SD Grantmakers Update

Today, the role of philanthropy is expanding and so are its responsibilities. This online SDGrantmakers Update is published by San Diego Grantmakers to help you meet the challenge. Our mission is to connect, educate, 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.

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Welcome New Members:

The Gem Foundation
Otto Family Foundation

New Member Profiles:

10,000 RV Sales, Inc.
Corporate Giving Program
Giving Areas: Children and Youth, Homelessness, Senior Citizens

10,000 RV Sales is an employee-owned company serving San Diego since 1982. The 10,000 RV Corporate Giving Program supports many worthwhile organizations, such as The Monarch School, San Marcos Boys and Girls Club, Second Chance, Mama’s Kitchen, Make-A-Wish Foundation of San Diego, The Child Abuse Prevention Foundation of San Diego, The Hillcrest Youth Center, ElderHelp of San Diego, and Kids to Camp. Additionally, 10,000 RV owns and operates Wheels of Hope—a 30’ Motorcoach that has been specially equipped to serve the homeless and underserved populations of San Diego. The employees of 10,000 RV volunteer their time to serve meals and deliver needed supplies and services.

Cymer, Inc.
Corporate Foundation
Giving Areas: Civic, Cultural, Educational, Environmental, Health

Cymer, Inc. is the world's leading supplier of deep ultraviolet (DUV) laser illumination sources, the essential light source for DUV photolithography systems. DUV lithography is a key enabling technology, which has allowed the semiconductor industry to meet the exacting specifications and manufacturing requirements for volume production of today's advanced semiconductor chips. The Community Outreach Program extends Cymer's core values into the communities where employees live and work. The Program is designed to support educational, environmental, civic, cultural and health initiatives that engage and enrich the lives and minds of the community. Cymer's giving and volunteerism programs are based on respect for community organizations, cooperative leadership development and philanthropic creativity.

U.S. Bank
Corporate Foundation
Giving Areas: Economic Opportunity, Education, Cultural & Artistic Enrichment

U.S. Bank's charitable giving program is designed to respect the diversity of its communities.  U.S. Bank is actively involved, partnering with local nonprofits to meet specific needs within each community.  The mission is to contribute to the strength and vitality of its communities through the U.S. Bancorp Foundation charitable contributions program.  U.S. Bank seeks to build strong partnerships and lasting value by supporting organizations that: improve the educational and economic opportunities of low- and moderate-income individuals and families, and enhance the cultural and artistic life of the communities in which employees live and work.

Charitable Reform Update

President Signed H.R. 4 on Thursday, Several Provisions Effective Immediately

President Bush signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (H.R. 4) into law on Thursday, August 17, 2006. Several provisions in H.R. 4 took effect on the day the bill was signed. Among the ones that require immediate attention by grantmakers are:

• The provision which requires expenditure responsibility for grants by private foundations to Type III supporting organizations, other than those that are “functionally integrated,” and which bars such grants from counting toward a private foundation's payout requirement. Somewhat simplified, a functionally integrated Type III supporting organization is one that provides its support by carrying on activities that its supported organizations would otherwise have to do themselves rather than by providing grants to the supported organizations. This provision, enacted upon signature, also requires expenditure responsibility for grants to any type of supporting organization if someone, who is a disqualified person with respect to the private foundation, controls the supporting organization or the organization it supports. These grants also do not count toward payout.  Note that this provision only limits grants to the supporting organization. It does not affect grants made directly to the supported organization even if control is present.
• The provision, enacted upon signature, that prohibits the payment of grants, loans, compensation or similar payments from a donor-advised fund to the donor, the advisor, members of their families, or businesses they control.  Because expense reimbursements are considered to be “similar” payments, community foundations that permit donors to raise money for advised funds will be prohibited from using the advised fund’s assets to reimburse donors’ expenses effective on the date of enactment.
• Similarly, the new legislation prohibits all three types of supporting organization from the payment of grants, loans, compensation or similar payments to the supporting organization’s substantial contributor, members of his or her family, and businesses they control. This prohibition is retroactive, applying to any transaction occurring after July 28, 2006, the date that HR 4 passed the House.
• The IRA charitable rollover incentive is effective upon signature for contributions made during 2006 and 2007. It permits individuals who have reached 70 ½ to exclude from income of up to $100,000 a year in retirement plan assets of contributing to a qualifying charity. Split-interest gifts and gifts to donor-advised funds, supporting organizations, and private foundations do not qualify for the incentive.

