|
|
| San Diego Grantmakers Update | |
|
"Great crisis and disruption can lead to important new inventions, as discoveries often emerge out of a period of economic collapse."--Mario Morino, Venture Philanthropy Partners
|
June/July 2009 | |
|
|
New SDG Webinar
How to Be a Supportive Funder During the Economic Downturn
July 23, 2009, 10:00-11:30am
During this economic downturn, foundation staff have more responsibilities, nonprofit partners have more needs to fulfill and there are fewer resources to work with across the sector. Foundations are faced with making tough decisions about how to support their grantees - increasing the reach of current strategies while developing new approaches to successfully operate in the future.
Please join us for a 90-minute webinar led by nonprofit expert Hilda Polanco, Managing Director of Fiscal Management Associates, LLC. Ms. Polanco will provide meaningful analysis of what the current economic environment means for nonprofits and practical tools funders can put to use immediately to support their grantees.
Fee: $40
RSVP: Please RSVP no later than July 17, 2009. Call-in information will be provided. | |
Poverty Program Highlights
On June 25, SDG joined with the Jewish Community Foundation to present The Changing Face of Poverty in San Diego. Attendees heard from four great experts with different perspectives in this area: Mark Cafferty, President and CEO, San Diego Workforce Partnership; Donald Cohen, President and Executive Director, Center on Policy Initiatives; John Ohanian, Chief Executive Officer, 2-1-1 San Diego; and Tom Scott, Executive Director of the San Diego Housing Federation. Check out the speaker presentations online in the SDG members-only section for the full scoop (login username SDGmember and password 2001).
Much of the discussion led to a focus on funders supporting and getting involved in advocacy. A few other quick highlights:
- Over 70,000 local households earn less than 30% of the median income and pay more than half of their income on housing costs. Families thus do not have enough money left over for a decent diet and preventive health care.
- Best way to eliminate poverty is to have public policies that lead to an economy that creates jobs that can support families and develop a middle class (not dependent on tourism, retail, etc.).
- Stimulus funds are at work in the County: e.g., more than 3,200 summer jobs for disadvantaged youth (roughly $6,000,000 will be paid in wages); and $5,200,000 for local community colleges and continuing education programs to train over 1,200 unemployed residents.
- At 2-1-1: there has been a 25% increase in calls over 2008 (focused on financial, housing, and food needs); 43% of callers make less than $10,000/year; and emergency food calls have more than doubled.
|
Register Now: 2009 SDG Annual Conference on October 29
The 2009 SDG Annual Conference will be held on Thursday, October 29 at the Joe and Vi Jacobs Center again this year. Stay tuned for exciting news about our speakers and workshop topics! The theme this year is "The Future of Philanthropy: Creating Silver Linings." During these troubled economic times, we believe that it is more important than ever for members of the local philanthropic community to connect with each other and learn how to have greater impact, even with limited funds available.
Interested in sponsoring? Click here (pdf) to download a sponsorship form. |
Member & Community Partner News
YOUR ORGANIZATION COULD BE FEATURED HERE! Don't forget to let SDG know what's new with you, from grantmaking to awards, events, and more. We want to share the good news about all of our members. To submit an item for the newsletter, email nancy@sdgrantmakers.org.
Congrats to Doug Sawyer of United Way of San Diego County for being named the 2009 LEAD Graduate of the Year! Robert A. McNeely, executive vice president, and Delores McNeely, senior vice president (retired) of Union Bank of California were also honored by LEAD.
The San Diego Workforce Partnership has been awarded nearly $24 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and will deploy these funds to benefit our community. Click here for the Union-Tribune article.
Sempra Energy Foundation announced a $1.5 million initiative and employee matching-grant program for Southern California at a food distribution event benefiting more than 200 military families at the San Diego Armed Services YMCA, in partnership with the San Diego Food Bank.
As part of the 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, United Way of San Diego County has announced $757,244 in funding to five area nonprofit organizations that will provide permanent housing, recuperative units for the medically fragile, discharge planning services, and the first regional access center in the County. Volunteer San Diego has received the 2009 George W. Romney Excellence Award, the highest national honor for volunteer centers. |
|
Featured Member Benefit
Your membership in SDG includes a host of different benefits! Note: you will need your SDG username and password to log in to this members-only feature (login with username SDGmember and password 2001). This month's featured benefit:
- The Forum KnowledgeBase: this resource contains a compilation of the best resources (such as sample grant guidelines and other template documents) from among 32 regional associations and 4,000 grantmaking members across the country. Access to these materials is limited to members of regional associations. Click here to access the KnowledgeBase.
