Christine Sculati's blog

NPR reports on the massive mobilization for Census 2010

christine — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:16:17 +0000

On Monday I wrote a post about how nonprofit organizations, community leaders and foundations are collaborating to reach hard-to-count populations and ensure that their constituents participate in Census 2010. Several important campaigns are taking place in the Bay Area with the financial support of The San Fransisco Foundation, The California Endowment, Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Foundation, James Irvine Foundation and other local foundations. In addition to grant funds, The San Francisco Foundation and The California Endowment are helping grantees to collaborate, strategize and track their efforts.

Yesterday, National Public Radio reported on how major national foundations have also launched intensive campaigns to reach the hard-to-count including the homeless and those who might be uncomfortable participating based on immigration status. National funders of Census 2010 initiatives include The Open Society Institute, Ford Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

As the NPR story reports, Voto Latino came up with innovative ways that link the popularity of the iPhone with young Latinos and incentives for filling out the census form. They developed an iPhone application for Los Angeles County that gives users the opportunity to win music and possibly a free concert if they learn about the census.

Listen to the NPR story:

Why is the Census important to you?

christine — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:23:59 +0000

It looks like your browser cannot or does not support IFRAMES.

Any day you should receive notice in the mail about the 2010 Census. The official questionnaire will follow the initial announcement one week later in mid-March.

The federal government distributes more than $400 billion a year to state, tribal and local governments based on the decennial Census count. And every ten years some states gain seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and some lose, depending on what the Census numbers say about the relative sizes of their populations. The changing numbers require states to redraw Congressional District boundaries.

Yet to the despair of social justice advocates, populations that are most in need of community services, resources and civil rights enforcement have also been the hardest to count. In the Bay Area a number of foundations have helped to mobilize outreach in historically undercounted populations by awarding grants to grassroots organizations with extensive reach in their communities.

When it comes to filling out box #9 with regards to race, advocacy organizations will also play a critical educational role to show how individuals can “self-select” by choosing more than one race or “some other race” to identify as multi-racial or by national origin. For example, some might choose to enter Afghan, Sikh, Maya or Haitian. This widely-syndicated article by the Associated Press describes how some Caribbean-American leaders are urging their communities to write their nationalities on the line under “some other race” on the forms, along with checking the racial categories they feel identify them best.

While the way race is counted is an important evolution in the Census, it remains to be seen how the Census Bureau will tabulate the write-in selections in 2011.

Articles and Resources on Census 2010

Nonprofits Count!: A project of the Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network, this website provides information, including best practices, on how nonprofit organizations and human services agencies can help produce an accurate count of hard-to-count populations.

Mapping Hard-to-Count Communities: Hard-to-Count (HTC) populations are groups that may have a higher non-response rate on the 2010 Census. With support from The California Endowment, Healthy Cities has generated a portal through which Census stakeholders may locate communities at risk for undercounting in California.

Justice Department Confirms Confidentiality of Census Information – March 5, 2010 article by the Washington Post

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Census History: Counting Hispanics – March 3, 2010 article by the Pew Hispanic Center

Census: Battleground for Money and Justice – February 17, 2010 by Blue Avocado

Most View Census Positively, But Some Have Doubts - February 12, 2010 by The Pew Research Center for the People & The Press

California Complete Count Committee

The Census Project Blog: A collaboration of state and local governments, civil rights and labor groups, housing and child advocates, businesses, professional societies, and research organizations interested in a fair and accurate Census 2010

Brookings Institution Census Information

Grantmaker Initiatives

Census 2010 Grants Will Bring Visibility to Hard-to-Count Populations – The San Francisco Foundation
New York Foundations Push to Get Accurate Census Count – Philanthropy News Digest

Private foundations offer millions to ensure accurate census count – Contra Costa Times

The California Endowment has awarded nearly 11,000 grants across California totaling more than $1.9 billion.

Widgets for civic engagment

christine — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:58:38 +0000

Today I read a new post by blogger Amy Gahran on the News Leadership 3.0 blog of the Knight Digital Media Center (a project of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism). Her article reminded me of how easy it is for changemakers to embed third party widgets and gadgets into their blogs and Web pages to promote civic engagement through volunteering.

