All Hands on Deck

My parents’ generation has rightly been called the Greatest Generation. They overcame the Great Depression, defeated Hitler, and produced a middle class that was larger and more stable than any the world had ever known. They earned the title not only for their accomplishments but also for their attitude. For my parents, giving of themselves for family, community, and country wasn’t a noble act; it was simply an expectation of what everyone should do. It came naturally to them as immigrants in this land they loved. More »

Superman, Alive and Well

"One of the biggest disappointments of my young life growing up in the South Bronx was realizing there is no Superman. No one was coming," described Geoff Canada, the President and CEO of Harlem Children's Zone. But few who heard Mr. Canada speak about the work of the Zone project which aims to transform a 100-block chunk of central Harlem to the benefit of the young people who live there could doubt that there is a Superman at work, at least in New York City. More »

All Hands on Deck

My parents’ generation has rightly been called the Greatest Generation. They overcame the Great Depression, defeated Hitler, and produced a middle class that was larger and more stable than any the world had ever known. They earned the title not only for their accomplishments but also for their attitude. For my parents, giving of themselves for family, community, and country wasn’t a noble act; it was simply an expectation of what everyone should do. It came naturally to them as immigrants in this land they loved.

I was born near the end of World War II, in a coal-mining area in western Pennsylvania. In my family and millions of others, either you enlisted in the Armed Services or you manned (and womanned) jobs in the mines and factories to support the war effort. Uncle Sam needed us. We answered the call.

A year after I was born, my family moved to Cleveland. When the coal industry imploded in the 1950s, our modest home became a boarding house for relatives who lost their jobs in the mines back in Pennsylvania. My cousins, all much older than I, would kiss their wives and children goodbye every Sunday night and drive to Cleveland for the week to work factory jobs, where they were housed and fed by my mom.

Today, America and its families are being tested again. Our young men and women in uniform are fighting two wars. Three of America’s largest industries are imploding. Unemployment is on the rise, expected to get much more severe. Families are losing their homes at record rates.

Every American is aware of the challenges we face, but that all-hands-on-deck, Rosie-the-Riveter attitude that I remember from family folklore is strangely absent. I sense that Barack Obama understands this at a deep, personal level and next month will use the bully pulpit to call us to service as eloquently as John Kennedy once did.

But we have no right to expect miracles from President Obama. As Independent Sector President and CEO Diana Aviv stated in her moving keynote address last month at IS’s annual conference, “The election of a very talented new leader will not, by itself, be enough…to produce the change we all need.” I fully agree.

We in the charitable community have a critical role to play. The following are some modest suggestions to illustrate that there’s no shortage of ways our sector can help the country summon a renewed sense of common purpose.

First, we can help reduce the rancor in this deeply divided nation; we can create the conditions in which rigorous, respectful debate can flourish and those with differences can work together effectively. For example:

• Foundations can put money on the table to foster greater collaboration between public policy organizations that don’t often see eye to eye, such as Brookings and the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for American Progress and the Manhattan Institute. These institutions can do more to work together to establish the basic facts upon which moderates from both parties can act.
• Foundations and nonprofit organizations can work together to strengthen independent, nonpartisan reporting. Throughout American history, there has always been a place for partisan pamphleteering (what we now read in blogs, hear on talk radio, and watch on shouting-head cable shows). But the quality of our national dialogue will suffer greatly if high-quality, high-standards journalism fades away because it simply can’t compete financially with shoot-from-the-hip commentary. In the online and offline world, we need neutral arbiters—not just partisan rants that harden ideological positions. One good example for us to follow is the nonprofit, independent newsroom ProPublica, founded by Herb and Marion Sandler and other donors. ProPublica produces quality investigative journalism and shares it with the public at no charge.

Second, we can promote greater transparency about the way our political leaders make policy decisions and encourage governance that is not so easily perverted by narrow special interests. For example:

• On those matters most important to America, we need to do more to monitor and report on what is being proposed in legislation, executive orders, and agency regulations. We need to make it easy for any American to get evaluations, in plain English, of these proposals. With the web tools now available, every American should have the ability to track where and how special-interest lobbyists are trying to influence this process using last-minute riders and other such political chicanery.
• We can fund the development of creative new approaches to campaign finance reform, at a moment when Republicans may be more willing than ever before to play a constructive role in slowing the flood of money in politics. As someone who comes from the world of business, I’ve never understood why Congress shouldn’t live under the common-sense conflict-of-interest rules that operate in America’s boardrooms: If a legislator has received funding from a special interest (either as an officeholder or candidate), then he or she should recuse him- or herself from voting on legislation that affects that interest. Perhaps it’s naïve to think a rule like that could ever pass the Congress. But if it did, imagine how quickly corporate donations would dry up.

