Latest News at NCG

In California, home to the largest immigrant population in the country, the promise of mass deportation raids is bearing true, with the Central Valley seeing some of the harshest enforcement activities. While undocumented immigrants are the most visible target, DACA and TPS holders, refugees, green card holders, and naturalized citizens are impacted by this anti-immigrant agenda.  

Reimagining a freeway and reclaiming 42 acres of prime new buildable land in Downtown Oakland. Repairing harm by leveraging the same infrastructure development that caused the harm in the first place. These are big visions with big rewards for the communities that have experienced a barrage of generational oppression. How can we be bold and innovative in our support for families with strategies grounded in cultural preservation and equitable community development?

Movement and nonprofit partners are our best defense against repressive policies that directly impact communities on the ground. As we depend on them to lead us in these fights, the collective resilience of the nonprofit workforce must be a sector-wide priority. The support for talent justice in the nonprofit sector is growing. Initiatives at The Walter & Elise Haas Fund, ReWork the Bay, Fund the People, and the James Irvine Foundation are investing in the long-term sustainability, agency, and belonging for nonprofit workers.

As funders and concerned community members, we have the ability – and the responsibility – to direct more resources to local organizations that are fortifying our democracy from the ground up.

As we face the stinging backlash to progress and concerted efforts to challenge the movement for greater equity and inclusion, a new generation of organizers and leaders are defending these wins and building the power of communities to dismantle systems of oppression.  

To truly strengthen our democracy for the long-term, funders need to hear directly from young people and youth organizing staff and follow their lead to deeply invest in the ecosystem that builds political home and collective agency for us. 

The multiple polycrises of our time continue to disproportionately impact trans, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary communities of color.

Philanthropy brings a special appetite for innovation and has the capacity for greater risk-taking – and those stances are needed at this moment to preserve affordable housing. When affordable housing is destroyed – through neglect and disinvestment, demolition, increased rents - people lose their homes, neighborhoods lose community, and the region becomes a more congested and less interesting place.