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 Genographic Project
Waitt Family Foundation

The Genographic Project is a five year mission to chart new knowledge about the migratory history of the human species and answer age-old questions about the genetic diveristy of humanity. This nonprofit research project is led by distinguished population geneticist Dr. Spencer Wells and the partnership of National Geographic and IBM. The Waitt Family Foundation is a major supporter of this task to collect and analyze more than 100,000 DNA samples from people worldwide. The main goal of this project is to help people better understand the history of humanity, the migratory paths our ancestors took to populate the world, and how we are part of the same family tree and share common ancestors.

"The project is not about differences between people," says IBM's Ajay Royyuru, who heads the comupter science team ahndling the project's data. "It is about similarities shared by people everywhere.

Funding from the Waitt Family Foundation will go towards the establishment of 10 centers around the world in order for scientists to study DNA samples from indigenous populations. The public can take part in this project by purchasing a Participation Kit and submitting their own cheek swab samples in order for them to track the progress of the project and of their own migratory history. After submitting the swabs, the ability to access the results will be securely available online. This database will be the largest to hold the human popluation genetic information, which will be bery informative for geneticists, historians, and anthroplogists.

For more information click here for the USA Today's article about the Waitt Family Foundation's new project.

Send us your "Great Grants"
Funders throughout San Diego want to hear about your great grants. Send your Great Grants to info@sdgrantmakers.org.

Congratulations Change a Life Foundation!

Change a Life Foundation has been named a Bronze Award Recipient for merit in communications by the 2005 Wilmer Shields Rich Awards Program. This award, sponsored by the Council on Foundations and the Communications Network, recognizes successful communications efforts to enhance public awareness of foundations and corporate giving programs. Change A Life Foundation partners 100 pre-selected Southern California charitable organizations who are the means to identify and assist individuals in need. The Foundation's main goal is to support individuals and their families whom have suffered through physical and financial hardships. We congradulate the Foundation on their great efforts in aiding the community and for the award they received!

Alliance for Justice: Investing in Change
Strategies for Building the Advocacy Capacity of Grantees
This is the fourth in SDG's series of advocacy "how to's"

Building advocacy capacity means helping grantees to fortify their skills, resources, and knowledge so they may effectively identify and act on opportunities. The Alliance For Justice suggests that foundations should perform some self-analysis before promoting advocacy activities to current and prospective grantees. This may include the analysis of:

• The foundation's mission and how advocacy can help accomplish that mission
• The foundation's advocacy-related grantmaking over time, including long-term relationships with grantees in a field or issue area
• The mix of issues and activites the foundation would like to support, as well as the types of grants and the length of grant awards

Once the foundation has expressed its goals for supporting advocacy, it should spread the work internally, through strategic and program planning. Some tips for discussing advocacy goals include to:

• Discuss the rationale for funding advocacy with board memebers and staff
• Show how funding advocacy fits into the broader goals and mission of the foundation
• Demonstrate how funding advocacy can meet the needs of the community
• Demonstrate how funding advocacy can enhance current grantmaking on issues of interest
• Address advoacy in the strategic planning process

When the board and staff are ready, the foundation ought to broadcast its pledge to advoacy. Ways to communicate these goals include business cards, websites, annual reports, foundation letterhead, correspondence, requests for proposals, and mettings, panels, and workshops led by program officers. As a foundation becomes more clearer about their advocacy-related goals, the more likely it is to attract potential grantees that are equally clear.

Building advocacy capacity can also be stregthened through the grantwriting. Some ways to do this is to 1) provide general support grants; 2) write flexible grant agreements; 3) evaluate advocacy activities thoughtfully; and 4) maintain ongoing and open relationships with grantees. In addition, foundations can also use their leadership roles to build the advocacy capacityof nonprofits.

Foundations can play a major role in building the capacity of grantees to engage in advoacy throughout the entire grantmaking process. By using the strategies above and the knowledge of the rules for supporting advocacy, foundations can help grantees meet their advocacy goals and achieve their tasks.

For more information on rules and guidelines for grant agreements, please refer to the Alliance for Justice's "Investing in Change: A Funder's Guide to Supporting Advocacy." To access this booklet, please visit Alliance for Justice or contact San Diego Grantmakers.

In addition, San Diego Grantmakers is happy to provide sample grant agreements. Contact info@SDGrantmakers for further information.

Upcoming Programs

From the Badlands... to the Foothills of the Future
May 3rd, 9:00am-5:00pm
June 6th, 9:00am-5:00pm
Co-sponsored by LEAD San Diego, The San Diego Foundation, and Sempra Energy

"The leadership, competence, and management of the social sector nonprofit
organization will.largely determine the values, the vision, the cohesion, and the
performance of the 21st century society." --Peter F. Drucker

San Diego County's nonprofit sector has an opportunity to create the future of our
region instead of only responding to its challenges. For this reason, on January
24th LEAD San Diego, The San Diego Foundation, San Diego Grantmakers and Sempra Energy launched a four-part series of forums where the community will define a regional vision for a high performing nonprofit sector and begin to identify the steps needed to achieve this vision. At the first session, over 60 participants explored their own individual leadership readiness as well as began to envision what an effective sector would mean for San Diego. In the subsequent sessions participants will assess the sector's readiness, February 28th, explore how cutting edge management and business concepts can meet our sector's needs, May 3rd, and finally on June 6th, community leaders will create a vision for the region. If you are interested in participating in these forums, please contact Kerri Favela at (619) 235-2300 or kerri@sdfoundation.org.

