Meet Your Peers

Calgary Jane’s Walk 2010

Julie Black, Citizen Engagement Associate at the Calgary Foundation and new member of the Grassroots Grantmakers Board of Directors, shared this article about Jane’s Walk, a unique celebration of neighborhoods and neighboring.

Read what Julie has to say about this unique event that was inspired by urbanist writer and activist Jane Jacobs.

Read what Julie has learned about the value of neighbourliness in a young and rapidly growing city, and how work at the Calgary Foundation has changed her perspective on her community.

 

Anne-Marie Taylor on the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center’s IMAGINE Grants Program

Anne-Marie Taylor, Executive Director the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center, says that INRC’s IMAGINE grants program has contributed to a shift in the way people are looking at apply a service, changing the way people work to be more sustainable ad t recognize their dreams, skills and talents so they can contribute.

Read what Anne-Marie has to say about the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center and their three year experience with the IMAGINE grants program.

 

Meet Lynda Parmely & the Hagedorn Foundation

Lynda Parmely, Program Director for the Hagerdorn Foundation, one of Grassroots Grantmakers’ newest members, approaches her work to plant seeds of change in the Long Island communities where she works with a sense of urgency.

The Hagerdorn Foundation is a family foundation that is planning to spend down their funds and end their work in eight years. Read about Lynda and her work at the Hagedorn Foundation.

 

Kathy Szenda Wilson: Grant Limits and Size of Grant Requests

 

Kathy Szenda Wilson, Director of Neighborhood Grantmaking at the Battle Creek Community Foundation, responded to one of our weekly update’s “question of the week” with insights about the relationship between grantmaking criteria and the amount of money requested.

Read what Kathy had to say about her experience in Battle Creek.

Read what Kathy has learned about working with a resident-led grantmaking committee and creating space for resident voice in the Battle Creek community.

 

Helen L’Annunziata on Better Together in California’s Humboldt County

HelenHelen L’Annunziata is coordinator for Better Together, a grassroots grantmaking program in northern California’s Humboldt County. The program is part of a broad county-wide initiative call First 5 Humboldt, designed to improve the health of families and community through asset and capacity building, and social cohesion. These play out in a wide range of arenas, including employment, education, housing, health, and transportation.

Read what Helen shared with us recently about the role that Better Together is playing to advance social justice and build a movement for social change in Humboldt County.

 

Tom David on the Community Clinics Initiative

Tom David is Senior Strategist with the Community Clinics Initiative (CCI), a program that began with a focus on building technological capacity of community clinics in California. CCI is now thinking more deeply about the ways clinics can help expand their networks in communities to promote health.

Read what Tom shared with us recently about the evolution of CCI and new Networking for Community Health program – a program that reflects the values of grassroots grantmaking.

 

Cheryl King Fischer on the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund

Cheryl King Fischer is Executive Director of the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund, a funder/activist collaborative that works to ensure civic engagement in community projects that build and maintain healthy, safe, and environmentally sustainable communities,

Read what Cheryl shared with us recently about her work with NEGEF and how grassroots grantmaking through an environmental lens is working to tap into the creativity, energy and power of formal and informal groups.in New England.

 

Drew O’Connor on Building Community Resilience

Drew O’Connor is co-director of The Civic Canopy, a Denver, Colorado based networking organization that “helps bring together the players and capacities needed to work on a critical community issue.” O’Connor’s sense is that a well and healthy community is one that focuses on results, is inclusive, has high-quality dialogue, acts and learns from what they do. These characteristics comprise a cycle that becomes stronger the more it’s practiced.

Read what Drew shared with us recently about his work with The Civic Canopy and what he is learning about the relationship between community resilience, effective local democracy and grassroots grantmaking.

 

Sharnita Johnson on Value-Added from Grassroots Grantmaking

Four years ago, Sharnita Johnson, Program Officer at the Skillman Foundation in Detroit, was asked to design a small grants program that would provide a new community change avenue for the foundation and more directly address the concerns and wishes of neighborhood residents. Sharnita designed and launched a new grassroots grantmaking program and then selected a local intermediary to manage the program.

Read what Sharnita (Grassroots Grantmakers board member) shared with us recently about launching a grassroots grantmaking program and what she has learned about the value-added of working from a “we begin with residents” perspective.