The Council on Foundations Charitable Reform Resource Center offers the latest on charitable reform efforts. Check for new analyses on COF's H.R. 4 Resources web page.

SDG Annual Conference: 
Grantmakers as Change Makers

Save the date!
October 4, 2006, 8am-3pm
Location: NTC Promenade, 2875 Dewey Road, San Diego
$100 for SDG members, $150 non-member grantmakers
Breakfast and Lunch

Watch your snail-mail for the Conference invitation! Keynote speakers include Kathleen Enright of GEO and Jan Masaoka, just named to The NonProfit Times Power & Influence Top 50 2006. In addition, the conference will feature sessions on leadership, collaboration, high-impact grants, and grantee/grantor relationships. DON'T MISS IT! Save your seat today by emailing programs@sdgrantmakers.org.

SDG in the Union Tribune

The San Diego Union Tribune ran an op-ed by Executive Director Nancy Jamison on August 3:

"I have the good fortune to work with philanthropists every single day. Not Warren Buffett or Bill and Melinda Gates, but good people right here in San Diego County who are all, in their own ways, making a significant contribution to the well-being of our community. Nearly everyone can be a philanthropist – and you don't have to have billions. Philanthropy – which translates from Greek as “love of mankind” – is no longer the domain of the Rockefellers and Carnegies. Today's philanthropy is much more widespread, democratic and even scientific." Click here for the entire article.

Member & Community Partner News

Alliance Healthcare Foundation awarded over $2,082,000 in grants during fiscal year 2006. Alliance funded 35 grants—from $5,400 to $386,000—in three priority areas, Access to Healthcare, Community Health and Mental Health. Alliance also released its 2002-2005 community report for the San Diego HIV Funding Collaborative, which has raised and allocated over $3.7 million for HIV/AIDS services in San Diego and Imperial Counties and Northern Baja California.

Robert K. Ross, M.D., President and CEO of The California Endowment, gave a lecture (click here for a recording) at Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo "Public Square" Lecture Series. In it, he discussed the challenges the philanthropic community faces in LA. The California Endowment was also featured in Foundation Center PND Connections for funding California's Express Enrollment Program (pdf), a new report from the Children's Partnership, a national nonpartisan child advocacy organization.

The Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers, the national network of 32 regional associations of grantmakers--including SDG!--is seeking a Director of Communications (to be based in DC). Cover letters and resumes can be emailed by September 8.

The Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego recently announced the appointments of Elaine Chortek and Joseph Cohen to the Board of Directors and of Sheila Potiker as Foundation Chair.  The Foundation awarded more than $53 million through 3,900 grants in 2005/2006, which were distributed to more than 700 different organizations.

Nonprofit Management Solutions is seeking nominations for its "A Salute to Excellence" awards honoring San Diego nonprofit organizations. Click here for more information.

San Diego Association of Nonprofits (SANDAN) Executive Director Leslie Hine-Rabichow will be leaving her position effective September 30, 2006. Best wishes to Leslie! SANDAN is seeking applicants for the position: click here (pdf) for more information.

The San Diego Foundation has been recognized for having organizational and financial practices that are in accordance with the rigorous Council on Foundations’ National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations. Only 20% of the nation’s community foundations have been awarded the National Standards Seal, which indicates integrity and demonstrated excellence in the field.

San Diego Foundation for Change Executive Director Joni K. Craig is transitioning out of her position (she will start a new career as a realtor--best wishes, Joni!). SDFC is seeking a full-time Executive Director with at least five years experience, preferably philanthropic, senior management experience dealing with administrative issues, fund raising, financial management and staff supervision. Send resume and cover letter via website, email or mail no later than September 1.

Adrienne Wells Castaneda, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Toby Wells Foundation, received the 10News Leadership Award. Click here for the video.

