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Northern California Grantmakers (NCG) and Funders Together to End Homelessness (FTEH) are pleased to announce the Bay Area Homelessness Funders Network (BAHFN). We are joining forces to advance racial equity and coordinate across the region to prevent and end homelessness in the Bay Area by creating a space to connect and facilitate action. The network draws on NCG’s expertise in bringing philanthropy together to build healthy, thriving, and just communities and FTEH’s work mobilizing philanthropy in using its influence, expertise, and voice to advance lasting solutions to end homelessness, including addressing structural and racial inequities.
In the last year alone, Californians have experienced the impacts of multiple climate disasters including severe drought, extreme heatwaves, earthquakes, catastrophic wildfires, and now several back-to-back Atmospheric Rivers. Climate change will only continue amplifying the risk that Californians face from natural hazards. We can’t keep doing business as usual philanthropy to meet the scope of our current reality.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Community Based Organizations (CBOs) have responded quickly and nimbly to ensure Black, Indigenous, and other people of color who have been most impacted have access to timely and accurate information in multiple languages, tests and vaccines, food, internet, and so much more. These organizations are essential partners, trusted by the people they serve, who have taken on public health work that often goes beyond their core missions and programming because their communities need it.
NCG's Sarah Frankfurth chatted with Pui Ling Tam and Chrissy Sa about the Fund and lessons learned. tam Pui Ling Tam led the initial funder organizing to launch the Generational Recovery Fund, and Chrissy Sa and Pui Ling Tam served as Advisory Group Members throughout the life of the Fund. Watch and read more about the experience of leaders and youth participants from the fund below.
Climate change is here to stay. Although what’s needed seems endless as the impacts will worsen in the coming years, I am hopeful. Since joining the sector four years ago, I have seen an increasing number of funders exploring new ways to address climate change.
Foundations effect greater change in the world when their funding decisions are shaped by the people and communities most harmed by inequities. While many funders agree with this notion, there is often a struggle to invest in systems change and to actualize community-centered funding. This session will discuss effective vs. extractive listening practices, provide a framework to implement power-sharing, and highlight lessons learned from regional grantmakers to evolve their practices.
As the political economy ebbs and flows, California finds itself dealing with significant budget deficits more frequently, which ultimately impacts our state’s most historically marginalized residents. Cuts to important programs impacting housing and homelessness, the social safety net, climate resiliency programs and much more have a disproportionate and adverse effect on women and children, low-income families, rural communities, and neighborhoods of color. Nonprofit and direct service organizations often see an uptick in their clients during economic downturns and are compelled to fill the gap without augmentation in funding and resources.