BPP LEARNING COMMUNITIES

A New Beginning for the US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership:

 Independence, Expansion and Leadership

BPP 9th Learning Community
Mesa, Arizona (Phoenix Area) - April 16 to 18, 2008

DAY 1 - APRIL 16, 2008

• Why the Border Matters: An Orientation to the context of the US-Mexico Border Region and the work of the BPP
• Around the Border in 80 Minutes: Official Conference Opening and Plenary
• Creating the Intercultural Mindset: A Successful Strategy for Change (Mary Ellen Colon)
• Dinner and Keynote Address (Peggy Dulany)

DAY 2 - APRIL 17, 2008

• Discussion on the Proposed Plan for the Next Phase of the BPP
• Capacity Building Session: Convening and Promotion of Civic Participation
• Capacity Building Session: Leadership Development
• Capacity Building Session: Creating the Intercultural Mindset Part II
• Capacity Building Session: Resource Mobilization and Endowment Building (Board Track)
• Border Café Session - Quality of Life
• Border Café Session - Border Health
• Border Café Session - Family Economic Success
• Border Café Session - Youth, Jovenes Fronterizos
• Dinner and Keynote Address (Roberto Reveles)

DAY 3 - APRIL 18, 2008

• Breakfast Keynote (Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow)
• Real Time Consulting Session
• Phase III Session: Ratification and Commitments to Future BPP
• Reflections, Final Celebration and Close

   

Day 1: April 16, 2008 -  Phoenix Marriott Mesa Hotel

12:45pm Why the Border Matters: An Orientation to the context of the US-Mexico Border region and the work of the BPP

• Download PowerPoint Presentation

Facilitated by Michelle Jaramillo, Program Manager with the Synergos Institute, this session provided participants with an opportunity to learn more about the BPP partnership, its members, current work and vision for its future. 

1:30pm Around the Border in 80 Minutes: Official Conference Opening and Plenary

Who knew that you could actually travel around the border in 80 minutes?  Meeting participants had a chance to meet new and old friends in a highly interactive and entertaining exercise that allowed border community foundations to tell their own stories of growth and success.  Among the many stories of success, accomplishments and impact that community foundations are having in the border region, we heard accounts of the following:

Brownsville Community Foundation

Apolonio Borrego, Jr., Chair of the Brownsville Community Foundation, noted that the Brownsville Community Foundation is ten years young and its endowment has increased by half a million dollars.  The foundation has made significant progress since Elvira Ramos became Executive Director two and half years ago.  The board is composed of 12 highly engaged, respected community members.  Their granting is focused on building the capacity of smaller nonprofit organizations and the foundation leadership is especially excited about one of their most recent grants; $50,000 to a physical therapy project. 

Cochise Community Foundation
Carol Sanger, Executive Director of the foundation shared with colleagues that the foundation was founded ten years ago and is just four years into its evolution with the BPP.  Sanger cited two main accomplishments since joining the BPP.  One was the addition of Del Cabarga, who has developed the foundation’s conscience and helped it become more strategic and systematic in its grant-making. Secondly, “the board has come a long way.”  Training from consultants like Dorothy Reynolds has helped strengthen the board’s functioning and strategic focus. The foundation’s fund-raising has become much more professional and goal-oriented.  In addition, the foundation has made good progress on its $3 million endowment campaign.  The foundation has also helped more local organizations apply for non-profit status so they can benefit from foundation grants.  Carol Sanger said, “I can’t imagine how we could have done all this without the BPP.” 

Del Cabarga noted the increased diversity within the organization.  The foundation’s board is more open and aware, and ready to approach farming communities that have strong ties to large corporations that may not welcome community foundations interested in bringing about social change. The foundation will soon embark on riskier grant-making, to benefit communities that are off the radar.  Del Cabarga sees evidence of progress in the increased openness and willingness to invest in communities other funders have not engaged.  Recently, the Cochise Community Foundation has also convened a series of focus groups to solicit information from parents on the needs around early childhood education. The foundation involved people from Douglas, Arizona as well as Agua Prieta, Sonora and then solicited proposals from nonprofits on both sides based on input from the community.   The Foundation ultimately funded four groups, two from the US side and two on Mexican side. 

Community Foundation for Southern Arizona (CFSA)
Successful Border Tours!  Tomas León, Vice-President of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, shared the foundation’s success stories in raising awareness and giving to programs south of the border.  With the intent of educating donors on border issues, CFSA organized a border tour in partnership with its affiliate, the Santa Cruz Community Foundation and the foundation’s Mexican sister community foundation, Fundación Empresariado Sonorense A.C. (FESAC) Nogales chapter, to visit programs on the border and in Mexico.  The focus of these tours was to educate donors and increase their options around cross-border giving.  As a direct result of this tour, one donor initiated a dollar-for-dollar match of funds donated to FESAC Nogales.   Overall, they have witnessed further diversification of the board and strengthened relations between affiliate organizations.

Community Foundation of Southern Arizona (CFSA) has also established a grantmaking system with FESAC Nogales that helps connect US donors to programs on the Mexican side of the border. As a result of this success, CFSA is now focusing on educating donors about options for cross border giving. In 10 months, four grants have gone to FESAC Nogales from CFSA, including a $50,000 grant to the Nogales Autism Center.

Fundación del Empresariado Chihuahuense A.C. – Cd. Juárez

Ivan Octavio Muñoz, Ejecutivo de Programas, Fundación del Empresariado Chihuahuense (FECHAC) Cd. Juarez Chapter, reported that FECHAC has started new projects and has helped communities identify priorities and launch initiatives.  He cited the establishment of Escuela Ford, a regional education center, in a very poor area. The education center has launched an after-school program at elementary schools where courses in the arts and music are offered to children of working parents.  With support from the Inter-American Foundation FECHAC has developed a special regranting fund that identifies and provides support for local grassroots organizations by helping then to increase their capacity and leadership and promoting learning networks amongst them. FECHAC had also channeled relief and rehabilitation assistance to families affected by natural disaster, such as regional floods that destroyed homes and affected 4,600 families.

Fundación Del Empresariado Chihuahuense A.C. – Ojinaga
Maribel Piña Molinar, Executive Director of the Fundación del Empresariado Chihuahuense A.C. (FECHAC) Ojinaga Chapter, shared with colleagues her foundation’s recent accomplishments in reaching out and providing support to local grassroots organizations.  FECHAC Ojinaga has also had recent success in developing relationships with different levels of government.  These relationships have played an important role in helping FECHAC Ojinaga launch 21 free breakfast programs for children across the city.

Fundación Comunitaria de la Frontera Norte
Karen Yarza, Executive Director of the Fundación Comunitaria de la Frontera Norte (FCFN) along with the foundation’s program officer, Nancy Cristina Estrada presented the many and varied accomplishments of the foundation in recent history.   Included in these was the creation of a circle of donors, composed of donors to the foundation. This network and learning forum that convenes monthly has already generated an opportunity for the foundation to present the work of the community foundation to two local maquilas.  The foundation has also embarked on an earned income project by opening its own second hand shop through which they receive donations of goods and sell these to generate revenue for the foundation’s operations. 

The foundation has worked to promote and facilitate collaboration amongst local nonprofit groups and recently launched an evaluation of its youth in philanthropy program.  FCFN recently developed and launched its bilingual website and is looking to integrate an interactive element to the site where donors and volunteers can connect to local nonprofits.  As an organization, the foundation has advanced in its efforts of continuous board development and has completed the sustainability planning exercise introduced by Synergos in the early part of the year. 

Fundación Internacional de la Comunidad
Yolanda Walter-Meade, Vice-President of Fundación Internacional de La Comunidad (FIC) in Tijuana, shared how the organization had recently received its first “bequest” gift. In addition to this, FIC has many funds that were initiated by the community and they have developed good relationships with state and local governments. They are currently focusing their efforts around health and microcredit programs. Last year, they received funds from the famous Mexican philanthropist Carlos Slim to give education scholarships to high school aged children. The FIC last year secured a donation of a parcel of land from the municipal government.  The land is presently being developed with great local support through donation of building services and goods.  Foundation leadership estimates that by 2010 the land will be developed with a commercial building that will not only house the foundation’s offices but also generate rental income. 

In partnership with its sister foundation, the International Community Foundation, FIC produced a short documentary video on the state and challenges of health in the San Diego / Tijuana region.  The film: “Fragile Lives: Blurring Lines: Addressing the Critical Health Challenges in the San Diego-Baja California border region”   was selected as a Sliver Award recipient for the 2008 Wilmer Shields Rich Award for Excellence in Communications in the category of Public Information Campaigns by the Council on Foundations.