In addition to the widgets the author describes in the article – SearchLite by VolunteerMatch, Dosomething.org and Volunteering in America by widgetbox – another widget I recently discovered is made by All for Good, a project of Our Good Works. All for Good makes an open source application that allows you to find and share volunteer activities. I initially discovered the All for Good tool on Serve.gov, a site set up in response to President Obama’s call for Americans to get out and serve in their communities. The volunteer database is driven by All for Good.

According to the All for Good Web site, the project is driven by volunteers from Google, Craigslist Foundation, UCLA, YouTube, FanFeedr and Aha! Ink. As a contributor, Google is hosting the All for Good website and products.

After making a few selections for place, colors and time frame – voila! – here is a dynamic listing of volunteer opportunities available for this week in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bill Moyers interviews Greg Mortenson

christine — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:20:46 +0000

Sitara Star School. Afghanistan. (Courtesy of Central Asia Institute)

In December, I found a tall stack of Greg Mortenson’s new book, Stones into Schools, in a local bookstore after hearing of its release. This book (currently #5 on the New York Times best seller list) picks up where Three Cups of Tea (a book that has sold 3.5 million copies in 41 countries) left off, yet Stones into Schools stands alone and tells a gripping chronicle of what it is like to bring educational opportunities to rural communities in war torn Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is a story that weaves history, landscape and inspirational accounts of bravery and fortitude as Mortenson, his team and villagers work to do what seems, oftentimes, impossible.

Yesterday, PBS stations aired Bill Moyers in conversation with Greg Mortenson. In addition to illuminating the plight of the Central Asia Institute (CAI) and the new book, the interview gives you the chance to hear Mortenson’s views on the deployment of 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan, a decision President Obama announced on December 1, 2009. To this end, one of Moyer’s questions to Mortenson was: “It costs us a million dollars a year to keep one soldier there. That’s $30 billion for the new 30,000 troops. How many schools could you build with that?” Mortenson responded, with “$1 million we could build 30 or 40 schools. And in one generation we could have over 20,000, 30,000 kids educated.”

Not to miss, one highlight of the interview came after Moyers asked Mortenson about the “men who showed up in black.” Mortenson described their goal of building a girl’s school in a Taliban-led region notorious for opposing education of girls. In an effort to gain approval, he invited the province’s elders to one of CAI’s schools. Mortenson described the visit as one where men “armed to the teeth” spent an hour and a half playing on the schools swings and slides. During the show, they flashed a photo of these men swinging while laughing and smiling. Later, after gathering for a village meeting, the elders said: “We want to start this school. Of course we want the playground built first.”

Watch the video on the Bill Moyers Journal Web site and read the transcript here.

Simdara village, where Greg Mortenson and his team unexpectedly found children attending school in a building that formerly served as a pit toilet. Afghanistan. (Courtesy of Central Asia Institute)

Children of Bichik Khan, Buzzai Gumbad, Wakhan Corridor. Afghanistan. (Image courtesy of Central Asia Institute)

Finding the silver lining in 2010: 10 social innovations shaping our communities

christine — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:27:53 +0000

“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.” ~ Louisa May Alcott

People like to be optimistic, even in times of crisis. We need to see opportunity and set goals – from end-of-the-year stories to New Year’s resolutions and to predictions for the year and decade to come. Many of us are ready for a decade that builds on the most promising movements, ideas and innovations of recent years.

SUSTAINABILITY

Green business. Over the last few years of the decade, going “green” became very popular for U.S. consumers and for the business sector, where the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) took off.
Graduate business programs focused on sustainability and the “Green MBA”emerged.
Climate change activism. More people and businesses recognized that anthropogenic climate change is real and will have environmental and economic consequences – and set out to do something about it. Was the tipping point Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth of 2006?

