Funder Resources for Immigrants and Refugees

Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees

With leadership from Forum member Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, more than 140 philanthropic organizations have signed on to a statement in support of immigrants and refugees, including both foundations and philanthropic support organizations.  Read the statement.

Center for Disaster Philanthropy Resources

10 Ways to Improve Our Response to Humanitarian Crises Report

Transit, Tents, Homes:  Approaches to Three Phases of the Refugee Crisis:  In-depth report examines the life of a refugee in three phases, includes detailed situation analyses along with several funding opportunities from the following three perspectives:  Transit: Whether it is throughout Europe, across the Mediterranean, or on difficult border roads elsewhere, refugees must endure the natural elements and man-made risks; Tents: Refugees living in camps often end up there for many years, posing challenges for both the refugees and host countries; and Homes: Though fortunate, refugees who are resettled into the United States have a wide range of social, cultural, and economic challenges to overcome.

Public Education Institute at the The Immigrant Learning Center

Take Back the Immigration Narrative webinar by the FrameWorks Institute.

Winning Strategies in Use discussion (panel discussion)

Changing Face of America, Latest Immigration Data by The ILC Public Education Institute. Slides attached.

 Opportunity Agenda

 Welcoming America

 Institute for Immigration Research at George Mason University

 The Immigrant Learning Center Public Education Institute

Resources from the chat box:

Immigration Research and Information is available for your research needs. You can also browse their resources on education and immigrant integration.

Civic Engagement and Census-Related Resources for Funders

Livestream Available for Philanthropy New York’s “The Power of Participation” Annual Meeting

Philanthropy New York is making available a livestream of their Annual Meeting, a half-day conference on the state of our democracy today — focusing on voting rights, access to participation and how people get the information that motivates them to engage.  The livestream will be available Friday, June 16, from 9:00am-12:30pm.  More information

Civic Engagement Resources

Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), a network of funders and foundations committed to civic engagement and democracy, has seen an increasing interest and urgency around civic engagement and advocacy.  In response to questions like, What is civic engagement? How is it defined and what does it look?  How might civic engagement relate to my work?  How do I get started? Who might I learn from about how to do this work?, PACE developed a Civic Engagement Primer designed to help philanthropies grow in their civic engagement understanding, and learn about resources to engage in this work.  Read the primer.

Democracy Grant Tracking Tool

The Foundation Center has a “Foundation Funding for US Democracy” tool, which is a data visualization platform for funders, nonprofits, journalists and anyone interested in understanding philanthropy’s role in U.S. democracy.  Funders can use it to discover new philanthropic partners, understand who is funding what and where, analyze funder and nonprofit networks, compare foundation funding for issues you care about and support your knowledge about the field.  Explore the tool

Census-Related Resources

Washington Post article on Resignation of Census Director

Making Philanthropy Count:  Census 2020 webinar

Press Release on Underfunding of Census

Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers’ Census Site

Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation Census Site | Join the Funders’ Census Initiative Working Group

Link to the Recording of the Census 101 Discussion from October 2016

Census Accuracy and the Undercount

Key 2020 Census Bureau Milestones

Census 2020 Action Plan

Menu of Options for Funders

Resources for Funders on Senior Issues

Rural Aging

Grantmakers in Aging, a sister organization in the Forum, has just released a new publication on supporting senior citizens in rural areas, “New Frontiers for Funding: An Introduction to Grantmaking.”  The highest concentrations of older persons in the U.S. are in rural areas, and funders have not yet paid systematic attention to the needs and opportunities there.  The report is appropriate for funders new to this strategic need, as well as those with more extensive experience in the field.

Retirement Research Foundation Releases Report on Accessible Faith Grant Program

Seniors, and others with mobility issues, may have difficulty fully engaging in their desired community organizations because of lack of accessibility.  The Retirement Research Foundation has released a report for funders on its Accessible Faith Grant Program, so that others can learn from what they call a “low-cost, high-return” grantmaking program.  This decade long program provided support for making houses of worship accessible and RRF includes tools for replicating the program in the report.   Report

 

Women’s Fund of RI New Grant Cycle and “Womenomics” Event, GoLocal Feature

WFRI New Grant Cycle

The Women’s Fund of Rhode Island (WFRI) has announced its 2017 grant cycle, which will award grants totaling $50,000, made possible by the generosity of donors.  Since launching its grant program in 2001, the WFRI has awarded more than $600,000 to organizations developing innovative programs that seek to promote gender equity and improve the lives of women and girls in RI.

