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Bayside, Calif.—The Humboldt Area Foundation and its regional affiliate, the Wild Rivers Community Foundation (HAF+WRCF) and the Arcata Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) are partnering to launch the Public Investing and Innovation Project (PIIP) to grow our region’s capacity for public investment. Amplifying this new effort, The California Endowment (TCE) also committed generous start-up funding for the PIIP.
To guide the implementation of the project, AEDC has announced the corporation is accepting applications for a new joint executive position, the Public Investing and Innovation Initiative Director, with the position officially opening to applicants on Feb. 17, 2022. You can view the full job description here at the AEDC website.
The PIIP is a partnership with HAF+WRCF, AEDC, and TCE to develop ways to build capacity within partner organizations to leverage stacked public and philanthropic funding opportunities, including unprecedented federal funding for pandemic recovery and increased California State resources. Future partnerships are envisioned to include organizations such as Tribal and municipal governments, educational institutions, healthcare institutions, and other mission-driven investors. The partnership aims to seek and blend these public resources with philanthropic and private funding for the greatest impact.
Currently, the Redwood Region has no formal collaborative effort to prioritize, develop a pipeline of projects, and leverage funding opportunities. In combining the experience of the region’s community foundation (HAF+WRCF) and the region’s largest community development financial institution (CDFI) through AEDC, the new partnership can make significant regional impacts as public funding for climate mitigation, economic development, and equity increases.
“This new partnership with the Humboldt Area Foundation and The California Endowment is a great moment for our region. AEDC and HAF’s combined decades of experience providing funding to community projects can uniquely support this region as we grow our capacity to attract Public investment. Together, we can create a strong coalition to identify and fund critical projects in our Northern California Community communities,” says Ross Welch, executive director of the AEDC.
The Public Investing and Innovation Project draws from Capital Absorption, a framework developed by the Center for Community Investment that measures and assists the ability of regions to attract and deploy capital in support of low- and moderate-income communities.
Through the capital absorption framework, communities like the North Coast gather to articulate their priorities, establish a pipeline of feasible projects, and create an enabling environment that connects community investors with community needs. Moreover, a fundamental component of the framework is navigating the policies, barriers, interests, and environments in which those projects will be implemented.
Capital Absorption empowers communities to assess their own economic development needs. According to the publications from the Center for Community Investment, the framework positions communities to be ready to engage with potential investors, whether that's public or private investors. The capital absorption framework also helps communities answer questions like: ‘where would we invest a large sum of money, who is equipped to manage it, and how does it support our community’s priorities?’ By using this framework, communities generate projects that are both ambitious and actionable because we know they are in support of community values and needs.
“The Public Investing and Innovation Project (PIIP) can empower the region to attract significant public and private investment while providing the infrastructure to absorb funding and distribute its equitability into systems. By building a case for economic development that’s based on community values and input, the capital absorption framework centers issues of racial equity, just economic development, and environmental and climate remediation at the outset of major development projects,” says Bryna Lipper, chief executive officer of HAF+WRCF.
As part of the partnership with The California Endowment, AEDC and HAF+WRCF will develop a learning and reporting model as part of the project’s initial development. Early learnings and organizational changes from both the AEDC and HAF+WRCF will be shared with TCE and other funders and financial institutions in order to evaluate how the shared-executive and partnership model effectively support community development.
“Investing in this project in Northern California is exciting. This innovative CDFI and Community Foundation partnership model has the potential to increase health an racial equity through a formal, values based investment collaboration that generates an enabling environment for more just economic development. During this unprecedented time we have an opportunity to reimagine how we can begin to address structural inequities that were laid bare over the course of the pandemic,” says Annalisa Robles, senior program officer for The California Endowment. “The multi-sector partnerships that focus on building and strengthening alliances that span racial, ethnic and socio-economic boundaries can identify the many opportunities for development on the North Coast and beyond, while also raising awareness to the barriers and systemic inefficiencies that hinder community investment. The Endowment is also eager to learn about this model and share its successes and learnings with the philanthropic and development communities,” she adds.
About HAF+WRCF
The Humboldt Area Foundation and its regional affiliate, the Wild Rivers Community Foundation, serve the residents of Del Norte, Humboldt and Trinity counties in California, and Curry County in Southern Oregon. Annually, the foundation invests more than $6 million in our community through grants, loans, scholarships, and more.
