ARCHIVED E-BULLETINS


PACE Board Member Joins Obama Administration
April 2010

Nicole Gallant, Programme Executive at The Atlantic Philanthropies and member of the Board of Directors of PACE, has been named the new Director of Learn and Serve America and Strategic Education Advisor at the Corporation for National and Community Service. Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation, made the announcement in a speech marking the one year anniversary of the passage of the Kennedy Serve America Act.

For more information go to: http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/newsroom/releases_detail.asp?tbl_pr_id=1705

Civic Pathways Out of Poverty and Into Opportunity
February 2010

Civic Pathways out of Poverty and Into Opportunity is an inclusive field-wide dialogue focusing on the ways in which civic engagement and national service expansion strategies can better serve as pathways to workforce development and post-secondary achievement for low-income youth and adults. Commissioned by Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), Marga Incorporated is engaging diverse stakeholders, including experts and leaders in the fields of civic engagement, national service, workforce development, community organizing, education and youth development - along with youth themselves - to bring new civic pathways out of poverty and into opportunity to fruition. To generate dialogue, the research (40-50 interviews and one survey of the field) and two convenings will culminate in a white paper identifying promising practices and a graphical map of potentially fruitful civic pathways.

Priorities
Within the key areas of workforce development, higher education, community organizing, and systemic change, the project's orientation tends towards:

• Increasing racial diversity and cultural competency in the field of service;
Highlighting opportunities to make service a more accessible and clear civic pathway out of poverty for families among the working poor and groups that have been historically less engaged in the field;
• Articulating how service - as well as the unprecedented new federal investment in national service - can be leveraged as a strategy for self-empowerment, career development and community building through supporting low income young people in pursuing, persisting, and completing postsecondary credentials; and
• Developing a next generation of social sector leadership that reflects the communities in which they work.

The lessons from this process are intended to inform the work and perspectives of participants and stakeholders. They will be shared across a number of networks and venues, such as the annual National Conference on Service and Volunteering, PACE sponsored events, and others.

Approach
Our approach to identifying pathways consists of assessing the landscape of service, widening the impact of and approaches to service, and engaging strategies that move service in the direction of the four previously described areas. As a part of our assessment, we are focusing on aspects that broaden perspectives on service (including outcomes, participants, and the value of service), lead and contribute to career and workforce development (including skills development and a focus on living wage jobs), and engage post-secondary education options (including connections to secondary education, completion of the first year of college, and relevant credentials).

Based on the findings from our assessment, we aim to identify pathways that encompass:

• Changes in the thought orientation around the idea of service;
• The utilization of service as a tool in young people's lives, communities, institutions of higher education, and the workforce - moving towards a vision of service as a pathway to opportunity; and
• The engagement of national service investments as opportunities and pathways out of poverty.

PACE Releases Paper on Non-College-Bound Youth
November 2009

PACE is pleased to announce the release of it's latest white paper, "An Inequitable Invitation to Citizenship: Non-College-Bound Youth and Civic Engagement". A pdf version of the white paper is attached and we would urge you to share it widely with your colleagues and co-workers. Also, we will soon be announcing a webinar when the authors will discuss their research and findings.

It was one year ago when PACE board member Ben Binswanger, then the COO of The Case Foundation and now Vice President of the Skoll Foundation, suggested that PACE examine the topic of the gap in public and civic involvement between college-bound youth and non-college-bound youth. The philanthropic community had spent a vast amount of resources both working to understand college-bound youth and what might motivate them to become more involved in public life, but there had not been a similar conversation about how to engage the 50 percent of youth who were not college bound.

With the support of The Case Foundation, PACE has worked with three talented researchers and writers to develop this paper. The team was led by Jonathan Zaff, the Vice President of Research for the America's Promise Alliance and a senior fellow at Tisch College. James Youniss, the James and Wylma R. Curtin Professor of Psychology at the Catholic University of America, and Cynthia Gibson, principal of Cynthesis Consulting and a former program officer at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, were also authors of the paper.