GREEN LIVING

Plastic bag bans. Plastic bags are a significant cause of pollution in the San Francisco Bay. The cities of Fairfax, Palo Alto and San Francisco, have banned plastic bags at larger retailers, as have Berkeley’s Farmers Markets run by the Ecology Center. In Washington D.C. stores selling food or alcohol now charge 5 cents for bags with revenue going to a river protection fund.
Bay-friendly landscaping has become a popular way of reducing water use and planting for the benefit of local wildlife.
Daylighting urban creeks and rain gardens. In the East Bay, creek advocates continue to revitalize creek habitat as opportunities arise. This interesting story also describes innovative ways one city is capturing rain water and reducing pollution of waterways.
Living Roofs. Also called green roofs, this innovation in building construction known to help absorb rainfall, insulate, create wildlife habitat and lower urban air temperatures became a popular attraction at the California Academy of Sciences this past year. Literacy for Environmental Justice is constructing one on top of an EcoCenter in southeast San Francisco.

FOOD

Food systems and economies. Yes! Magazine features an enlightening series on topics from urban farming to protecting local farms.
Take it slow. The Slow Money Alliance is an emerging network of investors, donors, farmers, and activists committed to building local food economies. The Slow Food movement also continues to grow.
Food justice. Some underserved communities now have grocery stores selling healthy foods for the first time such as this one in West Oakland.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

Microenterprise. The development of microenterprise and microfinancing is not new, but with the popularity nonprofit social enterprise organizations like the Acumen Fund and Kiva, this movement is growing stronger internationally and locally. In March 2009, Acumen Fund founder Jacqueline Novogratz published the inspirational book, The Blue Sweater. Locally, several Bay Area foundations have prioritized microenterprise development in their giving portfolios with an emphasis on empowering low income women of color and immigrants.
Social entrepreneurism. This past year, The HUB, co-working centers for social innovators, came to the Bay Area thanks to support from Good Capital, Social Capital Markets Media and a small circle of angel investors. The first location is in Berkeley’s David Brower Center, and a second one is on the horizon for downtown San Francisco.
Green jobs movement. For a good part of the last decade Van Jones successfully made the case for simultaneously solving socioeconomic inequality and environmental problems. In January 2009, The New Yorker published a feature about Jones. The successes of Green for All demonstrate how nonprofits can influence public policy. Another project, the Women’s Economic Security Campaign, published a report specific to creating opportunities for low income women in the green economy.

21ST CENTURY REINVENTIONS

Reinventing regional journalism. At a time when newspapers nationwide and locally are facing a crippling economic crisis and the traditional business models for journalism no longer work, foundations and donors are funding new nonprofit journalism ventures. In 2010, a new journalism organization focused on engaging communities in civic and community news will launch in the Bay Area.
Museums are creating more interactive and visitor-centered exhibits using new media tools and more input from the public. Allowing visitors to experience a sense of place and community will also be important. While some visitors might complain that museum admission has become too expensive in the Bay Area, most museums offer a monthly free day, and memberships are a bargain if you visit regularly.
Libraries in the digital age. In the economic downturn, libraries have seen a rise in patrons. In this San Francisco Chronicle article writer Tim Holt describes libraries as community gathering places “where anyone can read the newspaper, check e-mails, do homework or just sit and enjoy a safe and quiet space.” Like other traditional institutions, the role of libraries is changing in the digital age. The librarian has a new role in teaching lessons about “the reliability — or lack thereof — of information on the Internet.”

GETTING OUTDOORS

Health benefits.The Washington Post reported that doctors are sending patients outdoors for physical and mental benefits.
Parks and community health. The Trust for Public Land President Will Rogers published an article on the Huffington Post, linking urban parks to community health.
Nature deficit disorder. A new report aims to reverse an alarming trend: 30% of teens do not participate in outdoor nature activities.
The importance of play. This past year the Oakland-based Playworks (formerly Sports4kids) launched its first conference, PlayOn dedicated to the importance of play.

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

Environmental stewardship. Removing invasive plants from Spartina to French broom, restoring habitats, and Saving the San Francisco Bay have inspired community service and garnered resources. This year the first environmental education center in southeast San Francisco and the city’s first 100 percent off-grid building will launch.
Open space boom. Advocates for open space, including land trusts and conservation groups are seeing a silver lining in the housing market bust in the Bay Area, in the Sierra foothills and across the country.

