Philanthropy Front and Center-San Francisco

Listen! Funding for Arts Month: Frances Phillips of the Creative Work Fund

Frances Phillips, director of the Creative Work Fund and also senior program officer at the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, discusses the Creative Work Fund's current grantmaking programs, and provides tips for artists and arts organization representatives who plan to approach the Creative Work Fund for support.

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Do You Have a Wireless Innovation That Can Make a Better World?

Last week I got an announcement from Vodafone Americas Foundation that it's launching its second annual Wireless Innovation Project.  We blogged in April about the winners of the first Wireless Innovation Project.  The Project is a competition to identify and reward the most promising advances in wireless related technologies, which can be used to solve critical problems around the globe. Applicants must be nonprofits, educational institutions, or social entrepreneurs based in the United States. Up to $600,000 will be awarded to wireless projects demonstrating exceptional promise to solve a critical global issue in the following fields: education; health; access to communication; the environment; or economic development. Moreover, the innovation can also represent a significant advancement in wireless related technology to help solve issues such as connectivity, language barriers, and energy use.  

Proposals will be accepted through February 1, 2010, with the final winners announced on April 19, 2010 at the annual Global Philanthropy Forum in Redwood City, CA. Go to the competition's web site at project.vodafone-us.com for for the more information on eligibility and the application process.

New RFP for Documentary Projects

The San Francisco Foundation recently announced a call for proposals for the second round of The San Francisco Foundation Bay Area Documentary Fund. Accomplished film/video/digital media artists are invited to apply to the Bay Area Documentary Fund for early production support. Projects should address issues pertinent to the five Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo.

Awards are ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 to support documentary projects in early productions phases by experienced filmmakers with an esteemed body of previously created work. 

Proposals are due on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. (Note: This application requires both an online application and physical film samples to be mailed to The San Francisco Foundation).

Complete eligibility requirements, application process instructions, and evaluation criteria are available at The San Francisco Foundation's Arts and Culture Grants and Awards page.

For more information, please visit the complete RFP [pdf].

Invitation to Participate in Youth Thrive Awards

Are you a nonprofit that is making a difference for youth?

Engage your audiences by asking them to post information about your work at GreatNonprofits.  GreatNonprofits, GuideStar, VolunteerMatch and DoSomething are honoring nonprofits that serve youths in the inaugural Youth Thrive Awards.

Youth-focused nonprofits with the most positive reviews posted to Great Nonprofits will be announced as winners and receive media coverage. Awards will be given out of 9 categories (6 geographic US regions and 3 budget size –small, medium or large).

This is an opportunity for nonprofits to engage clients, volunteers, board members, donors and other stakeholders . You can ask your volunteers, clients, and board members to post reviews about you. You can use email or simply use facebook or twitter to get the word out to your stakeholders. Contest deadline: September 30th.  For more information visit the Youth Thrive Awards page.

 

Happy 40th Birthday to Agape Foundation!

The Bay Area's own Agape Foundation celebrates 40 years working on behalf of peace and social justice tonight. The event at the War Memorial also marks Agape's fifth annual presentation of its Peace Prize.  Since its formation in 1969 in response to the Vietnam War, the Agape Foundation has raised and distributed funds to groups working for nonviolent social change. As a nonprofit tax-exempt foundation, Agape provides seed grants, loans, and fiscal sponsorship to organizations that promote peace, oppose war, defend our civil and human rights, and protect the environment.  From its founding, the Agape Foundation has awarded more than $13 million to over 800 grassroots organizations throughout California.

Read an interview with Gwyn Kirk, chair of the Agape Foundation's board, in today's San Francisco Chronicle.

Three Local 'Genius Award' Recipients

The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced the names of twenty-four new MacArthur Fellows for 2009.

Selected for their creativity, originality, and potential, the recipients of what are often called the "genius awards" will each receive $500,000 over five years with no strings attached. The fellowships are awarded to women and men of all ages and at all career stages and are designed to make it easier for fellows to accelerate their current activities or take their work in new directions.  The three Bay Area fellows are:

Maneesh Agrawala, 37, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, University of California at Berkeley. He is designing visual interfaces that enhance users’ ability to synthesize and comprehend large quantities of complex, digital information.

Lin He, 35, assistant professor of cell and developmental biology, University of California at Berkeley. She is advancing our understanding of the role of microRNA’s in the development of cancer and laying the groundwork for future cancer treatments.

