New Door Ventures (NDV) is a nonprofit in San Francisco’s Mission District committed to helping youth living in high-risk situations to prepare for work and life through job training and community building. Using social enterprise as a means to help young people find work, NDV is dedicated to supporting the development of each client’s unique potential. Its programs reflect the belief that lasting change comes through supportive relationships among individuals and the mutual support of a larger community. (more…)

The Jim Joseph Foundation, a relatively new foundation devoted exclusively to supporting the education of Jewish youth, was poised to launch a new seven-year, seven-million–dollar investment called the Professional Development Initiative (PDI).

Conducted in partnership with the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO), the PDI was designed to foster new leaders for Jewish communal work by supporting Jewish educators early in their careers to obtain MBAs and Certificates in Jewish Education. (more…)

What can funders or donors do when they sense a burgeoning field—one that might be growing quickly but in a fragmented way, with minimal infrastructure and incomplete standards of practice? And what if this nascent field is struggling to mature parallel to a larger, national movement that is growing rapidly, with increasing public interest and support? What kinds of foundation investments in this situation would be strategically wise?

At such a moment, information is power; power to make better decisions about investments, engage key leaders in your efforts to expand and improve the field’s chances for growth. (more…)

Measuring the impacts of a multi-year social-change initiative is a considerable challenge in itself.

The Community Clinics Initiative (CCI) needed an evaluation that would provide more than an after-the-fact report. A joint program of Tides and The California Endowment, CCI wanted its grant programs to help clinics improve health outcomes in underserved communities and build the overall capacity of the community clinics field. (more…)