East Bay Community Foundation :: Your local community foundation

Fundraising Ideas

Globe Newspapers, June 03, 2009 | Part one of two

By Mel and Pearl Shaw

The East Bay Community Foundation has been bringing together philanthropists and nonprofit organizations since 1928. We thought you might like to know a bit more about the foundation, so we posed some questions to the organization, on your behalf.

What is the mission and vision of the East Bay Community Foundation?

“Our mission is to be the organization of choice for philanthropy in the East Bay through leadership in leveraging all assets in our communities to speed the transformation of low-income, disadvantaged, impoverished, underserved and underrepresented people.

“Our vision is to broker solutions to the East Bay’s most pressing problems, achieving measurable transformation or significant change in our communities. We strive to be a vital resource of intelligence on the East Bay; to provide our own leadership for change and to help develop leadership capabilities among organizations working for similar change; to connect the needs of the East Bay to the interests and resources of our donors, our supporters and of organizations working for change in our region; and to ensure our donors and supporters represent the diverse communities of the East Bay.”

How is the current economic climate impacting the foundation, its fundraising and grant making?

“It provides a temporary, but serious, challenge to all three. As a result of difficult economic times, everyone is tightening belts. We have not decreased our grant making targets and we hope we aren’t compelled to in the future. This is a time for people and organizations to step up, not step back.”

What percentage of your donors are people of color?

“Many communities of color have a long heritage of charitable giving. And we know from data that people of color, women and younger people are involved in philanthropy in increasing numbers. However, we don’t collect data on the ethnicity of our donors.”

What percentage of Foundation grants go to organizations that serve communities of color?

“One hundred percent of the grants over which we have complete discretion serve communities of color.”

What advice do you have for staff and board members of local nonprofits?

“During these difficult times, find a local nonprofit that has the same mission as you do or has a very similar one. Partner with them or if necessary consider even merging with them. This can be a way to reduce expenses and create potentially more effective service delivery systems. That’s a tough message, but many nonprofits are facing unprecedented revenue shortfalls. By combining forces with other organizations, many may be able to sustain critical services in our communities.”

Learn more in part two this series — to be published June 17 — or visit the East Bay Community Foundation online at www.ebcf.org.

Globe Newspapers, June 17, 2009 | Part two of two

By Mel and Pearl Shaw

What is the foundation’s public/private partnership program?

“Based on the reality that neither government, business, the nonprofit sector nor the philanthropic sector alone possesses the resources to resolve our most pressing challenges, our partnership program is dedicated to forming partnerships that pool resources from different sectors to develop solutions to specific problems. Specifically, we look to partner with the private and public sectors.

“To make significant change, we need to go beyond the power of one. We need the power of many.”

Does this initiative provide funding for local nonprofits?

“Funding for local nonprofits that focus on our two priority issues — advancing economic opportunities for adults and families in need and ensuring very young children are successful in the education system — comes primarily from our grantmaking program rather than from our partnerships program.”

What is an example of a public/private partnership that has exceeded the foundation’s expectations?

“We are developing a program aimed at purchasing foreclosed homes in Richmond — rehabilitating them and offering them to first-time home buyers who are low-to-moderate income families, thereby reducing neighborhood blight and creating financial assets for families. If that program comes to fruition and if we are able to implement it at a significant level of scale, it will exceed our expectations.”

How does this program impact communities of color in the East Bay?

“The foundation is focusing on two issues: advancing economic opportunity for adults and families in need and ensuring very young children succeed in the education system so they will have economic opportunity when they become adults. These issues disproportionately affect communities of color.

“Because of that disproportionate impact, these two issues we focus on are directly aimed at communities of color in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The public and private partnerships program is currently working primarily on the issue of economic opportunities and development in communities with high need for job creation, job training and asset-building strategies. The communities we work in through these efforts are primarily communities of color.”

Learn more by visiting the East Bay Community Foundation online at www.ebcf.org.

Mel and Pearl Shaw are the principals of Saad & Shaw – Comprehensive Fund Development Services and the authors of How to Solicit a Gift: Turning Prospects into Donors, available at www.saadandshaw.com or by calling (510) 834-4310. Saad & Shaw provides clients with a unique brand of fundraising that combines marketing with fundraising fundamentals. Clients include hospitals, colleges and nonprofit organizations.