Third, we can help national leaders mobilize Americans to contribute in all the ways they can—whether it’s picking up a hammer on a few Saturdays to barn-raise a home with Habitat for Humanity, joining the board of a local nonprofit organization, committing a year to strengthening community through AmeriCorps, participating in the PTA, or quietly helping a neighbor in need. For example:

• We can help repurpose the powerful online community-organizing model that helped Barack Obama win the presidency. The way to engage people is to ask them for their help in ways that align well with their location, availability, interests, and abilities; lower the logistical barriers to participation; and then make them feel valued when they do. Better online tools can help with all of these vital steps.
• We can throw our support behind the Serve America Act, introduced this past fall by the political odd couple of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). The legislation, which President-elect Obama co-sponsored, would greatly expand opportunities for people to serve at every stage of life and use service as a force for meeting important national challenges.
• We can invest funds and know-how to build nonprofits’ and government agencies’ capacity to make good use of an influx of hopeful, caring volunteers—and to plan and work together to engage volunteers. For volunteers to stay engaged, they need to have good, significant volunteer experiences, ones that produce meaningful change. Too often, we turn people off not long after they show up.
• We can help restore the American social compact. Diana Aviv is truly inspiring on this subject. “The great national re-imagining that is poised to take place must draw a good part of its moral and intellectual inspiration from the nonprofit community,” she said in her IS keynote. “Government and business have recognized that our commitment to the greater good over individual gain is our enduring virtue; this puts us in a unique position to speak up now.” This social compact is more needed now than ever before.

We know this work won’t be easy, but we see signs every day that the spirit of shared responsibility is alive and well. “I’m not super-heroic,” 50-year-old Paul Prunty recently told a Los Angeles Times reporter after racing to the Anaheim Hills to help families devastated by wildfires. “But I know it’s not up to anybody else to make the world a better place; it’s up to me.”

I heard a similar sentiment in a meeting I recently attended on the global financial crisis. A top executive from Europe stated what is obvious to many around the world but too often not remembered right here on our own shores. “You Americans look to yourselves to solve your problems,” he said. “You’ve shown over the years that you can come together to help each other, with a resiliency to succeed as a nation.”

The drive to give of ourselves runs deep—in our many faith traditions, our families’ values, and our national history. I know we have it in us to be the next Great Generation. Now is our chance.

- Mario Morino

Superman, Alive and Well

Mario Morino, Carol Thompson Cole, Geoff Canada, and
Jack Davies welcomed guests to the discussion.
(Photo by Anne Lord, Anne Lord Photography)

"One of the biggest disappointments of my young life growing up in the South Bronx was realizing there is no Superman. No one was coming," described Geoff Canada, the President and CEO of Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) . But few who heard Mr. Canada speak about the work of the Zone project which aims to transform a 100-block chunk of central Harlem to the benefit of the young people who live there could doubt that there is a Superman at work, at least in New York City.

VPP investors, board members, and friends had that privilege when they participated in a very special dialogue between Mr. Canada and Mario Morino, Chairman of VPP, on November 5. The conversation ranged from the potential impact of the election on the future of education and social change in America to HCZ's experience with high-engagement philanthropy. "This is the time to double down on your investments," he told the group when discussing the economic downturn. If new approaches like his are not given the time and support to demonstrate their potential and success, he is afraid we will be reinventing the wheel all over again in the future. "These communities are the most impacted—the first to feel the hit and the last to recover."

"Geoff Canada is one of the most innovative thinkers in the country today. More relevant, Geoff is a doer who ‘walks the walk,’ delivering in a big way for those he seeks to serve. We at VPP are proud to be able to bring leaders of Geoff's caliber and relevance to speak to our investors in small intimate gatherings," Mario said.

VPP Strategy Session, “Demographics in the National Capital Region: Navigating Change in Turbulent Times”

On November 19 , more than 40 Investors, board members, and stakeholders gathered for a special strategy session on the changing demographics in the region. The event opened with an update from the Brookings Institute on the demographics shaping the National Capital Region and transitioned to a panel discussion on the implications of the change as it relates to business, government, and nonprofit responses.

