Latest News at NCG

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. 

My partner and I recently engaged in the annual ritual that is paying U.S. income tax.

Our delegation had wrapped up a full day of meetings with congressional and agency staffers where we elevated some of the most pressing issues facing our state: housing and economic security, climate and disaster resiliency, nonprofit resiliency, and democracy and civic engagement.

The Youth Power Fund (YPF) is excited to announce grants to 32 youth organizing groups in Northern California to collectively cultivate a powerful youth organizing ecosystem with shared strategies that engage more young people, expand power, and support transformative youth organizing practices in the field.

With the 2024 election upon us, we see the Valley made more vulnerable in a democracy hanging by a thread for the very same people that make the Valley a dynamic place. To give visibility to the multiracial richness and need for active civic engagement, the James B. McClatchy Foundation is ensuring the Central Valley is seen by fortifying the pillars of local journalism and democracy, particularly as we immerse ourselves "all in" during this election year.

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. 

Philanthropy is full of paradoxes that hold us back. As we enter 2024, one of the most troubling philanthropic paradoxes is emerging across the field. Foundations tend to retreat when they are needed the most.  Why? Because foundations are taught to value perpetuity above our collective humanity.   

This past week, Joe Brooks joined the ancestors, bringing to a close a powerful life and career whose impact extended deep into Bay Area philanthropy, and well beyond. Joe’s legacy in this field is vital and active through the dozens of leaders whose lives he touched in more than five decades of public service – including my own.