As John Esterle, the President of the board of PACE and the Executive Director of The Whitman Institute in San Francisco, writes in his introduction, "In examining the civic participation of non-college-bound youth (NCBY), the authors provide a useful framework for examining the issue. It shows the need for a continuum of supportive strategies running from childhood to the mid-20s. As they suggest, it is particularly important to address the shifting social, economic, and political landscape for young adults when looking to develop effective programs and approaches."

The authors provide ideas not only for funders, but for federal and state governments, schools and school systems, higher education, the military, political/advocacy organizations, community institutions, and businesses. The recommendations that the authors have concluded the paper with provide evidence of how much there is to do if we are to bring the voices and perspectives of NCBY into our civic, public and political life.

PACE Announces Two New Board Members
October 2009

PACE is pleased to announce the appointment of two new board members. John Dedrick, Vice President and Program Director at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio and Michael Smith, Vice President, Social Innovation at The Case Foundation in Washington, DC have both agreed to join the board of PACE. PACE also wants to thank Ben Binswanger of the Case Foundation for his important service on our board, his contribution to this organization's growth over the past three years has been invaluable.

Engaging Citizen 2.0: From Obama to the “MyFaceTube” Revolution, How is Social Media Reshaping Civic Engagement?
September 2009

On September 9th, PACE co-sponsored 'Engaging Citizen 2.0: From Obama to the “MyFaceTube” Revolution, How is Social Media Reshaping Civic Engagement?' with the Case Foundation and the National Conference on Citizenship. The meeting, held at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, catalyzed an important conversation about how the philanthropic and non-profit communities are utilizing new forms of social media. Attached is a short video that captures some of the energy of the conference.

Local Governments Leading the Way in Developing New Forms of Civic Engagement
August 2009

PACE, Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement and the National Civic League have teamed up to publish a special issue of the National Civic Review (NCR) on cutting edge forms of dialog, deliberation and public decision-making at the local government level.

Currently in its 98th year of publication, NCR is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious journals of civic affairs. Its audience includes mayors, city managers, community activists, academics and leaders within the nonprofit sector.

Released this week, “The New Laboratories of Democracy: How Local Government is Reinventing Civic Engagement” features essays, interviews, and case studies on cutting edge practices by villages, towns, cities and counties in the field of public participation and how nonprofits and foundations are aiding and assisting those efforts.

“Publication of the special NCR issue is particularly timely,” noted PACE Executive Director Christopher T. Gates. “The raucous debate over health care reform is a reminder of how difficult it is to deliberate on complex public policy issues in an environment of distrust and polarization, a lesson many local officials learned in the early 1990s when budgets were tightening and public skepticism about the role of government was growing.”

Not long ago, the main vehicle for local participation was the public hearing, an often frustrating and unsatisfactory means of engaging the community. “That began to change about 15 years ago,” added Gates, “when public managers and elected officials started looking for new and better forms of engagement so they could move forward on tough local challenges. The many examples of community success suggest that local government has become an important source of innovation and activity.”

What factors led to this flurry of experimentation? What forms did these new methods take? What have we learned about these new approaches? How do public officials ensure these new ways of doing civic engagement avoid the old trap of offering only the “illusion of inclusion?” And how will technology change the way citizens come together to solve problems?

These are a few of the questions raised and explored in a white paper issued by PACE in May. This special NCR issue includes examples, insights and recommendations contained in the earlier report as well as essays by leaders of public sector associations such as the International City/County Management Association and the National League of Cities, on-the-ground reports from practitioners and advocates of civic engagement who work in communities, and “lessons learned” from local government managers who work with neighborhood groups and public forums.

“We are very excited to publish this special issue with PACE,” says Gloria Rubio-Cortés, President of the National Civic League. “It explores from a number of new angles questions that are right at the center of our mission: how do we make democracy more inclusive and how do we tap the under-used resource of public knowledge and common wisdom.”

