Christine Sculati's blog

Risk and reward in philanthropy

christine — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:01:16 +0000

It’s human nature to be adverse to risk-taking. But like successful business people, many social entrepreneurs believe you have to be willing to take risks to achieve progress.

A widely read example of risk and reward in philanthropy is the story of Greg Mortenson and his painstaking journey to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the New York Times bestselling Three Cups of Tea. With a typewriter Mortenson wrote 580 appeal letters to potential donors and 16 grant applications in an attempt to raise $12,000, the minimum he needed to fulfill a promise and build a school in a remote alpine village in Pakistan. While his appeals were largely a failure, the difference came with one individual who read a newsletter article about Mortensen’s personal mission, took a risk, and moved fast - agreeing to fully fund the school. Dr. Jean Hoerni made the decision to fund the project after one phone call and Mortenson’s word that he would “not to screw up.”

In the San Francisco Bay Area, another philanthropist embraces the idea of risk-taking in grantmaking. In a new book, Bill Somerville, president of the Bay Area Philanthropic Ventures Foundation (PVF), makes the case that grantmakers should take risks to reap the highest rewards for their investments. Somerville recounts several stories of how a little risk went along way in transforming individual lives and communities – from juvenile courts to classrooms. Published by Berkeley-based Heyday Books, his new book with Fred Setterberg is titled “Grassroots Philanthropy, Field Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker.”

In Grassroots Philanthropy Somerville advocates that grantmakers should find and fund outstanding people, eliminate bureaucracy in favor of moving quickly, focus on ideas and not problems and take risk and initiative. While Somerville’s approach to grantmaking may not be for every foundation, it makes sense for the grassroots as the book title implies. By definition, grassroots movements move quickly and are driven by effective leaders doing hands-on work at the community level. Many of these individuals cannot afford to get bogged down in time-consuming and costly application processes.

In the case of Mortenson’s plight to build schools, a donor’s risk-taking led to the formation of the Central Asia Institute, which has now established 64 schools in remote and underserved regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The remote schools have educated over 25,000 children and have provided unprecedented opportunities for girls.

For Somerville and the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation 17 years of nonconformist approaches to grassroots grantmaking has attracted several prominent California foundations as supporters including The California Endowment, David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Flora Family Foundation, Herbst Foundation, and the San Francisco Foundation, among others.

Gavin Newsom on social innovation

christine — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:47:33 +0000

The Stanford Center for Social Innovation recently released a podcast of a talk by San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom titled Gavin Newsom: Say what you think, then take action. To an audience at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Newsom talks about leadership and risk-taking, qualities he has been known for since he ordered City Hall to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples soon after becoming mayor in 2004. His talk at Stanford was two months before the California Supreme Court ruled on May 15, 2008 to overturn the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Before public service, Newsom started 19 small businesses. Coming from a business-minded background and speaking to a room full of social entrepreneurs, he emphasizes that a risk-orientation is critical for success. “I fail more than I succeed,” says Newsom. But the idea is to “fail forward.”

Bay Nature launches new Web site

christine — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:37:16 +0000

Now in its eighth year of publication, Berkeley-based Bay Nature magazine recently announced the launch of a new content-rich Web site (baynature.org). While many nonprofits have good stories to tell, Bay Nature now has over 700.

The concept of Bay Nature magazine began as a conversation in 1997 between publisher David Loeb and Malcolm Margolin, author of the much-admired Ohlone Way and founder of Heyday Books in Berkeley. With seed funding from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and other local funders, the inaugural issue covered by a majestic great blue heron photograph hit local magazine racks in January 2001. Now, just over ten years after that initial conversation, the magazine is one of four programs that make up the nonprofit Bay Nature Institute.

Getting outside

christine — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:21:58 +0000

“Exercise is key to health, and studies have shown that people are much more likely to exercise if parks and opportunities for recreation are nearby,” writes the Trust for Public Land (TPL) in their latest issue of Land & People. For TPL and many other community-focused organizations, the interconnected issues of physical health, getting outdoors and connecting kids to the outdoors, are becoming paramount to their work. These issues are relevant for the land conservation-focused TPL, health organizations like Kaiser Permanente and funders like the Stewardship Council in California. TPL in fact received funding from Kaiser Permanente to build what they call “Fitness Zones” in Los Angeles, particularly in densely populated low income East Los Angeles neighborhoods where obesity is high.

Another organization focused on getting youth outside believes “[c]hildren are smarter, cooperative, happier and healthier when they have frequent and varied opportunities for free and unstructured play in the out-of-doors.” As such, the Children & Nature Network, chaired by Last Child in the Woods author Richard Louv, compiled two annotated bibliographies to research that will tell you just how much kids are not getting outdoors, the consequences and the most promising solutions.

