Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

Cultures of Giving Fund Grant Awards, September 2007

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors is pleased to announce the first grant awards of the Cultures of Giving Fund, which was established through a major grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. The purpose of the Cultures of Giving Fund is to empower emerging donor communities to lead, develop and grow philanthropic resources that address community social change causes. The first 14 grants total $1.59 million. They include six challenge grants to stimulate and increase the impact of giving from donors of color, and eight capacity grants for the development and dissemination of training and other support services to help community-based organizations engage donors of color for social change philanthropy.

For a brief description about the grant projects of the Cultures of Giving Fund, read below:

Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services - Dearborn, MI - $75,000

Support to the Collaborative for Arab American Philanthropy to develop culturally-competent training materials for community organizations on engaging Arab American donors about social change issues, and to provide these donors with philanthropic advisory services. Materials and strategies will be based on a recent study of Arab American donors and their civic and philanthropic aspirations.

Center on Philanthropy & Civil Society / Research Foundation of the City University of New York -
New York, NY - $30,000

Support to provide free access to and informed use of the Center’s research on philanthropy in communities of color, and related curricular materials and reports to other Cultures of Giving Fund grantees as well as over 85 racial, ethnic, and tribal philanthropy organizations, and community foundations nationwide.

Delta Research and Education Foundation - Washington, D.C. - $40,000

Support to produce written training materials and learning aids on engaging donors within the African American community, and provide formal workshops and seminars to the network of 950 chapters of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority through its regional and national conferences.

Faith Partnerships Incorporated - Raleigh, NC - $40,000

Support to develop a series of donor engagement training sessions for African American women involved with religious institutions, faith-based organizations and networks in the South. Training workshops will provide participants with the tools to effectively connect with their peers and to increase the impact of their collective giving.

Foundation for the Mid-South - Jackson, MS - $175,000

A challenge grant to increase contributions from donors of color to FMS’ Raised Up Right Fund, which aims to close the educational achievement gap of disadvantaged children throughout Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. FMS will recruit donors in the Mid-South as well as “expatriates” who have left the region and currently reside in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Hispanic Federation - New York, NY - $300,000

A challenge grant to the six-member National Latino Funds Alliance to encourage new and increased giving among Latino professionals to Latino-focused social change funds in New York, Ohio, California, Illinois, Minnesota and Colorado. These member-funds will conduct donor outreach locally, encouraging donor activism and civic leadership to address community issues.

Hispanics in Philanthropy - San Francisco, CA - $75,000

Support to strengthen philanthropy in Latino communities by providing training and curricular materials to Latino donors and community-based organizations throughout the U.S. These philanthropic services include workshops, publications, models for culturally competent giving vehicles, and a communications strategy that highlights giving in Latino communities.

Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. -
Los Angeles, CA - $75,000

Support to develop and provide training to implement three separate, culturally competent curricula on giving in the African American, Asian American, and Latino communities, which will be shared with the memberships of the National Black United Fund, the National Black MBA Association, the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, and LEAP’s own base of Asian American professionals.

Native Americans in Philanthropy - Minneapolis, MN - $75,000

Support to develop a fundraising curriculum entitled the Art of Giving, based on past collaborative work between NAIP and Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy, and enhanced with culturally relevant techniques and stories to encourage and empower Native community-based organizations, individuals, and tribal entities to fundraise around self-determined causes.

Potlatch Fund - Seattle, WA - $125,000

A challenge grant to increase social justice grantmaking in Native American communities throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Western Montana. Potlatch will solicit donations from individual donors and from the 54 federally-recognized tribes in the region.

Social Justice Fund Northwest - Seattle, WA - $200,000

A challenge grant to stimulate new and increased giving from a broad array of multicultural donors toward racial justice grantmaking throughout the Pacific Northwest. The grant will also challenge individual donors to increase giving to the recently established Latino Community Foundation in Washington State.

Twenty-First Century Foundation - New York, NY - $200,000

A challenge grant to stimulate giving from African American donors in New York City and Los Angeles to the Foundation’s Black Men and Boys Fund, which works to reverse negative trends among Black youth, and provides grants to programs for education, employment, criminal justice reform, and fatherhood support.

Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee - Milwaukee, WI - $125,000

A challenge grant to expand three constituency funds: the African American Women’s Fund Project; Latinas en Accíon; and the Lesbian Fund. These funds will work to engage culturally-specific donors, leveraging matching dollars to conduct community grantmaking while building each fund’s endowment through funds raised from individual donors.

Women’s Funding Network - San Francisco, CA - $55,000

To provide training in social change fundraising and grantmaking for Cultures of Giving Fund grantees, working to engage women of color as philanthropists. Through this work they will also disseminate a set of tools to promote sustainable fundraising efforts for community-based organizations focused on women of color.