The focus of this year’s funding will be the findings in the Status of Working Women in Rhode Island report released earlier this year in collaboration with the Economic Progress Institute.  To learn more about WFRI’s funding focus, eligibility criteria, and how to apply, refer to the Guidelines for a Grant Application and Grant Application.  Applications will be accepted from now through June 15, 2017.  Grant awards will be announced on October 11, 2017.

Womenomics:  Women Leading Change

On June 7, WFRI will be hosting a “Womenomics:  Women Leading Change” Celebration at the RISD Museum, 5:30-8:30pm, featuring a keynote presentation by Jackie VanderBrug of U.S. Trust, on why investing in and through women makes great economic sense.  WFRI will also be honoring Susan Rittscher, CEO of the Center for Women & Enterprise with the Women’s Fund Leadership Award.  Register

Nevins Featured on GoLocal Providence Live on Gender Equality in Politics

Kelly Nevins, the Executive Director of Women’s Fund of RI, was featured in a GoLocal Providence Live segment on how gender equality in Rhode island could re-shape politics in the state.  “We know that when we have more women in leadership, that things get better for women in general. So helping women to run  for office is something we’ll be looking at,” Nevins says.

Nevins says besides public office, they hope to help women establish more presence in corporate board rooms.  Nevins says WFRI is focused on working with partners to pass laws that will provide earned sick time for all private sector employees. They are also working to continue access to insurance and reproductive health care services.

Health Intersection Resources

“If you want to lower my blood pressure, pay my rent.”

LISC:  HEZ Work a Model for Upending Health Inequality

Depending on whether you are born in a prosperous or a poor American neighborhood, your life expectancy can vary by as much as 25 years.  In a blog post for Build Healthy Places, Julia Ryan, LISC’s director of health and safety programs explains how Rhode Island’s Health Equity Zones (HEZ) are working to close the longevity gap.  As lead agency for two of those zones, LISC is helping to tackle the deep-rooted problems underlying that gap with a multi-strategy action plan.

Asset Funders Network:  Health and Wealth Connections

As GCRI panelists discussed at the January roundtable on Social Determinants of Health, pursuing positive health outcomes requires understanding the intersection of health and a variety of social and economic challenges.  Asset Funders Network recently released Health and Wealth Connections, a resource for funders concerned about the connection between health and financial security.

Far beyond health care access and affordability, wealth and numerous social factors related to where people live, work, and play impacts a person’s health. Data indicates assets, income, and health are inexorably linked. Good health is associated with higher wealth and income, better employment and education.

Authors Jason Q. Purnell, PhD, MPH & Anjum Hajat, PhD, MPH, explored with participants how health and wealth are connected and discussed how health impacts are more significant for low-income, vulnerable populations particularly people of color. The authors shared compelling evidence for investment in strategies and policies that consider both the physical well-being and economic stability of individuals, families, and communities.   View Brief and the webinar 

Children’s Healthwatch:  “Intersection of Health and Housing” and Caring for the Children of Immigrants

Children’s HealthWatch, has made available the recording of its webinar, The Intersection of Health and Housing, as well as related resources.  Webinar and resources here.

According to Children’s Healthwatch, pediatricians across the country are also seeing the harmful effects of anxiety about immigration-related Executive Orders and rhetoric on the health of their young patients.  In a recent blog post Children’s HealthWatch Principal Investigator, Dr. Diana Cutts, discusses the impact that policies have on her patients and expresses fear for the future of those children both directly and indirectly affected by harmful policies.

Grantmakers in the Arts:  Medicine and the Arts

Grantmakers in the Arts released a literature review on the growing field of arts in medicine. The review outlines the various ways in which artists and healthcare institutions work together to support patient and community heath, the infrastructure that exists to support this work, and how funders can support further development of the field.

Collaborative Funding for Children’s Health: San Joaquin Valley Health Fund

In order to address pressing issues facing children living in poverty, regional funders in the San Joaquin Valley of California embraced a collective impact model to address children’s health issues.  Using a learning community model, nonprofit partners receive modest grants to strengthen their capacity to engage in collective advocacy while building relationships, receiving technical assistance, and sharing best practices. As a result, the fifty-eight nonprofits currently working with the Fund have agreed to support a regional policy platform that employs a social-determinants-of-health approach focused on access to health coverage, early childhood investment, affordable housing, environmental health, and employment. Report

Funding Crisis for Public Health and Safety:  State by State Public Health Funding and Key Health Facts 2017

Reminder:  Don’t forget that Grantmakers in Health will be having their annual, national conference in Boston June 21-23.  Be sure to connect with colleagues from across the country without paying for airfare!  More information

Follow Up Resources for Trends and Innovations Roundtable

Thanks to those of you who participated in the April “Trends and Innovations in Philanthropy” roundtable to learn more about Impact Investing, Social Entrepreneurship, Nonprofit Capacity Building and Changing Perceptions Around the “Overhead Myth.”