San Francisco Bay Area 2008 Earth Day roundup

christine — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:54:41 +0000

The San Francisco Bay Area environmental movement was born before the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. This KQED special tells the story of the history and people who saved the Bay from disaster beginning in the 1960s until today.

Other stories and resources:
KQED Earth Day Radio Special: The History of Environmental Justice

NPR: How Does ‘Going Green’ Impact Black America?

Green Collar Jobs Report Released by Raquel Rivera Pinderhughes, Professor of Urban Studies, San Francisco State University

What does an effective nonprofit look like?

christine — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:39:58 +0000

A recent “Meet the Grantmakers” panel at the Foundation Center in San Francisco brought together Jacob Harold of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Anne Valley of The James Irvine Foundation, and Linda Wood of The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund to focus on the theme of “organizational effectiveness.” Threaded throughout the discussions were topics raised at the March 10-12, 2008 conference convened by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations - also known as GEO. GEO promotes organizational effectiveness by identifying and promoting grantmaking practices that improve grantee performance. If your organization passed the letter of inquiry and proposal stages with a funder and needs to get ready for a site visit, the Foundation Center panelists would encourage you to download a free copy of “The Due Diligence Tool.” Many grantmakers are now using this GEO publication to assess nonprofits when making funding decisions. The guide pulls together best practices from a variety of U.S. foundations from small family foundations to large private foundations.

Tools for nonprofit efficiency and impact

christine — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 03:02:52 +0000

I just received the March/April 2008 issue of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal, which is dedicated to the topic of fundraising databases. This is a particularly good topic for small community-based nonprofits because databases are more commonly used by organizations with larger budgets and staff capacity. Some nonprofits resist databases because staff are not accustomed to using them. Others do not have the time or resources required to find the right solution and implement new tools through training. Yet once these hurdles are cleared, then an organization could be on course to increasing support and tracking impacts. Databases are tools that facilitate communications and connections with supporters and potential donors.

In the for-profit world businesses use CRM databases - Customer Relationship Management - to track marketing campaigns, leads, and sales. Nonprofits raising money and working with volunteers need the same tool to effectively manage and build relationships with constituents - individual donors, foundations, volunteers, sponsors, and other supporters. Now online resources are out there to make it possible for small nonprofits to take advantage of these tools. To make an informed decision about hard costs (equipment or software) and people costs (time to assess and implement), here are a few resources:

Idealware: The article “A Few Good Tools: Low Cost Constituent Databases” provides product comparisons and considerations.

TechSoup.org: Several good articles here on planning and selecting a database.

The San Francisco Bay Area Non Profits Salesforce.com user group: Salesforce Foundation donates 10 product licenses to eligible 501(c)(3) organizations, and a nonprofit-specific CRM is available.

Network for Good: Articles and research on donor databases.

Community Technology Network of the Bay Area: Articles on on technology planning useful for assessing costs and how to project manage a solution.

N-Power: Resources and articles such as how to select a technology vendor and manage a technology project.

2008 is the ‘Big Year’ for GGNRA’s imperiled wildlife and plants

christine — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:41:55 +0000

With the New Year, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area has officially launched a competition to save endangered species living in urban island habitats of San Francisco, the Peninsula, and Marin. The year-long event, called the “2008 GGNRA Endangered Species Big Year,” hopes to spur the awareness and actions needed to save the 33 endangered and threatened birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, fishes, and flowering plants found in GGNRA. The GGNRA contains more endangered species than Yosemite and any other National Park in continental North America.

GGNRA, a unit of the national park system, includes the world-renowned destinations of Alcatraz Island and Muir Woods and is the world’s largest urban national park with over 75,000 acres in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties. GGNRA has a unique geographical position covering a broad range of habitats for plants and wildlife including marine habitats, salt marshes, redwood forests, chaparral and coastal scrub habitats, and grasslands, just to name a few.

Today, leaders of the San Francisco Naturalist Society and others will be hosting a kick-off party for the Big Year at the San Francisco Zoo.

Numerous educational and hand-on events to help the imperiled wildlife and native plants of GGNRA will take place throughout 2008. For example, if you want to learn how to see and save the Northern Spotted Owl, you can go to that animal’s profile page and find out about upcoming events for spotting it in its natural environment while helping to restore its foraging habitat.

Go to www.ggnrabigyear.org for more information.