 

Richard Rodrigues on Hawaii People’s Fund

Richard Rodrigues, Program Coordinator for the Hawaii People’s Fund, is committed to telling the real story of Hawaii and sharing a vision of a ust, equitable, and sustainable society, particularly as it affects hawaii’s indigenous population.

Read what Richard shared with us about the work of the Hawaii People’s Fund and his commitment to revealing the story of the disparities between those with and without resources in Hawaii.

 

Donna Newton on Building Stronger Neighborhoods in Greensboro

Donna Newton, Liaison to Greensboro’s Building Stronger Neighborhoods grassroots grantmaking program and Advisor to the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress, came to this work after a highly successful career as an insurance company executive. Her ability to move ideas into action has been an invaluable asset for Building Stronger Neighborhoods. Donna has found new challenges in this new position, however, that have helped her develop new skills and helped her see new qualities in herself.

Read what Donna says about transitioning from a private sector career to work with a grassroots grantmaking program.

 

Fay Harris on Being Involved in Her Neighborhood

Fay Harris exemplies what Frances Moore Lappe describes as a citizen in a living democracy – someone who brings her gifts, values, passion and energy to everyday life in her community. Fay serves on the board of her neighborhood’s community development corporation and is a member of grantmaking committee for Neighborhood Connections, The Cleveland Foundation’s grassroots grantmaking program.

Read what Fay says about why she’s involved and how she goes about the work of being involved.

 

Margeret Mwale on Presbyterian Committee for the Self-Development of People

Margaret Mwale is associate director for community relations for the grassroots grantmaking program that is funded by an annual offering collected by Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation.

Read what Margaret says about the Presbyterian Committee for the Self-Development of People.

 

Kirk Noden on Working in Youngstown

Kirk Noden, Executive Director of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative,is an experienced organizer. Kirk had worked in Chicago and Birmingam, England before he moved to Youngstown, Ohio. where he discovered that there is one vacant lot for every 2.5 people.

Read what Kirk says about the opportunities and challenges of working in Youngstown.

 

Tene Traylor on Revisioning The Neighborhood Fund

Tene Traylor, Program Officer at The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, staffs the Foundation’s Neighborhood Fund, a grassroots grantmaking program that began with the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation’s Community Foundations and Neighborhoods Small Grants Program in 1991. Tene talked with us recently about a revisioning process for The Neighborhood Fund that began when they realized that they were drowning in paper-work.

Read what Tene says about revisioning The Neighborhood Fund.

 

Doug Woodard on Re-Imagining Non-Profits

Doug Woodard, Project Advisor for the Battle Creek Community Foundation’s Neighborhood Venture Investment Program and former small business owner, says that if he had been required to do that is required to establish a non-profit organization when he launched his small business, he probably would not have been successful.

Read what Doug and others associated with the Battle Creek Community Foundation’s Neighborhood Venture Investment Program are doing to support grassroots, social entrepreneurs with a social vision to build on their experience with their first grant, and what they are learning about the challenges associated with the traditional non-profit models.

 

Sarah McCarthy On Confidence as Capacity

Sarah McCarthy“When we talk about capacity building, sometimes we’re really talking about confidence,” says Sarah McCarthy, Executive Director of the Neighborhood Resource Center of Colorado.

Read what Sarah has learned about the importance of $100 grants for building confidence and capacity.

 

Betty Alonso on The Power of Grassroots Grantmaking

Betty Alonso, Associate Director of Programs at the Dade Community Foundation in Miami, was recently selected to serve as the Chair of Grassroots Grantmakers’ Board of Directors. Betty began her involvement with Grassroots Grantmakers as a member of a planning committee that designed a 1-day conference in 2004.

We all get connected to this work in different ways and for different reasons.

Read what led Betty to develop her passion for resident-centered work, and what is keeping her commitment strong.

 

Tom O’Brien on Radical Hospitality

Tom O’brienRemember when you were new to the world of philanthropy? What were your feelings and perceptions as you tried to find your place in the complex puzzle of community change?

We recently asked Tom O’Brien, Program Director of Neighborhood Connections, The Cleveland Foundation’s grassroots grantmaking program, to share what he is learning as he is shifting from his long time role working on the ground to his new role as grantmaker.

Read Tom O’Brien’s personal story here. Learn how he is tapping into his memories of what it was like on the other side of the table to establish a climate of “radical hospitality”.