The deadline for the Spring 2007 Community Impact Grants Program has passed. Grants will be awarded on July 1, 2007.

Grant Programs Soliciting Proposals:
> Arts & Culture	> Environment Blasker
> Civil Society	> Health & Human Services
> Environment Community	> Science & Technology Blasker

Welcome! We are very excited to announce our 2007 Grants Program. For those of you new to The San Diego Foundation, this program awards grants on a competitive basis across specific subject areas, each headed by Working Groups of committed volunteers.

Understanding the San Diego Region is the guiding principal for staff and Working Group volunteers in reviewing eligible proposals and making their recommendations for grantee partnerships. Since we work with limited resources, we must prioritize among competing needs. Thus, successful partnerships will be those that advance the grantmaking priorities of our Working Groups. We give preference to projects that have transformational goals with measurable, positive results in our communities.

We recognize that in order to advance long-term solutions, it is critical that we work with donors and nonprofit organizations to build and preserve enduring assets with permanent endowments. To that end, The San Diego Foundation will explore various strategies, products and services to build the financial capacity of our current and future partners. In your application, we encourage you to share with us your plans for growing and sustaining financial support to fulfill your mission in perpetuity.

Our grants programs cannot succeed without our volunteers, our donors, and you. We look forward to working with you to improve the quality of life for all our communities in the San Diego region.

Frequently Asked Questions

Grant Programs Soliciting Proposals:

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Arts & Culture

The Arts & Culture Working Group’s vision is to galvanize the San Diego community around enhanced arts and culture and to ensure that the San Diego region has all the resources to become a nationally-competitive arts and culture center by 2009.

During the past year, as part of the Foundation’s Understanding the San Diego Region initiative, the Arts & Culture Working Group released the results of a comprehensive study of cultural participation in the San Diego region. Overall, the research findings underline the need to increase “cultural patronage,” defined as increasing cultural participation at all levels. This means increasing knowledge about the region’s cultural assets, actively accessing those assets and offering support to make them better. Cultural patronage envisions a community where every resident shares a stake in arts and culture success.

The Foundation, based on the case for increased patronage put forward by this research, is developing an action plan exploring several intertwining strategies, in collaboration with the wider community, to form a multi-faceted, coordinated approach to increasing participation. These strategies, which form the Arts & Culture Working Group’s long-term goals as part of the pARTicipate San Diego initiative are:

1. Public Awareness and Advocacy – increase public understanding of the role and value of San Diego’s arts and culture and advocate for specific goals and legislation.
   
   
2. Arts Education – reintroduce the arts to every classroom in the County.
   
   
3. Grantmaking - build investment in cultural participation and innovative new works and management methods in the arts.
   
   
4. Donor Engagement and Cultivation - increase the number of arts donors and the total amount of arts philanthropy by cultivating donors’ passion for and understanding of San Diego’s arts and culture community.
   

Guidelines – Innovation and Collaboration
The grant-making process in 2007 will distribute funds to arts and culture organizations working collaboratively to create innovative new works and/or processes. We anticipate making six to eight high-impact grants in the community in this grant cycle, with grants between $10,000 and $50,000.

Expected Results

• An innovative new work or process; projects can include (but are not limited to) the use of new media, development of new projects for new constituencies, experimental or unique program designs and pioneering initiatives or methods of doing business being offered for the first time.
  
  
• An increase in high-quality collaborative efforts by the arts and culture community.
  
  
• An increase in audience/participant participation as a result of the proposed project.
  
  
• Improved inroads into communities targeted by each partner in the collaboration, leading to greater participation within diverse segments of San Diego County’s population.
  
  
• Increased programmatic impact due to the expertise of each partner in the collaboration.

How to Apply To apply for a Community Impact Grant, review the guidelines linked below and access the online application below. GRANT GUIDELINES & APPLICATION > 2007 Community Impact Grant Guidelines - Arts & Culture The deadline for the Spring 2007 Community Impact Grants Program has passed. Grants will be awarded on July 1, 2007.

For additional information, please contact Julie Fry, Director, Arts & Culture Analysis & Strategy, at: julie@sdfoundation.org.

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Civil Society

The San Diego Foundation’s Civil Society Working Group was established with the mission to foster civic engagement in community problem solving leading to an improved quality of life for all residents. The Civil Society Working Group will focus on this specific initiative over the next three years with the following vision:

San Diego is a region in which residents care about one another and are actively involved in improving the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Such a community is characterized by its appreciation of diversity, openness to creative thinking and effective problem-solving.

A New Consensus for Housing Initiative
The San Diego region requires a shared vision to enable effective and inclusive dialogue for the purpose of planning for balanced and equitable future growth. The goal of this initiative is to establish a framework to address the need for housing across the San Diego region resulting in livable communities with choices for all.

Expected Results
A unified vision and plan for future housing for the San Diego region by 2009 as measured by:

• Development and dissemination of existing and new research on housing attitudes in the San Diego region by 2006-2007.
  
• Development of mechanisms to provide reliable information to individuals regarding their housing options in the San Diego region by 2007.
  
• The establishment of communication networks among a broad spectrum of residents and organizations regarding regional housing choices by 2008 that lead to a regional plan of action and implementation strategy by 2009.

How to Apply To apply for a Community Impact Grant, review the guidelines linked below and access the online application below. GRANT GUIDELINES & APPLICATION > 2007 Community Impact Grant Guidelines - Civil Society The deadline for the Spring 2007 Community Impact Grants Program has passed. Grants will be awarded on July 1, 2007.