WildCare to release red-tailed hawks rehabilitated from oil spill

christine — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:40:40 +0000

Releasing Common Murres near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. (Photo: IBRRC)

Most of the wildlife victims of the deadly November 2007 Cosco Busan oil spill on San Francisco Bay have been waterbirds, but the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory also found two oiled red-tailed hawks. WildCare in San Rafael took in the birds that had landed on the beach to capture oil-covered waterfowl on the sand. Both birds survived the toxic effects of the oil and are now being released. WildCare is inviting the public to to watch them fly free at noon on December 12 in the Marin Headlands. For directions and details, RSVP on their Web site.

To date, WildCare has received over 580 birds oiled as a result of the Cosco Busan disaster on November 7, 2007. Oiled animals continue to arrive nearly every day. The San Rafael facility has taken in more than 20% of the oiled wildlife found after the spill. As of December 10, 2007, the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBBRC) in Cordelia reports 1,076 birds have arrived live, 632 have died or were euthanized, 389 have been cleaned and released, and 389 have been found dead.

Now, at a time when more birds are being found dead than alive, the successful rescue and release of surviving birds and widespread concern for wildlife survival can give Bay Area residents something to feel good about. For a video of a releasee at Tomales Bay, go to the IBBRC Web site.

In addition to WildCare and the IBBRC, Bay Nature magazine also lists informational resources, organizations, and volunteer opportunities related to the disaster.

New Bay Area books about community, culture, and social change

christine — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 23:37:09 +0000

In recent months, nonprofit presses in Berkeley have released new books that highlight diverse Bay Area neighborhoods and unexpected ways communities come together.

In September, Heyday Books, publishers of books about California history, arts, and culture, released “Under the Dragon - California’s New Culture.” The book is also the subject of a new Oakland Museum exhibit called “Trading Traditions” beginning in January 2008. Written by locals Lonny Shavelson and Fred Setterberg, Under the Dragon follows the lives of a diversity of Bay Area communities while capturing the poignancy of individual struggle in a way that goes beyond the personal. The stories are raw and authentic, and the photographs are stunning.

Another nonprofit Berkeley-based publisher, New Village Press, is celebrating revered community activists at a launch party on December 9, 2007 for “Building Commons and Community” by the late Karl Linn and “Undoing the Silence: Six Tools for Social Change Writing” by Louise Dunlap. The event will be held from 3:00 to 6:00 pm at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU) Hall at Cedar and Bonita Streets, and is co-sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Committee and the NorCal Chapter of Architects/ Designers/ Planners for Social Responsibility. Speakers will include Louise Dunlap and Karl Linn’s longtime friend and colleague, Carl Anthony.

For over 40 years, Linn devoted himself to bringing people together in the spirit of reclaiming what he called “neighborhood commons,” creating urban oases, combined park-playground projects from vacant and blighted plots of land.

Linn, who grew up on a farm in Germany before his family was forced to flee Nazi persecution, worked as a child therapist and later established a distinguished landscape architecture practice in New York. By the late 1950s, he had decided to devote his career to social justice, teaching, and creating these neighborhood commons.

In the late 1980s, when Linn retired to Berkeley, he helped found the Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility and the Urban Habitat Program at Earth Island Institute. In 1993, Linn’s wife Nicole Milner, environmental justice activist Carl Anthony, and others banded together to convince Berkeley officials to name a city-owned community garden after Linn.

Soon thereafter, Linn teamed up with a UC Berkeley professor, her students, local craftspeople, and neighbors to rejuvenate the dilapidated garden, located in Berkeley’s Westbrae neighborhood. The Karl Linn Community Garden’s transformation inspired the creation of the nearby Peralta and Northside community gardens, the demonstration home known as the Berkeley EcoHouse, and a natural and human history project along the adjacent Ohlone greenway.

A Web site on Linn’s life and work can be found at www.karllinn.org.

‘Green for All’

christine — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:55:19 +0000

In October, the New York Times published an op-ed article called “The Green-Collar Solution” by journalist Thomas L. Friedman. The piece is about Van Jones’ crusade to bring economic opportunities to disadvantaged communities through job training in emerging and expanding environmental businesses.

Jones, a social justice leader in the Bay Area, has also become a prominent national advocate and voice for underserved and low-income communities that have not had opportunities to participate in the growing green economy. He serves on several advisory boards for environmental groups as well as the new Tipping Point Community, an anti-poverty philanthropic organization founded in 2005 in San Francisco.

With other environmental leaders, Jones recently created a national partnership called “Green For All“ to bring “green collar” jobs to urban areas across the country.

The Foundation Center launches many free online resources for nonprofits

christine — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 18:24:46 +0000

Since 1956 the Foundation Center has connected nonprofits to free philanthropic resources. For years I have been attending their events in San Francisco including “Meet the Grantmakers” panels and special events with topics from “Fundraising for Small and All-Volunteer Organizations” to “Trends in Bay Area Bank Philanthropy.”