About the Arcata Economic Development Corporation
AEDC is the region’s largest Community Development Financial Institution and is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization. Since 1978, AEDC has provided financing for business opportunities in Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties in Northern California. AEDC and HAF+WRCF have worked together to fund complex community development projects, including jointly providing more than $8.4 million in grants and loans for economic recovery during the COVID-19 response.
About The California Endowment
The California Endowment is a private non-profit, statewide foundation that works to make California a healthier place for all. Created in 1996 when Blue Cross of California acquired the for-profit subsidiary WellPoint Health Networks, today TCE is the largest private health foundation in the state with more than $3 billion in assets. Since its inception, the Endowment has awarded more than 22,000 grants totaling over $2.9 billion to community-based organizations throughout California.
Donors and nonprofits who are interested in seeing their charitable money work for social good have a new way to invest. Humboldt Area Foundation is now offering a Socially Responsible Investment Fund (SRI) which focuses on investments that address climate change, sustainability and other social issues.
“HAF has been evaluating the possibility of a Socially Responsible Fund for over a decade,” said Humboldt Area Foundation Executive Director Patrick Cleary.
Cleary explained that socially responsible investing has historically generated lower returns than traditional investments, creating a “conundrum” for donors who would then have less money to offer in grants and scholarships. That, combined with a lack of consensus on what “socially responsible” meant, gave HAF’S staff and Investment Committee much to research before deciding on the best strategy.
“The approach we settled on after much research was to focus the fund on investments which address environmental and climate change issues, which resonated with our donors,” said Cleary. “In addition, we were able to construct a portfolio that appears to be competitive on return with our long-term pool, so hopefully donors will not have to accept lower returns. The reaction from our fund holders has been positive enough for us to reach a large enough threshold to launch the fund.”
The investment option is broadly consistent with the investment policy established by HAF for its long term investment pool, but invests with fund managers whose security selection and portfolio construction processes focus on companies with high sustainability ratings, positive economic development, attention to renewable resources and good governance. Holdings in the pool will be regularly reviewed to assure they are meeting sustainable investment practices.
“At HAF we incorporate the tenets of our Mission statement in all we do,” said Finance Committee Chair Charlie Jordan. “Our investment strategy is yet another way that is true. By investing in socially responsible funds we seek funds that provide both financial returns and social and environmental good to bring about a positive change.”
Because this is a new offering, there is no historical track record on investment performance, but simulations show that the proposed fund mix for the SRI would have performed slightly better than HAF’s long term pool over the last three years and matched HAF over the trailing five years, with somewhat higher volatility. The underlying investment costs of the funds are very comparable to the fees on HAF’s Long Term Investment portfolio.
“Some of our donors would like to direct their donations into an investment vehicle that more aligns with their values,” said Investment Committee Chair John McBeth. “HAF is lucky to have Angeles Investment advisors on our team, and with their help we have developed a Socially Responsible Investment Portfolio to address this complex issue.”
Investing in the Socially Responsible Fund is at the option of the donor or nonprofit. Individuals interested in learning more should contact Patrick Cleary at (707) 267-9902
About Humboldt Area Foundation:
Vera Vietor established the Humboldt Area Foundation in 1972. Since then, more than $80 million in grants and scholarships have been awarded in Humboldt, Del Norte, Curry and Trinity Counties. Humboldt Area Foundation promotes and encourages generosity, leadership and inclusion to strengthen our communities.
For more information on services provided by the Foundation please visit the Humboldt Area Foundation website at hafoundation.org or call (707) 442-2993.
The Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation have awarded 62 grants through the 2021 Holiday Funding Partnership Grant Program. A total of $71,115.29 was disbursed to charitable organizations and projects.
Each organization received funding for holiday assistance programs that supply food, clothing, and other basic needs to youth, senior, and low income families in Humboldt, Del Norte, and Trinity counties in California, and Curry County in Oregon. Grant awards ranged from $500 to $2000.
This fund supports a wide variety of recipients ensuring that the holiday season is special for those facing housing and food insecurity. Some of the program recipients include: Two Feathers Native American Family Services for grocery gift cards; Mattole Valley Resource Center for holiday baskets; Brookings Harbor Food Bank for a holiday youth snack program; andTrinity Community Food Outreach for a community holiday dinner.