Fundación Comunitaria de Matamoros
Successful Education Program established!  Fundación Comunitaria de Matamoros has had success with a program developed for youth called “Liderazgo de Metas para Adolescentes” (goal setting and leadership for adolescents) that has been implemented in five public schools.  As a direct result of this program drop out rates for teenagers have decreased locally by 30%. The foundation has been sharing the results of this program with other schools in the area and as a result they have received support from donors and businesses who have stepped in to cover the salaries of the teachers so that there is continued funding for this program.

Fundación Empresariado Sonorense A.C.
Jaime Gonzalez, Board Chair of Fundación Empresariado (FESAC) Nogales, shared that the organization is beginning to be a very well known organization of the local level. They are now working closely with the Santa Cruz Community Foundation to operate mutual aid programs in their community. They are strengthening their relationships with community foundations in Arizona and are moving from charity to development work. One of their star projects is working with incarcerated women, teaching them practical skills like sewing and cosmetology that they can use to generate income and take care of their families once they leave the prison system. FESAC has also provided a technical assistance workshop for the Sonora grantees that Community Foundation of Southern Arizona had provided funding to.

International Community Foundation
In a collaborative initiative alongside Fundación Internacional de La Comunidad, the International Community Foundation (ICF) has been working with the Mexican tax authority to streamline the process of facilitating in-kind donations to Mexico.  What used to take month has now been shortened to hours. Furthermore work is being done to disseminate this information through the development of a guide on cross-border giving. ICF is also very excited to announce its new headquarters in National City as a result of a property donation by the Walton Family.  The Walton Family home will now house the Center for Cross-Border Philanthropy.    In keeping with its mission of increasing philanthropic giving that transcends political boundaries, ICF recently launched IcfXchange, an on-line tool aimed at providing its donor community with up to date information on ICF grantees and potential projects tied to donors’ geographic interests and passions.

Also, in partnership with its sister foundation, the Fundacion Internacional de la Comunidad (FIC), ICF produced a short documentary video on the state and challenges of health in the San Diego / Tijuana region.  The film: “Fragile Lives: Blurring Lines: Addressing the Critical Health Challenges in the San Diego-Baja California border region”   was selected as a Sliver Award recipient for the 2008 Wilmer Shields Rich Award for Excellence in Communications in the category of Public Information Campaigns by the Council on Foundations.

Laredo Area Community Foundation
Patricia Guajardo, Executive Director of The Laredo Area Community Foundation, shared how the organization has benefited from a strong leadership and governance structure with an invested board and competent Executive Director. Guajardo discussed how the area of Laredo is booming and the foundation is benefiting from being in the right place at the right time. They have taken advantage of the boom by hosting a recent donor event and they were enthusiastic to share that their success was a result of their very engaged board and great staff. 

Santa Cruz Community Foundation
New Leadership in Santa Cruz – Welcome Bob Philips!  Bob Phillips shared his vision for the Santa Cruz Community Foundation going forward and his idea to further focus funds and continue collaboration with its cross border sister foundation the, Fundación Empresariado (FESAC) Nogales. Phillips also spoke of his goal to strengthen the private / public partnerships and address issues like teen pregnancy in the community. Antje Lear, Program Officer for The Santa Cruz Community Foundation, also shared the foundation’s success in developing a strong relationship and collaborative projects with FESAC Nogales. Together, they are organizing capacity building workshops for special education teachers in Nogales. As a result of this work, they have created a program for children with autism in Nogales that has received substantial funding from US donors. This bi-national partnership has been so successful Santa Cruz Community Foundation is able to ensure the credibility of FESAC to US donors and facilitate the transfer of funds.

Yuma Community Foundation
Yuma’s success story involves immigration. The population is half Latino, half Anglo, and diverse, including older retirees and the military. The local economy is based on agriculture and winter tourism; depending on the sector, the community has diverging views on immigration. The foundation received a grant to do a convening on immigration issues. Despite preconceptions about Hispanics and immigrants, the forum reached a consensus on immigration reform and crafted recommendations which they forwarded to the state government. The recommendations include proposals on guest workers transportation. The proposal’s supporters are still working to make their ideas happen and anticipate progress in the fall. They want to start a pilot program.

Post –Border Café Discussion
In the open forum following the table discussions of success stories, participants cited programs or stories that had particularly moved them:

• One participant explained how they were impressed by a program through Fundación de la Frontera Norte, which sells products basic products at bazaars, and uses the sales profit to support community programs.
• Linetta Gilbert of Ford Foundation cited the International Community Foundation’s partnership with Fundación Internacional de La Comunidad to pilot an e-bay approach to matching community needs and available skills, using an electronic bulletin board that lists community needs and allows people to volunteer their time and talent to meet those needs.  Gilbert stated that this program is creative although the value of the service provided is hard to calculate.
• Monica Patten, President and CEO of the Community Foundations of Canada, cited the convening organized by the Yuma Community Foundation on immigration issues. She was inspired by the foundation taking on an advocacy role and moving beyond this, to change policy. Advocacy is only part of what is needed; it is important to take the next step that results in real change.
• Shannon St. John, Synergos’ Director, Networks, was inspired by the accomplishments of the Cochise Community Foundation—its community outreach, and the engagement it is developing at neighborhood levels. She cited its work in putting together focus groups using grandmothers, and using what they learn to make changes in the community.
• The Yuma Community Foundation was impressed by Fundación Empresariado (FESAC) Nogales program for incarcerated women that helps women gain skills that could assist them with employment when they get out.
• Nick Deychakiwsky, Program Officer for The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation (a donor organization) stated that the Foundation will be increasing its commitment to the BPP. Deychakiwsky stated that he was very impressed with the Yuma site visit, especially the work he saw being conducted around affordable housing, the bi-national early childhood education initiative, and the health access work being done through CAPAZ-MEX and The Border Regional Health Center. Nick stated that, “Most non-profits that he has seen focus on barriers and challenges, the negatives, but that the non-profits he saw in Yuma Country are living in the solution, not the problem. There is a‘can do’ energy there”.

Welcome by Carla Roberts Vice-President of Affiliates, Arizona Community Foundation

Carla Roberts welcomed participants on behalf of the hosting foundations, the Arizona Community Foundation and its affiliates, the Yuma Community Foundation and the Cochise Community Foundation.  She discussed how her foundation’s work in Arizona has been impacted by the BPP, citing the cross-fertilization of ideas and initiatives emerging from the BPP.  Roberts discussed the Arizona Community Foundation’s work on developing state-wide measures of philanthropy and specific philanthropy indicators described in a publication entitled “The Power of Giving”.  She explained how these philanthropy indicators were made possible by a BPP funded study trip to Nebraska. This trip led to the development of Arizona Community Foundation’s state-wide philanthropy indicators that measure social capital, or propensity to give, and financial capital, or potential dollars available in an area.  Roberts also cited the foundation’s initiatives in the following areas: launching rural initiatives; promoting home-town competitiveness by building on a community’s assets of leadership, economic activity, youth development and family wealth; and the Family Economic Success initiative supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and JPMorgan Chase.Carla then introduced Luis Heredia Director of Public Affairs, Arizona and New Mexico at Union Pacific.  Mr. Heredia joined learning community participants to present a $10,000 check to Arizona Community Foundation in support of its Strengthening Rural Arizona project.  After Carla Robert’s welcome address, Russell Jones, the current Co-Chair of the BPP Executive Committee and President of the Yuma Community Foundation, and Yolanda Walther-Meade, board member of Fundación Internacional de la Comunidad, provided participants with an overview of the meeting agenda and its objectives. 

4:00 PM - Creating the Intercultural Mindset: Successful Strategy for Change

• Hear Mary Ellen Colon's Address with an Introduction by Judy Gresser, Yuma Community Foundation
• Download Mary Ellen Colon's PowerPoint Presentation

Back by popular demand, Mary Ellen Colon, Independent Consultant, led meeting participants through an exciting discovery of why our cultural diversity needs to become our strength instead of out liability as we seek to expand our partnership and strengthen our bonds.

Understanding who we are and where we stand culturally speaking is the basic tool to begin the journey of crossing cultures successfully and an extremely important ingredient for any strategy involving initiatives with people of diverse backgrounds. But in today’s world of constant and hyper-speed change affecting all aspects of living, creating this so called intercultural competence, or mindset capable of adapting to transition, takes on a new level of importance and urgency. It is no longer an interesting hobby or bonus knowledge, but has become an essential tool for survival; especially for the border community foundations who seek to address complex problems in a bicultural region.