Alice Rivlin, Economic Studies Director of Greater Washington Research at Brookings Institution, and Audrey Singer, a Senior Fellow of the Metropolitan Policy Program, provided an in-depth roadmap for understanding the demographic and socioeconomic composition of the region, particularly in regard to children and youth. Rivlin concluded that the region is generally prosperous economically and that the “present [national] uncertainty affects us less than in other areas.” Rivlin further explained that the prosperity is not shared by all groups, citing greater child poverty and more working poor in DC and Prince George’s County as examples.

Singer emphasized the pace of change in the region’s diverse immigrant population. “DC only recently emerged as an immigration gateway…and immigrants come from a very diverse group of origin countries resulting in a population diverse in origin, ethnicities, and religions,” she said. She then highlighted that local policy, although uniform, may impact specific immigrant groups very differently.

Northern Virginia Community College President Bob Templin moderated a panel composed of Jim Dinegar, President and CEO, Washington Board of Trade; Verdia Haywood, Deputy County Executive for Human Services, Fairfax County; and Gustavo Torres, Executive Director, Casa de Maryland. The participants discussed challenges in the current regional economy and opportunities for solutions. In particular, the panel focused on such issues as workforce development; local government and nonprofit response to the low-income population, particularly the foreign born; and capitalizing on economic opportunities in the region.

When asked if there were potential opportunities for economic solutions, the participants positively concluded that solutions exist. For instance, Rivlin stated that opportunities targeting “cooperation across counties” is a strategy with high potential return for the region.

VPP President and CEO Carol Thompson Cole remarked, “This session was a very good start to an effort for us to learn more and to share that knowledge with others. We intend to continue exploring these issues in a number of ways, including releasing a report based on the Brookings research early in 2009. We also hope to open up a broader dialogue about the implications of the changing demographics, the gaps in service, and potential responses by the nonprofit and philanthropic communities with a major event in the spring, so stay turned.”

Board Changes

CentroNía Adds Board Members
Thanks to Julia Howell-Barros, Chief Development Officer, for this update.

Three new members have joined CentroNía’s Board of Directors.

Dr. Ronald Goodman, a partner in Foley Hoag’s Washington office, concentrates his practice in international arbitration and alternative dispute resolution, with a focus on commercial, investor-state, project, energy, and construction matters. Formerly co-chair of Winston & Strawn’s international arbitration practice, Goodman represents foreign government and corporate clients in international arbitration and alternative dispute resolution proceedings before international tribunals, courts, and commissions. He also advises governments with respect to law reform, restructuring, treaties, privatization, and project finance matters.

Ms. Marie Holleran-Rivera, an attorney, has recently returned to the Washington, DC, area after working for the US Department of Energy in Beijing, China. Holleran-Rivera served on CentroNía’s Board for several terms prior to her four-year departure to China where her husband was part of the architectural team that designed the US Embassy.

Mr. Mel Hardy is Senior Tax Consultant with the Internal Revenue Service in the Stakeholders/Partnership/Education/Communication and Wage & Investment Division. He is responsible for providing expert tax law advice and assistance through the development and implementation of marketing programs, tax products, and consulting services to educate and assist taxpayers, tax practitioners, Certified Public Accountants, business owners, attorneys, stakeholders, and partners using general accounting principles and practices and federal tax law. He also provides legal analysis and tax law expertise for The Division Director on several mission-critical initiatives mandated by the IRS Commissioner to improve quality and fairness to taxpayers.

Announcements of Note

AALEAD Mentors Without Borders
Thanks to Rick Chen, Manager of Development and Communications, for this update.

Asian American LEAD (AALEAD) has always reached out to its local community to bring awareness about the Asian American youth it serves. Recently, however, AALEAD’s Mentoring Program was presented with a unique opportunity to network and advise another nonprofit organization whose services also benefit underprivileged Asian youth—except their location is nearly 10,000 miles away.

Through the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, three representatives from Yayasan Mendaki, a community organization in Singapore, visited and consulted with AALEAD regarding their relatively new mentoring program. Yayasan Mendaki, with a mission of the advancement of the underprivileged Malay-Muslim community, had heard of AALEAD’s work and specifically requested a meeting during their visit to Washington, DC. In a Q&A session, AALEAD presented ways to effectively train volunteer mentors and student mentees, provided program materials, and explained the importance of communicating the personal goals and expectations between the volunteer and student.

