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• With just a few weeks before voters go to the polls, Anne Bartley once again shares three of her top recommendations for civic engagement groups that are working for better democracy; and
• Mary Morgan makes a significant matching challenge gift towards the Indian Point Campaign of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in memory of NIRS President Michael Mariotte.
Additionally, you will read more about RPA’s work in South Korea with board member Kyungsun Chung and his family’s Asun Nanum Foundation. Highlights from Winrock International, Synergos, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Rockefeller Family Fund and the Asian Cultural Council are included as well. And a recap of RPA’s summer board meeting activities in San Francisco kicks off news from our four regional offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Cheers,
abused in American prisons, jails and juvenile detention centers every year, and this used to be considered an intractable problem. JDI is the only organization in the country dedicated to addressing it, and it does so with a tiny budget: over the whole life of the organization we’ve spent about $12 million. But through a combination of national advocacy (helping change the country’s laws and regulations) and implementation work at the state and institutional level (helping prisons and prison systems put better policies into practice) JDI is making a huge difference. I expect the rate of sexual abuse in American detention facilities to fall by fifty percent or more in the next decade, meaning that over 100,000 people a year will be spared life-altering trauma.
The other is the Rockefeller Family Fund. Many of you already know what extraordinary successes the RFF has had over the last few years. With a relatively small endowment and a small but amazing staff, it has been a leader in making the American economy work better for women and in fighting to reduce our country’s contributions to climate change. For the rest of you, if you’ve never been to an RFF board meeting or if it’s been a while, please come to one as our guest! Or else just shoot me an email, let’s grab a beer, and I’ll talk your ear off.
For now, though, I’m going to turn things over to others. This issue of RockLinks highlights the following family projects:
Dear Family,
Welcome to RockLinks: A Newsletter about Rockefeller Family Philanthropy
from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. I’m delighted to be this issue’s guest columnist.
RPA’s mission, of helping donors create thoughtful, effective philanthropy, represents a great opportunity to do good in the world. Because philanthropic dollars are precious. When spent intelligently they can have an outsized impact in addressing the most urgent social problems. But there aren’t very many of those dollars out there—the entire philanthropic sector is just a tiny part of the economy—and too often they’re spent un-strategically, even carelessly, on projects that make their donors feel good but have little impact. Since philanthropy can do so much, there’s an enormous opportunity cost when it’s done badly. I’m proud that our family is associated with philanthropy that makes a real difference, and, having served on RPA’s board for the last nine years, I’m proud that it’s helping other families do the same with their giving.
I’m also proud to chair the boards of two organizations that, I think, exemplify thoughtful, effective philanthropy. One is Just Detention International, an organization trying to prevent rape in prison. About 200,000 people are sexually
02 Family Projects
06 Rockefeller Family Philanthropic Network News
14 RPA in the Universe
SEPTEMBER 2016A Newsletter About Rockefeller Family Philanthropyfrom Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
We encourage you to keep sharing your feedback,
suggestions and articles for future issues, by
writing to Shermane Bilal, Senior Manager, Grants
& Funds at RPA, [email protected].
David Kaiser
2SEPTEMBER 2016
FAMILY PROJECTS GETTING OUT THE VOTE IN 2016: ORGANIZATIONS WORKING FOR BETTER DEMOCRACY
GETTING OUT THE VOTE IN 2016: ORGANIZATIONS WORKING FOR BETTER DEMOCRACY
CENTER FOR COMMUNITY CHANGE’S 2016 COMMUNITY VOTING PROJECT FOR IMMIGRANTS
The tenor of the dialogue among many of the candidates—presidential and otherwise—in the 2016 election has
been incredibly negative, and by orders of magnitude, the rhetoric has been more xenophobic than anything before. Immigrants and Latinos have been unfairly vilified. Amid the outrage, CCC’s Community Voting Project (CVP) sees this as a call to action. It reminds all of us of the importance of immigrants becoming engaged in American civic life, whether they have long been U.S. citizens or newly naturalized.
“Voting is the way most American
citizens participate in our
democracy. To have a vibrant,
working democracy we must
have more citizens participating.
The following three groups focus
on those Americans who have
had—and continue to have —
barriers to voting, which is their
Constitutional Right. Americans’
Right to Vote is what creates
a working democracy for all of
us. These groups work for all
our rights and, therefore, for a
better democracy: Center for
Community Change, The Voter
Participation Center and The
State Infrastructure Fund.
