ALF’s Foundation Leaders Create Lasting Change

March of 2020 was a dark and uncertain time. As the reality of the pandemic began to emerge and the harsh realities of a community in crisis became all the more apparent, it became clear to many in the local philanthropic sector that it was time to do more. Several local foundations reached out to ALF Insights to convene a group of highly placed philanthropic leaders for the purpose of aligning efforts and resources to meet this historic challenge. Since that time, the group has been facilitated by Jenny Niklaus and Akemi Flynn, with a smaller group of members collaborating with them to plan meeting agendas and guide the work.

This emergent 25-member group, dubbed Foundation Leaders, began with the stated mission of consciously and boldly centering equity, accountability, advocacy, and learning to support the needs of the nonprofit sector and the larger community. The Foundation leaders pledged to learn, struggle, and celebrate together the work of visioning and implementing race equity within their respective organizations.

"Nobody knew what was coming."

Mara Williams Low, current Executive Director of the Leo M. Shortino Family Foundation, which invests in high-impact nonprofit organizations to create opportunities for underserved students in San Jose, remembers the collective sense of bewilderment when the Foundation Leaders group initially came together just two weeks after the state order to shelter in place. "So in the beginning, we all talked about the fact that everybody who showed up was sort of shell shocked, nobody knew what was coming, what was happening, there was a lot of just grappling and checking in, okay, what are you doing? What are you doing? How are we going to respond? What is the appropriate response?"

While the group was grappling with feelings of uncertainty, Maria Garcia, Director of Grantmaking at the Health Trust, a nonprofit operating foundation focused on healthcare equity, recalled a sense of excitement as she was able to collaborate with her colleagues in the sector. "We are a smaller foundation when you compare us to other local, larger foundations. So it was the first time that we'd actually gotten together as a huge collective of philanthropy. And quite frankly, it was exciting to get together."

The anxiety and possibility of the moment were not lost on any of the Foundation Leaders' original members. For the first nine months of its existence, the group gathered for bi-weekly video calls and, eventually, in-person meetings. The container they created with support from ALF Insights provided a confidential space where leaders from these institutions could parse through difficult questions as they sought to respond to the crisis in the communities they collectively serve. Some of the lowest-hanging fruit in terms of collaboration was testing the concept of simplifying and aligning processes across organizations and stating their shared values.

Adin Miller, Chief Executive Officer of The Los Altos Mountain View Foundation, noted how the Foundation leaders were able to work together effectively early on. "There was collaboration around little bits of data sharing. Even if you just simply look at the equity pledge that was adopted early on, and then the equity play pledge that was re adopted, just recently, that in itself is a really good indication of how the group can actually collaborate together."

The equity pledge Adin spoke of is a joint statement on the part of the Silicon Valley Foundation and many other prominent funders in the Bay Area that reaffirms their commitment to work with our communities to build systems that achieve a more just and equitable Silicon Valley.

The Foundation Leaders group sessions included several presentations about the potential impact the pandemic would have on communities that were already vulnerable prior to COVID-19. Officials from the state of California and some national consultancies were brought in to share data with the group, which helped inform the urgency of the moment and the need for immediate action. In several cases, the COVID-19 impact data was shared with the boards and trustees of local foundations, influencing the way these institutions gave during the early stages of the pandemic.

Building Muscle

From the outset, the Foundation Leaders knew that their ability to help was not limited to dispersing money; they also knew they could potentially impact public policy. But what does it look like for philanthropic institutions to practice political advocacy? In his prior roles, working for the anti-tobacco industry initiative Truth.org, Adin Miller participated in political advocacy on the federal level and could see a throughline between Foundations and policy work. "At Truth.org, we understood that it's not just programs, service delivery, and grant dollars that can affect change. But sometimes you actually need to affect policy."

This recognition of the ability to change systems in the wake of the pandemic has been baked into the mission of the Foundation Leaders group. Jose Santos of The Grove Foundation stated very simply. "It's really about showing up and supporting our grantees by signing letters and doing whatever we can. I do feel that until we engage in advocacy and policy we're only going to keep putting band-aids on the work and not fully fixing it."

Challenges Big and Small

Bringing together a group of organizations of different sizes with different funding priorities is not without its challenges, of course. Camille Llanes Fontanilla, Vice President of Silicon Valley Programs at the Sobrato Foundation, talked about some of the tensions the Foundation Leaders group has been working through. "I think people are looking to Sobrato take the lead because we are one of the bigger funders in the space, but several organizations that are very active are intermediaries that have to fundraise, and that can be challenging."

As many of the COVID-era federal and state funding sources sunset, perhaps the greatest challenge facing this group is funding ways to continue supporting communities in an increasingly precarious economy. Camille noted the mindset of the Foundation Leaders group at this moment. "I  think our heads are in a couple of places. Immediate post covid era protections and resources sunsetting so what is the role of local philanthropy? It's still about galvanizing local resources."

As the group continues to move forward, the ongoing courage of the participants to stay in this conversation and space with each other is the work. Lead Facilitator Jenny Niklaus expressed optimism about the future of the work. "Akemi and I are privileged to have been able to work with these leaders for so long. The work gets better for everyone as folks continue to struggle and push around issues of equity and justice."

Learn more at alfsv.org and siliconvalleycf.org.