings and then be fired,” says Juma CEO Adriane Armstrong. “At Juma, if a young person is late, that’s an opportunity for their manager to ask them what’s going on.” What’s often the case is that they are having transportation issues or they have enrolled in a GED program that overlaps with work hours, Armstrong points out. In those circumstances, transportation

“J

uma Ventures has been an integral part of the Giants family for nearly 30 years. As ambassadors of both the Giants and the city of San Francisco, the youth who work at Oracle Park are a shining example of the power of a first job. We are thrilled to work in tandem with a social enterprise that shares many of the same values that we promote from within our organization. Their commitment to being ‘youth first’ is unparalleled, and the youth that work in our stadiums year after year are vital to the game experience. We are honored to be an ally for Juma in their commitment to providing a first job for youth in our community.”

– The San Francisco Giants assistance is offered and hours can be shifted to accommodate. With accommodations and clear expectations, Juma youth staff invariably rise to the occasion. It’s the supportive job environment – in addition to career exploration and the supportive community – that makes Juma “work” for so many youth. Today, Juma operates in 20 sports entertainment venues across the country, making them the largest youth employment social enterprise in the nation, employing roughly 1,000 young people a year. As for Yu, he went on to become an employee at Juma and even started his own boba shop across from the stadium where he worked as a teen. After several years of running the café with his wife, also a Juma alumnus, he decided to sell it to Juma, so that teenagers could have more opportunities to learn important work skills and save up money to pursue their dreams. From selling hot dogs to selling a boba business, Yu came full circle.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“I

am dedicated to supporting Juma because I know that my contributions directly impact lowincome youth who are intent on improving their lives. Juma provides job skills training, mentorship, career exploration support, financial literacy training, and ultimately, a first job. With positive adult role models and supportive peers, the Juma community is a lifeline to many who face substantial barriers in entering the workforce and who may not otherwise succeed without the support of the organization. “I am continually inspired by the Juma youth I meet who, in spite of hardships and disadvantages, remain optimistic and are enthusiastic to take advantage of all that Juma has to offer. The countless success stories of Juma youth that have completed the program are a testament to the commitment and dedication that Juma puts forth in accomplishing its mission.”

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

– Jane Thornton

Juma’s Stipends Prepare Youth for the Future

ouble your donation today! Every donation of $300 and above will be generously matched by Ahsha and Dylan Haggart up to $15,000. A $300 donation is enough to provide a stipend to a youth for the full course of Juma’s financial capability, career development, and job readiness workshops. Stipends are critical so youth can afford to attend trainings without giving up their income. That way, they don’t have to choose between showing up for work or preparing for their future. Juma’s goal is to raise enough funds to support 100 youth — money that goes directly into their pockets — through December 31.

Juma Ventures

www.juma.org 131 Steuart Street, Suite 201 San Francisco, CA 94105

KEY SUPPORTERS MATCHING CHALLENGE! Through December 31, 2022, every donation of $300 and above will be generously matched by Ahsha and Dylan Haggart up to $15,000 Contact:

Adriane Armstrong, CEO adrianea@juma.org (415) 815-9887 | www.thegivinglist.com |

Alaska Airlines Bank of America Deloitte Ahsha and Dylan Haggart REDF The San Francisco Giants The Schultz Family Foundation The Sobrato Family Foundation Jane Thornton Michael and Tory Winnick

Andrea Coen, Chief Development Officer andreac@juma.org (415) 846-7899

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Youth Justice “It’s not just helping young people. It’s building a community of social justice advocates, public servants and public leaders now charged with creating a community and a system that supports young people.” – Ali Knight President and CEO, Fresh Lifelines for Youth

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Investing With an Eye Toward Equity As told to Brian Rinker

s president and CEO of the East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF), James W. Head has steered the nearly 100-year-old institution toward a racial and social justice equity model. Since Head’s arrival at EBCF in 2014, the foundation has doled out $450 million in grants to hundreds of organizations. It has roughly 400 donors and has an asset base of around $840 million. Head is leaving the organization after six years as the top executive, but before he goes, he discussed with The Giving List how the nationwide racial justice movement has solidified the foundation’s equity-based investment strategy and offered recommendations on how to embrace the movement further.

How have the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the national reckoning around racial injustice influenced your foundation? The COVID-19 pandemic and the protests and advocacy around George Floyd’s death were a stunning reminder of a number of systemic barriers impacting communities of color: employment, police violence, the need for affordable housing, access to healthcare. The foundation had already been working on addressing some of these systemic barriers, but with this nationwide emphasis on social justice, we began to think about where the foundation needed to go. To respond to the immediate needs surfacing in early 2020, we launched our COVID-19: A Just East Bay Response Fund. The COVID-19 fund focused on supporting local nonprofits to work with communities impacted by the pandemic, the resulting economic fallout, and the existing systematic issues. We have put a lot of our emphasis and effort into strengthening the nonprofit infrastructure and providing donors with information that will allow them to understand what these underlying issues are. Our board took a million dollars out of our endowment to seed the fund. We were able to raise another $7.4 million from corporate partners, other foundations, and very generous donors. We have given out a total of $8.4 million during the pandemic. The success and impact of the COVID-19 Fund demonstrated that the vision of A Just East Bay we began forming in 2019 was on track. As we look to the future, our efforts are now focused on a new initiative called A Just East Bay Fund.

What is A Just East Bay Fund? The Just East Bay Fund seeks to mobilize much-needed resources to support social movements creating deep systems change, empowering communities most adversely affected by societal injustices in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. There’s an intentional focus on BIPOC communities. It’s a participatory fund between private foundations, community foundations, and a community of donors that is centered on

| San Francisco Bay Area |

EBCF’s four core priorities: community organizing, power building, and movement building; capacity building with a racial equity lens; fostering inclusive economic models; and arts and culture for social and racial justice. The Just East Bay Fund seeks to raise much needed resources to support social movements creating deep systems change.

The East Bay Community Foundation has called out the support of Black-led nonprofits. Why is this important, and what do you hope the Foundation’s investments will accomplish? A lot of the data suggests that BIPOC-led nonprofits actually receive fewer resources, on average, than whiteled nonprofits. This is especially true among Black-led organizations.

“In five years or 10 years, I think that this notion that we are a social and racial justice, equity-based philanthropic institution will be ingrained in the DNA of the foundation. That’s my hope and I think the board and the rest of the organization feel that way.” – East Bay Community Foundation President and CEO James W. Head

When I came to the foundation in 2014, the first thing I began to hear was that there were a number of Black-led nonprofits in the Bay Area that had not recovered yet from the 2008 recession. They asked if the EBCF could help to identify ways that will allow them to be sustainable in their revenue sources, so they can scale up to meet the needs that were continuing in their communities. In response, we created the program ASCEND:B.L.O., which stands for Accelerating and Stabilizing Communities through Equitable Nonprofit Development: Black-Led Organizations. Our goal there was to do two things: Lead an effort to get foundations and corporations to come together to support these organizations and provide them with capital and resources so that they could scale up where they had programs that were meeting community needs. Second, raise funding to

allow organizations in a leadership transition phase to have the resources and the time they needed to ensure the transition was accomplished in a very powerful way that would allow the new leader to build on the success of the organization, and to move the organization further in the direction that the community felt was important.

Where do you foresee the foundation five years from now? The foundation is on a path towards this notion of really redefining what a community foundation is, and how it responds to the community. In five years or 10 years, I think that this notion that we are a social and racial justice, equitybased philanthropic institution will be ingrained in the DNA of the foundation. That’s my hope and I think the board and the rest of the organization feel that way.

Do you have any suggestions on what needs to happen for the foundation and philanthropy as a whole to get there? Yes, I do have some recommendations for the foundation and philanthropy more broadly. Number one: Incorporating much more of what I call “solidarity strategies” in grantmaking and impact investing. Communities look different, they come in many flavors. But many issues that organizations address are overlapping. Philanthropy needs to pay attention to what these issues are and provide resources that allow organizations to come together. Second recommendation: participatory grantmaking. That’s viewing our nonprofit grantees in the nonprofit sector as partners. Often there is this power imbalance where the grantor has the resources and the grantee is trying to get the resources. These organizations are the ones that are on the ground and they know what’s going on. We need to recognize that they are in a better position than we are to know what the community needs and what strategies will work best. To end on, overall, I am hopeful. During my time at EBCF, I have become totally convinced that people with money, especially donors, will step up to the plate when asked and are very open to the idea of really, truly understanding how much more deeply these issues are ingrained.

| www.thegivinglist.com |

CURYJ:

Transforming the Lives of Formerly Incarcerated Youth through Culture, Healing, and Justice

nbroken. Uncompromising. Unapologetic. Those three words, says George Galvis, succinctly describe the character of the Bay Area youth leadership and racial justice nonprofit he co-founded, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, CURYJ — pronounced “courage.” After George Floyd was murdered and the national spotlight was on racial justice, Galvis says that rather than sit around and discuss the racist systems he has spent his adult life trying to dismantle, CURYJ was on the streets of Oakland leading and organizing the marches. “We say what we mean, and we mean what we say, and no one ever questions our integrity,” Galvis says. “Some may disagree with our political strategy, but they know we stick to our values.” For the last decade, CURYJ has been helping to heal and transform youth impacted by the foster care and juvenile justice systems – young people who Galvis says “have been deemed disposable or stigmatized as the worst of the worst” – into community leaders and advocates through paid internships and long-term life coaching. The organization is on a mission to end youth incarceration in the next ten years. “We work with those young people, and we help them find their sacred purpose, recognize that they’re in fact a blessing and that they’re able to contribute to their community, to their families,” Galvis says. Like many who get into this type of work, Galvis had his own struggles and run-ins with the juvenile justice system. Having grown up in the Bay Area in a violent home, Galvis says he replicated that violence on the streets, eventually catching three felony charges as a teenager for his role in a drive-by shooting. Fortunately, he says, he was charged as a minor, saving him from

decades spent languishing in adult prison. He grabbed hold of the life-altering moment and began attending college, kicking off the beginnings of his own healing journey. He earned an undergraduate degree in ethnic studies, connected with his Native American ancestral heritage and cut his teeth as a grassroots organizer, and then went on to earn a master’s degree in city planning from U.C. Berkeley. CURYJ was born out of Galvis’ organizing efforts in 2010 to successfully end Oakland’s long-standing practice of gang injunctions – court orders that he says criminalize neighborhoods of color. This year, the Unity Council and BRIDGE Housing granted CURYJ a 99-year lease – effective ownership – of the ground floor commercial space of a new affordable housing development across from the Fruitvale BART station where Oscar Grant was killed on New Year’s Day in 2009. The 7,500-square-foot space, called the Oscar Grant Youth Empowerment Zone, will house CURYJ’s programs and offer young adults a safe space to heal. “We really felt like the name was appropriate because Oscar represents the young people that we work with,” says Galvis, who helped organize the Justice for Oscar Grant movement. The space, slated for completion in 2023, will include a café run by youth and house CURYJ’s programs: Dream Beyond Bars, a paid fellowship for formerly incarcerated young adults; Homies 4 Justice, paid internships for young people interested in becoming community leaders; and Life Coaching, which provides long-term individualized support to youth. “People come into our space and they’ve never felt loved, but when they come into CURYJ they genuinely feel loved, they feel supported, they feel welcomed and embraced,” Galvis says. “Those are the metrics that matter to me.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“I

’m so inspired by the work that CURYJ does to bring culture and healing into the process of reimagining systems that have devastated our communities and our families. CURYJ is leading the way to make sure that systems-impacted families and young people are at the table, designing new rules for how it is that we address harm, but also how it is that our communities can be resilient, how our communities can be whole and dignified and well. If you have an opportunity, please support CURYJ’s work today.”

– Alicia Garza

Principal at Black Futures Lab; author of The Purpose of Power; and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Global Network

Homies 4 Justice (H4J) program members working on short-film projects with their cohort

Space for Healing and Empowerment

URYJ has launched a capital campaign to raise $10 million over the next three years to build out the Oscar Grant Youth Empowerment Zone. So far, the organization has raised roughly $1.2 million. It is looking for supporters to donate to funding building costs, scaling up operations, expanding staff, SCAN TO MAKE and having a stronger cash reserve. Investing in the A DONATION... Oscar Grant Youth Empowerment Zone presents a unique opportunity to work in solidarity with local communities and state organizations in order to ensure that the cultural heritage, activism, and diversity of Fruitvale are protected and preserved. “CURYJ works on the issues that its members identify as important in their lives and centers the young people as activist change-makers. I support CURYJ because I see that this approach is the only way to make true change and grow community power,” says Quinn Delaney, a CURYJ supporter. MATCHING Thanks to Delaney’s generosity, all gifts will be CHALLENGE! matched up to $85,000.

Through December 31, 2022, the first $85,000 donated will be matched thanks to a generous challenge grant from Quinn Delaney CURYJ

www.curyj.org 490 Lake Park Avenue #16086 Oakland, CA 94610

Contact:

“T

his organization has helped in various ways, but the greatest is by opening my mind. CURYJ pushes me to become aware of what is occurring within our communities and all around us. It makes us take a stand and make our voices be heard, despite our age, background, and our life experiences. They help us form connections, to not be afraid to ask for help. We get to collaborate with so many experienced people that give us life advice. We all have the opportunity to speak our minds and our truth on any topic. [CURYJ] gives us a platform and a safe space where we, the youth, can help learn from our mistakes and grow.”

– Silvia Serrano

Homies 4 Justice Intern

KEY SUPPORTERS Quinn Delaney, Founder of the Akonadi Foundation Edgar Villanueva, Principal at Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital Sam Jacobs, Resource Generation Member Tulaine Montgomery, Co-CEO of New Profit Norris Henderson, Executive Director of VOTE Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand Sierra Health Foundation The California Endowment San Francisco Foundation Andrus Family Fund California Wellness Foundation NDN Collective Borealis Philanthropy Galaxy Gives

George Galvis, Executive Director ggalvis@curyj.org (510) 689 7350

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Tristan Williams, Development Manager twilliams@curyj.org (925) 391 3705

YOUTH LAW CENTER:

40 Years of Transforming the Lives of Children and Youth in the Foster Care and Juvenile Justice Systems

he Youth Law Center’s Executive Director Jennifer Rodriguez knows just how hard being a child in the foster care and juvenile justice systems can be. Rodriguez grew up in foster care and by her teens was incarcerated. She experienced homelessness, was trafficked, and struggled to find housing or employment because she had a juvenile record. “I ended up experiencing all the things that we advocate against,” she says. Rodriguez turned these experiences into action: first as a young person advocating for policy change in Sacramento, then earning her law degree, and finally assuming the helm of the San Franciscobased Youth Law Center (YLC), widely regarded as one of the most influential child advocacy organizations in the country. YLC has improved the lives of abused and neglected children and youth across America. They work closely with the top experts in child development to change child welfare and juvenile justice practice. YLC’s work has helped to decrease the use of solitary confinement, has decreased youth suicide in juvenile detention, and has decreased the use of inhumane practices in juvenile facilities, including the use of pepper spray, leg chains, and violent restraints against young people. Today, Rodriguez leads YLC in its mission to reconstruct foster care and the juvenile justice systems into institutions that create positive changes for children. YLC’s advocacy is centered around listening to those directly impacted, including children, young adults, birth families, and foster families so that it’s their experiences that drive change. This change is implemented via legal advocacy, litigation, and policy changes that transform how systems work with children and families. For over four decades, YLC has led the field to transform systems to be truly child-focused and research informed. YLC’s impact on the lives of children includes: advocacy resulting in closure of dangerous youth prisons and institutions; outlawing the practice of sending foster and juvenile justice involved youth to out-of-state institutions where youth have died and been seriously injured; increasing support for youth to live in families in their community; and ensuring youth who

are transitioning to adulthood have access to housing, economic support, and postsecondary education so they can thrive. YLC is also known for applying the latest child and brain development research to practice and policy. When research showed life-long negative impacts babies and toddlers experienced when placed in foster care shelters, YLC sued and changed the law in California, Florida, and Nevada to stop the practice. Their advocacy led to a landmark California and federal law restricting institutional care for all children except as a last resort. Most importantly, to help child welfare achieve the goal of moving away from institutions so every child receives excellent parenting in a family, YLC launched the Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI), a national movement of more than 80 jurisdictions and 10 states committed to ensuring that all children in care have excellent parenting and lasting relationships so they can thrive and grow. This year, YLC received a “Children’s Champion” award from the federal government for QPI’s success in changing policy, practice and culture to “Reshape Foster Care as a Support For Families.” “We have changed the field to no longer tolerate the practice of warehousing children in institutions because they now understand how this practice disrupts childhood,” Rodriguez says. “Now, through QPI, we are working across the county to ensure every one of those children receives the love and parenting they deserve.” In response to the pandemic, Rodriguez says YLC was the first advocacy organization in the country to create emergency advocacy guides for how foster youth could be connected to resources for funding for rent, food, education, and mental health services. YLC led efforts in California and with Congress to ensure pandemic response bills included critical support for youth in foster care to prevent homelessness and create a safety net. With children of her own, Rodriguez appreciates that her work is much more than stopping bad things from happening, it’s about making children’s lives better. “What I want for my children and all of the children that YLC touches is for them to realize happiness and thrive – to feel loved and cared for. These are not privileges, but rights for every child.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“Y

LC is, quite simply, effective. The team, led by Jennifer Rodriguez, is top notch, bringing together legal expertise, lived experience, a commitment to being youth-centered, and the advocacy chops to effect systemic change. A recent example is the advocacy around out-of-state placements for foster youth. YLC researched 16 facilities housing CA kids and found abuse, neglect, appalling conditions, and rights violations. YLC’s advocacy campaign resulted in the State of CA halting admissions to those facilities and beginning the process to decertify them in favor of familybased placements. Systems change work takes time but is deeply satisfying, and why the Foundation continues to support YLC.”

– Nancy Wiltsek, MNA

Executive Director, van Loben Sels/RembeRock Foundation

“Y

outh Law Center’s advocacy to prioritize relationships and parenting for children holds great promise for American child welfare policy and practice. Without question, it is the most exciting innovation in child welfare that I have witnessed in my career.”

Catalyze Systemic Change That Gives All Children the Opportunity to Flourish

LC believes all children and youth can thrive with the right support, opportunities, and love. Children and youth in foster care and the juvenile justice system are no exception. For more than forty years, the Youth Law Center (YLC) has tirelessly advocated to create systemic changes that place these children at the heart of the systems that serve them. YLC works to ensure safe and humane conditions; fights for education and economic opportunities; and strives to create a system where every child has the quality parenting and love necessary to flourish. The COVID-19 emergency has further disrupted the lives of these already vulnerable youth by preventing access to education, relationships, and healthcare. A MATCHING donation to the YLC Pandemic Response Campaign will allow us to quickly address these issues through CHALLENGE! advocacy to ensure basic needs and connection to family, community and opportunity. Together, we can help get these children and youth back on track, and give them the best chance at the future they deserve. Through December 31, 2022, a portion of every donation will be matched thanks to a generous challenge grant from the Walter S. Johnson Foundation.

Youth Law Center

Jennifer Rodriguez (415) 314-4386 | jrodriguez@ylc.org www.ylc.org

Through Dec. 31, 2022, a portion of every donation will be matched thanks to a generous challenge grant from the Walter S. Johnson Foundation.

| www.thegivinglist.com |

– Charles H. Zeanah, Jr, MD

Tulane University Mary Peters Sellars-Polchow Chair of Psychiatry Vice Chair, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics; Executive Director, Infant Institute

KEY SUPPORTERS Akonadi Foundation Alyssa Martin Bruce Cohen & Gale Mondry Fatima Goss Graves Heidi Foreman Carol and Howard F. Fine Iris Hu Jeffrey Ross & Janice Platt Joy Singleton Moon & Matthew Gemello May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust Mehrzad Khajenoori Babak Naficy Michael Loeb Nate Levine & Charlene Akers Ray Tucker The California Wellness Foundation Tipping Point Community Honorable Tomar Mason Bill Koski and Sundari Wind Zellerbach Family Foundation

FRESH LIFELINES FOR YOUTH:

Dismantling the Pipeline to Prison

he first time Ali Knight walked into a prison at age 25, he was surprised to see a childhood friend from his old neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Knight was working for a nonprofit that helped incarcerated adults re-enter society while Isaac, whom Knight had played basketball with and looked up to, had been imprisoned for three years and was eager to return to his family. “It’s not random. It’s a series of decisions, obstacles, and opportunities ... that are informed by things like what you look like, where you live, how you grow up, what decisions you make,” says Knight, executive director of Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY). But “as a young Black or Brown boy, mistakes or mishaps are amplified because of the narrative [around them], because of who you are and where you come from. That narrative makes it much more likely for youth of color, from poor neighborhoods, to end up in adult prisons like Isaac did.” For more than two decades, the award-winning, Silicon Valley-based Fresh Lifelines for Youth has helped young people successfully exit or avoid the justice system by teaching them about the law, supporting them to develop leadership skills, and offering one-on-one mentoring and positive role models. “I like to describe our work as serving, supporting, and partnering with young people impacted by the justice system so they can transform their lives, transform their communities, and then transform the system themselves,” Knight says. The nonprofit serves more than 2,000 young people, largely high school students, across the Bay Area each year. Most go through FLY’s Law Program, which teaches them about their legal

rights, how to navigate the juvenile justice system, and life skills they need to thrive. The nonprofit currently operates in Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Alameda counties and is eyeing expansion into two more counties. FLY is well-known for giving youth a voice in shaping the services and systems that impact their lives. Among FLY’s Youth Voice Initiatives is its Youth Advisory Council. The council is made up of youth who have graduated from probation and now help train probation officers to be youth-centered and connect more positively with young people in their care. “These youth have great advice for probation officers: Don’t act like a cop. Create safety. Create open communication around honesty,” Knight says. “This is how you support young people to do well on probation.” FLY measures its success by its ability to reduce the negative impact of the justice system on youth, while supporting their academic progress and their learning of critical life skills. About eight of 10 young people they serve achieve a positive outcome in at least one area, Knight says. The nonprofit, which partners with some 200 volunteers a year, is also “building community” to help support and empower youth most affected by the juvenile justice system. Many volunteers go on to become lawyers, district attorneys, or probation officers. “It’s not just helping young people,” Knight says. “It’s building a community of social justice advocates, public servants, and public leaders now charged with creating a community and a system that supports young people.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“P

ersonally, I invest in FLY for three reasons. First, too many of our kids get caught up in the cycle of violence, crime, and incarceration, and we need to stop that. Second, FLY has a solution that really works. I’ve seen it firsthand. And third, I have never met a team of people – the FLY Board, the FLY staff, and the FLY volunteers – who will work harder and work smarter to get the most value out of every dollar that we contribute. It is my honor to ask you to join me and my family in investing generously in FLY today.”

“G

rowing up, my life was good… until my mom got divorced and my dad got deported. I started getting in trouble. I ended up in juvenile court. Then my FLY mentor showed up. She’s Latina, she graduated college. It made me think, ‘Hey, if she did it, then I can do it too.’ I never thought that I would see a day where I didn’t feel that I needed to escape my life. Now I don’t want to be anywhere else but where I am now. FLY really helped me get back on my feet.”

– Dick Watts

Former FLY Board Chair

With You, Justice Will Prevail for Young People

resh Lifelines for Youth (FLY) served more than 30,000 young people during its first two decades of existence. FLY’s ambitious goal between now and 2030 is to help dismantle California’s pipeline to prison, equip 30,000 more juvenile-justice and at-risk youth to transform their lives, and strengthen services for marginalized youth in California and beyond. FLY is seeking $300,000 as part of its $1.5 million Justice Prevails Fund campaign. That fund is supporting its community innovation projects, such as crisis response in the COVID era, its statewide impact through advocacy and legislative support, and its Youth Voice Initiatives. With America’s recent racial justice reckoning, FLY’s Youth Voice Initiatives have become “more important than ever,” the nonprofit’s Executive Director Ali Knight says. They are tackling issues such as what it means to see police reform in communities and the public health risk of juvenile incarceration during the pandemic. “We’re elevating youth voices to effect change and to reform systems to move toward justice for all young people.”

– FLY Alumna Diana U., who is preparing to graduate from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Sociology

KEY SUPPORTERS

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT FRESH LIFELINES FOR YOUTH

Fresh Lifelines for Youth www.flyprogram.org 568 Valley Way Milpitas, CA 95035

Contact:

Katie Sandoval-Clark, Vice President of Development katie@flyprogram.org (408) 386-7387

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FLY Board of Directors June Wang, Board Chair Mark Donnelly, Board Chair Emeritus, Apple Inc. (Retired) Melynnie Rizvi, Board Vice Chair, Shutterfly Kristin Major, Board Treasurer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Donna Petkanics, Board Secretary, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Meera Chary, The Bridgespan Group DeAnn Work, Altaba Inc. Diana Bell, Hewlett Packard Company (Retired) Gordon Davidson, Fenwick & West, LLP Robert DeJesus, Santa Clara County Probation Department (Retired) Stuart Lee, Cynerio Joan Malcolm, GRAIL, Inc. Ulrico Rosales, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Hon. Patrick Tondreau, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge (Retired) Gene Wade, Honors Pathway Key FLY Foundation Supporters The David & Lucile Packard Foundation The Heising-Simons Foundation The Sobrato Family Foundation The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative The TK Foundation The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Family Ties “The Bay Area has been a boom town since the Gold Rush. Throughout the years, our region has played a role in generating wealth for entrepreneurs, innovators and many others. Sadly, the pandemic has drastically increased income inequality, resulting in more of our neighbors struggling to meet their families’ basic needs. I truly believe when you invest in Bay Area families and children you are investing in a brighter future for generations to come.” – Lisa Truong Founder and Executive Director, Help a Mother Out | www.thegivinglist.com |

Money as Medicine As told to Daniel Heimpel

n 2018, a Native American philanthropy professional dropped a bomb on the industry. In his book, Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance, Edgar Villanueva laid bare the inequities rife throughout philanthropy and the financial system. Now in its second edition, Decolonizing Wealth is the central text for what Villanueva simply describes as “modern philanthropy,” one in which capital is used for reconciliation and reparations through wealth redistribution. To move that effort forward, Villanueva launched Liberated Capital, a donor community and intermediary that is working with more than 350 individual donors and charitable foundations to support nonprofits across the country that serve or are led by Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. In this conversation, Villanueva and I discuss topics ranging from using charitable foundations’ corpora for public benefit, the likelihood that legislation will be required to ensure that donor-advised funds are used for charity, and whether the philanthropic changes following the murder of George Floyd will be lasting.

Why did you feel compelled to write Decolonizing Wealth? I really felt called to do it. I never really saw myself as an author or a writer before, but I felt like I had a story inside that I just had to get out. It almost felt like it wasn’t a choice, but mine was a story that really needed to be told. As a Native American person from the South with multiple, intersecting identities that are not seen in the space of philanthropy, I faced a lot of challenges in working to move money to communities and remain my authentic self. I began to see there were contradictions and challenges that we were uncomfortable discussing in the space. I also wrote the book because I love this sector, and I wanted to call us into a deep and honest conversation. I got exhausted from hearing about diversity, equity, and inclusion all the time and not really seeing the numbers change in terms of what leadership in the field looked like or where dollars are going. Finally, writing the book was a part of my own healing. Being a person that did not come from wealth and working in such a privileged space and dealing with microaggressions, I faced a forced assimilation to be and represent something that I wasn’t – that was really hard. And I began to see this

was an experience I shared with a lot of people who were from marginalized backgrounds, including women, LGBTQ folks, other people of color. I became consumed with the idea and practice of healing and thinking about how I can bring that Indigenous worldview, experience, and wisdom about healing to this sector to repair what was broken.

A through line in the book is this concept of healing. What does philanthropy need to heal from? What I’ve come to understand through this Indigenous worldview is that the trauma of inequality or the trauma of white supremacy has hurt all of us in this country. We all need healing: Indigenous, Black, and white people. And the only way to get there is to do that through a collective process.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

We all have to take ownership of this country’s history, have truth and reconciliation around it, and understand what must be repaired to support collective healing.

Through the donor circle you established, Liberated Capital, you have invited funders to support Black-, Indigenous-, and people of color-led nonprofits. You said this could help them find healing and liberation. What does that mean? Using money as medicine is really about understanding that the hurt is the most in communities of color. It’s about prioritizing and moving money to Black, Indigenous, and people of color in the form of reparations or reparative giving.  That is what our fund, Liberated Capital, is all about. We move untethered capital to Indigenous and Black and POCled organizations. And we only accept money from folks who want to give it freely without any type of strings attached or forced assimilation on our part. It is a place where you’re giving through a reparative justice or reparations lens, where we’re trusting communities to take that money and to use it as they see fit. Money is energy, and we are liberating that energy to communities because it’s the right thing to do. And we see that the act of giving is in and of itself a step toward healing and repair: Using money as medicine is not a charitable act of altruism.

Despite your clarion call, the concept of impact investing – or at least mission-focused investing – has been slow to gain significant traction across philanthropy. You still have foundations that may fund environmental activism, which have investments coming out of their endowments wormed up with fossil fuels. What is the opportunity for change here? I love this question because this is so much more transformative than just talking about grantmaking. Because you’re right, the majority of philanthropic capital is sitting in banks or invested in Wall Street. The truth is the incentives in this industry are currently structured to favor the hoarding of wealth versus giving away money. And the 5% minimum payout rule that was put in place in 1976 is, I think, a blemish on the history of philanthropy. It’s a sad thing that there had to be an act of Congress to force foundations to actually give money to the community. Donors do a little bit of good with that 5% that goes to the community, but the vast majority of the wealth is often not aligned with the mission. And in fact, we know from data, most of it is invested in harmful and extractive industries. For example, funders who support criminal justice reform through

“ If we are to escape the insidious hold racism has on our society, we must be intentional about truth and reconciliation. In Decolonizing Wealth, Edgar lays a foundation that not only explains the history of wealth and racism but also provides a pathway to healing that we all need.” – Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist

| www.thegivinglist.com |

grantmaking while they’re invested in private prisons in their endowments. My work is not about shaming or calling people out necessarily, but it is about being honest. It is what it is. There’s a lot of contradictions. Philanthropy exists because it is a byproduct of a system of inequality that has favored the wealthy, a capitalistic system that allows for so few people to build wealth and create foundations. If we can be honest about it, then we just might be able to have some reforms that are people- and communitycentered, shifting things away from hoarding wealth and those scarcity mindsets that come from fear, which are byproducts of colonization. Money as medicine is helping us understand that something is broken and that we can shift this paradigm towards using all our resources, including endowments, towards healing people and the planet. Let’s own up to that and apologize for how we’ve harmed others. Let’s step up to the plate to do things differently, especially for communities of color, who have played such a critical role in building wealth in this country and have been marginalized.

OK, but there are also vast sums of capital locked up in donor-advised funds. There have been rumblings around legislation that would make that money move out of private markets and into the social sector, like the 5% rule in institutional philanthropy. Do you think that policy change is needed? Regrettably, I will say yes. Philanthropy has been an industry that prefers to be selfregulated and to be self-reliant on implementing best practices.

“ Due to years of detrimental federal Indian policy and discriminatory economic systems, Native American communities have been marginalized and left out of the economic opportunity experienced by other Americans. Edgar Villanueva offers a new vision and an Indigenous perspective that can put us on a better path. Everyone should read Decolonizing Wealth, especially those who control the flow of resources in government, philanthropy, and finance.” – LaDonna Harris (Comanche), politician, activist, and founder of Americans for Indian Opportunity

We’ve known for decades that giving general operating, unrestricted support to nonprofits is both what they ask for and want and is best-practice philanthropy. Yet so few foundations are doing it, and there is actually a decline in general operating support from funders. My work has ushered in an era of truth telling and reckoning about what’s going on. And there’s an invitation for philanthropy to adhere to the moral imperative to do the right thing. But unfortunately, power is not often ceded. It has to be taken.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

External pressure may be considered, including legislation, to force philanthropy to adhere to the moral imperative to do the right thing. It’s really hard for me to reconcile that you can get a charitable deduction off of money that is then put into private markets and has zero public benefit. On behalf of the American public, folks are just asking for fairness – if you’re getting that tax break, there should be some demonstrated public benefit.

“ By anchoring the solutions to America’s ills in the wisdom and knowledge of its original people, Edgar challenges all of us working in the nonprofit and philanthropy sectors to analyze how our nation’s history of racism and disenfranchisement has infected its financial and giving institutions. I strongly recommend this book as a key resource for funders and advocates to ensure their investments are truly equitable and benefiting the lives of people and communities of color.” – Heather McGhee, author, political commentator, and former president of Demos, a progressive think tank

While it can be argued that philanthropy is prone to follow news cycles, it feels like there will be some lasting change from the double blow of the pandemic and George Floyd. What should the field take away from these painful years? Some of the progress that I see funders making is not just coming from the radical left. I’m seeing middle of the road, regular foundations step up and do what some may have considered to be radical. It’s not radical, it’s modern philanthropy. It’s just how we do our work now. So, I am inspired. I think that folks like MacKenzie Scott are changing the weather on this. And she in her writing has acknowledged that it’s the right thing to do because she benefits from a system of privilege and accumulated benefits. We’re at a place where there’s a movement. I’m not the only one saying these things. There’s an army of folks, including donors and philanthropists and white folks who are demanding that we not go back to business as usual. This is the new way we’re going to do our work. We’re going to continue to bend the arc towards

justice and reparations, because that is the opportunity. This way will not only help communities and support closing this racial wealth gap, but it’s the only way to freedom for all of us because our systems are broken. Our communities are broken and torn apart. There’s so much pain and trauma everywhere, especially after 2020, the only way out of this is healing, and the only way that we will all thrive and heal is if we come together and accept the collective responsibility of our history and future.

“ Edgar Villanueva has broken through the tired jargon of philanthropy-speak and written a fresh, honest, painful, and hopeful book, grounded in his own truths and Native traditions, about his experiences in foundations, a powerful sector with too many vestiges of colonialism and white supremacy. He offers some radical thinking about what it would take to bring about a world where power and accountability shifted and communities controlled the resources vital to their strength and futures.” – Gara LaMarche, former president, Democracy Alliance; former president, Atlantic Philanthropies; and former vice president and director of U.S. programs, Open Society Foundations You now have your second edition out. What is next for Edgar? I don’t want to sit in this sad place forever and dwell on these things forever. I want to get to the other side of this, but I know the only way to do so is to step into the truth of it all. And that’s why we’re really going to continue to elevate the work around reparations. We will keep supporting groups on the front lines and using the power of storytelling to bring us all into the conversation and to inspire us to join this movement for truth reconciliation and healing.

| www.thegivinglist.com |

HELP A MOTHER OUT:

Boundless Love Drove this New Mom to Start a Grassroots Diaper Bank

isa Truong was a new mom at home with her baby at the height of the Great Recession, when an Oprah segment caught her eye. It was a piece highlighting California families who’d fallen on hard times. Truong’s heart went out to them: Financial crisis aside, new parents have more than enough on their plates as it is, as she very well knew. She resolved to take action and floated the idea of a community service project for Mother’s Day at a rare mom’s night out, a sushi dinner with friend and fellow mom Rachel Fudge. The pair agreed to pull together a donation drive to support families struggling through economic hardship. Their research, though, led them away from clothing and baby gear – and toward the less popular items to donate for which need was greater. They learned that people rarely donate diapers, and that diapers are – amazingly – not included in public assistance programs like food stamps and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC. “We were shocked,” Truong says. “We were shocked as moms of children in diapers that they were forgotten and overlooked.” After the shock came another emotion. “Then we got really mad, and decided we needed to build this organization.” Help a Mother Out (HAMO) focuses on immediate needs

and systems change. First, Truong says, “we get as many diapers as possible to families in need. Then, second, we advocate for diapers to be included in the social safety net.” Thus, Help a Mother Out was born. Help a Mother Out crowdsourced 15,000 diapers from parent listservs, mommy blogs, social networks, and friends – pure grassroots – all in its first month of existence in 2009. And their next goal, just six years later in 2015, came to the fore when the organization established the San Francisco Diaper Bank, the first public diaper assistance program in the United States, in partnership with the city’s human services agency. Today, across all programs, HAMO serves over 6,000 families with diaper-age kids every month. A recent independent evaluation of their programs found that 98% of respondents feel happier and healthier after receiving a consistent supply of diapers for their baby. Help a Mother Out hopes to continue expanding its programming within the region and beyond. “Diapers are a really small thing, but they can have a really big impact in the life of a baby and a family,” Truong says. Not just physical well-being, but social-emotional and mental health also hang in the balance, for both parent and baby. “Having diapers for your baby can be the difference that makes someone feel like they are doing a good job as a parent.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

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s a mother, I was heartbroken to learn that diapers aren’t covered by the social safety net. It’s unacceptable that so many don’t have access to such a basic need. “I’ve had the pleasure of watching HAMO grow from a scrappy grassroots effort to a leading organization. They have been particularly adept at navigating the health and economic challenges since the pandemic began. Now more than ever, I believe in supporting their mission of ending diaper need. Diapers give mothers and babies a chance, so by giving to HAMO, I know I am giving the gift of hope.”