I’m happy to talk more
about any of these groups at
—Anne Bartley
SEPTEMBER 2016 3
FAMILY PROJECTS GETTING OUT THE VOTE IN 2016: ORGANIZATIONS WORKING FOR BETTER DEMOCRACY
In 2016 CVP will work closely with member organizations of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), the nation’s largest immigration coalition housed and staffed by CCC, to target in particular newly naturalized Americans, those turning 18, and those who have been less likely to turn out in past elections. CVP is working closely with as many as 17 partners in 13 states. A tailored program of support to local partners will include: identifying qualified field organizers and other key staff; working with partners to collect to mobilize 250,000 low-propensity voters and new registrants; and running three to five multi-state trainings that will engage 15 lead organizers, 25 democracy fellows and 1,000 community leaders. This model relies on volunteer teams who recruit others in their communities, resulting in a surge in capacity far beyond the reach of paid staff. The states where CVP works are: AZ, CA, ID, IL, ME, NE, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, WA and WI. For more information, please contact CCC’s
Chief of Staff Deepak Pateriya (pictured on
previous page) at [email protected].
THE VOTER PARTICIPATION CENTER
The Voter Participation Center (VPC) has been uniquely successful in increasing the number and diversity
of Americans who participate in our democracy. Since 2004 VPC has helped register more than 3 million members of the Rising American Electorate (RAE)—unmarried women, persons of color, and millennials— who now comprise the majority of voting eligible citizens.
The VPC’s goals are to produce a more just society that accurately represents the values and voices of its people, develop habitual voters and deliver on the promise of majority rule. VPC has research-driven, metric-based programs and tools to continually improve programs and cut costs. Independent research analysis shows that in 2012 VPC registered more than 750,000 RAE members, and of these, 77 percent voted on Election Day. Independent research also showed that of the 2012 newly registered voters, nearly 75 percent of people cast a ballot in the next election. And with each election, VPC is always evaluating how to better accomplish its goals and sharing what works and what doesn’t with national and state partners. “This is a group that was founded by Page Gardner (pictured). She has been amazing in her creative and innovative ways to reach the mobile population of the “Rising American Electorate—RAE,” said Anne. “This is one of the groups that I think the most highly of and RBF has also funded them under their previous name, Women’s Voices, Women Vote.” For more information, please visit
www.voterparticipation.org or contact
Gail Kitch, Executive Vice-President, at
THE STATE INFRASTRUCTURE FUND
The State Infrastructure Fund (SIF) is the nonprofit arm of a network of national and state-based donors and foundations that works to engage historically disenfranchised communities in the democratic process and protect their right to vote—including people of color, new citizens, low-income communities, women and young people.
What makes SIF different is that it invests in organizations and programs that only work in states. These are high-performing organizations that educate, register and mobilize voters; organize communities to advocate on issues and for policies
that benefit their members; support expanded access to the polls; and fight efforts to suppress voter participation. SIF funds both state-based and national organizations that work only at the state level. The goal is to directly fund vetted state-based organizations and programs that build stronger and more durable state organizations and networks that organize, educate, enroll and mobilize year-round on issues that are important to historically disenfranchised communities. Some of the states SIF is focused on are Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Alabama.
“Since 2010 SIF has been and continues to be a very respected donor collaborative. It provides the following advantages to its donors: leverage by other individual and institutional donors, expertise by working with an experienced field of strategists, advocates, and other skilled professionals, and efficiency by providing an agile, flexible, efficient funding mechanism. All of which allow national funders to make smaller, more targeted and well-researched grants in multiple geographies,” Anne said.
For more information, contact, Lisa Versaci, SIF
Director, [email protected].
BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE:REPLACING INDIAN POINT WITH CLEAN ENERGY
The Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant lies on the Hudson River just north of New York City, on two earthquake faults. In 2010 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission listed Indian Point as the most vulnerable reactor site in the country to an earthquake—even more so than those on the California coast. It endangers the country’s largest city and 20 million people who live within a 50-mile radius. Governor Cuomo and the Attorney General have taken steps to close the plant, but safety problems and radiation leaks at the plant have worsened dramatically in the last year. A growing number of equipment failures and emergency shutdowns increased concerns, as radiation levels in groundwater spiked hundreds of times higher than safe drinking water limits. Then in March, it was discovered that hundreds of bolts inside one of the reactors were damaged and missing due to age and radiation exposure. There is a dire need to close Indian Point to prevent a nuclear disaster
like the 2011 meltdowns in Fukushima, Japan from occurring just 25 miles from New York City.
