Greetings—

Greetings—

Greetings—

It is more than spray and pray.  It is the hard work of getting it right.

This week, our Community Conversation focused on some of the tools at the heart of effective philanthropy. These tools can be used for donors of all sizes – individuals, private and community foundations, corporate givers and collectives, to increase the impact of their work. Our presenters focused on three elements for consideration: due diligence and oversight, the power of research and the opportunities for collective impact.

Philanthropy’s privileged position

Our backdrop for this discussion is based in part on a sensitivity to the debate underway in the halls of Congress, and across the country, about the benefits accruing from the privileged position of philanthropy. From its sheer size, reflecting cumulatively a second golden age, questions have arisen as to who benefits from its tax advantaged position, and how its public benefit is demonstrated.

Recent legislation has focused on elements – the California Nonprofit Integrity Act, outlining procedures for development activities, the Pension Protection Act, laying out rules for donor advised funds, other state legislation governing a board’s ability to designate surrogates or the requirements in UPMIFA regarding management of endowments – they all point to a legitimate public interest in our work, and its impact.  

Legislation introduced two years ago in the House Ways and Means Committee, as a proxy for tax reform, included proposals to require donor advised funds to distribute all donations within a five year period. These proposals garnered immediate opposition from those that understand the promise and impact of endowed philanthropy. The concern about the use of charitable funds is real, not just because it represents large sums of money that could be taxed, but by whom and for what, is of course, the most intriguing question.

Community Foundation national standards

The Community Foundation field understands this issue and is, in fact, the only part of organized philanthropy that has developed national standards to (self) govern our work. The Community Foundations National Standards Board has established criteria for best practices and aspirational behavior as well as appropriate standards governing grantmaking, policies and community leadership. Clear boundaries are set, and CVCF is proud to be confirmed in compliance with the national standards.

Due diligence & oversight

The tools highlighted during the Community Conversation reflect the importance of doing our homework. Proper due diligence includes ensuring that grantees remain legitimate charities, are in solid financial shape, have appropriate governance structures and their missions align with the work we are interested in funding. These are services we provide for our donors and funding partners, and govern the distribution of our discretionary funds as well.  

Once grant monies are distributed, we build relationships with our grantees. Oversight includes tracking their work through site visits and written reports, accounting for the use of the grant funds and digesting the outcomes. Sometimes the outcome is keeping the door open, sometimes it is focused on a new program or initiative, sometimes it is a new way of addressing a problem. We, in turn, report back to the donor, funding partners and the larger community.

Research puts individuals in context

Using the power of research we can examine a single case, put it in context and help shape the best responses. Our panelist linked the dots between a teenager’s truant behavior and her family circumstances, to the large number of similar cases in Fresno – single parent families, access to Calfresh, earning power for decent housing, truancy from schools. This illuminating data is tracked through the Fresno Scorecard among other sources. This teenager’s story is real, but not unique; it is part of Fresno’s story as well. Data also helps shape ways to track outcomes, as funders think about investing not only in organizations that help individuals but in system solutions.

Collective impact’s opportunities

Fresno’s Cradle to Career Partnership is one example of collective action, where the power and potential of leverage moves the community toward a more effective use of scarce charitable capital. Its Executive Director highlighted this multiyear partnership as embodying many of the key tenets in collective action: thinking about systemic problems in a new way, using disaggregated data to identify new practices, and working with the right folks at the table to align resources towards commonly agreed upon outcomes. This works for all the players – institutions delivering services, funders contributing to solutions, individuals seeking a way to respond. It is increasingly clear that we can change systems and develop effective solutions to some of our more intractable problems only through collective impact.

Worthy of the trust & dollars placed in us 

Each of these tools – due diligence, research, working together, will help strengthen the impact of philanthropic investments. By raising the confidence that philanthropic dollars are used wisely, effectively and strategically, we strengthen the commitment of those who believe that we can improve our communities. We need not all engage in the same work together, but when we align the work we believe in towards outcomes we agree can shape a better future, and demonstrate the leverage of working together, we will be worthy of the funds we raise, invest and seek.

Come join us. 

Greetings—

Spring has arrived with a vengeance, as those allergy sneezes come with greater frequency. Our garden is flush with rose blooms, and a wide variety of flowers that are attracting dragon flies, hummingbirds and a very watchful cat. Despite the welcome rain, the summer’s heat is just around the corner.

Collaboration is starting to produce change

But there is something else going on beyond the seasonal changes. There is evidence that collaboration is starting to make a difference and a broader vision of what we can be is starting to take shape. Just this week, I heard of 

•over 100 lawyers volunteering to assist in civic education/mentorships with high school students, as part of an effort led by the Civic Education partnership

Greetings—

Pitching investors for a stronger community

It was the first pitch night at Bitwise South Stadium, a chance to connect donors with possible new ideas, companies and visions. Ably introduced by Bitwise's leader Jake Soberal, it was the launch of a new cycle in the life of Fresno - connecting potential investors to opportunities in the emerging tech driven economy. 

