Today the role of philanthropy is expanding and so are its responsibilities. Philanthropy Link is published by San Diego Grantmakers to help you meet the challenge. Our mission is to connect, inform, develop, and inspire a diverse group of foundations and corporations to stimulate effective philanthropy in the San Diego region. For more information visit www.SDGrantmakers.org.

Great Grants

The San Diego LGBT Pride Fund Distributes $105,000 Locally
In 2003, the San Diego LGBT Pride Fund of the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation distributed $105,000 in grants to twelve local nonprofits supporting the LGBT community in San Diego. The money, raised at the previous year's San Diego Pride Festival, went to such organizations as Mama's Kitchen, YWCA of San Diego County, San Diego Youth and Community Services, and the UCSD LGBT Resource Center.

Parker Foundation Supports SDG's Homelessness Efforts
The Board of Directors of The Parker Foundation has approved a two-part conditional grant in the amount of $5,000 to support the planning efforts of San Diego Grantmakers Working Group on Homelessness. The initial $2,000 is an outright grant. The second $3,000 is a challenge matching grant given when we have received an additional $15,000 from collaborating foundations. The working group has identified three key areas to make a significant differnence:

• helping to convene city and county efforts to develop a ten-year plan to eliminate homelessness,
• building political will, and
• strenthening San Diego's supportive services

Send us your "Great Grants"
Funders throughout San Diego want to hear about your great grants. We are looking for 75-100 words telling your organization's stories. Send your Great Grants to info@sdgrantmakers.org.

Chronicle of Philanthropy Shares Today's Top Trends

Recently, Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, addressed a group of grantmakers about the top news stories facing the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors today and in the near future. The following includes highlights from her remarks:

1) Advocacy-In an effort to comply with growing pressures from the government concerning disclosure and accountability, the nonprofit community has taken a greater role in advocacy as seen with the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation.

2) Economy-With a recovering economy, many questions still center on the recession's affect on giving and nonprofit viability. Questions such as: How strong is the economic recovery? Which nonprofits will recover with the economy and why? What is the relationship between funding and organizational effectiveness?

3) Presidential Campaign-Due to presidential candidate John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, public awareness of private philanthropy has increased in this election season. Will her reputation as a prominent philanthropist through her foundation the Heinz Endowments help or hinder the perception of private philanthropy's role in society? Should government and philanthropy be so closely aligned?

4) Competition for Resources-Although nonprofits are experiencing phenomenal growth in number and size, government funding cuts inhibit the nonprofit community's ability to tend to an ever-increasing needy population. What will be the consequences of such competition?

5) Communication/Education Gap-In a recent survey, nonprofits prioritized the top concerns facing the communities they served and the their areas of greatest need. When the same survey was given to the general public, over 90% of the problems deemed severe by the nonprofits were considered a "concern" of the general public. This would seem to suggest a looming communications gap.

6) "Hiving"-"Hiving" describes a trend among community members to gather together and become involved in their local community issues as a means of garnering a heightened sense of community while fulfilling a desire for social responsibility.

7) Demographics-As an ageing society begins to comprise the ever-growing majority of the total population, how will this impact society's needs? Will this shift in demographics change community service priorities? And if so, how will these needs be met? Furthermore, as younger philanthropists become more engaged in their family giving, will they change the perception of how philanthropy is practiced?

8) Leadership Gap-As fewer and fewer young professionals turn to the nonprofit sector as a career option, a greater concern arises within the community. While the baby-boomer generation formed and led many of the leading nonprofit organizations, inevitable retirement also claims great talent and leadership that many of our nation's nonprofits rely on. Who in the next generation of philanthropy will fill these large shoes?

9) International-Considering the current political climate, international funding has undergone a tremendous loss. Increased government regulations have deterred many philanthropists from giving overseas. Where will these funds go? Local Charities? Advocacy? How will this impact international nonprofits?

10) So What?-This question comes up in the daily lives of many nonprofit professionals and philanthropists as they search for ways to demonstrate whether their actions are making a difference. How do you know what you are doing is working? How do you know you are making an impact and contributing to lasting change?

Foundations for Success:
Emerging Trends in Grantmakers' Use of the Internet

The internet is enabling grantmakers to build mechanisms for success, transforming their role in ways that make them not just funders, but drivers of social change. Interactive Applications Group, a full-service internet consulting firm specializing in online solutions for the philanthropic sector, just released a new report, "Foundations for Success: Emerging Trends in Grantmakers' Use of the Internet." Below are highlights of the four ways that Internet technology has and will continue to change the face of our sector.

1. Transparency-Using the Internet to heighten awareness of a foundation's purpose and programs, priorities, recent grants, and funding criteria, as well as the outcomes of its grantmaking.
2. Network Building-Creating an online workspace in which funders, grantees and other foundation stakeholders collaborate and share timely information to maximize their effectiveness.
3. Knowledge Management-Implementing Web-based systems to capture, synthesize, manage, and disseminate knowledge gleaned from funders and grantees.
4. Integrated Grants Management-Building Web-based systems to streamline the grants management life cycle, from eligibility screen and online application submission to proposal review and grantee reporting.

Here at SDGrantmakers, our mission is to stay connected to our members and community through as many mediums as possible. Therefore, we hope that our website is an up-to-date and well-utilized resource as it is a great example and wonderful opportunity to learn more about SDG, our members, and San Diego philanthropy. At www.sdgrantmakers.org you will find a calendar of upcoming programs, an online member directory, a member listserv, relevant and informative articles, new developments and reports in giving, resourceful links, an online copy of our monthly publication Philanthropy Link, and more. Below are some interesting stats about the SDG website.