AALEAD staff also benefited from the session through Yayasan Mendaki’s suggestion of using Internet resources and technology to facilitate the program. As a result of this cross-cultural interaction, AALEAD was able to assist in helping low-income Asians on an international level and understand how similar the challenges are, no matter the distance.

College Summit-NCR Hosts Peer Leader Conferences to Drive College-Going Culture
Thanks to Vanessa Lillie, PR and Communications Manager, for this update.

College Summit-National Capital Region (NCR) has started the 2008-2009 school year by serving a record 3,000 seniors in 22 high schools in the District, Prince George's County, Arlington, Alexandria, and Baltimore City. As a part of these efforts, NCR held two Peer Leader Conferences on October 20 and 21. The conferences were hosted on the campuses of NCR community partners, Prince George's Community College and Trinity University. The goal of the conferences was to jumpstart Peer Leadership programs at each school and train Peer Leaders and educators on leadership styles, fundraising, networking, community mobilization, and marketing. Each school left the conference with a plan for how their Peer Leaders will drive the college-going culture from the bottom up in their schools. Nearly 400 Peer Leaders from NCR's 22 partner high schools and their College Summit Coordinators attended one of the events.

On November 20, 2008, the Maryland Gazette featured the work of NCR School Partnership Manager Cliff Crosby with Prince George’s County public school, Largo High. The article, “Largo Seniors Motivated to Pursue Scholarly and Athletic Dreams in College,” traces Crosby’s career from being a student-athlete at University of Maryland College Park, to the NFL, to his work with College Summit. In the article, he said, "If you think you're going to walk on [the field], just try out and start playing, [it's unlikely] but I'm not saying it can't be done—it's just a bigger challenge. The reality might be that the sport is over for you. You have to be at peace with that. You have to start preparing yourself for the next level [college]."

Mary’s Center, Source for Amnesty International
Thanks to Lyda Vanegas, Advocacy and Communications Officer, for this update.

Members of Amnesty International, a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all, visited Mary’s Center to conduct focus groups with participants and providers as part of a detailed policy paper on health disparities, specifically maternal health for immigrants.

Over two days, the visitors compiled stories and experiences on access to maternal health and the challenges and barriers that immigrant mothers face when seeking prenatal care in the United States. The projected outcomes of this project will be a thorough report and a campaign that will be distributed to key policy makers, community leaders, and members of the media.

“For Mary’s Center, it was very important to be selected by Amnesty International because we are a local organization that represents women and children from more than 40 different nations throughout the world, and we have valuable information that can help change the policies in this country to improve the access to health care,” Maria Gomez, President and CEO, said.

Expected to be released in 2009, the report will look for the gaps existing in the health care system and how issues as maternal health and maternal mortality play out in the United States.

“People won’t even imagine all the challenges that immigrants have to go through, and I hope that my story will help improve the health care system in this country,” said Jessica, a Mary’s Center participant.

See Forever’s Oak Hill Scholars Participate in Town Hall Event
Thanks to Ingrid Padgett, Director of Development, for this update.

Two days after the presidential election, scholars at See Forever’s Oak Hill Academy experienced the chance of a lifetime—the opportunity to share their perspectives at a forum designed to explore and discuss possible juvenile justice initiatives for the Obama administration as well as for state and local governments.

How do we as a nation deal with the fact that 2.2 million of the nation’s children are presently incarcerated? How do we educate our communities about the potential in rehabilitating formerly incarcerated youth? What should the priorities be for the incoming administration in this area? These questions, among others, were discussed at a town hall meeting, “A Call to Action for Juvenile Justice,” held at the Georgetown University Law Center, Gewirz Student Center on November 6.

The event, sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section and Georgetown Law’s Juvenile Justice Clinic, was moderated by Harvard Law School Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. The panel, including Georgetown Law Professor Kristin Henning, Pennsylvania State Senator Stewart Greenleaf, Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch, Massachusetts Juvenile Court Judge Jay D. Blitzman, and Washington Post writer Chris L. Jenkins, addressed a myriad of juvenile justice-related issues raised by the dozens of law firms and nonprofit organizations gathered for this historic meeting.