New ideas driven by, and driving, technology

Ideas ranged from online polling for political issues to connecting to full spectrum reality environmental systems. If you refocus 3D gaming technology on more commercial uses you can, for example, create more flexible tools for marketing.  If you use multi spectral imagery (grounded in Defense Department technology) to identify stress patterns in local fields, it can reduce time for local farmers to correct problems. There are also apps to connect “I want it now” consumers with Uber like workers ready to deliver within the hour, identify farming prospects or deliver a phone location to suicide hotlines to make it easier to get help to someone in stress.

It was an impressive display of the power of modern technologies to connect, visualize and reorder information and, in a true pitch spirit, engage investors and potential partners to turn these product ideas or prototypes into businesses. You can’t help but be impressed – not only at the ingenuity, but at the efforts to create a more prosperous business future for the region.  

Investing in community starts with the money

At the Community Foundation, we think about investments in many ways. First we pay attention to investing the funds entrusted to our care. Our goals are both ambitious and long term -- to grow charitable capital after fees, inflation and annual distributions in order to protect the purchasing power of that capital through market cycles. Because our time horizon is long term, we grow capital to preserve capacity for future annual grant making. We want our donor’s legacy to be both tangible and perpetual.    

Investing in organizations and people

We also think of grant making as investments in local agencies. Our investments might keep the doors open, launch a new initiative, or just start a new way of addressing a need. It doesn’t have to be innovative to be effective, but it does need to be effective to be sustainable.

We also invest in people, not only our own colleagues but also those who make the CBO sector work -- staff, executive directors, board members, program officers and volunteers. These are the folk who can take advantage of our workshops, our training programs and the skill building that will transform our local sector into a more effective platform for this work. 

Our investments also embody the sector’s promise: that the advantaged position of nonprofits creates value, community and connection. They make the difference in our neighborhoods, towns, and the entire region. As a nation, 10% of the workforce sits in this sector; we need to invest in their capacity for them to be effective.

Education, data and communication are key investments in capacity

Education is another investment which we focus around donors and the larger community. Whether through our monthly Community Conversations or sessions dedicated to learning specific skills and tools, effective philanthropy rests on the educated and informed donor. That is why we created the Center for Community.  By providing space for convenings, as well as access to intellectual capital, best practices and leadership, we strengthen our community.  

Leveraging research data like the Fresno Scorecard can help shape our discussions about the realities in our community. Understanding what is actually happening is an important step towards using funds efficiently, whether that be public dollars invested in schools, hospitals or other institutions or philanthropic dollars focused on an outcome, cause or solution.   

We also invest in tools to communicate with stakeholders - not just the stories and compelling issues we are involved with, but also the media and web platforms which serve as an introduction to our work.  As most agencies and nonprofits understand, these stories serve as proxies for the work only they can do, stories that can unlock future charitable capital. As we strengthen our own website – with a dream that every fund has its own webpage, we can connect more tangibly to the impact and legacies donors establish.

All good investments are measured by results

The larger vision that drives effective philanthropy is not only making smarter choices but also requiring ways to monitor investments through tracking outcomes, impact and results.

And when you think beyond early stage investments, to making endowment decisions, you are looking for that long term stability that sustains work that needs to be done.  These investments will pay off over decades, and requires an array of sustainable practices -- sound financial controls, good governance and leadership, top drawer customer relations, excellent products, flexible and dynamic market responses and distinctive and engaging cultures.    These are all  practices we invest in through our Center, our grantmaking and our knowledge/skill building

Connecting the head and the heart

One of the truisms in this field is that no one has to give you the money to do what is needed. You need to connect with the reasons the money matters. What will happen when the money is invested? What change can be created? How can I measure it to be sure?  Why should I care?  Investing in our region involves both the head and heart -- we believe that linking the two, connecting across the generations and demanding results, is one of the best ways we build a better future.

Not just technology but markets, people, stories, tools and agencies.  That builds community itself.  Come join us. 

Greetings—

The familiar line from the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, memorized a long time ago as a school boy, resonates with the evolving story of water here in the Valley, as we adjust to the new realities of drought, volatile supplies and sources, and the deep complexity of water here in the Valley.

Joining a cohort of community foundations to explore solutions

The Community Foundation has been invited to join a cohort of other California community foundations (San Francisco, Silicon Valley and San Diego) and the Water Foundation to explore how to approach the complex issues of water. We are collaborating to find ways that engage, educate and explore solutions. Our primary focus is to identify where philanthropic investments can make a tangible difference, and how our platforms can be used to educate donors, communities and engage stakeholders – sometimes across deeply held boundaries. At CVCF we are glad to bring the perspectives of the Central San Joaquin Valley to this statewide collaboration.

