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Foundation Launches Pilot Project with Go Green Grants
January 26, 2012 – Eleven local nonprofit organizations each received $1,000 to help them promote green practices and put them on the path to apply for certification as a Monterey Bay Area Green Business.
Through a pilot project called Go Green grants, the Foundation is providing funds and arranging technical support to help the nonprofits join the ranks of green, sustainable businesses . . . [more]
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Four local artists receive Rydell Visual Arts Fellowships for 2012 and 2013
January 17, 2012 – Four local visual artists were selected by the Foundation to receive Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship awards for 2012 and 2013.  | Pictured from left are Isabelle Jenniches, Isaiah Saxon of Encyclopedia Pictura, Lance Linares, Daren Rabinovitch and Sean Hellfritsch of Encyclopedia Pictura, Ian Everard and Rocky Lewycky. |
Isabelle Jenniches creates images captured from live cameras on the Intranet. Having exhibited around the world, she lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains and divides her time between her studio practice and farming. Encyclopedia Pictura, the artist collective of Isaiah Saxon, Daren Rabinovitch and Sean Hellfritsch, has teamed up to direct film and art projects that explore science, nature, and adventure. Esquire magazine called them "The Directors of the Future". The trio was born and raised in Santa Cruz County. For the last two years, they have led an effort to build a unique hillside neighborhood in the redwood forests of Aptos. Ian Everard is a painter whose work is in the collections of the Oakland Museum and Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. He has been written about in ArtScene, Art Week, San Jose Mercury News and New York Magazine among others. Rocky Lewycky is a ceramic and installation artist. Recognized as a top emerging talent, he currently teaches art at Foothill College and Monterey Peninsula College. “Roy and Frances Rydell believed in the arts and in Santa Cruz County’s as a place to live and work,” said Lance Linares, executive director. “The support provided by the permanent endowed fund the Rydells created ensures that artists living in our county will receive recognition and support in perpetuity,” Linares said. Forty-two artists applied for this round of fellowships from a candidate pool nominated by 29 local and regional visual arts organizations. Nominees were limited to working artists, 25 years or older, who reside in Santa Cruz County and are not enrolled in a degree granting program. Nominating organizations were asked to consider the broad disciplines the Rydells thought of as part of the visual arts: painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, installation, mixed media, stage set design, photography, costume design, textiles, glass, film and video. In November 2011, a panel of three nationally-recognized arts professionals met at the Foundation to judge the artists’ works and select the fellowship recipients. The panel members were Elizabeth Armstrong, (Curator of Contemporary Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts), Elyse Gonzales, (Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of Art, Design, and Architecture, UC Santa Barbara), and Gilbert Vicario (Senior Curator at the Des Moines Art Center).
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We're taking the long view: a message from Executive Director Lance Linares
December 7, 2011 – As 2011 winds down, we're in the midst of planning and budgeting for 2012. Our work includes estimating the available pool of grantmaking funds for next year, which we’re forecasting will be smaller. Here’s why . . . The money we have available for community grants each year (as well as for payouts to nonprofit agency fund holders) comes from the earnings generated from our endowed funds under management. Our board is charged with the stewardship of these funds and relies on its finance and audit committees and our financial advisors at UBS Institutional Consulting to put it policies to work. Even with this proven leadership team in place, we're not exempt from the continued volatility in the global financial markets. On September 30, when we “pull the trigger” to calculate the available funds for the coming year, we were experiencing what was the worst performing quarter since I came to the Foundation in 1985. At the end of September, according to the Wall Street Journal, the average U.S. stock fund had lost 12.2% of its value for the year. Our own long-term investment pool did better than the reported average, yet it was still down 9.25% for the year and our socially-responsible investment pool down 6.31%. Even though that quarter was averaged into the twelve trailing quarters, which is how we calculate our available spending pool, we are still looking at having fewer grantmaking dollars available for our community grants program in 2012. Some may ask why we don’t dip into the principal of our endowed funds versus only spending out from the generated earnings. Our board’s commitment to the long-term has meant holding the line on dipping into the principal of our endowed funds. They are meant to be here and generating grants in perpetuity for generations to come—a long view if ever there was one. As history and past experience tell us, it’s proven to be the right strategy. Following the economic downturn in 2002 and again in 2009, our endowed funds rebounded with the market, resulting in higher fund balances and a larger grantmaking pool than if we had depleted the principal. Taking this approach isn’t always easy, yet it’s one we’ve determined is in the best interest of our community over the long-haul. Going forward, we’ll work, as we have in recent years, with our donors to invite them to draw from their donor-advised funds, where available dollars exist, to contribute to causes they care about. Through continued prudent stewardship we are confident our funds will recover and grow, as they have in the past. If you'd like to discuss any of this please feel free to email or call me at 831.662.2010.
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Foundation achieves national certification for quality, transparency and accountability
November 20, 2011 – The Foundation received notification this week that it met the nation's highest philanthropic standards for operational quality, integrity and accountability.
The notice comes from the Council on Foundations.
"This is similar to to the Good Housekeeping Seal for community foundations," said Executive Director Lance Linares.
"It means we've demonstrated a commitment to maintaining a high level of quality and stewardship," Linares said.
The National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations Program requires community foundations to document their policies for donor services, investments, grantmaking and administration every five years.
This is the second time the Foundation has successfully gone through this rigourous review process.
The Foundation's recertification was led by Sue Farrar, finance and administration director.
"Getting this seal is important to our board of directors," Farrar said. "Because it tells our donors, their professional advisors and our local nonprofits that we're good stewards of their funds and are doing things right," she said.
Over 200 community foundations have already been confirmed in compliance nationwide.
"When people make a charitable bequest, establish a fund or step up an annuity, they are putting their trust in us," Linares said.
"The certification process and seal provides a level of quality assurance to the public by saying our house is in order," he added.
The National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations program is the first of its kind for charitable foundations inthe U.S.
The Council on Foundations is a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit membership association of more than 2,000 grantmaking foundations.
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Foundation's green center wins architectural design awards
November 10, 2011 – The Foundation's Jack & Peggy Baskin Center for Philanthropy, designed by Mark Cavagnero Associates, has been honored with two international architectural design awards.
The center, which opened this year, received Gold Level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for its green sustainable design.
The center was among ninety new distinguished building projects to receive one of the International Architecture Awards© for 2011.
The building's design was showcased at an exhibition during the XIII BA11 International Biennial de Athenaeum in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last month.
Presented by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, the European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and the Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd, it is considered the world's most prestigious global award for new architecture, landscape architecture, interiors and urban planning.
The jury for awards took place in Warsaw, Poland, under the auspices of The Association of Polish Architects.
In a statement by Christian K. Narkiewicz-Laine, Museum President, The Chicago Athenaeum, "the award program draws important public and professional focus for the celebration and recognition of the most important key buildings produced this decade, underscoring the highest level of imagination and inspiration of the 'best of the best' architectural minds practicing design today."
Recognition also came from an award through the Good Green Design™ program, which is one of the world's largest and oldest award program for the best contemporary design.
"We selected Mark Cavagnero Associates because of their track record of green sustainable designs that work for each community," said Executive Director Lance Linares.
"The real award now," Linares added, "is in the increased community use of the center."
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Foundation's green center gets the gold
October 10, 2011—The Foundations Jack & Peggy Baskin Center for Philanthropy has received Gold Level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The center was designed by Mark Cavagnero Associates, built by Devcon Construction, Inc. and named for our lead donors, Jack and Peggy Baskin.
In addition, the Foundation has also been recertified as a green business by the Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program.
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