To receive a complimentary print edition of this issue (NCR 98:2), contact Kristin Seavey, kristins@ncl.org, 303-571-4343 (ph), 303-571-4404 (fax).

Michelle Obama Speech on Service
June 2009

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the First Lady

For Immediate Release
June 16, 2009

REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY AT A GREATER DC CARES EVENT

Renaissance Hotel
Washington, D.C.
1:12 P.M. EDT

MRS. OBAMA: Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, that's very -- please -- said that is just a very nice welcome. It's an example of how the Obama family has felt welcomed to this community since January -- what was that date we got inaugurated? (Laughter.)

But good afternoon, and I am delighted and honored to be here to celebrate with you. I want to thank Mayde for that kind introduction. We did get to spend a lovely lunch together, and she tasted some of the fruits of the garden. They were good. (Laughter.) I also want to thank, as I kindly referred to them as the two Matts -- Matt Schuyler, who's the current chair, and the incoming chair, Matt Mitchell, for their hard work. I got a chance to meet them backstage.

So I'm just delighted to be able to join you all today, and I'm here simply to say thank you for the work that you've done and to help celebrate all of your accomplishments, the work that you've done to help make D.C. a truly wonderful community. It has been so nice to call this city our second home.

As you know, the President has said that America is facing some of the greatest challenges it's faced in generations, and as a result, Washington can only do so much. I think probably each and every one of you in this room realizes that. There's only so much that government can do.

As has been the case throughout our history, communities are built and rebuilt by regular people: folks working in businesses, philanthropists, foundations, and volunteers, all of them coming together to find solutions to these types of challenges. And during this time we are going to need everyone, and that -- everyone to rededicate themselves to this type of community-building, and we're going to need people to basically take hold of this kind of ethic of service and make a personal commitment to helping get this country back on the right direction.

And I believe that we're in a unique moment in history. Maybe you're seeing the same thing. I'm feeling it as I'm traveling not just around D.C. but around the country. But people really want to get involved. They really want to. They're looking for a way to turn their frustration, excitement, anxiety into action. And the recent passage of the Serve America Act -- the federal government is tripling its contribution to volunteerism, and people are responding to that investment. Applications, as we're seeing for service opportunities, are up by record numbers, and that's a very good thing.

And with the knowledge that, as Barack said throughout his campaign and throughout his presidency, that ordinary people can do some extraordinary things if they're given the proper tools and support, my husband is asking us to come together to help lay a new foundation for growth.

And that's really where all of you come in, where you've been coming in for years and years and years through your work. In order to make service a part of every citizen's life, we need to ensure that we have the capacity to welcome those volunteers in. And that's easier said than done. We want to be able to put folks' goodwill into good use. We need to make sure that every hour of time that they commit is spent doing something that's actually going to make a difference, that every dollar contributed is actually going to go to moving some real solutions forward.

And I realize that that's easier said than done. Having built an organization myself from the ground up -- as you heard from my background, I've kind of floated through my career, building stuff and then moving on and building something else -- I know what non-profits, foundations and social entrepreneurs face. I understand it. I know how hard it is to get the money to pay for fundraising, and accountants, and volunteer coordinators, to get all the technology that you really need to make the work happen; that this just doesn't happen out of goodwill, that it takes real resources to move things forward.

And I know what it's like to worry about making payroll, which I know many of you are going through in these tough times. I know that you're laying off consultants and staff members because you're seeing dollars dwindle. I know what it's like to write need statements and come up with measurable outcomes and -- (laughter) -- yes, we all know that -- segregating funds, completing AmeriCorps progress reports. I've done all that. And it's necessary, but at times it can drive you nuts. (Laughter.) So I know that service doesn't just happen. And I know how hard you work behind the scenes to make it happen, and a lot of times people take it for granted because if the work is getting done, then nobody really cares how. And when it stops happening, they wonder why, but often don't have the resources to step in.