Camille Utterback, 39, digital artist, in San Francisco. She is redefining how viewers experience and interact with art through pictorial compositions that are activated by human presence and movement.

For the complete list of 2009 MacArthur Fellows, visit the MacArthur Foundation Web site.

Do You Know an Effective Leader Who Is Working to Improve California?

We just received notice the James Irvine Foundation has opened nominations for its 2010 Leadership Awards. The awards recognize innovative, effective leaders working to improve California’s future. The award includes $125,000 in organizational support, plus additional resources so that recipients can share their effective program models with policymakers and others in their field. If you know someone who is implementing a solution to one of the state’s key challenges nominate him or her for a James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award at http://irvine.org/leadership. Nominations are due October 13, 2009.

Top Corporate Philanthropists in the Bay Area

This morning I attended the annual San Francisco Business Times' Corporate Philanthropy Summit.  Unveiling this year's top 60 Bay Area corporate givers highlighted the event. I have included an abridged list of the Top 15 companies, ranked by local cash contributions, below.  The complete list is provided in the San Francisco Business Times current edition and is available for reference use in our library now.   

1.  AT&T
2.  Wells Fargo & Co.
3.  Chevron Corp.
4.  Bank of America Corp.
5.  Safeway Inc.
6.  Levi Strauss & Co.
7.  PG&E Corp.
8.  Intel Corp.
9.  Genentech Inc.
10. Cisco Systems
11. Applied Materials Inc.
12. Wachovia
13. Oracle Corp.
14. Gap, Inc.
15. Microsoft Corp.

It was heartening to hear that despite the tough economy the 60 companies on the list increased their giving over last year from $154.9 million in 2007 to $166.9 million in 2008.  Several other companies were honored with "Beyond the Check" awards which looks at a company's volunteerism, special programs, leadership, and innovation.  These included Health Partner of the Year--Nest Collective and Revolution Foods for encouraging kids to eat well; Community Change and Impact in Philanthropy--Cisco Systems whose technology helps nonprofits; and Education Partner of the Year--Bayer Healthcare for making hands-on science a priority.

Irvine Foundation Announces 2009 Leadership Award Recipients

The James Irvine Foundation will hold an event today in Sacramento to announce and honor the recipients of the 2009 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. Now in its fourth year, the awards celebrate extraordinary leaders who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant state issues. The awards are intended to publicize proven solutions that can inform policymaking and better the lives of more Californians.  The six recipients will each receive $125,000 and additional support from the Foundation. This year's Leadership Awards recipients are:

1. Josefina Alvarado Mena
   SAFE PASSAGES/YOUTH VENTURES JOINT POWERS AUTHORITY, OAKLAND
2. Tim Dang
   EAST WEST PLAYERS, LOS ANGELES
3. Kathryn Icenhower
   SHIELDS FOR FAMILIES, LOS ANGELES
4. Luis Santana
   READING AND BEYOND, FRESNO
5. Richard Valle
   TRI-CED COMMUNITY RECYCLING, UNION CITY
6. Jennifer Vanica
   JACOBS CENTER FOR NEIGHBORHOOD INNOVATION, SAN DIEGO

For more information on this year’s recipients — including longer summaries and photographs — visit: www.irvine.org/leadership.

2009 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners

Just announced yesterday are the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize.  The prize, now in its 20th year, is awarded annually to grassroots environmental heroes from each of the world’s six inhabited continental regions and is the largest award of its kind with an individual cash prize of $150,000.

This year’s recipients include Maria Gunnoe, a born-and-bred West Virginian who faces death threats for her outspoken activism to stop the coal industry’s plunder of Appalachia via mountain top removal and valley fills. Another recipient, Marc Ona, a wheelchair-bound civil society leader from the West African country of Gabon, faces arrest, imprisonment and public character assaults for his unyielding campaign to stop a destructive mining concession in a protected national park.

Other recipients include a Russian scientist connecting NGOs across Eastern Europe and the Caucasus to identify and safely remove toxic chemical stockpiles; two Saramaka leaders, members of a Maroon community in Suriname founded by freed African slaves in the 1700s, whose legal struggle to protect their tribal land rights led to a binding decision for all indigenous and tribal peoples in the Americas; Bangladesh’s leading environmental attorney, whose legal advocacy led to tighter regulations on the environmentally-devastating and exploitative ship breaking industry; and an Indonesian woman developing community-based waste management systems to stem her island nation’s overwhelming waste infrastructure problems. See their photos and read more about the recipients at the Goldman Prize web site.