Donor News - Fall 2011

In this Issue:

• Support the Women and Girls Impact Fund
• Greater Impact Together: Federal Funds to Build the Bay Area’s Workforce
• Celebrating Community Impact
• Meet Mark and Francesca
• Year-End Donations
  
  

Support the Women and Girls Impact Fund

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Women and girls are agents of change in their families and communities. We believe, and data show, that when women and girls have economic and social opportunities that families, neighborhoods, and communities thrive. The San Francisco Foundation is investing in a strategy to lift up Bay Area women and girls—and thereby strengthen the region.

To leverage our grantmaking for girls and women and sow the seeds for their long-term empowerment, The San Francisco Foundation is launching the 2012 Women and Girls Impact Fund. Through the fund, the Foundation will partner with effective Bay Area nonprofits that have a track record of helping women and girls not only overcome crises, but build skills and power, and seize economic opportunities for the future. This new fund supports community organizations that serve women and girls in three major areas:

Health and Safety. The Women and Girls Impact Fund supports organizations that provide high quality, culturally competent health services and resources to low-income, women of color, immigrant, and LBGTQ women. Specifically, the fund will recognize nonprofits that offer services in the areas of domestic violence, sex trafficking prevention, reproductive rights and family planning, and access to healthcare.

Leadership and Empowerment. Women make up 47 percent of the labor market but only 16 percent of Fortune 500 board seats. The leadership and empowerment focus of the fund will identify organizations that recognize and nurture women’s skills and leadership capacity by providing mentorship and leadership coaching, as well as education and skill building to women. The fund will also support nonprofits that train women in advocacy and public policy change.

Economic Sustainability. The fund targets organizations focused on ending poverty for women and girls while fostering self-sufficiency. These nonprofits promote women’s business ownership through business planning, technical assistance, and capital identification. Other organizations help women build assets and gain financial literacy.

Joining forces with our generous donors and partners, and directly investing in the development and success of women and girls, together we can change the world. We invite donors to join us. We are launching the Women and Girls Impact Fund at the Second Annual Women Changing the World Luncheon on November 15 at the Futures Without Violence Conference Center in San Francisco. Speakers at this event include philanthropist and activist Deborah Santana and Katie Albright, executive director of San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center. Meklit Hadero will perform. If you’re interested in learning more about the Women and Girls Impact Fund, contact Philanthropic Services at 415-733-8500.

Greater Impact Together: Federal Funds to Build the Bay Area’s Workforce

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The San Francisco Foundation’s approach is to forge public-private-philanthropic partnerships to creatively address complex issues. In October, TSFF won a federal grant of $600,000 to develop job training programs at Bay Area community colleges. The programs, designed to meet employer needs, will prepare workers for careers in the fast-growing healthcare industry. TSFF received the grant on behalf of the Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative (BAWFC), a coalition of eleven local foundations. The grant is one of five to be awarded this month by the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, and the only one to be awarded in California.

The community college programs supported by the grant provide training for entry-level healthcare jobs that pay family-sustaining wages. “This federal grant is really an endorsement of our strategy,” says Jessica Pitt, initiative officer for BAWFC. “These resources will go a long way in supporting our focus on community colleges and training that leads to career ladder jobs in the growing healthcare field.” BAWFC is one of 32 sites awarded grants totaling $2.1 million from the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and its implementation partner, Jobs for the Future. The funding is supported by the federal Social Innovation Fund. For more information, visit our Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative (BAWFC) page.

Celebrating Community Impact

CLA Donor Newsletter Fall 2011

Thanks to the vision and generosity of donors past and present, more than 1,000 friends, grantees, and supporters joined The San Francisco Foundation to celebrate the winners of the 2011 Community Leadership Awards on September 27 at the Herbst Theatre and the Green Room.

(Photo: CLA awardee Jordan Simmons, Trustee Andrew Ballard, CLA awardee Gonzalo Rucobo, and Vice President for Public Affairs and Communications Sara Ying Rounsaville.)

The evening opened with a performance by awardee John Santos, who entertained the audience with his Sextet’s unique brand of Afro Cuban music. Awards of $10,000 to $20,000 were given to the winners: Gonzalo Rucobo, executive director of Bay Area Peacekeepers, John Santos, musician and cultural activist, Jordan Simmons, artistic director of the East Bay Center for Performing Arts, Bishop Yvette A. Flunder, founder and director of Ark of Refuge, and Ravenswood Family Health Center. The eight Koshland Young Leaders were each awarded $7,000. View more photos from the event, and watch more of the videos we produced honoring our Community Leadership Awardees and Koshland Young Leader Awardees.

(Video: CLA Awardee Ravenswood Family Health Center, presented with the John R. May Award, made for organizational initiatives in response to a significant contemporary problem.)

Meet Mark and Francesca

Mark and Francesca

On Tuesday, October 4, The San Francisco Foundation hosted an Open House event to introduce to the community two new members of our program team: Mark Cloutier, program director of public policy, community health, and civic engagement, and Francesca Vietor, program officer for the environment. More than 160 guests, including grantees and donors, attended to meet Mark and Francesca and hear about their visions for the future of the Bay Area. View more photos from the event.

Mark Cloutier, MPP, MPH, program director for public policy, civic engagement, and community health, leads the Foundation’s activities and initiatives to correct health disparities by expanding access to care, promoting community-based prevention, and advancing health reform. He leads the Foundation’s efforts to address state budget issues and the intersection of the economic development, social, cultural, education, and health arenas effecting low-income communities and communities of color. Most recently he was principal at Sellers Dorsey, where he managed the firm’s population/public health portfolio with a focus on LGBT health. Previously, he was CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, where he led its transformation into a thought leader on evidenced-based strategies to control and end the HIV epidemic.

Francesca Vietor, program officer for the environment, oversees the Foundation’s efforts to improve the environmental health and well-being of the Bay Area’s most vulnerable and impacted communities while protecting and preserving the region’s natural environment. She is also president of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which sets policy for the City and County of San Francisco’s water, wastewater, and municipal power services. Most recently,  was executive director of the Chez Panisse Foundation, where she advanced nutrition education. Francesca was also president of the Urban Forest Council, chairman of the Mayor’s Environmental Transition Team, president of the Environmental Commission for the City and County of San Francisco, and director of the City and County’s Department of the Environment.

Year-End Donations

Now is the time for making your year-end, tax-deductible charitable contributions. The San Francisco Foundation’s Philanthropic Services team is here to help.

• To make repeat grant recommendations, log on to Donor Center. Contact the Philanthropic Services team at 415-733-8500 if you need help.
• Donation deadline: For your charitable contribution to be tax-deductible for 2011, The San Francisco Foundation must receive it by 12:00 p.m. PST on Friday, December 30, 2011. If you are transferring securities or wiring contributions, please notify Joshua Jones, donor services assistant, at 415-733-8587 or jxj@sff.org.
• Grant advising deadlines: Grant recommendations of greater than $50,000 are due by 5:00 p.m. on December 16, 2011. Grant recommendations of $50,000 or less must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on December 23, 2011. For a complete year-end grantmaking schedule, log on to Donor Center.
• Please note that the Foundation will be closed on November 24 and 25, and December 26. We will be available all day on December 30.