So I want to congratulate you all on doing what it takes to make these programs work, and just knowing what it takes to keep the operations going that you don't even get a chance sometimes to celebrate what you've done to realize to step back and look at the impact that you're having. So I honor all of you for the effort, and hope that you can, if not today but tomorrow and in the coming weeks, pat yourselves on the back for the work that you've been doing, because we're going to need you to do even more.

When I look over this room, I think about my days when I worked at Public Allies. I headed that program in Chicago before I moved into the university, and that organization allowed me to work with more than 30 Chicago organizations every single year, placing AmeriCorps members with them so that they could expand their services. We placed young people with organizations working on education and youth development groups, environmental groups, neighborhood, economic development groups, all types of groups all throughout the city of Chicago. And I saw first-hand through that work the variety of neighborhood and community needs that exist out there, and how hard it is for these groups to meet that need with the resources that they have. So they were excited to get these young people. However naïve and untrained they were, they ate these Allies up.

And we recruited some of the best kids across the city of Chicago. For every young person that we recruited at a great institution like Northwestern, DePaul or the University of Chicago -- we even recruited kids from Harvard Law School -- we also recruited someone from Cabrini Green or from Little Village or North Lawndale. And through my work with Public Allies I realized that the next generation of leaders was just as likely to come from poor and working-class neighborhoods as they were to come from some of the top colleges around the country.

My time at Public Allies also gave me the opportunity to work with John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann, who developed the Asset-Based Community Development approach to neighborhood development, and that really influenced how we worked with communities. Some of you may be familiar with this approach, but the approach acknowledges that all of us, every single one of us breathing in this community, in this planet, those of us serving and those of us who are being served, that we're all both half-full and half-empty.

We all have skills and talents that make us good friends, family members, workers, and leaders, and we also have needs and shortcomings that come along with those strengths. We can't do well serving these communities, I learned with Public Allies, if we believe that we, the givers, are the only ones that are half-full, and that everybody we're serving is half-empty. That has been the theme of my work in community for my entire life -- that there are assets and gifts out there in communities, and that our job as good servants and as good leaders is not only just being humble, but it's having the ability to recognize those gifts in others, and help them put those gifts into action. Communities are filled with assets that we need to better recognize and mobilize if we're really going to make a difference, and Public Allies helped me see that.

At Public Allies, we endeavored to do this also by bringing these young people together from diverse backgrounds. We worked with African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, white, gay, straight, you name it, college graduates, ex-felons, we brought them all together every week to work in a group.

And truly, that's where the magic happened, when you saw those kids from all those different backgrounds really tussling it out and trying to figure out their philosophies in the world in relationship to their beliefs and stereotypes.

The law school graduates realized they had a lot to learn about how communities really work and how to engage people. There's nothing funnier than to watch a kid who believes they know it all -- (laughter) -- actually come across some real tough problems in communities that test every fiber of what they believe.

And then you see the young person with a GED realize that they could go to college because they're working with kids who are just as smart or not smart as them who are going, and they gain a sense of the possibilities that they have. They know that their ideas are just as good, sometimes even better. That's when those lights go off. That's what we think about when we think of Asset-Based Community Development -- that a kid from Harvard and a kid with a GED are both full of promise.

Everyone learned to build authentic relationships with one another where they could recognize each other's strengths and provide honest feedback on their challenges. They gained a blend of confidence and humility that prepared them to be able to lead from the streets to the executive suites.

You could take any one of those Allies -- and it's not just Allies, there are kids like this all over the country, and you could plop them down in any community, and they would know how to build relationships. You know, that's not just important in non-profit, that's important in life. These are the kind of gifts that we can give people through service.

And as we move forward to implement the Serve America Act, my hope is that the Office of Social Innovation that's going to do some of this funding will help us identify the wonderful concepts out there like Asset-Based Community Development. There are other wonderful approaches out there that are working in communities all over this country. This office hopefully will identify more of them and help them grow and develop the best solutions, and replicate those ideas throughout the country.

