Interesting Quote

"The system of philanthropy should switch from a system of where nonprofits ask for money to one where funders proactively seek out grantees."

- Sean Stannard-Stockton, Tactical Philanthropy

Philanthropic Learning Opportunities

Pass or Fail? San Diego County Report Card on Children and Families

Thursday, July 17, 2008
8:30 – 10:30 AM

The 2007 San Diego County Report Card on Children and Families is the continuation of a series of annual reports that provide a summary of the overall health and well-being of our county’s children, youth, and families. These reports have been produced annually since 1999 by the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency.

Join San Diego Grantmakers to learn about and discuss the overall well-being of our county’s children, youth, and families; national best practices in prevention and intervention; and recommendations for action specific to San Diego.

**A great learning opportunity for SDSVP Partners interested in participating in the Investment Working Group’s new grant cycle focusing on children and youth!

RSVP to programs@sdgrantmakers.org or call 619-744-2180

Interested in additional philanthropic learning opportunities? Email phyllis@sdgrantmakers.org and ask to be added to the San Diego Grantmakers Members Listserv.

Agents of Change

SVP, Human Development Foundation & Alan Sorkin were featured in Success Magazine’s 2008 June/July issue discussing the impact of SVP and bringing about positive social change in 25 communities and 3 countries. This excerpt was taken from the article, “Agents of Change” written by Sally Deneen.

Click here to read article.

It's a Plan...Thanks to LEAD San Diego

A team from LEAD San Diego, including SDSVP Partner Alan Sorkin, developed a business plan for Human Development Foundation, a former SDSVP Investee, to distribute its Parents' PLACE curriculum online to school districts and agencies, statewide. Parents' PLACE engages parents, who may have little education themselves, in their child's education. The curriculum helps parents to learn right along side their child. Parents learn how to conduct a scientific experiment; write an essay; write poetry; select appropriate reading materials at the library and bookstores, and even view the planets through a telescope provided by local astronomers. Kudos to Alan and the LEAD Team for writing the plan and offering to help with the implementation!

Improving Grant Applications and Reporting

What can grantmakers and philanthropy associations do to continue reducing the burden on nonprofits and free up more time and money for mission-based activities? Research by Project Streamline suggests four core principles grantmakers can adopt to relieve the burden on nonprofits.

To read Project Streamline’s Recommended Core Principles and Practices click here.

Equinox Center Seeks Executive Director

Equinox Center is a new 501c3 created by leaders from San Diego's business and environmental communities with the strong support of SDSVP. Equinox Center is a non-partisan, independent, non-profit research center focused on economically sound environmental sustainability for the San Diego region. With the continuing increase in population in San Diego and the associated stress on water, air, transportation and housing, this organization will have a major impact on preserving San Diego's exceptional quality of life.

Having successfully achieved its initial funding target, the Center has recently initiated a national search for an Executive Director. The locally-based search firm of Bente Hansen has been retained to lead the search. Please help us to get the word out to potential candidates (and to those who may know of potential candidates) about this exciting, important opportunity.

Please refer to www.equinoxcenter.org for more details about the requirements and expectations for the position.

Earnings, Poverty, and Income Inequality in San Diego County

(August 28, 2007) Based on 2006 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, CPI analyzed regional data to develop a picture of poverty and income in San Diego County. The full CPI analysis is available here.

In real dollars, full-time workers in San Diego County made significantly less in 2006 than the previous year, according to the census data. Over 100,000 workers in the county live in poverty.

While workers’ earnings dropped by an inflation-adjusted average of 4%, the median household income rose slightly. The median -- the halfway mark among all household incomes -- was pulled up by more people working and higher incomes among the wealthy.

The new data shows a wide gap in income distribution between rich and poor, with the top 20% of households claiming half (49%) of all income in the county while households in the lowest-earning fifth of the population got less than a 4% sliver of the pie.

There were 331,370 people living below the federal poverty line in the county in 2006, a poverty rate of 11.7%. That put the county very close to national poverty rate of 12.3%, using a static measurement that does not take into account differences in the cost of living.

The Census data provide a more complete picture of poverty than the county’s 2005 rate of 11%, because the 2006 Census report for the first time included residents of group quarters such as dormitories, military barracks, and nursing homes.

National analysis of the data is also available from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, at (202) 775-8810 or news@epi.org.

Data Charts only

NEWS: Poverty Rate in U.S. drops, but More People Uninsured. San Diego Union-Tribune, 8/29/07

NEWS: Federal Poverty Line Almost Absurd Here. "Survival in San Diego" blog on VoiceofSanDiego.org, 8/28/07

NEWS: New Census Figures Show Widening Wealth Disparity, Analyst Says. KPBS News, 8/28/07

NEWS: Local Workers Earned Less in 2006 than the Prior Year, Report Says.San Diego Daily Transcript, 8/28/07

San Diego Coastkeeper “Graduation Report”

By Gina Rogers


Debris accumulated at the mouth of Chollas Creek in SD Bay after a storm.

At the June First Friday luncheon, a group of more than 20 Partners and their guests heard Bruce Reznik, Executive Director of San Diego Coastkeeper, present a report on the dramatic growth they’ve achieved over their three years as a member of SDSVP’s Class of 2005 Investees.

The success of Coastkeeper’s work to protect San Diego’s bays, beaches and watersheds came through loud and clear, as Bruce outlined some of their important accomplishments, including an 83% reduction in sewage spills and the City’s commitment to investing nearly $1 billion in collection infrastructure over the next five; strong urban runoff protections that include provisions on Low Impact Development (LID) and minimizing erosion potential and have become a national model; development of cleanup plans for some of the regions most contaminated waterways; and youth educational outreach reaching more than 40,000 children annually through Coastkeeper’s Project SWELL water quality and pollution prevention curricula.

On the capacity building front, during Coastkeeper’s time as an SDSVP Investee the organization’s staff grew from six FTEs to 11 today and its annual budget rose from $564K to nearly $1.5 million. This is truly a remarkable accomplishment. SDSVP support for this growth included assistance with a re-branding campaign (new name, new logo, and supporting collateral materials); board development, with SDSVP Partner, David Field now serving as board president; wide-ranging member and donor development (identifying a member benefits program, supporting major donor events, and grant-writing); and IT Team support (especially during their move into new office space and with the implementation of eTapestry).

Bruce ended his discussion outlining the many pressing issues Coastkeeper is addressing going forward. The informal First Friday setting offered the opportunity for a discussion about strategies for attaining success in key areas like reducing urban runoff and accelerating the stalled sediment cleanup plan for San Diego Bay.

First Friday Takes July Off

Due to the 4th of July holiday and summer vacations, we will not be holding a July First Friday. Please join us for the August 1st First Friday as we explore some of the issues facing our children in San Diego today.