7:00 PM - Celebration Dinner and Keynote Address, with Peggy Dulany, Founder and Chair of the Synergos Institute

After a recognition ceremony where BPP partners received a plaque commemorating their participation in the BPP's first two phases, Ana Maria de la Garza of the Fundación Comunitaria de Matamoros presented a video she developed as a special thanks to the support of the Synergos Institute over the past six years.  Peggy Dulany then took the podium to deliver the evening’s keynote address. Based on her 20 years of experience working to build institutions and partnerships, and a lifetime of personally being involved in philanthropy, Ms. Dulany reflected on how our experiences, both personal and collective, has shaped the future we envision for ourselves and our communities. She also provided her seasoned perspective on what it will take to build the kind of inclusive partnership that the border needs to improve the quality of life for all residents. 

The following is a transcription of Peggy Dulany’s Dinner Address:

“So if I had a title for this it would be why we at Synergos are working for and with you. As I was reflecting and listening to the initial remarks the whole premise on which we founded Synergos came back to me. What I am going to say refers to 21 years of thinking that completely relates to where you have come from and where you are and where we are. I am going to start with some of the case studies we did of successful partnerships in Asia and Africa. We found partnerships only happen where everything else has not worked.

This is serious, it happens because it is a pain in the neck to have to get everyone to work together. If one group thinks that they can make it happen on their own they will and it is only when they have discovered that they can’t that they are willing to come to the table. Second, is that when there is a problem there has to be a sense of common self interest in solving that problem for a partnership to work, so if someone doesn’t perceive something as a problem it is unlikely that they will play and if they are a key stake holder than the partnership will not work. Third, if there are significant power imbalances so that the people with significantly less power don’t’ feel like they can come to the table with a voice it is not going to work because either they will sit there and be quiet or they will shout and yell if they feel like they are not being heard.

So something has to happen to adjust the power imbalance and this something is strategic alliances which community foundations can play an important role in. Another factor that we found is that unless there are people or organizations that can help convene and facilitate the partnerships it is very hard for stakeholder to spontaneously come together. So, there needs to be some element that helps bring people together. Another element is that one better have a long term orientation because the kind of trust that needs to be built and the kinds of problems that need to be solved are big problems and the reasons that they are there are deep rooted structurally, organizationally, societally, politically and so we better be there for the long term or might as well not get in.

Another part of this that may be hard to accept and being casi-Mexicana myself I am not fond of conflict; however our experience in doing these case studies is that conflict is an inevitable part of partnership, so we might as well accept it and along the way figure out how to work through it. Another factor that is worth mentioning is that informal relation among people from different groupings or sectors turn out to be really key to the success of the partnerships. You may have sectors that are virtually at war with each other, but usually you will have people that went to school with one another or played soccer with one another or one of these things that Robert Putnam talked about as social capital that creates the possibility of informal ties that help get the partnership through thorny issues and difficult times.

So those were some of the things we found as young initiates in partnership building starting out in 1986 and tried to initiate three partnerships in Mexico in the Chimalapas forests, in Rio de Janero around children’s rights and in Ghana and by in large failed totally. We started looking at what was the reason. I had worked for the NY city partnership in the US in some ways it was successful even though it wasn’t inclusive and there were many partnerships in the UK, why was it that this wasn’t working? Some of the reasons I just gave you were the reasons, we also realized that the kind of institution that I mentioned that needs to be there to be the convener s and facilitators by in large was not there in the civil society in the southern hemisphere and so we almost stumbled on the notion of community foundations as a type of institute that can play the bridging role and the facilitating and convening role that we saw as crucial to even begin a partnerships.

That at the time under David’s leadership really began our long love affair and involvement with community foundations all over the world which has been an utterly passionate and fascinating exercise for us and which the BPP has been in some way the crown jewel because it is more than a single foundation or even an association of foundations that goes beyond community foundations, but a highly complex and amazing pulling together people along 2,000 miles and between countries.  I wanted to share with you what we have learned working with you and with other community foundations throughout the world and how it has taken us forward in our thinking. I hope that this will be useful for you in your thinking about the BPP.

This has to do with community foundations as bridging organizations. If you look at society as a group of different types of organizations of which the squares represent bridging organization (begins drawings) not necessarily community foundations, they can be different kinds. And then you have other kinds of organizations symbolized by circles and triangles such as other civil society organizations, businesses, government organizations these are not what we would call bridging organizations. So bridging organizations, because of who they constitute, for example their board or their staff these organizations act as a bridging organization. This takes place because the board or the staffs often represent people from different sectors and groupings of societies they have links to different groups that go on and on.

From the organization and how it is made up you being to see a certain cross hatching that we call changes of trust. As Robert Putnam talks about what social capital is, it is the bridging across divides through chains of trust that creates and maintains the social fabric of society or in this case of two societies at least. What we began to see was that there are certain organizations that because of their composition, intention, purpose, and activities that they already bridge across different divides in society. One of the things that we love about community foundations is that they view their role as responding to the needs of the grassroots. So if you have the grassroots down here which is providing feedback, ideas, and a sense of needs to these community foundations.

Already what I spoke of earlier of power balancing, already if you have on the board of this community foundation people who represent business or churches or politicians or universities through this institution and its constitution these isolated communities are  suddenly connected to the power structure. So when I lived on a favela, a squatter’s settlement, in Brazil when I was 19 the main thing that I saw was the lack of connection not the lack of will or desire to get out of poverty but the lack of connection to knowledge, education, skills, access, influence, decision making, to involvement. Community foundations, in my view, are one of the best ways and there are other organizations as well that can do this bridging work.

So then we started realizing, that it is not only the institutions that are doing this but the people that are connected to these types of institutions so what is this? And what we began to see is that for whatever reason the type of institution that are bridging organizations tends to attract people that we would call bridging leaders. We literally learned this by connecting with so many community foundations and seeing this phenomenon repeating itself so often. So I started to look and ask, well why isn’t this in the literature? In 1997, there were only a couple of things out there that were similar, but by and large what people were talking about was inspirational leadership, charismatic leadership, organizational leadership, or authoritarian leadership, or Gardner and his servant leadership (leading from behind). But we were not exactly talking about this we were talking about leadership where the intention was to work with and through others so that consensus decisions and actions are taken collectively, so it is the logical and obvious precursor of partnership.

From my notes here are some of the characteristics that are partner and prerequisite to bridging leadership. The one most obvious is listening well because there is explicit and implicit listening, so that what you don’t know may be hard to understand, but bridging leaders because of their capacity to empathize and listen are able to intuit some of what is not known and relate to it. Another quality is that the individual has to have a constituency and credibility with their own constituency because if they don’t start somewhere they are floating off in outer space, but they also have to be willing and interested and passionate about reaching out beyond their own constituency to others while at the same time retaining the credibility with their own constituency. They have to have convening power or know how to link with others that can convene those that they can’t convene; sometimes bridging leadership is a joint effort through a strategic puzzle that you solve together with others.

Another one, the hardest one, is low ego, to not need to take credit for the outcome. Another one is self awareness, but I’ll get back to that point. A bridging leader also needs to be inclusive, because if you are going to be bridging it is only meaningful if you are doing it in an inclusive way otherwise you are going to be leaving out some people and it won’t work.  I want to make a point about philanthropists as potential bridging leaders. Synergos started the Global Philanthropist Circle with 75 members from 25 countries; we also have the Senior Fellows which consists of social activists. I am happy to say that we are beginning to get those two networks to interact. But our reason for starting a philanthropist network was two fold, one as we were beginning to start to promote community foundations around the southern hemisphere it was a pretty new connects and there was largely no support locally because there was no thinking of philanthropists in those countries that this could be a strategy for a strategy for getting at root causes, bridging across divides, for creating local funding mechanisms.

So our original reason for starting Global Philanthropist Circle was to create a group of people that wanted to be more strategic and impactful in their giving that wanted to address poverty and its root causes and who were willing to learn by going on trips together, and interacting with one other and meeting in communities. One of the things that we found is that if philanthropists are willing to be bridging leaders, they are an incredible position to do that. Philanthropists are in a privileged position of having influence, access; often a good education, and contacts, financial resources that gives them convening powers. So if they become conscious of the potential way beyond their money to be conveners and partnership builders it is an incredible asset to society. So now I wanted to come back to the last point, which is where Synergos is at this moment trying to evolve to.

That is that the problems that we are facing right now are way beyond technical problems that is to say traditional development approaches will not be enough to solve them, the divides are too great, the misunderstandings are too great, the differences, the lack of understanding across cultures. No matter how smart we are we need more than technical solutions, what I would argue is that we need some form as transformation, I realize that is a big word, some form of shift of the human heart that I think only comes through each person and then in groups going pretty deeply inside themselves about what they believe, what they believe their purpose is, how they were wounded as children because we all were, what those wounds have done to set barriers between themselves and others to close hearts to make it impossible to see clearly what it is that is causing these problems or lack of communications and only through that process that I think is individual and collective are we going to get to kind of open hearted, full of gratitude, willing to experiment, non-fearful ,but rather loving stance that is going to allow people to come together across divides.