The United Way was featured in an August 7 Union-Tribune article about changes in the way its non donor-directed funding is disbursed: to focus on three specific needs: homelessness, child-abuse and programs to help people with life skills.

Grants Directory/Great Grants

Don't forget that as an SDG member, you have access to a wealth of information about the grantmaking of your colleagues. Check out the members-only Grants Directory (email Nancy for login info) and make use of this fantastic resource. Also, if you have not yet submitted your organization's grantmaking history and would like to be included in the Grants Directory, please let us know.

In addition to submitting your past grants (2004-2006) for the Grants Directory, keep SDG up to date with your current grantmaking! Add us to your listservs and press releases--we want to share the good work that you're doing in the form of these "Great Grants"!

Resources

SECF Teleconferences
SDG's sibling organization in the Southeast, The Southeastern Council of Foundations (SECF), offers frequent teleconferences open to grantmakers for a small fee. Upcoming ones that may be of interest include "Grantmaking Rules for Community Foundations" with Marcus Owens, former director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS, on September 8; and "Family Business, Family Philanthropy: Strategies for Success" on November 9. Click here to view a complete list and for more information about how to sign up.

COF Annual Conference Theme

The theme of the 2007 COF Annual Conference is "Philanthropy and the Challenges of Our Time: Making a Difference at Home and Around the Globe," and COF has identified four big issues on which to focus throughout the upcoming year:

• reducing poverty,
• ensuring public health,
• stewardship of the environment, and
• preparedness and response to disaster hazards.

COF has invited grantmakers to participate in an ongoing conversation about these issues, and to help them recognize good work around them. Click here for more information, and to get involved.

Food for Thought: Nonprofit Mergers

This excerpt from a Christian Science Monitor article "Nonprofit Organizations Seek Strength in Mergers," by G. Jeffrey MacDonald, raises some interesting ideas about nonprofit mergers.

The notion of mergers among nonprofit organizations "used to be an 'm-word' I didn't dare say in public," says Thomas McLaughlin, a management consultant to nonprofits at Grant Thornton in Boston. But now consultants say mergers are shedding their stigma and becoming downright alluring for nonprofits across the country....Funders seem to be playing a key role in the merger mania. In a time of shrinking federal funding for human services and intense competition for grants of all types, Ms. Lampkin says, private and public benefactors alike are encouraging efficiencies and economies of scale. But, she notes, bigger isn't always better or more efficient. "Sometimes it's a forced collaboration [to appease benefactors] that causes more expenditure of funds," Lampkin explains. "Sometimes nonprofits feel it's more costly to collaborate because it takes more time to have meetings, and figure out who's going to do what, and to get over the rough spots when you don't have exactly the same ideas about how to do things. So it can be costly, the whole collaboration thing.... It's not easy."....

Looking ahead, observers of the nonprofit sector expect consolidations to continue. Mr. McLaughlin predicts that nonprofits will gain steam as a societal force in coming decades, picking up responsibility for services formerly performed by government. He suggests doing away with a popular understanding of the nonprofit world as "1,000 flowers" planted in order to see which ones would succeed enough to attract dollars and survive. That model of encouraging excess capacity, McLaughlin says, has given way to a leaner one that's here to stay. "We are long past the arena of, 'let 1,000 flowers bloom,' " McLaughlin says. "We need [nonprofits to be] oak trees.... We know what works. In many areas, we have to scale up to achieve a manageable size and become industrial-strength organizations." Click here for the entire article.

Immigrants & Grantmaking

Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees has many resources relating to this subject on their website. Also, see Foundation News & Commentary's article that explores multiple answers to the question: What is Philanthropy's Role in the Immigration Debate?

A recent report notes that immigrants now represent 53% of the U.S. civilian workforce. America’s foreign-born workers are younger, more likely to be male, exhibit lower unemployment rates and represent a substantial proportion of the country’s skilled workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics brief (pdf), Foreign Born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics in 2005, immigrants represent 16 percent of America’s prime age workers (workers 25-54 years old) and 53 percent of the civilian labor force. Seventeen percent of America’s college educated workers are foreign born. 

