It was a rousing evening at last night’s 2015 NCRP Impact Awards reception in San Francisco, which honored five inspiring foundations in the U.S.: Blue Shield of California Foundation, Brooklyn Community Foundation, Needmor Fund, New York Foundation and Open Society Foundations.
The room was buzzing with nonprofit and foundation leaders committed to working for the greater good through social justice. “The winners of the 2015 NCRP Impact Awards are some of the smartest, most strategic grantmakers in the nation,” said Aaron Dorfman, executive director of NCRP, in his opening remarks. He went on to describe their commitment to high-impact strategies like community organizing that empower marginalized communities to determine the solutions to the tough problems they face – a theme that emerged again and again throughout the night.
Many locally-based nonprofit and foundation leaders were in attendance, including those on our Host Committee, and we were joined by attendees of the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s national conference. But the stars were the people on the ground who are working day-by-day to change our society’s most pressing issues. In addition to the inspiring stories of grantee impact that our winners told in their acceptance speeches, the room was filled with posters created by NCRP nonprofit members telling their own stories of impact.
Representatives for each of our awardees gave inspiring speeches sharing their stories of impact. Click the links to read their full remarks.
Peter Long, PhD, president & CEO of our Corporate Awardee Blue Shield of California Foundation, shared an example of how the partnerships that the foundation supports between health care facilities and organizations fighting domestic violence (in which doctors will refer those affected to organizations that provide assistance) could help a woman in San Diego escape abuse, “because her doctor asked her the right question, and knew where to find the right answers.”
Cecilia Clarke, president & CEO of the Grantmaking Public Charity Awardee Brooklyn Community Foundation, remarked, “You might have heard that Brooklyn is a pretty hot place to live these days. But you might not have heard that nearly half of all Brooklynites live in or near poverty.” She then explored how the foundation addresses that tension through extensive community engagement.
Frank Sanchez, executive director of the Small/Midsize Private Foundation Awardee Needmor Fund, shared his foundation’s core value of democracy, putting a spotlight on the many grantees they’ve supported over the years. He described Needmor as a “small pebble that has been steadfast in its commitment to social justice.”
Maria Mottola, executive director of fellow Small/Midsize Private Foundation Awardee the New York Foundation, discussed the foundation’s long-standing commitment to unproven grantees, saying its grantmaking prioritizes groups that “make sure that the impact of community organizing is not only transactional in some abstract way, but is also transformative in the lives of real people in neighborhoods.”
In a prerecorded statement, Open Society Foundations President Chris Stone accepted their award for Large Private Foundation by saying their work in criminal justice reform “is a great testament not just to those of us who have been able to support this work, but those who did it every day.” At the event, Justice Fund Director Leonard Noisette thanked the “many allies, philanthropic partners and grantees, both here in California and nationwide,” who allowed them to achieve success.
Our special thanks to the Center for Effective Philanthropy for allowing us to hold this event in conjunction with their conference, along with Host Committee members who provided invaluable assistance to the success of this event: Yolanda Alindor of The San Francisco Foundation, Ira Hirschfield of the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund, Musimbi Kanyoro of Global Fund for Women, Surina Khan of the Women’s Foundation of California, Kate Kroeger of Urgent Action Fund, Ellen LaPointe of Northern California Grantmakers, Daniel Lee of Levi Strauss Foundation, Thomas Peters of Marin Community Foundation, Catalina Ruiz-Healy of Rappaport Family Foundation and Tim Silard of Rosenberg Foundation.
And thank you to all who joined us at the reception! What were your favorite moments?
Here are some photos from the event – please don’t hesitate to share! We’d love to see the photos you took as well. Send us a link, tweet it or post on Facebook using the hashtag #NCRPImpactAwards.
Yna C. Moore is communications director at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Follow @ynamoore and @NCRP on Twitter and join the #NCRPImpactAwards conversation.
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