Water and the Valley – fundamental to so many things

Water is essential to life. Here in the Valley, access to clean water is not a foregone conclusion. Wells have run dry and created more disparity – for families, businesses and communities.

Agriculture is a core mainstay of our local economy and water is fundamental to its success. The Valley not only produces food for the region, but for the nation and much of the world. Without water, food cannot grow in this fertile land and farmers cannot sustain their livelihood.

Greetings—

This Easter weekend, there are many opportunities to reflect on the possibilities of redemption, rebirth and connecting to a new(er) life. We celebrate these opportunities in our places of worship, we look for them in our families and we can even breathe them in through the landscape around us. Spring arrives with all its promise.

Taking note of the possibilities for change is nothing new in the world of CBOs. In the normal course of business programs grow and shrink, services evolve and contract and organizations adjust to the changing world. For those who have been engaged in this work for the last decade, it has been a volatile time, with gut wrenching changes arriving, often with increasing frequency. Sometimes it feels like Lent, and other times like the season’s rebirth with flowers, candies and chocolate eggs.

Especially dark chocolate eggs, which are rumored to be healthy.

Easter Flowers Link Generations

One of my favorite Easter traditions was decorating our church. We brought flowers from our gardens (my mother’s, my aunt’s, and ours) to arrange in the sanctuary and the narthex, continuing a tradition started by my grandmother as a silent memorial to her son, who was killed in the South Pacific in World War II. Every year was an adventure, depending on what was in bloom, but there were always long standing stalwarts: calla lilies, irises, watsonias, plum blossoms and chrysanthemums.

The floral displays were augmented by a huge number of white lilies, each a tribute to a loved one. They were often a remembrance of a family member or friend, or in honor of someone special. The names of those remembered were listed in the bulletin. When my aunt passed away several years ago—the last of her generation—there was no one left alive who knew her brother James Laurence Fowler in person, but through a beautiful bouquet his life was remembered.

Greetings—

At our recent community conversation on planned giving, our panelists shared their favorite planned gifts, examples of where a legacy from a life well lived touches the future. Each a professional in his/her field, these gifts allowed someone’s passion to flourish.

From musicians to a named fund for a beloved child

For one it was an endowed scholarship for music students at Fresno State. For another, it was a named fund that carries forward the memory of a child lost at too young an age. For another, it was the chance to establish a fund to help local children get the help needed to attend college.

Planned gifts are one of the most powerful opportunities to shape a legacy, where a donor’s greatest passion will be translated into something of value, meaning and permanence.

The foundation’s donors extend their legacies into our communities

At the community foundation, we understand and respect the power of these gifts, in part because we have been entrusted with monies by donors, both while alive and through bequest. These gifts are translated into grants that carry forth their purpose - river restoration for Dan Martin, parks and arts for Louis Gundlefiner, college readiness for Dorothy Mitsuoka are just three examples of how these legacies touch lives.

Greetings—

In a recent two day seminar, safely inside from the welcome rain, a cohort of the New Leadership Network focused on tools to facilitate leadership.

It is about listening as much as leading.

The network, created with a pioneering investment in Fresno by the James Irvine Foundation, consists of leaders from all quarters – private, public, philanthropic, education, health, community. The aim is to use a new model of collaborative leadership to sustain a network that can lead a community through change.

Or sometimes to change.

New skills for a new era

Over the past 18 months, members of the network have made efforts to rethink how we approach our work as individual leaders, and leaders in this community. Taking advantage of national and regional experts and cutting-edge disciplines and paradigms, we have plunged head first into new design strategies.

Greetings—

A lively exchange

At our Arts and Culture Community Conversation this week, we had a lively discussion about some vexing questions. How do arts organizations find and engage new audiences? How can organizations adapt their programming to accommodate changes in the way we experience and create art? How do we navigate the generational and cultural divides?

The viability of our local arts organizations may rest on the answers.

The conversation included a panel of artists and arts organization leaders-several of whom were our grantees. Their focus was on experiential projects in less traditional venues, more participation and a spirit of collaboration. Each spoke with pride and authenticity about creating art locally, and its importance to our sense of community.

Technology plays an increasing role

Technology- as a medium, access point and communication tool – has become a vital element for artists and arts organizations. Alas, technology can be both a servant and a master.

Providing access to local and international talents, venues and experiences, it opens doors far beyond the region, the neighborhood and the community where we live. Technology offers the opportunity to join communities of common interest and to create relationships beyond the immediate experience; it can literally transform the arts experience.