If you have questions about this or any other SDG member benefit, just let us know! |
|
Spotlight on SDG Collaborations: Homelessness Working Group
SDG convenes several different working groups and collaborations. These are groups of members that work together to leverage the power of their giving: by pooling funds and making grant decisions together, or "aligning" funding to some of the same grantees, or simply having regular learning sessions with presentations by subject experts. Each group is championed by a member or several members of SDG and facilitated by the SDG Funder Collaboration Consultant or Executive Director. This month, we're featuring the Homelessness Working Group (HWG). In addition to being long-time supporters of the United Way-overseen Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, the funders have found that the federal economic stimulus efforts have created some great opportunities for our community. Recently, one San Diego housing official commented that HWG-facilitated collaboration between local cities on jointly applying for up to $15 million in homelessness prevention funding is unprecedented and will have long term benefits for homelessness service coordination in our community for years to come. The group is also participating in the development of an evaluation process to identify best strategies for a long-range regional plan to end family/episodic homelessness, a key goal of the HWG. HWG active members: Chair, Mary Herron of the Parker Foundation; United Way of San Diego; McCarthy Family Foundation; SD Social Venture Partners; The San Diego Foundation; Alliance Healthcare Foundation. SDG members are welcome to join to learn more. The meetings are currently held on the 4th Monday of the month from 10:00am-12:00pm at United Way. For more information, please contact Barbara Mandel Pache. |
Philanthropic Headlines
"Across the country, nonprofit groups are pioneering approaches to fixing problems in education, health care and alleviating poverty. A promising White House initiative seeks to expand upon these efforts by helping worthy projects grow and by encouraging other communities to try successful strategies." Also, click here for a Chronicle news article on the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Engagement. Philanthropy Journal: "Giving by Community Foundations Grows""Although U.S. community foundations together awarded a record $4.6 billion in grants in 2008, most anticipate grantmaking will fall this year, a new study says. Giving was up by 6.7 percent from 2007 to 2008, or 2.7 percent after adjusting for inflation, fueled by asset growth and gifts and bequests from donors, says the report from the Foundation Center."
Giving USA CoverageOn June 10, the 54th annual report on philanthropy, Giving USA, a publication of Giving USA Foundation™ researched and written by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, was released, and much media coverage followed. The Nonprofit Times and the Chronicle focused on the "largest decline on record" angle, while Tactical Philanthropy parses the numbers to conclude that "the best way to think about charitable giving in 2008 is that it contracted sharply, but that the contraction was less than many people feared and the total amount given was within the range of the level of giving seen over the past few years."
Philantopic (PND Blog): "Women Are Bright Spot Amid Economic Gloom"
"All around, news of philanthropy's retreat after one of the worst market declines in living memory weighs on us. But already there are signs of a re-emergent philanthropy, a 'New Philanthropy' that is more democratic, more robust, and right-sized for the new millennium. And women are leading the way." For more on the rise of women's funding, see this report jointly released by the Foundation Center and the Women's Funding Network. |
|
Resources
Special SDG Member Discount on The Foundation Guidebook
You can purchase The Foundation Guidebook, a best-selling publication from the Association of Small Foundations, for $39 (the ASF member price). Call ASF at 888/212-9922 to receive the discount.
New GrantCraft Guide: Communicating for Impact
If you think communications is the exclusive domain of big foundations, communications staff, or consultants, think again. In this downloadable guide, grantmakers explain how they use communications to advance programmatic goals. Get tips on developing strategy, managing relationships, and using new media.
Learning from Madoff: Lessons for Foundation Boards
More than 80 percent of foundations that lost between 30 to 100 percent of their assets to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme had fewer than five trustees serving on their boards. This NCRP report examines whether there was any link between board size and diversity, and exposure to Madoff's fraudulent activities.
New Study on Economic Benefits of Health Grantmaking
FSG Trustee Evaluation Toolkit
FSG Social Impact Advisors, with funding from the James Irvine Foundation, interviewed dozens of foundation trustees, CEOs and evaluation experts to uncover critical issues and exciting ideas related to evaluation. This toolkit shares highlights from these interviews and explores innovative new approaches.
More for Mission
The latest newsletter from More for Mission highlights examples of mission investing. You can also check out their blog.
Principles Workbook: Steering Your Board Toward Good Governance and Ethical Practice Independent Sector and BoardSource have released an innovative tool that helps organizations examine and improve their governance practices, and do so in a cost-effective way.
How Public is Private Philanthropy?
The Philanthropy Roundtable has released this monograph by Evelyn Brody and John Tyler, addressing the question of whether philanthropic assets can be considered public money. Also, see this response from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. |
|
Upcoming SDG Programs
Story Savvy: A Workshop for Grantmakers
July 10, 2009, 8:30-11:30amCasey Family Programs, 3878 Old Town Avenue, San Diego 92110
Registration Fee: $50 (SDG member rate)
Note: this program is full, but you may be added to the waiting list
2009 SDG Annual Conference
October 29, 2009, 9:00am-5:30pm
Joe and Vi Jacobs Center, 404 Euclid Ave, San Diego 92114
Mark your calendars and register now for the premier local philanthropy event of the year!
Click here for a complete list of SDG programs. To RSVP, please call (619) 744-2180 or email programs@sdgrantmakers.org (include your full name and organizational affiliation with your response, please).
Reminder: SDG programs are open only to member grantmakers and nonmember grantmakers as invited. |
|
Other Events of Interest
September 22-24, 2009
Minneapolis, MN
| |
| This online SDGrantmakers Update is published by San Diego Grantmakers to help SDG members meet the challenges of philanthropy today. 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. Copies of past editions are archived here.
Contact Nancy Jamison, 619/744.2180 or nancy@sdgrantmakers.org to suggest article ideas or submit news items. | |
|
|
|
|
