Shared Space LA

The Weingart Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation are pleased to announce a new free event space available for use by local nonprofit organizations. Shared Space LA addresses the need among nonprofits for affordable, accessible meeting space by providing a contemporary room for meetings, trainings, workshops and other nonprofit, collaborative convenings. Located in downtown Los Angeles, Shared Space LA is being offered to Weingart Foundation grantees in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

To learn more, visit Shared Space LA or contact Guillermo Flores, Meeting Logistics Manager, gflores@weingartfnd.org.

Upcoming Webinars

Including People with Disabilities in Nonprofits and Foundations: Diversity, Equity, Accessibility & Inclusion

According to a recent study by RespectAbility – a national organization that fights stigmas and advances opportunities for people with disabilities – 75% of nonprofit and philanthropic respondents report they want to include people with disabilities but lack the knowledge to do so. The Weingart Foundation joins with RespectAbillity and 17 other funders and nonprofit organizations nationally to host this eight-part training series as part of our efforts to incorporate a disability justice lens throughout our grantmaking practices. The training is developed as a nuts and bolts approach to give participants step-by-step guidance on how to become more accessible to, and inclusive of, people with disabilities. Participants are welcome to join any or all sessions in the series.

Date & Time
The Disability Inclusion Webinar Series begins Wed., Nov. 6, 2019, and runs through Jan. 15, 2020.

To learn more and RSVP: https://www.respectability.org/2019/10/16-philanthropy-and-nonprofit-organizations-join-together-to-advance-access-for-people-with-disabilities/

GuideStar Nonprofit Profile Training

GuideStar, one of the country’s leading sources of information on nonprofits, is considered by many in the philanthropic community to be a key resource on information about grant applicants and grantees. However, the importance of creating and maintaining a strong profile on GuideStar is often underestimated. With this in mind, the Weingart Foundation is co-hosting with Candid (a joining of Foundation Center and GuideStar) a webinar on updating and maximizing the benefit of GuideStar profiles. The training will cover such areas as content development, identifying information most important to funders, understanding how profiles are displayed on Charity Navigator, Facebook, AmazonSmile and other partnering platforms, and understanding the value of GuideStar’s “Seal of Transparency.”

Date & Time
Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019, 1-2 pm (PST)—to register, click here. (If you cannot attend the webinar, you may register to receive a full recording following the Dec. 10 session.)

Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy

The Weingart Foundation is proud to join 15 grantmakers across the country in the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy. Led by the Ford and Robert Wood Johnson foundations, the Council is a five-year, $10 million initiative to champion inclusion of people with disabilities in our own institutions, grantmaking, and throughout the national philanthropic community. Grant funding will be multi-year unrestricted support to key U.S. organizations run by and for people with disabilities whose work will lead to transformative change. For more than 20 years, the Weingart Foundation has supported efforts to improve the lives of people with disabilities. Over the past several years, however, the Foundation’s commitment to racial and socioeconomic equity has shifted our perspective to include a sharper focus on disability inclusion and rights. We look forward to joining with colleagues through the Presidents’ Council as we move towards incorporating a disability justice lens throughout our grantmaking and organizational practices.

Board News

We are pleased to announce that Aileen Adams has become the new chair of the Weingart Foundation Board of Directors as she begins her sixth year of board service. Aileen brings extensive public and private sector experience to her new role, including her term as former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor, Office of Strategic Partnerships during the administration of former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. In addition, we thank out-going chair Monica Lozano, President and C.E.O. of College Futures Foundation, for her leadership and commitment to our Foundation. Monica will remain on the board and begin her 15th year of service. We also welcome Whittier College President Linda Oubré as a new board member. In addition to executive positions with the Times Mirror and the Walt Disney companies, Linda has held leadership positions at San Francisco State University and University of California, Davis. For a full list of our board, click here.

Staff Leadership

We are pleased to announce that the following team members will assume additional leadership roles. Joanna Jackson, who joined the Foundation in 2008, has been promoted to Vice President, Programs, and is now responsible for the management of our responsive grantmaking program and staff. She will also oversee Learning, Assessment and Planning and lead Strategic Planning for the Foundation. In these areas she will work closely with Joyce Ybarra, who has been promoted to Director of Learning, Assessment and Planning. In addition, Vy Nguyen, our Director of Special Projects and Communications, has additional responsibilities which include oversight of the Special Opportunity Fund and management of our special initiatives team. Karren Lane also assumes new responsibilities as Program Director and will be leading our strategy work in South and Southeast Los Angeles, in addition to the Youth Organizing Capacity Building Initiative.

Protecting Immigrant Families – Final Public Charge Rule

The Department of Homeland Security has finalized a new rule that will deny legal immigrants green cards or visa renewals if they receive aid through a range of safety-net programs, including medical, food and housing assistance. If litigation does not stop or delay the rule from being implemented, the new policy will go into effect on October 15, 2019. The new public charge rule has created confusion and fear in communities. A number of immigrant families have already disenrolled in programs that are necessary to survive and thrive. As nonprofits work to inform and prepare community members, the Weingart Foundation would like to share the following resources: Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s Public Charge Outreach Toolkit, and the California Immigrant Policy Center’s information.