LIVABLE COMMUNITIES

More choose bikes for transportation. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition announced on their Web site that “2009 was a year of unprecedented success with a whopping 53% increase in bicycle ridership.”
Pavement to parks and livable streets: San Francisco is leading initiatives to make paved areas into parks and periodically close streets to traffic to encourage recreation.

DIVERSITY

Parks and diversity. From the release of Ken Burns widely viewed documentary series “America’s Best Idea” to new initiatives in the national park system, promoting diversity and connecting diverse youth (future stewards) to outdoor experiences have become priorities.
Immigrant integration. New Routes to Community Health publishes illuminating multimedia stories and resources about the lives of immigrants in the United States. Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees provides resources for funders and others working to address the challenges facing newcomers and local communities, as well as resources for Census 2010.

SOCIAL CHANGE

Education reform. Schools and nonprofit educational programs are calling for closing the achievement gap. Federal “Race to the Top” grant applications are due January 19 and awards will go to States that are “leading the way with ambitious yet achievable plans for implementing coherent, compelling, and comprehensive education reform.” What is California doing?
Health reform. In late December when the Senate passed its version of health care reform, social media devoted more attention to the subject than it had at any time this year according to the Pew Research Center.
Advancing equal rights. When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered City Hall to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples soon after taking office in 2004, gay marriage and rights received national attention. While there have been many setbacks along the way, considerable progress has been made. 2010 will also mark the first time the U.S. Census will count same-sex couples.

Of course, the list goes on. Feel free to send in additional innovation highlights via comments.

My next blog post will be about Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson, author of the best selling Three Cups of Tea.

Social media for nonprofits: lessons learned

christine — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:22:57 +0000

Some nonprofit organizations that were early adopters of social media and others confused by the myriad options may not be using these tools to the best of their advantage.

Using Facebook as an example, some nonprofits set up Facebook “Groups” instead of fan “Pages,” the former of which might be limiting for those that want to create more visibility through the viral power of the tool. Other nonprofits set up only a Causes page to invite donations. The most problematic example relates to those groups that set up their organizations as individual people for you to “friend” rather than “fan” (I believe Facebook made changes in sign up to prevent this occurrence from continuing).

Mission-minded posts an informative blog post on this subject, which also links to a Wall Street Journal blog article on the benefits of setting up a Facebook fan page (“Page”) for your nonprofit organization instead of a group. The WSJ story highlights advice from Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg, who pointed out mistakes made by nonprofits at a social media conference in New York this past summer. Quoting the article: “Relying on groups, which have been available longer, is one of the biggest mistakes nonprofits make.”

To learn more from the experiments of others and the latest best practices in social media, there are many resources available to nonprofits. In fact, I just got an email from my friend and colleague, Kivi Leroux Miller, about a series of webinars she will host over the next month – from writing for social media to integrating your Web site, email newsletter and social media sites.

Other sources are listed in this blog post: The Explosion of Social Networking

Is your nonprofit newsworthy?

christine — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:59:49 +0000

If you have not discovered the Live Chats with The Chronicle of Philanthropy, you will not want to miss checking out some of their informative expert-led discussions on many subjects of interest to nonprofits – from fundraising and marketing to social media and media outreach.

The next topic is: Getting Good News Coverage: How to Persuade Journalists to Cover Your Cause on December 1, 9 a.m. Pacific Time.

For many nonprofits, a good way to get the attention of prospective donors, volunteers, public officials, clients and constituents is by building visibility through the media.

The moderator, Peter Panepento, and experts plan to cover:

How to get the attention of journalists in a competitive landscape
The most effective pitches
The most common errors nonprofit groups make when they approach reporters and editors
How to build productive relationships with reporters and editors

For the chats you can submit your questions in advance or follow along on with the conversation.