• Close to 1,000 visitors come to our site each week
  • Many of these visitors are nonprofits searching to build better relationships with local foundations
• Not surprisingly, the most popular pages
  • Programs
  • Events
  • Member Lists
• The most common search engines that bring visitors to the SDG site
  • Google (63%)
  • MSN (23%)
  • Yahoo (11%)
• Search phrases, aside from "San Diego Grantmakers", bringing visitors to our site
  • The Legler Benbough Foundation
  • San Diego foundations
  • Irvine Foundation statistics
  • grantmakers
    

As a service to our members, SDG staff is here to answer any questions and to offer advice about using the internet for effective grantmaking. Furthermore, we are always open to article submissions, updates, and/or any other suggestions on how to better our website services to the community.

Upcoming Programs

Summer Reading...
Join us for a one-time only SDG Book Club Event as we discuss
Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See

August 26th, 3:00-5:00pm
Al Panico's home (r.s.v.p. for directions)

This alternative civic history deconstructs the mythology of "America's finest city," exposing undergirdings of militarism, racism and economic inequality. Acclaimed urban theorist Mike Davis documents a history of domineering elites and a purportedly weak city governments. Jim Miller tells the story from the other side: chronicling the history of protest in San Diego from the Wobblies to today's "Globalphobics." Kelly Mayhew, meanwhile, presents the voices of paradise's forgotten working people and new immigrants. The texts are vividly enhanced by Fred Londonier's photographs.

Whether you agree with its decidedly leftist -- and sometimes sensationalistic premise-- or are offended by it, Under the Perfect Sun is highly provocative. Join your colleagues for what surely will prove to be a lively discussion on the root causes of San Diego's turbulent politics and their implications for our community.

Book is available at most local bookstores or through Amazon.

Navigating the Racial Terrain:
What Cultural Competency Means to Grantmaking

September 14th, 11:30am-1:30pm
Centro Cultural de la Raza (in Balboa Park)
2125 Park Blvd.

Featuring Dr. Terrence Roberts
Co-chairman of the Master's in Psychology Program, Antioch University
Congressional Gold Medal Winner
Member of the Little Rock Nine

September 23, 1957 was no ordinary school day for Terry Roberts, a 15-year old 11th grader, and eight other African American teenagers in Little Rock, Arkansas. Little Rock Central High School, like many schools across the country, was segregated. But the Supreme Court had ruled that segregation was illegal. And these nine students, who would be known as The Little Rock Nine, would be the first African Americans to attend Little Rock's Central High.

The courageous actions of the Little Rock Nine helped open the door of education for African Americans all across the nation. Other groups, notably Latinos and Native Americans also became increasingly active in their drive for full participation in American society. In 1962, Cesar Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Union, which campaigned nonviolently for better working condition for Hispanic, Filipino, and other farm laborers. Native American leaders such as Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt, formed the American Indian Movement in 1968 to address police brutality, slum housing, unemployment, racism, and other issues. These movements found broad support inside their communities as well as among the larger society.

We've experienced significant advances in civil rights. And our population is increasingly diverse. In fact, in the next few years, there will be no majority culture in San Diego. Does your grantmaking reflect this reality? What can we do to incorporate diverse voices in our thinking to build a better community?

Dr. Roberts shares the critical elements of cultural competency and engages in a discussion about going beyond awareness and using diverse perspectives in our grantmaking.

Discussion also features Olga de la Cruz-Canon, The California Endowment, Margaret Iwanaga-Penrose, Union of Pan Asian Communities, and Abdi Mohamoud, Horn of Africa, as they illustrate what cultural competency means in their respective organizations.

The State of Education in San Diego with Alan Bersin

October 28th, 11:30am-1:30pm
Meeting place TBA

Alan Bersin began service as Superintendent of Public Education in 1998. Bersin received his bachelor's degree from Harvard College, studied at Balliol College, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and received his law degree from Yale Law School in 1974. He was a practicing attorney from 1975-1992 with the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles.

Prior to his appointment as superintendent, Bersin served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of California for five years, during which time he also served as the Attorney General's Southwest Border Representative.

With proven leadership and having demonstrated himself in very important offices, but with no education background, Bersin was hired to reform San Diego's city schools. Six years into Bersin's reform efforts, what is the state of education in San Diego's city schools?

Join your grantmaking colleagues as Alan Bersin shares lessons learned and helps grantmakers support systemic change in education.

• What do we have to do to get our poorest, most challenged students to succeed?
• What are the challenges to replicating systems and moving change to scale?
• What are the lessons learned and how do they inform our grantmaking?

What does the future hold?

Lynn Liao, from the LA-based Broad Foundation, joins the discussion to share the Broad Foundation's efforts to dramatically improve K-12 urban public education through better governance, management, and labor relations. The Broad Foundation has made significant investments in the San Diego Unified School District -- what have they learned? What works and where do they go from here?

 

For questions or comments about SDGrantmakers or our Philanthropy Link visit www.SDGrantmakers.org or contact Julie Holdaway, 619/744.2180
Julie@SDGrantmakers.org.

Feel free to comment, suggest article ideas, or submit news items Link@SDGrantmakers.org -- We're always happy to hear from you. Philanthropy Link is a service to San Diego Grantmakers members. Copies of past editions are archived at News You Can Use.

If you do not wish to receive the monthly Philanthropy Link, send an email to Link@SDGrantmakers.org requesting to unsubscribe in the body of the email.