I also hope that these efforts will help us encourage philanthropy that is more responsive to the needs of the organizations. I was fortunate at Public Allies Chicago to have some pretty significant major investors -- multi-year grants, as we called them back then. I guess they still exist. (Laughter). But when you have that kind of long-term investment from foundations and corporations, that allowed me to do things like hire a development staff, or an office manager, to pay for technology that would help support this work. And you know, again, this work doesn't happen by itself. You need staff and resources to do it.

That core of organizational support made it possible for me to meet those measurable outcomes, and I hope that more philanthropists in this time will step up and have a longer-term investment approach to organizations like yours, because effective outcomes come from effective organizations, and if we are able to shed some light on the work that you're doing and the need for financial support, we can get the foundation community thinking even more critically about building the sustainable kind of support over time.

We need foundations and philanthropists to provide the integral support for our community organizations. But we also need those community organizations to provide support for all these volunteers we're recruiting now. We need to harness this amazing amount of goodwill that we're generating through this administration in a way that ensures that we serve all Americans to the best of our ability.

So once again, we're going to need you. As tired as you may be, we're going to need you. So that's why I'm here -- (laughter) -- to say thank you, because we're going to be tapping you more and more. (Applause.) Now is the time that we have to connect with one another and share good ideas and hold each other up and give each other that private counsel when the dollars are running short and hope is a little harder to find.

But that's why times like this, opportunities to gather and celebrate, are important to just get us back on track. Right now we are going to be channeling hopefully thousands of volunteers in your direction. America is looking to engage. But as you know with volunteers, if they're not connected to something meaningful, if their experience isn't organized and makes sense, then we lose them forever.

So we hope to be able to provide some of the resources that you need, but we also need you to prepare for the challenge. And if we do that and continue to harness this energy, we can not only change the way this nation feels about service, but we can change the way the world sees us. So many people will need a place to funnel their talents and their energies. Volunteerism is one of those win-win situations that makes absolute sense in this point in our nation's history.

So celebrate today. Eat up. Drink that tea. (Laughter.) And we look forward to working with you in the years to come. Thank you so much. (Applause.)

END 1:29 P.M. EDT

Council on Foundations Annual Conference
May 2009

The Council on Foundations held their annual conference in Atlanta May 2-6. While the turnout was expectedly below that of previous years, the conference had many valuable sessions and the smaller size of the gathering (roughly 1,100 people attended) made for more productive networking.

Steve Gunderson, the President and CEO of the Council, delivered a thought-provoking speech at the conference's opening plenary which framed his view of the field of philanthropy and its role in societal problem solving. You can view the speech, "Philanthropy's Place: Today and Tomorrow" (Word Doc) here.

Kellogg Project Update – Cutting Edge Civic Engagement By Local Governments - January 2008

PACE is moving forward on an intensive research project to document, analyze and disseminate information on cutting edge civic engagement efforts by local government. The research is part of a two-year project supported by the Kellogg Foundation to examine new models of public engagement.

Towns, villages, cities and counties are rich sources of civic innovation, but many success stories and new models go unheralded outside the small circles of people who follow the ins and outs of local government. One of our first discoveries in this research was the lack of any central clearinghouse or database to identify and assess the scale and impact of these local efforts. Literally thousands of communities have become “laboratories” of civic experimentation and change. Their efforts vary in scope and nature. Some are temporary, designed to solve a specific problem or to forge a new community “vision” for the future. Others, like the Neighborhood Councils in Los Angeles, reflect long-term structural changes that influence the day-to-day operations of city departments.

Local innovation has been driven as much by necessity as by any abstract sense of mission or idealism. During the late 1970s, two trends converged to create a greater demand for civic experimentation. The first was an increase in grassroots, community organizing and passionate, single-issue advocacy. The second was a growing skepticism about government, its ability to solve problems and an organized opposition to tax increases. As citizens were demanding more for less from the public sector, outside sources of funding, notably state and federal “block grants,” were drying up. Consequently, many local officials had no choice but to seek news way of interacting with the public. The alternative was dysfunction and paralysis.