The Chronicle also maintains transcripts of past discussions. A few of my favorites include:

Creating Effective Marketing Messages with Nancy E. Schwartz, author of the Getting Attention blog
The Philosophy of Giving with Karen Ansara, co-founder of The Ansara Family Fund, a donor-advised fund at the Boston Foundation, and Anne Ellinger, co-director of Bolder Giving
Building Meaningful Alliances With Other Nonprofit Groups with Clara Miller and Thomas A. McLaughlin of the Nonprofit Finance Fund and Elizabeth Boone, artistic and executive director of Miami Light Project
Foundation Giving: What Might the Future Hold? with Bradford K. Smith, president of the Foundation Center
Shaking Up Journalism and Philanthropy with Alberto Ibargüen, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
What’s the Payoff? How Charities Can Figure Out How Much Time and Money to Invest in Social Networking with Beth Kanter, social media guru

For the benefit and enjoyment of the people

christine — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:57:42 +0000

At the age of three, I could hardly comprehend the vastness of the Grand Canyon. It did not look anything like my home in Michigan.

With my family I visited several national parks from the Great Smoky Mountains to Big Bend and Sequoia/Kings Canyon. Like many tourists, we snapped photos of the most iconic vistas, historic features or odd incongruous attractions – like the tunnel log in Sequoia National Park.

It wasn’t until years later, when I clumsily hoisted on an external frame overstuffed backpack and ventured off into the Yosemite National Park wilderness with a close friend, that I started to really appreciate wild places. As we hiked deeper into the woods and climbed in elevation, the low-pitched hoots of blue grouse frequently startled us. At the time, we had no idea what animal was making this mysterious call.

After that trip, I was starting to get it – the feeling of “transcendence” often referred to in Ken Burns’ new film “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.” Naturally, the hero in the first episodes is John Muir (voice of Lee Stetson), who reached Yosemite the first time by walking 300 miles from the Bay Area. The final three in the series will air on PBS stations across the country through Friday. If you missed the previous episodes, don’t despair. You can view them for a limited time on the PBS Web site or buy the DVDs.

Just as this epic series about the national parks airs this week, last week the newly formed National Parks Second Century Commission released an extensive report on the condition of our national parks and a vision for the next century. With that, the San Francisco Chronicle published a story about the growing concern over youth not having access to or an interest in nature.

Then, with all this attention on our national parks, on Monday the New York Times ran an editorial on Ken Burns’ new documentary, making the case that the “best idea needs to be protected and celebrated.”

I don’t know about you, but I am getting the sense that there is an urgency around engaging more Americans to experience wild places and connect to our shared national heritage.

Serving as a reminder of the democratic principles of parks, the words of President Theodore Roosevelt are carved in an archway entrance to Yellowstone National Park and read, “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

If you are in the Bay Area, KQED’s QUEST tells the story of the national park right here in our “backyards”.

QUEST on KQED Public Media.

How far would you swim to save the bay?

christine — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:31:49 +0000

Ever since I wrote an article on the native oysters of San Francisco Bay, I have been awed by the complexities of our estuary’s underwater ecosystems. Despite its murky appearance, the San Francisco Bay supports a diversity of wildlife — from oysters clinging to pier pilings to bottom dwelling leopard sharks.

This summer I got a little closer to the Bay’s web of life (notably jellyfish, harbor seals and brown pelicans) by training to swim from Alcatraz island to Aquatic Park in San Francisco with a close friend. Before setting this goal, the idea of “open water swimming” had not even occurred to me.

I discovered the Bay Area is full of open water swimming enthusiasts who venture out into the Bay’s cold and choppy waters routinely. Many of them are concerned about the health of the Bay – including seven brave swimmers who plan to Relay for the Bay, swimming over 100 miles, from Sacramento to San Francisco, beginning tomorrow. They will swim 40 nonstop hours from September 18 to September 20, 2009.

The swimmers are members of the San Francisco-based Dolphin Club who want to raise awareness and funding for Baykeeper’s work to protect San Francisco Bay from pollution. The 100+ mile swim route begins in the Sacramento River.

How to Explore San Francisco Bay

Swim in It: Swim-Art organizes evening group swims at Aquatic Park (Monday evenings) and Treasure Island (biweekly Wednesdays) and expedition swims, including an Alcatraz swim.
Learn from Bay Nature Magazine and The Bay Institute
Volunteer with Save the Bay or The Watershed Project (The 25th Anniversary of the California Coastal Cleanup Day is this Saturday)
Visit Aquarium of the Bay
Join a club, team or association. Bay Access (advocates for a Bay water trail) provides a comprehensive list from kayaking and kite sailing to dragon boating.

