Inland Empire Community Foundation

Programs: General grantmakingthrough the generosity of our donors, in 2017 the community foundation (tcf) invested more than $8 million in grants in the inland empire. Nearly $2. 7 million were for scholarships and education. Funds were awarded to a broad spectrum of nonprofits in our 27,000 square miles, two-county region. Tcf's grantmaking falls generally into the following categories: children & families ($1,144,597)health and human services ($1,931,492) civic & environmental benefit ($1,221,597) arts & culture ($126,308) tcf has other kinds of funds providing support to particular issues or places. These include field of interest funds ($263,751) which are restricted to a specific program area or geographic area. As a sampling, funds are currently helping with ada compliance, the cities of perris and idyllwild, the high desert, victims of domestic abuse, senior pet-owners and vet care, and the treatment and care of low income children in riverside county. Tcf is proud to offer donors a way to invest long term in the issues and places they care about, and sees its geographic funds as crucial investments to strengthen all parts of the inland empire. The foundation's unrestricted grantmaking supports the capacity building needs of nonprofit organizations. The community impact fund ($207,500) supports training and workshops such as board governance, fund development, leadership, advocacy, finance &budgets, evaluation, marketing, and more. Tcf has a special relationship with the s. L. Gimbel foundation fund, whose mission is to enhance the quality of life in memory of susan gimbel. Program interest areas include health, environmental protection and enhancement, education, and human dignity. Tcf gave $2,326,664 to nonprofits in partnership with the gimbel foundation trustees in 2017.

community leadership projectscommunity leadership is an important part of how community foundations can influence social justice. Tcf provides specific leadership on several issues, while also being responsive to emerging issues through its board, nonprofit partners and donors. Priority areas for leadership include programming around youth, expanding nonprofit capacity, the environment, fundraising and giving, and college attainment. Some of tcf's community leadership work in 2017 is as follows:youth grantmakers. The youth grantmakers (yg) program was created to empower youth to address issues important to them by participating in grantmaking. Through this program, young people become active agents of change, preparing them for responsive community leadership and practical hands-on service. Made up of high school students from across the two-county region, we now have five youth grantmakers groups: riverside, coachella valley, san bernardino, idyllwild, and native youth. During the 2016-2017 academic year, youth grantmakers across the two-county region strengthened their leadership skills as they participated in philanthropy, giving away over $40,000 to nonprofits that are working on issues of concern to students in inland empire high schools. Students learned to read and analyze a grant application, respectfully debate the most critical needs while learning to listen to others' perspectives, and prioritize the many worthwhile requests. An endowment fund was created in 2014 to ensure this valued initiative continues to support young people to understand, invest in, and change their communities. The native american youth grantmakers (nayg) was recently added with the goal of building awareness of native american youth needs in riverside and san bernardino counties. The pechanga tribe has already committed $25,000 towards the program and is looking to launch their nayg program for the 2017 - 2018 year. Give big san bernardino county is a 24-hour online giving day intended to raise funds, and increase the capacity of nonprofits to raise money. The campaign also raises visibility among citizens of the nonprofits operating in san bernardino county. The campaign is an outstanding example of collaboration, service, and generosity. Now in its fourth year, give big has raised more than $1. 3 million for local nonprofits. In 2017, the campaign raised $315,759 for 102 participating nonprofits. Both the number of donations made (5,032) and number of unique donors giving to the campaign (3,999) increased nearly 17% over last year. Environmental education collaborative. As part of tcf's mission to serve bring together key stakeholders to determine community needs, and to develop collaborative solutions to important community issues, we have been assisting with the development of an environmental education collaborative (eec) to serve riverside and san bernardino counties. The eec provides funding, influence and resource support for all environmental education programs that serve youth in grades k-12 in riverside and san bernardino counties. A regional collaborative was formalized in and a mini-grant program awarded $10,834 to six organizations to support the continuance and development of new programs or projects focused on environmental and science education in san bernardino and riverside counties. Strategic, needs-based scholarships: graduate successthe college futures foundation (cff) partnered with the community foundation and six other california based community foundations in regions with large numbers of youth who are not attending, or completing, college. Cff committed a significant amount of funds for scholarship-giving through community foundation partners as part of a broader vision to create long-term, sustainable funding for need-based scholarships in these regions. Graduate success, a program and fund of tcf, is our promise to help low-income riverside and san bernardino county students apply to, enroll in and complete college. This new, needs-based scholarship fund will pool contributions and generate more resources to provide financial aid, and vital resources to area youth. Advancing the field and culture of philanthropy. While we continue our work in the traditional role of community foundations-raising community funds, stewarding the, and investing them in our nonprofits-our staff and board are also working to advance the field of philanthropy and build strong networks and connections between various sectors across the inland empire. The foundation board and staff served on a variety of nonprofit boards locally, regionally and nationally including the little hoover commission, the black voice media foundation, and the inland empire economic partnership to name a few. Our staff is affiliated with and networked to other groups in the region including the association of fundraising professionals in the inland empire and desert communities chapters; estate planning councils in the desert (coachella valley), riverside county, san bernardino county and pomona valley; funder's alliance; corona chamber of commerce; professional women's roundtable in murrieta; jabs school of business dean's leadership circle for cal baptist university; environmental education collaborative; inland empire economic partnership leadership academy; inland empire estate planning seminar, inc. , southern california blacks in philanthropy; hispanics in philanthropy; asian americans/pacific islanders in philanthropy, and the public relations society of america (inland empire chapter). Staff also participate in the council on foundations, southern california grantmakers and the league of california community foundations, as well as professional groups associated with the council on foundations in the areas of finance, administration, and marketing.