Nuclear Information & Resource Service (NIRS) has a plan to make that happen. In the next two years, federal regulators will decide whether to extend Indian Point’s licenses to allow operation until 2035, creating a window of time with great uncertainty for shareholders in Entergy, the plant’s owner. A strategic campaign to inform residents and businesses, particularly those in New York City and encourage them to take action, will provide the necessary pressure to turn the tide. NIRS’ plan is complementary to and coordinated with a coalition of local and national organizations and ongoing legal and communications efforts. Mobilizing public opinion in NYC is necessary to apply the economic and political pressure to close Indian Point, and NIRS has a plan to do it.
4SEPTEMBER 2016
FAMILY PROJECTS BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE: REPLACING INDIAN POINT WITH CLEAN ENERGY
ABOVE Fukushima and Indian Point Marches
Photo courtesy of Waka Imamichi, 2014.
“A number of years ago, the
younger Rockefeller generation
formed a collaboration to
close Indian Point. It is these
Cousins and/or extended
family that I first think of in
relationship to the urgent
campaign of the Nuclear
Information and Resource
Service to finally being able to
support the closure of Indian
Point as a reality. To that end,
I am committing a significant
matching gift in support of
this vital initiative,” said
Mary Morgan.
NIRS’ new Executive Director, Tim Judson, comes to the organization from New York, where he has worked on Indian Point for over fifteen years and helped build the campaign that recently closed Entergy’s Vermont Yankee reactor. NIRS’ experience taking on Entergy shows that the company will make a smart business decision to close Indian Point when it becomes uneconomical to do otherwise.
NIRS already has laid the groundwork, building a strong grassroots coalition and educating elected officials. Taking on Entergy’s public relations and lobbying machine will require a well-resourced organizing and communications effort. As the national resource and organizing hub of the safe energy movement for 38 years, a clear opportunity exists to close Indian Point, to prevent a Fukushima on the Hudson and to build a clean energy future for New York.
“The situation at Indian Point could not be more serious, but I believe NIRS’s plan to mobilize business and political leaders to close the plant and replace it with clean, safe energy is what is needed to do the job ,” said David Fenton, Founder and Chairman, Fenton Communications.
To learn more about NIRS’ Indian Point Campaign,
please visit www.nirs.org or contact Executive
Director Tim Judson at [email protected]; or Mary
Morgan at [email protected].
SEPTEMBER 2016 5
FAMILY PROJECTS BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE: REPLACING INDIAN POINT WITH CLEAN ENERGY
LEFT Indian Point
Getty Images
TOP Accident Plume from NRDC report
Image courtesy of Natural Resources Defense Council, 2011.
LEFT Fukushima Radioactive Plume Superimposed
over Indian Point Image courtesy of Samuel A. Lawrence Foundation, 2013.
6SEPTEMBER 2016
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY PHILANTHROPIC NETWORK NEWS
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY PHILANTHROPIC
NETWORK NEWSABOVE The Asian summit drew a unique mix of
innovators and kicked off a five-year initiative
to develop technological solutions and regional
partnerships for farmers in Bangladesh,
Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal.
A CULTURE OF INNOVATION AT WINROCK INTERNATIONAL
SEPTEMBER 2016 7
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY PHILANTHROPIC NETWORK NEWS
Two Recent Events Build on
a Legacy
Winrock International was born on an Arkansas mountaintop — and now has 120 projects in 46 countries. Innovation is part of its DNA. After Winthrop Rockefeller’s death in 1973, trustees of his estate created the Winrock International Research and Training Center to further his wish that the farm be “venturesome and innovative” and provide tools to help people help themselves. And it’s done just that for more than 40 years.
“Innovation is an important part of our legacy,” says John Kadyszewski, a 27-year veteran of Winrock who oversees strategic initiatives. The Rockefeller Foundation recognized Winrock with an Innovation Kitchen grant in 2012, and the organization has had its own internal grants program rewarding staff who come up with creative programming ideas. A legacy of innovation continues to guide Winrock, and this past spring two major events have showcased this.
On June 9, Winrock announced that it is combining with the Innovation Hub, a Little Rock-based nonprofit that provides education and enterprise support — everything from job training to maker spaces with 3-D printers for budding entrepreneurs. And on May 25 and 26, Winrock, along with USAID’s Feed the Future Asia Innovative Farmer’s Activity, put on the Asia Regional Agricultural Innovation Summit in Bangkok, Thailand. While the two events took place in different parts of the world, they are linked by an emphasis on innovation.