The total list of recipients included:
Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation are grateful to be a part of the process of ensuring our communities’ youth and families are provided with necessary resources this winter. To learn more about the annual Holiday Funding Partnership, contact the Grants Team at Grants@hafoundation.org.
Kindly note that the Foundation offices will be closed for the Winter holidays from December 23rd to December 31st. We will resume regular hours on January 3rd, 2021
Catholic Charities efforts to provide legal services to individuals and families navigating the immigration and visa system in Del Norte and Humboldt counties were extended an extra year by a $15,000 grant from the Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation.
“The immigrant communities in Humboldt and Del Norte counties face great challenges, namely a shortage of trained service providers as well as immigration attorneys who lack the experience necessary to properly address the need,” said Dina Lopez, Director of Immigration for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa. “This generous grant from HAF and WRCF will help Catholic Charities continue offering a variety of free legal services.”
Catholic Charities serves more than 5,000 immigrants each year with a suite of legal immigration remedies including Family-based Petitions, DACA, green card renewals, naturalization, U Visa and T Visa. Accredited by the Department of Justice, Catholic Charities staff serve historically underserved immigrant communities — mostly clients from Mexico, Honduras, Philippines — in Sonoma, Humboldt, Lake and Del Norte counties.
Lopez said her organization strives to make immigration remedies available to working families that are forced to travel outside of the area for help or pay significant fees for unreliable counsel.
“We strive to make services more accessible than they have ever been,” she said. “And we remain steadfast in our commitment to those exploring legal permanent residency across the entire Diocese of Santa Rosa.”
This is the second HAF/WRCF grant to Catholic Charities, which has expanded immigration outreach and education in Humboldt County the last five years. From November 2020 to September 2021 a $12,000 grant to the organization allowed them to bring $90,000 worth of pro bono legal aid to Humboldt County, reaching 152 workers and their families.
“Supporting the services that allow our neighbors to achieve or maintain legal immigration status is key to ensuring the safety and protection of these families,” said Lindsie Bear, vice president or Community Solutions at HAF/WRCF. “We are grateful to our local community leaders at True North Organizing, Centro del Pueblo, and in the Promotores Network for helping the foundation identify this gap in essential services. And to Catholic Charities for working with local leaders to bring trusted educational and technical expertise where it is so deeply needed.”
Catholic Charities will use the new HAF/WRCF grant this year and in 2022 to expand services in Del Norte County as the number of immigrants working low-wage service and agriculture jobs continues to rise. Specific services will include free, one-to-one legal assistance, and free education and outreach events that help clients learn their rights and the legal pathways to citizenship. The work will be done virtually in partnership with trusted, local agencies and Catholic parishes. Once COVID restrictions are lifted, they will return to in-person events.
For more information about Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa, visit www.srcharities.org. Learn more about Humboldt Area Foundation at hafoundation.org, and Wild Rivers Community Foundation at wildriverscf.org. For more information about this press release, contact Jarad Petroske at jaradp@hafoundation.org.
Members of the Hmong Cultural Center Distribute Food During COVID-19. Photo Courtesy Marylyn Paik-Nicely.
The Humboldt Area Foundation and the Wild Rivers Community Foundation have released a follow up to its 2020 COVID-19 report. The COVID-19 Regional Response Fund Report, March 2020-March 2021 can be downloaded here.
The report looks at a one-year snapshot of rapid-response community grant making. Between March 2020 and March 2021, the foundations granted more than 200 grants totaling more than $2.7 million. The report outlines how the foundations shifted its standard grant making cycles into high gear to respond to ever-changing community needs. The report also details more than 20 lessons learned from a year of community response. Those lessons sketch an outline of ways nonprofits and community foundations can make substantive changes to be better prepared for the next disaster. The report is divided into an 8-page executive summary followed by four appendices to provide greater detail. Download the Executive Summary [PDF 11.1 mb] Appendix 1: Regional Context [PDF 422 kb] Appendix 2: Grants By Theme Tables [PDF 377 kb] Appendix 3: Lessons Learned from COVID-19 Response [PDF 267 kb] Appendix 4: List of All Donors & Funders [PDF 246 kb] Download the Initial COVID-19 Regional Response Fund Report [PDF 5.4 mb]
For contributions, giving and fund information email Gina Zottola or call 707-267-9905. For questions about grants from the fund email Craig Woods or call 707-442-2993 ext. 307. For media inquiries email Jarad Petroske or call 707-382-4716.