– Paula Mathis

Long-time HAMO supporter

“W $1 = Diapers a Baby for a Day

he families that Help a Mother Out serves were already struggling before the COVID-19 crisis, and the pandemic continues to overwhelm them. HAMO saw diaper need increase by over 300%, and they distributed over 12 million diapers in fiscal 2021. As one partner agency shared at the start of the pandemic, “People don’t have diapers or money for medicine. People don’t have food. This is not hyperbole.” Late into 2021, the devastating economic effects of the last 18 months showed no signs of letting up for low-income families. Now, more than ever, your donations are needed in order to continue the distribution of urgently needed diapers to our neighbors across the Bay Area. For every $1 donated, Help a Mother Out is able to provide enough diapers for one baby for one full day. What’s more, 97% of caregivers report they feel less stressed and their baby is healthier as a result of receiving diapers from HAMO. Consider donating today (www.helpamotherout. org/donate) to ensure more babies have what they need to THRIVE.

Help a Mother Out

www.helpamotherout.org 101 Broadway, Suite 250 Oakland, CA 94607

Contact:

e see too many families having to keep their babies in dirty diapers, and it breaks our hearts. The addition of Help a Mother Out to our program offerings means that our families no longer have to make the impossible choice of diapers versus other basic needs, and we are so thankful. More clean diapers means less diaper rashes and healthier babies.”

– Laurie

Public health nurse

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...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT HELP A MOTHER OUT

Lisa Truong, Executive Director (and Founder) (415) 508-3710 lisa@helpamotherout.org

KEY SUPPORTERS 49ers Foundation Adobe Airbnb Apple, Inc. Cisco Systems EarthBaby – The Compostable Diaper Service East Bay Community Foundation Eat.Learn.Play Foundation Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund Google, Inc. Intuit Jewish Community Federation Marin Community Foundation Microsoft Netflix PayPal, Inc. Peninsula League Salesforce Foundation United Way of the Bay Area Women’s Capital Collaborative of RSF Social Finance

Emily Knight, Manager of Community Engagement (Development contact) (415) 508-3708 emily@helpamotherout.org

| www.thegivinglist.com |

JEWISH FAMILY AND CHILDREN’S SERVICES:

Here to Help the Healing Begin

ewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) was founded in San Francisco in 1850, the same year as the State of California. As the city and region developed, JFCS grew with it, matching the Bay Area’s creativity and success with its own. Through earthquakes, fires, recessions, and every type of personal and communal crisis, JFCS has consistently pioneered new outreach, support, and education to help individuals and families in need. “There are no families without problems,” says Dr. Anita Friedman, executive director of JFCS. “We’re here to make sure that no one is alone when they need help.” When the pandemic made it dangerous for Helen and Tom – a couple in their 80s with serious health conditions – to leave their house, they had no access to food and necessities. JFCS volunteers delivered weekly groceries from the JFCS Food Bank to their doorstep and provided

JFCS: Helping families for over 170 years

a vital community connection. Upon learning that the couple had recently lost their oldest son to cancer, JFCS also provided virtual grief counseling to help comfort Helen and Tom. “JFCS has helped us so much during this time,” Helen says. “It’s amazing – years ago, Tom and I would donate and volunteer at JFCS, and now the community is helping us.” JFCS’ size and diversity of programs allow the agency to respond in emergencies as well as when longer-term, wraparound care is needed. This year alone, JFCS has supported over 120,000 people from Sonoma County through the South Peninsula with over 40 programs that address life’s greatest challenges from birth until the end of life. Guided by the Jewish traditions of advancing human dignity for everyone, community responsibility, intergenerational ties, and repairing the world, JFCS is the | San Francisco Bay Area |

first port of call in the Jewish community while at the same time providing services to people of all faiths and backgrounds. When COVID struck, JFCS’ experience with both crisis response and long-term care made it ready to respond from the get-go. The agency’s comprehensive, intergenerational model of care means that during the pandemic and its aftermath, a family can obtain food, receive guidance to help a child transition back to school, connect with a mental health counselor, access care for a frail grandparent, and learn to navigate the complexities of emergency loans or scholarships. “With the incredible generosity of our community, we will always be here to respond during moments of crisis and, most importantly, through the process of recovery,” Dr. Friedman says. “It’s after the emergency is over that the real healing begins.”

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e are proud to support the lifesaving work of Jewish Family and Children’s Services. When we make a gift, we are confident that the gift will be used wisely to take care of seniors, children, and families in our community who are struggling. “We are especially inspired today by JFCS’ Center for Children and Youth. This groundbreaking initiative is helping children and families grow and thrive together. By coming together as leaders, donors, and advocates, we already are driving urgently needed system change locally, throughout California, and nationwide. Please join us!”

JFCS’ Holocaust Center

– Dr. Kathy Fields and Dr. Garry Rayant Board Members

The Center for Children and Youth, ParentsPlace

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y mother’s quality of life greatly improved, as did mine, knowing that she was in such safe and capable hands. Her needs have varied over the years, but the one thing that’s consistent is the way JFCS’ Seniors At Home helps us – regardless of the issue. What a blessing it is for the Bay Area to have an organization that serves our community from birth to death. I feel like the folks at JFCS have supported me the way siblings would support each other. I am so grateful to have found them.”

JFCS’ San Francisco Food Bank

Provide Critical Support to the Community by Expanding JFCS’ Emergency Services Fund

e continue to live in challenging times. JFCS seeks to raise $100,000 for its emergency services fund, so that there is critical support when a community crisis arises. Contributions allow JFCS to serve those who couldn’t otherwise afford services. JFCS’ Board of Directors will match every dollar of support up to $10,000 from The Giving List donors. Join us in ensuring our community thrives.

– Betsy Zeger

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Jewish Family and Children’s Services

Barbara Farber Director of Development and the Endowment Fund (415) 449-3858 barbaraf@jfcs.org www.jfcs.org P.O. Box 159004, San Francisco, CA 94115

MATCHING CHALLENGE! $10,000 | www.thegivinglist.com |

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Valli Benesch Robert Blum Marci Dollinger David Dossetter Steven Feinberg Kathy Fields, MD Zhenya Friedman Carl Grunfeld, MD Scott Haber Oded Hermoni Andy Hess Alex Ingersoll Robert Kaufman David Kiachko Natacha Kolb

David Kremer Kerri Lehmann Lisa Stone Pritzker Garry Rayant, DDS Laura Robbin Michael Rolnick Robert Rosner Sandra Shmunis Lydia Shorenstein Deborah Stadtner Jacqueline Neuwirth Swire Luba Troyanovsky Alex Varum Mitch Waxman Doug Winthrop

POSTPARTUM SUPPORT CENTER:

Helping Mothers Overcome Perinatal Mental Health Disorders

vana Jagodic Meholick was pregnant with her second child when she suffered panic attacks about a potential miscarriage. But they were nothing compared with the emotional breakdown after the Marin County mother’s successful delivery. Meholick, who suffered from postpartum depression and anxiety, had trouble finding affordable help. So she founded the Postpartum Support Center (PPSC) in 2019 to provide free peer support services to moms like her. The grassroots organization was the first in Marin County to offer a comprehensive support system for women before and after they give birth. The Postpartum Support Center provides mental health self-screening, postpartum support groups, mom-to-mom peer counseling, a postpartum depression prevention program called ROSE (Reach Out, Stay strong, Essentials for new moms), and baby essentials, as well as information, practical help, and community resources. The center relies on 14 mothers from around the Bay Area who

have suffered perinatal mental health disorders. They volunteer to answer calls from struggling mothers on a support line that’s open seven days a week. Currently, support groups are conducted virtually (during COVID) in English, Spanish, and for women of color. “It just helped me a lot, knowing I could help someone else,” Meholick says, the executive director for the Center. “There is a way out: women can get over this; men too. No one talks about these things. When you’re pregnant, doctors don’t talk about it. We can get better.” The Center also started Marin Diaper Bank. The Bank gives free diapers, formula, cribs, clothes, breast pumps, and more to families and children in need. The Postpartum Support Center, through the diaper bank, assists between 200 and 300 babies a month. “We could help even more, but don’t have the capacity to store those supplies,” Meholick says. “The demand is huge.”

Critical Role for Communities

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s the first and only organization to provide peer-based maternal mental health support and Diaper Bank in Marin County, the Postpartum Support Center has grown to play a critical role in our communities’ maternal and family health, and safety net systems,” says Founder Ivana Jagodic Meholick. During the pandemic, PPSC has grown from serving 57 families to now serving close to 500 families a month. Unfortunately the need for the services of the Postpartum Support Center grows. The pandemic and its restrictions and economic consequences have added to the anxiety of families. Women who are pregnant or have just given birth continue to need the support and resources that PPSC offers now more than ever. PPSC estimates it costs $500 to provide support services, including prevention, peer support, and referrals to resources, for a mother for one year. It costs $1,000 to ensure a baby has all the essentials they need for a year. The Postpartum Support Center aims to raise $75,000 to allow it to provide services to 50 mothers for a year and baby essentials for 50 children a year.

Postpartum Support Center

www.postpartumsc.org

Contact:

Ivana Jagodic Meholick Founder & Executive Director (415) 326-3623 | ivana@postpartumsc.org

| San Francisco Bay Area |

MATCHING CHALLENGE! Through December 31, 2022, the first $5,000 donated through The Giving List will be matched thanks to a generous challenge grant from anonymous donors

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PSC was there for me when I felt I couldn’t talk about my daily struggles with anyone. I felt safe to share my private fears outside of my family circle and was comforted knowing that what I was experiencing is the norm for so many other new moms. PPSC was a lifeline when I was feeling like I couldn’t see past my anxiety and the ongoing support has given me the confidence I needed to realize that I’m not only good enough, but a great mom to my children.” – Rachel from Novato

mother of two

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ostpartum Support Center was born as a nonprofit organization to assist new mothers with the often-challenging transition to parenting a newborn. We offer services to prevent postpartum mental health disorders, to support mothers peer to peer, and a hotline for mothers seeking immediate support – whatever they need.”

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’m not sure how sane I would feel without the support of PPSC. I have used their phone line more times than I can count and gotten to meet other mamas during a time where it’s so hard to connect with others. These services have given me hope when I felt hopeless due to postpartum depression. I was having a particularly hard week and received the most thoughtful care package full of goodies for both myself and the children. I feel so blessed to have ongoing support especially during a time like COVID.” –Christina from San Rafael

mother of four

– LeeAnn Bartolini, Ph.D.

Clinical Psychologist and Professor at Dominican University of California and PPSC board member

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he Postpartum Support Center provides essential services to vulnerable new parents in our community. These include prevention, education, and screening, peer support, and assistance with supplies such as diapers and more. The need has become more acute during the pandemic, and we are grateful to our supporters for all they do.” – Irina deFischer, MD

Retired Family Physician at Kaiser and PPSC board member

| www.thegivinglist.com |

COMMUNITY ACTION MARIN:

Helping People, Changing Lives CHANDRA ALEXANDRE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

or many, Marin County conjures the image of a wealthy enclave replete with mansions tucked into its verdant hills and woodlands. But that’s definitely not the full picture. The reality is that Marin County is in a housing crisis, it harbors chronically homeless residents, and has large disparities between rich and even the working poor. A family of four needs to earn at least $150,000 a year to cover basic expenses: food, shelter, childcare, health care, transportation, and taxes. And notably, Marin’s Black and Latino residents are twice as likely to struggle to make ends meet. Into this yawning wealth gap and racial divide steps Community Action Marin (CAM). Founded during the Civil Rights era with impetus from the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, it has grown over the past 50 years to become the county’s largest nonprofit social services provider and an advocate for racial and economic justice. When a resident of the county comes to one of CAM’s 18 sites, they’re initially asked what they most need help with. But they end up embedded in a caring community committed to them as a whole person, helping them and their family succeed. “Choosing between rent or food on the table, medicine or childcare, are decisions we don’t want our community to have to make,” says CEO Chandra Alexandre. Part of paying unparalleled attention to the community’s needs has meant being uniquely prepared to face the acute challenges brought on by the pandemic. In the summer of 2019, for instance, Community Action Marin took a fortuitous risk and expanded its programs to include a production farm. Not only are the children and youth who come to them for

high-quality free and affordable childcare and meals now getting hands-on gardening education, but CAM was also able to cycle upwards of 150 pounds daily of fresh, healthy, homegrown food back into the community at a time of heightened insecurity. It also brought culturally-appropriate menus to children in its programs and helped to keep them active outdoors. The farm expansion was just one project that wove together many of CAM’s ongoing goals to help the community reach self-sufficiency. Integrating the types of services they offer to produce better outcomes has been the core mission, and a key accomplishment so far, of Alexandre’s three-year tenure. CAM’s hallmark is building trusting relationships. A relational approach to care means “shifting from ‘we’re going to help keep you housed’ to ‘we’re going to help you today, and what do you dream about for tomorrow so that we can help get you there?’” Alexandre explains. Walk through the doors of the agency, and you’ll meet a “success coach,” often someone who’s received services through CAM at some point themselves. The coach’s questions, Alexandre explains, hit on urgent needs but also go deep: “What insights do you bring to our agency; what is your hope and an aspiration for where you want to be (or your children to be) in future?” It’s the beginning of a journey that touches the whole community, the whole county, in countless ways. At CAM, people’s need for the services that bring them there in the first place don’t define them. That need is what stands in the way of their dreams, their spark – what they might accomplish next. CAM’s approach is to roadmap the journey alongside them and support every step on the way.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

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e here at MCF can confidently rely on the trust Community Action Marin has established with so many individuals and families. In these tumultuous and conflicting times, nurturing the basic level of trust that your clients can place in you and your team is an ephemeral but essential feature for extending assistance. All of us here at MCF are enormously grateful for your efforts.”

– Thomas Peters, Ph.D.

President & CEO, Retired, Marin Community Foundation

A Whole Family Approach to Helping Marin’s Low-Income Communities

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ften, clients come to Community Action Marin because they need childcare so that they can get to work or school. But then they find that CAM will also help their children get dental and regular health screenings, and they themselves have access to rental assistance, help paying utility bills, and mental health support too. The nonprofit provides the over 550 children it serves with what’s often their most nutritious meal of the day – and, at the farm site, it includes them in many aspects of food selection and preparation. It offers a way to stability and beyond for over 5,000 households from West Marin to Marin City, San Rafael to Novato. Private donors can help Community Action Marin adapt and strengthen integrated services so that when community members come through the doors of one of their sites, they’ll have more than just the tools they need to meet the basic requirements for survival. The agency’s staff is committed to creating pathways for people to thrive. Donations like yours help to keep the operation responsive to urgent needs and innovative in approaches to alleviating poverty. With your support, CAM’s community of clients and the county at large will be better able to meet and strengthen strides toward equity, selfsufficiency, and good food for all.

Community Action Marin www.camarin.org 555 Northgate Dr. Suite 201 San Rafael, CA 94903

hat Community Action Marin has done for me and my grandchildren, the support through our struggles, has been wonderful. To say I am grateful is not enough. I feel this does not come close to expressing how I feel about the group I work with, or the care my grandchildren receive from their childcare programs. Anytime I see people that need help or assistance, I always recommend Community Action Marin’s services because they are helpful for children and families.”

– Angela

Children and Family Services client

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...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT COMMUNITY ACTION MARIN

Contact:

Chandra Alexandre, CEO (415) 526-7511, cell (415) 505-6840 calexandre@camarin.org

| www.thegivinglist.com |

KEY SUPPORTERS 100 Marin Bank of America Bank of Marin California Department of Education Capital One Chronicle Season of Sharing County of Marin Giving Marin Isabel Allende Foundation Kaiser Permanente Marin Community Foundation MarinHealth Mayor’s Innovation Project MUFG Union Bank Redwood Credit Union The Morris Stulsaft Foundation United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start / Early Head Start United Way Bay Area US Department of Agriculture Wells Fargo Foundation

SUNDAY FRIENDS FOUNDATION:

For Sunday Friends Foundation, the Pandemic Offered a Silver Lining

Youth taking part in computer education class

Mother and daughters enjoying an intergenerational activity making cards for others

hen COVID-19 shut down the Bay Area in March 2020, Sunday Friends Foundation had to pivot from hosting programs at schools aimed at breaking the cycle of generational poverty on Sundays to entirely online. It turned out to be exactly what the 25-year-old San Jose nonprofit needed to spice up its organization. “COVID allowed us to press the reset button,” says James McCaskill, executive director. “We’ve gone from seeing our clients a couple of times a month to, in some cases, seeing them every day of the week in our live Zoom classes.” Sunday Friends offers classes like financial literacy and STEM to parents and kids with a mission to end the cycle of poverty. Being able to increase engagement with families and youth by five times has been a tremendous success for Sunday Friends, says McCaskill, adding they’ve gone from offering stand alone workshops to being able to create modules for courses that build upon each other from week to week. In addition to educational classes, Sunday Friends has supported clients during the pandemic with drive-thru distribution of basic necessities and food donation boxes, and enrolling families in rental assistance programs. Sunday Friends was founded in 1997 by software engineer Janis Baron and is based on a model they call “learn and earn.” The nonprofit takes a no-handouts approach. Instead, families and youth earn credits each time they attend a workshop or class. They can then redeem credits earned at the Sunday Friends store for stuff like basic necessities, personal hygiene items, school supplies, and even toys for the holidays. Since March of 2020, 70,000 basic necessities like toilet paper and diapers have been disbursed to

families, and “every single one of those items has been earned,” McCaskill adds. Being able to build a comprehensive curriculum online inspired Sunday Friends to launch a new strategic initiative that hones in on intergenerational economic mobility. The focus: helping parents gain financial literacy and other skills — parenting, budgeting, nutrition, job readiness, digital skills, ESL, etc. — while focusing on literacy and STEM classes for kids. The aim is to improve the financial footing of parents while preparing their kids for future success and to break the cycle of poverty. The majority of their clients earn as a household less than $50,000 a year, which in Silicon Valley is classified as extremely low income. With the help of Sunday Friends, families have been able to set up savings accounts for the first time through Excite Credit Union and take advantage of its 5% interest rate.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Mother and children working on literacy together

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have been involved with Sunday Friends for many years. The reason for my continued support to this wonderful organization is: First, I see that it has really changed lives and helped break the cycle of poverty for the low income families it supports. Second, its unique model of ‘earning tickets’ as the families learn different skills at the programs is not only helping them financially, but also helping build self-esteem. And third, as a volunteer it has also given me and my family a wonderful opportunity to give back to the community.”

– Vijay Talati

Sunday Friends Foundation supporter

Adult financial literacy class presented by Patelco Credit Union

Bring Me A Book Foundation presenting the joy of reading to children and their parents at a Sunday program

“W Sunday Friends supports the whole family

Be a Friend and Help Sunday Friends Hire a Director of Operations

ith Sunday Friends, I have learned many things like how to save money, be stable emotionally, physically, and mentally, how to open a bank account, how to manage my finances, how to seek help from other organizations, and how to cope with stress and pain. Also, I have practiced using English more, I manage my finances better, I have less stress, and a better relationship with my son.”

– Maria

Sunday Friends Foundation client

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unday Friends is looking to raise $150,000 to hire a talented director of operations. The strategic hire would strengthen the organization by leading development of programs, achieving our new strategic plan, overseeing partnership building, and the coordination of thousands of volunteers. Having this support would ideally lead to improved and broadened support for children and families. “We are at the stage where we have big plans and a lot of momentum, but it feels like we are spinning away with limited resources,” says James McCaskill, executive director.

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT SUNDAY FRIENDS FOUNDATION

Sunday Friends Foundation

www.SundayFriends.org 645 Wool Creek Dr. 2nd Floor, Suite A, San Jose, CA 95112

Contact:

James C. McCaskill, Executive Director james@sundayfriends.org (408) 217-9587

| www.thegivinglist.com |

KEY SUPPORTERS Ashley Papagno, Board President Tashiya Gunesekera, Board Secretary Enedina Ruiz-Orozco, Board Treasurer René Ramirez, Board Member Ibe Ewalt, Board Member Arun Bhattacharya, Board Member Silvana Casale, Board Member Takashi Ueki, Board Member Sebastian Beck, Board Member Castellano Family Foundation 100 Women Charitable Foundation Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Destination: Home Adobe, Inc. Bank of America Excite Credit Union Star One Credit Union Patelco Credit Union Umpqua Bank Heritage Bank of Commerce

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Fostering Care “We want people to lean in and join us in this fight – to make sure no young person leaving foster care ends up homeless.” – André V. Chapman Founder and CEO, Unity Care

| www.thegivinglist.com |

Come to the Conversation Curious by Dan Schifrin

“C

ome to the conversation curious.” If Emily Scott has a mantra, this is it. No matter what she is doing, the San Francisco-based philanthropist and financial advisor leans into the wisdom of curiosity and growth. Whenever she is faced with a thorny problem, or even an exciting opportunity, she digs into her toolkit of inquiry to figure out what to do next. “Ask questions. Ask more questions. Challenge yourself and your perceptions,” Scott says. Scott, who has served on the boards of KQED, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and Fostering Media Connections, inhabits a unique place in the Bay Area’s nonprofit ecosystem. A former Wall Street executive, she shifted her priorities to philanthropy during her marriage to Charles Schwab CEO David Pottruck. From 1994 to 2014, she was president of the Pottruck Family Foundation, whose mission was to improve the lives of disadvantaged youth and to support volunteer-driven organizations in the Bay Area. After the marriage ended, she began a financial consulting firm — Emily Scott AND — designed to help families with means gain clarity about the “story” of their money. What stories, for instance, did their giving choices tell? And how could they align their personal, financial, and philanthropic journeys? Scott’s latest major philanthropic endeavor is her support of the Courage Museum – a major project of the San Francisco-based Futures Without Violence. The museum, which will open in 2022, is “designed to build a world in which violence is not an inevitable condition of the human experience,” according to the initiative’s website. “The cause speaks to my soul,” Scott says. “And the name is perfect, the Courage Museum, courage in the face of violence.” Below, Emily Scott shares her roadmap for living an effective, authentic, and productive life as a philanthropist, no matter your level of giving.

Follow Your Curiosity It seems simple enough, but there are roadblocks aplenty for busy people looking to learn and grow. “So many things stop people from following their curiosity,” Scott says. “People are very busy, they have multiple projects, and frankly, they can get tired of being asked for money. All that can contribute to a kind of shutting down.”

Part of engaging one’s curiosity is staying humble, and assuming there is much to learn, even in a field — or an organization — that one knows well. “I always try to entertain the notion that I don’t know what I don’t know, and there might be something new to learn at each and every event I attend.” As part of her turbo-charged bias toward curiosity, Scott developed a focus of inquiry for each of the last three decades, what she called “Decade Dares.” At 40, she got on a bike for the first time in years to raise money for the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles AIDS ride. At 50, a growing interest in animals led her to write the book Tails of Devotion, A Look at the Bond Between People and Their Pets; she sold 10,000 copies, and gave all the proceeds to animal welfare groups. At 60 she walked the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain, during which she raised money for racial justice initiatives in the United States.

Do What You Can In 2011, in response to the unprecedented scale of wartime rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Denis Mukwege co-founded a sanctuary for women with playwright Eve Ensler (now known as V) and Christine Schuler Deschryver. Already a board member of Ensler’s nonprofit, V-Day, not only did Scott visit the sanctuary, called City of Joy, but funded it herself and encouraged her peers to join her.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

During her visit, Scott had to push through her own trauma related to sexual violence, and go “far outside my comfort zone,” she says. The Congolese girls and women being treated for trauma, along with the Congolese women who run the program, inspired her to do everything she could to help. As she was told by one of the staff, who saw many well-meaning Westerners come and go: “Do not come here and do nothing.” Scott did as much as she could, including delivering a Tedx Talk in Sonoma bringing awareness to the issue. And yet, she felt she had bitten off more than she could chew. “After the second visit to City of Joy, I felt utterly depleted and overwhelmed,” Scott says with characteristic honesty. “And I realized that if I wanted to help, I needed to find a balanced way of doing so. I can’t help others accomplish their goals if my energy level is zero.” “I had to do something, but not everything,” Scott says. She now tries to apply this lesson to everyday giving, both for herself and for those she advises. “All too often the world of philanthropy can be very judgmental. We might feel, or be told, that we’re not doing the right kind of investing, or not dealing enough with the root causes of a problem,” Scott says. “But not everyone can be in the deep end of the [philanthropic] pool, at least not all the time, and not with all the issues. My hope is that we can all at least get in the pool, and swim wherever we can. We should feel good about helping feed people on a Saturday morning, say, even if that’s not changing the root cause of food insecurity.” Her advice to others? “Do whatever you can. When possible, do more.”

Partnership is Paramount For Scott, partnership is both a strategic necessity, and a way of staying inspired and energized. How does she know when a partnership is working personally? “When I’m with them, I feel more creative, smarter, and ultimately more philanthropic,” she says. “I go right into a place of abundance.” Scott has found that partnerships accelerate learning, and save time for funders as well as nonprofit leaders. An example is the Park City Community Foundation in Utah, which Scott helped create, and on whose board she served as Vice Chairperson. “We keep discovering that it’s really hard to be an executive of a community organization and not have true mentorship, or space to dialogue with other executive directors,” Scott says. “We were able to create avenues for that through the foundation. And because of that, I understood better the role that a funder can play.” Another example is Scott’s immersion in The Philanthropy Workshop, a global network of leaders designed to help

funders learn, grow, and partner as strategically as possible. As part of her year of study, she worked with other fellows to develop a new approach to increase the number of former foster youth pursuing a college degree. This led to the California College Pathways Initiative, a public-private program supporting foster students. Her work with the Pottruck Family Foundation led her to another insight – that nonprofits spend an inordinate amount of time applying for one-year grants. “We and other funders began to move to more multi-year grants,” Scott says. This, Scott says, allowed nonprofits to “feel more secure in their existence, and not just need to fundraise just to stay alive.” And yet, it’s easy for funders to believe that their partnerships with organizations are fully equal. Through one of her foundations, Scott had a bracing conversation with a nonprofit leader who reminded her that “we can take away our check anytime. That honesty changed my appreciation of how we communicate and partner with nonprofits.”

The Brilliance of the AND It’s no coincidence that Scott’s financial navigation business is called Emily Scott AND. “I was a convert when I first heard business guru Jim Collins talk about the brilliance of the AND vs. the tyranny of the OR,” Scott says. In her consulting work, Scott uses the AND to help people connect the heart and the head. Figuring out how to give, she says, is a combination of data and emotion. “For philanthropists, this can mean holding multiple truths,” she says. “One truth can be that scarcity exists in the world, and the other truth can be that you live comfortably. It’s okay for both things to be true at the same time.” The AND also creates space to dig deeply into another person’s distinct – even contradictory – experience, while still holding onto your values and mission. “There is a lot of maturity involved in hearing another’s perspective, and finding ways to build on it, as opposed to always pushing back on it,” Scott says. When a funder can listen and lead at the same time, “that’s when transformation can happen.”

| www.thegivinglist.com |

iFOSTER:

Moving Fast and Fixing Things

“Helping kids in foster care reach their full potential.”

he lightbulb went off, as it often does, during a walk. It was 2010. Serita Cox was a tech executive, a former VP of strategy at 3Com, and then working with The Bridgespan Group to help promising nonprofits scale. Her husband Reid Cox was an investment banker who had just helped take LinkedIn public. Serita grew up in foster care, and the two of them had long strategized about how to help make the foster care system more welcoming, effective, and connected. “The system was broken,” Reid Cox says. “Foster care was totally fragmented, and individual nonprofits weren’t big enough to move the needle on structural issues. And one day it just hit us. We know how to build a social network and negotiate resources for the foster care community.” While Facebook’s early motto was move fast and break things, iFoster’s mission was more like: move fast and fix things. One of the first problems they set out to solve was the lack of communication and community between foster youth, families, and child and family serving organizations. “Foster kids, and foster families, didn’t know that there were others like them in their own neighborhood,” Reid says. Their solution? A tech portal where the community could share resources and support. With a growing national membership, iFoster focused on getting foster kids the resources and opportunities they lacked by tapping the business community. They began negotiating for corporate discounts on behalf of the foster care community. Among their first calls was to AT&T’s marketing department. “We told them that we

had as many people as Boeing had customers, and we wanted to get the same discounts they did.” And that’s exactly what happened. To date, they have partnered with hundreds of corporations to provide thousands of resources and services through the iFoster portal. The next problem to solve was jobs. Their work with more than 50 corporations (including Starbucks, Hilton, and Raley’s) has created hundreds of job opportunities for foster youth transitioning out of care in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. In 2019, iFoster’s partnership with AmeriCorps, called TAY AmeriCorps, earned them the national agency’s top Innovation Program of the Year recognition. When COVID hit, iFoster helped more than 20,000 California current and former foster youth with a program to give them access to free smartphones, Internet and computers, along with other basic needs, education, employment and healthcare resources. Jasmine Terranova is one of those youth. Not long after contracting COVID, Jasmine, who uses they/them pronouns, had to leave the LGBTQ shelter where they had been staying near Santa Clara, and then live out of their car. At the same time they were in school fulltime, as well as working with iFoster as an AmeriCorps volunteer. “iFoster gave me a phone, with access to a hotspot, which meant I could continue with work and my classes, even while driving my car around San Jose until I could find stable housing,” explains Terranova. This intervention was critical. Terranova is still in school and has now found permanent housing. They also have a full-time job -- tech coordinator for the same iFoster program that kept them going during the dark days of COVID.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“I

don’t necessarily have a family, but iFoster and TAY AmeriCorps are like a big family to me. They are very supportive, so I’ve learned how to be very supportive to my fosters [peers]. I just feel like I’ve learned to be a better Kristen.”

– Kristen, foster youth

iFoster TAY AmeriCorps Member

Give Foster Youth the Gift of Connectivity Through Technology

donation of any amount will contribute to the iFoster Hope Fund, which provides life-changing resources and emergency funds to foster youth in need. A donation of $350 will provide a youth a new laptop with donated software that will keep them connected, safe and productive. A donation of $1,000 will provide a youth with job training and employment opportunities with iFoster’s employer partners, forever changing the trajectory of their life. If you, or someone you know, are raising a child in place of their biological parents, please join us for free at www.ifoster.org.

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he iFoster program is so critically important to youth in the foster care system that are aging out. Whether it is 18 or 21, they are provided support up until that age, and then the system pretty much says goodbye and good luck. The iFoster program steps in at such a critical life juncture.”

– Congresswoman Karen Bass

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT IFOSTER

KEY SUPPORTERS

iFoster

Reid Cox, Co-Founder & CFO (530) 550-9672 reid@ifoster.org www.ifoster.org

White House Office of Social Innovation Congressional Angels in Adoption AARP Purpose Prize Echoing Green America’s Promise Alliance California Public Utilities Commission Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) California Welfare Directors Association (CWDA) Corporation for National and Community Service AmeriCorps Microsoft Starbucks | www.thegivinglist.com |

T-Mobile Aetna Better Health HealthNet Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Walter S. Johnson Foundation The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation Schultz Family Foundation The Aspen Institute Stand Together Foundation Anthony & Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation Albertsons Company Foundation California Dept of Social Services

RAZING THE BAR:

Hope for My Brothers and Sisters Coming Out of Foster Care A BY DONTAE LARTIGUE

s early as I can remember, my life has been an emotional rollercoaster. My family would go from being stable to being destitute, from living with my grandmother to living with my substanceaddicted mother. School was never stable, and this led my siblings and I to be truants. While in my grandmother’s care, she became ill and lost her battle to cancer when I was eight years old. My mother would move us from hotel to hotel until my aunt finally contacted Child Protective Services (CPS) and had us removed from my mother’s care – and put into the foster care system. Prior to that traumatic day, I acted as the parent of my three younger siblings. I was responsible for feeding, bathing, and caring for their emotional needs in the absence of my mother, who would disappear for days at a time. Like my absent mother, the foster care system would display the same neglectful behavior towards me. And that system does the same to so many transition-age youth, especially when they leave their foster homes or group homes. I have seen too many of my peers and the young people I work with every day end up homeless. In this society, and the community where I live, San Jose, I came to realize that we did not have a safety net for youth leaving the system. That is why I founded Razing the Bar, a nonprofit that provides comprehensive mentorship and housing support for foster youth as they age out of the system. I have seen too many young people grow up without one single positive, lifelong relationship – no one who

they can count on to help them navigate life. I created a community that aims to do just that: build positive lifelong relationships with youth exiting systems, primarily foster care. Like my childhood, being the primary caregiver for my siblings, when it was my mother’s responsibility, I am doing the same for youth leaving the system when it is the responsibility of the child welfare system. I am simply doing what is not being done for my brothers and sisters exiting care. My brothers and sisters need love and care, a stable home, and someone to be there for them. I am happy to say: Look no further, I am here, the Razing the Bar community is here; join us. It is time that youth stop surviving and start thriving.

Raze the Bar for Transition Age Youth

azing the Bar is working to help youth exiting the foster care in the Silicon Valley thrive. You can join Executive Director Dontae Lartigue in his mission. A donation of $12,000 will allow Razing the Bar to house one young person for a year. A $10,000 gift pays for one year of utilities and Wi-Fi for the nonprofit’s nine-bedroom duplex just blocks from San Jose State University, which houses as many as 13 foster youth. But more than anything, Razing the Bar seeks unrestricted, general operating grants to help the organization serve more young people.

Razing The Bar

www.razingthebar.org 123 E. San Carlos Street, #513 San Jose CA, 95112

Contact:

Dontae Lartigue (408) 210-8898 dontae.lartigue@razingthebar.org

| San Francisco Bay Area |

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...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT RAZING THE BAR

“T

hat is why I founded Razing the Bar, a nonprofit that provides comprehensive mentorship and housing support for foster youth as they age out of the system. I have seen too many young people grow up without one single positive, lifelong relationship – no one who they can count on to help them navigate life. I created a community that aims to do just that: build positive lifelong relationships with youth exiting systems, primarily foster care.” – Dontae Lartigue Founder, Razing the Bar

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SAN FRANCISCO CASA:

Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things for Foster Children

ften, the first question foster youth ask their court appointed special advocates, or CASAs, is: Who’s paying you? The answer: Nobody. They’re volunteers – sworn officers of the Juvenile Dependency Court – whose sole purpose is to advocate on behalf of the best interest of children and youth in foster care. “A CASA is often the only person in their network of support who is not paid to support them,” says Kate Durham, executive director of San Francisco CASA. “That is very meaningful, and allows for the kind of trust that’s needed in order for the young person to really benefit from that relationship and the CASA’s advocacy.” When a child enters the foster care system, it is scary and traumatic; they’re confused about what’s happening and sometimes blame themselves, Durham says. Kids grow up very quickly in foster care, she adds, and as a result may become savvy and somewhat cynical, with a justifiable mistrust of adults. A CASA’s purpose is to be a force of stability, a consistent, trusted adult who will stay with the youth while they’re in foster care. San Francisco CASA is an organization that recruits, screens, trains, and supervises the volunteers. Its job is to find volunteers who want to make a tangible difference by working one-on-one with a youth in San Francisco’s child welfare system. A CASA’s duties are to stay in regular contact with the youth, four to five hours a week, and to support the youth, from helping them explore their interests, maintain family connections, and succeed in school to being a point person for counselors, doctors, case managers, social workers, and teachers. Volunteers are asked to commit to two years, inclusive of training, but many stay on for longer, Durham says. “A CASA is really trained to listen carefully and elevate and amplify the youth perspective to ensure that their needs are met,” Durham says. Last year San Francisco had more than 900 youth in foster care and 367 of

| San Francisco Bay Area |

them had an SFCASA volunteer speaking up for their best interests. But that means more than 500 are still in need of a CASA. And with the added burden of the pandemic, CASAs have become more important than ever for foster youth, Durham says, adding that CASAs have played a critical role in helping foster youth manage through social isolation and anxiety by maintaining that continuity in their relationship. “CASAs are everyday citizens and community members who are really making a transformative difference in the lives of young people,” Durham says.

“I

have been a volunteer advocate for a teenage boy, now a young man, for the past four years. The SFCASA training and my creative staff supervisor have been instrumental to me on this journey. SFCASA brings stability and opportunity to foster youth whose lives can be really chaotic. My youth has helped me to see new perspectives and be more aware of the broader community. Though not always easy, it has been truly rewarding to get to know and share in the challenges and accomplishments of my CASA youth. My husband, Mark, and I are honored to support SFCASA and value how critical it is for every child to be able to count on a consistent adult.”

– Chloe Sugarman

“T

here were plenty of adults and individuals who were shocked and horrified at the abuse I had endured and were sympathetic, but none of them cared enough to do more than wish me the best. My CASA, she was different. She taught me that I had a choice. A choice in what I wanted. It was revolutionary in my eyes. Windy’s kindness, her actions, her generosity, her curiosity and patience taught me that I deserve. I deserve everything. Love, care, tenderness, knowledge, opportunities. Windy reminded me that I have a voice, and that I could use it.

– Auxi

KEY SUPPORTERS SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

A Tremendous Opportunity to Help a Foster Child Get a CASA

hanks to a generous CASA volunteer, all individual gifts made by January 15, up to a total of $200,000, will be matched. Your gift will have double the impact on San Francisco’s children. With your support, CASA can recruit, train, and support 120 or more new advocates that will ensure San Francisco’s foster children have the support and resources they need to thrive.

San Francisco CASA

www.HelpFosterChildren.com 2535 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94110

MATCHING CHALLENGE!