In recent months, the Center has launched several online multimedia resources to make the invaluable information shared in their free events accessible to communities and organizations that cannot attend the lively presentations in Atlanta, Cleveland, New York, San Francisco, or Washington, DC. I just discovered “Philanthropy Chat,” which is a new online audio series featuring interviews with West Coast philanthropists and fundraising experts. Janet Camarena, the director of the Center’s San Francisco library and learning center, hosts the interviews. In the first pilot edition recorded on October 10 she speaks to Ralph Lewin, associate executive director of the California Council for the Humanities. You can listen to the audio recording or read the transcript on the Center’s website and learn about the Council’s current grantmaking programs and how they are using new media technologies.

Library of Congress to begin archiving productions of Afghan Diaspora Communities

christine — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 03:15:20 +0000

Mr. Hirad Dinavari, a reference librarian for the Afghan, Central Asian and Iranian collections at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. will be traveling to California between September 24 and 29 to meet with Afghan and Iranian Diaspora communities in the South Bay area of San Francisco and Los Angeles. He is interested meeting with individuals and outlets that publish print materials, newspapers, periodicals, posters, books, music, film and broadcast shows for the purposes of building an archive. In addition to materials in English, he is interested in publications and productions in Dari, Pakhtu/Pashto, Uzbek, Turkmen, Hazaragi and all other regional languages.

He plans to make his first stop in Fremont to visit the Afghan Coalition and members of the Afghan American community. Fremont and nearby cities are home to the largest number of Afghans in the United States.

A legacy of land stewardship and conservation by American philanthropic families

christine — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 02:20:12 +0000

The June 2007 issue of Smithsonian magazine features an article by Tony Perrottet called “Jewel of the Tetons,” which describes the secretive mission of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to purchase private properties at the base of the Tetons with the intent of donating the land to the government for permanent protection.

Despite philanthropic intentions, the campaign to purchase over 35,000 acres was mired in 20 years of anti-park controversy, distrust, and debate. It was not until 1950 when Rockefeller successfully donated 33,562 acres to the National Park Service, enlarging the Grand Teton National Park and protecting important wildlife corridors and the mountain grandeur from unsightly commercial development. The family retained the final 3,300 acres, the JY Ranch, as a Rockefeller family retreat until John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s son Laurance began gifting it to the park over several years. On May 26, 2001, Laurance S. Rockefeller donated the remaining 1,106-acre land (also known as the Laurance Spelman Rockefeller Preserve). The park service expects the formal transfer to be complete by later this summer and open to the public in September 2007. With this gift, “the entire JY property becomes part of America’s conservation heritage and marks another milestone in the Rockefeller legacy of stewardship and philanthropy,” writes the park service.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Haases are another one of the nation’s most philanthropic families. Julian Guthrie published an excellent article called “The Haas Legacy - How one family’s generosity and commitment to civic life are transforming the Bay Area.”

The descendants of Levi Strauss (Elise Haas was a great niece of Levi Strauss) and branches of the Haas family operate five independent foundations. The Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, established in 1953, has the largest annual giving and was key to the restoration of the former military airfield Crissy Field, along San Francisco’s north shore (completed in 2001). Recently, I visited the tidal marsh and was in awe of the native coastal dune plants flourishing there and the numerous waterfowl and other marsh birds. I remember when the silver dune lupine, sand verbena, and coastal sagewort were new plantings. It was hard to envision the reemergence of the native coastal dune community that once thrived here in the time of the Ohlone. The scene there now is a drastic transformation from the toxic wasteland it once was.

In April, the Haas Jr. Fund made another major philanthropic gift to the Presidio in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) to support the “Post to Park”conversion. This project involves the implementation of a comprehensive 24-mile pedestrian, hiking, and bicycle trail network at the Presidio and the revitalization of the Presidio’s Rob Hill Campground.

KQED show on Bay Area science cafe’s

christine — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:00:25 +0000

Recently, KQED in San Francisco aired a show on Bay Area science cafe’s as a part of the Quest series. The June 26 show featured Ask a Scientist events in San Francisco, hosted by Juliana Gallin. In places like San Francisco’s Axis Cafe, each month a local scientist speaks on a current topic, makes a presentation, and holds a Q&A. This month on July 10, Fred Wilt, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley will talk about sea urchins - the spiny marine animal with no eyes, nose, or centralized brain. The purple ones pictured above live in the tide pools of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve near Montara, California. Some species can live more than 200 years with little sign of aging.

Coffee and Pi: Bay Area Science Cafe’s - TV Story