Northern California Grantmakers

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón will join the Commission and the Department on the Status of Women for their 9th annual Women’s History Month Awards Reception to honor NCG member and  ZeroDivide President and CEO Tessie Guillermo.

“Tessie Guillermo is an incredible woman who embodies the word innovation,” said District Attorney George Gascón. “In a high tech city like San Francisco, it’s hard to imagine communities with limited access to the internet. Tessie’s groundbreaking work with ZeroDivide bridges underserved communities with economic and internet access.”

Congratulations, Tessie!

Read the full press release from the City & County of San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.

NCG member ZeroDivide rolled out a new report today (http://bit.ly/MobileZD) that ramps up the conversation on how to support nonprofits in using mobile to move their mission. The focus is on initiatives by underserved communities in the U.S. — and how funders can strengthen the quantity and quality of support for this work.

Co-author Jeff Perlstein mentioned the report last week in a #funderTech session with new grantmakers at NCG’s New Grantmaker Institute, where we discussed specific ways funders can embrace and support technology among their grantees.

The report contains some great research about the ubiquity of mobile devices, especially among underserved communities and communities of color, and surveys some examples of community impact using mobile strategies.

Funders Get In The (fast moving) Act

The report contains a set of recommendations for funders that can shape support, even with rapidly changing technology.

The sweet spot for funders working with underserved communities lies in increasing the value people can generate from the types of mobile devices and access they already have. For now and the next few years, this means ensuring accessibility—designing projects for feature phone users—and emphasizing the strengthening of community capacity, knowledge, and strategy development.

Find ZeroDivide at COF next week to learn more, and register for the May 22 webinar to dig into the report with peers.

With January now behind us, surely we’ve all caught up on the e-mail that was waiting for us after the winter holiday. And just in case some items fell below your radar, here’s a round up of NCG members who were recently in the news and making some news of their own:

• Infusing “Social” into Social Justice Organizations: Check out the guest blog post NCG member and Levi Strauss Foundation Executive Director Daniel Lee wrote for Beth Kanter‘s blog which highlights Levi’s “Pioneers in Justice” initiative–launched to “tackle the social media for change zeitgeist.”
• The Give: Diana Bontá: Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) interviews NCG member Diana Bontá, who was named late last year to take the helm of The California Wellness Foundation as its new President and CEO.
• What “The Race for the Cure” Can Learn From “The Best Steak Anywhere!“: ZeroDivid’s Timothy Wu offers offers some observations on Komen’s handling of their lightning rod de-funding  decision and a suggestion inspired by a well-known steakhouse.

Happy reading!