Northern California Grantmakers

On Tuesday, May 20, 2013, the San Francisco Chronicle published the following article: Muslims Become Part of Bay Area Fabric, which highlights a benchmark study that gives demographic data on the Bay Area’s growing Muslim community. The study, The Bay Area Muslim Study: Establishing Identity and Community, provides compelling data on the Bay Area Muslim community’s demographics, sense of identity, economic well-being, political and civic engagement, and the challenges it faces, such as eradicating Islamophobia.

Nearly 250,000 Muslims – one of the highest concentrations of Muslims in the United States – live, work and contribute to the economies and communities of the Bay Area (3.5 percent of the area’s population); yet little is known about the demographics and issues that Bay Area Muslim communities face–issues that are often left under the radar.

On May 15th NCG members Silicon Valley Community Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, the Marin Community Foundation, along with Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy hosted a funder briefing: “Inclusive Philanthropic Strategies and the Bay Area’s Diverse Muslim Populations” to shed light on the specific opportunities and challenges of this community by sharing data from this first-of-its-kind research study with other funders.

The study was prepared by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and funded by One Nation Bay Area, a partnership of the above-mentioned Bay Area organizations that aims to strengthen relationships between the region’s Muslims and non-Muslims.

Some highlights from the May 15th event include the following compelling pieces of data:

• The Bay Area Muslim community is highly diverse across race; 30% are South Asian, 23% are Arabs, 17% are Afghans, 9% are African American, 7% are Asian/Pacific Islanders, 6% are white and 2% are Iranian.
• Education attainment levels of Muslims are high; 41% age 25 or older have a B.A. or higher (16.3%).
• There are major income disparities between the Muslim communities living and working in Silicon Valley and other bay area counties.

The major challenges for the Bay Area Muslim community include:
• Islamophobia
• Conflict in Muslim-Majority Counties
• Media Portrayals of American Muslims

Finally a few takeaways and implications for philanthropy highlighted at the briefing:

• The need for organizational capacity building grants; Muslim NGOs are often run on very lean volunteer staff and lack infrastructure
• The need for social services to address the diverse needs of Bay Area Muslim communities (such as immigration services, drug abuse, post traumatic stress disorder)
• The need for social services for the influx of Afghan refugees in this country
• The need for more data to engage the funding community
• The need to understand who is at the table and who is not
• The need for NGO assistance in leveraging relationships with other funders and help with grant writing

To learn more about this program, please visit NCG’s website. To obtain a copy of the newly published study and executive summary, please follow the provided links.

On Friday, March 29, 2013, NCG’s Family Philanthropy Exchange members gathered at Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund’s office in San Francisco to share technology tools at the first-ever “Tech Tales.” Part of NCG’s Family Philanthropy Forum, the program was designed to give members the opportunity to learn from each other, share their “tech tales,” and exchange best practices for choosing and using grants management software and other technology for small family foundations with limited staff.

The following are tips and helpful tech information offered to help make life easier and more efficient for foundations with limited staff capacity (i.e. for an office of one):

Looking to move to a new technology tool?

For grantmakers looking to move to a new technology tool, presenter Marc Manashil of 11Plus recommended that funders keep the following in mind:

• Know Your Own Capacity: If the functionality (all the features of the tool) is greater than your own capacity to utilize it then it’s likely not a good fit considering that you won’t have the time and or ability to take advantage of all it offers.
• Staying Power of the Technology: Has the tool/product/service been around for a good number of years? Have they worked out all the bugs? Are there a good number of current users? Are those users getting the support they need?
• Apply Technology to Technology Issues: Sometimes people look to technology to solve programs that are not technical issues. In other words, technology cannot fix relationship issues within an organization. Don’t spend time and resources on a technology tool if in reality the problem you are trying to solve is a relationship issue.

Can I join the Grants Managers Network if I’m not a grant’s manager?

Any person currently employed by a grantmaking organization who holds responsibility for grants management or a portion of grants management activities is eligible for membership.

NCG Member Tiffany Price, who in addition to being the Director of Assistance & Advising at the Mitchell Kapor Foundation is also on the national board of the Grants Managers Network (GMN), explained how she takes advantage of the GMN network. In her presentation, Tiffany explained that a Grants Manager title isn’t requisite to join GMN. After all, many small and family foundation staff do it all. So anyone who has the responsibility of managing grants can join.

Moving to an online grants management system or considering a new system?

One member who recently switched to a new grants management system shared the following insights when considering a new system:

• Does the system have regular updates? Are they easy to install?
• Is the vendor willing to tweak, i.e. reports or forms? Are those tweaks free or costly?
• How long is the contract term? How long will you be locked into using this product?
• When your contract is up and you want to migrate your data to another system, will they charge you? How much?
• Know exactly what you want out of a system and the application process so that there are no surprise costs for adding on later.
• Will training be easy? Is it just you or your entire staff that will need to be trained?
• Finally, ask for references so you can talk to people currently using the system.

What about other cost-efficient tech tools?

Dana Marus, Director of the High Engagement and Education by Nature Projects for the Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation shared the following tools:

• One-Hub.com. A secure way to store, organize, and share your files, such as board docket materials.
• Lynda.com. An online software training site.

As the program ended members were left with one last thought: In the long run, it’s not about technology. It’s about how you do your work. What audience you are serving. Once you know that, then find the technology that supports those needs.

Tonight, March 18, 2013 at 7 City Visions host Lauren Meltzer and guests discuss the growing impact and values of young philanthropists. Last year, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that three of the top five donors of 2012 were under 40. Two of the three live in the Bay Area. If you are interested in joining this broadcast and discussion, please visit KLAW’s website.