Are You Really Community-Centered? How to Become a More Responsive, Effective, & Equitable Grantmaker

Jonathan supports Fund for Shared Insight’s leadership team in engaging funders to adopt listening practices that shift power. For more than 20 years, Jonathan has supported the learning, development, and capacity-building of funders, nonprofit organizations, and the communities they serve. He brings extensive experience designing and delivering education, leadership development, and career pathway programs. More recently, Jonathan worked on capacity-building efforts for grantees at Tipping Point Community, he directed the fiscal sponsorship program at the Foundation for California Community Colleges and he currently serves as the Sacramento Program Officer at Asset Funders Network (AFN). Jonathan received a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of California, Berkeley. He currently lives in Elk Grove, California, with his wife Emmile and two children, Layla and Marcus.

Kim Ammann Howard is Director of Impact Assessment and Learning at The James Irvine Foundation. She brings more than 20 years of social impact experience with diverse individuals and groups in a variety of settings including community-based organizations, foundations, and intermediaries as well as government and academic institutions at the local, state, national, and international levels. Prior to joining the Foundation, Kim spent ten years at Informing Change, a Berkeley-based consulting firm, designing, conducting, and overseeing evaluation, strategy, and applied research efforts. This included facilitating collaborative work within and across client organizations and key stakeholder groups to identify their priority needs and ensure efficient and effective processes to collect, synthesize, and share information that stimulates ongoing learning, application, and change.

Kim’s previous positions include directing evaluations and applied research projects at the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Prevention Research Center and at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Earlier, at the Contra Costa County’s Health Services Department, she facilitated the implementation of a variety of prevention programs and staffed cross-sector networks focused on policy and systems change. As a volunteer, she enjoys providing pro-bono assessment and evaluation services, both locally and internationally. Kim serves on the board of 1951 Coffee Company, a nonprofit that seeks to promote the well-being of the refugee community through job training and employment. Kim holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of California at Berkeley.

 Jo’ie D. Taylor is an accomplished nonprofit leader with proven ability to create strategic alliances with corporate partners, community-based organizations, and philanthropists to build sustainable, value-based strategies for social good. As the senior director of partnerships at the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), she serves as an advisor to celebrity charities, providing administrative and strategic support, to amplify their social impact. Prior to joining EIF, Jo’ie worked at the Television Academy Foundation, focused on institutional giving, alumni engagement, and building donor-led diversity and inclusion efforts including the Power of TV series and career pathways to unscripted television for Angelenos. Prior to her role at the Television Academy, Jo’ie served as a program director and development manager for Jumpstart for Young Children, a national language and literacy organization, focused on workforce development and advocacy in the early childhood education space. While at Jumpstart, Jo’ie also was a lecturer in the Child and Adolescent Studies Department at California State University, Fullerton.
 
Jo’ie earned a Master of Arts from San Francisco State University focused on Social Justice and Equity in Education. She has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pittsburgh in Urban Studies, with a minor in Economics and a certificate in Women’s Studies. She serves on the advisory council of the California State University Entertainment Alliance and a board member of the United States Student Association Foundation.
 

Valerie serves as the Founder and Executive Director of Listen4Good. Listen4Good, originally started by the Fund for Shared Insight, offers an 18-month capacity building program for nonprofits, with the goal of developing equitable measurement systems that improve outcomes and impact. As the founding director of Listen4Good, Valerie led the initial design of the offering and now oversees a team that has supported more than 1000 nonprofit organizations. Previously, Valerie served as Principal of Ekouté Consulting and founding director of the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s (CEP) YouthTruth project, scaling the project from an idea to a nationally recognized organization that elevates youth feedback to inform educational decision-making. Valerie lives in Oakland, California.