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We are so excited to invite you to participate in an interactive, facilitated dialogue between nonprofits and funders, diving into the most pressing challenges facing the nonprofit workforce – and to consider real solutions for change.

We all know that the nonprofit sector is staffed by a skilled, passionate and powerful workforce. And yet, the workforce faces major challenges, including burnout, recruitment, retention, and providing living wages. There have been various efforts in California and across the nation to reform government contracting and encourage funders to adopt funding the “full costs” of grantees. These efforts have faced major obstacles, and yet nonprofits continue to work unabated to fulfill missions that enrich communities. The time is now for nonprofits and funders to come together to reimagine the sector, to support thriving and equitable nonprofit jobs and workplaces with the capacity to strengthen their communities.

Join us for an in-person grant writing training that brings together community-based organizations, nonprofits, and Tribes in and around Santa Rosa and the North Bay to learn about pursuing grant funds to support your organization’s vision and values. An emphasis will be on building organizational capacity to address climate resilience initiatives.

Led by the Council on Foundations Legal team, this workshop is flexibly organized to ensure that your broad legal questions for administering funds, grants, and corporate foundation activities are addressed. The legal team will provide technical and practical understanding of complex rules and regulations. Throughout the workshop, sessions will be curated with the help of insight gleaned from the Council's top-notch legal team that interacts with nearly 2,000 foundation leaders each year, as well as trends spotted by our broader team.  It will be timely, relevant, and a deeper dive than the basics, surfacing critical insights and expertise to advance your knowledge of the corporate foundation inner workings--from administration to governance, self-dealing to grantmaking.

In order to make real changes in our communities, it is not enough to win elections. When progressive candidates get elected, philanthropy must provide them the support they need to govern effectively with the communities that helped elect them. Philanthropy already invests in increasing civic engagement and advocacy on social issues such as improving healthcare, education, and building a strong and inclusive economy for everyone.

Leveraging the unique perspectives, energy, and visions of young people can transform philanthropy into a more powerful force for change. Across California, funders are stepping out of their traditional roles to deconstruct the power dynamics that exist in philanthropy and utilize participatory approaches that bring together young people and funders to make decisions on grants. As we reimagine what grantmaking can be, learning directly from young people and those involved in the work is crucial in
being able to contribute to the landscape constructively. It informs funders what the vast needs of the ecosystem are and how their work can contribute.

Youth climate movements around the world have fundamentally changed the narrative around climate action – from youth Climate Strikes, to climate organizing in schools across the Bay Area, to Sunrise Movement laying the ground work for the (green)new deal era policies like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to students on college campuses demanding their universities divest from fossil fuels we live in a world that is made better as a result of youth activism.