The San Francisco Foundation to host 2009 Community Leadership Awards

christine — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:58:56 +0000

Each year the San Francisco Foundation awards $10,000 to individual leaders and $20,000 awards to organizations to showcase individuals and organizations that take outstanding initiative to create community impact and inspire others to follow their lead in service.

This year’s award celebration will be next Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at the Herbst Theatre. The 2009 Community Leadership Award Winners are Mary Lou Breslin, co-founder of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund; Michael Franti, artist, activist, founder of Spearhead; Eugene Rodriguez, founder of Los Cenzontles Mexican Cultural Arts Center; Children’s Book Press, the first independent, nonprofit publisher of bilingual, multicultural books and stories for children; and National Center for Lesbian Rights. The Foundation will also present the Koshland Young Leader Awards to recognize eight high school students serving as leaders in their communities.

Last year’s award winners included Van Jones, co-founder and Board Member of the Ella Baker Center; Malcolm Margolin, Writer, Publisher, and Founder of Heyday Books; Elizabeth “Betita” Martinez, Organizer, Educator, Writer; and Asian Women’s Shelter.

America’s Best Idea: Diversity and our national parks

christine — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:08:10 +0000

Wallace Stegner called our national parks “America’s Best Idea.” Based on that premise, award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns spent six years creating a documentary series that portrays our national parks as uniquely American, a symbol of democracy and the “most special places in the nation” that should be preserved for everyone. A diversity of Americans including Asian Americans, Latinos and African Americans have all played important roles in the protection and stewardship of our national parks, yet people of color have been visibly absent from scenic vistas and the backcountry trails. According to a recent visitor study by Yosemite National Park, 88% of park visitors were White; 10% were Asian; 3% were American Indian or Alaska Native and only 1% were Black or African American. By ethnicity, 16% of visitors were Hispanic/Latino.

Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite

More and more, parks and partnering nonprofits are hosting field seminars that explore the lesser-known history of people of color in the national parks. In addition to being a social equity issue, park leaders are realizing that our national parks need an informed, diverse and supportive constituency to ensure the long-term stewardship of these treasures.

In Burns’ “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” scheduled to air on PBS this September, one of the leading storytellers is African American Yosemite Park Ranger Shelton Johnson, who shares these ideals: “There is nothing more democratic than a national park. You are going into a wonderland. You are going into a different world… So why should only one part of the population have that sense of wonder and that experience of discovery? Why can’t African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and everybody have that experience? Because that is part of the experience of being an American, it belongs to everyone.”

In the documentary, Burns reveals “untold stories” of our national parks and the contributions by people of color in their conservation and preservation. Recently called “a rising star” by one reporter, Johnson is profiled in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. Johnson grew up in Detroit, where the national parks seemed like unreachable places. Four years ago, co-producers of the new documentary, WETA and Florentine Films, received support from the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund to launch the “Untold Stories project,” in which Johnson brings to light the story of the Buffalo Soldiers and the role of African Americans early in the history of the national parks. The purpose of the project is to engage new and traditionally underserved audiences in the “educational richness of the national parks.”

The film series weaves together stories of people transformed and inspired by the parks today, like Johnson, as well as historical accounts. Chiura Obata, a Japanese artist who moved from Tokyo to San Francisco in 1903, also gained inspiration from Yosemite and the High Sierra. Obata’s studio in Berkeley was recently named a historic landmark. Through his art he also promoted cross-cultural understanding and offered new perspectives on nature, including many Yosemite landmarks. His 1930 color wood block prints titled, “Evening Glow of Yosemite Waterfall;” “Lake Basin in High Sierra” and “Evening Glow of Mono Lake and Before Thunderstorm, Tuolumne Meadows;” are among my favorite works of Yosemite landscapes.

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea is a six-episode series directed by Ken Burns and written and co-produced by Dayton Duncan. You can view film clips on the PBS Web site and also share a story of your own experiences in the national parks. The film series will air on PBS beginning September 27, 2009.