So in my view the real tasks behind all the others that are real and big enough that those of you and those of us involved with change face is not only those technical problem solving skills, but also the personal and group and societal transformation that is much more complex and that if we have another chance to meet I would love to talk about at greater depth. But I am going to stop there with that thought and that challenge so that we can also experience the joy of having fun which is also a big part of opening our hearts.”

DAY 2: April 17, 2008 - Phoenix Marriott Mesa Hotel

8:30am Discussion on the Proposed Plan for the Next Phase of the BPP

• See biographies of the BPP Governing Board
• Access the information regarding membership renewal provided to current BPP member foundations

Richard Kiy, President and CEO of the International Community Foundation and Karen Yarza, Executive Director of the Fundación Comunitaria de la Frontera Norte; both incoming co-chairs of the BPP’s Executive Committee members, presented a vision and plan for the BPP’s future.  Meeting participants had the opportunity to direct questions to Executive Committee members and hear first reactions from expert partnership builders, Peggy Dulany, Chair and Founder of the Synergos Institute and Monica Patten, President and CEO of Community Foundations of Canada.

The future BPP will be an independent entity, represented by a 501c3 on the U.S. side and an Asociación Civil (A.C.) on the Mexican side.  The BPP will be governed by a bi-national board and will be in part supported by membership fees and foundation grants.  The BPP will also open its membership to include a broader spectrum of grantmaking institutions with an interest in investing in the border.   Karen Yarza described how recruiting new members and becoming a more inclusive organization will strengthen the partnership and strengthen the role the BPP can play in the border region.

The roundtable discussions that followed generated important questions for the Executive Committee.  Richard Kiy and Karen Yarza fielded and responded to some questions in a Q and A period following their presentation.  After the learning community Synergos staff took a closer look at all the questions that were put forth by BPP members.  The follow document containing common questions and answers regarding Phase III was drafted. 

Q - Who will be eligible to enter into BPP membership?
The membership will need to be more inclusive to address the growing needs of the U.S.-Mexico border region, and to assist with the long term sustainability of the BPP network.

• Founding Border Community Foundations – Those border foundations that were or are members in good standing during Phases I and/or II of the US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership  will be eligible for membership as long as they display commitment to the vision and mission of the BPP. 
• Other Grantmaking Entities – Corporate foundations, corporate giving programs, private foundations, family foundations, community foundations and other community-based grantmaking entities (women’s foundations, etc) with a focus or strong interest in the border
• Other Institutions with a Border Interest – An affiliate status designation, with corresponding fee structure will be developed to facilitate the participation of academic, governmental and other non-philanthropic institutions with an interest in the BPP’s work.

Q - What will be the criteria for new BPP membership?

Members must be able to demonstrate that their mission and activities are in line with the BPP’s mission which is to improve the quality of life for residents living in the border region by working at the local, regional and transnational levels to:

• Collaborate and provide leadership on cross-border programmatic issues of common concern
• Mobilize more effective philanthropic resources to address border issues
• Strengthen the institutional capacity of border foundations and further the sustainability of border community foundations

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Q – What will be the board and staffing structure of the future entity?

The BPP plans to have approximately 3.5 staff members.  Two professional staff in the US and one in Mexico, and a half time assistant.  There will also be funds set aside to contract with consultants on specialized, discreet services.

Q -Where will the new entity be located, will there be locations throughout the border region? If there are affiliate offices will there be advisory boards or committees planned for each of these affiliates?
A central office that houses the majority of BPP staff, including the BPP’s Executive Director, will be located in San Diego, California and a secondary office will house staff in Mexico.  We are exploring the possibility of locating the Mexico office in Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua.  There is no plan for advisory board for satellite offices at this time.

The BPP will be governed by a bi-national board of directors who will be dispersed throughout the border region. While fluid, consistent communications will be a challenge, the use of technology such as video- teleconferencing and web-based technology will ensure that BPP staff, board members and membership are well connected.

Q - What will the fee schedule be?

Based on the information we have found from researching other associations along the border we have developed a sliding scale fee schedule for our initial membership offering.  Dues will be based on an average of  grants made for the previous three years. In the case affiliate community foundations both the parent community foundation and affiliate(s) would be responsible for their respective dues in order to both enjoy membership privileges. In-kind contributions will not be counted but pass-through grantmaking will.

BPP US Community Foundation Founding Member Dues
For Transition Period, August 2008-August 2011

BPP dues for founding members are determined by averaging the disbursements for charitable purposes over the past three fiscal years (for US Foundations, this is from IRS 990 PF, Part 1, Line 26d) 

Q - Will the BPP serve as a fundraiser?

The BPP will need to raise funds to support its operations and programmatic work but the resource mobilization strategy of the new BPP entity will be flexible.  In some situations, the BPP could act as a lead attractor of large gifts that could be funneled through the BPP and then be re-granted through community foundations if the donor is outside the region and feels they need the local expertise and knowledge that community foundations bring.  In other cases, the BPP might broker grants that go directly to individual foundations in the network.   Or, members of the BPP may, after consulting with each other and developing a shared strategy around a particular issue, choose to grant directly to non-profits in the region to support that shared agenda.   In any case, resource mobilization by the BPP will be focused on the agreed upon programmatic goal. Finally, the BPP will make sure that resource mobilization efforts, whether for programmatic or operational support, will continue to focus on cross-border solutions to border challenges.

Q - Will the new entity have a public policy focus?

As part of its cross border programmatic work, the BPP hopes to influence new donors as well as public decision making at local, regional and trans-national levels through education campaigns, joint grantmaking, convening of civil society groups and other stakeholders, and leadership to encourage public debate and citizen participation.  Public policy work would be limited to issues that relate to the work of philanthropy in the border region.

Q – How will the BPP be funded?

The BPP will be will rely on foundation support and a combination of membership dues and earned income. The hope is to incrementally decrease the reliance on foundation grants as time passes.  BPP has secured initial funding commitments from The Ford Foundation and Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Combined, these grants will finance approximately 75% of the estimated core operating expenses of the first three years of BPP.  The other 25% of operational costs are projected to be covered by membership dues and in-kind support of members.

Q – How will BPP ensure that we continue to build a strong and connected network amongst members? How will communication happen between members? What are the mechanics of facilitating this?
The Executive Committee has taken great care to ensure that in its recruitment process it is attracting and retaining individuals that embody bridging qualities for BPP staff.  In addition, the BPP will continue to convene members regularly, and will increase the capacity of the website and use other technology such as on-line meetings and videoconferencing to facilitate communication. 

Q – What alternative organizational models were considered in the decision on a membership organization?

BPP leadership carried out an analysis of many types of organizations such as philanthropy support organizations, trade alliances and regional associations, and also looked at models where such an entity was housed or incubated within another entity.   After weighing the information and several discussions, the Executive Committee decided the BPP should be independent to have the credibility and voice it needed to make a difference.  The new structure is a hybrid of an affinity group, a philanthropy support organization and a regional association of grantmakers to allow the BPP to facilitate programmatic work in the border as well as to do capacity building.  The membership structure was decided upon after reviewing the business models of many of the other organizational structures reviewed.  

Q – How will board representation be determined? Or How will BPP ensure that its leadership structure and decision making processes are reflective of its constituency. 

There will be a nominating process typical of most non-profit organizations, and the Executive Committee is working with a matrix for board recruitment which will show what skills we have and are needed, and will also look at gender, geographical representation, race, age and other characteristics of present and potential board members.

Q - What about the intricacies of a bi-national organization, what will the bylaws in Mexico look like and will they correspond to US? How can we assure integration amongst two separate entities (501c3 and A.C.) what are the governance implications?

We are working with the Inter American Foundation to receive a planning grant to better be able to explore this question. 

Commentary by Peggy Dulany and Monica Patten included:
Peggy Dulany opened her commentary by stating that it is very important that the new entity focus on process as well as on projects because this bi-national model is the first of this kind and it may provide a framework for future cross border work. She stressed that the new entity needs to first focus on strengthening the organization. Building on this theme Dulany stated that the focus of the BPP is in Philanthropy, but that in the long run she suggests balancing means and ends and to avoid losing site of overarching end goals.

Peggy Dulany went on to say that it is feasible to have a program that extends along the entire border and that in fact this approach is sexier, but that it may not be fully possible right away. Peggy Dulany asserted that the BPP should focus on gaining political support and building larger political relations as the entity moves in scale. Within this she referred to the adage, “If you want money ask for advice and if you want advice ask for money”. This statement was used to assert her message to get the engagement of constituents you want to involve.

In concluding, Peggy Dulany avowed that The Synergos Institute has a philosophy of maintaining friendships for life, that they want to know how everything is progressing, and that The Synergos Institute is open to working on future projects in conjunction with the BPP.