Through January 15, 2022, every donated dollar up to $200,000 will be matched thanks to a generous challenge grant

Contact:

Paul Knudsen, Director, Development & Communications (628) 867-7383 | paul@sfcasa.org

| www.thegivinglist.com |

Board of Directors: Lisa Pearson, Chair Jeffrey Davidson, Vice Chair Katherine Rockwell, Treasurer James Marcmin, Secretary Jennifer Taylor, Executive Committee Member Laura Bisesto Koonal Gandhi Elizabeth Foster Lippert Becca Katz Brynly Llyr Erwin Mock Suchi O’Connor Brooke Papiri Sally Stocks Vicki Valandra Former Board Chairs: Shane Douglas Allison Eisenhardt Lisa Spinali Cori English Susan Crown Peter Bardwick Brett Wheeler Tracy Todd Terry Thorson

A HOME WITHIN:

The Transformational Power of Therapy

child comes into your life. Your response is an unqualified commitment to them – no matter what they say or whether they reject your advice. You stay, you listen, you build trust, and you move forward together. For many California children who’ve experienced foster care, this kind of unqualified support is exactly what they receive from the volunteer clinical therapists affiliated with A Home Within, a national organization providing free, high-quality therapy to current or former foster youth. When Mitchell Findley first heard of A Home Within, he was a teenager who had just aged out of foster care, learning to live an adult life after having been abruptly ejected from the system. Because of the raft of adverse experiences they have as children, including the trauma of familial dislocation, foster youth suffer from disproportionally high levels of psychological trauma, and Findley’s only experience with counseling was both impersonal and court-mandated. But connecting with a therapist from A Home Within was a game-changer for Findley, now a senior planner for the San Francisco-based nonprofit Tipping Point Community. “They asked me questions no one had asked me before,” he says. “There was no judgment.” By creating an ongoing relationship, his therapist offered Findley space to finally “process all the things I had not been processing.” Begun around a kitchen table in San Francisco in 1994, this

national collective of highly-trained professionals has committed to working with vulnerable youth for as long as they need it. In addition to being completely free, A Home Within helps clients find a therapist with whom they are aligned in terms of culture, language, race, or experience. The Oakland-based nonprofit has expanded to 11 states, and now serves more than 500 youth, including young people in San Francisco, Oakland, and Contra Costa County. At the same time, Executive Director Reed Connell says, teletherapy has bloomed during the pandemic. “Being able to see your therapist without having to figure out how to get from Fremont up to Berkeley for an appointment has helped our young people weather the trauma and fear of the pandemic.” Apart from creating easier access to therapy, better technology allows a better matching of youth and clinicians — whether by race, language, identity, or clinical approach. A Home Within is actively working to provide youth with choice regarding their volunteer therapist, and is connecting with a diverse range of dedicated volunteers. Nationally, 6% of psychologists identify as Latinx, and 4% identity as Black. By contrast, in California, A Home Within’s therapists are 19% Latinx and 29% Black. The program is also transformational for therapists, who through A Home Within earn continuing education credits and participate in clinical consultation groups. For many, it is among their most satisfying therapeutic relationships. COVID has made plain to everyone how fragile the social and emotional lives of young people are, few of whom are more vulnerable than those without stable homes or support systems. “There isn’t a parent out there who doesn’t see the impact of isolation and social disruption on their children,” says Connell. “All of us now recognize that every young person needs and deserves support for their mental health.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“F

or foster youth, whose access to mental health services is often short-term, episodic, or compulsory, the voluntary long-term one-on-one therapy provided by A Home Within’s therapists can be transformative. The May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust has long supported A Home Within because it is one of the few organizations that matches foster youth with volunteer therapists who build long-term relationships with youth and commit to working with them for as long as they need. A Home Within is meeting a critical need that has only grown during the COVID pandemic and as mental health challenges continue to be among the top pandemic-related issues cited by youth and youth-serving organizations, A Home Within’s work is more important now than ever.”

– Elisabeth Cutler

Senior Program Officer, the May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust

“T

hese are rough waters now and will be for the foreseeable future. A Home Within is helping people who have already survived a lifetime of rough waters build on that experience and see the strengths they have now, rather than the things they never had.”

— Anthony

A Home Within board member, former client, and partner

Expanding the Network

ike everyone else, young people in foster care need good mental health and a sense of well-being in order to experience joy, live resiliently, and thrive. There simply aren’t enough publicly funded mental health professionals to provide the support that can truly make a difference in their lives. Help A Home Within reach its 2021 end-of-year goal of raising $200,000 to expand its network of volunteer therapists and provide vital mental health support to hundreds more foster youth— without interruption, for as long as it takes. Due to a surge in demand, A Home Within needs resources to recruit volunteer therapists like never before. The organization turns every $1 contributed into $5 of professional mental health support for foster youth. With your support, as young people transition from foster care, regardless of which stage of life they are in, they will have the inner tools they need to thrive.

A Home Within

www.ahomewithin.org 195 41st Street, #11172 Oakland, CA 94611-9991

Contact:

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...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT A HOME WITHIN

Reed Connell, Executive Director (510) 387-7518 rconnell@ahomewithin.org

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KEY SUPPORTERS May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust Walter S. Johnson Foundation Sarnat-Hoffman Family Foundation Sisters of St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation In-N-Out Burger Foundation Kaiser Permanente The Green Foundation Silicon Valley Community Foundation MYDAR Foundation The Louis and Harold Price Foundation Renaissance Charitable Foundation The Battery Foundation Bella Vista Foundation CASA organizations throughout California Foster Care Research Group at the University of San Francisco 11 California Family Foundations Over 350 Individual Donors

UNITY CARE:

For Foster Youth, Unity Care Means Home Sweet Home

wo decades ago, André V. Chapman was torn between his highly-paid executive sales job in Silicon Valley and a nonprofit he’d formed to help foster kids. His decision to doff his high-tech hat to focus on his fledgling Unity Care Group came during a private dinner held at the Fairmont San Jose – and a prayer by the late Coretta Scott King, wife of the late civil rights leader. “She said, ‘I’m going to pray for you: because you are going to help thousands and thousands of kids,’” recalls Chapman. He has. For the past 28 years, his San Jose-based agency has helped tens of thousands of young people and their families in foster care by providing stable housing, mental health services, caring connections, and valuable life skills. Beginning with one kid and one home in 1993, Unity Care expanded across nine counties in the Bay Area and the Sierra Foothills to provide homes and services for up to 7,500 transitionaged foster youth each year. Left to their own resources, youths who “age out” of the foster system have disproportionately high rates of joblessness, homelessness, and incarceration. Over the years, Chapman has received countless awards, and remains undeterred in his battle to help underserved foster youth. “We want people to lean in and join us in this fight – to make sure no young person leaving foster care ends up homeless,” Chapman, a father of three, says. Two years ago, however, Unity Care ran into some headwinds with managing such a large organization. So the agency pivoted under the guidance of a three-year program initiated by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. Its PropelNext program turns around nonprofits with new priorities based on data. By last year, Unity Care returned to its roots and core strengths – housing. It spun off 23 community-based programs to focus on three key housing programs, pared its staff from 200 to 50, and cut its operating budget from $20 million to $5 million. Unity Care now offers a continuum of housing for 150 transitional foster youths at risk of homelessness. It owns five apartment complexes, with 35 “dorm-style” units, plus a newly purchased 10-unit home in downtown Oakland. It has 12 shared homes. And it has more than 20 affordable apartments set aside by developers. Alex was a formerly homeless foster youth whose dad was in and out of jail, his mother living in the streets. He thrived at Unity Care’s transitional housing, earning his GED and landing an internship with Hewlett-Packard. “Without Unity Care, I would’ve been stuck on the streets,” Alex says. “I received the skills I needed to work towards and achieve my goals, and learned how to take initiative, and how to problem solve.”

Chapman says he hopes to double the agency’s housing capacity within five years. “The biggest issue is not being able to have a home,” Chapman says. “The costliest place in the nation is right here. So you can imagine what it’s like to be a foster youth. Every day you worry about where you’re going to live. So you can’t focus on going to school, your mental health, or work. You focus on survival.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“U

nity Care allowed me to stay motivated, it allowed me to stay driven. It allowed me to see that it was possible for me to do something. The staff at Unity Care were pretty much just like me, just a couple years older, so I always felt that if they were happy, I could be happy too – I just have to get out of this hump and survive the next hump. “Thank you for giving me motivation and keeping me safe when I was a kid, and giving me somewhere to call home.”

– Jason Riles

Coretta Scott King with Unity Care Founder André Chapman.

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he purpose of Unity Care is incredible. I’m just amazed at how hard they work and what a great job they do with our foster children.”

– Bill Del Biaggio Jr.

KEY SUPPORTERS

Pandemic Puts Dent on Home Renovations and Upkeep

nity Care is seeking to raise $500,000 to pay for renovations, upkeep, and furnishings at its foster youth homes and apartments, which have seen far fewer donations and voluntary repairs during COVID, CEO André Chapman says. The donations would go toward move-in kits for foster youth, new paint, carpet, and furnishings, as well as kitchen utensils and computers for online education. They would also help spruce up outdoor landscaping. “They need TLC,” Chapman says. “So every one of our locations needs a home makeover, everywhere these young folks live.”

The late Bill Del Biaggio, André Chapman, and Linda Lester

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...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT UNITY CARE

Unity Care

www.unitycare.org 1400 Parkmoor Avenue, Suite 115 San Jose, CA 95126

Contact:

Bella Vista Foundation Bothin Foundation California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation Chan Zuckerberg Foundation City of San Jose County of Alameda County of Placer County of San Francisco Edna McConnell Clark Foundation El Dorado Community Foundation Fund for Shared Insight: Listen4Good The Health Trust Jack and Jill of America: San Jose Chapter Placer Community Foundation San Francisco Community Foundation Saratoga Federated Church Silicon Valley Community Foundation Sobrato Family Foundation Tipping Point Walter S. Johnson Foundation Winifred Johnson Clive Foundation

Tatiana Colón, Director of Strategic Partnerships tcolon@unitycare.org (408) 971-9822 x4140

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An Honest Broker with a Big Megaphone Warriors Community Foundation staff announce the 2019-20 grants docket with OUSD Superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell and SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Vincent Matthews before a Warriors game in October 2019

“We’re losing our biggest fundraiser, but we’re going to find a way to be able to grant out just as much money this year as we did last year. And I know that sounds crazy, but there is more of a need now than there is during a ‘normal year.’” – BRANDON SCHNEIDER

Warriors’ president, chief operating officer, and Foundation board member

very year, the Warriors Community Foundation – the philanthropic arm of the sixtime NBA Champion Golden State Warriors – hosts a poker tournament fundraiser. It costs $10,000 to buy in, and for those who do, they get to play cards with the entire Warriors team and might have an opportunity to bluff Stephen Curry, call Draymond Green, or fold to Andre Iguodala. The poker tournament is the Warriors Community Foundation’s biggest fundraiser of the year and typically garners nearly $2

million – the lion’s share of its yearly donations. But due to the pandemic, last year’s poker tournament was called off, leaving the Foundation with a massive hole in the charitable donations it needs to grant out to schools and education-focused nonprofits in San Francisco and Alameda counties. Pandemic be damned, thought Brandon Schneider, the Warriors’ president and chief operating officer and a Foundation board member; he wasn’t going to let that hiccup sidetrack the Foundation’s ability to make grants. While not steeped in the nonprofit

“T

he Warriors Community Foundation has been a tremendous partner to our work over the past six years. While the dollars invested and in-kind resources provided have been phenomenal and instrumental in our growth, they pale in comparison with the richness of our collaboration with the Foundation and Community teams to offer innovative and empowering programmatic opportunities to young people throughout Oakland and the Bay Area. In this vein, our partnership has propelled The Hidden Genius Project to be able to inspire young people to follow their passions and pursue technology and sports pathways in tandem. We are deeply grateful for this impactful relationship.”

– BRANDON NICHOLSON

Executive Director, Hidden Genius Project

| San Francisco Bay Area |

sector like other board members and staff, he knows one essential thing very well: money. Before he took on the chief operating officer role, he was the Golden State Warriors chief revenue officer. “We’re losing our biggest fundraiser, but we’re going to find a way to be able to grant out just as much money this year as we did last year. And I know that sounds crazy, but there is more of a need now than there is during a ‘normal year,’” he remembers saying to the board. The Foundation formalized a process allowing the owners of the team to contribute to the Foundation, and “virtually” knocked on doors of possible private donors until they not only met last year’s goal but exceeded it, raising over $1.8 million, Schneider says. “We were able to fill the hole, which is unbelievable,” he says. The Foundation has a very specific purpose: education. It’s where the Foundation believes it can make the biggest impact. Since its founding in 2012, the Warriors Community Foundation has given grants to school districts and nonprofits totaling $24 million in support of education and youth development. The Foundation has given 15,000 coveted tickets to local youth and has refurbished over 85 basketball courts. The Foundation works with roughly 50 organizations annually, which focus on education in some capacity from childhood literacy to high school afterschool programs, and gives them checks typically in the $10,000 to $50,000 range. Beyond the needed cash, Scheider says the coolest part is when players and coaches call the nonprofits to let them know they received a grant from the Warriors Community Foundation. In addition, the Foundation does basketball court refurbishments through its Making Hoops program and partnered with Salesforce where eight organizations get a $500

The renovated McClymonds High School gymnasium in June 2021

donation every time a Warriors player hits a three-pointer each season. In 2019, the Foundation upped its game, partnering with Kaiser Permanente to create a nonprofit hub for education called Generation Thrive. Schneider says it’s a philanthropic accelerator program – whereby fostering collaborative workspaces and providing educational resources for teachers and nonprofits, the aim is to produce innovative ideas, models, and programming for the education field. For example, Generation Thrive might bring together organizations that support college readiness and provide them with the space and tools to collaborate on what they’re doing and how they’ve been successful, Schneider says. Education is very important to the Golden State Warriors’ majority owner Joe Lacob, who was the first in his family to graduate college, and his wife, Nicole, who is the Foundation’s board president and spent seven years teaching high school history and government. In 2018, she was inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame for her philanthropic work. The Foundation, though attached to an incredibly successful franchise, is a rather small operation, Schneider says, especially compared to mega tech companies in the Bay Area like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Salesforce. But, he adds, “we punch above our weight

TO LEARN MORE AND DONATE: THE WARRIORS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION www.nba.com/warriors www.nba.com/warriors/foundation foundation@warriors.com 1 Warriors Way, Chase Center, San Francisco, CA 94158

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quite a bit.” Plus, all the money they raise they give out, making the Foundation what he calls an “honest broker.” Philanthropists know when they donate their money it will go to a worthy recipient. And because the Foundation has the Warriors brand awareness behind it, “We have a huge megaphone,” Schneider says, and its players can use their public profiles to raise awareness for issues and nonprofits the Foundation funds. It’s not only about writing checks. The Foundation partners with the tech giants and other large for-profit companies, like Clorox, which can offer in-kind services or make contributions directly to the Foundation’s organization it supports. Schneider joined the board in 2018 and did not fully grasp, at first, what a rewarding experience it would turn out to be. There have been many hugs from happy principals and nonprofit executives who gush about the impact the Foundation has had on them and their youth. One recent memorable moment stands out: the basketball court refurbishment at McClymonds High School in Oakland, Schneider says. The West Oakland school, the original home of the Warriors, has a legacy of producing basketball stars, including NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell and other greats, like Odis Allison, Antonio Davis, Joe Ellis, Paul Silas, and Nate Williams. But the basketball court hadn’t been redone in more than 50 years. Teaming up with Rakuten and the Good Tidings Foundation, the Warriors Community Foundation gave the gym an overhaul and a makeover. Schneider remembers McClymonds’ Principal Jeffrey Taylor beaming with pride. “He looks at me and he says, ‘We now have the best gym in California,’ and then,” Schneider recalls, “he goes, ‘Okay, maybe, except for Chase Center.’”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Teach the Children Well “We need these students to succeed for the economic health of our country.” – Elizabeth Devaney CEO, Students Rising Above

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‘You’re Not Going To Be a Philanthropist Forever’ As told to Daniel Heimpel

t can be argued that philanthropy swears too much allegiance to the idea of perpetuity. That the charitable foundations bearing the names of those who have done well, and were generous with their wealth, should become living legacies. This ethos denies what one Silicon Valley philanthropist – Kathy Kwan – recognized early: that today’s pressing challenges require charitable giving to exceed what the tax code requires, and that, as Kwan says, “perpetuity doesn’t really make sense.” “I would love to see more philanthropic spend because if you look at the amount of money that is currently caught up in the investment firms, it’s way too much and that money would be good in the economy,” Kwan says. “If all those dollars are locked up in savings accounts, they’re not going through the economy. They’re not helping people.” Kwan focuses on funding local organizations dealing with education, job training, and the social safety net. She also is a University of California, Berkeley Foundation trustee and a member of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society advisory board. In the fiscal year spanning the pandemic, the Eustace-Kwan Family Foundation, which Kwan runs, expanded its giving by 40%. This is part of a larger strategy to spend down – give away – the last $17 million of its original $60 million endowment by the end of 2023. For Kwan, who has written prolifically about philanthropy and has led efforts to ensure that donors based in Silicon Valley fund organizations there, philanthropy is a job she loves, but not necessarily a lifelong commitment. The “wealth event” for Kwan, husband Alan Eustace, fouryear-old Katelyn, and baby Emily happened in 2005 when the Google IPO increased their finances 200-fold. Thrust into a world of estate planners and financial professionals, Kwan quickly recognized that she could either give her wealth away during her lifetime or lock it away for generations to come. She chose the former and quickly became adept in the art of giving. We at The Giving List sat down with Kwan to understand her story better and hear her advice for those coming into wealth and the imperfect path of charitable giving. This conversation has been edited for clarity.

What became evident to you immediately following the wealth event? You hire a wealth advisor, and suddenly the wealth advisor says to you, “You have to do something, you need to have an estate plan. You need to find ways to become more tax efficient.” And so, we’re in the middle of the estate plan, and they ask us how much money we would like to give away to charity. And I was like, I can’t even imagine that. I’d rather give it away while I’m alive.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Leaders Institute – Philanthropy Workshop

A lot of times you wouldn’t think to give away that much money, unless you’re given the option, that either you’re going to give the money to Uncle Sam or you’re going to give that money some other way.

“You learn how to find, pick, and support good organizations. Over time, you develop a point of view about what strategies lead to good outcomes and eventually you become confident about your giving decisions.” And so that other way for you was to become a philanthropist. Before the IPO, you were a finance leader at Kaiser Permanente. You even helped design an internal grantmaking program there. How did you take that experience into this new world? I spent a great deal of my time at Kaiser working on budgets, cost-benefit analyses, financial planning, and project management. These experiences really laid the foundation for how I think about funding. First, I gained an appreciation for what it means to “execute to plan.” During the early stages of writing a grant, I’m asking my grantees: What are your goals and how do you plan to get

there? Who’s going to lead the change? What’s your definition of success? How long do you need to implement the change? And what can I expect as a funder? Second, I think about leverage and impact. Depending on the size of the grant and my level of commitment, where could my dollars be most impactful? For smaller grants, I might be more comfortable funding “core” operations through a general operating grant. For larger, longer grants, I gravitate toward efforts/initiatives that will help the grantee innovate, build capacity, change internal processes, or do something different. I don’t want to define the change, but I know from experience, restricted dollars mean the organization will focus leadership attention, manpower, and time on that initiative. Finally, I cannot emphasize enough the value of the right leader in the right place. Time and time again, the best intentions are stymied by leadership issues, so I find myself asking a lot of questions: What type of leader is needed for this situation? Does this leader have sufficient skills and experience to execute the change? Where is the leader in the management hierarchy and does the leader have sufficient span of control and resources to execute the change? Is this leader committed to this goal and do they have sufficient bandwidth to make it happen?

| www.thegivinglist.com |

SFSU Career Services & Leadership Development Team

You went as far as to support Stanford PACS in creating the Guide to Effective Philanthropy. What didn’t you expect when this journey began? Like many people, I didn’t realize how hard it is to make philanthropy a meaningful and rewarding part of my life. I have shared on record that the first three to five years of my philanthropic career were terrible. (They just sucked!) No one told me what I was supposed to expect. I definitely had control issues and unrealistic expectations about the “significance” of me and my money – not to mention my husband and I were calibrating our unique giving styles. I’m quite sure I broke every donor rule out there. But here’s the thing. If philanthropy becomes part and parcel of your life, it can be a rich and purposeful part of your life – it’s an opportunity to positively change the trajectory of people’s lives. You will meet great people and have a chance to be part of efforts that are bigger than you. That said, it takes work. For me, it’s like venture capital. You have to understand the landscape. You need to pick solid leaders. You learn how to find, pick, and support good organizations. Over time, you develop a point of view about what strategies lead to good outcomes and eventually you become confident about your giving decisions.

What key lessons do you have for those who are new to philanthropy? How can they make their giving both meaningful to them and strategic? I think the most important thing for anyone new to

philanthropy is to just start giving. Giving is hard and it takes practice. If you don’t start you won’t know how it feels, what gets you excited, and you might not ask the questions that will encourage you to give again. Tactically, I have this philosophy that people will initially give to three to five organizations: their kid’s school, their alma mater, their church, and maybe one or two nonprofit organizations.

“Right now, we’re putting as much money as we can out there. The need is super great, and dollars today matter a lot.” Moving past the first five, I might pick a focus area like climate change, preserving democracy, or early childhood education. From there, the donor might consider selecting one to two organizations where they fund at a high enough level to get visibility, like the $30,000 to $50,000 level. As part of this exercise, the donor might support something in the organization’s strategic plans, so that they can see if the organization can execute and build an effective working relationship. Finally, given the moment, I might consider significantly expanding relief and safety-net spending. We are living through very difficult times, and most of our nonprofit partners are

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Honors Institute M-A High School

seeing increased demand and lower revenues. Name the topic and there is overwhelming need: housing, food insecurity, homelessness, racial justice, educational equity, and rent relief to name a few. Every philanthropic dollar has the potential to do a lot of good and will make a difference in the community.

While many charitable foundations were conservative through the pandemic, you took a very different approach. What is one important lesson you take from those crazy days? The power of the match. If you put up a big enough number, people will follow. Like many funders, I participated in the annual giving program at my daughter’s university. When COVID hit, I asked the team at Tufts if they would like me to accelerate my planned grants. As the conversations evolved, I made a commitment of $1 million. Then, seven members from the foundation board put up another matching million. Over the summer, Tufts uses the $2 million to launch an emergency scholarship fund and raises another $2 million. So, in total, the university raised $4 million – all of them for students that were economically struggling. Then, I’m in conversations with Berkeley, and they encourage me to make a similar commitment. A month later, Cal uses the gift to kick off its GivingTuesdayNow drive and raises an additional $1.7 million. So, here’s what I learned: Especially during crises, matches

matter. They “shine the light” on big issues and they signal that this issue is important enough for someone to make a big dollar commitment. People feel good about lending a hand. More than 3,000 donors contributed at Tufts and another 2,000 individual donors participated in Cal’s fundraising drive. You never know who’s going to come out of the woodwork to help.

Why have you eschewed “perpetuity” in favor of giving all the Eustace-Kwan Family Foundation’s money away? I think everyone needs to realize that philanthropy is not a job, but sometimes it’s like a job. Most people don’t stay in the same job for 15 years. And so, I think it’s OK for me to say, I’m going to be done. While I have thoroughly enjoyed my philanthropic journey, my parents are getting older. My kids are getting older. Hopefully I’ll be a grandmother and I can move on to the next chapter of my life. And so right now, we’re putting as much money as we can out there. The need is super great, and dollars today matter a lot. You’re not going to be a philanthropist forever.

| www.thegivinglist.com |

VISION TO LEARN:

Bringing Students’ Potential into Focus

or underperforming public schools across the country, the myriad challenges are plain to see. Too often, for students in those classrooms, however, it’s a challenge merely to see. Words and numbers on the board, in textbooks, and on test sheets are a blur for some two million students in underserved communities. The revelation that 95% of them don’t have eyeglasses inspired Austin and Virginia Beutner to offer needy students a clearer path to success. Founded in 2012, Vision To Learn provides free eye exams and glasses from mobile clinics. Launched with a single converted van in Los Angeles, Vision To Learn now has a fleet of 40 and has served 13,000 schools, public libraries, and summer camps in 500-plus cities across 14 states. Its team of optometrists and opticians has screened more than a million children, provided 300,000 with eye exams, and 240,000 with glasses – more than 148,000 in greater L.A. alone. “Vision To Learn helps kids succeed in school and in life,” says Ann Hollister, President of Vision To Learn. “It’s a very simple, costeffective intervention that makes a huge impact.” A new study by Johns Hopkins on the impact of providing glasses to children at schools shows dramatic gains in learning. The research is based on the largest controlled study in the U.S., as more than 7,000 children from over 100 schools in Baltimore were included. The children who showed the biggest gains, the equivalent of four to six months of learning, are those who are often the hardest to help – students in the bottom quarter of

their class academically and students with learning differences and disabilities. Vision To Learn has found ready partners in school districts eager to boost student engagement and achievement. (Beutner took a direct role in education as Superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District from 2018 to 2021.) Ties with the Golden State Warriors, among other teams nationwide, provide financial support and something arguably as valuable: School visits by star athletes, who help destigmatize glasses. “There’s no better way to get kids to wear their new glasses than having an NBA superstar tell them glasses are cool,” says Hollister. Students are enthusiastic about choosing their own frames from a wide selection, including brands like Warby Parker, a Vision To Learn partner. Vision To Learn is also working with state governments to expand Medicaid coverage for eye care. In California, legislation recently gave Vision To Learn the ability to collect Medi-Cal reimbursements for eligible vision services. As this public funding source becomes available, Hollister notes, “our philanthropic donations will go further and help more kids.” Growth had been soaring: Vision To Learn provided 91,000 eye exams in the school year that ended June 2019. COVID-19 school closures cut that to 56,000 the next year, but Vision To Learn helped in other ways by using its vans to deliver groceries and, in one case, offering coronavirus tests. The organization is poised to grow again, launching service in Washington, D.C.; Appalachian Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Connecticut, as well as expanding in California and Pennsylvania, as it aims to deliver 100,000 pairs of eyeglasses this financial year. Racial inequities exacerbated by the pandemic make Vision To Learn’s mission ever more urgent as it races to give all two million low-income students who need glasses the opportunity for a clearer, brighter future. Hollister looks forward to hearing each kid proclaim joyfully, as invariably happens: “I never knew the world looked like that!”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“T

he Warriors Community Foundation supports programs that make a meaningful and lasting impact on the lives of underserved youth in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Vision To Learn is a perfect example,” said Warriors Community Foundation’s Director of Philanthropy Evan Schwartz. “By providing students with the critical educational tool of a pair of glasses, Vision To Learn helps kids learn to read, keep up in class, and pursue their dreams.”

ocelyn was a fifth-grader from Oakland who loved playing basketball. She had a hard time seeing the basket and had to force her eyes to focus while reading. “I didn’t want to tell my mom I needed glasses because it costs a lot. Now that I have my glasses, I’m really happy because I can finally do my homework without forcing my eyes to see and I am going to play basketball more. I’m really excited.”

Help Children Get the Glasses They Need to Succeed

ver two million students don’t have the glasses they need to read a book or see the board. Vision To Learn provides glasses to tens of thousands of children in need every year to help them succeed in school and in life. Using our Sprinter van-based mobile optometry clinics, we bring the eye doctor right to children in schools in underserved communities. Independent research shows students who receive glasses from Vision To Learn significantly make faster progress in reading and math. Glasses have become even more important to help students recover from learning losses due to the pandemic. SCAN TO MAKE Every gift of $100 provides one child with a vision A DONATION... screening, an eye exam, and new prescription glasses.

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT VISION TO LEARN

Vision To Learn

www.visiontolearn.org 12100 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1275 Los Angeles, CA 90025

Contact:

Ann Hollister, President (310) 600-5809 ann.hollister@visiontolearn.org | www.thegivinglist.com |

KEY SUPPORTERS Virginia and Austin Beutner Father Greg Boyle, S.J., Founder and Executive Director, Homeboy Industries California Community Foundation Chan Zuckerberg Initiative The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation Essilor Vision Foundation Antonia Hernández, President and CEO, California Community Foundation Kaiser Permanente in the Community Mickey Kantor, Former United States Secretary of Commerce Glenville March Jr., MD, Former President and CEO, March Vision Care Molly Munger, Director, Advancement Project California Steve Shafran, Advisory Partner, Centerbridge Partners Salesforce Foundation Sharks Foundation Silicon Valley Community Foundation Sobrato Philanthropies Warby Parker Foundation Warriors Community Foundation Jake Winebaum, Founder and CEO, Brighter.com

CEID:

Communicate with Joy community extends to adults as well, with audiology clinics providing the full range of testing and hearing aid services. Centering equity and inclusion is a core value of their work, and 90% of their audiology patients qualify as low income. The center also offers training and support for the community and looks for ways to help schools, churches, synagogues, and other organizations improve the experience for deaf/hard of hearing youth.

“I

xecutive Director Cindy Dickeson and her team see it all the time. Parents walk through the doors of CEID, the Center for Early Intervention on Deafness, with a young child who is deaf or hard of hearing. Despite all their preparation, planning, and love, they have discovered that they can’t communicate with their child the way they expected — through voice and sound. They are frustrated, unsure, even defeated. But that’s not how they look when they come out. “You can see their shoulders start to soften after one visit,” says Dickeson, executive director of the Berkeley-based center, which provides family-centered, wraparound services for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Shannon Mitchell is one such parent. A mother to five-year-old twin boys Arlo and Augie, along with their eight-year-old sister Avery, Mitchell was unsure of what to do when her sons were diagnosed with moderate to severe bilateral hearing loss. When she visited the center’s preschool to learn more, she was surprised by the sense of joy. “There was so much singing and signing and dancing and videos, with parents and teachers and kids having the best time,” she says. She left in tears, but not before deciding: “From that day forward, I knew I would do anything to get my kids to go there.” CEID’s holistic, family-centered approach is unique in the Bay Area, and a nationally-recognized model of success, serving 1,200 families per year. Their interdisciplinary practice for children aged zero to five offers many kinds of therapies, along with audiology services which include testing and hearing aids. This full-service approach means that practitioners often catch other disabilities early as well. Without successful early intervention, academic outcomes plummet; only 60% of youth who are deaf/hard of hearing, for instance, graduate from high school. CEID’s commitment to the

was introduced to CEID by Founder Jill Ellis and during my first visit I could see and feel the importance of the work being done. I wanted our Family Foundation to get involved even though the needs of people who are deaf and hard of hearing were not familiar to me. Early education was one of our focuses and when I realized that CEID offered families invaluable resources and support during a challenging time while also giving their children high quality early education, I knew we would be a great match. By supporting a small organization, I feel the impact of our investment even more. Please find time to visit and see the tremendous work and positive difference that will change your perspective too!”

– Linda Borick Davidson

Louis L Borick Foundation, Director

“Ninety percent of deaf or hard of hearing children are born to hearing parents,” said Dickeson. “Most of these parents don’t know where to start. Many have never even met a deaf person. Parents face a huge learning curve and a range of overwhelming emotions. What we can do is support them at the highest level, and help them communicate with their child with a sense of joy.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“T

he teachers, aides, and therapists are all so amazing and special. I appreciate how much they care about the students and always go above and beyond! CEID also is special because they serve students of all abilities and provide opportunities for interactions with hearing peers, DHH peers, and Deaf role models. CEID encourages language development for children in many modalities including sign, spoken English, AAC, and other ways.”

Cultivate Joy: Support Communication and Connection for ALL

– CEID, Parent

“I

am pleased with the way my audiologist handled my case. I have only praise for the professionalism and courtesy. A big thank you!”

donation to CEID gives everyone the opportunity to reach their full potential through early education and support for families with young children who are deaf or hard of hearing and through audiology healthcare for people of all ages and all income levels. $2,500 To Reduce Isolation: Hearing Aid for a child or adult in need $1,000 To Build Peer Support: One month of family sign language classes and workshops $500 To Increase Language: One month of speech and language therapy Connect & Advocate. Learn more about hearing differences so you can be an ally in the community for access and equity. Contact georgina@ceid.org for learning opportunities, other giving levels, or to visit our Center.

CEID

www.ceid.org 1035 Grayson Street Berkeley, CA 94710

– Adult Audiology Patient

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT CEID

Contact:

KEY SUPPORTERS Bernard E. & Alba Witkin Charitable Foundation Callison Foundation Frank A. Campini Foundation George H. Sandy Foundation Louis L. Borick Foundation Quest Foundation Zalec Familian and Lilian Levinson Foundation Brian Atwater & Frances DeMarco Victoria & Todd Carlisle Karen Dempsey & Brian Fraser Jill & Jim Ellis Mary & Stanley Friedman Eric & Linda Horodas Andrew Huang & Elaine Tseng Sukey Lilienthal & David Roe Leonard Machado Dr. Anna Meyer Helen & John Meyer Kenneth & Frances Reid Alicia Schmidt & Shannon Mitchell Liliane & Edward Schneider Rosalie & Peter Streett Bruce & Irmgard Willock

Cindy Dickeson, MSW, Executive Director (510) 848-4800 x301 cindy@ceid.org

| www.thegivinglist.com |

Georgina Edwards, Development Director (510) 848-4800 x330 georgina@ceid.org

MENTORS 4 COLLEGE:

Getting into the Ideal College: a Reality for Everyone

nne was a senior at Hollywood High School hoping to become a veterinarian. But the daughter of a single mom was overwhelmed by the college application process. She had a limited list of prospective schools, no understanding of financial aid, and needed essay guidance. So she turned to Mentors 4 College, a grassroots agency that helps students apply to college, free of charge. “Without you, I wouldn’t be accepted as an Aggie,” Anne says after being accepted at UC Davis, home of a top veterinary school. “Thank you for reaching out and making me feel less alone.” Mentors 4 College (M4C), now celebrating its 10th year, matches highlytrained volunteer mentors with high school students to help them select and apply to their ideal college. The volunteer mentors from around the country meet with students and parents multiple times a year, in-person and online, to help them navigate the daunting college application process. While professional college consultants can charge $10,000 or more per student, M4C services are offered free to every student in need. There are no academic or financial thresholds. Their services include college counseling; online workshops in essay writing, college interviewing, and career planning; monthly webinars on such topics as financial aid and building balanced college lists; and monthly text messages to remind students of key deadlines.

In the past decade, Mentors 4 College has trained 120 mentor volunteers, and has assisted more than 1,000 high school students who have been admitted to such colleges as UC Berkeley, USC, Stanford, Occidental, Harvard, and Yale. The nonprofit, which works in conjunction with local schools and counselors, is the brainchild of David and Lois Zuckerman. When their children were applying to college, they worked through the process essentially on their own, because public school counselors are absolutely stretched beyond their limits. Meanwhile, they ran into an exceptionally talented student who’d started at community college to

| San Francisco Bay Area |

ensure a free education. After a year of not being challenged, he dropped out. “We could have helped this kid find many financially affordable, academically challenging opportunities if we’d only had the chance! He’s not the only one, there are millions like him.” With COVID, M4C offers all its services online – and demand has spiked coast to coast. “It’s just exploded,” David Zuckerman says. “A college education changes lives and improves communities. We can help more kids and more communities, but we’ve reached our limit on how we can fund this.”

Empowering Students

“I

wanted to start off by saying thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all your help throughout my entire college search – a process that continues to become more complicated each year. I want to thank you for the hours you have dedicated to helping me prepare for my future, including the time you spent meeting with me individually AND the time you have spent in training and workshops to stay updated and knowledgeable in the college selection process. “When I came to you a quarter of the way through my junior year of high school, I was overwhelmed by the college selection process and was scrambling to comprehend all the research and options I had. But you helped me (and my parents) make sense out of it and begin to narrow down the schools I was interested in and would eventually apply to. With that being said, I’m beyond appreciative of all you’ve done and I cannot imagine where I would be right now if it weren’t for Mentors 4 College.”

– Alyssa T

“I

believe that Mentors 4 College has saved my life and prevented me from becoming a statistic. I remember all too well my final semester of senior year that I had given up on myself. The weight of the loss of mom and the dream that I had always replayed in my mind that she would be in the crowd cheering me on as I crossed the stage at graduation had all come to an abrupt end and that reality was too much to bear. However, your program provided an avenue for me to follow, to not lose hope, and to not give up on myself. I hope that the Mentors 4 College program continues to find those students who need a little inspiration and guidance, who are so close to slipping between the cracks so that they can begin to see themselves in the life that they dream of.”

– Rico B, M.D.

“I

wanted to send you a quick email to thank you for your part in supporting our son during his college application process. He took the advice offered through Mentors 4 College. “In December, he was accepted with full scholarships to University of Chicago, University of Minnesota, and Washington State. In March, he was accepted to Duke, Columbia, Yale, and Harvard. “He has chosen to attend Harvard and received a full SCAN TO MAKE financial aid package. We are truly grateful to all of the colA DONATION... lege mentors.”