Another development was the proliferation of new state and federal mandates governing everything from environmental protection to land use planning. These laws typically included vague language about public participation, but in many communities, planners and city officials designed processes that went far beyond the mandates.

Technology is clearly an important change factor and a big unknown in the future of civic engagement. Computers give citizens instant access to a wide range of information and provide new forums for policy discussion. Web-based “citizen journalists” are adding new, if often discordant, voices to the marketplace of ideas, while government agencies are finding innovative ways of using the Internet to inform and engage the citizenry. People are better informed than ever but also, in many cases, more physically isolated. Managers and elected officials who want to succeed must find effective ways of communicating and convening to tap the potential of technology.

A first step in this project was to interview experts in the field, scan the available literature and search newspaper indexes and other databases for recent examples of civic change. Terry Amsler, director of the Collaborative Governance Initiative at the Institute for Local Government, a nonprofit research and resources arm of the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties, sees “an explosion of experimentation in civic engagement” from Chula Vista, a modest border town near Tijuana, to the affluent suburbs of the Silicon Valley.

Terry notes that many “homegrown” efforts are being organized by local officials, consultants and residents who may have little contact with widely known deliberative democracy advocates and experts in the field. Planning-related and other private firms often play a big and under-recognized role in local public engagement activities. A defining question for on-the-ground practice, he suggests, is whether “sponsors and practitioners have a considered and clear sense of the intended purposes of their planned public deliberation, and are the models or strategies selected likely to get them there.”

Local government has undergone a sea change in the way it views the public. The signs are everywhere. For instance, instead of having a marketing and communications department, the City of Ventura, California, now has a “Division of Civic Engagement” with a website featuring streaming video of public meetings, a city manager’s blog and “portals” to learn more about civic events, local news and volunteer opportunities. Also, public administration and policy programs at universities have adopted the language and values of civic engagement in their curricula.

Clearly, there is a rich brew of experimentation going on at the local level. In fact, there are so many stories of civic change that, initially, the difficult question was where to start. Many different fields and disciplines come together in an inchoate mass known as civic engagement, including conflict resolution, government reinvention, leadership development, strategic planning, opinion polling, urban design, and environmentalism. All of which make our research project both challenging and potentially more rewarding for our audience of funders, practitioners, local officials, academics and informed citizens.

If you have ideas or references to share with PACE regarding this research effort, please email the project director, Mike McGrath, at mcgrath.mike1@gmail.com

PACE E-BULLETIN - August 2007

PACE has been active on a variety of fronts this summer, below is a quick summary of our current activities. For more information about any of these items, contact Chris Gates, the Executive Director of PACE, at cgates@pacefunders.org

--Our W.K. Kellogg Foundation supported, two-year research effort is now moving forward. This project will examine new models of civic engagement in two to four fields. Each field will involve a separate research project and written report. The possible topics for this research effort include new models of how local governments are involving citizens, new ways that community foundations are listening to and involving the communities they serve, new ways that citizens are being engaged in the planning of large land use projects and the broad field of how young people are being engaged in public life.

--Our Case Foundation sponsored research project has been further refined and is now moving forward. The research paper will focus on better understanding how young people who have just entered the work force are being engaged in different aspects of public life. We'll look at both high school students directly entering the work force and college students who have just graduated. There will be a particular emphasis on how new forms of communication technology are aiding in these efforts. Our hope is to have several products ready for dissemination by the fall.

--PACE, along with the Funders Committee on Civic Participation (FCCP) are serving as co-sponsors of a Proteus Fund gathering entitled "Funding Strategies for a Broader, Integrated Democracy Agenda". The meeting will take place on September 10th and 11th at the Johnson Foundation's Wingspread conference center. The meeting is part of the Proteus Fund's research project being managed by Larry Marx. Larry has been asked by Proteus to 'map' the democracy field, and to explore whether an overarching approach would be better than single-issue approaches. He convened a meeting of advocates, experts and a few funders in mid-May in Chicago at the Joyce Foundation and as a result of that meeting, and many interviews, has now developed a preliminary report which would be discussed and refined at this meeting.

