Allio Consulting

A report published by the California Endowment details some of the lessons gained from the implementation of California Works for Better Health.  California Works for Better Health was a unique foundation partnership that focused on the issues of employment and community health in four regions of California.  In each region diverse collaborations were funded over several years to create and implement interventions to improve outcomes for working people.  Lori Allio of Allio Consulting was staff to this initiative at its inception and wanted to share this report and the lessons it contains about what works and what doesn’t in implementing a collaborative initiative.You can view the report or order a hard copy on the California Endowment web site:

CWBH_ComingTogetherFullReportFINAL.pdf

A new Research Advisory from the Foundation Center presents the finding of their survey of more than 1,000 of the largest foundations in the U.S.  The findings are sobering if unsurprising.  The survey finds that fully 2/3 of the respondents expect to reduce the size and/or number of their grants in 2009.  This will not be new news for grant seekers who are facing challenges in funding an increased demand for services and a contracting pool of resources.  The Survey also finds that grantmakers are responding to the crisis with 40% expecting to dip into their endowment principle to fund grants this year, more than half expecting to engage in non-grantmaking activities related to the crisis, and more than one third of community foundations responding to the crisis with special initiatives.  See details of this report at: 

http://foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/research/econ_outlook5.html

Bringing funders together to build alliances for change. 

Funder convenings bring diverse practitioners from philanthropy together to share ideas, experience and opportunities.  I hear frequently from funders today that they are too busy to go to these events.  While I know many of you do attend, here are a couple of highlights from a couple of convenings to hightlight change efforts that are afoot.

Grantmakers Without Borders  San Francisco, June 2008The GWOB Conference took a new approach with about half of its programming focused on the issue of climate change and how funders can respond at many levels.  Climate change is an over arching issue which will impact the issues funders are working on in dramatic ways and the conference explored issues ranging from indigenous responses to climate change to carbon markets.  Participants from the Global South providing important perspective on international funding strategies throughout the conference.  The closing session on “Strategies for Systems Change” brought the dialogue back home with Van Jones of Green for All in Oakland delivering an important message about addressing climate change across diverse communities in the US.  Allio Consulting had the privilege to work on the planning committee for this conference. 

Council On Foundations

National Harbor, MD  May 2008

The COF Conference today was a great effort to learn about what colleagues in the field are doing and to build our skills.  There were many interestings sessions an plenaries convened and many deserved awards given.  Highlights this year included a series of mini summits  - the Summit on Migration brought together COF members with US and International practitioners to share experiences on common issues in the US and abroad:  it was great to here the Human Rights Perspective articulated by our international colleagues at this event.  As always with the COF conference the pre-conference events were excellent and here is some info on two of them - HIP and NFG   Hispanics in Pilanthropy HIP had their 25th Anniversary Celebration prior to COF and announced their exciting initiative to protect child migrants called “Our Children/Nuestros Hijos.”  The first lady of Mexico Margarita Zavala, gave a keynote speach in which she noted that thousands of children migrate to the US alone, and of the 45,000 children deported from the US last year, half were unaccompanied.  Nuestros Hijos will focus on bringing together funders, scholars, and policy makers to better understand and make policy proposals regarding unaccompanied migrant children.  Contact HIP for more information.

Neighborhood Funders Group  The NFG sessions included a key note by former White House Chief of Staff and now Executive Director of the Center for American Progress, John Podesta, sharing his 12 point strategy for cutting poverty in half in ten years.  For details on this exciting policy proposal, see the Center for American Progress web site at

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/04/poverty_report.html

Allio Consulting recently visited post-Katrina New Orleans and had the opportunity to see both the devastation that remains and the rebuilding that is occurring.  It was a moving experience: it seems that everyone in New Orleans has a story of tragic loss.  The impact of the flooding on residents has been compounded by the lack of effective government response and adequate support to get residents back on their feet.  Yet in the face of this, many residents are rebuilding and there are a number of unique projects under way in areas that were flooded.  While in New Orleans, Allio Consulting had the opportunity to provide technical assistance to an inspiring group of East New Orleans neighbors.  Allio Consulting also joined over 1,000 other policy makers, practitioners, and researchers at the PolicyLink conference to explore issues of equity and strategies for community change. 

Allio Consulting is currently producing a case study that documents how farmworkers in Monterey County and Tulare County are struggling to protect their communities from dangerous pesticide exposures known as pesticide drift.  Recently after many organizations came together on this issue and after close collaboration among resident leaders that produced thousands of letters of support, the Agricultural Commissioner agreed to create a 1/4 mile buffer zone around schools, communities, and farm labor camps where aerial spraying of restricted chemicals was prohibited.    On February 20, 2008, a celebration occurred in Plainview, California where participants marched a symbolic 1/4 mile, shared a mole lunch and cake.