– Amy C

Sponsoring Students Mentors 4 College now seeks a range of sponsors so it can help more kids transform their lives, without charge:

$400 – Sponsor a student for 4 years as we help them in their quest for their ideal college $2,000 – Sponsor 5 students for 4 years as we help them in their quest for their ideal colleges $4,000 – Sponsor the training of all our new mentors for a year $8,000 – Sponsor our social media, video, and webinar efforts for a year $10,000 – Sponsor an add-on to our IT system to enhance our student-mentor communications

Mentors 4 College

(314) 434-3232 mentors@mentors4college.org mentors4college.org

Contact:

Vicki Horwits (424) 431-4122

| www.thegivinglist.com |

MATCHING CHALLENGE! Through December 31, 2022, the first $25,000 donated will be matched thanks to a generous challenge grant from an anonymous donor

STUDENTS RISING ABOVE:

‘Navigational Capital’

eronica Toscano has overcome tremendous obstacles, regularly facing poverty and violence throughout her childhood in the South Bay. Her family became homeless after her father shot and killed her older brother when she was six. As a low-income, first-generation student, Veronica was statistically unlikely to attend college – much less graduate. Nationally, only 45% of low-income youth enroll in college, and only 11% complete their program, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Determined to defy those odds, Toscano graduated from Santa Clara University. And today she is a Chief of Staff at Cisco, focusing on customer privacy. “As a first-generation college student, I did not have anyone I could lean on for guidance on how to create a resumé, interview tips, or share with me the importance of

internships,” Toscano says. However, she did have a strong ally: the San Francisco-based Students Rising Above, or SRA. “Having SRA in my corner through college made things a lot easier.” An outgrowth of an education series by KPIX CBS 5 journalist Wendy Tokuda, SRA began over 20 years ago as a way to help low-income students, most of whom are students of color, attend college. SRA provides comprehensive, wraparound services which include college access and success advising, healthcare navigation, financial capability training, career guidance and readiness, professional development and mentorship, and – since COVID began – no-cost private therapy from licensed psychologists. “Call it navigational capital,” explains Elizabeth Devaney, SRA’s CEO. “Most middle-class or upper-middle-class families learn how to navigate these issues from their

| San Francisco Bay Area |

parents. But for first-gen students or students whose families aren’t equipped to help them, it’s really easy to get lost.” SRA’s flagship program is called Rising Stars. At any one time, around 450 students work closely with SRA advisors and staff over a six-year period (beginning in their senior year of high school) to support their entry into and through college. SRA also works closely with more than 270 Bay Area companies to provide internships, and post-college jobs, to their graduates. To date, 100% of Rising Stars students have been accepted to a four-year college. In recent years, SRA has expanded its services to provide virtual support to a national audience. This program, Students Online Achieving Results (or SOAR), offers critical resources around post-secondary education, healthcare, financial capability training and potential career choices. Always looking to both share and adopt best practices, SRA has begun a partnership with a major California university to test its online program at the college level. With companies eagerly looking for a talented, diverse workforce, the stakes are high. “We need these students to succeed for the economic health of our country,” explains Devaney. And for the country to soar, SRA’s committed, resilient students need to have a chance.

“D

espite our backgrounds, we all have the ability to thrive when given the opportunity to pursue education. Because of our backgrounds, we not only want to better our lives for ourselves, but for our communities, as well.”

– Maria Zavala

SRA Alum, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2019

“I

am honored to be supporting the incredible students at SRA. Time and time again, I have seen firsthand the impact that SRA’s programming has on the lives of these incredible young individuals. It is truly amazing to see what the alumni of the program have accomplished. By affording them a life-changing opportunity, SRA unleashes the potential of these young people to achieve their dreams.”

– Susan Lowe

SRA Legacy Donor

Help Students Rise Above

here are two major ways to help support SRA and its students. The first is to consider a financial gift. A gift of $250, for instance, could provide access to emergency health services, while a more substantial gift of $5,000 could provide critical tuition coverage to allow a student to finish their program. The second is by offering students career guidance, providing internship opportunities, or otherwise working with your company to help support an eager, committed student looking to learn and advance.

KEY SUPPORTERS

tudents Rising Above is committed to expanding and diversifying its revenue and funding streams. In a typical year, SRA collaborates with over 270 funders, community organizations, school systems, and corporations to support its array of programs and services. SRA relies on diverse funding streams — individual, foundation and corporate — and continually seeks opportunities to broaden its SCAN TO MAKE support base. Some of SRA’s top corporate and foundaA DONATION... tion funders from FY20-FY21 include:

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT STUDENTS RISING ABOVE

Students Rising Above

(415) 333-4222 www.studentsrisingabove.org P.O. Box 192492 San Francisco, CA 94119-2492

Contact:

Sarah Fahey, Interim Director of Development sfahey@studentsrisingabove.org

| www.thegivinglist.com |

Autodesk Chevron Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation Julia Burke Foundation Koret Foundation O’Shea Foundation Quest Fund Ross Stores Foundation Shartsis Friese Solid Rock Foundation The Dean & Margaret Lesher Foundation Gap, Inc. The Joseph and Mercedes McMicking Foundation Union Bank Warriors Community Foundation

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COLLEGE PROMISE COALITION:

“It’s college affordability that keeps me up at night”

eredith Curry is a veteran in the field of college access, having advised and led student-support organizations throughout California. Over two decades ago she came to understand that for tens of thousands of first-generation or low-income Bay Area high school students, missing a single form like FAFSA – or Free Application for Federal Student Aid – might alone torpedo the chance to attend college. “We are throwing high school students into an incredibly complex system, in which many of the adults in their lives don’t even understand the financial forms and requirements to attend and afford college,” Curry says. “And for those that can get the training

Let’s Go to College Bay Area

and do have the expertise, counselors cannot possibly reach every student in need of support; they’re already stretched too thin.” Curry is the executive director of the Northern California College Promise Coalition (NCCPC), a new network of Northern California student-support organizations that collectively help more than 50,000 students per year across 12 counties. The Coalition’s focus is on families with limited financial resources and without college experience, for whom the gauntlet of administrative, curricular, and financial obstacles can be impossible to navigate. Curry’s goal is not to reinvent the programs offered by local nonprofits, but increase the efficiency of the entire field, helping organizations share resources, data, and best practices. The academic loss wrought by the pandemic has disproportionately impacted the Bay Area’s 410,000 low-income students, who now are struggling to find their paths into higher education. Curry is clear-eyed about the problem, but bullish about the resilience of students, families, and dedicated staff. As part of her work doubling the number of participating organizations in the coalition – including the mayoral offices in San Francisco, Oakland, Hayward, and San Jose – she was honored this year as one of the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 leaders. “With a more informed understanding of college choices, pathway options, and the actual costs involved,” Curry says, “our students will have a chance to get where they want to go, and finish what they start.”

ne of the coalition’s goals for 2022 is to create a student-led virtual platform called Let’s Go to College Bay Area, based on a successful program in Southern California linking students with their peers. The program will not only offer space for students to ask questions of trusted peers, but offer one-stop shopping for college access and success content, basic needs resources, and scholarships and internships – funding that is especially important for the 45% of students who have to work half-time while taking a full load of classes. The Coalition is looking for $25,000 to bring the program online while also developing a cohort of students’ skills to manage the virtual platform, write content for students by students, and promote Let’s Go To College Bay Area to high school and college students across the Bay Area.

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COLLEGE PROMISE COALITION (NCCPC)

Northern California College Promise Coalition (NCCPC) www.norcalpromisecoalition.org c/o Ed Fund West 1400 Marina Way South Richmond, CA 94804

100

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Contact:

Meredith Curry, Executive Director (408) 901-0290 | mer@norcalpromisecoalition.org

| San Francisco Bay Area |

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On a Mission to ‘Activate’ the Bay Area’s Charitable Foundations Behind the Tech Needs of Its Black-Led Nonprofits

“I think what it takes to have real change is funders really caring and doing what’s best for a cause or community. “So not just checking a box and moving on when the news cycle has changed, but putting hard dollars behind multifaceted, multiyear programs. It’s going to take more organizations to step outside of their comfort zones and start figuring out how they can help with some of these social issues. That’s what’s really going to make a difference.” – DARRELL BOOKER

Corporate Affairs Specialist, Nonprofit Tech Acceleration for Black and African American Communities

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t didn’t take long for Darrell Booker to impact one of the largest tech corporations in the world: Microsoft. In the weeks after the murder of George Floyd, Booker, who spent most of his tech career in the nonprofit sector, found himself at an all-hands meeting to discuss Microsoft’s response to the wave of racial unrest roiling the nation. He couldn’t help but speak up, expressing that the company had a duty to do its best to support the Black-led, Black-serving nonprofits that are so woefully underresourced across the country. “Here we are providing valuable software services built for any nonprofit on the planet, but those that need it the most are unaware of it,” Booker says. Two shocking data points swam in his head.

“F

The first he found in the pages of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, which found that Black-led nonprofits have – on average – 76% less unrestricted revenue than those with white leaders. The consequence: Black-led nonprofits are too often caught in a cycle where they can’t adequately invest in taking their work to scale, instead relegated to one-off funding with innumerable strings attached. The second came from the National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy, which found that of the $2.2 billion doled out by 25 community foundations between 2016 and 2018 in cities like Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, and St. Paul, only 1% went to organizations explicitly serving the Black community.

rankly, the fact that Black-led nonprofits want this help so much is not telling me anything I didn’t know as a Black man in America,” Booker says. “What it does tell me is that as tech advances across our society and world, it needs to be equitable and everywhere.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“I Within weeks of that all-hands meeting in June 2020, Microsoft stood up its Nonprofit Tech Acceleration Program for Black and African American Communities, NTA for short, and named Booker its head. It is now a marquee component to the Racial Equity Initiative announced by CEO Satya Nadella that same month. An indication of the NTA’s prominence is where it sits, within the company’s Philanthropies initiative, which gave, in 2020 alone, a whopping $1.9 billion in software, services, and grants to some 200,000 nonprofit organizations. The tech acceleration program provides Black-led, Black-serving nonprofits with software and technical assistance, and in some cases has even built out entire websites. All at no cost. By the time this magazine is printed, the program will have blown past Booker’s initial goal of 1,000, reaching more than 1,500 nonprofits across the country. It wasn’t a surprise to Booker that the need would far outstrip even Microsoft’s capacity to meet it. “Frankly, the fact that Black-led nonprofits want this help so much is not telling me anything I didn’t know as a Black man in America,” Booker says. “What it does tell me is that as tech advances across our society and world, it needs to be equitable and everywhere. When you think about how fast tech is moving and growing, it’s scary how much work we have to do to catch these organizations up.”

n 2021, technology is a key indicator of a highperforming organization. Our partnership with Microsoft is the first step in helping our funded providers achieve technological acumen so they can implement technology in an effective manner. As their technological landscape becomes more efficient, they will have more time for the high touch/quality interactions with their clients, which are catalytic for transformation of their clients’ lives.”

– STEPHANIE SYLVESTRE

Chief diversity and inclusion officer, Children’s Trust

To do that Booker is looking to “activate” the Bay Area’s philanthropic community – particularly its vast network of charitable foundations, which have the means and power to flip those two disturbing data points that have driven him since starting this journey in 2020. “Foundations need as much education as nonprofits do,” Booker says. “Foundations need to understand what tech can do, not only to deliver that message to the nonprofits, but to fund their digital transformations.” Booker points out tech’s power to allow nonprofits to evaluate the efficacy of their programs – a key to unlocking private and public sector grants. And he grows frustrated thinking about all the work that needs to be done to build up the cyber security capabilities of service agencies holding on to the vital data of some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations. He sees charitable foundations as a key player in lifting up the tech infrastructure of the sector as a whole. An example is the NTA’s partnership with the Miamibased Children’s Trust, which not only put its Black-led, Black-serving nonprofits in contact with Booker’s team, but also offered financial support to those organizations to

build up their tech capabilities. “In 2021, technology is a key indicator of a high-performing organization,” says Stephanie Sylvestre, the Trust’s chief diversity and inclusion officer. “Our partnership with Microsoft is the first step in helping our funded providers achieve technological acumen so they can implement technology in an effective manner. As their technological landscape becomes more efficient, they will have more time for the high touch/quality interactions with their clients, which are catalytic for transformation of their clients’ lives.” Booker is focused on multiplying that catalytic transformation for nonprofits and the people they serve across the country. “I think what it takes to have real change is funders really caring and doing what’s best for a cause or community,” Booker says. “So not just checking a box and moving on when the news cycle has changed, but putting hard dollars behind multifaceted, multiyear programs. It’s going to take more organizations to step outside of their comfort zones and start figuring out how they can help with some of these social issues. That’s what’s really going to make a difference.” If you are one of those funders who wants to step up, you will find a stalwart partner in Booker, the NTA, and Microsoft Philanthropies.

SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SUPPORTING BLACK COMMUNITY NONPROFITS Darrell Booker, Corporate Affairs Specialist Nonprofit Tech Acceleration for Black and African American Communities darrell.booker@microsoft.com http://aka.ms/nta Twitter: @darrellmbooker IG @darrellbooker

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| San Francisco Bay Area |

Justice For All “We can’t talk about the LGBTQ community without considering all parts of our identity. Our multiple, intersecting identities have a profound impact on our experience as a person in the LGBTQ community. Because we experience all of our identities simultaneously, our solutions have to be intersectional to honor that reality.” – Imani Rupert-Gordon Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights

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‘What Good Is a Platform if You Don’t Use It for Good?’ As told to Daniel Heimpel

have known CNN host Lisa Ling for nearly a decade now. I never saw her as anything but a mentor, a world-class journalist, and someone with whom I had the honor of working. Then, during the height of the heinous attacks on Asian Americans in 2020 and in 2021, I watched her on the TV being interviewed about the violence, braiding the history of racism against Asians in this country with her own experience. She spoke of the terrible things people were writing to her over social media, where she was extremely active in driving attention to victims of Asian hate and ways her 200k+ followers could support them. I was incensed by what had happened to her and what was happening to the broader Asian American community – all because of the way they look. Even as the violence seemingly subsides, Ling knows that forestalling the next eruption of racism towards any racial, ethnic, or religious group in this country requires an understanding of our fraught American history – even if it’s not taught in the history books. In this conversation, Ling and I discuss how she turned her celebrity into philanthropy, how others should engage, and what we should all learn from this dark time in our American experience.

You have been very vocal about the roots of racism directed at Asian Americans since first arriving on this country’s shores. What is consistent about that history? What does it tell you? Because Asian American history is not included in our history books, when attacks started to happen as COVID became rooted in this country, I think that people felt very dismayed and confused and hurt – Asians and non-Asians – by what was happening. But when you really stop and look back at Asian American history, Asians have been scapegoated and discriminated against since our ancestors first landed on U.S. soil. Chinese were an essential part of our workforce and built critical infrastructure, but as soon as those projects were completed, the rest of America wanted nothing to do with them. The wholesale campaign of torching Chinatowns throughout the West Coast of America was ignited, literally. And that pattern of discrimination has really never ended.

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It’s just that it became dormant at times when things seemed fine. But it’s always under the surface, and generally they’re economic triggers that incite those moments when things erupt. With the Chinese in the 1800s, it was very much about the Chinese taking away American jobs, the Chinese littering communities, not dissimilar from what we’re experiencing today, carrying this plague. When you look back, there were over a hundred documented riots throughout the West Coast in which Chinese people were killed and Chinatowns were torched. And there’s no cohesive mention of these things in our history books. Then you look at what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II. The notion that this country would round up over 120,000 Asian people because of what they look like and force them to live in camps, it’s unfathomable. We have to remember these moments because we will repeat history if we don’t know our history.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

You are a successful media professional, constantly in the public eye. Have you felt a change in the way you are treated on social media since you became so outspoken about these issues? Yeah. I’ve been on the receiving end of some really ugly social media posts. I’ve always been teased and made fun of. I’m used to that. But the level of vitriol and hate that was communicated through these posts was on another level. It wasn’t just, go back to China. It was, I hope you die of this virus because you and your people brought it here, and it’s killing Americans. But also, in the age of social media, it’s hard to see those horrific posts and surveillance videos of elderly people getting brazenly attacked. And I’m telling you, after the massage parlor shootings in Atlanta, I was completely distracted from being able to work, being able to parent. I just couldn’t believe that this was happening to people who look like me at this time. This notion that we have become this post-racial society just became a joke. But this whole pandemic has really removed the bandage from that notion, and not just for Asian people.

You have used your Instagram account to direct attention and donations to victims of hate crimes. What has that experience been like for you? Social media has become this really effective way to communicate. And for people who might not know what is happening in the Asian community, if they happen to respond to my work and like me and follow me, I’m going to let them know because this is an all-hands-on-deck effort where the Asian American community needs everyone to stand up in our defense. And to condemn these acts of hate that are completely unfounded and unfair. Social media has been also really effective in raising money. Many of these victims of racism and Asian hate have had their lives transformed forever because of what they look like. For a while, we were all struggling, how do we get these people help, money? How do we get in touch with these people to set up a GoFundMe? And we put together GoFundMe.com/AAPI as a go-to source to find those fundraisers for victims, as well as organizations that are working to combat hate. To date, my God, it’s raised millions of dollars.

But when I heard her voice and she was screaming in Cantonese, and crying out at the same time, her voice still haunts me. So many of those images live in my head. Too many of them. And I guess that’s why we’re still doing what we’re doing.

You are an advisor to the Asian American Foundation. What is that organization trying to accomplish and how do you hope to help? Their objective is really two-fold. It’s obviously to reduce attacks on the Asian community, but ultimately the goal is to educate people about the role that Asians have played in this country. And the importance of knowing our history and embracing our community as Americans. It will also be promoting Asian-led projects and funding organizations on the ground that are working to combat hate.

You are conventionally philanthropic. You donate to nonprofits and serve on boards. But you have also used your celebrity as a form of philanthropy. What would your advice be to other public figures interested in supporting a cause? What’s a platform if you don’t use it for good? Otherwise, I just don’t understand the point. So, I hope that people who do have platforms feel encouraged to seek out organizations that are doing things that are important to them. What good is a platform, if you don’t use it for good to raise awareness about things that people might otherwise not have any idea of, and to be able to highlight people who are on the ground doing the work?

What do you think 2022 and beyond will look like for Asian Americans? Is this eruption of violence and aggression over? I think it behooves all of us, irrespective of our ethnic background, to be aware of our history. To be aware of what marginalized communities have endured, what they’ve contributed, and the roles that they play in this country. I think we can and should continue to bolster organizations and efforts to make people aware of these histories; and organizations that are trying to support these efforts, to address communities that have just been overlooked for too long.

Can you tell me a story from that work that is particularly memorable? There was a woman in San Francisco, Chinatown who spoke the same Cantonese dialect as my grandmother. She was attacked and then ended up attacking the man who attacked her, and really hurt him.

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COURAGE MUSEUM:

A Bold, Living Monument to a Future Without Violence

n 2023, on the Main Post of San Francisco’s historic Presidio, Futures Without Violence will open the Courage Museum, an immersive series of installations that encourage visitors to realize a world without violence, hate, and discrimination. The Museum will serve as a bold new platform for public education, inspiration, and action, engaging visitors in a learning journey towards the possibility of a world in which violence is not an inevitable part of the human experience. It will be a place where individuals are informed and equipped with tools to rethink violence and advance concrete change. “Our goal with the Courage Museum is to engage the public in meaningful ways as intentional actors to change the human condition, from one riddled with trauma and violence, to one that is not,” says Futures Without Violence President Esta Soler. There has never been a national education museum focused on equipping visitors with tools to rethink violence and advance concrete change. Its four anchor installations – “Bearing Witness,” “ReThink,” “Empathy Mirrors,” and “Change Is Real” – explore the science and biology of violence; the connections between violence, discrimination, poverty, race and gender; the transformational impact of empathy; and the everyday actions we can all take to prevent violence from taking place. And it couldn’t come at a more prescient moment. The events of 2020 and 2021 present a unique opportunity to examine the root causes of violence and discrimination and create awareness and activism that can lead to long-term solutions. The urgency of rethinking violence is urgent considering the social and gender inequities that the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial unrest sparked by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others laid bare.

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“The Courage Museum is one of the bravest and boldest things that I’ve heard of in a long time,” says Tyah-Amoy Roberts, a survivor of the devastating Parkland School shooting and March For Our Lives Youth Congress Member. The interactive installations are being designed by Jake Barton, whose works include the 9/11 Memorial and Museum; the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama; and Greenwood Rising, the recently opened museum memorializing the brutal 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The Courage Museum will not be a static, one-size-fits-all experience. Each museum visitor and/or group will engage with age-appropriate content, stories, and experiences, ensuring all visitors, particularly high school and college students, core audiences for the museum, are presented with information and resources that are relevant and meaningful. The museum, along with an adjacent memorial to women and girls who have lost their lives as a result of gender-based violence, will also be a national hub for educators, policymakers, direct service providers, cultural influencers, and community leaders looking to expand their knowledge, and become more effective change-makers. Rachael Smith Fals, who is leading the museum campaign, notes that “many people feel overwhelmed by the scope and pervasiveness of these problems, and simply don’t know that solutions for prevention and healing exist all around us, that there are individual and collective actions we can all take to change the culture.” But education is only the first step on the journey, says Smith Fals, who is senior vice president for Futures Without Violence. “We want people to move from being witnesses and observers, to participants, by finding their own courage to actively engage in solutions.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“I

was a child-bride in an abusive relationship with no way out and nowhere else to go. After each beating, I vowed to do something virtuous if I survived until graduation when I could become financially independent. The work of Futures Without Violence was the vow I made to myself. No organization has done more to reduce gender-based violence, and that’s why I’m proud to support FUTURES and the creation of the Courage Museum. FUTURES has successfully engaged problem solvers at every level of society – members of congress, judges, physicians, teachers, parents, students and professional athletes. Every gift I make to FUTURES and the Courage Museum is a gift I make to myself for my life.”

– Patti Lee-Hoffman

Entrepreneur and Philanthropist

“I

Show Your Courage

utures Without Violence has embarked on a $25 million fundraising campaign to empower new voices for violence prevention, healing, and action. As a donor-investor or corporate sponsor of the Courage Museum you will be aligned with a cultural institution that SCAN TO MAKE embodies the emerging mission of museums and cultural A DONATION... destinations around the world: to serve as places for critical reflection, learning, and action. All Courage Museum investors will have the opportunity to put their indelible mark on this essential work, one that is especially crucial at a time when society needs a courageous collective effort to confront and change long-standing oppression, indignity, and inequities heightened by the continuing pandemic. The Courage Museum is part of the promise for a new future: a future without violence. “The cause speaks to my soul,” says Emily Scott, a lead ...AND LEARN investor. “And the name MORE ABOUT is perfect, the Courage Museum: courage in the face of violence.”

Futures Without Violence

(415) 235-2168 and/or (415) 235-5372 www.FuturesWithoutViolence.org www.CourageMuseum.org 100 Montgomery Street, The Presidio San Francisco, CA 94129

Contact:

Esta Soler, Founder & President esoler@futureswithoutviolence.org Rachael Smith Fals, Senior Vice President rsmithfals@futureswithoutviolence.org

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n a time that is both filled with challenge and promise, the Courage Museum will inspire all of us to participate and create a future without violence. This experience will engage visitors to commit to concrete actions that will help break cycles of violence and create generational change.”

– Jake Barton

Founder and Principal, Local Projects; Creative Director, the Courage Museum

KEY SUPPORTERS Diana and Arjun Divecha Elizabeth and Alan Dye William Hirsch and Betsy Crabtree Patti Lee-Hoffmann Joyce Newstat and Susan Lowenberg JaMel and Tom Perkins Deborah Santana Emily Scott The Wendling Family Blue Shield of California Foundation Nancy Eccles and Homer M. Hayward Family Foundation Ford Foundation Jonathan Logan Family Foundation Koret Foundation San Francisco Giants Vintner’s Daughter

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NATIONAL CENTER FOR LESBIAN RIGHTS:

We Serve With Love Katherine McCobb, NCLR’s client in a consumer fraud conversion therapy case, the first of its kind to combat this harmful practice

Students and their families from Minnesota who pursued legal action to ensure LGBTQ students have a safe, welcoming educational environment

very nonprofit has its superpower. For the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), it might be predicting the future. “If you want to know what issues will be viewed as critical for the LGBTQ rights movement in 10 years, look at what NCLR is working on today,” says Shannon Minter, the organization’s longtime legal director. NCLR was founded in 1977 “because the needs of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women weren’t being met either in what was then known as the ‘gay rights movement,’ or in the women’s rights movement,” says Imani Rupert-Gordon, NCLR’s executive director. Since then, NCLR has never stopped its tireless work supporting the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, legislation, policy, and public education. Among their cornerstone achievements was the establishment of the first national LGBTQ programs focused on immigration, transgender rights, sports, poverty, and elder law, as well as the first major legal efforts to stop youth “conversion therapy,” now part of their Born Perfect campaign. Although much of NCLR’s success rests on rigorous legal argument, the social and educational dimension is also fundamental. In 2011, for instance, the San Francisco-based organization partnered with the NCAA

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“N

CLR does the strategic work that catalyzes our movement for LGBTQ+ rights, equality, and justice. NCLR’s leadership, legal team, and staff are smart, impactful, and efficient. They make every dollar count. We have decades of proof that our investments in NCLR continue to reap big returns in the form of legal progress for our community, including its most vulnerable. Our dollars help make possible work for those who get the legal help they need regardless of their ability to pay. We are grateful every day for NCLR’s dedicated and effective work.”

– Kathy Levinson and Naomi Fine Lesbian Equity Fund

to create the Common Ground Initiative, which has successfully increased dialogue at conservative religious colleges about how LGBTQ inclusion can create safer, healthier, and more inclusive environments for studentathletes — and by extension for all students. As NCLR gears up for its 45th year, they are launching a three-year, $10 million Justice, Access + Equity Fund to underscore the importance of racial, economic, and gender justice in the LGBTQ movement. “We can’t talk about the LGBTQ community without considering all parts of our identity. I can only talk about my queer identity through the experience of living as a Black woman. And this is true for all | San Francisco Bay Area |

Imani Rupert-Gordon NCLR’s Executive Director

of us. Our multiple, intersecting identities have a profound impact on our experience as a person in the LGBTQ community. Because we experience all of our identities simultaneously, our solutions have to be intersectional to honor that reality,” says Rupert-Gordon, adding that those who identify as LGBTQ are more likely to experience poverty, food insecurity, and homelessness than the general population. These inter-connections are front and center in their recent campaign, We Serve with Love, which works with faith-based organizations to exuberantly welcome LGBTQ folks into their social-service programs. “We want everyone to see themselves in our work,” says RupertGordon, who believes that it is their mission to collaborate with those who might seem like unlikely partners. “If we are serious as a movement, we can’t allow ourselves to be positioned in opposition to any of our communities. LGBTQ people and our families exist in every faith community so we continue to build these bridges, and we will all be stronger for it.”

NCLR championed the first same-sex couple to jointly adopt in 1986 and continued to lead the movement on parentage law

early 10 years ago, Daniel filed the first complaint with the Office for Civil Rights in the United States Department of Education alleging that Arcadia Unified School District was violating Title IX by prohibiting him from rooming with his male peers on an overnight field trip and otherwise excluding him from the boys’ facilities. After conducting its investigation, the federal government agreed. That was the first time the federal government recognized that Title IX protected transgender students from discrimination and created the foundation for the Obama Administration’s guidance on transgender students in May 2016. The complaint and the resulting guidance were instrumental in the movement’s success in advocating for equal treatment of transgender students, both in and out of court.

“N

CLR is a fierce, inclusive, vital pillar of our community, keeping us visible in Washington. They battle the constant attacks on our rights while keeping a sharp focus on achieving full equality for all LGBTQ+ people. Donating to help ensure that this impactful organization has the tools it needs to stand up for us is an honor.”

“A

bright spot for Bev and me has been working with NCLR to resolve our case against Friendship Village. We’re thrilled that Friendship Village no longer has its discriminatory policy, and that no other same-sex couples seeking to live there will go through what we experienced.”

– Jennifer Rainin and Franco Stevens

– Bev Nance and Mary Walsh

Justice, Access + Equity Fund

KEY SUPPORTERS

CLR’s major new campaign, the Justice, Access + Equity Fund, will support the work being done at the intersection of social justice and civil rights issues, through the lens of LGBTQ rights. For 45 years, NCLR has worked at the live edge of the struggle for justice for LGBTQ people. We have made it our mission to identify racial, gender, and economic issues that have not yet been taken up by the movement, so that we can forge new paths forward and inspire others to take up work that will have the most powerful impact on the health and wellbeing of our communities, and enable more LGBTQ people to have a voice in shaping our shared world.

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT NATIONAL CENTER FOR LESBIAN RIGHTS

National Center for Lesbian Rights

(415) 365-1335 www.nclrights.org 870 Market Street, Suite 370, San Francisco, CA 94102

Contact:

Imani Rupert-Gordon, Executive Director IRupertGordon@nclrights.org

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Jay Cohen MacKenzie Scott Emily Doskow & Luan Stauss Lesbians for Good The Hugh C. and Thomas Lord Fund

NCLR BOARD MEMBERS Karen Bowen Dom Brassey Nancy Geimer Aubrey Hone, Esq. Dr. Elisa Diana Huerta Elizabeth Kim, Esq. Shauna Madison, Esq. Felicia Medina, Esq. Adetunji Olude, Esq. Arlette T. Smith Hillary Smith Sparks Fresh Lev White

Jennifer Bing, Director of Philanthropy JBing@nclrights.org

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CENTER FOR EMPOWERING REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS:

Dr. Mona Afary, Executive Director

Turning Trauma into Resilience for Oakland’s Vibrant Community

hen a flood of Afghan refugees began arriving in the Bay Area this fall, their plight was immediately understood by many Cambodian-Americans who had fled their own country 40 years before. “Many of our clients’ first thought was, ‘How can we help?’” says Mona Afary, founder and director of the Oakland-based Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI). Afary, an immigrant from Iran with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, launched CERI 16 years ago to address the ongoing traumatic effects of the Cambodian genocide. CERI clients know, Afary says, that “if they had been offered mental health services upon resettlement, they wouldn’t have suffered this kind of severe depression and PTSD, and could have mitigated multigenerational trauma.” CERI began with a handful of support groups for Cambodian refugees, who found in each other’s company a sense of joy and hope that had been flattened by isolation and PTSD. Since then, CERI has developed a community-based, trauma-informed model of care – integrating Western and Eastern therapeutic models with the ethos and wisdom of Cambodian culture. The organization has expanded to serve the needs of immigrants and refugees from 15 countries mostly throughout Asia, with

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Some CERI staff gather for a meeting in the park. CERI staff represent 15 native languages.

native language staff, to provide: multilingual family and individual counseling, psychiatric services, youth and teen support groups and activities, weekly adult support groups, workforce development programs, community resource referrals, elder activities, food and rent assistance, a community garden project, and other wellness programs. The twin scourges of COVID and anti-Asian violence have expanded the need for their services. During the pandemic, CERI increased its food support, serving 56,000 free lunches in the last year alone. The good news, according to the CERI team, is that the effects of trauma due to violence and genocide have been “significantly reduced” for those who receive the kinds of services offered at CERI. Part of the secret sauce is the sense of community that CERI co-creates with their clients, who see the East Oakland office as a kind of sanctuary, where they can take off their shoes, eat and chat, do yoga, and let go of the troubles outside the door. The CERI model also involves promoting self empowerment, and helping communities support each other. The troubles that vexed CERI’s community elders were those of their children — and now grandchildren. It was these clients who expressed the great need to assist their youngest. CERI responded with extensive youth pro| San Francisco Bay Area |

gramming, support groups, outdoor activities, garden work, and support to those threatened with, and who already have faced, deportation. Youth who have come up with the CERI community have been empowered to stay in school, leave gangs and other high risk activities, and are now major contributors to our community. Thavery, a CERI staff member, describes growing up in a home and neighborhood plagued by crime and alcoholism. A low point came when she was arrested for shoplifting as a teenager. Her parents, unsure how to help, did what many local Cambodian families did when they were out of ideas: “They took me right to CERI,” Thavery says. Once there, at the age of 14, she got involved in the youth programs, where everyone calls each other “cousin.” She is now studying for a degree in Criminal Justice, and as a CERI staff member plays a critical role in assisting elders and mentoring youth. The need for CERI’s programs will only grow, especially with their forthcoming expansion to serve the large numbers of incoming Afghan refugees who are in need of mental health services and care management. CERI staff know they have the support of their longtime clients, who also want to contribute to healing in some way and make a difference. This, in turn, is part of the cycle of healing.

“C

ommunities, especially those that have experienced extreme trauma, require culturally sensitive services that support well-being and build on their resilience and power. In Oakland, the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI) serves as a safe haven for immigrants and refugees, providing vital services that help these communities heal, rebuild, and thrive. As an immigrant, I’ve seen firsthand the impact CERI has made in the communities it serves. From providing much-needed mental health services to keeping families together to supporting youth in creating a powerful vision of their future, CERI’s work changes lives. CERI is a critical organization for immigrant and refugee communities in the Bay Area and I am proud to be a supporter.”

– Navin Moul

Longtime CERI supporter

Community members find friendship and solace in supporting each other.

Join the Circle of Care

ERI needs your support, to not only continue its extensive community-based mental health services and social services, but to expand now to serve Afghan refugees. Your donation of… $100 purchases a week’s worth of groceries for a family still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; $200 supports a trauma survivor to participate in three months of weekly support groups; $500 provides care management, transportation stipends, and coaching for a refugee or immigrant client seeking employment and financial independence, and; $1,000 enables six months of trauma-informed therapy for a client who suffers from PTSD or anxiety, including to those newly arrived from Afghanistan. For a donation of $1,000 or more, you will be a part of CERI’s Circle of Care and this will provide critical foundational support for the many services and healing provided by CERI.

CERI

“I

am not the person I was before I found CERI… What happened to all of us [in Cambodia] was so hard, but here I get strength. Before, I was sad, and I had to deal with my problems by myself… before I knew CERI, I had bad dreams, I could not stop crying, and I was not clear-thinking. When I came to CERI, I felt peace and beauty and I am so proud we have a place to help people. Now, I am calmer, and I feel so thankful to CERI. I come to the weekly support groups, I go on field trips, and I have good friends here. I feel happy, almost all the time, especially here in the garden that I help to take care of. When I put seeds in the ground, I watch them grow and come up to be plants. It reminds me that things do grow.”

– Cambodian community member Co-coordinator of the Community Garden

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION!

MATCHING CHALLENGE Through January 15, 2022, the first $2,000 donated will be matched thanks to The Giving List’s novel matching program

(510) 444–1671 www.cerieastbay.org 544 International Blvd, Suite 9, Oakland, CA 94606

KEY SUPPORTERS Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services Devata Giving Circle Magic Cabinet Episcopal Impact Fund RippleWorks East Bay Community Foundation Hella Heart Oakland Fund San Francisco Foundation JA Foundation New Breath Foundation Kaiser Permanente California Endowment The Wright Institute Samuel Merritt University Philanthropic Ventures Foundation A More Balanced World Center for Justice and Accountability The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation TWANDA Foundation Korean Community Center of East Bay FEMA Asian Health Services

Contact:

Kathryn Winogura, Dr. Mona Afary, Community Engagement and Development Director Executive Director kathryn.winogura@cerieastbay.org mona.afary@cerieastbay.org

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH:

Defending Rights, Securing Justice

or more than 40 years, Human Rights Watch has investigated human rights abuses, exposed the facts, and demanded change in all corners of the world. Adults and children facing grave human rights violations in Afghanistan. Summary killings in the Philippines. A planned assault and mass arrest of peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in New York. In the Bay Area, both the San Francisco and Silicon Valley committees are dedicated to bringing the fight against international and domestic human rights abuses home. “It’s an incredibly engaged group of individuals who care about human rights issues around the world,” says Gina Maya, director of the organization’s Silicon Valley office in Palo Alto. “The beauty of Human Rights Watch is we make a real difference in the lives of people around the world, and also here locally.” Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that seeks to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. The New York-based NGO works to meticulously document abuses against the world’s most vulnerable populations — and end those abuses. Investigate. Expose. Change. It’s been the aim of a group that began as Helsinki Watch in 1978 to monitor how the then-Soviet Union complied with the Helsinki Accords, a diplomatic agreement that demanded respect for basic human rights. First, researchers working in more than 100 countries uncover facts that outline an undeniable record of human rights abuses — from discrimination to genocide. Then, they report what they find, exposing abusive governments in the news media and online. Finally, they meet with governments and others to see that policy is changed, laws are enforced, and justice is served. To maintain its independence, Human Rights Watch doesn’t accept funding from any government. For its campaign to ban landmines worldwide, the organization shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. It also helped mobilize a global campaign to ban both cluster munitions and the use of child soldiers. Together, the San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices and their staff of 15 advocates focus on issues from criminal justice to immigration reform. They also fight for elder rights in nursing homes involving clinical restraints and being medicated without consent, as well as for women and children’s rights, including access to education and issues of underage marriage. Human Rights Watch employs innovative technology such as satellite imagery, artificial intelligence, and open-source investigations to find evidence of human rights abuses. They also investigate how digital surveillance tools, from hacking to facial recognition, are used to target activists, racial and ethnic minorities, and workers. “Technology can be a force for good, but it can also be utilized for surveillance and oppression,” says Jen Haile, director of the San Francisco office. “Our digital team is working to stay on top of new, emerging technologies that could potentially have massive human rights implications.”

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“I

am incredibly proud to support Human Rights Watch. They are vital to lifting up human rights defenders around the world, giving voice to the voiceless, and bringing a powerful spotlight to atrocities that if left in the dark, would continue. The impact of Human Rights Watch fuels hope and gives those of us that call the Bay Area home a tangible way to support human rights everywhere and anywhere. It’s about more dignity in the world – that is what HRW’s work ultimately delivers.”

– Amy Rao

Human Rights Watch Board Co-Chair

“W

ithout HRW Senior Advocate Elizabeth Calvin’s advocacy for youth and effort to change archaic beliefs about justice, I would still be waiting to die in prison under a life without parole (LWOP) sentence for a crime I committed when I was 18 years old. Instead, I have been given the opportunity to demonstrate my transformation and walk out of prison after 22 years. Elizabeth has done more than change laws — she has changed the hearts and minds of people to believe in restorative justice and the human capacity to change.”