The Asian summit brought together social entrepreneurs, researchers, government experts, project designers, farmers, fishers and others to kick off a five-year initiative to develop technological solutions and regional partnerships for smallholder farmers
“Workplace culture is the engine that drives innovation,” says Christopher “Kiff” Gallagher, Winrock’s vice president of business development and external affairs, who co-designed the summit. “In breaking silos, mixing ideas, people, and now organizations, we create possibilities and accomplish things together that we could never do alone.”
in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal. It featured not only experts from USAID, FAO and the like but also such innovators as Tri Nguyen of the Vietnamese-based MimosaTEK, creator of a precision irrigation system that uses sensors, smartphones and the Internet of Things (IoT), and Johan Van Asbrouck of Thailand’s Rhino Research, whose small drying beads absorb moisture from seeds and grains and help prevent storage loss. Michael Peng, co-founder and co-managing director of IDEO Japan, which has brought principles of design thinking into industries ranging from education to consumer electronics, delivered a keynote address on the importance of innovation and how design thinking can be used to tackle global challenges.
The Innovation Hub, founded and led by Warwick Sabin, Winrock’s senior director of U.S. programs, fosters entrepreneurship as a strategy for job creation and workforce development. The Hub supports startups such as a new patient care system that sends alerts to hospital staff based on a patient’s needs or a pillow topper that makes six hours of sleep feel like eight — both of which debuted at a recent HubX Lifesciences Demo Day.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R), who spoke at the news conference announcing the organizational combination, said that
“two of Arkansas’ most interesting and innovative nonprofits are coming together, and this has not only local, but national and international implications as well.”
Winrock has two traits that incline it toward innovation, says Kadyszewski. One is an emphasis on science and the other is a belief in market mechanisms. Combine the two, he says, “and you come up with things like human- centered design.”
Human-centered design is emphasized at the Innovation Hub and was also featured heavily at the summit, where experts noted that agricultural production can no longer be boosted by using more seeds or fertilizer, but will require an approach that applies technology solutions to the unique needs of the people who will use them.
“People are just as smart, they work harder, they’re more threatened — but they don’t have access to the same infrastructure and tools that we have access to,” Kadyszewski says. “That’s what’s changing. There’s now much more access to innovative
8SEPTEMBER 2016
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY PHILANTHROPIC NETWORK NEWS
technologies that, with some support, enable communities to develop their own solutions.”
Ki Chong Tran, founder of ARC Hub, a Cambodian version of Arkansas’ Innovation Hub, called the summit
“extremely valuable.” Tran, whose organization supports social entrepreneurs in Cambodia, added, “ARC Hub works to find practical ways in which fabrication technology such as 3-D printing can be applied in developing countries, so the event was fantastic for truly learning about the needs of farmers.”
The Asian summit and Innovation Hub exemplify Winrock’s culture of innovation, says Christopher “Kiff” Gallagher, Winrock’s vice president of business development and external affairs, who co-designed the summit. “Workplace culture is the engine that drives innovation. In breaking silos, mixing ideas, people, and now organizations, we create possibilities and accomplish things together that we could never do alone.”
Says Winrock President and CEO Ferguson: “We have inherited a legacy of people who dream very big and accomplish enormous things. I’m very proud of Winrock’s spirit of innovation — and look forward to building on it in the years to come.”For more information about the Asian summit
and the merger with the Innovation Hub,
please contact Winrock CEO Rodney Ferguson
at 703-302-6507 or [email protected]
or Dave Anderson, Director of Communications
and Public Affairs at 917-304-0665 or
[email protected]. To learn more
about Winrock International and its culture of
innovation, please visit www.winrock.org.
LEFT Winrock President and CEO Rodney Ferguson
congratulates Innovation Hub founder Warwick
Sabin upon his being named Winrock’s new
senior director of U.S. programs.
RIGHT TOP At the Asian summit, Michael Peng, co-founder
and co-managing director of IDEO Japan,
described how innovation and design thinking
can help tackle global challenges.
RIGHT BOTTOM Arkansas’s Innovation Hub provides maker
spaces with 3-D printers for budding
entrepreneurs.
SEPTEMBER 2016 9
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY PHILANTHROPIC NETWORK NEWS
ABOVE Volunteer storyteller from Amman, Jordan holds
storytime for neighborhood children in her home.