Announcing the John W. Mack Movement Building Fellows

The Weingart Foundation is pleased to announce our first group of John W. Mack Movement Building Fellows. These twelve outstanding individuals were selected to participate in the Foundation’s efforts to strengthen and empower the next generation of social justice and racial equity leaders in Los Angeles County. Chosen in coordination with an advisory group and selection committee comprised of movement leaders, the Fellows will receive leadership training, coaching, and peer learning over the next 18 months. The John W. Mack Movement Fellows program, named after the late civic leader who dedicated his life to social justice and activism, reflects our commitment to support the region’s social movement infrastructure by creating a robust network of leaders committed to a vision of justice and equity for all. To view the list of Fellows, click here.

Upcoming Webinar

Advocacy: What Nonprofits Need to Know

We consider advocacy an essential strategy for achieving the systemic change required to advance equity. Many organizations the Weingart Foundation funds engage in policy change, public education and civic engagement. Some nonprofits, however, may be hesitant to take an advocacy role due to confusion about what’s allowable—or not—under I.R.S. regulations. To help clarify these rules, we’re hosting a webinar for nonprofits and inviting an expert attorney to walk participants through how to engage in advocacy while complying with the law. The webinar will also provide information on how the Foundation funds organizations that lobby. Nonprofits looking to start advocacy work as well as those interested in refreshing their understanding on the topic are encouraged to register. The same webinar will be offered on the following two days:

Dates & Times
Monday, Sept. 23, 2019, 10-11:30 am (PST)—to register, click here.
Thurs., Sept. 26, 2019, 11:30 am-1 pm (PST)—to register, click here.

Weingart Foundation Tightens Criteria for Unrestricted Grants

Unrestricted Operating Support (U.O.S.) is the Foundation’s primary grantmaking strategy, and nonprofits continue to tell us that it is critical to building their capacity and effectiveness. Since initiating our U.O.S. program, demand has grown to unprecedented levels. To manage this increase, we are tightening our U.O.S. grantmaking criteria. Unfortunately, this means that we are turning down many strong applicants including those that we previously may have funded, and sometimes doing so earlier in the review process. We are making these difficult decisions based on the strength of alignment with our U.O.S. grant criteria and the individual context surrounding each organization. Priority is given to applicants whose work advances positive systemic change in communities facing the greatest inequities. Applicants will also need to be able to articulate how U.O.S. funding will impact their organizational capacity and effectiveness. The Foundation remains committed to providing U.O.S. funding, and we understand how critical unrestricted dollars are to strengthening and sustaining nonprofits. If you have any questions, we encourage you to contact us at (213) 688-7799 for more information.

Full Cost Funding: Foundations Have Yet to Move from Theory to Practice

Nonprofit Finance Fund, California Community Foundation and the Weingart Foundation came together in 2015 to launch the Full Cost Community of Practice Pilot, a partnership designed to test approaches and strengthen the capacity of nonprofits and funders to advocate for full cost recovery. A follow up report from Nonprofit Finance Fund shows that the pilot helped participants strengthen their financial management practices. At the same time, these findings also highlight barriers to full cost funding. Notably, broader acceptance of full cost is penetrating foundations, yet organizations found that most foundations willing to discuss full cost haven’t changed their actually grantmaking. The findings will inform our next steps in this work. To read the report, click here.

Grantees Rate the Work of the Foundation

In 2018, the Weingart Foundation conducted a comprehensive survey of grantees and applicants in partnership with the Center for Effective Philanthropy (C.E.P.). As a part of this process, nearly 500 current Foundation grantees and recent applicants were invited to participate in a confidential online perception survey. The results of this comprehensive survey were quite positive, giving us assurance that nonprofits believe our strategies and practices are on the right track. We continue steadfast in our commitment to providing Unrestricted Operating Support to build nonprofit capacity, knowing that communities must lead the way in advancing racial and socio-economic equity. In addition, some survey findings are informing ongoing conversations at the Foundation on how we can streamline our grantmaking process, provide additional non-monetary support to grantees, and create opportunities for more engagement between our program staff and grantees. These are all areas that we continually monitor. Thank you to all the organizations that participated in this survey. To read the summary of key findings click here; to read the full report click here.

Announcing Youth Organizing Capacity Building Initiative Grantees

The Southern California Youth Organizing Funder Collaborative is pleased to announce a total of $4.1 million in grants to 26 nonprofits engaged in youth organizing. This three-year initiative aims to strengthen the effectiveness of nonprofits working to increase the number of young people leading social justice grassroots campaigns, especially from communities most impacted by racial, economic and social injustice. Grantees will receive multi-year Unrestricted Operating Support grants and participate in a peer learning community. The Funder Collaborative includes the Annenberg Foundation, California Community Foundation, Liberty Hill Foundation, The California Endowment, and the Weingart Foundation. We look forward to sharing our collective learnings from the initiative as it progresses. For a full list of initiative grantees, click here.

