Shared from an August 16, 2021 blog on Exponent Philanthropy. The David and Lura Lovell Foundation focuses funding on changing systems by first identifying issues then identifying partners to ferret out root causes and develop plans before seeking grantees involved in the work.

The 7-step process is outlined in the blog and is something a foundation of any size or staffing can accomplish.

Photo by Joel Filipe@joelfilip

Today, when I read this blog post on Exponent Philanthropy - Making a Little Go Far: How We Spark Economic Renewal in Our Rural Community I knew I had to share it as part of my Year of Change series.

I encourage you to read the full post, but here is a teaser.

Their COVID pivot was the 2020 Youth Corp campaign that employed 16 teenagers to paint curbs and buildings, pick up branches following storms, weed, help with story hours at the library, and more. A win-win for local teens and the community.

This post highlights creative thinking at its best. It is a reminder of the flexibility foundations have in awarding funding and of the impact of one man’s gift to his community. All of us can learn from Mr. Stretesky.

Photograph by Dan Meyers Dan Meyers @dmey503

Think back on your own lives as you were starting your working life and careers. Did you have someone helping with daily living expenses such as rent or groceries? And if that wasn’t an option, how would your life be different?

In following a theme of change, let’s take a look at a twist to anti-poverty efforts: providing regular cash payments to those in need.

Enter SEED (Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration). Through a partnership with the Economic Security Project the city of Stockton, CA offered people in need what they needed most: cash. SEED launched February 2019. 125 people were randomly chosen from low-income census tracks to receive $500 monthly, to use as they please. The only mandate was participation in the research element of this project.

Preliminary findings are in and they may surprise you. This blog is inspired by the Nonprofit Quarterly’s article, Stockton Study Shows Power of Universal Basic Income Support written by Martin Levine and published March 17, 2021.

Image by Daniel Cheung @danielkcheung

There is no doubt 2020 has been a year of change. As someone who goes kicking and screaming into something new, I’m determined to embrace change in the coming year. So over the next few months I plan to highlight ideas for doing philanthropy differently that I believe offer good food for thought. I’m starting with “When We Return to Our Foundation Offices, Let’s Make Them Spaces Where We Collaborate With Grantees” by Lisa Pillar Cowan, Vice President of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation in New York City. The arctic le appears in the December 8 issue of Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Image by @Jr Korpa

Good food for thought. Here is an opinion piece in the Chronicle of Philanthropy by Renee Karibi-Whyte of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors relating to racial injustice and systemic inequalities. While these topics are front and forward in many of today’s conversations her question to the philanthropic world is what changes are you making within your own practices based on these conversations?

Karibi-Whyte offers three things to challenge us to think differently.

Photo credit: Євгенія Височина @eugenivy_reserv

What to do if you graduated from law school in California only to learn the state’s summer bar exam is suspended due to the coronavirus? What to do with a growing demand for low-cost legal services within the state? You pivot.

Within 13 days the Legal Services Funders Network, developed and launched its first collaborative funding project: a Post Graduate Law Fellows Program.

June 24, 2020 blog post on Exponent Philanthropy by Claire Solot. How We Catalyzed a Fellows Program to Meet Legal Services Needs During COVID-19.

Prior to the coronavirus and prior to recent conversations around social justice, Dallas Heritage Village embarked on a project to reinterpret the Millermore House with the intent of telling stories about all people who lived and worked in the Millermore house, including the enslaved.

What is the pivot? Last year, the Village staff revisited historical documentation and archives relating to the Millermore house and its occupants including the 1860 census which stated then owner, William Brown Miller, enslaved 16 African Americans and included names of three couples. Then began the task of identifying the enslaved and those who lived in the cabin and landing on stories the Village will tell.