LEFT Students gather at local mosque for weekly
storytime in Amman, Jordan.
SYNERGOS: BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER TO OVERCOME POVERTYSynergos is a global nonprofit
organization helping solve
complex problems of poverty
and enabling communities
to thrive by promoting and
supporting collaboration in over
thirty countries.
Social Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is one of great hope and great change. Yet too many of its people face poverty, inequity, and other problems. Unemployment is dangerously high, particularly among youth, and women’s economic
participation is among the lowest in the world. Half of all women and a third of all men are illiterate.
To address these issues, Synergos supports the largest social entrepreneurship network in the region; its social entrepreneurs are collectively meeting the needs of nearly two million people. Since 2008, the Synergos Social Entrepreneurship program has supported these agents of change who are combining innovation and business skills to meet the pressing social needs of their communities in a variety of sectors including education, health, the environment, and employment. These individuals are dedicated to serving poor and marginalized communities in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine. Its work in the region began with support from USAID and continues with funding from Alwaleed Philanthropies, one of the largest donors in the MENA region.
Highlight of a Synergos Social Entrepreneur
Rana Dajani is creating a library in every neighborhood to foster a love of reading among children.
In the Arab World, the practice of reading for pleasure is uncommon, contributing to a widening knowledge gap in the region. Community libraries are rare outside of urban hubs and a survey conducted by Arabia News estimated that the average number of pages read in the Middle East is only half a page a year.
To change this reality, Rana Dajani began holding story time for children at a local mosque. The positive community response prompted Rana to establish We Love Reading, an organization that trains adults to read aloud to children at a mosque or other local community space. The readers, mostly women,
10SEPTEMBER 2016
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY PHILANTHROPIC NETWORK NEWS
ROCKEFELLER BROTHERS FUNDThe Rockefeller Brothers
Fund is pleased to announce
the election of several new
members to its board of
trustees. Four candidates were
elected at the Fund’s board
meeting in June.
Ambassador Ryan Crocker is the dean and executive professor at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, where he holds the Edward and Howard Kruse Endowed Chair. He is a former ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon.
Heather McGhee is the president of Dēmos, a public policy organization working for equality in American democracy and economic opportunities. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Civic Participation and serves on the boards of the Center for Working Families and Consumer Reports.
Miranda Kaiser begins a new term as an RBF trustee, having previously served from 2006–2015. She is co-president of the Refugee Center Online, a nonprofit that helps refugees and displaced persons successfully reintegrate in the United States. Ms. Kaiser is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and also serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Family Fund and the David Rockefeller Fund.
Wyatt Rockefeller is a filmmaker and investor with a background in energy policy and development. He has worked as the special assistant to the deputy administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and at an energy distribution startup based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania called EGG-energy, Inc.
ABOVE A child enjoys a book from a We Love Reading
library.
BELOW Synergos social entrepreneurs at regional
convening in Jordan with Peggy Dulany (right).
read to children aged 4 to 10, using age-appropriate books. After each interactive storytelling session, the children can check out books to take home and read with their parents.
Reading is vital to the development of a child’s personality, imagination, and communication skills. The practice of storytelling associates reading with pleasure and shapes a child’s enthusiasm for reading.
The We Love Reading model is sustainable and cost-effective and has already spread from a single storyteller in 1 country to 15 countries. To date, the organization has trained 700 storytellers, established 300 libraries, directly impacted 10,000 children in Jordan, and indirectly impacted 50,000 individuals worldwide.
“We’re talking about reading that creates imagination, thinking outside the box,
that there is more to life than my immediate environment.”
– Rana Dajani
For more about Synergos and the Social
Entrepreneurship program in the Middle East
and North Africa region, please contact Surita
Sandosham, Vice President of Programs at
SEPTEMBER 2016 11
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY PHILANTHROPIC NETWORK NEWS
LEFT Laurance S. Rockefeller proposed Virgin Islands
Park. 1956 Virgin Islands.
The four new trustees join Jennifer Nolan, an award-winning author and passionate environmentalist, as the Fund’s newest board members. Ms. Nolan was elected and joined the board in March. She has decades of experience serving on nonprofit boards including the United States Fund for UNICEF and Maine Audubon.