– William Hoffmann

Former LWOP prisoner and current HRW Associate, Children’s Rights Division

COMMITTEE LEADERSHIP Silicon Valley Executive Committee: Amanda Jones Gloria Principe, Chair Cathy Crane Moley Fran Codispoti Amy Rao, Chair Emerita Barb Deméré Jean Scheible Dana Fenwick Beth Van Schaack Loren Gordon Sofie Vandeputte, Chair Emerita Barbara Hugli-Jones Marie Vought Susie Hwang Keith Jantzen

Human Rights for All

uman Rights Watch is working around the clock to protect and uphold fundamental rights and freedoms on multiple fronts. Across 102 countries, we cover everything from refugee rights and LGBTQ+ rights to climate change and the environment. We are leveraging our time-tested methodology — SCAN TO MAKE investigating human rights abuses, exposing the facts to the public, and effecting change — to right wrongs A DONATION... wherever they happen and help lay the foundation for a more just and equitable world. Over the last year, HRW has produced 400+ publications documenting the far-reaching consequences of COVID-19. We exposed how the pandemic has laid bare systemic frailties in the protection of basic rights and spurred a range of human rights abuses. With your partnership, we can secure more foundational victories for human rights amidst the countless global rights challenges on the horizon. ...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org 855 El Camino Real #333 Palo Alto, CA 94301

Contact:

Jen Haile, San Francisco City Director (202) 460-9669 hailej@hrw.org

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San Francisco Executive Committee: Joy Alferness, Co-Chair Leigha Weinberg, Co-Chair Ipek Burnett Mark Grace Alyssa Harper Caitlin Heising David Keller, Chair Emeritus Danielle Kraaijvanger Marty Krasney Lore McGovern, Chair Emerita Nancy J. Parrish, Chair Emerita John Pellegrini Orville Schell, Chair Emeritus Loy Sheflott Darian Swig, Chair Emerita

Gina Maya, Silicon Valley City Director (650) 906-1010 mayag@hrw.org

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Driving Social Change “Our core work focuses on pivotal moments in history and literature, difficult histories when communities fractured and when neighbor turned against neighbor, such as the Holocaust, the Civil Rights Movement and current day events such as the debates over immigration or voting rights, as a way for students to reflect on their own choices and decisions. We’re really helping to create the next generation of upstanders, those people who choose to make a difference.” – Elaine Guarnieri-Nunn, Executive Director, Facing History and Ourselves - Bay Area

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Drawing on Family History, Sparks Charts Justice-Charged Path for Masto Foundation by Dan Schifrin

n 1942, Harry and Masie Masto – along with more than 110,000 Japanese Americans – were sent to a World War II internment camp. After arriving at a government farm in Idaho, Harry was tapped to manage the internees and German POWs that worked the farm, and after the war he bought the land and launched a successful potato dehydration business just over the border in Washington State. As the business became more profitable, the Mastos shared their fortune with the community by developing an emergency safety net for workers, leading a capital fundraising campaign to create the first local hospital and community college, and even sending the children of employees to college. After selling the business in 1977, the Mastos set up a foundation to continue their community support; soon after, however, Harry had a stroke and could no longer speak or direct the foundation. The money was kept safe, but the foundation was largely dormant until Masie Masto died in 2018, at the age of 101. Enter the Mastos’ granddaughter, A. Sparks (who goes by Sparks). A trustee of the Masto Foundation since she was 16, Sparks earned her MBA and Master’s in Social Work and went to work at other foundations, learning the intricacies of grantmaking and financial advising as she sought to integrate that work with her experience as a queer woman of color. While those experiences helped prepare her to take over her family foundation as the CEO (and only staff member) in 2018, Sparks never had the chance to ask her grandfather about his philosophy of giving. So she did the next best thing – visiting the community of Moses Lake in Eastern Washington to see first-hand the impact of her grandparents’ largesse. The trip changed her life. “I talked to a lot of people in the community, including my grandfather’s secretary of 30 years, and the stories I heard were extraordinary,” Sparks says of her family’s support of worker collectives, or leasing their land at below-market rates to employees. All this was done informally, and in a Japanese American cultural context where giving is an expression of gratitude, respect, and a desire to contribute. Today, Masto Foundation offers an updated version of

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Harry Masto’s vision, which is explicitly dedicated to social justice for marginalized or underrepresented communities. The foundation is part of a small but growing group of institutions looking to create a new and more just model of giving based on trust and relationships, with a healthy disregard to ego. “We honor my grandfather’s legacy by highlighting the need for a more diverse culture of philanthropy, both in terms of who participates and the ways in which we give,” Sparks says. “The system has excluded so many communities from having access to wealth, which has led to philanthropy being very transactional. With the capital our family was

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lucky enough to accumulate, we promote an alternative way of giving, which honors the Japanese and Japanese American traditions of gifting and focuses more on relationships. We hope that this model will influence other philanthropists to give in ways that promote equity and are more aligned with the needs of diverse communities.” One way the foundation does this is by providing funds to communities and letting them take the lead in deciding how to use it. Starting in 2020, in response to the national racial equity conversation prompted by the killing of George Floyd, Masto Foundation, which always supported organizations led by people of color, began to support African American community leaders and institutions more explicitly. An example is Trust Black Women Initiative, a partnership with Black leaders and community activists, which offers openended, ongoing support.

“The system has excluded so many communities from having access to wealth, which has led to philanthropy being very transactional. With the capital our family was lucky enough to accumulate, we promote an alternative way of giving, which honors the Japanese and Japanese American traditions of gifting and is focused more on relationships. We hope that this model will influence other philanthropists to give in ways that promote equity and are more aligned with the needs of diverse communities.”

the revolutionary way Sparks and the foundation support organizations like APIENC. “One of my first interactions with Sparks was her simply opening her home to us for an event, in which we had the chance to meet other donors,” Wills says. Sparks continued to offer “invaluable” support through funding, as well as strategic and fundraising advice,” Wills adds. Perhaps most radically, the Masto Foundation offers no grant guidelines; indeed, it doesn’t ask for or accept grant proposals, a process that can be a huge drain of time and energy for nonprofits. “Even the best-intentioned foundations can set the strategic focus for entire sectors, emerging with new priorities which then dictate how funds are given out,” says Wills. For small organizations like hers, “our commitment has to be to the people we serve, not to the grantmaking process, which sometimes can feel like an end in itself.” For Sparks, a more transparent culture of philanthropy is a crucial part of creating equity and levelling the playing field. If someone wants to partner with her and the Masto Foundation to create a more equitable society? “Just call us,” she says. Sparks’ professional engagement with her family foundation began by understanding her grandfather’s legacy. Part of her work now, she says, is to encourage other family foundations to bring younger members into the process. “It’s an amazing experience for philanthropic families to come together and talk about the values and history behind their money,” she says, adding that this level of transparency and acknowledgement of the historical inequities in wealth accumulation highlights the ways in which contemporary philanthropy is still “overwhelmingly white.” Whatever the racial, ethnic, or gender profile of philanthropic organizations, “the system is at risk if we don’t invite the young folks in,” Sparks says. “If philanthropy doesn’t seem like it is open enough to change, then young people will opt out. And we need the younger generation to help us see the future.”

As part of Masto’s commitment to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, especially in light of disturbing recent spikes in anti-Asian violence, Sparks and the foundation have championed organizations like API Equality – Northern California (APIENC), which supports the Bay Area’s transgender, non-binary, and queer Asian and Pacific Islander community. Sammie Ablaza Wills, the nonprofit’s director, points to

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BRADY | UNITED AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE:

We Can End Gun Violence by Taking Action - Not Sides

o those who say we can’t reduce gun violence in America, Tony Porter has a response: “Remember when we didn’t have seat belts?” Porter is a risk-management expert and advisor to start-ups, oriented toward finding and supporting the most effective people and projects in a field. When a gunman opened fire at a high school in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 and igniting a new national conversation about gun safety, Porter wanted to support the organization most likely to make a tangible and meaningful difference. He did his research, which led him directly to Brady | United Against Gun Violence formerly known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “I couldn’t look at my kids and say that this was the world I was leaving them with,” says Porter. He acknowledges that gun violence “is a massively complex problem.” But at the same time, as with the move to require seat belts, a campaign of “the right ideas, competently executed,” could flip the switch. Porter, based in Marin County, now sits on the national board of Brady. A storied national gun violence prevention organization with a strong California presence, Brady has been at the forefront of developing bipartisan educational and legislative solutions to our country’s gun epidemic for over 40 years. Like many volunteers and supporters, Porter was attracted to Brady’s multi-pronged approach, including their Combating Crime Guns Initiative, a “supply-side” strategy that seeks to stem the pipeline of guns sold from unscrupulous dealers, as opposed to overburdening impacted communities (especially communities of color) with tackling violence prevention locally. Brady’s data analysis, and collaboration with local and federal law-enforcement, is making it harder for dealers to evade the law. Successes like this make it possible for Brady to do even more work on the ground. In Oakland, for instance, Brady staffer Erica Rice has helped community-based organizations develop educational and policy toolkits that they might not otherwise have access to. Brady has also developed a successful youth-oriented coalition called Team ENOUGH, which trains and empowers young people in California to organize and advocate on a range of gun-related issues. Brady also works with The Ad Council on the End Family Fire campaign which is educating both gun owners and non-gun owners on the role of safe firearm storage. But tragedy continues to lurk around every corner, as gun violence has again spiked during the pandemic. Brady recently partnered with Oakland based nonprofit Youth Alive! to create a short, animated video, “Remembering Davey,” about a 21-year-old who was murdered in Oakland in the summer of 2016. “I didn’t want to live,” says Davey’s mother, Jasmine Hardison, who narrates the video. But five years later, through educational opportunities like this video, she can show her son that “I’m still out here pushing for you… That’s what I’m here for. To have hope after this.” And that is what Brady is in the business of providing: hope.

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Shepard Fairey and Tony Hawk at the 2020 Voices of Parkland Premiere

“P

reventing gun violence is the number one issue for me. I can’t emphasize this enough: If we’re going to move forward, Brady has the plan. Together we’re unstoppable, and I hope you’ll join me in this fight to take action – not sides to end gun violence.”

Team ENOUGH Executive Council members

“I

grew up living the daily effects of gun violence. Growing up in a city like Oakland, that has been plagued with gun violence for decades, it became my normal. I joined Team ENOUGH to be a voice for those who have been left out of the gun violence prevention movement. Team ENOUGH members are survivors of gun violence; we are students and we are activists. Our voice is unique. Brady has been critical in providing us a national platform to advance bold ideas and policies.”

– Steve Kerr

Gun Violence survivor and Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors

– Ivan Garcia

Team ENOUGH Executive Board Member

Giving to End Gun Violence

elping eliminate gun violence can take many forms. On the one hand, as Brady board member Tony Porter asks: “Where is the billionaire who with a $300 million gift can turn the tide of gun violence,” in the same way a gift of that magnitude has been able to save countless lives from disease and malnutrition? SCAN TO MAKE On a much smaller scale, a gift A DONATION... of $5,000 is enough to create a deeply affecting animated short about a young person like Davey, whose example (and the commitment of his mother) can educate and inspire those looking to keep themselves and others safe.

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT BRADY

Brady

www.bradyunited.org 840 1st Street NE, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20002

Contact:

Liz Dunning, Gun Violence Survivor & Vice President of Development (202) 370-8149 ldunning@bradyunited.org

Jessica Gerber RN, Senior Advisor, Brady

KEY SUPPORTERS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RLC

Marita Daly (Past Chair) Pellie Anderson (Co-Chair) Kath Tsakalakis (Co-Chair) Jeff Bleich Anne Ching Kris Dyszynski Eric Havian Dennis Joyce Nick Kenig Coach Steve Kerr Sonja Caldwell Kos Kira Dahlgren Lancaster Reginald Lee

John Maa Dennis Mulqueeney Josh McHugh Michael Plimack Kari & Tom Rocca Steven Roland Michael Ronen Louise Serio Steve Sposato Eric Swergold & Dawn Dobras Institutional Funders: California Wellness Foundation Lynx Foundation

For donor advised funds, stock, checks, make payable to:

• Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence (C3 arm, tax deductible) • Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (C4 arm, non tax-deductible)

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FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES:

‘Inspiring the Next Generation of Upstanders’

laine Guarnieri-Nunn was attending a Facing History and Ourselves seminar about the steps that led to the Holocaust years ago when she had a lightbulb moment. The then-third year high school teacher heard the story of a student who had been repeatedly bullied at school, but then found herself mocking another bullied girl whose diary was being read aloud behind her back. That story resonated with Guarnieri-Nunn, who recalled that she herself had joined in the laughter when a girl in her elementary class was being teased – something she later regretted. “I realized at that point that I wanted students to make the connection between the history we study in class and their own lives and the choices they were making every day,” Guarnieri-Nunn, executive director of Facing History and Ourselves - Bay Area, says. The mission of Facing History and Ourselves, which was founded in Massachusetts in 1976, uses the lessons of history to challenge teachers and students to stand up to bigotry and hate. The nonprofit, which has seven regional offices in the U.S. and one in both Canada and the UK, provides studentcentered, equity-focused training and curricula to educators, schools, and districts. “Our core work focuses on pivotal moments in history and literature, difficult histories when communities fractured and when neighbor turned against neighbor, such as the Holocaust, the civil rights movement and current day events such as the debates over immigration or voting rights, as a way for students to reflect on their own choices and decisions,” Guarnieri-Nunn says. The students are asked to examine their own identities and group membership, as well as the concept of “we and they,” and then to reflect on historical case studies to understand the choices people made in the past and connect them to how they could make a difference in their communities now, she explains. “We’re really helping to create the next

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generation of upstanders, those people who choose to make a difference,” Guarnieri-Nunn says. Kobi was a 7th grader at David Starr Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto when he read The Diary of Anne Frank in the class of a teacher who had been trained in Facing History’s approach and was using the nonprofit’s content resources. He then wrote a report about how his school was named after a prominent California eugenicist. Kobi, who is biracial, reflected that if Jordan had been alive when he was a student, he may have labeled Kobi feeble-minded or forced him to take an IQ test or be sterilized because of his heritage. Kobi spearheaded the successful effort to get the local school board to change the name of the school to Frank S. Greene Jr. Middle School. “Facing History teaches you that an upstander is someone who takes action, somebody who isn’t just content to sit around and wait for others to do something,” Kobi says.

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“B

efore working with Facing History, I felt burned out as a teacher. Through my Facing History training, I reconnected to why I went into teaching. I now have tools to strengthen my teaching practice and engage my students in this important work.”

– Facing History Teacher

“F

acing History classrooms are transformative for students. They learn far more than history. They learn about humanity. Facing History students learn to follow their moral compass and become Upstanders. The world needs more Upstanders – we need more Facing History classrooms.”

– Caretha Coleman

Help Facing History Reach More Students

Facing History and Ourselves Board of Directors

acing History believes young people are ready and able to change the world. They can stand up for good, become critical thinkers, challenge bigotry and hate, engage in their communities, and strengthen democracy. They just need the right tools. Facing History provides these tools. For 25 years, Facing History has trained and supported Bay Area middle- and high-school educators to connect lessons from history to events unfolding today. We partner with educators, schools, and districts to empower students to stand up and make a better world. With the shift to virtual classes, a contentious election, and a national reckoning of racial inequities over the past year and a half, more teachers than ever are turning to Facing History for support. In honor of our 25th year, help Facing History partner with 25 school districts across Northern California. Your investment will train up to 1,000 new teachers to empower their students to challenge the legacies of injustice and create a more just and equitable world. www.facinghistory.org/thegivinglist

Facing History Works!

• 94% of students feel more motivated to learn in their Facing History class • 81% of Facing History students learn to recognize racism, antisemitism, and prejudice • Facing History alumni are more likely to continue conversations beyond the classroom with their friends and family

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES

Facing History and Ourselves www.facinghistory.org/thegivinglist PO Box 30368 Oakland, CA 94604

Contact:

Emily Barrett, Director of Development emily_barrett@facinghistory.org (510) 786-2500 x224

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KEY SUPPORTERS Amy & James Ramsey Caretha & Ken Coleman CommonSpirit Health Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation Intel Corporation Judy & Josh Goldman KLA Foundation MacKenzie Scott Maja Kristin Nancy & Daniel S. Katz Nina & Ronald Gilson Shannon Hunt-Scott & Kevin Scott Silicon Valley Community Foundation Skoll Foundation Square Stuart Foundation Susie Richardson & Hal Luft The Engel Family Walter & Elise Haas Fund Warriors Community Foundation

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BLACK CITIZEN:

Building a Bay Area Movement for Social Change

(photos by Terry Scussel Photography)

heo Ellington grew up in San Francisco’s BayviewHunters Point Neighborhood in the 1990s and 2000s. Then and now it remains one of the city’s most economically depressed areas, a densely populated, largely Black, working-class district hit hard by the postwar decline of shipbuilding and industrial manufacturing in the Bay Area. But Ellington loved the Bayview and San Francisco. “I realized the conditions in Bayview were not normal for young people like me,” Ellington says. “My walk to middle school was marked by balloon shrine after balloon shrine to young Black males who fell victim to gun violence. My childhood was spent trying to understand the socioeconomic conditions in my neighborhood, but I was able to venture out and grew to love everything in the city.” Ellington’s grandfather came to Bayview from Mississippi and as a construction worker was able to build a home for himself and his family. “He rubbed his pennies together and bought a house for all his family,” Ellington says. “My dream is to do that for San Francisco. This city has turned into a city for the wealthy, but with the right organizing we can make sure everyone can earn an honest living and own a home in a city like San Francisco.” A veteran community activist, Ellington, along with Sarah Richardson-Baker, Cassandra James, and other activists founded Black Citizen in 2020 as a response to the murder of George Floyd. “I was struggling with what to do, how to respond, and where my place was in America as a Black man,” Ellington says. “My first response was to write an open letter to my son. The gist of that letter was to never apologize for who you are and to wear your Blackness proud. I also realized I had to start organizing.” The goal of Black Citizen is to provide a platform that empowers people to create a movement for change and reform in the Bay Area. “We offer micro grants and leadership coaching for

emerging community organizers in the Bay Area.” So far, Black Citizen has received crucial startup grants from the Walter and Elise Haas Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, as well as funding from Salesforce and a few small family funds. “We anticipate funding around health and wellness, education, the arts, and the general idea of advancing Black lives. There is a huge disconnect between funders and organizers on the ground in their communities. We are hoping to provide that middle ground. Bridging the gap is something that is super important to me,” Ellington says.

Build a Movement of Changemakers in the Bay Area

lack Citizen is dedicated to training young community organizers and facilitating movement building and social change throughout the Bay Area. 9/25/21, 11:28 AM LOGO_Black Citizen.svg With additional fundraising, Co-Founder Theo Ellington hopes to hire five organizers and provide them with professional leadership coaching. “If we set up this mechanism right,” says Ellington, “these organizers will be the next leaders of the high-profile projects and orgs we will see in the headlines.” To get involved with Black Citizen, and to learn how to donate, please visit blackcitizen.org.

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

Black Citizen

hello@blackcitizen.org (415) 968-9390 4705 Third St. San Francisco, CA 94124

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| San Francisco Bay Area |

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT BLACK CITIZEN

(photo by Deshawn Davis)

“I

was struggling with what to do, how to respond, and where my place was in America as a Black man. My first response was to write an open letter to my son. The gist of that letter was to urge Lennox, to never apologize for who you are and to wear your Blackness proud.” – Theo Ellington Black Citizen, co-Founder

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To Your Health “We dare to dream of a vibrant, healthy San Francisco, where health disparities among Black and marginalized communities have been eliminated and HIV/AIDS is a disease of the distant past.” – The Rafiki Coalition

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Philanthropy’s ‘Jerry Maguire’ May Just Change the Game by Jonathan Karp

ateefah Simon is on a roll. An eloquent and rapid speaker, she expounds on how philanthropy needs to change, how funders need to have closer ties to grassroots organizations and collaborate more with each other, and how hard she is working to forge those alliances at this inflection point in the fight against racism. Simon may be the president of Akonadi Foundation, with millions of philanthropic dollars at her disposal. But she retains the passion of the former community organizer who, while still a teenager, found her calling as an advocate for Bay Area youth most harmed by racism and injustice. And that’s the point. “I see my role as president of this foundation as an organizer within philanthropy. I’m on the phone all day, every day,” she says. Then she throws a curveball: “I want to be the Jerry Maguire of social-justice, racial-justice philanthropy.” Just as the fictional sports agent worked the phones nonstop to champion his client, Simon explains, she speaks daily with colleagues at other foundations to leverage their work in common areas and to encourage funding for Akonadi grantees or affiliated nonprofits. “I want to be an evangelist for organizers and racial justice leaders,” she says. At 44 years old, Simon represents a new generation of philanthropic leader, and her untraditional path through the ranks of the nonprofit world gives her unique insight and credibility. Before she worked with young women facing systemic barriers in San Francisco, Simon was one: a highschool dropout with a juvenile court record for shoplifting and a family harmed by drug addiction. A turning point came when she was 16. Simon got a job at the Center for Young Women’s Development (now named the Young Women’s Freedom Center). She was trained in the Street Survival Outreach Program as a mentor to girls with similar backgrounds to help them build self-esteem and selfsufficiency. By 19, she was executive director and, despite being a new single mother, Simon expanded operations, including peermentoring programs for job skills and leadership training. In 2003, at the age of 26, she became the youngest MacArthur Fellow, otherwise known as a “Genius Grant.”

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“ I want to be able to fund the Harriet Tubmans, the Cesar Chavezes. We see them. They’re right in front of us. We must identify the leader, idea, and team and fund the hell out of them just like they have done in venture capital.” – Lateefah Simon Akonadi Foundation President

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National acclaim aside, Simon found fundraising dispiriting. Potential donors were often less interested in learning about the Center’s solutions than in pathologizing the young women for prior circumstances: drug addiction, sex work, and crime. “I remember thinking that one day, I won’t have to beg for money from people who don’t see us as human,” she says. A prelude to that day came during a visit by philanthropists Wayne Jordan and Quinn Delaney, who were reviewing a grant

application from the Center. Their questions were sensitive and profound. “I thought, wow! They see us and what we’re trying to do,” Simon says. Her joy prompted a more-refined aspiration: “One day, I want to be a funder. I want grant applicants to feel as valued as these people on the other side of the table made me feel.” The couple approved the grant application, founded the Akonadi Foundation a few years later, and in 2016 hired Simon to run it. Simon left the Women’s Center in 2005 for a series of jobs that burnished her credentials as a youth-justice and civilrights advocate. Under then-District Attorney Kamala Harris, she launched San Francisco District Attorney’s reentry services division to reduce youth recidivism. Next, she served as executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, launching a focus on criminal justice reform. She also made time to return to school, earning a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Mills College. Simon crossed over to philanthropy in 2011 via the Rosenberg Foundation, where she managed grants focusing on criminal-justice reform and civic engagement and helped found the Leading Edge Fund, supporting the next generation of civil rights leaders in California. In 2016, she became president of Akonadi, whose mission is to end structural

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racism and create a racially just Oakland. The move completed Simon’s conversion to “funder,” but Akonadi also needed her grassroots prowess to punch above its weight and drive more dollars to community groups in Oakland. “The donors wanted to hire a director who was an organizer, knowing that our job is not just to give grants, it was also to organize other donors,” she says. Simon focused on supporting nonprofits working to end incarceration of young people of color in Alameda County through the All in For Oakland initiative, and overhauling Akonadi’s funding strategy. She felt that the foundation needed to adopt an electioncampaign model: Give a bigger three-year grant to a core grassroots organization and get partners to fund support services like polling, communications, legal advice. “We weren’t funding them to win,” she says. “So instead of giving $75,000 over three years, Akonadi said we’ll give $300,000 a year and get funding for every single partner you want funded,” Simon says. For the All in For Oakland initiative, Akonadi has raised $25 million in partner funding over three years – nearly twice its own grants.

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“You can’t simply believe that we are going to change and implement new visions with small amounts of resources for one or two years,” she adds. “I want us to do things differently.” Simon used the same reasoning to push for the creation of the bold, five-year $100 million California Black Freedom Fund in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. She also argued

| San Francisco Bay Area |

that there needed to be more investment in Black-led socialchange movements. (See separate article) It’s an important moment for racial-justice philanthropy, Simon says, and there have been some long-sought wins: Governor Gavin Newsom’s decision to close the Division of Juvenile Justice prisons and getting police out of Oakland schools. Black-led organizations were in the thick of both campaigns. These days, Simon is busier than ever. On top of her day job

and civic roles, she is back in school. Her weekends belong to the University of San Francisco, where she is in the second year of a Master of Public Administration program. Simon’s 25-year-old daughter, meanwhile, is a second-year law student at Howard University. She opted for the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) over top-10 law schools that she got into, Simon says, because the acceptance letters arrived right after George Floyd’s death. The contrast of their lives traces the progress that Simon has long worked for. “My daughter is able to be with friends and feel safe,” she says. “When I was 25, I was a mom living in the projects.” After a pause, Simon adds that she still feels 25, which bodes well for the tough road ahead to achieve real justice. She is invigorated by the moment and by her role in it. “I want to be able to fund the Harriet Tubmans, the Cesar Chavezes. We see them. They’re right in front of us,” she says. “We must identify the leader, idea, and team and fund the hell out of them just like they have done in venture capital. They gave people resources to dream and to be able to disrupt norms.” Spoken like a funder with the spirit of an organizer.

| www.thegivinglist.com |

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RAFIKI COALITION FOR HEALTH AND WELLNESS:

Letting the Body Come to Life

edicine often starts with a story. And the story Dr. Monique LeSarre tells about health and San Francisco’s African American community is bracing: “The system is designed to make us sick.” Dr. LeSarre runs the Rafiki Coalition for Health and Wellness, a grassroots hub designed to meet the needs of San Francisco’s dwindling Black community. Rafiki began in 1986 as the Black Coalition on AIDS, in response to the stark health inequities African Americans with HIV/AIDS faced. The coalition has since expanded its mission to address the web of racial health equity issues that collectively depress the quality of life for the city’s Black community. According to Dr. LeSarre, District 10 – which includes the neighborhood of Bayview-Hunters Point, and where the majority of the city’s African American residents live – has no full-service grocery store. The area’s historic shipyards are also a toxic superfund site, with “continuing, generational impacts from carcinogens and radiation still finding its way into the soil and pavement.” Is it any wonder that the district, where Rafiki’s office is located, “has the worst birth outcomes outside of rural Alabama?” Last year, Rafiki served more than 4,000 people through its network of therapists and practitioners, including acupuncture, dance, and mental health counseling. This trusted coalition was one reason UCSF’s hospital partnered with Rafiki to model collaborations “built on trust and understanding arising from respectful dialogue between community knowledge holders and institutional service providers,” according to UCSF’s Precision Medicine website. The wounds and distrust, however, run deep. And generational traumas – both social and medical — cannot be solved with a pill. The response to this systematic assault on African American health, says Dr. LeSarre, has to be another system – of health

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“I

rate my experience at Rafiki Coalition blue ribbon, grade A, and top notch! I will refer this place to all my family, friends, and constituents. I had a muscle knot in my right shoulder. After treatment, I feel like a million bucks. I thank all the staff for treating me like family. God bless you all.”

“Everyone is welcomed and appreciated. It truly is a place of healing and community. Free medical clinic and amazing practitioners. Love the hugs from staff.” “One of the most beautiful spaces for healing events there is. (And I’ve been to quite a few.) From free massage and acupuncture, to free healing conferences with world renowned leaders from our communities. For us, by us.” “Family may come to us in the most unexpected, yet, sublime ways… Keep Rafiki ALIVE!”

and wellness, designed to foster trust. For that reason, Rafiki is doubling down on their network approach to community health, looking to expand their complementary alternative medicine clinic as well as all other wellness and healing services. The goal, funding permitting, is to create an app that gives users easy access to services and resources designed specifically for them. Despite the seeming intractability of the problem, Rafiki’s orientation is one of joy and hope. An example is a dance wellness class taught by Farcia De’toles-Medearis, who combines western dance and yoga techniques with a healing ethos from her native Liberia. “I know what I have seen in the transformation of body and soul,” De’toles-Medearis says about the experience of her students. When health and freedom come together, “we can let the body come to life.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

KEY SUPPORTERS

A Tech Solution to Promote Black Health and Wellness

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

afiki is seeking $20,000 dollars to develop and launch an app that creates one-stop shopping for users to search for, and then book, appointments. Designed with non-savvy tech users in mind, who might not be comfortable managing health care online, the app will also make it possible for people outside of San Francisco to more easily use Rafiki’s resources. Rafiki is also looking to engage more African American mental health clinicians, who can provide culturally-aligned services for communities that might not be well served by larger health systems not attuned to the particular issues affecting African Americans, or others marginalized by hospital or corporate medicine.

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT RAFIKI COALITION FOR HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Rafiki Coalition for Health and Wellness www.rafikicoalition.org 601 Cesar Chavez St. San Francisco, CA 94124

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Reverend Dr. Carolyn Scott Shanell Williams Dr. Kim Rhodes Dr. Joy DeGruy Dr. May Elawar Dr. Mark Gaines Kevin Frankel,ESQ Dr. Tung Nguyen Lisa Williams Shirley Strong Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Department of Public Health UCSF Homeless Children’s Network YCD YMCA San Francisco AIDS Foundation SF Human Rights Commission HOPE SF Mental Health Services Act Collective Impact Instituto Familiar de la Raza, Inc. Bayview-Hunters Point 3rd Street Youth Center and Clinic Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development

Contact:

Dr. Monique LeSarre mlesarre@rafikicoalition.org (415) 615-9945 x113

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SENECA:

Todo Por Mi Familia Offers Families More Than Mental Health Services, it Provides Them Everything

n March 2020, the U.S. government awarded Seneca Family of Agencies an important contract to coordinate mental health services for families separated after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump Administration’s Zero Tolerance Policy. Seneca has taken a serious stance on this issue and is committed to addressing the trauma experienced by these families under the program Todo Por Mi Familia. When their work began in March 2020, Seneca assumed the hardest part of connecting families with mental health services would be convincing them Seneca wasn’t part of the government. They were wrong — the toughest part turned out to be finding the families. “We assumed that we would receive phone numbers and addresses for the families that would be eligible for mental health services,” Paige Chan, Seneca’s general counsel, says. “That wasn’t true.” The majority of the work became locating the families. Seneca might not have contact info, but what it does have is decades of experience finding and engaging with families — conducting public records searches, mass media campaigns, and on-theground outreach by a team of bilingual and bicultural individuals. So far, they have located over 1,200 families that had been separated and reunified. Out of those families, over 40% accepted mental health services, more than double what they expected. In addition to connecting them with mental health providers, Seneca quickly discovered the families needed a variety of wrap-around services. On top of dealing with the trauma of this long-lasting separation,

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“T

he past 18 months have been difficult enough as many people have been separated from their loved ones without the government actively keeping children and parents apart in a foreign country. I support Todo Por Mi Familia because they are working to reunite families and to advocate for immigrant rights. Now is the time for us to try to bring children and their families together again.”

– Noel Greene

ArcFord Foundation

newly reunified families need just about everything, Chan says, including housing, food, transportation, clothing – all of which require additional funding. The government funding doesn’t cover wrap-around services, so Seneca relies on philanthropy. The work is challenging, but it’s necessary, Chan says. The moment that stands out for Seneca was on December 23, 2020. Seneca’s leadership got a call that parents who had been separated from their child for over a year could be reunified, but they couldn’t afford the airfare. “Our CEO bought the ticket, and the girl was on the flight at 8 am on Christmas Eve and back with her mom in time for Christmas,” Chan recalls. “It really exemplifies Seneca’s commitment to Unconditional Care – it doesn’t matter what it takes, we’re just going to make it happen.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Seneca Seeks $3 Million to Help Immigrant Families Separated by Zero-Tolerance Policy

eneca is hoping the government renews its contract in January and includes funding for wrap-around services. Until then, Seneca has a goal of raising $3 million to cover everything the parents need to provide stability and security to their children. “They are victims of family separation, but they are very resilient and strong families,” says General Counsel Paige Chan. “Now we’re trying to support them so that they can start their journey towards healing.”

Seneca Family of Agencies www.senecafoa.org (510) 654-4004 8945 Golf Links Road Oakland, CA 94605

Development Department at Seneca Family of Agencies

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT SENECA FAMILY OF AGENCIES

dase@senecacenter.org

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SHANTI AND PAWS:

Because Nobody Should Have to Choose Between Feeding Themselves or Their Pet

andra beat breast cancer several years ago, yet continues to struggle with anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Luckily, to help her through the rough patches, she has Nala, a black and white terrier mix who is always available for cuddling. But as Nala aged, she developed health issues. Financially struggling, Sandra needed assistance taking care of Nala, so she turned to Pets Are Wonderful Support, or PAWS, for help. PAWS is one of several programs offered by Shanti Project, a San Francisco nonprofit aimed at helping low-income people struggling with illness or disability overcome barriers to care. Its fundamental mission is to reduce isolation, enhance health and well-being, and improve quality of life through ongoing compassionate care. Sandra is a client in Shanti’s Women’s Cancer Program, and when her care navigator heard of Nala’s age-related mobility issues, she referred her to PAWS, which was founded in 1987 and merged with Shanti Project in 2015. Sandra is one of the thousands of San Franciscans who currently benefit from the unconditional love of their companion animals, but financially struggle to support them. Through PAWS, people can access its pet food and supply bank, get help with veterinary care and medications, and connect to a network of volunteer dog walkers, among other services. Sandra was able to get Nala pet food, flea and tick medicine, nail trimmings, and supplements for her joints.

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“For PAWS clients, their companion animal is often their only family, and the fact that many of these clients cannot keep their pets without PAWS highlights how invaluable this program is to San Francisco,” says Kaushik Roy, executive director at Shanti Project. “Anything you have ever done to help your pets, we do for our clients. This includes providing free pet food and cat litter, utilizing complimentary or discounted veterinarian care, and offering emergency foster care.” Currently, PAWS serves over 600 clients and approximately 800 companion animals; however, as San Francisco’s only program dedicated to keeping pets together with their marginalized humans, the demand for PAWS’s services is simply overwhelming. Since the merger, Shanti has worked diligently to enroll as many clients off the PAWS waitlist as possible, but hundreds are still waiting. Shanti’s other life-changing programs include support for women with cancer and people with HIV. The programs are free and available to people who fall below the poverty line and face many systemic barriers. Often clients, like Sandra, cross over among programs. Sandra is one of the thousands that PAWS has helped. In an interview, another PAWS client shared her story, reinforcing the importance of Shanti’s work. “This client had originally been experiencing homelessness when she came to PAWS,” Roy recalls. “She said PAWS saved her life and saved the lives of her dog and kitty.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“A

ll of us meet challenges in life. Sometimes, they pile up and may seem insurmountable so we may turn to family, neighbors, and friends for support. Imagine for a moment that you didn’t have those people to turn to, standing in uncertainty all alone. Shanti clients sometimes find themselves in that situation. Our volunteers and staff could be the one person they have who will reliably stand with them through thick and thin. Since 1997, I have witnessed the transformative power inherent in Shanti’s model of support change lives, including mine. Please support the compassionate mission of Shanti.”

– Chip Supanich

Shanti Board Member and Client

“W

hen I think of compassionate care in San Francisco, I think of Shanti. I am truly honored to support Shanti and PAWS in all of their critical work to support our fellow San Franciscans dealing with isolation, illness, and poverty. Few other nonprofits in our city capture the spirit of community as Shanti does, and I hope you will join me in partnering with them to improve the lives of our neighbors in need.”

– Dede Wilsey

San Francisco Philanthropist and Community Leader

These Four-Legged Friends Need Your Unconditional Support

hanti hopes to raise $2.5 million this fiscal year for its free programs that support people who are financially struggling while living with illness and disability, including cancer and HIV. With additional funding, Shanti aims to enroll at least 100 more clients from the PAWS waitlist.