Five young men from Oak Hill, the District’s long-term secure facility for adjudicated youth, were the first to address the packed house of participants through a live video feed from the facility. In their opening address, one Oak Hill scholar said, “Our youth are treated as if they are guilty until proven innocent, instead of innocent until proven guilty.” Another Oak Hill scholar echoed the statement with a sentiment of hope, “We are looking for a more positive way of life…we need your help.”

Subsequent speakers, including representatives from the American Bar Association, Coalition for Juvenile Justice, Child Welfare League of America, Human Rights Watch, and others, came forward to discuss solutions to problems such as the apparent “school to prison pipeline,” recidivism, conditions of confinement, drug and mental health services, and the reentry of delinquent youths into the community and the schools.

In July 2007, the See Forever Foundation assumed management of the school at Oak Hill. The school’s principal, SFF/MAPCS Co-Founder David Domenici said, “Management of the educational program at the Oak Hill Academy is a significant project for us, because See Forever began with Oak Hill. Eleven years ago we started our first program for youth who had just been released from Oak Hill and needed tutoring, job training, and mentoring.”

Domenici added that these kinds of opportunities for the Oak Hill scholars—youth who in many instances feel as though they have no voice—support SFF’s efforts to empower adjudicated youth to reenter the community, schools, and the workforce with the academic skills and so cio-emotional capacities they need to be successful.

A panel of Oak Hill Scholars applaud remarks from other participants in the Town Hall meeting.

Book on ‘Philanthrocapitalism’ Features Case Foundation, VPP

Thanks to Lowell Weiss, Cascade Philanthropy Advisors, for this review.

The Case Foundation and Venture Philanthropy Partners are two of the philanthropic efforts profiled in a new book that examines “how today’s leading philanthropists are revolutionizing the field, using new methods to have a vastly greater impact on the world." Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World (Bloomsbury Press) was authored by Matthew Bishop, a smart Economist writer who has done some of the best reporting on philanthropy, and Michael Green, a British development economist. The book is refreshingly free of “inside baseball” references and jargon. It accessibly covers just about every current issue in philanthropy, and a great deal of interesting history as well, in the span of just 279 pages.

The authors define philanthrocapitalists as “successful entrepreneurs trying to solve big social problems because they believe they can, and because they feel they should.” The philanthrocapitalists they profile include Bill and Melinda Gates, Chuck Feeney, Paul Tudor Jones, Eli Broad, Richard Branson, John Doerr, Pierre Omidyar, Jeff Skoll, and Michael Bloomberg. Their approaches are characterized by “a serious focus on results,” “backing entrepreneurial, innovative approaches to problems,” “forming partnerships with whoever will get the job done soonest and best,” and “taking big risks in the hope of achieving outsize impact.”

The main thesis of the book is that today’s philanthrocapitalists are standing on the shoulders of giants like Carnegie and Rockefeller—and could well have an even bigger impact on the world. The authors ask tough, probing questions about most of the models they highlight, but they are clearly admiring of the intentions and the rigor of the work going on today and betting on bigger successes in the future. The book’s upbeat assessment presents a clear contrast with a book published six months before that covers the same subject: Just Another Emperor? The Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism, written by a former Ford Foundation program director.

While strongly supporting the trends toward that Bishop and Green highlight, Mario Morino is quoted in the book acknowledging that he and other philanthrocapitalists still have much to learn about the social complexity of the nonprofit sector. “There has been too much one way: here’s the money, here’s the rules,” Mario says. “You need to invest in respect, have true respect for who you are working with.”

A few reviewers have commented that Bishop and Green had unfortunate timing: a book with the subtitle “How the rich can save the world” is not likely to do well at bookstores when economic anxieties are creating new levels of resentment against “the rich.” But other reviewers have concluded that the problem-solving approaches that Bishop and Green highlight are more relevant and important than ever at a time when government resources are in short supply and the needs in our communities are growing. In the words of Matthew Bishop, writing in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, “This may prove to be philanthrocapitalism's finest hour…Today’s philanthrocapitalists [must] realize that what will be a tough time for charities in the next year or two is likely to be the philanthropic buying opportunity of a lifetime, because if they keep giving, they will find the potential to bring about huge improvements in the quality of grant making and the efficiency of the nonprofit world.”

Warm Holiday Wishes from All of Us at VPP!