We also are grateful to the trustees whose terms ended this year, for their service and dedication to our work: Steven Rockefeller who first joined the board in 1977 and had served as chair from 1998 to 2006; Vali Nasr, who was first elected to the board in 2007; and Joseph Pierson, who joined the board in 1994 and served as vice chair since 2013. Wendy Gordon was elected as vice chair of the Fund in June.
Later in the fall, the Fund will host two emerging leaders working in the Chinese philanthropic sector as participants in the first annual Richard Rockefeller Fellowship. The RBF, members of the Rockefeller family, and the Lao Niu Brother Sister Foundation all contributed toward an endowment for
this program, which the Institute of International Education is helping to design and administer. The Fellowship aims to build on Richard’s legacy by supporting young leaders dedicated to strengthening China’s philanthropic sector. As this is the pilot year, a small-scale recruitment and selection process was implemented. A total of 20 applications were received and the two fellowship finalists will come to New York to develop the skills, knowledge, and networks needed to complement their professional experience in China. Over the course of their six months, they will live at the International House and learn about American foundation management, governance, and grants. Each fellow will focus on individualized goals tailored to build on their previous knowledge, interest, and professional experience. For more information on the Fellowship and its inaugural participants, visit rbf.org/richard-rockefeller-fellowship.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund marked its 75th anniversary and launched an interactive timeline of its history last November. This year, RBF continues to
reflect on past grantmaking by exploring common themes from our history through a series of essays commissioned from Dr. Barbara Shubinski, senior historian at the Rockefeller Archive Center. The essays cover a breadth of topics including the evolution of Fund’s environmental work, its involvement with international funding and civil society, as well as a reflection on risk and failure, and an examination of our philanthropic toolbox. The essays, which supplement the timeline, are being published throughout the year at rbf.org/essays75.For more information about the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund, please visit www.rbf.org.
12SEPTEMBER 2016
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY PHILANTHROPIC NETWORK NEWS
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY FUND LAUNCHES JUST TRANSITION FUND TO HELP COAL-IMPACTED COMMUNITIESThe United States is in the
midst of a historic energy
transformation.
Low natural gas prices, tightening clean air and carbon regulations, and the increasing cost competitiveness of renewable energy all contribute to a shift away from coal. Although these changes reflect progress toward a clean energy economy, they have left many coal-impacted regions—particularly communities dependent on coal mines and plants for their economic livelihood—vulnerable and adrift.
Coal industry declines in Appalachia and the Powder River Basin—the nation’s largest coal producing regions—have resulted in economic uncertainty. Since 2010, production throughout the Appalachia region has plunged by 40 percent, on average. As the region hardest hit by the shrinking coal industry, coal-mining jobs have plummeted. And in the Powder River
Basin, a string of coal mining company bankruptcies—coupled with both mine and power plant closures—have left communities in Wyoming and Montana in distress. In April, nearly 500 coal miners lost their jobs at mines operated by Arch Coal and Peabody Energy in Wyoming, a state where 1 in 10 are employed in coal related fields.
The Energy transition also impacts communities where coal plants have closed. In the last few years, nearly 40 percent of the U.S. coal fleet has retired. Not only do plant closures result in job loss at the site itself, but they also cause significant reductions in public revenue when plants are removed from local tax rolls. The impacts reverberate throughout the community as reduced local government funding translates to job loss for public employees, decreased school budgets, and service cuts for local residents.
In response to these challenges, Heidi Binko of the Rockefeller Family Fund (RFF) and Sandra Mikush of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation and the Appalachia Funders Network collaborated to create the Just Transition Fund. Launched in April 2015, the Just Transition Fund is designed to allow national foundations to strategically and nimbly invest in what are often more local, place-based efforts. By using a network-oriented approach and forging partnerships with place-based funders, the Fund is able to quickly deploy resources to help coal communities diversify their economies.
Through its grantmaking programs, annual stakeholder convening, and other shared-learning activities, the Just Transition Fund seeks to build the capacity of organizations in the field; leverage federal POWER funding; and support the emerging, national network of transition advocates. Although originally created to help communities access federal POWER grants—made
available as part of President Obama’s Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER)+ Plan—the Just Transition Fund’s broader mandate is to support frontline coalfield and power plant communities as they transition to a sustainable, clean energy economy.
Since its inception, the Fund has awarded nearly $1 million to help coal-impacted communities. (In 2015, the Fund’s first $450,000 in grants leveraged more than $2.7 million in federal POWER funds.) By supporting local efforts to create sustainable development solutions, including community solar, energy efficiency and green construction, and more broadly support renewable energy, the Fund is helping communities create jobs, diversify their economies and build support for clean energy solutions. All in the places where the coal industry has been the most deeply entrenched.