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT SHANTI AND PAWS

Shanti Project

www.shanti.org 3170 23rd Street San Francisco, CA 94110

Contact:

Charlie Meade, Chief Development Officer (415) 625-5220 cmeade@shanti.org

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KEY SUPPORTERS Barbara Bass Bakar Crankstart Foundation Dr. Charles A. Garfield and Cindy Spring Stanlee Gatti Gilead Sciences Marcia and John Goldman Graham Family Foundation Margaret Hearst and William Hearst III The Honorable James C. Hormel and Michael P. Nguyen Tom Horn and The Bob Ross Foundation Susan Janin Micki Klearman Metta Fund Carl and Yurie Pascarella Janet and Clinton Reilly Emily Scott John Sell Amy Tan and Louis DeMattei To Celebrate Life Breast Cancer Foundation Dede Wilsey

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| San Francisco Bay Area |

Homelessness “We have this huge, huge problem and no one knows how to deal with it. Urban Alchemy, at the least, looks at the problem unflinchingly and tries to sort it out.” – Dr. Lena Miller CEO, Urban Alchemy

| www.thegivinglist.com |

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The Future of Black Nonprofit Power in California by Jonathan Karp

anted: $100 million for an organization you have never heard of to be given away as unrestricted grants to Black-led California nonprofits that will be named later. That, in essence, was the founding proposition for the California Black Freedom Fund – and it was audacious in the world of philanthropy, let alone Black philanthropy. But timing is everything. George Floyd had just been killed by Minneapolis police officers, galvanizing nationwide outrage and a surge in support for racial-justice organizations. Within a few months, the fund secured $32 million in donations and commitments and quickly started putting that money to use. In its first two rounds of grantmaking, the fund disbursed $15 million to 77 organizations working to empower Black community leaders and build grassroots movements to end structural inequities and systemic racism in every sphere of California life, from criminal justice and housing to health and education. “By investing in Black-led organizations across the state, we think we can turn this moment into a movement,” says Cathy Cha, president and CEO of the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, one of the founding donors. The idea sprang from talks among Cha and 15 other foundation leaders on the California Executive Roundtable on Philanthropy and Equity, a group that met regularly to discuss ideas for achieving equity in communities throughout the state. As it so happened, the group had a scheduled call shortly after George Floyd’s death, and members brainstormed about how to respond collectively. “I was like, ‘Guys, I love this group, but we just talk and don’t do anything. I want us to start a fund for Black power building,’” says Lateefah Simon, president of the Akonadi Foundation in Oakland, another founding donor. She wrote a memo proposing a five-year goal of $25 million, undeniably a reach for Black-focused philanthropy. “That’s not enough,” Nicole Taylor, who had recently become president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF), told the group. “It needs to be $100 million.” Nine figures over five years signaled the fund’s ambition

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Belle Haven Action CEO Cecilia Taylor celebrates Juneteenth 2021 at the Karl Clark Park Storyboard Unveiling..jpg

to build a sustained campaign to address racial-equity gaps, as well as the so-called “giving gap” – the chronic underinvestment in Black causes. From the beginning, it operated like no other philanthropy. The well-endowed founders invited a diverse group of Black community organizations to co-create the fund and set strategic direction through a formal advisory committee. And, for continuity and simplicity, it decided that each grantee would get a commitment of at least two years and have the freedom to use the money however it wanted – no strings attached. “It’s philanthropy breaking old norms of having to see clear to the end of a project with expectations of what ultimately would happen, and instead investing in an idea while trusting the people involved,” says Stuart Burden, SVCF’s vice president of corporate and foundation relations. Nonprofits didn’t believe it at first, he says, and for funders, “It was a leap of faith to put money into a brand-new entity, not knowing who was going to receive the dollars.” More than two dozen powerful foundations have taken that leap. Among them are The California Endowment, Annenberg Foundation, Google.org, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg

| San Francisco Bay Area |

Initiative, and SVCF, which administers the fund. Underscoring the goal to nurture coalitions across the state, the fund first invested $6.3 million in three Black networks comprising dozens of nonprofits engaged in, respectively, raising participation in the census and redistricting process, advocating for an overhaul of the policing system and strengthening socialjustice organizations in a private-public partnership. For the Black Equity Collective, the $2 million infusion from the fund was a timely endorsement. The network was preparing the launch of its own grantmaking initiative to support criminal justice, education, youth leadership, and healthcare nonprofits in Southern California. Kaci Patterson, chief architect of the collective, was one of the community leaders involved in the formation of the fund, and she remains involved as a member of its 12-person advisory committee. “Philanthropy should be shaped by and with the people on the ground,” Patterson says. “The California Black Freedom Fund has done that.” In 2021, the fund symbolically announced its launch on February 4, Rosa Parks’ birthday. The second round of grants was timed for Juneteenth and delivered nearly $9 million to 74 nonprofits with operating budgets of $1 million or less. The Hannah Project, which works to boost academic success among low-income youth of color in Marin County, received $200,000. One of the group’s priorities is facilitating the state-mandated end to de facto segregation of Sausalito schools. The grant will enable it to hire staff dedicated to advocacy and work toward empowering Black parents to have a bigger voice in community affairs. “We had been an educational organization, but we’re getting involved in advocacy,” says Bettie Hodges-Shelmire, the Hannah Project’s founder and executive director. “It’s a major step that the California Black Freedom Fund treats small community-based organizations with the same respect as large organizations.” In Silicon Valley, the fund is collaborating with philanthropies, tech companies, and Santa Clara University to bolster Black entrepreneurs. Currently, Black startups garner just 1% of venture-capital investment. A $100,000 grant helped the African Diaspora Network launch its Accelerating Black Leadership and Entrepreneurship program. The first cohort of 16 Black businesspeople will receive mentorship and training services. “We hope to make this program sustainable, to create an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, and the California Black Freedom Fund is an integral part of that,” says Debra Pacio, the network’s entrepreneurship program and community

African Diaspora Network board member Innocent Shumba of Ernst & Young greets and networks with participants at the African Diaspora Investment Symposium 2020

engagement manager. Burden, at SVCF, cautions against judging the fund’s impact too soon. Using a term more common in business than philanthropy, he calls the grants “patient capital.” And the fund itself is a work in progress. One year in, it is more than halfway to its $100 million goal and is hiring dedicated staff to relieve employees delegated from participating foundations. While the fund aims to help individual nonprofits and create a power-building infrastructure, Burden notes that another goal is to enable funders to learn new ways of engaging with the Black community and incorporate those into their own philanthropy. That dynamic may hold the answer to a question that the CEO Council, comprising several of the original funders, is already contemplating: What becomes of the fund after five years? “The clear answer is the work must continue, but perhaps not as this entity,” Burden says, summarizing a discussion at a recent leadership retreat. “If we take the lessons of how the California Black Freedom Fund has supported Blackled organizations and bring them inside our organizations, that will continue the spirit of this initiative and perpetuate its work.”

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AT THE CROSSROADS:

Building Trust by Supporting Homeless Youth and Young Adults Unconditionally

o requirements. No finish line. Nobody gets kicked out. The San Francisco nonprofit At The Crossroads (ATC) practices a model of unconditional support when serving youth and young adults experiencing homelessness. For clients, that means no hoops to jump through to access services and once they’ve joined, clients can call upon the staff for as long as they need. “We’re working with people that face the most barriers, the most hardships, and are exposed to the most trauma,” says Program Director Demaree Miller. “So to design a program that has a ton of requirements to access services, well that doesn’t make much sense to me.” For the last 24 years, At The Crossroads has been providing barriers-free, long-term services — counseling, case management, food, clothing — to homeless and unstably housed youth and young adults in San Francisco’s Mid-Market neighborhood and across the city. A staple of At The Crossroads is nighttime outreach, where they walk the street talking with people and handing out things like socks, first aid supplies, and sandwiches. Anyone they talk to can be considered a client. At The Crossroads’ Executive Director Charles Lerner says the organization prides itself on its commitment to serving clients unconditionally and for the long term — and he means long term. “Once you’re a client, you’re always part of the ATC family,” Lerner says. “Trust is really, really hard to build with our clients, especially those who’ve experienced a lot of trauma.” The age eligibility for clients is between 16 to 29, and the staff will continue to support a client up to 37, and then informally after that. Sticking with the clients no matter what builds trust, Lerner says. It’s that trust that makes everything ATC does possible. In fact, according to At The Crossroads, nine out of 10 clients achieve one or more of their goals, whether that’s securing housing, finding employment, going to school, or addressing substance use.

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“R

ealistically, I’ve been through one really, really, really, heavy life. Being that I’m like the main support for most people in my family, in my inner circle, I don’t ever have nobody for me. And so, when I really feel like it’s too much, that’s when I reach out.”

– Anonymous

ATC client of 19 years

These are four of ATC’s amazing clients. ATC works with each client individually to build long-term relationships rooted in trust.

“Trust is a really big part of social capital,” Miller explains. “It allows clients to work on their goals at their own pace and in the way that they want — not in a way that we prescribe. We support each client’s agency and decision-making process. I think that’s what ensures that the changes they make in their lives are sustainable.” Miller adds that just because a client finds a home or lands a job doesn’t mean they no longer require counseling or support. “Maintaining these things is as challenging as anything else,” Miller says. “I can’t think of anybody I’ve encountered — regardless of where I’ve seen them or what stage of life they’re in — who accomplishes something and then the story’s over.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“W

e support ATC because they provide unconditional support to homeless and unstably housed youth in our neighborhood and our city. The hundreds of young people who meet with ATC’s on-the-street counselors each year experience ups and downs, moments to celebrate, and moments of self-doubt. Through it all, ATC is in their corner, accepting them for who they are without judgement. ATC sees in every youth what we see in our own son: a unique human being who deserves a chance to set their own goals in life and needs help (and occasionally radical compassion) to achieve them.”

– Marc, Megara and Felix Vogl

Longtime ATC supporters

Give Unstably Housed Youth the Tools to Thrive, Not Just Survive

t The Crossroads is raising $77,075 to fund efforts that will increase access to food, clothing, and hygiene supplies for unstably housed youth and young adults. This aid is important because individuals can not pursue their goals and dreams when the most basic of their needs are not being met. At The Crossroads will make sure their clients have shoes on their feet, a warm hat on their head, and a hot meal.

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT AT THE CROSSROADS

At The Crossroads

www.atthecrossroads.org 167 Jessie Street San Francisco, California 94105

Contact:

Charles Lerner Executive Director charlesl@atthecrossroads.org (415) 487-0691 x101

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KEY SUPPORTERS Charlotte Johnson Whitney Wineroth Hai Truong Amanda Stewart Anish Johnson Vanessa Homewood Jeanine Walters Christina Luah Peery Foundation May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust Five Bridges Foundation Bella Vista Foundation Hellman Foundation Matthews Asia Dodge & Cox Adobe Foundation Full Circle Fund William G. Gilmore Foundation Nick Traina Foundation Illinois No. 3 Foundation

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HOMEWARD BOUND OF MARIN:

Ending Homelessness for Everyone it Touches

ut on the streets, Librado said his plans were “just to survive.” He worked full-time at a local electronics store until his sobriety faltered, leaving him without a job or a home. At an emergency shelter run by Homeward Bound of Marin, Librado recalls staff members who listened to him and pushed to see him achieve some goals. Now he’s got his own apartment and helps others move past survival on the streets. “This isn’t a path that I foresaw at all,” says Librado, who works with the Novato Police Department to visit local encampments and help people learn about housing options. “I have a rapport with people because I was out on the streets. Homeward Bound helped me go forward.” For nearly a half century, Homeward Bound of Marin has earned an outsized role in the lives of seniors, veterans, families, and others without homes in the county just north of San Francisco. In one of the priciest housing markets in the nation, nearly 500 residents live in their cars – a 91-percent increase from two years ago. Based in Novato, Homeward Bound operates five shelter programs and 13 supportive housing programs for families, single adults, and people facing persistent mental illness. Construction of a rebuilt shelter and 32 more housing units will finish next year, just in time to begin work on a $12 million apartment complex for unhoused veterans.

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“What we’re trying to do is end homelessness for every person and family we meet, to help them on their journey from homelessness to a home,” says Mary Kay Sweeney, the organization’s longtime executive director. Tackling a housing crisis requires innovation. Homeward Bound, founded in 1974, was the first in the nation to launch a nonprofit IPO – an “immediate public opportunity” fundraiser. Its first “share” was sold to philanthropist Warren Buffett. The agency also leads employment and pet food trends with its Fresh Starts Culinary Academy, an award-winning training program that has spawned several social enterprise businesses. Its Wagster Treats premium dog biscuits, handmade from human-grade ingredients, sell online and in 180 markets that include Whole Foods. In 2012, Dylan Ghadiri was among the 60 people who graduate each year from the academy. He’d dreamed of being a baseball player, but falling grades kept him off the high school team. After being in and out of juvenile hall, he found Fresh Starts. Today, he’s the executive sous chef at Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg. One of his passions is handmade pasta, which he uses in recipes with fresh Wine Country flair. “When I finished the Fresh Starts training, I knew that management would be one of my goals,” Ghadiri says. “At this point, I’m working to become an executive chef someday.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

(photo by Paige Green Photography)

“T

here is no organization better than Homeward Bound of Marin at taking a holistic and ‘whole person’ approach to ending homelessness, one individual at a time. I am a long-term donor and active board member who has seen incredible transformations for participants in their programs. Addressing the root causes of homelessness, supporting goals that participants can achieve, offering wraparound services critical to their journeys – these are tenets of Homeward Bound of Marin. And most importantly, creating and maintaining an environment that is respectful, dignified, loving, and healing to each person, whatever their circumstances.”

hen domestic violence shattered her family, Lydia scrambled for housing with her young son. Juggling part-time jobs and motherhood led to exhaustion and she suffered a bout of pneumonia. Arriving at Homeward Bound’s family shelter, she enrolled in their Fresh Starts Culinary Academy to open career options and eventually moved to their Oma Village supportive housing program. She’s employed by a local market and now can care for herself, pay bills, and – most important to her – see her son thriving. “Here I can think about goals, maybe save for college… and start a retirement account,” Lydia adds. “We’re so grateful to have a home here.”

– Marion Weinreb

KEY SUPPORTERS

Mill Street 2.0

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

tepping through the doors at Homeward Bound of Marin starts a journey from crisis to stability to resilience that each individual or family travels in a unique way. People arrive to find a welcoming staff, safe accommodation, nourishing meals, and support to pursue paths to independence. These essential services continued through the pandemic and stretched to assist people taking refuge in local motels. Work will finish next year on an updated shelter and 32 new housing units in San Rafael for people who struggle most to find stability and health. All private donations support these vital programs that provide a safety net for people experiencing homelessness and avenues to a new future. Every $1,200 provides someone with a month of safe housing, meals, and support.

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT HOMEWARD BOUND OF MARIN

Homeward Bound of Marin www.hbofm.org 1385 N. Hamilton Parkway Novato, CA 94949

2K Games Built for Zero Catalyst Kitchens Chef Heidi Krahling Chef Joanne Weir Chef John Ash County of Marin Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust Dominican Sisters of San Rafael Harbor Point Charitable Foundation The Hellman Foundation The Jacques Pépin Foundation Marin Community Foundation Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund Phil and Jill Lesh REDF The Republic of Tea Sammy Hagar Senator Mike McGuire Tamalpais Pacific

Contact:

Corry Kanzenberg, Development Director ckanzenberg@hbofm.org (415) 382-3363 x216

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Doing the Hardest Jobs to Help California and Its Unhoused Residents

URBAN ALCHEMY:

f you drive through the Tenderloin, a rough-and-tumble part of San Francisco where California’s income inequality gap is on full display, you’re sure to notice Urban Alchemy employees in their black and green garb on nearly every corner, ensuring the neighborhood is safe, the streets are clean, and the people there are offered services and dignity. “We’re managing these places that have become untenable – where cities have lost control – and making sure that everything is cool,” Urban Alchemy’s Executive Director Lena Miller says. “And it ain’t easy.” Miller founded the nonprofit Urban Alchemy in 2018 with the mission of cleaning up impoverished urban areas that have become intersections of homelessness, mental illness, and drug use. Urban Alchemy has become a veritable army of formerly incarcerated and unhoused individuals who were once overlooked by employers, but now staff bathrooms, showers, and the city’s three “safe sleeping villages.” They’re also in the public library managing the bathrooms and indoor spaces, and in Los Angeles running villages of tiny homes and piloting outreach programs on the streets of Venice and Hollywood. With the Bay Area and the state in the midst of a homeless crisis, Urban Alchemy has emerged as the go-to organization for cities and businesses to call upon when they want the street

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cleaned and chaos managed. “We have this huge, huge problem and no one knows how to deal with it,” Miller, who grew up in San Francisco’s Hunters Point, says. “Urban Alchemy, at the least, looks at the problem unflinchingly and tries to sort it out.” To Miller, that could be giving people a shower, access to a toilet, or getting them to move from an alcove or sidewalk into a sleeping village, city-sanctioned tent encampments where people who have endured the trauma and ravages of the street can find the starting point to safety and calm. On any given day, Urban Alchemy workers deal with a host of challenging situations: people yell at them, physically attack them, and sometimes they have to revive people from drug overdoses. They interact with society’s most vulnerable, people who are under distress, have histories of severe trauma, and live day-to-day in survival mode. The job isn’t for the faint of heart; no ordinary civilian could handle it, Miller explains. To get the work done, she hires formerly incarcerated people who have spent years behind bars, equipping Urban Alchemy’s fast growing workforce with a unique social and emotional intelligence to accurately read situations on the street and de-escalate them before things get out of hand, she says. “It’s truly a gift,” she adds, and it’s the secret to Urban Alchemy’s success.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“I

can leave here (Safe Sleep Neighborhood) for hours and not worry because I know [my personal property] is safe. I’m an artist and I draw and I paint, and I’ve been able to draw and paint a lot more since I’ve been here because I’m more relaxed here than I’ve been outside. The staff has been trained well, they’re always asking if we need anything and is everything okay, if they notice something they’ll come and say something to you about it.”

– David Martinez, guest

“U

rban Alchemy has been an invaluable partner in keeping our city safe, clean, and welcoming for all. Every day, Urban Alchemy’s workers are out on the streets providing essential services and support for so many in our city, and we appreciate their continued partnership in bringing out the best of San Francisco.”

– London Breed

Ending Poverty in California is Going to Require Everyone to Pitch In

Mayor of San Francisco

rban Alchemy may be doing the work that cities need to give the unhoused safe alternatives to the street today, but its vision is to provide needed care in urban spaces across California and beyond. Through generous giving, Urban Alchemy is looking to: • Invest in employees: Create structures and supports for their physical and mental health, training, and advancement – to SCAN TO MAKE strengthen our services and further transform their lives A DONATION... • Launch Urban Alchemy Academy: a new program that will expand upon the current training curriculum to offer tiers of advanced programming • Invest in capacity: Build out our infrastructure to include a robust back office with a focus on business operations, impact measurement, and communications. • Invest in scaling: Refine and codify our model for replication into new geographies Miller and her team are seeking $10.5 million in charitable donations and grants to ensure that they can meet the needs of today and tomorrow.

Urban Alchemy

www.urban-alchemy.us 1035 Market Street, Suite 150 San Francisco, CA 94103

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT URBAN ALCHEMY

Contact:

Dr. Lena Miller, Executive Director (415) 757-0896 lenam@urban-alchemy.us

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KEY SUPPORTERS Darolyn Davis Dion-Jay L. Brookter Dolby Eric Rodenbeck James Baskin Keith Geeslin Kenneth Rainin Foundation Loretta Whittle PAE REDF San Francisco Foundation Stamen Tipping Point Community Zendesk

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FIVE KEYS HOME FREE:

Giving Female Intimate-Abuse Survivors a Second Chance

California State Treasurer Fiona Ma and Rosie Dyer with a framed San Francisco article by Phil Matier

Rosemary Dyer’s first day at Home Free with Genevieve Jopanda, Fiona Ma and Sunny Schwartz

osemary “Rosie” Dyer spent 34 years behind bars for fatally shooting an abusive husband who’d dug a pit in which to bury her alive. Then the wheelchair-bound inmate was commuted from a lifetime prison sentence following a legal review of the savage domestic abuse she had endured for years. With no place to go upon her release, Dyer was warmly welcomed at Five Keys Home Free, the first transitional housing program in the nation for formerly incarcerated survivors of domestic violence. “It’s a renewed life,” says Dyer, 68, of her new home. “If it weren’t for Home Free, I’d probably be living in a cardboard box somewhere.” The Home Free residence opened its doors in Fall 2020 for up to 12 women in a converted apartment building on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. These new, promising beginnings for women like Dyer come as a result of a Home Free initiative by Five Keys Schools and Programs, a jail-based charter school with 25 in custody locations, and workforce program founded in 2003 by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department. The public agency has now expanded to community teaching sites in 11 counties, to serve over 30,000 students across California, and provides housing for the unsheltered at nine sites in San Francisco. Its vision of restorative justice aims to help adult students locked up in jail earn a high school diploma and reintegrate into society upon release. To prepare its students for reentry and decrease chances of recidivism, Five Keys offers a range of vocational and technical training certificates, as well as programs in financial literacy, bike repair, construction, masonry, print shop, pet grooming and more.

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It offers literacy courses, special education programs and college dual-enrollment, plus parenting and substance abuse recovery programs. In the community sites, Five Keys offers free GED and high school diploma pathways for anyone ages 16-96 to complete their education. Five Keys Home Free creates supportive transitional housing for abused women who leave prison so they can re-enter communities. There are plans for a second Home Free site in Los Angeles. For years, women such as Dyer served prison time for either defending themselves against their abuser or because they were at the scene of a crime under the coercion of their abusive spouse or boyfriend. They were often forgotten. In 2012, criminal justice advocates pushed legislation allowing imprisoned women, who were barred from submitting evidence of their abuse at trial, to seek legal review of their extreme sentences. Home Free expects to serve a wave of newly commuted women exiting prison after 10 to 40 years. “This is righting a terrible wrong that was committed against these women,” says Five Keys Co-Founder Sunny Schwartz. Dyer had no criminal history, no history of violence, no history of drug or alcohol use, and no clue that the man she married would turn out to be a monster. There were countless beatings. And years of unspeakable physical, sexual, and emotional violence. She is now home free. “People ask what it’s like getting out of prison, especially in a pandemic,” Dyer says. “It’s wonderful. That is what I say to myself every day. It’s wonderful.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“I

t’s hard to describe how wonderful it feels to take my dog on walks to the park. To ride my bike is heaven. And I’m loving cooking with real pots and pans. I’ve only used plastic bags (microwave) before.”

– Nilda Palacios Home Free resident

Academy of Art Interior Design Students and Five Key Staff meeting Rosie during a Zoom for the first time. The students ultimately designed the interiors of Home Free and Williams Sonoma donated the furniture.

Hyunch Sung, lead landscape designer and Sunny Schwartz planting the “Freedom Forest” at Home Free Group shot from Home Free Landscaping Day

KEY SUPPORTERS

“I

will always do anything I can to help Sunny and Home Free. I’m so pleased we were able to bring you and the entire team value and hope this is the gift that keeps on giving.”

– Alex Tourk

Ground Floor Public Affairs

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Life Coaches and Counselors Needed

ive Keys Schools and Programs is seeking to raise $250,000 to fund life coaches and counselors for its Home Free initiative. Criminalized domestic violence survivors who are still in prison need guidance for their parole hearings and reentry. Home Free life coaches will travel to prisons around the state and visit with women inmates to help them navigate their release to freedom and transition to the 21st century at Home Free.

Five Keys Home Free

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT FIVE KEYS HOME FREE

www.fivekeys.org www.fivekeyshomefree.org 70 Oak Grove Street San Francisco, CA 94107

Contact:

Anderson Commercial Flooring First Republic Bank Google Impact Award, Rebecca Prozan Tony Robbins and the Tony Robbins Foundation The Metta Fund The Wilkes Bashford Helping Hands Emergency Fund Silverado Contractors San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development Office of the Mayor, City and County of San Francisco Ground Floor Public Affairs Mithun Academy of Art University One Treasure Island San Francisco Recreation & Parks Williams-Sonoma Verizon DoorDash IKEA Emeryville Pankow Young Women’s Freedom Center

Amelia Lewis, VP Development and Communications (203) 506-1216 amelial@fivekeys.org

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SWORDS TO PLOWSHARES:

Helping Formerly Homeless Vets Age with Dignity and a Strong Dose of Joy

etting older is an isolating experience for anyone. For disabled and formerly unhoused veterans of a largely forgotten war, it’s especially lonely and challenging. Swords to Plowshares has been serving veterans in the Bay Area with jobs, legal assistance, mental health support, and housing since the 1970s. Its Executive Director Michael Blecker, a Vietnam vet himself, has made addressing veteran homelessness his legacy. As he ages, he knows ever more intimately how lucky he is compared to many of those he fought alongside. “They have nowhere to go,” says Colleen Corliss, resource development and communications director at Swords to Plowshares. “There’s not a system to care for people who are really poor and aging.” Swords to Plowshares is in the process of expanding their offerings to meet the needs of the oldest residents in the 500 permanent housing units they maintain. The majority are home to Vietnam-era vets, all of whom have at least one disability. “We need to set up a system that lets them age in place, with dignity,” Corliss says. A new statewide pilot program to support seniors in affordable housing will help Swords grow their on-site staff – adding transportation help and social workers among other roles. But as the pandemic proved, the mental health costs of longterm loneliness are harder to anticipate.

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One longtime resident of Swords to Plowshares’ housing in the Presidio – which was the first-ever permanent housing facility for formerly homeless veterans in the country when it opened in 2000 – is a vet named Sam who became homeless when he lost everything to Hurricane Katrina. At a roundtable discussion with residents, Sam summed up the value of community. They used to have breakfast together in the morning but had to adjust practices amid the pandemic – and Sam reflected on the loss, saying, “This may sound silly, but mental health care is about having a reason to wake up and get out of your room and walk down the stairs and see other people. It’s the eggs and the toast and the bacon, that’s what mental health care looks like.” Swords to Plowshares recorded a 30-percent increase in morbidity during the pandemic – meaning 30 percent more of their community died than in an average year. Not a single one of them died of COVID. “We feel strongly that it’s a result of isolation,” Corliss explains. Responding to these veterans’ needs flexibly and creatively means more than just hiring caregivers and staffing up. Some donors give tickets to Giants games. Another is giving sailing lessons. While others give dedicated grants to support a stable and reliable community activities budget and staff. “The activities that build community are what we need the community to support,” Corliss says.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“I

am proud to be a longtime supporter of Swords to Plowshares,” said John Keker of Keker, Van Nest & Peters. “I was a marine infantry platoon leader in Vietnam. While I was wounded in combat, my wounds of war didn’t strip me of my life, happiness, and opportunities. This was not true for so many of my fellow service members, who are continuing to carry the burden of the war and its aftermath. I was attracted to Swords’ mission to heal the wounds that last beyond the battlefield. I have now been involved with Swords for 20 years as a donor and advisory board member because I believe in the importance of the work they do.”

“I

lived on the streets of San Francisco for almost 20 years. I know what it’s like to have no idea how to embrace stability and community or how to prepare for the challenges that will come with aging, especially while poor and riddled with health issues from living hard on the street. When I was finally ready to turn my life around, Swords to Plowshares helped me get the best gift of all: housing.”

– Del Seymour, commonly referred to as the “Mayor of the Tenderloin,” is the founder of Code Tenderloin, a member of Swords to Plowshares’ board of directors, and sits on the San Francisco Local Homeless Coordinating Board

Help Vets Find the Joy They Deserve

hrough the help of private donors, Swords to Plowshares has established a budget for community activities. Monetary donations to this fund allow aging vets to experience a taste of normalcy that can meaningfully enrich the quality of their lives. Donors are in a unique position, according to resource development and communications director Colleen Corliss. “These contributions are essential to our ability to staff and execute programs that have the potential to change lives.” Getting the vets active and out of the housing facilities Swords runs is a priceless gift. Sports games, season tickets donated by an individual with the means to make it happen, have been a great escape for the residents. Activities that make them feel like they are included in the dayto-day fabric of American life is a win.

Swords to Plowshares

www.swords-to-plowshares.org 401 Van Ness Ave, Suite 313 San Francisco, CA 94102

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION... KEY SUPPORTERS

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT SWORDS TO PLOWSHARES

Ron Conway John Keker Craig Newmark Philanthropies San Francisco Giants Golden State Warriors Wells Fargo Bank of America Prudential Financial Home Depot Foundation Sergey Brin Family Foundation

Contact:

Colleen Corliss Murakami, Development & Communications Director (415) 655-7248 development@stp-sf.org

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| San Francisco Bay Area |

Environment “Plastic contributes to climate change at every stage of its existence. With only seven years left to redirect the Titanic of climate change’s impacts on people and the planet, the moment couldn’t be more urgent.” – Julia Cohen Co-Founder & Managing Director, Plastic Pollution Coalition

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Bringing Environmental Justice Home As told to Daniel Heimpel

hea Suh spent years working for both the Hewlett and the Packard foundations here in the Bay Area before setting off on a career path that would see her in the Obama administration and leading one of the most influential environmental activism organizations in the country, the Natural Resources Defense Council. “My journey unexpectedly took me back to the East and I stayed for longer than I thought,” says Suh, who became president and CEO of the Marin Community Foundation in late 2021. The return to the Bay Area, where her parents and three siblings live, “truly feels like coming home.” Suh brings with her a rare mix of philanthropic, nonprofit, and government experience, positioning her to use the lessons learned here to have a global impact. “There isn’t anything that I can imagine wanting to do more right now,” she says. “In these fluid times where so much is unsettled, the more that we can focus on uplifting the creative energy that exists in communities, the better off we’ll all be.” The following conversation has been edited for concision.

“The reality is that we have the best environmental laws and regulations of any country in the world, and yet there are concentrated pockets of pollution that oftentimes are located in poor communities of color. That is simply shameful. Now that we are in this new inflection point in our country’s history where we’re looking very deeply into issues of social justice and social inequity, we have a profound opportunity to rethink what environmentalism means and how we can ensure that the practice of conservation and environmental protection be truly carried out to ensure that everyone can enjoy a healthy environment.”

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You served as an assistant secretary at the Department of Interior for the Obama administration, which I imagine gave you intimate knowledge of how federal money flows. As we recover from the pandemic, how can community foundations engage with government? While there’s a history of that kind of collaboration, I think that there’s also a missed opportunity. And I’m hoping, given the circumstances that we find ourselves in, that there will be an opening for community foundations to really step up to the plate and provide the kind of on-the-ground expertise and assistance that the federal government needs. The federal government just doesn’t have the bandwidth to actually go down to a community level and figure out what needs exist. Obviously, a lot of the money that’s flowed through the economic assistance associated with the pandemic has gone through state and then local channels.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

But to the extent to which you can get other nongovernmental participants to be part of that conversation, I think you just couldn’t ask for better experts than local community foundations, which you can find in every corner of the country.

How do you see the Marin Community Foundation and others working with government on a major issue like climate change? There’s a lot of pressure and intensity on taking concrete actions because the level of climate chaos that we’re already experiencing is so significant that something has to be done. A lot of what’s been challenging around climate policy is that it’s been very top down. You can create loan programs or new federal funding, but those programs aren’t necessarily based on what’s actually happening in a community. And so, the question is: How do you elevate a practically proven set of programs, versus guessing if a federal program is somehow going to make a difference? We need to be thinking through what’s happening at the local level, which is where a lot of the innovation and solutions also end up happening. And then connect that bottom-up approach with the top down. I think that there’s an incredible opportunity with climate to really think about the issue in a much more disaggregated way than we’ve seen so far.

One of the stops on your interesting career path was as president of the National Resources Defense Council. What drew you to environmentalism in the first place?

ronment, I think it is just emerging as a stronghold for people who really care about the environment and people, and in particular people who have long been disadvantaged and overburdened by the consequences of environmental pollution. So you’re seeing this huge uprising of environmental justice organizations in the state that are incredibly diverse and powerful, and really wielding that power in very significant ways. This, I believe, is the bellwether of how the nation should be thinking about environmental issues.

You evoked the concept of environmental justice. Why is that so important to you? The history of the environmental movement has too often separated the environment from people and led to many instances where environmental goals only benefited a select group of people. Indeed, the reality is that we have the best environmental laws and regulations of any country in the world, and yet there are concentrated pockets of pollution that oftentimes are located in poor communities of color. That is simply shameful. Now that we are in this new inflection point in our country’s history where we’re looking very deeply into issues of social justice and social inequity, we have a profound opportunity to rethink what environmentalism means and how we can ensure that the practice of conservation and environmental protection be truly carried out to ensure that everyone can enjoy a healthy environment.

Given the size of the issues that this region and this nation are facing, how can philanthropy make a dent?

I have a fairly pedestrian reason for getting excited about the environment, which is I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. And I spent my childhood camping, hiking, fishing, and in many ways, I think, taking for granted this incredible abundance of nature. And then when I went to college, I made the ironic choice of wanting to study environmental science in New York City. I got a pretty significant education on the reality of environment, which is that the environment isn’t just the green stuff, it’s the brown stuff as well. Yet at the same time, I think the definition of nature within the context of how we’ve traditionally viewed it has been too limiting because it is really the environment that we all live in and interact with. This is different depending on where you live, what you look like, how much money you make. Where you’re from and the reality of the significant inequities that have existed in the environmental space have always been very clear to me. And so, while Northern California, California generally, is a stronghold of people who largely really care about the envi-

I’ve had the privilege of working at some of the largest foundations in the country. And even at those large foundations, we were constantly trying to find leverage points. Most often it was leverage points with other foundations, but in some cases it was leverage points with government. So we really need to figure out ways to find those common interests and where they align. There are many of them, and it’s super fun because not only do you get all sorts of interesting new partners, you really do get outsize impact. In particular, for community foundations, it’s also using convening as a leveraging force. Creating forums and opportunities for grantees to get together, to be able to think differently, for them to collaborate with one another, is a huge instrument that the foundations have.

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PLASTIC POLLUTION COALITION:

Visionary Sisters Collaborating to Create a More Just and Healthy Planet

PPC Scientific Advisor Dr. Sylvia Earle, Mission Blue, Coco Islands (photo by Kip Evans)

Freedom Island, Manila, Philippines. (photo by Dianna Cohen)

or the Cohen sisters, taking on the embodiment of the fossil fuel and climate crisis – plastic – started with brown paper bags. It was 1990, and older sister Dianna was working in Belgium. An internationally exhibited visual artist, Dianna had become fascinated with using the varying shades of brown paper bags in her art pieces. But, at a homeopathic pharmacy she was given a plastic bag with a printed image of a dandelion plant with its Latin name – Taraxacum officinale. The irony of displaying something natural on something so unnatural was not lost on her. She stitched that flower image bag into one of her works and shortly thereafter began using plastic as her primary medium. As she worked with the plastic, some of the bags deteriorated over time, and she reached out to scientists to learn more about the material. She soon found out this artificial, toxic substance was everywhere, and that it couldn’t be cleaned up. Having lost her mother to breast cancer as a teen, she began to come to terms with the impacts of plastic on human and animal health. “Once your eyes become open to that, you can’t look at it the same way,” she says. “It changes you.” While Dianna was awakening to the destructive power of plastic, sister Julia was leading a high-profile career in Washington, DC, taking leadership positions for Planned Parenthood, Rock the Vote, and Youth Vote Coalition during the 2000 election. When Dianna shared her newly discovered mission, Julia said “what you need is a coalition.” The name was key. Disturbed that some agencies refused to name plastic pollution, instead using the term “marine debris,” the sisters along with the other co-founders decided to call it what it is. They named their new organization Plastic Pollution Coalition. Since 2009, Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC) has drawn from the talents and resources of many living artists, using popular music, film,

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PPC Co-Founders Julia and Dianna Cohen, Islesboro, Maine, USA, 2021

books, installations, comic books, animation, and participatory art installations to communicate to the broadest possible audience the complexities of plastic’s impact on people and the planet. PPC’s effective use of this range of the arts has influenced the national and international political agenda through support of policy and legislation around singleuse plastic packaging. But just as importantly, the aesthetic resources of art have helped PPC to address citizens where they are and to educate them on an environmental crisis hidden in plain sight. Today, Plastic Pollution Coalition has grown into a global alliance that connects more than 1,200 organizations, businesses, and thought leaders in 75 countries, working as part of a worldwide movement to realize a world free of plastic pollution. The Coalition has supported policy changes in hundreds of communities and countries, and continues to inspire action through education programs, advocacy campaigns, and art projects – even lawsuits. Dianna co-executive produced the film The Story of Plastic, which recently won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing: Documentary. The Coalition has shifted popular culture and policy, challenging the myth that single-use plastics – like plastic bottles, bags, straws, and cutlery — are acceptable. Communicating the truth is one of Plastic Pollution Coalition’s greatest strengths. “BP called the disaster in the Gulf Coast, ‘a spill,’” Dianna says. “That was very clever marketing, because a spill sounds small and insignificant, but this was actually a massive deluge of destruction.” Julia adds, “Plastic contributes to climate change at every stage of its existence. With only seven years left to redirect the Titanic of climate change’s impacts on people and the planet, the moment couldn’t be more urgent.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“Plastic Fantastic?” Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu, Hawaii with curator Aaron Padilla, artists Maika‘i Tubbs and Dianna Cohen, Kim and Jack Johnson Hannah Testa, PPC Youth Ambassador and Hannah4Change founder, Representative Alan Lowenthal (California), Senator Jeff Merkley (Oregon), Michael Doshi, Algalita, Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics, and Jackie Nuñez, PPC Advocacy Program Manager and The Last Plastic Straw founder, speaking at the introduction of the U.S. federal Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, Washington, DC, USA, February 2020.

“I

n 2009 when Plastic Pollution Coalition was founded, few people understood the toxic impacts of plastic pollution on humans and the environment. It has been incredible to see the tremendous growth of PPC, growing from an initial 25 groups to a broad coalition of over 1,200 business and organization Coalition members. PPC has been at the forefront of an incredible sea change of awareness and activism surrounding the issue of plastic pollution. Dianna and the PPC’s work in pushing to stem plastic’s flow into our waterways, oceans, and environment, as well as their efforts to address the climate and health impacts of single-use plastic packaging are invaluable.”

– Alice Waters

Ben Harper at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Manchester, Tennessee, USA. (photo by Danny Clinch)

Flipping the Script on Plastic’s Place in Our World

lastic Pollution Coalition’s list of A-List supporters includes Jeff Bridges, Jackson Browne, Fran Drescher, Ben Harper, Diana Nyad, Alice Waters, and Alfre Woodard – to name a few. When these notables speak out, millions of people wake up to the plastic pollution crisis. In 2022, the Coalition will be working with leaders within the entertainment industry to encourage the storylines of popular films SCAN TO MAKE and television to include messaging that moves the nation and the A DONATION... world away from single-use plastics towards reusables and refillables, and a plastic-free, more just, equitable, and regenerative future. The coalition seeks $100,000 to expand this campaign. And, for larger donors, Co-FounderJulia Cohen says there are opportunities to dramatically expand the organization’s lean $2 million budget. “Imagine what we could do with double that,” she says.