Collective wisdom: lessons for life and business from the mountains

christine — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:59:10 +0000

As an enthusiast for mountain environments and the physical and mental preparation required to reach the most sublime places in the world, I eagerly attended an event titled,“Women on Top: Lessons for Life and Business from the Mountains,” last Thursday evening in downtown San Francisco. The inspirational talk and slide presentation featured mountaineer and businesswoman Emilie Cortes.

The San Francisco Chapter of Young Women Social Entrepreneurs (YWSE) hosted the occasion with co-sponsors Net Impact (Silicon Valley and San Francisco chapters), Future Women Leaders, and Charles Schwab & The Women’s Interactive Network. Emilie’s presentation was the first in YWSE’s new series called, “Life Lessons I Learned While Having Fun.”

Whether it be mountain climbing or any other rewarding activity, Emilie made a good case for pushing your limits to unleash your potential and do what you love to do. She also answered the important question of: What can you do to be ready for the unexpected tests of your will and composure, whether in a business environment or stranded for the night at 13,000 feet?

Although conference rooms in urban skyscrapers do not have a lot in common with glacier-covered mountains, Emilie, a sales executive for Axioma Inc., recognizes parallel themes while navigating both worlds, especially for women: communication, goal-setting, preparation and tackling fear.

It turns out that Emilie’s business skills helped her build a plan to become a successful high altitude mountain climber: talk to experts, follow instructions and get training. She said that she was never known to be athletic and was not in shape when she started five years ago. But since then she has reached the summits of several technical peaks, from California’s Sierra Nevada to volcanoes in Ecuador, and she participated in a fundraiser called “Climb to Fight Breast Cancer.”

Following Emilie’s inspirational presentation, a collective wisdom emerged:

Break the habit of limiting yourself. Limitations are oftentimes internal, not external.
Prepare and persevere. Take one step at a time. Be methodical in a way that works for you. Respect your choices.
Set ambitious but achievable goals. Some goals seem very far away, but if you break them down into milestones, the goal begins to feel much more attainable.
Balance fear and risk and know when to be cautious. Learn how to breathe. Calm your inner voice. Learn that you can handle more than you previously thought.
Recognize the importance of communication and leadership skills. Know yourself and communicate your real or perceived limitations. Don’t blame. Push through. You can have the same positive impact on others. Help them get to the next step.
Find new ways to respond when being judged in a “man’s world.” Use humor. Be honest about the weight you are carrying, and recognize the significance of your contributions to a team.

YWSE-SF posted a version of this article with personal commentary here: YWSE’s Take on… Adventure

Photos of July 23, 2009 YWSE-SF Event by Jaqueline del Castillo

More Inspiration:

Notable Women in Yosemite’s History – Yosemite National Park Web site. Includes a description of Enid Michael, an early Yosemite climber and naturalist.
Historic 1929 photograph of climbing pioneer Miriam O’Brien Underhill
Junko Tabei, a Japanese mountain-climber, who became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 16, 1975
Web site for Arlene Blum, who led 13 women to make the first American ascent of Annapurna I (26,500 feet) in Nepal, the 10th highest peak in the world.
Lynn Hill, known for making the first free ascent of the Nose Route on Yosemite’s El Capitan.

Two books, now out of print, are also great resources: “Leading Out: Women Climbers Reaching for the Top,” edited by Rachel da Silva and “Women Climbing: 200 Years of Achievement,” by Bill Birkett and Bill Peascod. I am grateful to my friends Karen and Karla, who gifted these to me ten years ago.

Please comment with additional suggestions

Obama’s pledge for social innovation

christine — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:55:07 +0000

On June 30, President Obama announced his pledge to support social innovation from the “bottom up.” As a community organizer in Chicago, he learned that the some of the best solutions exist at the grassroots level.

The president added that we need to bring the most promising community-based solutions to scale by expanding successful programs and developing other high potential solutions with a strong emphasis on measuring results and impact. “People don’t need somebody out in Washington to tell them how to solve their problems, especially when the best solutions are often right there in their own neighborhoods, just waiting to be discovered,” said Obama.