In order to meet our climate goals, the U.S. must transition beyond coal. As philanthropists working to build the clean energy economy, we must ensure that coal-dependent communities receive the help they urgently need. For more information about the Just Transition
Fund, please contact Heidi Binko, Associate
Director, Special Climate Initiatives, at (434) 244-
0717 or [email protected].
SEPTEMBER 2016 13
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY PHILANTHROPIC NETWORK NEWS
TOP LEFT Only four of the six villages on the island currently
have boats; about sixty boats on the island are
seaworthy.
TOP RIGHT Douglas Books, far right, with local boat builders
in Okinawa.
ASIAN CULTURAL COUNCILVermont Boat Builder Douglas
Brooks Travels to Taiwan to
Research Traditional Boats of
Lanyu Island
Douglas Brooks is a Vermont-based builder of wooden boats who has been working closely with Japanese traditional boat builders since 1996. With support from Asian Cultural Council (ACC) fellowships in 2008 and 2014, and additional support from funders in Japan and the U.S., Brooks apprenticed himself to master craftsmen across Japan to learn how to build eight different kinds of traditional boats. ACC fellowships aim to provide transformative experiences of cultural exchange to achieve respect and understanding between Asia and the U.S., and the way the Council works to achieve this is by designing carefully customized individual fellowships for artists, scholars, and specialists to carry out international travel for research and study. During Brooks’ intensive work with Japanese boat builders over the past nineteen years, he became intrigued by the images of the remarkably beautiful traditional boats of the Tao indigenous group in nearby Taiwan. He received a fellowship grant from the ACC in 2014
to research this boatbuilding tradition and traveled to Lanyu Island, off the southeastern coast of Taiwan. In his report to the ACC, Brooks wrote,
Although I was somewhat familiar with the boats, called tatala, I was amazed to discover the skill that goes into building them. Fascinating as well is how deeply embedded boatbuilding is culturally. There are no professional boatbuilders: every fisherman builds his own tatala. And the process not only includes preparing the materials and construction, but growing taro and raising a pig in preparation for the launching. The amazing decoration of the boats is a direct reflection on the skill and prestige of the boatbuilder, and he is expected to host a community celebration in proporation to his boatbuilding prowess. As the wife of a boatbuilder told me, a good boat is proof of a strong family, because the entirety of the process requires a family effort.
I was told about twenty men are capable of making boats, but the consensus is most are in their 60s or older. The island is undergoing rapid changes and pressures from tourism. Lanyu was essentially the last place in Taiwan to witness any development. Real modernization didn’t happen until the 1970s, but now most young people leave the island so there is a real question of the
succession of these skills, which have been passed down in an oral tradition.
A big surprise for me was learning how quickly the boats deteriorate. We heard estimates of 7-15 years for the life of a fishing boat, and indeed in the margins of the four villages where you can find these boats many are abandoned and rotting. The local wood used to build tatala is very light and porous, and while excellent for carving, it is not very durable or rot resistant. I know of about half a dozen tatala in museum collections world-wide (Japan, Germany, France, and the US). I spoke to some people on the island who are concerned about cultural loss. They recognize a need to preserve the craft, but they are really in a race against change.
Now back in Vermont, Brooks is researching how more tatalas could be placed in museum collections, and exploring ideas for working with Tao boat builders in the future to conserve this remarkable tradition. To learn more about the Asian Cultural Council,
please visit www.asianculturalcouncil.org.
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ABOVE A view of the Foundation’s staff during the
workshop. Photo Credit: Liza Primeau.
TOP Nami Chung introduces RPA to her Foundation’s
program staff. Photo Credit: Liza Primeau.
RPA IN SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: HUB FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SOCIAL IMPACT ENTERPRISESIn late June, three members of RPA’s New York Advisory team -- Vice President Walter Sweet, Philanthropic Advisor Liza Primeau, and Senior Advisor Donzie Barroso -- headed to Seoul, South Korea to conduct an evaluation and strategy workshop for the Asan Nanum Foundation, the family foundation of RPA board member Kyungsun Chung and his cousin and RPA fellow Nami Chung.
In Seoul, the RPA team found a dynamic and young foundation staff at the Asan Nanum Foundation, as well as a wide variety of entrepreneurship and social impact enterprises.
