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The San Francisco Foundation (SFF) is committed to ensuring that all people in the Bay Area are economically secure, rooted in vibrant communities and civically engaged. We envision a Bay Area where everyone is able to make ends meet and plan for their future, where culture and difference are celebrated, and where they are able to lift their voices to shape community policies that meet their needs and interests.
The neighborhoods we call home are steeped in meaning, culture, and history. Across Northern California, historically Black and other people of color neighborhoods are working to reverse and repair decades of community removals and neglect, while facing ongoing pressures that threaten resident and business displacement. These communities have initiated reparative and inclusive economic and community development efforts along commercial corridors that center the culture, values and history
of local residents.
A family philanthropy has a much better chance of success if there is an intentional culture that values continuous improvement, feedback and professional development, and an integrated approach of learning and assessment across governance, philanthropic strategy, succession, and more. The assessment process asks organizations to evaluate their philanthropic purpose, governance, team, accountability, finances, and family—to answer how you can continually keep people engaged and excited about this work, and improve on what already exists. This webinar will explore how board and staff can create a learning culture within the philanthropy, different tools to assess the organization internally, and strategies to build assessment and feedback into all facets of the work.
NCG members can share organizational news with others in the NCG community. Share your news here!
I’ll be the first to acknowledge that I’ve arrived as NCG’s CEO on the shoulders of many others that came before me. Two of the strongest shoulders belong to my first professional mentor and a heavyweight in philanthropic circles, Joe Brooks. During my seventeen years as a work partner and friend at The San Francisco Foundation and then PolicyLink, I learned more from him than I could ever adequately describe. He had a habit of saying things that were increasingly profound the more you thought about them. One of those sayings was, “how much do you need to know to act?”, often dropped in a setting surrounded by other foundation colleagues where he was about to propose bold action to engage some of the Bay Area’s most vexing social challenges
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 a member of a marginalized community, I keep getting tasked with playing the “educator” or “teacher” in my institution. I’m a member of the communities we aim to serve, but I feel uncomfortable serving as a spokesperson or ambassador for my communities. I hold authentic relationships with these grantee-partners outside of philanthropy and feel pressure to represent the MULTIPLE perspectives of my communities. Help, what can I do?