If you’d like more information on Impact Investing, please plan on joining us on May 25, 1:00-2:30pm at the Rhode Island Foundation for a more in-depth look at Mission-Related Investments.  In addition, Mission Investors Exchange, a sister organization in the Forum, has many resources on its website and will be hosting its annual Mission Investing Institute on June 19-21 in Troy, Michigan at the Kresge Foundation.

For more information on the “Overhead Myth,” be sure to check out Dan Pallotta’s TED Talk, The Way We Think About Charity Is Dead Wrong.  Pallotta is the founder of the Charity Defense Council, which works to change the perceptions of Boards, donors and the public around the idea of nonprofit “overhead.”  Pallotta is a nationally recognized fundraiser, speaker and author of Uncharitable.  In addition, Northern California Grantmakers/San Diego Grantmakers/Southern California Grantmakers (GCRI’s sister organizations in the Forum) have released a report on their statewide “Real Cost Project,” an educational initiative for funders and nonprofits about eliminating the concept of “overhead,” and instead focusing on the “real cost” — all of the necessary investments for a nonprofit organization to deliver on mission and to be sustainable over the long term.  Through research, regional convenings, and senior level executive briefings, the project identified what it would take for funders to overcome institutional and sector-wide barriers and to be able to move from awareness to action.  Read the report.

 

 

Listen for Good Initiative 2017 Grant Program Announced

The Fund for Shared Insight (FFSI) is a collaborative effort among funders that pools financial and other resources to make grants to improve philanthropy. FFSI emerged from the belief that foundations will be more effective and make an even bigger difference in the world if they are more open – if they share what they are learning and are open to what others want to share with them, including grantees and the people they seek to help.

The Fund for Shared Insight has several opportunities for your members to be involved in their Listen for Good initiative.  Listen for Good (L4G) is an initiative dedicated to building the practice of listening to the people funders seek to help. They invite nonprofits and funders to join in exploring a simple but systematic and rigorous way of getting feedback from the people at the heart of their work. Listen for Good is focused on applying a semi-standard survey instrument, which includes using the Net Promoter SystemSM (NPS®) employed widely in customer feedback circles, to the nonprofit beneficiary context. Organizations implementing L4G are all customer-facing nonprofits.

In 2016, FFSI made 46 L4G grants supported by 28 nominating co-funders. 2017 grantees of L4G will receive $45,000 over two years ($30,000 from Fund for Shared Insight and $15,000 from a nominating co-funder), as well as access to technical assistance to guide their implementation efforts.

Details 

FFSI is holding a series of open conference calls on April 7 and April to answer questions from potential co-funders about how to nominate a grantee(s) for Listen for Good. FFSI created a page about Listen for Good called “Information for Funders” with details on Listen for Good and how to nominated grantees.

GEO Fellowship Program for Change Leaders in Philanthropy

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) is soliciting applications for its Change Leaders in Philanthropy Fellowship — GEO’s 10-month peer cohort program designed specifically for executives — helps participants work together to identify promising practices and recommendations for creating organizational conditions that support nonprofit success.

Eligible participants in the Change Leaders in Philanthropy Fellowship are executives who:

  • Work at grantmaking organizations that are GEO members
  • Report directly to the CEO, and
  • Are responsible for leading and/or supporting change in their organizations.

GEO will be hosting informational webinars on April 18 and April 20 to provide an overview of the fellowship’s structure and goals, as well as an opportunity for interested individuals to hear and learn directly from program facilitators and current cohort participants. Apply for the Change Leaders in Philanthropy Fellowship 

If you have questions about the fellowship, please contact Heather Peeler at peeler@geofunders.org or 202.355.9537 or Stephanie Chan at chan@geofunders.org or 202.355.9535.