Monica Patten’s commentary on the proposed plan for phase III was based on her philosophy of focusing on ends not means. The following are a list of the statements and suggestions she made for the BPP.

• There will be challenges to keep everyone in the tent. This is important; the BPP needs to seriously consider how important it is to have everyone in the tent. This said, I applaud your desire to embrace a diverse membership.
• My second point is that you need to be clear about how you articulate the value of membership because your role within such a diverse membership will become quite complex. Keep this in mind
• One of the great successes the Community Foundation of Canada has had is to not undergo a single initiative without constructing an advisory board to think with you and help identify solutions. Advisory boards bring wisdom, experience, and connections.
• The activities of a network will not always be priority to the foundations you work with. It is important to remember that we aren’t always at the top of their list. We need to go with the ebb and the flow, sometimes the membership foundations will be very engaged and sometimes they will not. It is important to be sensitive to this and to respect it.
• You need to think about how everyone can benefit from what the rest of the partnership is doing
• You need to be opportunistic and strategic. It will be key to learn how to discern and balance between these two things
• Language matters. How we describe each other, the staff, how we describe ourselves. Using words like “people in headquarters” or “members” has negative connotations.

BPP members also put forth questions that the Executive Committee was unable to fully answer at this stage in the process but will be taking these questions forward with them in the planning process, with an aim to providing responses to them in the near future. 

10:20am Capacity Building Breakout Sessions

A 2007 survey of BPP members revealed a select number of themes as the top capacity building priorities of border community foundations.  With the input of expert resource people and facilitators, and using a peer learning methodology, each of the following four sessions covered effective approaches and practical solutions to common challenges related to each theme

Convening and Promotion of Civic Participation

• Download PowerPoint Presentation by Cheryl Alethia Phelps

By their very nature, community foundations enjoy a special advantage when it comes to convening and catalyzing increased participation in civic life. Despite the importance of convening to community foundations, this work is challenging and sometimes elusive.  Co-led by Monica Patten of Community Foundations of Canada and Cheryl Alethia Phelps Director, Civil Society, Analysis and Strategy at The San Diego Foundation, this session provided an overview of what convening and promotion mean for community foundations; how it relates to the promotion of social justice and democracy; and how community foundations can be more effective in their convening work.

Monica Patten opened by stressing the relationship participation, voice and the strength of democracy in communities. 

She explained why convening and promotion of civic participation is natural and necessary for community foundations:   

• Community foundations build community capacity-focus on strengths and assets, tapping into resources, pride and identity
• Community foundations understand and know our communities well
• Diverse voices come together where there is space for dialogue
• Community foundations develop partnerships - they are oriented that way
• Community foundations believe communities are strengthened when there are various perspectives and we invite people in to engage in participating in decision making
• Community foundations model accessibility, objectivity
  Our asset building, grantmaking, leadership, convening are all interdependent

Monica went on to explore how community foundations can most effectively play this role.

• Community foundations have to work hard at trusted leadership and it has to do with how inclusive we are, how we behave
• They engage donors of all means, of all walks of life and support them
• Community foundations grant to a wide range of organizations including those that support organizing
• Community foundations engage in convening…it’s a shared responsibility of the individual, and the collective
• How does convening connect with community? Works best when the issue comes from the community, when the community says it matters.
• They dialogue and deliberate - establish trust and purpose, take time to hear the stories, hopes, desires and dreams of your community.
• Convening is not just a “town hall” forum where everyone expresses a feeling, it takes careful planning, sustaining, knowledge and skills.

Cheryl Alethia Phelps stressed the role of the community foundation in filling an important gap, so that every person can sit at the table.  However, this work is not always easy to do because philanthropy has long been the area of wealthy individuals who make decisions for those with less wealth; convening and mutual participation is an innovation in this respect.

Some danger signs when convening may not work:

• unbalance of power
• unwillingness to convene
• mistrust; lack of trust
• some groups at the table are dysfunctional
• time pressure, you’ve promised outcomes by a certain date but it’s not there
• no follow through

Other models in addition to convening:

• coalition building (help stakeholders id their potential partners)
• intra-group dialogue
• bi-lateral conversations
• create research or publicity around issue, shape public opinion if people not ready to convene
• other organizations can do convening for you
• cyber convening/blogging, etc.

Session participants suggested that the BPP should create a list of funders that support convening activities and facilitators in the region that are effective and neutral

Questions and concerns from participants included:

• How do you move forward if you’ve never done before? What skills?
• How do you plan for and cover the cost of convening, both financial and in terms of human resources (time)?
• Nonprofits can get jealous of community foundation role; how do you address this?
• What steps can you take to equalize the playing field?
• What if some people come to the table with their own agenda and it’s not the same as the group’s. 

Capacity Building Session: Leadership Development
Recent studies have pointed to an impending leadership gap in the nonprofit sector in the coming decades. Meanwhile, the border region has a relatively young population and emerging leaders from both sides are starting to make a real difference in the philanthropic sector.  Co-led by Professor Robert Ashcraft, Professor and Director of the Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation, Arizona State University, and Julieta Mendez, Program Officer, International Community Foundation, this session strove to highlight the issue of emerging leadership and its importance to community foundation leaders as they consider strategies to maximize leadership changes at both the staff and board levels. The session addressed the value of engaging emerging, diverse, leaders as a strategy for effective succession and professional development planning in order to assure vibrancy and relevancy of community foundations as leading organizations of the future.

Michelle Jaramillo opened the session by describing to participants how the desire to offer an emerging leadership session was grounded in practical reality and experience of member border community foundations.  The BPP has seen the potential positive impact of successful leadership transition and the unfortunate results of cases in which community foundations had not developed leadership or planned effectively for leadership transition.  Regardless of what capacity building area you want to focus on emerging leadership is critical because individual leadership translates to organizational leadership.

Ashcraft began the presentation by stating that he wanted to approach the subject from a 30,000 ft view. He stated that the work he has been engaged in is U.S.-centered and that he therefore hoped that there would be a robust dialogue between the US and Mexico based organizations.  As the founder of the Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation, Ashcraft highlighted the need for his public institution to think about community leadership, how individuals view their role within communities. He went on to say that at the Lodestar Center a lot of nonprofit leadership programs have been built focusing on how to improve the social sector and lending leadership and support to the non-profit sector. In essence, Ashcraft claimed that his work was focused on bridging the divide.

Ashcraft presented the example of the “hand up not hand with” approach of Habitat for Humanity as an empowerment model. He described that Habitat for Humanity is not a typical charity because it leans heavily on volunteers. This approach to non-profit management was highlighted when the director of Habitat for Humanity was asked what is needed to run a successful international organization such as his, he commented that you need leadership and that if you have leadership all else will follow.

Robert Ashcraft then continued with a personal account of his own experience as a young working professional. At this time he was working for a philanthropic organization when a board member from an organization he worked with approached him and told him that he was bright and capable and that he should move on to the corporate sector and abandon the non-profit sector.  This experience imbedded in him the reality that many non-profits lack asset development, especially in terms of emerging leadership.

Ashcraft then gave another account of a young woman that had gone through the Lodestar Program because she was tired of “working for the man”. However, as she was helping to organize a non-profit after school youth development program she became frustrated and was failing miserably at the task of organizing the program because the board of directors that she was working with couldn’t leave their egos at the door and aggregate to greater vision. According to Ashcraft, the young woman ended up side-stepping the board of directors and convening a group of community youth that were committed to the project and the program became a success. The woman went on to develop Community Peers, which was a precursor to the Communities in Schools Movement.

Ashcraft drew from these two examples to show how youth are a powerful force in social change and that they have an important role to play in social enterprise. He stressed the importance on engaging emerging leadership by stating that 50% of people in the non-profit sector are approaching retirement age. He went on say that there is a distinct difference between leadership and management. As an example he used Girl Scouts of America as the best run organization in the United States because its’ model is centered on leadership.

Julieta Mendez then took the platform, starting her presentation with a description of a three-month civic society research course she attended at the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society based at the City University of New York; there she learned about the emerging leadership at an international level and how this topic is beginning to be explored.

Julieta continued her discussion of emerging leadership by connecting its relevance to her own life as a young professional. Julieta then expressed how her commitment to promoting emerging leadership in this sector led her to join Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP), which came out of the Ford Foundation five years ago.  She described how this network of emerging leaders provides a framework through which they can form local chapters and attend national meetings. Through this vehicle, members can exchange support and ideas, developing leadership skills for successful engagement in the workplace as well as the broader field of philanthropy.

As the facilitator, Michelle Jaramillo stated that she was inspired by two imperative questions, “That if community foundations are institutions of change and if the voice of change is not reflected in the leadership, then how do we expect to affect change?”.   Also, “How does effective leadership development that focuses on diversity, translate to positive community impact?”  With these questions Michelle opened it up for discussion. 