The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College presents... Evaluating Community Investment Programs
May 3rd
11:00am-2:00pm (lunch provided)
Union Bank of California
530 B Street, Suite 1200
San Diego, CA 92101

The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College, a nationally known pioneer in the field of business citizenship, is coming to San Diego for the benefit of San Diego Grantmakers members. The Center will host a three-hour interactive workshop developing the key aspects of evaluating community investment programs. This workshop will:

• Establish the business case for evaluation of community investment programs
• Define the types of program evaluation
• Review the key steps in effective community program evaluation
• Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss the obstacles to program evaluation and different tools and techniques for conducting effective program evaluations.

Child Welfare Services: Our Future at Stake
May 5th, 9:00am-11:00am
San Diego Youth and Community Services
3255 Wing St., San Diego

California is currently undertaking a number of momentous changes to improve results for children and youth in the child welfare system. These exciting efforts include a new Child Welfare Outcomes and Accountability Process (AB 636) which provides counties with data on child outcomes every quarter and requires accountability for efforts to improve those outcomes through system improvement plans. Moreover, the Schwarzenegger administration's budget includes moving ahead on three priority improvements:

• development of a statewide safety assessment tool
• improvement of child abuse intake structures
• permanency and youth transition services

As part of the new accountability process, San Diego County has involved broad sectors of the child and family service community in identifying areas of strength and of improvement for its County self-assessment. In the coming months San Diego County will develop a System Improvement Plan (SIP) which will outline county strategies and actions to improve the county's system of care. Join this discussion as we continue to understand a complicated system and determine appropriate and effective roles for San Diego's grantmakers.

Family Foundation Track
Mission Possible: Guiding Your Foundation Now and Into the Future
Balancing Act: Donor Intent and Mission, Part 2
May 11th, 1:30-3:30 pm
Waitt Family Foundation

Jill Seltzer continues to facilitate this series of interactive programs designed to bring family foundations together to hear about noteworthy solutions to family foundation issues and to learn from each other through shared insights and experiences. Part 2 of the series covers the following foundation essentials:

• What "they" wanted and what is needed now
• What is your responsibility to the donor's intent?
• How do you respond to the changing needs in the community and the evolving interests of current trustees and still stay true to the donor's mission?

The final program of the series is:
June 7th, 11:30am-1:30pm, Intergenerational Issues: From the classroom to the boardroom, how can we involve our younger generations?

Distinguished Speaker Event
The Blended Value Proposition with Jed Emerson
May 17th
11:00am-12:00pm: Tour of Market Creek Plaza
12:00pm-2:00pm: Lucheon Presentation
Market Creek Plaza

Twice selected by The Nonprofit Times as one of its "50 Most Influential People in
the Nonprofit Sector", Jed Emerson co-founded of the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), managing a successful venture capital fund consisting of 10 organizations operating over 20 social business ventures employing 600 homeless andvery low-income people in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In addition, Jed is a Senior Fellow with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. He is a Lecturer in Business at the
Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and served as Executive Director and President, Bloomberg Senior Research Fellow in Philanthropy, Harvard Business School.

Emerson has become the avatar of social returns, his signature messages have been to urge grantmakers to invest endowments in assets that can boost their larger charitable missions; and in addition to grants to use their reputations, expertise, and talents to advance projects and issues. This idea of using "total assets," has become the first application of the blended value proposition -- cementing the notion that money and resources not dedicated to social purposes can nevertheless create social value.

From the Badlands...The Path to a High Performing Nonprofit Sector (Forum 4)
June 6th, 9:00am-5:00pm
The Hall of Champions

Forum 4, Envisioning Our Future High Performing Sector--We will go behind the scenes of nonprofit sector innovation initiative around the United States and springboard from those inspirations and lessons to create our vision for the region.

Lunch will be provided.$125 non-members/ $75 members of LEAD, SDG, The San Diego Foundation and/or volunteers.

FAMILY FOUNDATION TRACK: Intergenerational Issues, from the Classroom to the Boardroom
June 7th, 11:30am-1:30pm
Community Resource Center, Encinitas

Part 3 in the Mission Possible: Guiding Your Foundation Now and Into the Future series, these interactive programs are designed to bring family foundations together to hear about noteworthy solutions to family foundation issues and to learn from each other through shared insights and experiences.

The one constant for family foundations is change: the nexus of the internal, includes new generations of trustees, and leadership transitions; and the external, changes in the economy and major shifts in nonprofit needs. Questions arise that may strike at the heart of the family's giving; for instance, what happens when the issue of intent and legacy comes in direct conflict with a family foundation's ability to be responsive to the community? This series will discuss how family foundations evolve in this ever-changing arena.

Workshop participants will learn real practical lessons for "embracing change" in their own family foundations in ways that nurture and support good stewardship and healthy organizational development. Participants will explore:

• Case studies of foundations of various sizes, which will be presented to demonstrate the struggles, surprises, and adaptation of family foundations.
• How family foundations have managed successfully to move from one level of development to the next.

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.