Photo caption: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has designed an area off the coast of Humboldt Bay, seen here, as the Humboldt Wind Energy Area. The agency formally announced the designation in July, 2021, and is currently conducting a required environmental review of the area.
A new initiative, the Redwood Region Climate and Community Resilience Hub (“CORE Hub”), has launched from the Humboldt Area Foundation/Wild Rivers Community Foundation to help improve local resilience across built and natural systems. By deepening regional cooperation the CORE Hub is poised to develop equitable solutions to address growing climate emergencies.
The CORE Hub formed to help bring new resources to this region to reduce the many impacts of the climate emergency, and lower the emissions that cause climate change at the same time. An overall goal of the CORE Hub is to investigate how the Redwood Region can become the first proven carbon-sequestering rural area in the U.S. by 2030, while increasing equitable outcomes as progress is made. This 8-year initiative will align emission reductions across tribal and local governments’ activities, public and private land and resource use, built and natural systems, and other sectors.
By prioritizing communities that are under-resourced to more fully participate in solutions and decisions, the CORE Hub hopes to accelerate broad resilience across the Redwood Region, including transitions to clean energy and transportation.
An immediate CORE Hub project is a series of briefings on offshore wind (OSW) energy development, prioritizing under-represented, under-resourced communities with supports to participate. This follows a recent announcement from the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) of the process to license offshore wind production on the Pacific Coast. The CORE Hub will devote funding, coordination, research, and other community participation resources to help investigate offshore wind energy development in the region.
Photo caption: Floating wind turbines like these off the coast of Portugal could be part of an offshore wind power installation in the waters off of Humboldt Bay, California. Photo courtesy of Principle Power.
This project has received the support of U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman, who believes the hub is a “powerful example of the community’s desire to move away from fossil fuels — and I’m looking forward to it shaping this development process.”
The region is home to many Native American sovereign tribal nations and indigenous cultures, and the CORE Hub specifically invests in tribal expertise, to increase partnerships with tribes in climate and community resilience. The CORE Hub has begun dialogues with the region’s Native American Tribes and communities to seek their direct input, sovereign decision-making, and increased collaboration in offshore wind energy and overall climate resilience.
“The Biden Administration’s efforts to pursue offshore wind energy development is a tremendous opportunity for the North Coast — and can only be achieved with frequent and robust community engagement,” Huffman said.
Mike Wilson, Humboldt County Supervisor for the Third District, and CORE Hub advisory council member views the CORE Hub work as essential to the resilience improvements the region needs to undertake. “Our need is to collectively increase our understanding of the situation we are in with respect to climate change, the emergencies we are facing now, and the impacts to come, and work together on what we can do about it,” Wilson said. “We need resources to dedicate time to talk with each other with access to information that makes that talk – and the decisions that come out of it – well informed and more productive.”
CORE Hub co-founder Bryna Lipper, and CEO of the Humboldt Area Foundation, said the formation and mission of the CORE Hub fits perfectly into HAF’s decades-long legacy of intensive community and social development initiatives in the region. “These investments spur collaboration and local leadership, and promote the extraordinary innovation of our region,” Lipper said. “The CORE Hub initiative continues this legacy and is a deep commitment toward HAF’s new goals of Healthy Ecosystems and Environment, Racial Equity and A Just Economy.”
The CORE Hub helps locate and deploy resources for capacity and technical assistance for tribal and local governments, community-based and non-profit organizations, and others to help accelerate implementation and collaboration across the region’s portfolio of climate and community resilience initiatives. The CORE Hub also facilitates access to trusted experts, data, and research. The technical analysis for the 2030 carbon negative goal will include equity metrics, carbon lifecycles, and research of opportunities for additional sequestration of carbon in land management, in building materials, and by other means. Where applicable, it will draw from existing regional and local planning efforts and climate goals. From there, the effort will create a replicable recipe for rural areas to assess their regional carbon sequestration profile, with methods to prove climate goals and make decisions about how to achieve them.
“The Biden Administration’s efforts to pursue offshore wind energy development is a tremendous opportunity for the North Coast — and can only be achieved with frequent and robust community engagement." - Rep. Jared Huffman, Calif.
