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San Francisco, CA—Arts organizations are facing unprecedented challenges as they’ve suspended public programming to help our communities adapt to life-saving shelter-in-place orders. The Arts Loan Fund, managed by Northern California Grantmakers, has announced a COVID-19 Emergency Loan to support arts and culture nonprofits and fiscally sponsored organizations in the eleven Bay Area counties. Organizations can apply for these low-interest loans to cover basic expenses such as staff salaries, artist payments, rent, and other operating costs during this challenging time.
Recently, Northern California Grantmakers and philanthropic research and strategy firm Open Impact released Get it Right: 5 Shifts Philanthropy Must Make Towards an Equitable Region, a report funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The report outlines what we need from decision-makers in philanthropy – board members, trustees, high net worth individuals, CEOs, and executive directors –to listen to communities, catch up to the moment, and align grantmaking support.
To ensure economic securityfor Californians, our public safety net needs to evolve, and that means getting serious about unrestricted cash support at the state level.During this legislative cycle, there are many proposals to provide groups of Californians with direct cash supports. From tax credit proposals to reforms in safety net programs, there are critical policy levers California can and should implement now so that all Californians can have the resources needed to live and thrive in the Golden State.
There is a range of vehicles available to engage the whole family in philanthropy—each vehicle is a tool in your philanthropy toolbox that allows you to reach individual or collective goals through different approaches. Giving families are increasingly using a variety of vehicles in concert with one another to advance their social impact strategies. A single philanthropic family could use a donor-advised fund for their youth philanthropy programs, a family foundation for collective grantmaking, and pilot a 501(c)(4) with their next generation family members who are interested in advocacy work. In this webinar, understand the different motivations for using multiple vehicles, how to connect the purpose behind your giving to your vehicle structures, their pros and cons, and how to create the most useful structure for your philanthropic goals.
My partner and I recently engaged in the annual ritual that is paying U.S. income tax. Gather your documents, fill in the forms, look for deductions that never seem to be there, watch what you really make become clear…as we approached the finish line, I wondered – how can I reframe the act of paying taxes? Then I harkened to a recent moment where paying a tax had a completely different feel, one that not only felt necessary but made a small yet substantive step toward advancing racial equity. I refer of course to NCG’s participation in paying our region’s Indigenous land and honor taxes. We began that commitment as an organization in 2022 and trust me, it’s been both vital and fulfilling.
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.
Anti-Black racism and white supremacy are embedded in philanthropy and in our institutions, often invisible to the majority of us, even as we work with intention towards equity and justice. As change agents within philanthropy, we are stretching to become our best selves, rise to the moment, and progress toward racial equity.