Session participants offered the following observations

• Many organizations do not have long term plans for the leadership of their organization and that there are no stops or guidelines in place for how to incorporate new leadership.
• Non-profits are volunteering organizations. The real responsibility for leadership is the board, that they are the group that holds the vision. CEOs come and go, but leadership is rooted in the board and that we have not taken the time to construct a framework for incorporating new leadership within the board. In the current system of choosing board members “…people in certain roles are automatically funneled into the CEO position. We need to break free of this cycle or we will be putting communities at risk.”
• There needs to be better technical support structure around succession planning.  We need to evaluate the values that succession planning is infused with. We need to adopt leadership planning strategies that are infused with values that underlie change making and to better set up for transition of change making in which we view emerging and diverse leaders as capable individuals with compassion and commitment.
• We need to think about our roles in development and assessment and we need to think about how the planning of other not for profits in our region from the background of services in one’s region.
• One person offered an example of a community foundation that talked about leadership with nonprofits it granted to in order to ensure there was good leadership in place when the gift came through. 
• The current status and culture of leadership development is critical to the grantmaking process; there must be a focus of the grantor.
• When community foundations embrace diversity and nontraditional leadership you get more “buy in” and donor development, especially if you come from the community you work in and understand its complexities.
• On the Brink of New Promise has valuable tools on their website which talk about steps to the future and toward inclusion.

Robert Ashcraft than posed the question “What would happen if everything were a blank slated and was to start all over again? Would there be blurring of sector lines with business, government and non-profits, would be seek to find a new balance across networks?" Ashcraft explained that developing a new approach such as this would be bold because you would be up against current power structure. He went on to say that one way to rate our current models is to think that, “if it went away tomorrow would someone create it again because it is necessary?”

• A conversation with a nonprofit executive director in Southern Mexico concluded that there are no emerging leaders in the region because the non-profit sector does not pay well and because it is a great deal of responsibility for what you earn monetarily. In fact, this executive director said that the corporate sector is willing to offer young professionals 2 to 3 times more salary. She wanted to know how it is like in along the Mexican border.
• Mexican participants agreed pointing to instances where Mexican border community foundations had not been able to retain young leadership and the rising need to develop a program for emerging leaders.
• What organizations need is an emerging leader that holds the confidence of the community, someone who does not shut the door, but that opens it to the joy of possibility.
• The Board of Directors needs assistance with the hiring process because they are often very off base with who they need to hire. Boards often have no experience in recruitment and retention of CEOs.  

Linetta Gilbert then shifted the focus of the conversation away from technical support by emphasizing that she was concerned about individual leadership and asking the group what they do to stay strong and inspired.

• One participant offered that as a female minority people are intimidated by her being in the room. She followed that being open and embracing who she was draws her to leaders that provide her with support. For instance, she stated that the BPP network is important because it provides her with that needed support. She said that it is important for her to embrace individuals that support her even when they are outside of your organization. This has helped her pull through an identity crisis that could have lead to isolation instead of empowerment.
• Everybody needs to be refueled and networking provides her with fresh inspiration
• Mentorship is key no matter what your age or where you are in your professional/personal life.  We all need mentors
• A balance of body mind and spirit is also essential.  One participant pointed to American Humanics as an organization that offers tools/curriculum to help the nonprofit professional nurture all three key elements
• Read and keep your mind open and informed on a wide variety of subject matter. This will provide perspective on how the world is changing and help funders relate better to you and your organization.
• Linetta Gilbert recommended reading Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People's Minds. Linetta Gilbert also emphatically stated that we all need to be risk takers and that we need to pay attention to new ideas especially when they come from unsuspected sources.

Creating the Intercultural Mindset: A Deeper Dive
Mary Ellen Colon, built on the material presented on the meeting’s previous day, provided meeting participants with an opportunity to delve deeper into the work of nurturing the inter-cultural mindset of our organizations; a critical capacity for border institutions. Colon presented on the idea that understanding who we are and where we stand culturally speaking is the basic tool to begin the journey of crossing cultures successfully and an extremely important ingredient for any strategy involving initiatives with people of diverse backgrounds.

Colon’s concept of an intercultural mindset was particularly relevant to the meeting because in today’s world of constant and hyper-speed change affecting all aspects of living, creating this so called intercultural competence, or mindset capable of adapting to transition, takes on a new level of importance and urgency. Colon strove to drive home the point that intercultural competence is no longer an interesting hobby or bonus knowledge, but has become an essential tool for survival; especially for those who seek to address complex problems.

Colon began her presentation by discussing how tacit culture is expressed through a variety of different forums. In particular she discussed how culture can be expressed along a continuum of individualism vs. collectivism, which is a concept highlighted by differences in parenting, and through the politics of differing countries. She also discussed how the idea that there is no universal beauty and that an individual’s relationship with nature is highly affected by their culture. Furthermore, Colon went on to discuss how culture affects social hierarchies of power and leadership as well as hospitality within what she termed host vs. guest cultures.

In delving into the topic of an intercultural mindset, Colon stressed that understanding diverse cultures is a process that starts personally and then through this process you influence others’ ability to change their intercultural mindset.  Once you develop your acceptance to other cultures you cannot go back. She also discussed the importance of accepting diverse cultures so that you are able to establish trust across cultural boundaries. Establishing trust is a very important component to developing personal and professional relationships, which underscores the reasons why intercultural competency is an essential component to the BPP network.

To reach a deeper understanding of how cultures intersect, often overlapping and contrasting, Colon asserted that one must approach diversity from the simple methodology of talking and bringing awareness to the problem. She stressed that it is also important to have a solid understanding of cultural differences associated with genders because these interactions are at the forefront of a culture and have strongly reinforced response patterns associated with them.

In discussing what shapes culture, Colon described how socioeconomic class can be an important determining factor. She underscored this point by referring to a study that showed that wealthy families in different countries/different cultures have more in common than wealthy families have with poorer families within their same country/culture.
       
Colon then went on to discuss how the border region has its own culture, a culture that is influenced by both US and Mexican cultures, but is separate from both. After discussing border culture, Colon described how language is an important way to connect with different cultures and that “purity” of language does not exist. She described how language is simply a vehicle in which to communicate with others and represent the person and their identity.

After discussing the role of language in culture, Colon described the difference between stereotypes and archetypes. Stereotypes are subjective, represent an outsider’s perspective, are accusatory, assume innate characteristics, are used to describe an entire group, and the goal of a stereotype is to judge and exclude a person. On the other hand, Colon stated that archetypes are scientific and ethnographic. An archetype comes from an insider’s perspective, it is descriptive and does not assume that everyone fits into the same archetype, it is never innate, and the goal of an archetype is to understand not to judge.

In concluding her presentation, Colon discussed how there are many different dimensions to a culture. In many cultures, the concept of self is either rooted in an individual or a collectivist framework. In addition, styles of communication within a culture are generally either direct or indirect and the cultural concept of time is either based on a future or polychromatic perspective. Colon wrapped up her presentation by explaining how the concept of assumed trust versus mistrust is also divergent between cultures.  This is a key factor in U.S.-Mexico relations because the U.S. has a culture of assumed trust whereas the Mexican archetype is that of mistrust until trust is proven. This final point resonated deeply with many of the meeting participants who had encountered this obstacle when working to establish bi-national collaborations.

Resource Mobilization and Endowment Building

• Download samples of Sustainability Planning exercise templates

Building on the sustainability planning exercise that was recently rolled out with a select group of border community foundations, Debbie Acevedo led an interesting session on Resource Mobilization and Endowment Building, which focused on the responsibilities and capabilities of the board members as integral parts of a community foundation. These responsibilities include long-term planning and goals, assuring that fiscal policies are in place and followed, financial oversight, helping to adopt budgets and ensuring positive public representation.

Acevedo discussed how the partnership between the board and the staff is critical especially in regard to their joint mission in advocating for the mission of the community foundation. She also touched on the importance of giving by the board saying that, “It is very different for you to promote giving if you yourself don’t give. You have to serve as a leader for your organization.” Continuing with this theme of leadership within the community foundation, Debbie Acevedo highlighted the importance of volunteering, hands-on participation, specifically in the projects the foundation is funding, stressing that we cannot promote what we don’t know. She went on to say that the goal of a board member is to always be thinking about the progression of the foundation mission, specifically, “How did we further our mission in what we discussed at today’s meeting?”

The mission, mission and more mission was the highlight of Acevedo’s presentation in regards to the vision of the community foundation. Acevedo called the vision the board’s responsibility; its two components are the core ideology and the envisioned future. The core ideology is the essence of a community foundation, which brings people to the board and to the foundation.  In concluding, Acevedo stressed the importance of long term-goals, explicitly, mentioning the importance of a 10-30 year audacious goal.

