This strange and stressful year has brought unprecedented challenges to our families, communities, and the entire world. Never before has it felt so challenging to stay connected with each other, and to remain focused on all of our 'best laid' life and work plans. But through it all, we have witnessed the perseverance of grassroots leaders, who have continued to step up, take action, and organize their communities to demand positive change. We hope this E-News and all the stories we share from the grassroots reflect this drive and commitment from community leaders.
This issue of our newsletter includes highlights from our 27 years of building grassroots power for communities and the environment. You have played a key role in making this good work happen. We really mean it when we say, without our Rose Community, our work and impact would not be possible!
As we close out 2020 and set our sights on a new year of supporting grassroots activism and community resilience, we are grateful to have you with us! Thank you all for sharing our commitment to Foster Stewardship, Build Community, and Demand Justice!
Please consider giving a year-end gift to the Rose Foundation. Together, we can continue to grow grassroots power in 2021 and beyond! 
In this issue:
We Are Hiring! Join Our Team!
We are hiring a paid Communications Intern! Are you… Passionate about storytelling to engage, educate, and inspire?
Moved by messaging and frameworks around environmental, social, and economic justice?
Interested in gaining experience working in the nonprofit field, and/or grassroots environmental movement? Come work for the Rose Foundation as our Communications Intern! Find out more about this paid internship and how to apply here! Please help us spread the word by sharing the job announcement!
This Just In: Our Fall 2020
Newsletter Has Arrived! This year's Fall Newsletter has just arrived, bringing you news and views from the grassroots!
We hope that like us, you find inspiration in these stories showcasing how grassroots leaders all over the country are finding ways to center communities and the environment in addressing the intersectional crises of the pandemic, the climate crisis, and justice, and to come together to build a livable, equitable future for us all.
In this issue: Building Community Resilience Across the Country, Timely Tools for Grassroots Organizing, Meet the 2020 - 2021 New Voices Fellows, and so much more!
Rose Foundation:27 Years of ImpactWhat does building grassroots power
& community resilience look like? Our youth leadership development program New Voices Are Rising has graduated over 175 youth of color from Oakland high schools through our Summer Climate Justice Academy. The program has also engaged over 3,000 local youth around issues of environmental justice through community and school presentations and events like our Annual Youth Poetry Slam and Community Summit. Learn more about our New Voices Are Rising program on our website.  Our California Environmental Grassroots Fund, a founding grassroots grantmaking program, has awarded over $3.5 million to grassroots groups and trained over 1,000 activists.
Who are our grassroots grantees?They are small but mighty! Over 60% of them have annual budgets smaller than $50,000, nearly 50% are volunteer run, and almost 70% serve diverse or underserved communities. We have awarded over $1.85 million to over 100 groups through our California Wildlands Rapid Response & Grassroots Funds. These small grants support conservation of public lands and responses to urgent threats to our wildlands in California. Find more information about our California Wildlands Rapid Response Fund and California Wildlands Grassroots Fund on our website.  Rose Foundation has been recognized by state and federal courts for our critical role as a bridge between philanthropy and the community. Over the years, we have been entrusted by the courts to award nearly $42 million in mitigation funds to groups across the country that are repairing harms to our communities and the environment. Projects funded have protected people's and nature's rights by working on clean air infrastructure, watershed stewardship & protection, environmental health & toxics, consumer & privacy protection, and more! Our consumer and privacy protection funds make up almost 30% of these mitigation awards, supporting projects that provide consumer financial education, privacy protection, & truth-in-advertising. Read more about these funds on our website. Our Donor Advised Funds also focus on building grassroots power. We leverage our extensive knowledge of the landscape of grassroots environmental and social justice groups to help individuals with wealth connect with emerging grassroots leaders. All of the funds entrusted to us are held in 100% mission-aligned investments. Working with donor-advisors, we have awarded nearly $6 million in grants to grassroots groups building a better world through a wide range of social justice and environmental stewardship initiatives. Want to start a Donor Advised Fund with the Rose Foundation? Find key information on our website and contact Executive Director Tim Little!  We know the most effective and innovative projects are often initiated at the grassroots community level. Our Fiscal Sponsorship Program has incubated 45 emerging projects, providing capacity building training; coaching to improve groups' operations and administrative functions; introductions to potential funders; and support to navigate relationships with funders. With this support, our Fiscally Sponsored Projects can build strong internal systems to keep up their critical conservation, equity, and grassroots advocacy work for the long-run! For more about our Fiscal Sponsorship Program, head to our website.
Meet the Rose Community:
Rose Foundation Board of Directors Left Column: Marybelle Nzegwu Tobias (top), Nancy Berlin (middle), David Michelfelder (bottom)
Right Column: Kyle Live (top), Amy Lyons - Treasurer (middle), Alan Ramo (bottom)
Additional Board Members include: Jill Ratner - President, Kevin Hendrick - Vice President, Ellen Hauskens, and Cindy Tsai Schultz
Each month we feature a member of the Rose Foundation community. We hope that through these interviews, you get to know a little more about the dynamic people who make the Rose Foundation's work possible. You are a part of the Rose Foundation community, and we want to tell your story too! If you want to be featured in an upcoming newsletter, let us know by replying to this email.
This month, we are featuring a few members of our Rose Foundation Board of Directors. Our Board's commitment to our values of Fostering Stewardship, Building Community, and Demanding Justice makes it possible for us to deliver funding, capacity building resources, and critical youth leadership development directly to the grassroots!