At the time of RPA’s trip to Seoul, Nami Chung was the head of planning and
communication of the Asan Nanum Foundation, which will celebrate its fifth anniversary in October of 2016. Recently named Managing Director of the Foundation, Nami has spent time with RPA completing a two-part fellowship in philanthropy tailored to her needs by RPA advisory staff. Earlier this summer, Nami visited RPA’s New York office to meet with staff and leadership of foundations and nonprofits engaged in work similar to that of the Foundation to learn about their evaluation methods. Among the groups Nami visited in early June were the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Echoing Green and Ashoka, among others.
Following her visit to New York, Nami engaged RPA to carry out a full-day workshop about landscape scanning, theory of change, and evaluation, in order to help Foundation staff and leadership think about how best to measure the Foundation’s impact moving forward. RPA’s interactive workshop for about two dozen foundation staff incorporated individual as well as group exercises and discussion.
Focused on entrepreneurship, the Asan Nanum Foundation was created to honor Nami and Kyungsun’s grandfather, the creator of the Hyundai brand; and to instill those same values of creativity and drive in younger generations of Koreans. The Foundation currently has nine different programs, all focused on helping youth to create and develop new businesses, as well as to become forward-thinking nonprofit leaders. The Foundation also runs a shared office space that provides a variety of entrepreneurs—working in scientific research, gaming,
RPA IN THE UNIVERSE
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Kyungsun is currently working on the possibility of bringing a similar model of social change that incorporates housing, enterprise, and wraparound services to the United States. In the meantime, Kyungsun and Nami are ensuring that their local family philanthropy stays ahead of the curve.
For more information, please contact Senior
Philanthropic Advisor Donzie Barroso at
[email protected] or (212) 812-4322.
• On June 15, Director Mitchell Singer participated on a panel entitled “Philanthropy in the Entertainment Industry,” organized by the CalCPA Education Foundation. This conversation was focused on issues of interest to the business managers in the audience, from the nuts and bolts of how to give to overall approaches to giving.
• On July 12, the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Board of Directors held its first-ever board meeting in San Francisco. The meeting was preceded by a tour of the Mid-Market district, where San Francisco’s housing crunch, tech industry, culture of civic engagement and flourishing arts community intersect. Later, RPA’s staff, board and extended networks joined in a celebration of the rich and multifaceted philanthropic ecosystem in the Bay Area.
IN THE NEWS
• On July 27, Vice President Berit Ashla served as a co-host for an event titled “Women Investing in Women: The Art and Power of Storytelling.” Discussion centered on ways to support women filmmakers and producers in a field where women have historically been underrepresented – and how documentary and narrative film can be leveraged to amplify critical social change issues.
• On July 28, Berit was a panelist at a Morrison & Foerster session, “Promoting Impact through Investment,” examining how a variety of types of investments can be employed by social enterprises as well as public and private companies to better reflect founder values and attract investors, customers and talent in an increasingly competitive environment.
• On August 3, Mitch moderated the panel conversation at “Moving Mountains by Building Movements,” an event organized by San Diego Grantmakers. This event focused on the need for donors to make long-term commitments to effect change. The conversation focused on the LGBT movement and the women’s movement as examples and highlighted overlapping strategies.
social ventures, and the nonprofit world—with services and the creative energy that results from sharing resources.
In addition to the workshop for the Foundation, Nami arranged for the RPA team to speak to a group of Seoul-based members of the Asian Venture Philanthropy Association, who represented a variety of sectors and interests.
A recurring theme of the visit was the perceived need to help encourage entrepreneurship. While Korea has a highly educated population, youth unemployment is a widespread concern. Encouraging new business ideas, and providing the tools to help bring those ideas to fruition, is seen as one way to create jobs for unemployed youth. In addition, as Nami explained, Korea’s continued economic strength and growth relies on foresight and creativity.
During the three-day stay in Seoul, the RPA team also had the opportunity to visit with RPA board member Kyungsun Chung, and to visit one of his own social change-minded enterprises, D-Well Salon (www.d-well.in). Kyungsun’s vision is one in which individuals bring their talent and ideas to making change in their local communities and beyond.
D-Well and a variety of other socially-minded businesses are located in the trendy Seongdong-gu neighborhood. The group lunched at a local restaurant that serves traditional vegetables harvested by “grandmother farmers” and are cooked in ways that showcase their freshness.
Changing of the guard at Gyeongbokgung Palace
in Seoul. Photo Credit: Donzelina Barroso.
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