The session generated the following commentary from participants:

• You can create a long-term vision for sustainability, community development, anything.
• A vision is so much more important than just words. It’s important that it be a little out of reach
• In explaining the meaning of the vision, Acevedo said, "This is your dream, this is what you would like all of your actions to come to in 20 years, but it's not as far as utopia"
• Create the vision, translating the vision from words to pictures. Debbie Acevedo stated that an effective board plus an envisioned future leads to planned sustainability.
• Giving is emotional, giving is motivational, love is not numbers. You do have to give back to that motivating cause with philanthropy.
• There is a special need for sustainability and accountability in the Mexican case, both are found in the community foundation giving model. 
• Acevedo coined the vision BHAV (big, hairy, audacious, vision) whose terminology stresses the importance of the big idea versus the short term goals that many organizations operate with.

The last part of the session, the executive directors came together with the board members and generally discussed the importance of teamwork, solidarity and synergy.

• Debbie Acevedo said, “We need to share knowledge and strategy—so that we can achieve synergy together.”
• Alma Cota de Yanez stated, “For the Mexican community, the trust and the confidence is key.”

“Never think that there is no power in images. The image will motivate the team.  The image will motivate the board. The image will motivate everyone.”

1:30pm Afternoon Border Café
BPP members and partners visited four ‘cafés’ to hear about and discuss potential areas of collaboration for the BPP going forward; youth, family economic success, health and a quality of life indicators program.  In the sessions participants were asked to help shape the concepts and to provide their input into which programmatic foci the new BPP entity should focus on. A pre-conference reading assignment composed of four concept papers was sent to meeting participants in order to prepare for this unique idea-storming activity.

Border Café Session: Quality of Life

• View the Quality of Life Concept Paper on page 3.3 of the Learning Community's Participant's Binder

Deborah Acevedo served as presenter and facilitator for this discussion. Monica Patten President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Foundations of Canada and Matt Jewitt, Research Director of Children’s Action Alliance served as the key resource people for this session. The Quality of Life Session discussed the importance of the measure of the quality of life based on research and indices and their position as a tremendous tool for philanthropy, public policy and raising general awareness in the border region. The session looked at successful models of quality of life measurement including Vital Signs, a project started by the Community Foundations of Canada.

The major points concluded by the session were:

• Developing an annual report, not a biannual report
• Clearly distinguish between index and indicators, and focus on being strategic when choosing which path to take
• To remember that this kind of data collection is hard work, and costly
• Use the date as an advocacy tool and to attract donors
• To consider whether or not there can be too many QOL reports 
• Focus on making the results reader friendly, so that they inspire individuals as well as organizations. This can be done by using a simple language and a layout that includes photos
• Important to think about perceptions of well-being
• Not all members need to be involved

Issues to pay special attention to:

• Immigration Patterns
• Water
• Health
• Demographics
• Combine state and regional Indicators

Report Summary:

The Quality of Life table discussed the importance of the measure of the quality of life based on research and indices and their position as a tremendous tool for philanthropy, public policy and raising general awareness in the border region. The session looked at successful models of quality of life measurement including Vital Signs, a project started by the Community Foundations of Canada. Vital Signs encompasses 18 participating community foundations that annually analyze quality of life and compile information based on 10 issue areas. Monica Patten, President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Foundations of Canada, said that “Vital Signs is a way of engaging citizens in the community to care about what is going on.” She also discussed the nature of the program, specifically the value in commonality and release time, as being very valuable to all community foundations and member citizens involved.

Laura Beevers, Senior Program Associate from the Annie E.Casey Foundation, also discussed a quality of life measure called Kidscount, a twenty year running project that publishes indices on child well-being, as well as another six-year running initiative, Border KidsCount, that works specifically in the border region to publish similar data. Matt Jewitt, Research Director of Children’s Action Alliance, said he realized “that we not only needed to give children a voice, but also that we should base that on good data.” This idea of good data was a consistent theme in the discussion. The discussion extended towards the importance of collaboration for a similar project to be established on the border region. Richard Kiy brought up the issue that a report, such as the quality of life measure, may not be received positively with Mexican politicians. Kiy stated, “It comes back down to the cultural issue of how to talk about it.” He continued speaking about the differences in quantitative versus qualitative data and the importance of good data. “Sometimes if you ask the wrong question, you are getting the wrong answer.”

Debbie Acevedo continued the interactive discussion by asking, “What be the most compelling component of collaboration for you?”

The issue of looking at indicators versus indices also came up as an important distinction for this type of analysis program. Indicators are seen more as trends where as indices are hard data (Vital signs is an indicator report whereas KidsCount is an index report).

When discussing Vital Signs in more detail, Monica Patten, in reference to the 10 standard indicators, said, “they are designed as a call to action, a catalyst to action.” Monica referred specifically to the strategy of first assessing the measurable benefits of a study and then portraying the findings in a simple language that can attract real attention. She also noted the importance of releasing the reports in advance of local and provincial elections because public policy may be directly affected or changed in response to the data. She called the data a “community-engagement tool.”

Monica concluded that the Vital Signs reports are a fabulous tool for raising the profile of community foundations, specifically saying, “It is the single most effective tool that we have developed to raise the profile of community foundations.” Monica Patten also discussed how communications and marketing have become a critical element of Vital Signs and its effectiveness.

Border Café Session: Health

• View the Border Health Concept Paper on page 3.9 in the Learning Community's Participant's Binder

David Winder served as presenter and facilitator for this discussion. Emma Torres, a representative of the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission served as the key resource person for this session.

The major points concluded by the session were:

• Focus on prevention and intervention of chronic diseases
• Strengthen promotora programs such as “steps for healthier US” and “S.A.G.-Strategic Actions Groups” that lack funding
• Link with current infrastructure and add to it
• Draw from resources and research from the US-Mexico Border Health Commission as well as the University of Arizona
• Act as a bridging organization building multi-sectoral initiatives by drawing together organizations focused on the environment, education/school programs, public planning/local government, as well as local clinics and federally funded clinics.

Additional Key Points that were touched upon:

• The US-Mexico Border Health Commission representative Emma Torres stressed that the organization is a great resource for us to utilize and that they would be a very supportive partner to collaborate with.
• The need to advocate for best practices
• Support excellent programs that are currently in place that are due to be dropped because of funding/provide continuity to existing programs

Example: “Healthy Borders Program”

• Bring innovative models (such as nutrition programs) to Communities

Examples of these models are Los Niños International and the Ojinaga nutrition program

• Have a whole family focus as opposed to focusing on a single age group

Potential Resources and Models:

• One program to involve ourselves in is the FESAC-Nogales diabetes program and the program to assist children with developmental difficulties
• Santa Cruz Community Foundation works with an organization that provides nutritious foods and recipes
• Prosalud in Tijuana specializes in community health education through the promotora model
• Los Niños International works of community health promotion and education in the Tijuana area.
• Nutrition program out of Ojinaga
• Healthy Border 2010 Program; US-Mexico Border Health Commission
• Native Seed/SEARCH Program that promotes the cultivation and eating of traditional crops and foods

Commentary that would be important in thinking about a health focus: 

• Bob reflected that the BPP and the community foundations strength is as a bridging organization. We should therefore utilize that strength by coordinating health efforts between promotora programs and build an effective public awareness campaign and resource network.
• Cheryl Alethia asserted that as a networking organization we need to fill the gaps and avoid redundancy. We can address gaps by coordinating across regions and building relationships between health facilities and health focused organizations and lobbying to change public opinion. Could we even go so far as to retain and share patient information, or is that too classified?
• Richard stated that one key focus that we could have is on connecting promotoras with the government organizations that are stuck in current paradigms. Think of all the individuals that don’t go to a clinic because they need to travel long distances, can’t take off of work, or can’t afford the bus fair. These are some of the problems we could address.
• Emma expressed that one very important purpose you could serve is to provide continuity to some great programs that will be ending. “Healthy Steps for Ayudas” is one such program that will have to close its doors at the end of September.
• Richard relayed that there is a disproportionate amount of resources going to the treatment of infectious disease. Both the World Health Organization and the Gates Foundation are focusing on infectious disease. We should therefore bring more attention to chronic diseases such as diabetes. Imagine what the economic impact of childhood diabetes is, over 14% of the border population is pre-diabetic. A prevention focused campaign would save a great deal of money in the long run.