--On June 12th and 13th, board member Chris Kwak of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Executive Director Chris Gates represented PACE at a meeting in Washington, DC convened by the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE). The purpose of this meeting was to bring together board and staff from eight different affinity groups to discuss the issue of structural racism and to explore how each of these groups could do racial equity work within our grantmaking networks. PACE particiapted in this meeting because it feels there is a clear race/diversity component to much of the field of civic engagement and democratic renewal. Chris K. and Chris G. will bring ideas to the PACE October board meeting in Chicago about how PACE can become more involved with this issue.

--GuideStar has a 'membership guild' consisting of 42 foundations and corporate giving programs, they have a quarterly on-line newsletter called TrueNorth and they have included a link to 'Power To The Edges' (an article on the PACE website) in their June edition.

--Chris Gates has been asked to serve on the Executive Committee of the Affinity Group Network (AGN) for the next year, he officially joined the Executive Committee at the annual meeting of AGN in Washington on July 30th and 31st.

--Conference planning continues for the 2008 Council on Foundations 'Philanthropic Summit'. PACE Executive Director Chris Gates is serving as a member of the 2008 Planning Committee and has been working to increase the involvement and representation of affinity groups in the conference. The next full meeting of the committee will take place on September 19th and 20th, immediately after the community foundations conference in San Francisco.

--PACE has signed on as a co-sponsor of a new initiative called 'Common Vision', which is being organized by Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues. Seven other affinity groups have also signed on as co-sponsors. As the project unfolds we will see if there are more specific things that we can do to be helpful. 'Common Vision' is a two year learning process designed to promote equity and opportunity in philanthropy.

--PACE Executive Director Chris Gates continues to travel and speak extensively around the country. Later this month he will facilitate a leadership seminar at the Aspen Institute featuring Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, and in September he'll be speaking at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, at the Theater Bay Area conference in San Francisco, and at the Pioneer Leadership Program in Denver.

--PACE is working with Northern California Grantmakers and several northern California funders to sponsor a half day program with Allison Fine on November 6th. The session will take place in the Silicon Valley and will focus on how new forms of communication technology have affected civic life in America. More details will be forthcoming soon.

PACE E-NEWS YOU CAN USE - August 2006

May 2, 2006

CONTACT: John Sirek

(312) 222-4426

PACE Names Civic Leader Chris Gates As Its First Full-Time Executive Director

Chris Gates, president of the National Civic League, has been named executive director of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE). Continuing his longtime commitment to promoting individual participation in community affairs, Gates will support PACE’s mission to inspire interest, understanding, and investment in civic engagement. This weekend he will speak at a session on state initiatives to advance active civic engagement. Hosted by PACE and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, the event is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, May 7, as a pre-conference discussion at the Council of Foundation’s annual conference in Pittsburgh.

“Chris will bring to PACE both an intellectual and practical commitment to the mission of engaging philanthropy and other sectors in civic engagement,” said John Sirek, PACE’s board chair and citizenship program director at the McCormick Tribune Foundation. “He is a deep thinker but also a hands on manager, and the best candidate to help scale PACE’s impact and effectiveness.”

“This is a great step by PACE and by Chris,” said Edward Skloot, president of the Surdna Foundation. “I think they can offer much to the philanthropy community with their deep experience in civic engagement. I’m looking forward to working closely and well with them.”

Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector, said, “Chris’s appointment could not have been more timely. With the challenges and opportunities facing our democracy, this new development underscores PACE’s clear and urgent commitment to strengthening civic engagement.”

Gates is a leader and frequent speaker in the areas of democracy, the interaction between citizens and government, and innovative community problem solving. He serves on a variety of boards, including the Council for the Advancement of Citizenship, the California Center for Civic Renewal, and the Institute for the Regional Community. He is also a fellow at the National Academy of Public Administration, co-chair of the Civic Practices Network, and a co-chair of the Saguaro Seminar, a Harvard University project studying social capital.

