Los Angeles (March 2, 2010) – The California Endowment today announced an expansion of its longstanding support of minority-led nonprofits, with more than $1.4 million in new funding to strengthen grassroots organizations focused on improving the health and well-being of communities of color.

 

The Endowment is a longtime leader in making grants to minority-led organizations, defined as nonprofits that have an explicit mission to serve racial and ethnic minority populations, and are led by a staff and board representative of the communities they serve.

 

The foundation’s new Capacity Building for Minority-Led Organizations Initiative is aimed at strengthening the leadership and sustainability of minority-led organizations through leadership and board development, fundraising, strategic planning and other activities that will enhance their effectiveness.

 

“It is our strong belief that achieving meaningful and sustained improvements in the health of underserved communities cannot be achieved unless we invest in the innovation and leadership efforts by community leaders and organizations who directly confront the challenges themselves,” said Robert K. Ross, M.D., president and CEO of The California Endowment. “Social problem-solving emerges from the ground up, and not the other way around.”

 

The Endowment selected eight minority-led intermediary organizations with close ties to communities of color to administer grants under the new initiative.   The grants will range in size from $5,000 to $20,000 and will support an estimated 200 organizations across the state.  In selecting these organizations, The Endowment made a special effort to ensure that funding would be available in the Central Valley, in Northern California and other areas of the state where there are fewer resources available to minority-led nonprofits.

 

1. Liberty Hill Foundation will provide funding for core support and to meet the capacity building needs of minority-led nonprofits in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties through their Fund for Change and Special Opportunity Fund.  Additional funding to Liberty Hill will be used to offer training opportunities to all grantees through its Leadership Institute for Change.

2. Brotherhood Crusade will make grants to minority-led health-focused organizations in South Los Angeles that address the physical, mental and environmental health needs of underrepresented low- to moderate-income communities of color of that community.
3. Bay Area Black United Fund will make grants to minority-led community organizations’ offering services through prisoner reentry programs.
4. Sierra Health Foundation will make grants to health-focused minority-led nonprofit community organizations in the Sacramento/North State region of California.
5. Akonadi Foundation will make grants to minority-led nonprofits focusing on racial justice in Oakland.
6. Tides Foundation/California Fund for Youth Organizing will offer direct support of leadership of youth of color-led organizations to effect policy changes that address health disparities in communities of color.
7. Women’s Foundation of California will support health-focused minority-led organizations In the Central Valley though its Central Valley Nonprofit Infrastructure Program.
8. Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development, Inc. will make grants to grassroots Native American organizations and tribal endeavors engaged in health, social services and community building throughout California.

 

In addition, a grant to CompassPoint Nonprofit Services to plan and implement the Fundraising Academy for Communities of Color in Los Angeles and the San Francisco/East Bay Area will increase the capacity of at least 40 minority-led nonprofits to secure individual donations, corporate sponsorships, governmental contracts and foundation grants. Another grant to the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training will help organizations based in Spanish-speaking communities in California build and strengthen their individual donor fundraising programs, which recent research has shown to be a top need of minority-led nonprofits.

 

“Minority-led organizations have long expressed a need and desire for learning and training that advances their fundraising. Many of these nonprofits lack the full range of skills or structure within their leadership that is critical their organization’s survival and success,” said Charrise Bremond, president and CEO of Brotherhood Crusade, one of the intermediary organizations re-granting the funding in South Los Angeles. “As a result, the communities they serve – who are often those most in need – receive the least amount of resources. The California Endowment’s grant allows us to effectively address this need so that organizations can compete for the extremely limited resources available in today’s highly competitive fundraising environment.”

 

The Endowment also is providing grants to Northern California Grantmakers, Southern California Grantmakers and San Diego Grantmakers– regional associations of grantmakers – to provide learning opportunities for foundations seeking to increase and diversify their grant making and learning about the capacity building and leadership development needs among communities of color.  A grant to Social Policy Research Associates will be used to document the lessons learned from this new round of grant making and increase The Endowment’s understanding of the specific and unique capacity-building needs of minority-led organization that are often overlooked.

 

To learn more about The Endowment’s longstanding commitment to diversity and equity, read this recent blog post by CEO Robert K. Ross.

 

The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation, was established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. The Endowment makes grants to organizations and institutions that directly benefit the health and well-being of the people of California. For more information, visit The Endowment’s Web site at www.calendow.org.