CFLeads announces new economic mobility work with $4.8M investment
In December, CFLeads was pleased to announce that we received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for our continued economic mobility work. Building on the remarkable success of the pilot Economic Mobility Action Network, CFLeads will continue supporting community foundations that serve as local coalition builders through their economic mobility work.
This renewed investment will allow the CFLeads Economic Mobility team to assist more community foundations around the country in improving long-term economic mobility for residents. CFLeads will support local decision makers by exploring community foundations as users of targeted economic mobility resources and tools and build their capacity as influencers of local public sector leadership.
Read our press release to learn more about the announcement and fill out the interest form below if you are interested in learning more about CFLeads’ future Economic Mobility programming.
Executive Leadership Institute for CEOs gather in Long Beach, CA
The 2023 ELI for CEOs cohort met for the last time in Long Beach, CA, and was generously hosted by Long Beach Community Foundation! Participants discussed the different staff attributes and skills needed to advance a community leadership agenda and engaged in group peer counseling.
The cohort also heard from Alec Gorynski, President and CEO, Lincoln Community Foundation, who shared share how the Foundation is using the Community Leadership Assessment Tool (CLAT) to measure the lead aspect of their mission to inspire their community to give, act, and lead.
Please join us in congratulating the ELI for CEOs 2023 cohort. We wish you well on your exciting community leadership journey!
- Simeon Banister, Rochester Area Community Foundation
- Betsy Constantine, Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo
- Christen Duhé, Gulf Coast Community Foundation
- Marcelle Epley, Long Beach Community Foundation
- Tatiana Hernandez, Community Foundation Boulder County
- Shannon Polk, Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation
- Aba Taylor, Brookline Community Foundation
CFLeads attends ‘Shift the Power’ summit in Bogotá, Colombia
In early December, Mary Thomas, CEO, CFLeads and Lisa Schalla, Project Director, Connecting Communities in the Americas (CCA), attended the Shift the Power summit in Bogotá, Colombia along with a group of CCA grantees, hosted by the Global Fund for Community Foundations and TerritoriA. The CCA grantee cohort used part of their funding to meet in person at the summit to share how they create a deeper understanding and integration of their transnational communities.
With over 700 participants from community foundations and other nonprofit organizations around the globe, the summit was an incredible opportunity to share ideas and strategies for shifting decision-making in philanthropy to local communities. Highlights included panel conversations with Palestinian human rights lawyer Soheir Asaad, journalist Marta Ruiz, member of the Truth Commission on Colombia’s painful internal wars, and Hilbak Kalfan of the Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR). The CCA network was broadly represented at the summit.
Executive Leadership Institute for CFOs meet for quarterly call
The 2023-24 ELI for CFOs cohort met virtually for their fourth quarterly call in December. ELI for CFOs is a year-long learning opportunity that focuses exclusively on community leadership for community foundation financial officers.
Key objectives include:
- Identifying finance’s role in helping to support the community foundation’s community leadership strategies and practices
- Advancing specific community leadership practices at participating CFOs’ foundations
- Building peer connections and seeding potential collaboration through peer learning and collaborative problem solving
During this meeting, the cohort discussed the incorporation of racial equity and justice into the finance and operations process.
- Join us on January 17 for a webinar with Nonprofit VOTE. Register here.
- Applications for the CFLeads & Welcoming America Community of Practice are due January 19. Apply today.
- Applications for our Gun Violence Prevention Network are due January 22. Learn more and apply today.
- Join us on January 31 for a webinar with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Register here.
Interested in becoming a CFLeads investor? Visit the Support Our Work page or email investors@cfleads.org for more information.