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Border Café Session: Family Economic Success (FES)

• View the Family Economic Success Concept Paper on page 3.21 of the Learning Community's Participant's Binder
• Download the BPP's report on Community Foundation support of FES, Building the Financial Vitality of Border Families


Michelle Jaramillo served as presenter and facilitator for this discussion. The resource person was Ana Marie Argilagos, Senior Consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  Jaramillo introduced the topic by reviewing previous BPP work on Family Economic Success, which was launched with a Forum in November 2005, with strong support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  FES programs implemented by border community foundations on the U.S. side of the border have been successful. Much of the group’s discussion was around how FES could be applied in Mexico, which lacks programs comparable to Earned Income Tax Credits in the U.S. Ana Maria de la Garza, board member of the Fundación Comunitaria de Matamoros, shared the research she had done on current practices in Mexico. For example, some corporations have matched savings programs for mid-level employees but no such programs exist for low-income workers.
 
There was general agreement that the philosophy behind asset building, or savings, is universally applicable.  Asset-building benefits not just families but entire communities. Financial literacy is an important component of FES, for Mexican workers on both sides of the border.  In the border region, family savings is a transnational issue because money and families cross the border.

The major focus points concluded by the session were:

• A focus on FES offers opportunity to reform the remittances industry and combat predatory practices along the border.  (IAF has a grant in Mexico on remittances that could studied further).
• Through BPP, a better opportunity to hit anti-poverty policy change, not just individual programs.
• FES does not just bring in more money to individuals. FES improves the overall economic outlook of communities.
• Coalition building around FES will attract new funders to the partnership.
• Community foundations are uniquely well positioned to do this work (this network has a strong comparative advantage against other types of organizations and other work areas).  Coalition building is key to this work and community foundations are natural conveners. 
• Caution regarding the legal/fiscal implications for a bi-national program.  In Mexico financial services are highly regulated and moderated, there would need to be good study to ensure the Mexican community foundations could do this work without compromising their status.
• We need to be very aware and work into a BPP program the cultural differences between us in relation to money.  We all want to be better positioned economically but that concept means different things for different people

Additional Key Points that were touched upon:

• Try to expand Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) in the border region. Del Cabarga mentioned a program in Arizona that sets up savings that are channeled to students in Mexico.
•  A cross-border focus could hone in on financial literacy or the strengthening of nonprofit organizations that offer FES related services to the communities on either side.  It can also focus on combating predatory services. 
• The San Diego Foundation presents an opportunity to implement an FES program under the BPP umbrella. The final year of funding under this initiative is 2008-2009.   TSDF is looking for a place to transfer the program to.
• Explore FES strategies with microfinance institutions, including ways to access money safely (e.g., through debit cards that read thumb prints).
• Build on the promotora model that is so unique and relevant to border context already.  Promotoras can do more than health.
• Despite the differences in the fiscal/legal frameworks, poverty reduction is important on both sides.  Program could be build around the Earn it, Keep it, Grow it framework
• Use technology to facilitate this across the border.
• Question of start with pilot or hit the whole border? The BPP could be the engine that takes pilot to scale, but lets begin with a pilot in one place that is advance by the regional community foundations.  One person suggested that the pilot can start, be ahead of the curve and then other pilots can start in other places, so we have one community foundation breaking the ice.

FES in Mexico:

• Some Mexican companies offer savings programs but these are usually only for white collar workers. 
• Once the worker changes or leaves the maquilas, any savings or benefit program, ends and the behavior (savings) does not continue.  The question that arises in considering a Mexican FES program is how do you construct the program in a way that you are making sustainable change to behaviors?
• FES programs in Mexico offer opportunities for initiatives in capacity building, policy and convenings.
• EITC is the ‘hook’ on the US side.  The hook on the Mexican side can be IDA
• Consider engagement with and integration of informal sector savings strategies; lending circles?  Begin where people are.

Potential Resources:

• Banking institutions
• The California Endowment, is also interested in FES.   Mario Gutierrez is especially an important proponent
• Invite Western Union to join the partnership. The Western Union Foundation is interested in promoting IDAs among border residents.
• The already established Frontera Asset Building Network, Annie E. Casey Foundation
• World Bank; how can we articulate the intersection of FES work with the UN MDG to attract international partners?

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Border Café Session: Youth

• View the Youth, Jovenes Fronterizos Concept Paper on page 3.15 of the Learning Community's Participant's Binder

The major focus points concluded by the session were:

• The idea of bi-national fund for youth was suggested
• There was a strong interest in peer learning and measuring impact
• The need to develop criteria for border-wide project was highlighted as a significant step in the project
• It was concluded that a youth project should start first with indicators and then bring a pilot to scale
• Question were raised around the target youth age: younger vs. older
• Use of technology like digital storytelling and the arts are excellent tools to give youth a “voice”

Additional Key Points that were touched upon:

• It would be important to create a greater youth alliance in areas of Advocacy, Social Justice, Public Education.
• There is a need to address transnational objectives vis a vis youth.
• The issue is that most young people getting involved in their community are the high achievers; we need to find ways to include all youth.
• There needs to be a general agreement on the age range of youth: the question is whether we should include early childhood education and the age range of the youth.
• There are already a lot programs for childhood education, it may therefore be a good a idea to focus on adolescents.
• The youth are future leaders in philanthropy, they are no longer a child and not yet an adult and based somewhere in the middle. It is a very vulnerable age.

Commentary that would be important in thinking about a youth focus: 

• FECHAC mentioned that it is important to find community related work for the youth in their communities because it helps to promote civic participation.
• Lisa mentioned the importance in building social capital and the importance of creating indicators that ensure an “early win” within the projected timeframe.   
• Richard mentioned the need to have projects that are measurable though it could be difficult to measure impact due the age changes.
• YCF believes that childhood education should be included in the youth issues because that is where it starts. Children go back and forth along the border and are not ready when entering school. Promotoras take care of these kids and teach parents to help these kids adjust to culture.
• FCM believes the need to separate early childhood education with those the youth initiative. Early childhood education has different needs from those in their teens.
• Miroslava said that it is important to build youth leadership, because youth need a leader to look up to.
• Patricia feels that is necessary for young people to tell us what they need. “The youth will tell you what’s important to them”.
• Lisa stated that it is important to engage youth and to have them make an impact in their community and create systems change.
• Richard highlighted the importance of first collecting data and then creating a pilot bi-national project that governments would replicable and use on a larger scale.
• Fundación Comunitaria de Matamoros noticed that students take pride in the work they do. For example, a municipal official was suppose to visit the school and the students made all sorts of preparation and he was not able to arrive. This definitely lowered the student morale.
• Karen has seen positive results in focusing programs on adolescents because there are not many programs that support this age group.

Potential Resources and Models:

• Border Kids Count is a project funded by the Annie E Casey foundation working to gather data on border issues related to adolescence, teen pregnancies, unemployment, violence, teen murder rates, delinquencies and the lack of public policies addressing youth.
• The youth are given a stipend and they create their projects, we provide them with real projects, they learn to plan for example: they were provided a stipend where they were able to create a computer center. Este es algo impactante.
• Nancy from Frontera Norte created a youth network as a means to connect other young people that have strong role in vulnerable communities working on projects in their areas.
• Cochise Community Foundation provides a challenge grant to the communities for youth civic participation, the youth conducted walk-a-thons, baked sales. They are reaching out to at risk youth. They try to involve youth in fundraising about stuff they care about.
• New Mexico Community Foundation is currently working on social justice issues that young people expressed through the arts such as poetry slams, on issues such as immigration where undocumented youth can express their issues and have a safe space to share their thoughts.
• Cochise Community Foundation works with teens on graffiti art and make use of graffiti artistically to express important issues in their communities.
• FESAC Nogales provides youth training in philanthropy and exposes them to non profits. The foundation lets the youth decide what projects they would like to fund, such as reproductive health projects.
• Karen mentioned a web-base network, provides digital story telling. A space where youth a space where they can relate ideas about philanthropy.

6:30pm Dinner hosted by the Arizona Community Foundation, Yuma Community Foundation and Cochise Community Foundation

Our 9th Learning Community hosts, the Arizona Community Foundation, Cochise Community Foundation and Yuma Community Foundation, welcomed BPP partners and special guests to enjoy an evening dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of these foundations along the Arizona border.  The evening’s program included an address by Roberto Reveles, Founder and President of Somos America, former Chief of Staff to Congressman Udall, philanthropist, volunteer and social activist, and also offered a post-dinner theatrical performance by mask maker and performance artist, Zarco Guerrero. 

 

DAY 3:  April 18, 2008 - Phoenix Marriott Mesa Hotel

 8:00am Breakfast Keynote:  Philanthropy and the Role of Public-Private Partnerships on the US-Mexico Border with Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow

• Hear Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow's Address

Jeffrey Davidow, The President of the Institute of the Americas at the University of California, San Diego, and the former Ambassador to Mexico provided his perspective on the current political climate of the US-Mexico border region and opportunities for the BPP to reach out and work with the public sector. Learn more about Davidow's perspective in his fasci