We asked our Board a couple of questions this holiday season. Continue reading to see some of their responses.
1. What inspires you about the Rose Foundation?Marybelle Nzegwu Tobias: Rose Foundation is pioneering a new model for foundation giving. Without an endowment, Rose must raise every dollar that it gives away. And for over 25 years, it's played a crucial role in funding small grassroots environmental science, education, and advocacy groups. Organizations too small to find funding elsewhere, or all-volunteer run, have a funding partner in Rose! Kyle Livie: In the midst of some truly terrible times, Rose Foundation is a beacon of hope and good. I'm most inspired by the future that our grantees and New Voices Fellows are helping to build. I see in their work the intersection of environmental and social justice, growing and thriving at the community level. Rose Foundation makes that all possible. I'm thankful to be part of this future world! Alan Ramo: Rose Foundation inspires me as a model of philanthropy! Rose is moving significant money to those on the frontlines of the battle to protect the Earth and all who live here and guiding funding decisions by progressive values. 2. What are you thankful for in this very unusual winter holiday season?Nancy Berlin: I'm thankful to be part of a caring and creative community organizing to create a better world. Amy Lyons: In a difficult situation, Mr. Rogers advised "Find the helpers" as a way to cope - and there are so many helpers to inspire and thank! David Michelfelder: I am thankful that family and friends are well during this pandemic.
Where in the World did
Frankie go?In 2020, our office mascot, Frankie the Fox, found great ways to visit local places while sheltering-in-place and flattening the curve. And Frankie brought us with him everywhere he went! Frankie wants to take a moment to share a photo montage of all the places he visited this year!  Some of Frankie's favorite visits from the year include:
- Camping at Lake Berryessa with Program Officer Laura Fernandez;
- Wind Surfing at Sherman Island with Administrative Director Pamela Arauz;
- Visiting the Rose Foundation's first HQ — currently Executive Director Tim Little's work-from-home office;
- Watching our 2020 Film Fest lineup with Senior Program Advisor Jill Ratner; and
- Checking out a local pumpkin patch with Development and Communications Director Sheela Shankar!
Frankie excitedly awaits all the local adventures 2021 will bring!
Construyendo resiliencia
comunitaria a través todo el país
Por más que lo intentemos, no hay forma de escapar de los impactos del cambio climático. En todo el país, estamos siendo golpeados por olas de calor récord y cortes de energía, incendios y humo, huracanes e inundaciones. A medida que continuamos experimentando estos eventos climáticos extremos, nuestra nación también está reconociendo nuestras raíces racistas y la violencia contra los negros sancionada por el estado en medio de una pandemia de salud global sin un final a la vista. Si bien todos nos vemos afectados por estas crisis superpuestas, no nos impactan por igual; una y otra vez, las mismas personas son las primeras y las más afectadas: las comunidades de color y las personas que viven en áreas de bajos ingresos.  Los programas de ayuda financiera de base de Rose pueden apoyar diferentes áreas temáticas o ubicaciones geográficas, pero todos operan bajo un objetivo común: entregar dinero y recursos para el desarrollo de capacidades directamente a la comunidad. Como fundación, es fácil seguir la línea de pensamiento de que "tenemos los dólares, por lo que también debemos tener las soluciones." Pero si hay algo que hemos aprendido a lo largo de los años, es que las personas que viven con las realidades diarias de la contaminación, el racismo sistémico y otras injusticias tienen el conocimiento más profundo de los desafíos y los problemas que enfrentan sus comunidades. Y tienen el conocimiento local, las relaciones profundamente arraigadas y las estrategias innovadoras para lograr el cambio que necesitan sus comunidades. Al vivir en la costa oeste de Estados Unidos, sabemos lo que es luchar contra incendios y asfixiarse durante semanas llenas de humo, pero no podemos empezar a fingir que sabemos lo que es vivir a través de inundaciones provocadas por huracanes. Nuestros beneficiarios en la Costa del Golfo ya han evacuado sus hogares varias veces este otoño. Nos han enseñado lo que realmente significa experimentar desastres climáticos extremos como personas negras de bajos ingresos que viven en el sur: múltiples huracanes que se hacen más fuertes y más implacables con cada temporada; infraestructura de agua obsoleta que no controla las inundaciones; pocos o ningún recurso para que los residentes evacuen, reubiquen o reconstruyan; y una mentalidad “fuera de la vista, fuera de mente” por parte de las agencias gubernamentales y aquellos en posiciones de poder.
Los problemas que impactan a estas comunidades afectadas por la contaminación, la crisis climática y la pandemia son tan excesivos y tan graves que pueden parecer imposibles de resolver. Pero estas comunidades están lejos de estar sin esperanza y sentirse indefensos: donde los gobiernos, el racismo sistémico y las desigualdades económicas les han fallado, los líderes de base se están creando soluciones reales, movilizar a sus vecinos y amigos y exigir que quienes están en el poder actúen en nombre de la gente y el planeta. Todos tenemos mucho que aprender de los líderes de base que luchan por la igualdad y la construcción de resiliencia en sus comunidades. Haga clic aquí para conocer algunos de estos líderes y grupos comunitarios apoyados por nuestros programas de ayuda de financiación de base.
Community News & Events
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