As reported earlier this year by The Chronicle on Philanthropy, the White House is looking for “new ideas” and “new models” but innovation does not necessarily imply new nonprofits or programs. “It’s about impact and effectiveness,” said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. In Tuesday’s announcement, Obama said that he will be asking Barnes to travel across the country to “discover and evaluate the very best programs in our communities.”

The $50-million fund for social innovation is part of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. The funds were authorized by the national service law in April 2009, but the funds still need approval by Congress in the fiscal year 2010 budget.

More coverage:

Update on Philanthropy This Week (audio)
Posted: Tue, 14 Jul 2009
Social Innovation Fund and Spending Down Your Endowment

Corporation for National & Community Service
Posted: July 2009
FAQ – Social Innovation Fund – Shows how and when to apply (PDF)

Fundraising: It’s all about relationships

christine — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:02:52 +0000

Last Friday I attended “Relationship Building: What We Can Learn from Alumni Groups.” Co-sponsored by Development Executives Roundtable (DER) and the Foundation Center in San Francisco, three panelists from Bay Area educational institutions talked about how they cultivated longtime donors through relationship building with program alumni. The insights they shared could apply to many nonprofits seeking to build a stronger funding base and support, especially those with alumni groups or memberships.

Moderated by Kelli Nakayama, a DER board member and grants manager for Children’s Hospital and Research Center Foundation, the panelists represented a diversity of Bay Area organizations:

Sue Merrill, Annual Giving Manager, University of California San Francisco (UCSF) - a large public educational and research institution
June Thompson, Executive Director of California Association of Student Councils (CASC) – a student-led nonprofit for youth leadership training with a staff of two
Patricia Cavagnaro, Director of Development, Immaculate Conception Academy – a 126-year old Catholic high school for girls in the Mission District of San Francisco

10 Tips for Building Relationships

Give program alumni, members and other supporters (volunteers, donors) multiple ways to get together because they will want to meet each other and see each other.
Send a regular e-newsletter and ask your constituents what articles they want.
Tell potential donors where their dollars will go. What will their contributions support? Be specific.
Ask beneficiaries of your programs or services to write thank you letters to donors, telling them how their support made a difference in their lives
Give beneficiaries multiple ways to “give back.” If you maintain relationships with beneficiaries, such as program alumni, oftentimes they will want to give back in the future.
Acknowledge donors to thank them for their generosity. Donor walls are a great way to do that. You can also think of creative ways to build and expand the wall over time (Immaculate Conception Academy came up with an innovative and creative solution).
Explore social media as part of your communications strategy, especially if you are building connections among supporters.
Manage donor/volunteer/alumni information effectively with constituent databases (Idealware article).
Use tools to capture best practices and manage institutional knowledge, especially if your organization relies on a large number of volunteers, peer-to-peer training or high turnover. CASC set up a wiki to support their elaborate transition process for volunteers. For help with wikis, Idealware published a how-to article called “Using Wikis for Internal Documentation.”
Thank and acknowledge. Thank and acknowledge.

Building and funding programs to promote play

christine — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:13:12 +0000

Youth development advocates nationwide have been building a movement to prioritize play and outdoor time for children and youth – through recess, sports and adventures in nature. Backing them up are new research studies from the fields of pediatrics and youth development, linking the influences that regular play and outdoor learning time have on success in school and life.

This afternoon the inaugural Sports4Kids Play On conference kicks off three days of keynotes and sessions dedicated to the topic of play – its multiple benefits and how to build programs to make a difference in our schools and communities. The conference runs May 18 – 20 at San Francisco’s Mission Bay Conference center. This conference comes at a time when many children and youth-oriented nonprofits are developing community programs that get kids outside to play in safe, fun, and supportive environments while learning, connecting and being physically active.

Finding funding and understanding philanthropic priorities is key to making outdoor and sports-based programs a success, so I am looking forward to today’s afternoon session featuring speakers from health-driven foundations including the The California Endowment, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Kaiser Permanente followed by a discussion with Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play and often called one of the country’s premiere experts on play behavior.