Upcoming SDG Programs


N2: Networking at Northern Trust
A FEW 4th WEDNESDAYS
August 23, 12 - 1:30pm
September 27, 4 - 5:30pm Special Member Panel: Grants Review & Decisions
October 25, 12 - 1:30pm
Hosted by: Northern Trust, 4370 La Jolla Village Drive, 10th Floor, San Diego

Network with and learn from your SDG member colleagues! September 27 will have a special focus on reviewing grant applications with Tim McCarthy from the McCarthy Family Foundation, Ruth Riedel from the Alliance Healthcare Foundation and Cindy Olmstead, Chair of the San Diego Women's Foundation Grants Committee.

Viva La Volunteer: Corporate Employee Engagement
September 7, 2006, 8:30-10:30am
Location:  AMN Healthcare, 12400 High Bluff Drive, San Diego
Sponsors:  Sempra, Washington Mutual
Breakfast hosted by AMN Healthcare

An Exploration: SDG Family Foundation Peer Learning Network
September 13, 4-6pm
Location: Home of Valerie Jacobs and Norm Hapke

San Diego Grantmakers Annual Conference: 
Grantmakers as Change Makers
October 4, 2006, 8am-3pm
Location: NTC Promenade, 2875 Dewey Road, San Diego
$100 for SDG members, $150 non-member grantmakers
Breakfast and Lunch

Watch your snail-mail for the Conference invitation! Keynote speakers include Kathleen Enright of GEO and Jan Masaoka, just named to The NonProfit Times Power & Influence Top 50 2006. In addition, the conference will feature sessions on leadership, collaboration, high-impact grants, and grantee/grantor relationships. DON'T MISS IT! Save your seat today by emailing programs@sdgrantmakers.org.

Distinguished Speaker Series: Mayor Jerry Sanders
A Philanthropic Lens for San Diego’s Future
November 1, 2006, 11:30am-1:00pm
Location: Aboard Holland America Lines ms Zaandam (in port), 1140 N. Harbor Drive, San Diego
Lunch
Fee

All programs are free for SDG members except where indicated. To RSVP, please call (619) 744-2180 or email programs@sdgrantmakers.org.

Northwest Area Foundation's Grassroots & Groundwork
"What Communities Are Doing to Get Out and Stay Out of Poverty"
September 16-19, 2006
St. Paul, MN

This national conference will explore strategies to reduce poverty and rebuild communities. Click here for more information.

COF Community Foundations Fall Conference
September 18-20, 2006
Boston, MA

Click here for details.

Grantmakers for Children, Youth, and Families Annual Conference
September 24-27, 2006
Los Angeles, CA

Click here for more information.

The Grantmaking School Advanced Proposal Analysis: A Critical Examination of Complex Issues
September 27-29, 2006
Los Angeles, CA

This event will occur at The California Endowment's new Center for Healthy Communities. Click here for details.

Nonprofit Management Solutions: A Salute to Excellence 2006
October 17, 2006
San Diego, CA

Recognizing superior no nprofit leadership and governance in San Diego County. Click here for more information.

Independent Sector 2006 Annual Conference
Many Voices, Shared Purpose:  Working Together to Improve Lives
October 22-24, 2006
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN

Click here for more information or to register.

Grantmakers in Aging 2006 Annual Conference
October 25-27, 2006
Milwaukee, WI

Click here for details about the conference.

Association of Small Foundations 2006 National Conference
October 26-28, 2006
New Orleans, LA

Click here for details about the conference.

Grantmakers for Education Annual Conference
November 6-8, 2006
San Francisco, CA

Click here for more information.

American Association of Grant Professionals Annual Conference
November 8-11, 2006
Nashville, TN

Click here for more information.

Philanthropy Roundtable's Annual Meeting:
“Raising the Bar: Achieving Excellence in Giving”
November 9-11, 2006
Charleston, SC

Click here for details.

Grantmakers in the Arts 2006 Conference
November 12-15, 2006
Boston, MA

Click here for details about the conference.

National Philanthropy Day 2006
November 15, 2006
San Diego, CA

Click here for more information.

BoardSource 2006 Leadership Forum
December 3-4, 2006
Chicago, IL

This conference on nonprofit governance will feature James E. Canales of SDG member The James Irvine Foundation. For details, click here.

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

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