For additional information, please contact Shelley Lyford, Research & Development Manager, Community Partnerships, at Shelley@sdfoundation.org.

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Environment Community

The vision of The San Diego Foundation’s Environment Working Group is to ensure that all generations enjoy clean air, safe water, wildlife, natural and culturally-sensitive areas.

Within the next three years, the Environment Working Group will help strengthen the capacity and financial viability of environmental and environmental health & justice organizations to ensure the protection of the public trust -- our air, land, water and other resources -- so people can live, work, play and learn in a clean and healthy environment.

To this end, the Working Group will accept proposals requesting up to $50,000, focusing on the following two initiatives: Land & Watershed Conservation Initiative and Clean Environments, Healthy Communities Initiative (see grant guidelines for more criteria and expected results for each initiative).

How to Apply To apply for a Community Impact Grant, review the guidelines linked below and access the online application below. GRANT GUIDELINES & APPLICATION > 2007 Community Impact Grant Guidelines - Environment Community The deadline for the Spring 2007 Community Impact Grants Program has passed. Grants will be awarded on July 1, 2007.

For additional information, please contact Emily Young, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Community Partnerships and Director, Environment Analysis & Strategy at eyoung@sdfoundation.org.

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Environment Blasker

The Blasker-Rose-Miah Fund was established at The San Diego Foundation “to nurture and develop unique and innovative discoveries and experiences which may be of benefit to all mankind, and to support and encourage individuals with high potential in the scientific, engineering, and medical fields to reach their full potential in their chosen areas of study, work, and analysis.” Emphasis is placed on supporting students and young scientists. Environment Blasker grant applicants are encouraged to apply for grants up to $75,000.

To be eligible, proposed projects or programs should:

• Advance innovative and creative scientific projects or research.
  
• Foster the development of individuals with high potential in the scientific, medical, and engineering fields to reach their potential in their chosen areas of study, work, and analysis.
  
• Be conducted in and have practical application for the San Diego region.
  
• Focus on (1) the potential local impacts of global climate change (i.e., in areas such as extreme weather patterns, environmental health, biodiversity, fire ecology, our local water supply, and sea level rise), and (2) ways to reduce our local greenhouse gas emissions and minimize climate change impacts.

The most competitive proposals will be those that match all of the above listed criteria.

*Additional criteria are included in the grant guidelines.

How to Apply To apply for a Community Impact Grant, review the guidelines linked below and access the online application below. GRANT GUIDELINES & APPLICATION > 2007 Community Impact Grant Guidelines - Environment Blasker The deadline for the Spring 2007 Community Impact Grants Program has passed. Grants will be awarded on July 1, 2007.

For additional information, please contact Emily Young, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Community Partnerships and Director, Environment Analysis & Strategy at eyoung@sdfoundation.org.

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Health & Human Services

The San Diego Foundation’s Health and Human Services Working Group was established with the vision to improve the health, well-being and self-sufficiency of individuals, families and communities in the San Diego region.

The Prevention of Family Homelessness Initiative
The Health & Human Services Working Group’s research, investigation and grant awards to date indicate that families who are vulnerable to episodic homelessness benefit from financial education that leads to budget management, traditional banking relationships , reduction of debt improved credit, and increased savings. This initiative will support financial education and asset building programs of community-based organizations that serve the residents of the San Diego region.

Expected Results of the Initiative
A county-wide program to prevent family homelessness by 2009 as measured by:

• Relevant financial education provided to 2,500 individuals and families by the 2008 tax season that leads to reduction in total debt and improved credit scores.
  
• Verification through new or existing case management and tracking approaches.
  
• A 50 percent county-wide increase of participants in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program, with 85 percent opening and maintaining a savings account by 2009.
  
• Support to a strategic partnership of regional banking institutions, city and county government, and private foundations providing relevant curriculum, new banking products, financial and capacity-building support to a coalition of organizations that will result in 1,500 participants having saved $2.5 million in assets by 2009.

How to Apply To apply for a Community Impact Grant, review the guidelines linked below and access the online application below. GRANT GUIDELINES & APPLICATION > 2007 Community Impact Grant Guidelines - Health & Human Services The deadline for the Spring 2007 Community Impact Grants Program has passed. Grants will be awarded on July 1, 2007.

For additional information, please contact Shelley Lyford, Research and Development Manager, Community Partnerships at shelley@sdfoundation.org.

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Science & Technology Blasker

The Blasker-Rose-Miah Fund was established at The San Diego Foundation “to nurture and develop unique and innovative discoveries and experiences which may be of benefit to all mankind, and to support and encourage individuals with high potential in the scientific, engineering, and medical fields to reach their full potential in their chosen areas of study, work, and analysis.” Blasker Grants are awarded in two areas: Environment and Science & Technology.

To be eligible, proposed projects or programs should:

• Advance innovative, unique and creative scientific projects or research.
  
• Foster the development of individuals with high potential in the scientific, medical, and engineering fields to reach their potential in their chosen areas of study, work and analysis. Emphasis is placed on projects that stimulate and encourage early careers scientists.
  
• Be conducted in and have practical application for the San Diego region.

How to Apply To apply for a Community Impact Grant, review the guidelines linked below and access the online application below. GRANT GUIDELINES & APPLICATION > 2007 Community Impact Grant Guidelines - Science & Technology Blasker The deadline for the Spring 2007 Community Impact Grants Program has passed. Grants will be awarded on July 1, 2007.

For additional information, please contact Sedra Shapiro, Director, Science & Technology Analysis & Strategy at sedra@sdfoundation.org.