Challenge

The Atlas Family Foundation was concerned about multiple public agencies working in silos to achieve similar goals in early childhood development.

APPROACH

Over the course of four years, JMC Philanthropic Advisors and The Atlas Family Foundation brought together a large group of individual donors, public and private funders, and members of the business community interested in early childhood development to initiate a dialogue about increasing services, reducing redundancy, and fostering best practices.

Throughout the process, strong support was provided by The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation, First 5 LA, LA County Department of Children and Family Services, and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, who worked together as equal partners.

RESULT

The LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment emerged in 2003. The Atlas Family Foundation and JMC were catalytic in its formation.

Since then, the partnership has evolved into a philanthropic funding collaborative comprised of some of the country's largest and most impactful private and family foundations, as well as public funders of early childhood development.

A $1.5 million matching grant from First 5 LA has enabled the partnership to create a strategic fund that invests in best-practice programs, develops innovative strategies, and influences public policies to advance the lifelong health and well-being of children age prenatal to five.

www.investinkidsla.org

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Challenge

Following the death of David and Lynn Angell on 9/11, The Angell Foundation needed help articulating a giving strategy that would honor the funders' legacy without clear directives from the donors themselves.

APPROACH

To determine the donors' values and interests, JMC researched the donors' past giving and queried their family, friends, and colleagues. These inquiries yielded shared values around philanthropy and provided the president with tools to build the foundation's first portfolio of grants. Janis Minton helped hone in on and develop the foundation's areas of focus, build an infrastructure, and recruit and partner with staff.

During this process, an exciting opportunity surfaced: to blend the values of David and Lynn with the passion of the foundation's president by developing an additional grantmaking focus in the area of spirituality.

JMC convened a series of focus groups with members of the religious, social service, philanthropic, and academic communities to develop a definition of spirituality that could be translated into effective funding strategies.

RESULT

Today, The Angell Foundation operates with clearly articulated program areas focused on measurable goals. The foundation funds youth programs, education, arts, spirituality, and social justice programs that empower people by helping them to achieve self-sufficiency and well-being by providing them with basic necessities and economic stability.

www.angellfoundation.org

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Challenge

The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation wanted to develop an initiative around education and needed help clarifying a grantmaking focus and implementation strategy.

APPROACH

JMC helped zero in on a significant area of need in the field of College Access: the need for higher standards of accountability.

Over the course of several years, JMC worked with the donor to develop, implement, and manage the foundation's College Access & Success Initiative. JMC provided support each step of the way, including conducting initial research and meetings with existing college access organizations, overseeing grant cycles, deepening and refining the focus of the initiative, building a network for community organizations, and hiring a program officer to manage the initiative.

RESULT

The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation's College Access & Success Initiative was launched in 2005 with the goal of changing systems through public policy and supporting students from low- and moderate-income families in their pursuit of a college degree. The foundation's leadership in tracking outcomes for college access programs has raised the bar and transformed standard practice among organizations across Los Angeles.

Another outcome of the foundation's work with JMC was the creation in 2005 of SoCal CAN, a 501(c)3 nonprofit funded by five foundations throughout the United States to promote a college-going and college-completion culture in Southern California. SoCal CAN has become a national model, setting standards for best practices and influencing public policy. www.socalcollegeaccess.org

www.thegilbertfoundation.org

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Challenge

The Rodenberry Foundation needed help strategizing a long-term, major grant for cutting-edge medical research for the treatment of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.

APPROACH

JMC worked with the foundation to explore cutting-edge strategies that would transform medical research and treatment for a wide array of global health problems. JMC provided support during the grant application and review process, and insured due diligence during the first year of the grant.

RESULT

In 2011, JMC and The Roddenberry Foundation crafted a $5 million grant to establish The Roddenberry Center for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at Gladstone. The center conducts research that speeds the process by which scientific discoveries are turned into therapies for a host of devastating illnesses that afflict millions of people and their families, such as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease.

www.gladstone.ucsf.edu/gladstone/site/regenmed/

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Challenge

The Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA was looking for ways to leverage the investments of existing donors in order to more effectively share research across program areas and improve treatments.

APPROACH

JMC worked with The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation, the Kayne Foundation, and the Knapp Foundation to leverage and compound each foundation's existing interest in the Semel Institute's research in the area of mental health.

JMC provided essential strategic input during the formation of the funding collaborative and managed the donors' philanthropic investments throughout a three-year grant period, which included creating a multiyear joint grantmaking process, coordinating the funding cycles, and working with the grant recipient to evaluate the effectiveness of the collaborative and the progress of the overall project.

RESULT

The Integrative Study Center in Mood Disorders at UCLA's Semel Institute was formed in 2009 with multiyear collaborative funding from The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation, the Kayne Foundation, and the Knapp Foundation.

During the grant period, fellowships were awarded, the center conducted its first public symposium on mental health issues, and several components of the research work attracted additional funding.

The work was critical in changing the Semel Institute's organizational structure in ways that fostered interdisciplinary research, encouraged collaboration, and mentored the next generation of scientists in the field of mood disorders.

www.semel.ucla.edu/integrative-mood-disorders

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Challenge

The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation was interested in developing an award that would both reward individual volunteers doing exemplary work with local nonprofits and help those organizations strengthen the ways in which they recruit, utilize, and retain their volunteers.

APPROACH

JMC assessed the value in creating an award focused on volunteerism, benchmarked the field to learn how other awards are designed and managed, created a process and criteria for selection, and formed a committee of community-based leaders to select the winners. JMC conducted the outreach and managed the overall implementation of the award.

RESULT

In 2011, the inaugural year of the award, seven exceptional nonprofit-volunteer pairs were selected as Halo Award winners out of a pool of 130 candidates. Chosen by a committee of nonprofit leaders, each winning organization received a $20,000 grant to help strengthen their volunteer efforts, which was paired with a $5,000 award given directly to an outstanding volunteer who had gone "above and beyond" in his or her service to the partner nonprofit and the community. In addition, each winning organization was offered three expert-led coaching sessions focused on increasing their impact and capacity in the volunteerism area.

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