Funder Guidelines for Taking a Public Stand

In the current political environment, many organizations have been asked by different constituents to speak up on policies, legislation and societal trends.  Many funders have developed a great deal of social capital and public trust from their work on social issues, and their voices can lend weight and import to policy discussions.  At the same time, they need to navigate legal parameters and weigh the cost benefit analysis to their vocal engagement on particular issues.

This article from Community Wealth Partners advises funders to think about three key questions in deciding whether to use their standing and influence on particular issues:

  • Will it advance your mission or cause?  Could the issue affect your desired outcomes?  Can you influence an audience that has power over the issue?
  • Are you the right messenger?  What is your role as a foundation?  Are you a credible source on this topic? Will speaking out support your stakeholders in a way they want to be supported?
  • Are you sharing the right message?  Do you have a clear purpose or call to action?  Are you communicating in a way that will resonate with your audience?

Read the full article

In addition, corporate leaders may find the article in Harvard Business Review on “What CEO’s Should Know About Speaking Up on Political Issues,” to be a source of valuable counsel as well.

Lessons from Multi-Sector Partnerships in the Health Sector

Report Details Important Lessons for Partnerships in All Issue Areas

ReThink Health, an initiative of Fannie E. Rippel Foundation, recently released a report on multi-sector partnerships to improve health, equity and economic well being.  Based on a nationwide survey of multi sector partnerships, the report details lessons learned from the work plans, finances and organizational development of these groups.

Some excerpted highlights that reinforce the message of GCRI’s Collective Impact panelists:

Challenges Based on Partnership Lifecycle

While most partnerships faced challenges related to collaborative infrastructure, sustainable financing, and data-sharing, other challenges were more prominent at certain phases, as are several distinctive momentum builders.

Earlier partnerships may face barriers in terms of “lack of authority and fragile infrastructure are special barriers in the Earlier phase, as partnerships establish their standing to lead change on chosen priorities. Groups in this phase tend to generate momentum by engaging multi-sector stakeholders and by building a region-wide vision around shared values.”

In the middle phases, partners may encounter “difficulties measuring progress and contending with political resistance…Their longer track record may raise expectations and they may have yet to negotiate all the vested interests that tend to reinforce the status quo. Experimenting and learning from easy wins gains special prominence as a practical way to drive progress.”

In more mature partnerships, their previous successes may actually be a challenge:  “Partnerships may have exhausted strategies that center primarily around win-win solutions or achievements that are perceived as low hanging fruit. They generate momentum more often by exercising influence upward and outward, as well as by taking a longer view of future scenarios.”

The report made several recommendations for successful partnership development:

All partnerships may benefit by having a wider view of the health ecosystem in their region, and by contributing toward a strategy for the region as a whole that will assure all of the vital conditions and services that people need through an organizational structure that best fits the local landscape. In addition, partnerships at each developmental phase may accelerate progress in different ways.

Earlier: Partnerships in the Earlier phase can set themselves up for success when they: (1) Articulate a region-wide vision based on shared values (both moral and economic); (2) Establish authority and expand engagement far as possible; and (3) Strengthen infrastructure through staff capacity, operational capability (e.g. backbone functions), and long-term financial planning.

Middle: Progress in the Middle phase may turn on building enough trust and transparency for more ambitious action as well as more difficult negotiations ahead. Groups may want to:  (1) Develop a compelling picture of the value they are poised to deliver; (2) Engage policymakers to create conditions that better enable regional action; and (3) Adopt a mindset for sustainable financing focused on creating new funding flows, especially ones that move beyond an excessive reliance on short-term grants, which often constrain the very ambitions and abilities that groups in the Middle phase need to succeed.

Later: To propel progress in the Later phase, we recommend that partnerships: (1) Surface vested interests and negotiate tough topics that otherwise threaten to reinforce the status quo; (2) Employ a learning practice that delivers evidence of results and is also tied to continuous learning, adaptation, and renewal; (3) Align with state and federal policy, such as changes in payment or regulatory systems; and (4) Establish new forms of distributed leadership, with a focus on broad-based coordination to avoid placing too much power in the hands of a few key players.

Considerations for Funders, Policymakers, and Other Allies

For funders, policymakers, and other allies who support multi-sector partnerships, we suggest the following activities:

• Learn about and consider developmental phases when crafting initiatives;

• Support long-term planning—extending over decades—so that strategies will persist through inevitable leadership transitions and adapt to change in wider contexts;

• Position grant funding as a bridge to more dependable financial structures.

• Fund core infrastructure and backbone organization, which can be decisive factors in the success of any multi-sector partnership.

Full report