Plastic Pollution Coalition

Julia Cohen, Managing Director julia@plasticpollutioncoalition.org (323) 936-3010 x702 Office www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT PLASTIC POLLUTION COALITION

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KEY SUPPORTERS Annenberg Foundation Arlene Blum Annie & Rick Farman Beagle Foundation Bonnie Raitt Elbaz Family Foundation Elissa & Bob Hambrecht Eric & Sharapat Kessler Haas-Teichen Foundation Kat Taylor & Tom Steyer Kirk Ferguson Larry Brilliant Lynne and Marc Benioff Marisla Foundation Mental Insight Foundation Michael Dorsey Philip J. Landrigan Plastic Solutions Fund Tina Eshaghpour & David Silberman Wavy Gravy Zegar Family Foundation

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VIDA VERDE:

Fighting Inequality Through Hands-On Environmental Learning

utdoor education is a right, not a privilege – everyone deserves to know the joy of a bracing hike among redwood forests or along cliffside beaches. This land, as the song says, was made for you and me. It’s hard to think of a more galling expression of social inequity at work in our world than the limited exposure children and youth from low-income families typically get to explore the wonders of nature. Vida Verde – an outdoor education organization focused on youth from under-resourced Bay Area communities – works to close that gap. Laura Sears and her husband, Shawn, were teaching as part of Teach for America in the Mississippi Delta at the turn of the millennium when they realized how little access many students have to the world beyond their small town. They took Shawn’s fourth graders out on a multi-day canoe trip. “He saw more growth in the kids during that week away and that week out in nature than he had the whole year in the classroom,” Laura Sears says. “That’s really where Vida Verde was born.” After moving to the Bay Area, they dove into outdoor education, hosting programs at various sites along the Coastside before landing on a perfect piece of land: 23 acres between Half Moon Bay and Pescadero – just three and a half miles from the ocean, a short drive from the redwood forest, and within an hour and a half of all Bay Area schools. They knew from the start though, that outdoor education was dependent on families paying fees for their kids to participate, and they wanted to counter that model. “It became apparent right away that there was a huge population

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of kids who were being left out of that experience due to the cost,” Sears says. The answer was to host three-day, two-night nature excursions – typically extended hiking trips – for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders from Bay Area schools where 85% or more of the students qualify for free lunch. Building and improving upon this model was the focus for over 15 years. They then introduced the Teen and Family Program, with a teen summer leadership camp for alumni of the core program as its key element, paired with family weekend hikes and family gatherings during the school year at Vida Verde’s San Gregorio campus, which includes a working farm, and at area parks and preserves. Introducing kids and families to parks and nature preserves they’ll return to on their own might be what Sears cherishes most about Vida Verde. “The moment we hear kids say, ‘This is the best day of my life,’ or ‘Now I’m going to take my family hiking,’ is when we know we have done our job.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“S

omething that I’d never done before coming to Vida Verde was everything we did. I remember the solo walk in the redwoods. I remember it was nice, how the sun was shining on the trees. You look up and you see the little dots. The thing that was important was being brave on the Night Walk. It was really dark and we couldn’t use lights. I was kind of afraid. I made it to the other side. I got to a bench and got to see the stars and Chicken Man pointed at certain ones with a green laser and told us a story about a guy trying to reach a star. “After the trip, I was sad because we left Vida Verde. I felt more open. I used to be more inside and shy. That trip got me out. The trip helped me to be more creative. Also, now I am a better helper and more organized too. When I was small I left my bed a mess, didn’t wash dishes, and wasn’t that responsible. After I went to Vida Verde, I learned to take care of myself. I’m still learning. Not perfect yet.”

– Noel

Vida Verde Alumnus from Cesar Chavez Middle School in East Palo Alto

Help More Kids Experience the Wonder of California’s Natural Beauty

“V

ida Verde (VV) truly cares about education equity and they support students and families the best way they know how. VV exposes students to first-time experiences in the outdoors that challenge them in new ways. Students encourage each other, take pride in their efforts, and some even develop a lifelong love of nature and the outdoors. Laura, Shawn, and the entire staff and board are so dedicated and passionate. “Once I was introduced to Vida Verde, I immediately became hooked. I have had the pleasure of introducing colleagues in the donor world to Vida Verde; they all agree that the organization is doing exceptional work. Vida Verde has given me more joy and purpose than I would have ever imagined. Join us!”

fter twenty years of building and improving upon our education programs and operating on several different leased properties, Vida Verde is putting down roots. Thanks to our donor community, we purchased staff housing and our Hidden Creek property in 2015 and established a Stewardship Fund for the care of that property. The final step in establishing a home for educational equity for generations to come will be the building of a net zero energy Education Barn, which will house a commercial teaching kitchen, indoor/outdoor classroom, group restroom facilities, and farm labor housing. We will break ground in 2022! A vital and exciting element of this project is a solar farm that will power the barn and the property as well as charge our electric vehicles! Our “unicorn” ask is for a total of $500,000 to make this element of our project a reality.

– Avani Patel

Consultant, Ravenswood Education Foundation

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...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT VIDA VERDE

Vida Verde

Laura Sears, Executive Director and Co-Founder (650) 747-9288 Laura@Vveducation.org www.Vveducation.org

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KEY SUPPORTERS Atkinson Foundation David & Lucile Packard Foundation Dean & Margaret Lesher Foundation Franklin & Catherine Johnson Foundation Hillsborough Garden Club John & Marcia Goldman Foundation Kimball Foundation Lampert Byrd Foundation Louis L. Borick Foundation Mary Crocker Trust Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Moca Foundation Morgan Family Foundation Patagonia Peery Foundation Sand Hill Foundation Save the Redwoods League The Morrison & Foerster Foundation TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation Woodside-Atherton Garden Club

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| San Francisco Bay Area |

Meeting Disaster “Robotics and machinery are getting better. Technology is getting better. But dogs are still the best resource that an urban search and rescue task force has.” – Denise Sanders, Senior Director of Communications & Handler Operations, National Disaster Search Dog Foundation

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NATIONAL DISASTER SEARCH DOG FOUNDATION:

Rescue Dogs. Rescue People.

lthough you’ll seldom see them in comic books, search dogs are the closest thing to real life superheroes. Not only do they rescue people from crumbling buildings and sunken towns, but they also have a life-saving superpower: a wickedly sensitive nose that can detect and locate disaster victims from hundreds of yards away. Events such as our local 2018 beach cliff collapse remind us how important search dogs are to life-and-death rescue missions. But these canine superheroes wouldn’t be nearly the paragons they are without the proper training. For the elite dogs skilled-up by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, this means boot camp in the nonprofit’s staging facility in the sprawling hills of Santa Paula, California. The foundation was started by Wilma Melville in response to the devastating 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing. Melville and her search dog Murphy were one of many search and rescue teams wading through the rubble that day. But the destruction was greater than anyone could have anticipated. Melville knew then that, as

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a civilian, she was not as well-equipped for search and rescue as a first responder or firefighter would be. In the wake of what she’d seen, Melville made it her mission to pair highly trained search dogs with experts in disaster relief. Twenty-five years since its inception, the foundation continues to stay true to its mission: Rescue dogs. Rescue people. “It was Wilma’s vision to rescue dogs and pair them with firefighters with specialized training,” says Denise Sanders, Senior Director of Communications & Handler Operations. Most of the dogs that come to the nonprofit are rescued from shelters, where many face euthanasia. Once on campus, the foundation’s caring staff provide the dogs with life-long medical support and a specialized training regimen that prepares them for the day they are paired with a handler. From there, the human-canine search teams train together on a variety of simulated natural disasters. While robots have a place in disaster rescue operations, nothing compares to the combined skill of a highly-trained dog and its partner. “Robotics and machinery are getting better. Technology is getting better,” Sanders says. “But dogs are still the best resource that an urban search and rescue task force has to quickly locate victims buried in the rubble.” First responders depend on these dogs because they can accomplish what no available technology can. The dogs can move over all terrain, provide emotional support to disaster victims, and, critically, the dogs can survey a disaster area more quickly than any robot. When time is of the essence, first responders rely on their dogs to locate disaster victims safely and efficiently. Although human-canine search and rescue teams are challenged by each deployment, where they must enter a new and unpredictable disaster situation, these life-saving task forces are bolstered by their world-class preparedness training at the Search Dog Foundation.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“O

ver the years, the Search Dog Foundation has paired many canine disaster search teams that serve the Bay Area and we are grateful to have these canines as a resource to call upon when needed for our urban search and rescue team as part of the San Francisco Fire Department and California Task Force 3.

“The search dogs are a vital part of any deployment response – whether earthquakes, hurricanes, mudslides, or missing person searches, these highly trained canines are instrumental in completing our search missions. “The Search Dog Foundation provides these canines as invaluable assets for our department and part of Task Force 3 free of charge, ensuring we stand ready to serve our community when called upon to help.”

– Jeanine Nicholson

Fire Chief, San Francisco Fire Department

“W

atching the Search Dog Foundation grow from a small group of ardent volunteers into the nationally recognized organization it is today has been an inspiration and an honor. I value the opportunity to both encourage and be part of that growth.

Disasters Happen. It’s Not a Matter of If, but When…

“As a longtime philanthropist and volunteer for many organizations through the years, the sense of passion and perseverance and collective drive toward reaching a goal is one of the hallmarks of a great group of people united for a cause. The Search Dog Foundation’s staff, Board of Directors, volunteers, and many supporters across the country have drive similar to that of the amazing search dogs they train – that insatiable need to keep growing and improving their work and the services provided. “As a team, we know we can continue to strengthen disaster response in this country. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of so many – both human and canine.”

o address a critical national need, Wilma Melville founded the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation in 1996 to recruit, rescue, and train shelter dogs to – George Leis become search dogs, looking for survivors in the wreckage of natural and humanChair, Board of Directors, made disasters alongside their first-responder handlers. National Disaster Search Dog Foundation; The foundation has proudly served 25 years, with search dogs deployed to more than President & Chief Operating Officer, Montecito Bank & Trust 200 disasters and missing person searches, including Ground Zero after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the devastating Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and the Nepal earthquake in 2015. BOARD OF DIRECTORS SCAN TO MAKE With active teams across the nation, including George Leis – Board Chair San Francisco, the foundation continues to evolve A DONATION... President and COO, Montecito Bank & Trust and expand its programs. Its ongoing work is to Dennis Kuykendall – Board Vice Chair support current search teams and the next genProject Executive, Balfour Beatty Construction eration of search dogs, providing ongoing trainMike J. Diani – Secretary ing and veterinary care for their entire lives. Dogs President, Diani Building Corp. unable to complete training are career changed or Richard Butt placed in loving homes. Retired EVP, Executive Creative Director, VMLY&R Once rescued, they will never need to be resRobert Dodge, M.D. cued again. The foundation has the support of Family Physician, Brent Street Family Practice people like you to thank for that. Identity Medical Group Join National Disaster Search Dog Foundation Robert Harris ...AND LEARN supporting these incredible canine heroes and showBattalion Chief, Los Angeles County Fire Department MORE ABOUT ing the power of rescued dogs becoming rescuers. George R. Haynes, Ph.D. NATIONAL DISASTER Be Part of the Search today. Executive Director/CEO, SEARCH DOG FOUNDATION National Disaster Search Dog Foundation Wilma Melville National Disaster Search Dog Foundation Founder, National Disaster Search Dog Foundation rescue@searchdogfoundation.org Jeff Wenig (888) 4K9-HERO Owner/President, Precision Cooling Co., Inc. (805) 646-1015 Crystal Wyatt www.SearchDogFoundation.org Leadership in Board Governance 6800 Wheeler Canyon Road, Santa Paula, CA 93060 and Creative & Sustainable Philanthropy | www.thegivinglist.com |

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Crowdsourcing Philanthropy

“P

hilanthropy shouldn’t be a lonely endeavor,” says Colleen Gregerson, executive director of Battery Powered. As Gregerson – a veteran philanthropy professional – sees it, the research and vetting that go into choosing where to donate shouldn’t be arduous and intimidating, especially for early philanthropists. Why shouldn’t giving back to the community be, well, communal? The Battery is a modern membersonly club modeled after exclusive urban clubhouses of yore. It was established in 2013 by the tech entrepreneurs who founded social media site Bebo – and sold it to AOL. Developing Battery Powered, the club’s philanthropic wing, was always part of the founders’ plan.

“Battery Powered endeavors to activate generosity among its members. I love being a part of a learning community with others who know that our actions – listening, learning, and giving together – can have real, longterm impact in peoples’ lives and on the planet.” – JAMIE ALLISON

Executive Director Walter & Elise Haas Fund

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| San Francisco Bay Area |

Today, Battery Powered has roughly 500 members. As a body, these members select three issue areas to focus their collective giving towards each year, all backed by thorough, and shared, research and exploration. Since its founding in 2014, Battery Powered has granted more than $25 million to over 150 nonprofits. The last cycle for 2021 focused on the Bay Area’s future in a time when the lasting economic impact of the pandemic is colliding with an increase in Bay Area families struggling to meet their most basic needs. The program begs: “How can we make the Bay Area a place of beauty, belonging, and opportunity for all?” While its grantmaking approach is openended, Gregerson explains, the theme brings a focused response to the demands of the moment. “Consider the industries that were most highly impacted by the pandemic, and that are absolutely crucial to the vibrancy of our communities,” she says. “That’s artists and cultural practitioners, small businesses and activists and organizers.” Throughout the year, members are invited to submit names of organizations to support in a given theme. Six months of research by Gregerson and her team drove the selection of ten finalists under each theme. Gregerson and her team also offer members “volunteer days” where they conduct on-site visits with the projects they might choose to fund. On regularly scheduled “expert nights,” hosted at the Battery, members learn from expert presenters about areas of need related to each theme. “Battery Powered endeavors to activate generosity among its members,” says Jamie Allison, a Battery Powered member and the executive director of a local philanthropic institution – the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.

“A

s a collective of individual donors, we can take different kinds of risks than many institutions are willing or able to make. This allows us to support organizations and leaders as they grapple with wicked problems, innovate around solutions, and scale their work.”

“I love being a part of a learning community with others who know that our actions – listening, learning, and giving together – can have real, long-term impact in peoples’ lives and on the planet.” When the theme was public education, the famous education luminary Linda DarlingHammond and a high schooler who sits on the SFUSD School Board sat side by side delivering their expertise. One key insight, Gregerson recalls, was the inextricable link between students’ overall mental and physical well-being with their ability to achieve academic excellence. The goal is that, when it comes time for members to vote on where to send their donations, they all know enough to choose wisely. Battery Powered believes in the wisdom of a crowd – albeit a well-informed crowd. “As a collective of individual donors, we can take different kinds of risks than many institutions are willing or able to make,” Gregerson says. “This allows us to support organizations and leaders as they grapple with wicked problems, innovate around solutions, and scale their work.”

Three times a year, members take what they’ve learned and vote on where their dollars will go. In the process, they learn more than they’d ever thought to wonder about the issue at hand. They’re a diverse and heterodox community ranging from twenty-somethings to retirees, from an array of professional backgrounds. The themes can be timely and potentially contentious, yet members often discover in the end that they agree more than they disagree. It helps that Battery Powered members favor projects with tangible impact. At Gregerson’s last job, running a large global health group, she once applied for Battery Powered funding – and wasn’t picked. Her pitch, Gregerson realized in retrospect, wasn’t focused enough on direct impacts. She takes pride in the story now: It speaks to Battery Powered members’ integrity. “We truly believe that we are better together. Not only can our pooled resources support greater impact than each of us individually can, but our combined perspectives means we fund a rich tapestry of organizations that address issues from a variety of angles. Importantly, we are rapidly moving money into communities, investing in solutions now, not waiting until later. “We are making joint decisions because we believe that together we can make better decisions and have a bigger impact. Our goal is to move assets and funding out into the community as quickly and efficiently as possible. What are we waiting for to solve these issues? Let’s invest in solutions now,” says Gregerson. When Battery Powered elected to focus

SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BATTERY POWERED

Colleen Gregerson, Executive Director collen@thebatterysf.com www.thebatterysf.com/batterypowered (707) 225-7986 400 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133

| www.thegivinglist.com |

their giving on gun safety for a third of the year, members were divided about how to tackle such a contentious topic. Some wanted to donate primarily to policy organizations that would use their resources to lobby legislators. Others argued that their collective dollars would be better spent funding gun violence prevention work directly in communities. In the end, Gregerson says, a significant amount of the money they’d pooled for donations did go toward policy groups. But the largest award went to Faith in Action for its efforts in onthe-ground gun violence prevention. Faith in Action is a clergy-led organization embedded in communities where gun violence is endemic – and where religious congregations have the social capital to make a difference. “Battery Powered members knew the real thing when they saw it,” Gregerson says. When the overarching theme was addiction, members learned the power of hope and community – of overcoming shame – in the struggle for long-term recovery. Going into the learning sessions, everyone knew – at least passingly – how prevalent drug abuse and its ruinous effects are among the Bay Area’s unhoused. But by and large they didn’t know that recovery means so much more than abstinence. This experience allowed them to deepen their understanding of the world right outside their door. During every funding cycle, Battery Powered pools between $3 and $4 million. This amounts to between $1 and $1.5 million to each of the three themes selected that year, a sum that rivals the giving of many mediumsized private foundations. But, Gregerson says, this is never enough to support all the worthy causes the initiative considers. “We should not have so many shovelready projects go unfunded,” she says. Ideally, more and more social clubs across California, and the cities of the world, will follow the Battery Powered lead, and take up their model of collective giving. For now, their membership in San Francisco can only grow… If you want to help, hey, join the club.

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| San Francisco Bay Area |

The Arts “If our superpower is to tell stories, then our responsibility is to make visible what is invisible. Art has the power to create truth. Cultural erasure is an act of violence.” – Mina Morita Artistic Director, Crowded Fire Theater

| www.thegivinglist.com |

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Philanthropy is a Family Business As told to Brian Rinker

harlie Casey inherited the family business, Pacific Foundation Services (PFS), and turned it into a philanthropic juggernaut. After graduating from business school at Vanderbilt University in 2003, Casey assumed his career would be a corporate job in brand management for consumer products. But then, life took a twist. “My dad basically said, ‘Well, if you don’t want me to sell this business to a third party, then one of you has to take it over,’” Casey remembers his father saying. His brother is a teacher in New York and wasn’t interested. “I happened to be the one,” he says. “I kind of fell into it at first, but have found great joy in helping other families realize their philanthropic visions.” Charlie Casey might not have noticed it, but he was clearly destined for philanthropy. He is, in fact, a fifth-generation descendent of Henry Bothin, who started the Bothin Foundation in 1917, which Casey’s father also used to run. So, Casey was no slouch when he took on the role of PFS president in 2006. He grew the company from six staff and seven clients to a team of 40 that today serves roughly 40 foundations ranging from $10 million to over $1 billion in assets. In a conversation with The Giving List, Casey discusses how the business grew to where it is today and why philanthropy is more important now than it’s ever been.

What exactly does Pacific Foundation Services do? We collaborate with our clients to determine what services best meet their needs, which, of course, might change over time. We provide administrative governance, compliance, accounting, grants, management, etc. – essentially a complete back-office solution for private foundations. We also work closely with client foundations to provide programmatic support, philanthropic advice, and strategy – helping connect their values to their grantmaking and connect to strong nonprofit partners.

How have you grown the business? What was your strategy? The reality is that we provide a very specialty service. People often seek us out. Our growth has been almost entirely word of mouth. We don’t do any direct outreach today. My focus has always been internal, hiring great people, investing

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in infrastructure and systems, and building a strong, enduring corporate culture. Cheesy as it sounds, if you build it, they will come. I’m really proud of the reputation we’ve built and think that has played a big part in our growth.

How do foundations find you? We benefit greatly by being able to list some of the foundations we work with on our website. Unlike a wealth management firm, as an example, we link directly to many of our client websites, primarily as a service to the nonprofit sector to get information out about the grantmaking process for our clients. But when somebody has a private foundation and needs assistance, just by going to our website, they see this list of other foundations that we work with. That gives us this baked-in credibility, which we work hard to protect and keep credible.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

What’s your proudest accomplishment? Building the culture that we have at PFS. Having worked at a number of different corporations and work environments, I was really clear about what I didn’t want. I own the business, but I also go to work every day at PFS. I set clear intentions for what I wanted in terms of a work environment for myself and for my colleagues. PFS is a business based on trust and generosity. We’re very much a values-driven organization.

“When we had the cascading crises of the pandemic, and then the George Floyd murder and the ensuing civil unrest, and the insurrection at the Capitol, we asked our clients to step up in a meaningful way. We had a call to action with our clients. There’s a huge need right now, across the nonprofit sector, in supporting core grantees so that they can keep their people employed at food banks, housing, homeless services – really across the board.”

How has philanthropy fared through the pandemic and the rising calls for equity? Our clients by and large self-select to work with us because they want to do a very good job, they want to do something more than support only their alma mater or their kids’ schools or the local art museum. They really want to make a difference. So, when we had the cascading crises of the pandemic, and then the George Floyd murder and the ensuing civil unrest, and the insurrection at the Capitol, we asked our clients to step up in a meaningful way. We had a call to action with our clients. There’s a huge need right now, across the nonprofit sector, in supporting core grantees so that they can keep their people employed at food banks, housing, homeless services – really across the board. And I was really inspired by how much they stepped up. I mean, our payout across our client foundations went way, way up, right when the nonprofit community needed and society needed us the most.

pushed us all into a remote work environment, foundations reduced the burden put on grantees around what a proposal or report needed to look like. We saw a real rise among our portfolio, and the sector more broadly, in trust-based philanthropy. Rather than funding a particular program within an organization, many of our clients increased unrestricted giving, asking grantees, “What money do you need? How do you need it? And how can we get it to you?” And really trusting them to deploy those assets in the way best suited to their organizations and communities. Foundations are famous for burdensome levels of requirements around every philanthropic dollar and requiring reports on how every dollar was spent. It has been refreshing to see a number of funders embrace trust-based philanthropy.

What’s the hardest part of the work you do? Even though foundations are by definition resource-rich organizations and our clients, by and large, all have very large endowments, they still have grantmaking budgets and priorities, and therefore sometimes we have to say “no” more than we can say “yes” to prospective grantees. That’s hard. Our aim is to do it in a way that is dignified, empathetic, and kind. I would say my personal mantra is that private foundations should do no harm.

If you could work any job besides the one you have, what would it be? I’d be a writer. I was an English major in college, and I love to write, but I don’t have a lot of opportunities other than internal and external communications. Even so, I enjoy crafting those communications. I’m much more articulate in writing. I don’t like giving speeches, even to my team. I shy away from that. But I’m happy to write about what I feel. I’m a little bit of a social introvert.

You’re born and raised in San Francisco; what was your first job? Taking photographs of tourists getting on to bay cruises at Pier 39 and then trying to sell them the pictures when they got off the boat.

How has 2020 and 2021 changed giving? In addition to giving more money, there was a lot of loosening of restrictions and giving practices. Because the pandemic

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DESTINY ARTS CENTER:

Driving Equity Through Artistic Expression Jessica Hairston portrays Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza in the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company’s performance of Seed Language: A New Identity

ulia Chigamba, a master Zimbabwean dance instructor, had just begun a performance with a second-grade class at the former Roots International Academy in East Oakland when one of the girls let out a sob. The student’s mother had just died, and “Ms. Julia” reached out to hold the child while the other students held hands and began to share their own losses. Chigamba is a core teaching artist at Destiny Arts Center, an Oakland-based nonprofit whose mission is “inspiring and igniting social change through the arts.” Through their work with more than 2,500 students each year, Destiny Arts helps youth do what Ms. Julia modeled with her students — find community, and their most powerful, authentic selves, through the arts. “Social change for our youth might be organizing a Black Lives Matter protest,” says Archana Nagraj, Destiny Arts Center’s executive director, and a social worker by training. “Or it might mean finding the power to stand up for yourself in a classroom, as you become more confident and centered in who you are.” Beginning in 1988, the nonprofit has offered high-quality arts training, mostly in dance, theater, and martial arts, to East Bay youth. Welcoming and inclusive, staff outreach focuses on those with the least access to arts education, and the practices they teach reflect the cultural diversity of the communities they serve. Destiny Arts Center is a long-standing, consistent presence in dozens of schools and centers throughout Oakland, and their staff and teachers ensure that every family is seen and acknowledged.

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Ny’Aja Roberson performs a praise dance at a youth-organized Black Lives Matter protest during the summer of 2020

Martial arts students demonstrate their forms at the annual Life is Living festival at DeFremery Park

Destiny Arts Center is also known for its stunning performances. During the summer of 2020, in response to a moment of racial reckoning, its Youth Performance Company created a series of public dance events in downtown Berkeley in support of youth-led protest. As Shayla Avery, then a rising high school senior, told The New York Times about her ensemble’s work: “You have to have levels to the protest. Some people need music and others want to march and chant.” Along with artistic rigor and social engagement, Destiny Arts Center has long focused on the emotional and psychological benefits that students receive through creating art in community. This year, supported by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, they are making this impact more explicit by hiring case managers for the first time, as well as reaching out directly to families to gauge their basic needs. Nagraj says that during the pandemic, many of their youth experienced a stunning increase in stress, as well as food and housing insecurity. As trusted mentors, Destiny Arts Center’s teachers and staff have stepped in to help however they can, even delivering food to families in need. “What the last 18 months have taught us,” Nagraj says, “is that our work is more urgent and necessary than ever.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“D

estiny has given me so many opportunities to be a part of ART. Destiny has brought happiness to our community. We laughed, danced, and came together as a whole, while protesting our rights of equality and more. Destiny has just been a light to the darkness, especially for our community in this time.”

– Dwayne Clay

Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company Member

Julia Chigamba performs with her students at Destiny’s annual winter recital Love in Action

“D

estiny Arts Center is an essential anchor in the Bay Area landscape of creative youth development. Their accessible, high-quality dance and martial arts programming empowers young people to creatively express themselves, develop advocacy and leadership skills, and build vibrant community.

“Destiny’s mission – to inspire and ignite social change through the arts – has been dazzlingly executed over the past three decades and they continue to grow. Their success is rooted in the creation of a thriving community of youth, artists, neighbors, and supporters where people feel seen, valued, and free.”

–Susan Hirsch

Hellman Foundation Executive Director

Six Ways to Support Destiny Arts Center $15,000 Provides 300 hours of arts programming for an Oakland teen, through the award-winning Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company program $10,000 Provides 120 hours of arts programming to a Title 1 (under resourced) Oakland public school $5,000 Funds one month of Camp Destiny for 50 students $2,500 Provides an arts and movement-based professional development workshop for 30 public school teachers $1,000 Provides for two weeks of a year-long artists-inschools residency, twice per week $500 Supports one month of classes for a student at our North Oakland Center

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT DESTINY ARTS CENTER

Destiny Arts Center www.destinyarts.org 970 Grace Avenue Oakland, CA 94608

Contact:

Archana Nagraj, Executive Director (510) 597-1619 x101 archie@destinyarts.org

| www.thegivinglist.com |

Young hip hop dancers bring fists to the middle at Destiny’s annual winter recital Love in Action

KEY SUPPORTERS The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Crankstart Oakland Fund for Children and Youth Blume Foundation Jessica Ozberker California Arts Council Walter & Elise Haas Fund The Hellman Foundation NewSchools Venture Fund Louis L. Borick Foundation City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program National Endowment for the Arts The Joseph and Vera Long Foundation Frances Hellman and Warren Breslau Fund Sam Mazza Foundation Morris Stulsaft Foundation The Betsy Gordon Foundation George Family Foundation Nicholson Family Foundation Banks Family Foundation

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SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA THEATRE COMPANY:

Fighting for the Cultural Soul of the City

he San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) is rooted by the bonds of childhood friendship. Rodney Jackson, Jr. and Marcelo Javier first met as adolescents while studying performing arts through the San Francisco Arts Education Project, a local organization that has served as an entry point to the arts for some 300,000 local youth. Jackson and Javier immediately meshed over their shared passion for theatre, and their different, but not unfamiliar, backgrounds and interests. Their collaborative relationship continued to blossom in high school at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. “He’s Guatemalan, I’m Black, we’re both Queer. And we became fast friends singing along to musical soundtracks by everyone from the Gershwins to Sondheim to Jonathan Larson,” says SFBATCO’s Artistic Director Rodney Jackson, Jr. The pair knew they wanted to transform San Francisco’s cultural scene. Today, just ten years later, Jackson and Javier co-direct a theatre company that, according to its mission statement, is “a Black, Latine, and Asian led nonprofit organization, which produces compelling theater that builds community, fosters cross-cultural dialogue, promotes social justice, and authentically reflects the experiences of communities of

color and LGBTQ people.” After high school, Javier continued his theater studies at Syracuse University. Jackson, meanwhile, attended Carnegie Mellon University. The two reunited shortly thereafter in New York where Javier produced an OffBroadway play and Jackson produced a play at the New York Fringe Fest. “We were both making art in New York City at 21 years old and thought, ‘Why aren’t we making art in our hometown?’” Jackson says. “New York City attracts artists from all over the country, but we wanted to bring what we learned back home, to the SF Bay Area, and cultivate it. We wanted to be active participants in changing the culture of our community while uplifting other artists like us.” In the theatre milieu, diversity has been authentically embraced, but stark disparities in the upper echelons persist. “Marcelo and I had very few mentors or theatre directors who looked like us,” Jackson says. “The majority of the people who make decisions in the arts are white. We knew that we needed to carve out our own space, and to promote more diversity in every facet of the industry. We saw that as the only way to create the work that we wanted to create.” The theatre company’s New Roots Theatre Festival is a clear example, where SFBATCO and five other “Legacy” companies tell cutting-edge stories that represent the Bay Area’s global identity, while celebrating stories of its historically marginalized communities. “We are about telling the stories of those most vulnerable – the stories of our world, our people, and our communities. These stories are universally relatable, but wildly underproduced,” Jackson says. “We have to tackle societal problems headfirst or else they fester, and the same destructive cycles continue. As cultural trailblazers, we must disrupt those cycles.”

“I, Too, Sing America”

he San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) creates great art, supports communities, and tells stories using a multiplicity of minds, bodies, and voices. In 2022, the company will reprise its signature production, I, Too, Sing America, which references Langston Hughes’s famed poem “I, Too.” The production is a joyous and reflective celebration of the human experience that uniquely interprets poetry by Black and Brown artists from the 19th century to the present in a musical format. The company is seeking to raise $150,000 to underwrite this production, which was last presented during a two-week sold-out run in San Francisco in 2019 and begins its next run in early 2022.

San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company www.sfbatco.org Brava Theater Center 2781 24th St. San Francisco, CA 94110

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Contact:

Rodney Earl Jackson, Jr., Artistic Director/Co-founder (415) 424-2008 rodney@sfbatco.org

| San Francisco Bay Area |

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT SFBATCO

Adam Maggio, Managing Director (415) 794-3100 adam@sfbatco.org

“M

arcelo and I had very few mentors or theatre directors who looked like us. The majority of the people who make decisions in the arts are white. We knew that we needed to carve out our own space, and to promote more diversity in every facet of the industry. We saw that as the only way to create the work that we wanted to create.” – Rodney Jackson, Jr.

Co-director, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company

| www.thegivinglist.com |

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CROWDED FIRE THEATER:

Telling Truth Through Theater

hat do the hit shows Tony and Black Monday have in common? They feature writers – Dipika Guha and Christina Anderson – who got their start at Crowded Fire Theater. Hollywood writers like Isaac Gómez (Narcos) and Susan Soon He Stanton (Succession) prioritize taking time out of their writing rooms to work with this small-but-mighty theater producing out of a 99-seat house in San Francisco. Why? For 20 years, Crowded Fire has been bringing bold, new voices to the stage, most recently at the 99-seat Potrero Stage in San Francisco. Punching far above their weight, the theater has distinguished itself not just for the quality of its playwrights, but for its fearlessness in presenting work that challenges audiences to consider the experience of communities of color more deeply and viscerally than before. Although pushing playwrights to Netflix is not Crowded Fire’s goal, they see that success as emblematic of cultural change, in which the voices of BIPOC artists are being seen and heard at the next level. “If our superpower is to tell stories, then our responsibility is to make visible what is invisible,” says Artistic Director Mina Morita. “Art has the power to create truth. Cultural erasure is an act of violence.”

As an educational experience, theater has few rivals in terms of effectiveness, and itself mirrors the journey of empathy provoked by radically inclusive playwriting. “Theater allows us to go deeper into ourselves, and explore the boundaries of our comfort zones,” says Leigh Rondon-Davis, Crowded Fire’s curator of online programming and a Resident Artist. “We can feel shame or joy along with those on stage in a different way than we usually experience it. It unlocks something in us that reminds us that my experience is not the only experience.” Like almost all arts organizations, Crowded Fire had to pivot during COVID to present work virtually, and find ways to financially support staff and resident artists. And in response to a racial reckoning within the theater world, they have partnered with two other companies to create an anti-racism facilitator training for theater artists called Making Good Trouble. For Morita, theater, education, and justice are all intertwined. “When we engage with a narrative that deeply affects us,” she says, “our framework can change, our values can change, and then our behavior can change.”

Support Theater That Entertains and Creates Change There are a number of ways you can become involved with Crowded Fire, its work and mission.

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

Visionaries: $2,500+ Season Sponsor billing on all of our public programming and a private pre-show visit from artistic staff and members of a show’s creative team for you and your guests at the performance of your choice. Production Sponsors: $1,200–2,499 Production Sponsor billing on the production of your choice, and invitation to special annual events with CFT Artists Commissioners: $600–1,199 Two complimentary opening night tickets and behind-the-scenes access to special mainstage rehearsals.

Crowded Fire Theater

www.crowdedfire.org 1695 18th Street, C101 Annex San Francisco, California 94107

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Contact:

Mina Morita, Artistic Director minam@crowdedfire.org (415) 523-0034 ext. 701

| San Francisco Bay Area |

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT CROWDED FIRE THEATER

“I

f our superpower is to tell stories, then our responsibility is to make visible what is invisible. Art has the power to create truth. Cultural erasure is an act of violence.” – Mina Morita | www.thegivinglist.com |

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Trusted Media Advisors to Drive Social Change

I “In some communities, the most trusted voice is a family member, while in others, it’s a faith leader or local small business. We recognize that the messages and messengers must match the needs of the community if an organization is to be successful.”

f news breaks about your giving, are you ready to respond? If you want to share a story about the social change work you are funding, is your audience ready? Whether your answer is yes or no, you are not alone. When the Tipping Point Community needed a communications plan to help shape its response to the fires in Sonoma County, it turned to a team of professionals based in Oakland. When foundations as diverse as the Stupski Foundation, Y&H Soda Foundation, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and even the Packard Foundation needed communications counsel on issues local and global, they reached out to a unique group they knew could help tell their story. And when nonprofits like the Women’s Foundation of California, Greenlining Institute, and Valley Verde found themselves with a need to communicate a major milestone in many languages, they engaged an old friend.

– DAN COHEN

Founder

For 20 years, social changemakers across the Bay Area and California have turned to Dan Cohen, his partner Sarah HershWalker, and their team at Full Court Press Communications. What began in 2002 as a dream with a laptop and a sleeping puppy, has become a trusted team that provides a vital resource for organizations working to improve the lives of Californians in every sector of the community. For a donor and funder, making social change doesn’t happen overnight nor does it happen easily. The issues that matter most require a coordinated effort to change hearts and minds, especially as Californians and Americans become ever-more bifurcated and isolated in their views. “When I was working on the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s initiative to end chronic homelessness, FCP helped us have a conversation with the community by telling powerful stories in new ways. That was essential and the Foundation continues to use this approach to this day,” says Marc Moorghen, the foundation’s former Communications Director.

“D

ecision-makers only listen when the volume gets loud. With this in mind, think about how you can mobilize the loudest audience possible, especially those in unlikely places, to make sure your vision is heard.”

– KAMIKA DUNLAP

California Women’s Foundation

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| San Francisco Bay Area |

When Full Court Press, known to its friends and clients as FCP, began, it served the traditional public relations function. “Our job was to get a client in the newspaper… or keep them out,” says Founder Dan Cohen. But times have changed and now FCP helps clients identify the audiences they want to reach and are able to use the full slate of communications tools to help reach them. “In the past few years, we’ve developed social media content, television ads, built websites, and even created door-to-door scripts,” Cohen says. “Whatever it takes to help our clients reach their target audience, we can help.”

CLIENTS BRING A DIVERSE SET OF NEEDS AND CHALLENGES

n one effort, FCP worked with Tipping Point Community to encourage each of the 2018 San Francisco mayoral candidates to sign a pledge to create 1,000 homes in their first year in office. The top five candidates agreed and FCP shoe-horned the commitment into the discussion 60 days from election day in a non-partisan way.

“S

tories that bring issues to life and illuminate the humanity of a community are the basis of any effective communications strategy. These stories help align donors, communities and policymakers around common goals.”

