The Census happens just once every 10 years but its outcomes have serious ramifications: Will California lose a congressional seat? Will billions of dollars in Medicaid, SNAP, and Medicare resources be left on the table? A fair and accurate Census count is critically important to communities across the board. However, it isn’t always clear how funders might become engaged with the Census, even though most issues they fund will be influenced by whether or not the Census reaches the people it needs to reach.
Watching the clock, planners in California are working toward solutions that take time to get into place. Key concerns include uncertainty about whether the federal budget will adequately fund the various phases of the Census, the adequacy of programmatic implementation efforts to date, challenges in reaching immigrant communities of all backgrounds due to the current political climate, and more.
To help us understand what’s at stake and what can be done, we will hear from an expert panel of speakers who can share insight on all things Census. We will examine what both philanthropy and nonprofit leaders did during the last Census and, in light of the changed national landscape, we will learn about resources, networks, and campaigns already in formation to support philanthropy’s involvement today.
Speakers
Terri Ann Lowenthal, Legislative and Policy Consultant
Terri is a nationally recognized expert and frequent speaker on the U.S. census and policy issues affecting federal statistics. During a 14-year career as a congressional aide, she was staff director of the House census oversight subcommittee from 1987-94, and later covered Census Bureau and broader federal statistical activities for the 2008 Obama Presidential Transition Team. Terri has advised FCCP’s Funders Census Initiative (FCI 2020), The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Census Project (and its predecessor, the Census 2000 Initiative), and business and industry data users, and frequently posted on the Census Project Blog.Terri Ann holds a B.A. in Africana Studies from Cornell University and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. She was a member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission and served on the Cornell University Council and President’s Council of Cornell Women. She also is a Senior Stennis Center Congressional Staff Fellow and was a member of the Inaugural Class of Fellows in the 103rd Congress. Terri finds balance in her life as a figure skating coach for 43+ years. She now lives and works in her home town of Stamford, CT.
John Dobard, Manager of the Political Voice, Advancement Project
Dr. Dobard is the Manager of Political Voice. He leads advocacy efforts to make governments more participatory and representative of the communities they serve. Previously, Dr. Dobard served as Advancement Project California’s Manager of Strategic Initiatives. In that capacity, he co-created the Political Voice program and worked with coalitions across the state to use the California Voting Rights Act to secure equitable electoral systems. He also oversaw several key organization-wide initiatives, including an initiative to urge the Los Angeles Unified School District to adopt a student need index to guide allocation of Local Control Funding Formula dollars. Dr. Dobard earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. He also earned a master’s degree and doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago.
Tessa Rouverol Callejo, Program Officer of Nurturing Equity Movements, The San Francisco Foundation
Tessa is the Program Officer of Nurturing Equity Movements at The San Francisco Foundation (TSFF). In her current role Tessa develops grantmaking strategy and provides leadership in TSFF’s civic engagement, community organizing, and immigrant and refugee rights and integration work. Tessa brings decades of expertise in the fields of community organizing, policy advocacy, immigrant rights, and affordable housing to her work with TSFF. For more than twenty years Tessa was a staff lead for the FAITHS Program, TSFF’s civic engagement and capacity building program serving hundreds of faith and community-based organizations in the Bay Area. She also managed TSFF’s Immigrant Integration grantmaking, and provided leadership on community organizing, civic engagement and policy initiatives. In this role, she oversaw TSFF’s grantmaking and convening work for Census 2010.
Prior to beginning her work with TSFF in 1996, Tessa founded and later served on the board of the California Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, was the Director of the Catholic Charities San Francisco’s Central American Refugee Project, the Executive Director of National Sanctuary Defense Fund, and Director of St. Peter’s Housing Committee, an organization serving the San Francisco Latino community which later merged to become Causa Justa::Just Cause. She also was a founding member of the advisory committee of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy’s Civic Engagement Fund for Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian Communities. Tessa is a Bay Area native and holds a degree from the University of California at Berkeley in International Development Studies.
John Kim, Executive Director, The Advancement Project
John is the Executive Director at Advancement Project (AP). He joined in 2002 to develop, build, and launch the Healthy City Project, which subsequently grew into one of AP’s largest program areas providing data, research, and mapping support to tens of thousands of service providers and community advocates across the state. He was promoted to Managing Director of the California Office in 2004 before being appointed a Co-Director of the Advancement Project in 2008. John has made the needs of marginalized communities a priority throughout his tenure at Advancement Project. Over the years, he has developed advocacy and research initiatives on issues such as community health, redistricting, community engagement, voting rights, early care and education, and public finance. Under his leadership, many of these initiatives, have transformed the way that large public institutions allocate funding and provide programs and services to the most underserved communities. John has a long track record as a coalition-builder and facilitator of multi-stakeholder collaborations, and has established a wide-range of partnerships with community-based organizations, elected officials, governmental agencies, academic researchers, and foundations across the state.
Target Audience
This program is open to members of NCG, Bay Area Democracy Funders, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, and Philanthropy CA.
Location
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