Q&A with Joyce Ybarra, Director of Learning: The Case for Unrestricted Operating Support

The Weingart Foundation’s core grantmaking strategy is to provide unrestricted funding to organizations advancing racial, social and economic equity. In order to deepen our understanding of the impact of our Unrestricted Operating Support, in 2017 and 2018 we worked with our evaluation partner, Harder+Company Community Research, to develop a series of case profiles that detail the work of four grantee partners. The case profiles provide us with important insights into how Unrestricted Operating Support can strengthen organizational capacity and effectiveness. In this Q&A, Joyce Ybarra, director of learning, highlights her main takeaways from the research.

Weingart Foundation Aligns Investments with Social Justice Mission

At the Weingart Foundation, we are committed to align all of our policies and practices to advance racial, social and economic justice. This commitment includes the management of our investment portfolio. Going forward, it is our goal to use all of the Foundation’s resources to advocate for our values and maximize our mission impact. This year, the Weingart Foundation board of directors revised the Foundation’s investment policy to prioritize investments that support economic and community empowerment to achieve a more just and sustainable society, as well as to promote diversity and inclusion among entrepreneurs and asset managers. Correspondingly, the Foundation will prohibit direct investments in areas that negatively impact poor communities and communities of color—including private prisons, gun manufacturers and tobacco. Our board also approved a new procurement policy elevating the selection of vendors that promote diversity and share our values. Click here to see our new investment policy, and here to see our new procurement policy.

Announcing the John W. Mack Movement Building Fellows Pilot Program

Deadline for Fellowship Applications: June 17, 2019

The Weingart Foundation is excited to launch a pilot fellowship designed to strengthen the pipeline of next-generation social justice and racial equity leaders in Los Angeles County. The John W. Mack Movement Building Fellows program seeks to build the region’s social movement infrastructure by supporting a robust network of leaders committed to realizing a long-term vision of justice and equity for all. As part of the new program, a cohort of 12 emerging leaders will be selected to engage in transformative leadership development training, peer learning and coaching over an 18-month period.

The idea for this program originated in March 2017, when our Foundation convened 170 philanthropic colleagues and nonprofit leaders for a day-long discussion on “Achieving Equity” in Southern California. Participants identified as a key action item the need to develop, support and sustain leadership for movement building. The Foundation subsequently convened an advisory group of seasoned movement builders and commissioned a study to better understand the region’s leadership development infrastructure. Based on our learnings, the Weingart Foundation is piloting the John W. Mack Movement Building Fellows program, named after the late civic leader who began his lifelong social justice career as a student activist during the civil rights movement.

Interested candidates should apply by the deadline of June 17, 2019 at 5 p.m. Fellows will be announced by August 2019. For more information on the John W. Mack Movement Building Fellows program, including eligibility, selection criteria and how to apply, click here.

Upcoming Webinars

Including People with Disabilities in Nonprofits and Foundations: Diversity, Equity, Accessibility & Inclusion

According to a recent study by RespectAbility – a national organization that fights stigmas and advances opportunities for people with disabilities – 75% of nonprofit and philanthropic respondents report they want to include people with disabilities but lack the knowledge to do so. The Weingart Foundation joins with RespectAbillity and 17 other funders and nonprofit organizations nationally to host this eight-part training series as part of our efforts to incorporate a disability justice lens throughout our grantmaking practices. The training is developed as a nuts and bolts approach to give participants step-by-step guidance on how to become more accessible to, and inclusive of, people with disabilities. Participants are welcome to join any or all sessions in the series.

Date & Time
The Disability Inclusion Webinar Series begins Wed., Nov. 6, 2019, and runs through Jan. 15, 2020.

To learn more and RSVP: https://www.respectability.org/2019/10/16-philanthropy-and-nonprofit-organizations-join-together-to-advance-access-for-people-with-disabilities/

GuideStar Nonprofit Profile Training

GuideStar, one of the country’s leading sources of information on nonprofits, is considered by many in the philanthropic community to be a key resource on information about grant applicants and grantees. However, the importance of creating and maintaining a strong profile on GuideStar is often underestimated. With this in mind, the Weingart Foundation is co-hosting with Candid (a joining of Foundation Center and GuideStar) a webinar on updating and maximizing the benefit of GuideStar profiles. The training will cover such areas as content development, identifying information most important to funders, understanding how profiles are displayed on Charity Navigator, Facebook, AmazonSmile and other partnering platforms, and understanding the value of GuideStar’s “Seal of Transparency.”

Date & Time
Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019, 1-2 pm (PST)—to register, click here. (If you cannot attend the webinar, you may register to receive a full recording following the Dec. 10 session.)