– JOSHUA STEINBERGER

Tipping Point Chief Administrative Officer

FCP helped message the pledge, guided the outreach to candidates, collaborated on the pledge language, and helped shepherd news coverage and opinion pieces. “It’s important to find a communications advisor that provides both strategic expertise and then a wide range of tactical implementation and support,” says Joshua Steinberger, Tipping Point’s Chief Administrative Officer. But a client’s needs can be diverse. FCP also worked with Tipping Point on their Emergency Relief Fund, an effort to help communities recover following the North Bay fires in 2017. Tipping Point Community raised $33 million through the “Band Together” concert that featured Metallica and the Dave Matthews Band. On the anniversary of the fires, FCP created and implemented a strategy to communicate how these funds supported the rebuilding and healing effort. FCP managed media availability with Tipping Point and their grantees in Santa Rosa, which resulted in extensive media coverage. “Flexibility is the key for any social changemaker,” Cohen says. He points to recent client efforts to inform diverse communities about the importance of getting the COVID vaccine. “In some communities, the most trusted voice is a family member, while in others, it’s a faith leader or local small business. We recognize that the messages and messengers must match the needs of the community if an organization is to be successful.”

SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FULL COURT PRESS COMMUNICATIONS Dan Cohen, Principal and Founder Dan@FCPcommunications.com 510-465-8294 | www.fcpcommunications.com

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The media itself is changing. News organizations are stretched to the limit and every resident carries around a newsreporting device in their pocket. In this new world, philanthropists and organizations need to be prepared for the worst, while communicating their best at all times. This means a commitment to more outreach on social media, a staff and team that are trained communicators, and a deep network of allies who can help tell your story for you. “The news cycle never ends,” Cohen says. “The news is everywhere – so is the noise. Our appetite to consume it may wax and wane, but the flow of news and information does not stop. We can unplug but the news never does.” Kamika Dunlap, Chief Strategist, Communications at Women’s Foundation California, engaged FCP to help the foundation utilize new communication tools to mark its 40th anniversary. “We were at a critical juncture for the foundation,” Dunlap says. “We needed to mark the past, but also begin to shape a very different future. With FCP’s help, we found new platforms, from social media to national podcasts, to reach a new generation of donors and public policy partners.” As they look at their role, Cohen says FCP has evolved from creator to curator as they seek to inform target audiences. He also consistently reminds clients and communities of our shared humanity. Technology has connected us and allowed us to share our unique stories over social media. At the same time, a (virtual) handshake, a smile, and a laugh are necessary for healing in challenging times. If it sounds like FCP is small but mighty, you are correct. But they were named among the top 100 PR firms in the U.S. by industry magazine PR News in 2021 and were one of the only firms that specialized in helping clients make social change. Making social change through strategic communications matters now more than ever.

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| San Francisco Bay Area |

The Fourth Estate “We founded the Press when it became clear that the business model of journalism was broken. The solution was to take the public broadcasting business model and marry it with the best of print journalism.” – Michael Stoll Editor, Executive Director, and Co-founder, The San Francisco Public Press

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A Life Spent Trying to Solve the Bay Area’s Biggest Problems As told to Les Firestein

red Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, grew up in Oakland and did not consider himself the smartest or most talented among his peers. But he says that many around him ended up locked out of opportunity, and some even ended up dead or incarcerated. “Where you live matters,” says the activist and one-time top administrator of the city of Oakland. “The advantaged across the Bay live 12 to 17 years longer. California has some of the worst income inequality in the U.S., and the Bay Area has the worst income distribution in California.” It is for these reasons that advancing racial and economic equity has long been core to the San Francisco Foundation’s mission. With $1.9 billion in assets and $166 million in grants last year, Blackwell, his team and the donors who partner with the foundation are collectively investing in an inclusive Bay Area. The following conversation explores Blackwell’s thoughts on philanthropy and where the San Francisco Foundation is headed.

You are an Oakland native, served in city government there, and taught at UC Berkeley. You are clearly a product of the Bay Area. How has this informed your work at the foundation? I grew up in a family of people who were pretty active in Oakland from a political and civic point of view. I went to City Council meetings when I was young. I walked precincts for people running for elected office. I spent hours upon hours in community meetings. I went to a school in Oakland that was run and founded by the Black Panther Party. So, I didn’t just think about social justice issues in the abstract. I thought about them very specifically within the context of the place that I was growing up in and playing in and, later on in life, working in. And so, for that reason, the mission of the San Francisco Foundation really resonates with me because it’s at that perfect intersection of place and geography, focusing in on the Bay Area, but doing that from a vantage point that’s really about social justice and improving outcomes for folks who are sometimes locked out of opportunity.

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In response to the pandemic, many local foundations, including the San Francisco Foundation, dramatically changed their grantmaking. How are you working to make these changes lasting at the foundation you run? There are a number of things that we did to be responsive to the moment. We’re proud of this work, and we also understand that the actions of any one institution were going to be a drop in the bucket compared to the avalanche and waves of need that we were witnessing. We increased spending from our endowment to provide emergency relief funding to a predesignated group of 25 organizations in the Bay Area that we knew were well-positioned to do crisis response. We collaborated with other community foundations in the Bay Area to provide opportunities for our

| San Francisco Bay Area |

donors and their donors to contribute more during this time and dedicate those dollars to basic needs like food, shelter, clothing, and cash. We created a COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund for nonprofit organizations that were responding to the moment – a fund that was modeled after the Rapid Response Fund that we launched in 2016. Lastly, we use our voice to make sure that we’re doing everything we can so that our recovery is equitable, and so that we push for a more aspirational view of what our society can be instead of just going back to normal.

What will philanthropy’s role be in recovery writ large? What are the strategies you would like to see your peers in individual and institutional philanthropy adopt? Over the last year, we’ve seen many statements and dollar commitments being made, and more organizations stepping into the fold. Because we have been focused specifically on racial equity since 2015, we have an obligation to share what we’ve learned and to give people insight into the operational challenges that we’ve experienced. We hope that there’ll be many more philanthropic institutions that will arrive at the bus stop that we’re at today, but that when they arrive there, we shouldn’t still be there; we should be moving on to the next stop. And so, we are actively asking ourselves the question: How can we be even more bold and ambitious than we’ve been in the past around this agenda?

The foundation’s equity agenda is focused on racial equity and economic inclusion in the Bay Area. Can you please describe the equity agenda and why it’s important to the communities you serve? Very early on in my tenure at the foundation, we held listening sessions in different parts of the region to hear how residents, nonprofit partners, and policy people would describe the issues on the horizon and how the foundation might be able to respond to those issues. And in all of those meetings, there were certain things that came up every time: housing, economic opportunity, but also race. We also took the important step of collecting a lot of data disaggregated by race, gender, issue, and geography, and the data really aligned with what we were hearing from the community. We then spent the following year operationalizing what we heard, and what the data showed. And we came up with three pathways to racial equity and economic inclusion in the region: people, place, and power. The “people” work is about how we can create a greater sense of upward economic mobili-

ty in the region, lift the floor, and improve working conditions for low-wage workers. The “place” work is about being responsive to concerns around gentrification and displacement, including cultural displacement. And the “power” work is about organizing, supporting movements, and supporting leadership development. So, that’s the way we’re organized, and this structure and these priorities provide the underpinning for the work that we’re engaged in today.

Why should donors partner with the San Francisco Foundation? Issues can come and go. Even organizations can come and go. Elected officials get elected and reelected and then challenged, and so they come and go. But every community needs an institution that has the ability to problem-solve for that community, has the ability to communicate with the diversity of stakeholders that exist, and the ability to mobilize resources to respond to the issues of the day. And that’s what the San Francisco Foundation represents for the San Francisco Bay Area. It represents an organization that has proved over time that it can identify, respond to, and organize community around the issue of the day, and to do that with rigor, strong leadership, a solid reputation that has stood the test of time, and an ability to steward both present-day and future resources. And so, that is why I really think that the San Francisco Foundation is important to the Bay Area’s ability to continue to grow and thrive and reach its full potential.

In your mind, what is the real power of philanthropy? While grant dollars are, of course, needed, the real impact of a foundation goes beyond just contributing dollars and really trying to figure out how you leverage all the relationships and tools that the foundation has to offer to try to move the needle on a particular issue.

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CALMATTERS:

Building a Better Democracy through Unmatched Reporting BY MARCIA PARKER AND KATE LOOBY

Publisher

Chief Development Officer

Smoky skies in San Diego Smokey skies during wildfire season left San Diego overcast.

Governor Gavin Newsom delivered his State of the State address virtually last March.

alMatters was founded to fill the gap left by a shrinking press corps in order to empower people to engage on key issues, hold the powerful accountable, and create a better California for all. CalMatters has established itself as a trusted brand and “go-to” hub for in-depth news and information on statewide issues. Our office is in Sacramento, but our team of award-winning reporters and photojournalists are found throughout California. We measure impact by the effects our stories have on Californians, public policy, and civic conversation. In the past year, we saw engaged readers Venmo funds to those in need after reading our eviction stories; repeatedly heard lawmakers cite our journalism during the legislative session; and had major national news outlets distribute our work to their expansive audiences, increasing our impact. Here are a few examples of how we’re making a difference: • Our investigation of virus outbreaks among agricultural guestworkers uncovered that more than 350 workers had been sickened and at least one died. Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes of San Bernardino cited our work and introduced a “Right to Know” bill to require California employers to notify employees of COVID-19 cases and to alert county health officials. • Our work tracking evictions in every county during the pandemic showed more than 2,000 California households were evicted between March and August 2020, many in apparent violation of eviction moratoriums. Capitol staff said an amendment to the eviction moratorium bill adopted by the legislature was added because of our work and Riverside City Councilmembers reached

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Reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn covers higher education with our College Journalism Network Fellows on their campuses.

out to help a single, 24-year-old mother of two whose eviction was described in our story. • Our database tracking the growing number of school closures for wildfires, shooting lockdowns, and infrastructure failures has been widely cited and copied. The U.S. Government Accountability Office cited the data. The chair of the Assembly Education Committee introduced a bill that would give state education officials two years to create a database modeled after the one produced by CalMatters. We reach one in 10 Californians across the state by posting our work online and by sharing our stories at no cost with more than 200 media partners. Our work is regularly cited by The New York Times, Politico, Axios, and others. We have readers and listeners across the state in every major metropolitan area and hundreds of smaller towns and cities.

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“C

alMatters is an independent, non-partisan, and free press that keeps Californians informed about our government through electronic media. They have excellent reporters who report the legislative process and the impact of legislative decisions. An investigative unit uncovers questionable activities and behaviors to expose wrongdoing and better inform voters. Our democracy is wellserved by their reporting.”

– Becky Morgan

Former Republican California State Senator, and co-founder of the James and Rebecca Morgan Family Foundation

CalMatters explains complex bills that we all need to know about.

“T

hat’s why SoCalGas supports CalMatters. CalMatters is committed to explaining how policies are made and provides inclusive perspectives on complex issues such as environmental regulation, energy, housing, economic inequality and more. They educate voters on ballot measures to help even the most inexperienced voter better understand what’s at stake. CalMatters shares their content among other publications to help ease the burden and cost of responsible journalism.”

– Trisha Muse

Director, Community Relations, SoCalGas

KEY SUPPORTERS

Our California Divide team covers poverty and inequity across the state.

The News is Essential

ith state and local officials leading the response to climate change, the return to school, and the economic recovery, our role as the primary newsroom covering California government is more vital and essential than it’s ever been. As a nonprofit news organization, CalMatters relies on your donations to deliver free, fair, and accessible information to all Californians. We believe that our robust coverage of state issues is essential to a healthy, inclusive democracy. We hope you agree and will support our work by making a tax-deductible donation to CalMatters. We’re happy to direct your donation to support coverage of topics you care about such as education, housing, environment, poverty, healthcare, justice, and our economy. By supporting CalMatters, you’re making a meaningful contribution to journalism that informs and empowers Californians to engage with our state government and holds those in power accountable for their decisions and actions. Thank you.

CalMatters

https://calmatters.org 1303 J Street, Suite 200, Sacramento, CA 95814

Contact:

Housing reporter Manuela Tobias explores the housing crisis and co-hosts the popular Gimme Shelter podcast with LA Times reporter Liam Dillon.

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...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT CALMATTERS

Major Donors: Kate Looby, Chief Development Officer kate@calmatters.org (415) 933-0480

CalMatters is proud and grateful to be supported by an array of major donors, foundations, corporations, and other organizations across our state. They include: In the Bay Area: Kerfuffle Foundation Emerson Collective James Irvine Foundation College Futures Foundation Carrie and Greg Penner, Penner Family Foundation Blue Shield of CA Foundation 11th Hour Project California Health Care Foundation California Wellness Foundation Hellman Foundation Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Enlight Foundation FThree Foundation Becky Morgan Doris Fisher Helen Schwab Ann Doerr John Pritzker Family Fund Walter S. Johnson Foundation

Foundations, Companies and Institutions: Marcia Parker, Publisher marcia@calmatters.org (925) 518-9882

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CIVIL EATS:

Exposing Injustice at the Nexus of Power and Food

or more than a decade, Civil Eats has grown from a labor of love to the leading national nonprofit newsroom focused on food justice. The site covers a wide range of stories through the lens of food and agriculture, shining a light on nutrition and food safety, labor, pesticides, and the climate’s impact on our plates. From farmworkers to policymakers and everyone in between, Civil Eats works to highlight innovators and changemakers and engages readers in solutions on the ground and in Washington. Co-founder Naomi Starkman got an up-close education in the role of corporate power in policy right out of law school, working in San Francisco government as the deputy director of a fiscal oversight agency. She learned to trust journalists’ perspectives on important matters of justice that threatened the powerful. She later worked in New York media – then turned to agriculture, building up her “dirt cred” farming on both coasts. She saw entrenched systems of injustice there, too – and was inspired to build a platform to cover the complexity in the food system. Starkman’s roots in policy, media, and hands-on agriculture enrich Civil Eats’ coverage. In the early days, “People used to ask me if we were a nonprofit. I would joke we were a no profit,” Starkman says. During the first four years, all staff were unpaid, until a 2013 Kickstarter campaign raised $100,000 – at the time, the most any news organization had ever crowdfunded on the platform – enabling expansive coverage

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and a wider audience. It has since become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has worked with thousands of writers from around the country. Michael Pollan and Alice Waters quickly became – and remain – effusive fans. In 2014, the James Beard Foundation – prestigious arbiters of food writing – named Civil Eats publication of the year. And, in 2019, the site’s archives were inducted into the Library of Congress: a testament to the uniqueness and legacy of their work. The core mission has remained the same over the last 12 years: Tell the stories behind our food with an eye toward exposing those in power and lifting up voices that would otherwise go unheard. “The power, money, and corporate consolidation behind our food impacts not just farmers but also consumers,” says Starkman. And while other outlets have recently started exploring these issues, none maintain the singular, unflinching focus that Civil Eats has. Civil Eats depends on subscribers and donors to do this critical work. It’s specifically looking to continue funding its robust coverage of Indigenous foodways, when a grant focused on the topic ends this year. The site is also seeking stand-alone funding for its climate reporting and to build a team that can research and report groundbreaking investigative stories. For now, sending reporters on long-leash, fact-finding missions that shine a light on monopoly, corporate power, and dark money is simply beyond their team’s reach. Important truths about our food are out there – and readers trust Civil Eats to uncover them.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

The Investigative Desk

“I

hope you will join me in supporting Civil Eats, the best online food politics magazine. If you’re interested in changing our food system, it’s one of the most important things you can do.”

n a media landscape shaped by soundbites and spin, investigative reporting is one of the last tools for holding the powerful actors in the food system to account for their actions. By raising $100,000, Civil Eats – which has been publishing groundbreaking and award-winning journalism on the U.S. food system since 2009 – plans to establish an investigative reporting desk, complete with an experienced editor and a cadre of writers who will spend time following leads and digging into stories about everything from greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture to toxins in our food, including threats to food safety. These never-before-reported stories will expose the impacts of power, money, and corporate control in our food system. Investigative reporting is critical in today’s world; it’s also expensive and time consuming. A gift of $5,000 will enable Civil Eats to report, edit, and publish one investigative feature. With your support, Civil Eats can dig deeper, grow its voice, and tell the stories behind our food.

– Michael Pollan

KEY SUPPORTERS

Journalist and author

Liebe Patterson | Elizabeth R. & William J. Patterson Foundation Wendy & Eric Schmidt | Schmidt Family Foundation, 11th Hour Project Esther Park, Sallie Calhoun | Cienega Capital Nell Newman | Nell Newman Foundation Panta Rhea Foundation Cindy Daniels & Doug Lipton SCAN TO MAKE GRACE Communications A DONATION... William Rosenzweig & Carla Fracchia Joyce & Irving Goldman Foundation Lisa Holmes | Hunter Grubb Foundation Ida & Robert Gordon Family Foundation Merck Family Fund Christine Schantz Michael Pollan & Judith Belzer Kat Taylor | TomKat Educational Fund Ruth Reichl Clif Bar Family Foundation ...AND LEARN MORE Marion Nestle ABOUT CIVIL EATS Cedar Tree Foundation Roman Cho

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Civil Eats

https://civileats.com POB 7014 Cotati, CA 94931

Contact:

Naomi Starkman (917) 539-3924 editor@civileats.com

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SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS:

Public Service Journalism That Punches Above Its Weight

The protest movement opposing police violence peaked in summer 2020.

ho hasn’t wondered why, in an immensely wealthy and creative city like San Francisco, no one can move the needle on homelessness? Or why a seemingly democratic idea like public school choice has led to deeper racial segregation? No one is more curious about these questions – or more eager to learn the answers – than the editorial team at the San Francisco Public Press. Created by local journalists after the disbanding of the San Francisco Chronicle’s investigative reporting unit in 2008, the Public Press specializes in data-driven, large-scale projects that other media institutions won’t – or can’t – take on. “We founded the Public Press when it became clear that the business model of journalism was broken, and mainstream news outlets were no longer investing in deep-dive accountability reporting,” says Michael Stoll, the Public Press’s executive director and co-founder. The solution, he says, was “to take the public broadcasting

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business model and marry it with the best of print journalism.” What that means in practice is that the Public Press is a nonprofit news organization that doesn’t take advertising and is committed to public service, offering what publisher and co-founder Lila LaHood calls a “solutions approach to reporting, focused on seemingly intractable problems.” As part of this commitment, the Public Press centers the experiences of underserved communities, and people whose lives are more likely to be affected by unaffordable housing, racial and economic inequities, and environmental injustice. Its small size, with less than ten fulltime staff, belies its influence. Last year, for instance, the Public Press unearthed a secret privacy arrangement between the California Public Utilities Commission and ride-sharing companies Lyft and Uber, prompting legislators to call for more transparency about the company’s hiding of crash reports. And this fall, a

| San Francisco Bay Area |

HyunJu Chappell reviews page proofs for the print edition

lengthy investigation into environmental and health inequities in former military installations will be co-published with USA Today, amplifying readership and impact. Along with their web presence and quarterly print edition, the Public Press operates a low-power FM radio station – KSFP 102.5 FM in San Francisco – for which it produces a daily newscast and a weekly radio show and podcast called “Civic.” They plan to return soon to live town hall-style events, where community members and reporters can talk to and learn from each other, accelerating the pace of bringing the best civic ideas into the public eye.

A recent “Civic” podcast episode investigates conflicting San Francisco recycling guidelines.

Reporter Hannah Kaplan interviews a man about living on the streets

“T

he San Francisco Public Press is public-interest, nonprofit journalism at its best. The publication never flinches at tackling the complex issues and problems confronting the Bay Area — the housing affordability crisis, homelessness, educational inequities in our public schools — with top-notch investigative and solutions-driven journalism and compelling storytelling. We have also been impressed by their efforts to actively engage and listen to the communities they serve as a way to address problems and effect change.”

“T

he Public Press does the heavy lifting in journalism – the type of hard-hitting investigations that serve the community and change lives. One especially vivid example was uncovering the secret list of buildings vulnerable to earthquakes. Remarkably, the government kept that information hidden from the public. But it was the determined staff of the San Francisco Public Press (not the national media, a big newspaper, or one of the network affiliates) that exposed this issue, and now thousands of buildings are being fortified and lives may well be saved when the next earthquake comes. And that’s just one story of so many. The Bay Area is fortunate to have these journalists working on their behalf.”

– Valerie Bush

Executive Director, Renaissance Journalism

NewsMatch

uring the fall of 2021, NewsMatch – a national initiative aimed at increasing donations to vetted nonprofit journalism organizations – will match donations to the San Francisco Public Press. With the additional funds, the Public Press plans to hire more staff to report on the region’s burning issues, including environmental protection, housing affordability, public health, transportation safety, homeless services, digital privacy, and immigration. These funds will supplement the Public Press’s current base of support, largely community, journalism-focused, and family foundation gifts, and donations from hundreds of individuals through its membership program.

San Francisco Public Press www.sfpublicpress.org 44 Page Street, Suite 504 San Francisco, CA 94102

Contact:

Lila LaHood, Publisher lila@sfpublicpress.org (415) 495-7377

– Scott James

Emmy-winning journalist and author

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INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORTERS The Reva and David Logan Foundation The James Irvine Foundation The San Francisco Foundation ProPublica Local Reporting Network Inasmuch Foundation Craig Newmark Philanthropies NewsMatch Renaissance Journalism The Fund for Investigative Journalism McGraw Center for Business Journalism Solutions Journalism Network Investigative Editing Corps USC Annenberg Reporting on Health Program BOARD MEMBERS Patricia Bovan Campbell, secretary David Cohn, president Liz Enochs, vice-president Neal Gorenflo Lawrence Groo Lila LaHood, treasurer Ricardo Sandoval Palos Peter Scheer Michael Stoll

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STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW:

The Social Sector’s Preeminent Source of News and Knowledge By Frank Nagle

HOW SCIENCE PHILANTHROPY CAN BUILD EQUITY By Elizabeth Good Christopherson, Emily L. Howell, Dietram A. Scheufele, Kasisomayajula Viswanath & Norris P. West

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS, STRENGTHENING NEIGHBORHOODS By Seth D. Kaplan

FALL 2021 VOLUME 19, NUMBER 4

By Johanna Mair & Thomas Gegenhuber

THE MANY ROADS TO REVENUE GENERATION

MOBILE INNOVATORS

A SURGICAL ROAD MAP FOR GLOBAL PROSPERITY

By Marya Besharov, Jean-Baptiste Litrico & Susanna Kislenko

By Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff & Benjamin A. T. Graham

By Kristin A. Sonderman, Isabelle Citron, Alexander W. Peters & John G. Meara

BUILDING AN AMERICAN OWNERSHIP SOCIETY By Elwood M. Hopkins

FALL 2019 VOLUME 17, NUMBER 4

EIGHT MYTHS of US Philanthropy

PLUS

KIVA

Reinvents Itself

By Faculty of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

THE PROMISE OF SOCIAL SECTOR FRANCHISING

BUILDING CITIES’ COLLABORATIVE MUSCLE

By Greg Starbird, Fiona Wilson & E. Hachemi Aliouche

By the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative

SPRING 2021 VOLUME 19, NUMBER 2

Philanthropy’s Rural Blind Spot / Building an American Ownership Society / The Promise of Social Sector Franchising / Building Cities’ Collaborative Muscle

A new approach orchestrates multiple stakeholders to tackle social problems.

Eight Myths of US Philanthropy / The Many Roads to Revenue Generation / Mobile Innovators / A Surgical Road Map for Global Prosperity

Open Social Innovation / The Problem of Social Benefit / Building Relationships, Strengthening Neighborhoods / How Science Philanthropy Can Build Equity

Open Social Innovation

Stanford Social Innovation Review

THE PROBLEM OF SOCIAL BENEFIT

Philanthropy’s Rural Blind Spot

The most economically distressed communities are the least likely to apply for funding and the least likely to have the local resources to address inequity. By Robert Atkins, Sarah Allred & Daniel Hart

Fall 2019 / Vol. 17, No. 4

Fall 2021 / Vol. 19, No. 4

he year was 2003, and the philanthropic sector was going through a period of significant evolution. Every day, new technologies were emerging that changed the way that people were engaging with one another and learning about issues that mattered to them. Many of these same new technologies were also bringing newfound wealth to the people who were pioneering them, who in turn, started looking for new ways to apply their talent and treasure to address societal and environmental challenges. At the same time, traditional philanthropists and grantmaking institutions began exploring new methods for achieving greater impact on the issues they were addressing, and nonprofits and social enterprises (still a relatively new idea) were adopting successful strategies and approaches from the for-profit world to make their work more effective and efficient. These converging forces inspired a group of individuals at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business to launch a quarterly print publication that would inform and inspire the emerging field of social innovation: Stanford Social Innovation Review. As the first Editors’ Note explained, the publication would be “dedicated to presenting useable knowledge that will help those who do the important work of improving society do it even better!” SSIR’s approach “is based on a philosophy of dissolving boundaries and brokering a dialogue between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors…” The publication still takes this “cross-sector” approach, bringing together ideas and insights from philanthropists and foundations, nonprofits, and NGOs, businesses and social enterprises,

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policymakers, academics, and leading thinkers and doers. In 2010, SSIR became a part of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy & Civil Society, the preeminent academic research center dedicated to expanding the body and reach of quality research on, and improving the practice and effectiveness of, philanthropy, civil society, and social innovation. It was at that time that the leadership of SSIR decided it was necessary to live the ideals that the publication espoused, becoming itself a social enterprise of sorts. SSIR receives no funding from Stanford University, relying instead on earned revenue from subscriptions, conferences, webinars, and other editorially-related products and services to provide the income needed to cover its ongoing operations. Today, that quarterly print magazine – which at one time was mailed out by hand – has grown into a modern media enterprise, reaching a global audience of nearly three million people each year. With five foreign-language editions (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish), SSIR produces print and online articles daily, along with webinars, conferences, podcasts, and an array of educational and informational resources to help inform and inspire those who strive to make the world a better place. The first Editors’ Note said it best: “‘Social innovation’ stands in our name for a reason: to remind our authors, our audience, and ourselves that this journal’s purpose is to lead in the search for new and better ways to redress social problems… We invite you to join with us in exploring new ideas and thinking more broadly about these issues.”

| San Francisco Bay Area |

“I

ndividuals are the backbone of the philanthropic and nonprofit world… people who are willing to give of their time, talent, and treasure to make things better! SSIR’s job is to help provide people with the insights and inspiration they need to be more effective, and realize the change they hope to see in the world.”

“S

SIR isn’t here to tell you what or how to think. We’re here to provide you with the latest information and perspectives on innovative solutions to social and environmental issues so that you can make your own decisions and achieve greater impact on the issues that matter to you.”

– Eric Nee

– Michael Gordon Voss

Editor-in-Chief, Stanford Social Innovation Review

Publisher, Stanford Social Innovation Review

or nearly two decades, I have counted on SSIR to present the cutting edge ideas and the key debates of our field. The Stupski Foundation has valued the opportunity to partner with the team at SSIR to explore critical ideas with foundation leaders and renowned experts.”

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THE ETHICS OF DESIGNING DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE By Lucy Bernholz & Lyndon Ormond-Parker

By Mary Kay Gugerty & Dean Karlan

SUMMER 2018 VOLUME 16, NUMBER 3

The Rise of Philanthropy

The for-profit limited liability company is poised to become the preferred vehicle for the nation’s elite philanthropists. BY DANA BRAKMAN REISER

LLCs

DESIGN THINKING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

CAN MEASURES CHANGE THE WORLD?

HOW FIELD CATALYSTS GALVANIZE SOCIAL CHANGE

By Clark G. Gilbert, Michael M. Crow & Derrick Anderson

By Christopher Nelson, Anita Chandra & Carolyn Miller

By Taz Hussein, Matt Plummer & Bill Breen

WINTER 2018 VOLUME 16, NUMBER 1

The

Investment Gap To stave off drastic climate change, we need philanthropists to invest more in nascent solutions ignored by traditional capital markets.

That Threatens the Planet

BY SCOTT P. BURGER, FIONA MURRAY, SARAH KEARNEY & LIQIAN MA

Winter 2018 / Vol. 16, No. 1

hange starts with individuals. Whether you’ve been a donor for years, or are just starting on your philanthropic journey, you need up-to-date information to help you make informed decisions about your giving. Stanford Social Innovation Review provides readers with the latest research and practice on social issues and solutions, giving you the tools you need to be a better partner in social change. With a cross-sector approach that includes perspectives from philanthropists, foundations, nonprofits, social enterprises, government, business, and academia, SSIR is the preeminent global publication for anyone looking to be more effective and efficient in helping to support positive change.

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The Investment Gap That Threatens the Planet / Design Thinking for Higher Education/ Can Measures Change the World? / How Field Catalysts Galvanize Social Change

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Stanford Social Innovation Review

– Glen Galaich

CEO, The Stupski Foundation

By Patrick Guerriero & Susan Wolf Ditkoff

Summer 2018 / Vol. 16, No. 3

“F

The Rise of Philanthropy LLCs / The Ethics of Designing Digital Infrastructure / Ten Reasons Not to Measure Impact / When Philanthropy Meets Advocacy

– Lindsay Louie

Program Manager, Effective Philanthropy Group, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation

Stanford Social Innovation Review

“S

tanford Social Innovation Review is one of my top ‘go-to’ sources for the latest thinking, research, ideas, and innovations happening in the social sector – both in the U.S. and around the world. Audience engagement with people working in foundations, corporate philanthropy, NGOs, government, and business steadily grows year-over-year as more people find, and contribute to, this top-notch content and share it in their networks. The cross-pollination of six different language issues of the magazine – English, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean – has also added to the richness of the SSIR content.”

TEN REASONS NOT TO MEASURE IMPACT—AND WHAT TO DO INSTEAD

WHEN PHILANTHROPY MEETS ADVOCACY

Stanford Social Innovation Review www.ssir.org

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Anchoring The Bay With Trusted Programming During Tumultuous Times

KQED:

KQED’s newly renovated San Francisco headquarters creates a number of spaces on site to engage with audiences and provides technology upgrades to help the station provide its critical public service for generations to come. (photo by Jason O’Rear. Courtesy of KQED)

s devastating wildfires, a deadly global pandemic, and bitter political division make life feel chaotic, KQED has been a constant, reliable source of news, information, and programming Bay Area residents have relied on for nearly 70 years. For some, KQED means listening to radio programs like The California Report or the widely popular call-in public affairs show Forum; for others, it’s tuning in each week to the television show Check Please! Bay Area to learn the latest dish from local restaurants. Some prefer to read KQED’s latest investigations on police accountability online or to get the latest local election facts straight with its voter guides; then there are those who pop in ear pods and listen to Bay Area-focused podcasts like Bay Curious, The Bay, and Rightnowish or its recent series on the housing crisis SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America. “We’re giving people news they can use,” says Georgi Kelly, KQED’s vice president of development. Kelly says KQED also digs deep into Bay Area issues: homelessness, housing, police brutality. “We’re also making investments at KQED to understand large systemic problems,” she adds. Every week 2.4 million audience members engage with KQED, whether that’s on the radio, television, online, or through its social media platforms. The public radio and television nonprofit media organization also delivers classic national programs from NPR and PBS, like All Things Considered, Fresh Air, PBS NewsHour, and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Since 2010, Kelly says KQED has invested $45 million into expanding its reach and the size of its newsroom, hiring more than 100

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people, mainly journalists. KQED’s headquarters in San Francisco has been renovated to offer more opportunities for in-person community engagement; at the heart of the building is a space called The Commons, where the station’s new event series KQED Live plays host to community discussions, screenings, food events, and performances. KQED’s mission is to contribute to an informed citizenry and foster a healthy democracy. Not only does KQED dig deep to bring insights and analysis and commentary to the local news, but it also prides itself on including diverse perspectives. Over the years, the media organization has grown from one solely focused on radio and television to one that also produces digital content, including podcasts that delve deep into Bay Area culture and video series that explore arts, science, and media literacy. The station has also developed a large online and social media presence to distribute content and engage with audiences. “We have a really rich mix of local, national, and international content that you cannot find anywhere else,” Kelly says. “If I want to learn about what’s happening in California, or San Francisco, or China, I turn on KQED and learn what’s happening in 40 minutes.” For many, KQED has been there through the generations. “Kids love the PBS Kids shows on KQED,” Kelly says. “And the programs are on the forefront of how to talk with kids about social issues – like racial justice and explainers with teenagers about vaping.” Whether you grew up on KQED, your kids listen or watch it, or whether you just moved to the Bay Area and are looking to get clued in, Kelly adds, KQED has you covered.

| San Francisco Bay Area |

KQED reporter Marco Siler-Gonzales reporting in the field during the COVID-19 pandemic

Gavin Newsom and John Cox join KQED’s Scott Shafer for their only scheduled gubernatorial debate. (photo by Jeff Chiu/AP)

“K

QED is a leader in the public radio system – an essential cultural institution that has been providing fact-based reporting to audiences across the Bay Area and beyond for more than seven decades. KQED’s partnership with NPR is vital to us. Working together, we are delivering critical public service journalism to the nation. Local public radio stations are powered by the communities they serve, and that support is more critical than ever.”

– John F. Lansing

NPR President & CEO

Inform. Inspire. Involve.

QED exists to inform, inspire, and involve because an informed, inspired, and involved citizenry is the foundation of a healthy democracy. KQED’s journalism is built on facts and accuracy. We value empathy, compassion, and respect. We hold institutions and individuals accountable in the public interest. And we convene thoughtful dialogue and spirited debate. We invite you to join KQED’s passionate community of more than 250,000 members whose generous gifts help… – produce award-winning reporting and storytelling from The California Report, Political Breakdown, and The Bay – power the important conversations on Forum, Here & Now, and The Takeaway – share uplifting and heartwarming programs, from This American Life to MASTERPIECE Each week, 2.4 million Bay Area adults engage with KQED. However, just as our audiences depend on us, we rely on community support to keep us on the air. Support public media today at https://donate.kqed.org/givinglist.

Georgi Kelly is KQED’s Vice President, Development. KQED recently exceeded its $135 million capital campaign goal.

“I

believe in the power of public media to bring out the best in ourselves, to help us understand the world around us, and to help people find common ground across differences. For seven decades, KQED has been the Bay Area’s quintessential source of local independent journalism and high-quality entertainment. And, in an age of harmful misinformation and disinformation campaigns, KQED’s commitment to facts, accuracy and context is essential to the well-being of our communities and the health of our democracy. I am proud to be a part of the KQED community.”

– Anne Avis

Supporter and board member

SCAN TO MAKE A DONATION...

KQED

Georgi Kelly, Vice President of Development georgigkelly@kqed.org (415) 553-2199 www.kqed.org 2601 Mariposa Street San Francisco, CA 94110

Host Myles Bess (center) with students during the production of Above the Noise, a KQED education series for teens

...AND LEARN MORE ABOUT KQED

| www.thegivinglist.com |

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Anne Avis Hank Barry Mike Blach Steve Bochner Jennifer Cabalquinto James Cham Tom Chavez Brian Cheu Naveen Chopra Darolyn Davis Karen Edwards Dawn Garcia Meg Garlinghouse Alex van Helden Carla Javits

Annie Jean-Baptiste Shadi Karra Edward Lichty, Chair Julia Lopez Jen McClure José Quiñonez Nadia Roumani Nancy Serrurier Camilla Smith Lisa Sonsini Jamie Studley Sanjay Vaswani Mallun Yen Matt Zinn

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Index A Home Within ��80

Juma Ventures �� 42

At The Crossroads �� 142

Kathy Kwan: Profile �� 88

Battery Powered ��164

KQED ��190

Black Citizen �� 124

Lateefah Simon: Profile �� 128

Brady | United Against Gun Violence ��120

Lisa Ling: Profile ��106

California Black Freedom Fund: Profile ��140

Mentors 4 College ��96

California Children’s Trust �� 28

Microsoft ��102

CalMatters �� 182

National Center for Lesbian Rights ��110

Capital Group ��30

National Disaster Search Dog Foundation �� 162

Center For Early Intervention on Deafness ��94

Northern California College Promise Coalition ��100

Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants �� 112

Pivotal ��40

Charles Casey: Profile �� 168

Plastic Pollution Coalition �� 156

City National Bank ��20

Postpartum Support Center ��64

Civil Eats �� 184

Rafiki Coallition ��132

Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) �� 48

Razing the Bar �� 76

Community Action Marin ��66

Rhea Su: Profile �� 154

Courage Museum ��108

Safe & Sound �� 26

Crowded Fire Theater (CFT) ��174

San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company ��172

Destiny Arts Center �� 170

San Francisco Court Appointed

East Bay Children’s Law Offices (EBCLO) �� 24

Special Advocate Program (CASA) �� 78

Edgar Villanueva: Profile ��56

San Francisco Public Press �� 186

Emily Scott: Profile ��72

Seneca Family of Agencies �� 134

Facing History and Ourselves ��122

Shanti Project �� 136

Five Keys �� 148

Sparks: Profile ��118

Fred Blackwell: Profile ��180

Stanford Social Innovation Review �� 188

Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY) �� 52

Students Rising Above (SRA) ��98

Full Court Press ��176

Sunday Friends Foundation ��68

Help a Mother Out ��60

Swords to Plowshares ��150

Homeward Bound of Marin ��144

Unity Care �� 82

Human Rights Watch ��114

Urban Alchemy ��146

iFoster ��74

Vida Verde �� 158

JaMel Perkins: Profile �� 34

Vision to Learn �� 92

James Head: Profile ��46

VOICES Napa �� 36

Jewish Family and Children’s Services �� 62

Warriors Community Foundation ��84

John Burton Advocates for Youth (JBAY) �� 38

Youth Law Center ��50

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