Gates has a master’s in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he studied the interaction between the public and private sectors, and an honors degree in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was also a visiting scholar at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, where he studied political economics.

Philanthropy for Civic Engagement (www.pacefunders.org) is a community of grantmakers and donors committed to strengthening democracy by using the power, influence, and resources of philanthropy to open pathways to participation.

IN THIS E-BULLETIN



Citizens Assemblies: What PACE Members had to Say

Profiles of Engagement Investments—Read the Latest Issue in Our Series!

City in Limbo: Notes from a Grantmaker’s Visit to New Orleans

Fellowship Opportunity for Media and Journalists

Philanthropy Northwest’s Annual Conference—September 13-15th, Big Sky, Montana

CITIZENS ASSEMBLIES: WHAT PACE MEMBERS HAD TO SAY

So how do we engage or re-engage as citizens in the process of public problem-solving? How do we move off the margins and into the middle of the conversation about the future of our communities and nation? Do we need a Citizens Assembly or do we need an educational system that establishes, encourages and reinforces our role as active citizens in our political and civic systems? Do we need pathways to participate or prodding? Do we need leadership or encouragement? What do you think? Let’s keep the conversation in play.

If you have comments or questions regarding Dave Davenport's article or the responses of PACE members, please e-mail us at info@pacefunders.org. We would love to hear from you!



PROFILES OF ENGAGEMENT INVESTMENTS—READ THE LATEST ISSUE IN OUR SERIES!


PACE continues to collect and share examples of philanthropic investments that have successfully advanced civic and community engagement. We are pleased to present the winter 2006 issue of Profiles of Engagement Investments featuring 16 programs nominated by PACE members and friends, ranging in focus and scope from a classroom-based youth philanthropy project to a large statewide effort mobilizing civic dialogue and recommendations around tax reform. The issue also includes several examples of national service programs and community organizing in response to the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Please visit http://www.pacefunders.org/profiles_review.html to read the Winter 2006 issue of Profiles of Engagement Investments.



CITY IN LIMBO: NOTES FROM A GRANTMAKER'S VISIT TO NEW ORLEANS


We encourage all of you to read City in Limbo: Notes from a Visit to New Orleans, an insightful and moving narrative written by Bob Hohler, Executive Director of the Melville Charitable Trust. This report includes a look at the breadth and depth of the destruction based on Hohler's field tour with Ben Johnson, president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. Also included are details of meetings with a variety of nonprofit leaders currently on the ground in New Orleans, making plans for a better tomorrow.

To download the report, please visit the Melville Charitable Trust’s website: http://www.melvilletrust.org/

Bob Hohler is the Executive Director of the Melville Charitable Trust and chairs the Executive Committee of the Partnership to End Long Term Homelessness (PELTH). Founded by leaders in philanthropy, PELTH is an open knowledge network designed to coalesce strategic thinking, experience and expertise to prevent and address long term homelessness. For more information about PELTH, please contact Regina Sheridan at rsheridan@btw.informingchange.com.




FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY FOR MEDIA AND JOURNALISTS


The Open Society Institute (OSI) offers a fellowship competition, The Katrina Media Fellowships, to support dynamic print and radio journalists, photographers and documentary filmmakers working to generate and improve media coverage of issues exposed by Katrina. Applicants may propose projects that will address citizen involvement and lessons learned about the handling of natural and man-made disasters. OSI’s Katrina Media Fellows will receive between $15,000 and $35,000; special consideration will be given to applicants who have been displaced from or are residents of the Gulf Region. The application deadline is March 31.

For more information and an application form, please see: www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/focus_areas/katrina



PHILANTHROPY NORTHWEST'S ANNUAL CONFERENCE
SEPTEMBER 13-15TH, BIG SKY, MONTANA

PACE E-BULLETIN - MARCH 2006

All the best to our friends and colleagues,

Jill Blair
Principal, BTW Consultants—informing change