Business Commons^™

Introduction, Marcy Murninghan

New England Journal of Public Policy

America faces a reckoning, a crucible of what Reinhold Niebuhr observed more than eighty years ago. Our democratic principles and traditions are imperiled by the power of financial oligarchs and unfettered money flows, which have contributed to massive inequality that, in turn, has given rise to political unrest and a sense of cultural unmooring.

The articles presented here are both descriptive and normative, setting forth a complex social problem with seemingly bottomless proportions and then offering a design or set of remedial actions to alleviate them. Drawing on my professional experience going back to the mid-1970s, I wrote these pieces …

Looking In The Mirror: Equity In Practice For Philanthropy, Ashlee Young, Jaime Love, Nancy Csuti, Christopher J. King

The Foundation Review

Philanthropy still needs to be reminded that there is no such thing as a post-racial America, and that systemic racism continues to underlie the problems foundation funding attempts to address. While many foundations have found it challenging to address equity in their grantmaking, they have found that process far more comfortable than addressing equity within their own organizations.

This article will describe the efforts of three foundations in various stages of seeing themselves through an equity lens: the Consumer Health Foundation, The Colorado Trust, and Interact for Health. This article will discuss why these foundations are on this journey, what …

Insights From Deploying A Collaborative Process For Funding Systems Change, Alison Mccarthy, Jacob Bornstein, Tiffany Perrin, Jennifer James, Bill Fulton

The Foundation Review

Many foundations are seeking to impact root causes of social issues through funding initiatives that are both technically and socially complicated and where past experience is no guarantee of success. These situations exhibit the growing need for more adaptive funding approaches, such as emergent philanthropy.

This article looks at an application of emergent strategy at the Colorado Health Foundation. It shares tools used to design the funding approach for the foundation’s Creating Healthy Schools initiative, including support for grantees in refining their grant-proposal budgets and activities, decreasing duplication, and leveraging resources more effectively.

This article will look at lessons learned, …

Integrating Funders Into A Multisector Transit-Equity Collaborative: Lessons From The Field, Davian Gagne

The Foundation Review

This article examines the efforts of Mile High Connects, a collaborative working to ensure that the Denver region’s $7.8 billion transit project benefits low-income communities and communities of color by connecting them to affordable housing, healthy environments, quality education, and good-paying jobs.

The collaborative, which includes local and national funders that have coalesced around the central issue of transit equity, has adopted a collective-impact model that has at its core two tools to measure and track its work and to show the social-impact outcomes achieved through its initiatives.

This article describes the collaborative’s approach to evaluation, reflects on its initial …

Slides: Perspectives On Water Management In Arizona, Kathy Jacobs

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Presenter: Kathy Jacobs, Director, Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions (CCASS), Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona

25 slides

Raising The Bar – Integrating Cultural Competence And Equity: Equitable Evaluation, Jara Dean-Coffey, Jill Casey, Leon D. Caldwell

The Foundation Review

· Whether implicit or explicit, social justice and human rights are part of the mission of many philanthropies. Evaluation produced, sponsored, or consumed by these philanthropies that doesn’t pay attention to the imperatives of cultural competency may be inconsistent with their missions.

· The American Evaluation Association’s Statement on Cultural Competence provides those who produce, sponsor, and use evaluation an opportunity to examine and align their practices and policies within a context of racial and cultural equity and inclusion. The use of such a lens is paramount when evaluating a program whose goals touch on issues of equity or inclusion. …

Naming Race: One Foundation’S Path To A Strategy Of Structural Inclusion And Self- Determination, Lori Bezahler

The Foundation Review

· Common wisdom tells us that by placing people of color in leadership roles in philanthropy, there will be a greater emphasis on issues of racial equity and attention to solutions that are rooted in the experiences of people of color. While diverse leadership is a critical component of inclusion, attention must also be paid to the dynamics of power inherent in the relationship between a philanthropic institution and the community it seeks to serve. Foundations must put in place practices that address the inherent inequities in our sector if we are to contribute to systemic change.

· The Edward …

Difficult Conversations: Lessons Along The Journey Toward Inclusion, Carrie Pickett-Erway, Susan Springgate, Suprotik Stotz-Ghosh, Tom Vance

The Foundation Review

· This paper documents one foundation’s work to become a more diverse and inclusive foundation.

· The Kalamazoo Community Foundation adopted a diversity policy and established a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Equality Fund in 2000. In 2003 the foundation established an ad hoc diversity committee; the committee was formalized in 2007.

· An inclusion statement was adopted for unrestricted grantmaking in 2004, and was strengthened in 2012 along with the words “for all” added to the foundation’s mission statement. The inclusion statement was further modified in 2013.

· The foundation proclaimed itself an antiracist organization in 2010.

· …

Slides: Appropriate Sustainable Energy Technologies: A Light To The World, Lakshman D. Guruswamy, Jason B. Aamodt, Blake Feamster

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Jason Aamodt, Attorney; Adjunct Professor, University of Tulsa

15 slides

Evaluating The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund’S Social Determinants Of Health Portfolio, Sarah B. Paige, Emily Bourcier, Carol Cahill, Clarissa Hsu, Chris Kabel

The Foundation Review

· Research over the past two decades repeatedly demonstrates the relationship between poor health outcomes and socioeconomic factors such as poor housing, poverty, racism, and structural inequity.

· In 2005, the Northwest Health Foundation, supported by the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund, began an initiative to address these social determinants of health (SDOH).

· A variety of projects – short- and long-term, large and small – were supported over the five-year period for a total of $12.4 million. The mean project-implementation grant was $175,350 and 2½ years in length; capacity-building grants averaged $50,000 for 1½ years.

· In all, 323 social-determinant …

How Inclusion And Equity Are Transforming A Foundation And A Community, Rebecca Arno, Lauren Casteel, Maria Guajardo, Adrienne Mansanares

The Foundation Review

· Racial inequities in health care, education, incarceration rates and economic stability have persisted, in spite of federal policies to promote equity.

· The Denver Foundation launched what is now known as the Inclusiveness Project in 2002 to help nonprofits, including funders, become more inclusive of people of color.

· The Project defines diversity as one component of inclusiveness; inclusive organizations are defined as learning-centered organizations that value the perspectives and contributions of all people.

· The Project operates on three levels: individual, organizational and sector.

· An extensive evaluation has shown that there are impacts at all levels, including …

Toward Optimal Utilization Of Water Resources: The “Physical Solution", Harrison C. Dunning

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

18 pages.