“Engagement efforts include funding for convenings, workshops, and the sharing of knowledge, ideas and goals,” said CORE Hub advisory council member Arne Jacobson, who is also director of the Schatz Energy Research Center and a professor of Environmental Resources Engineering at Humboldt State University. “Over the coming decade, our region and the world need to make a rapid transition to an energy system that is clean, resilient and more equitable,” Jacobson said. “To navigate this transition successfully here, we will need to engage in inclusive and informed dialogue across the region’s multiple communities.”
Other developments are underway in the region, including Humboldt State University’s proposed transition to become California’s third polytechnic university which expands research and educational opportunities and new housing, a large-capacity broadband cable connecting the North Coast to Asia and other areas of the U.S., with corresponding implications for economic development, and related businesses such as data centers, and Humboldt Bay port revitalization, which could include becoming a West Coast hub for offshore wind, among many others. All these have climate and community resilience intersections and emissions profiles.
These new developments take place in one of the world’s most significant ecosystems. For example, the region’s ancient old growth and second growth redwood forests are estimated to absorb more than 600 million metric tons of carbon, or the capacity to sequester nearly 10 percent of the United States’ carbon emissions. However, these forests — and surrounding communities — are now in jeopardy because of heat gain, wildfires and other climate-amplified threats.
At the same time, the region is managing the fastest rate of sea level rise in California, recorded at three times higher than the global rate (due to land subsidence), with associated groundwater inundation. It also experiences high earthquake and tsunami risk, and tenuous connections to both electrical and natural gas grids.
Central to managing the climate crisis while strengthening the economy and infrastructure is supporting well-informed community collaboration that guides projects and policies at their earliest formative stages and throughout their life cycles. “Addressing the climate crisis is a major technological challenge, but we also have to develop and implement a range of powerful community, economic, and social systems and solutions if we are to be successful in advancing this effort with the urgency required,” said Matthew Marshall, CORE Hub Advisory Council member, and Executive Director of the Redwood Coast Energy Authority. “The CORE Hub is just the initiative needed to engage our entire community in a broad and meaningful way to catalyze and accelerate our transition to an equitable, prosperous, and sustainable clean energy-based future.”
This region has launched other sustainability innovations, including tribal cultural and prescribed fire to reduce wildfire risk, solar energy, electric and hydrogen transportation, salmon stronghold watersheds, long range water planning, forest carbon sequestration projects, climate action planning, sea level rise analysis, early and ongoing OSW research, and robust community engagement. “Significant efforts to mitigate climate and regional risks, make our infrastructure more resilient, and transition to be emission-free or carbon-absorbing are already underway,” said Jana Ganion, CORE Hub advisory council member and Sustainability and Government Affairs Director for the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe. “The CORE Hub was formed to help further de-silo and align these efforts, include more under-represented communities in the process, and accelerate progress by working together.” Ganion is serving as the launch lead of the initiative, bringing policy and partnerships experience in energy and climate resilience sectors to help achieve CORE Hub objectives.
For more information, please visit redwoodcorehub.org or contact info@redwoodcorehub.org.
Click here to learn more about supporting the Pacific Redwoods Missing & Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Crisis Action Fund
Homicide is the third leading cause of death for Indigenous women and girls. In some Tribal communities, Indigenous women face murder rates that are more than 10 times the national average.
These rates are disproportionately high in the Pacific Redwoods region, which accounts for two-thirds of California’s MMIP cases. California is home to the nation’s fifth-highest number of MMIP incidents.
MMIP Awareness Day, which takes place on May 5, is a national effort to draw attention and resources to address this devastating pattern of violence and injustice.
The Foundations, which are supporting Native leaders’ efforts to end this tragedy, today announced that they are launching The Pacific Redwoods Missing & Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Crisis Action Fund with seed funding from individual donors and the Foundations’ discretionary fund.
The fund will support regional research, policy advocacy, crisis response and recovery, and will aim to close technical assistance gaps. It will also allow for the Foundations’ continued partnership with Tribal leaders and Indigenous experts to facilitate community support and address the root causes of this public safety threat.
“The national tragedy of MMIP has been all but ignored by philanthropy,” said Bryna Lipper, CEO of the Humboldt Area and Wild Rivers Community Foundation. “These are our girls, our friends, our community. Their absence is devastating to us all. Today, and every day until it is no more, we are called to face the crisis that is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons. We can do something to end this now.”
California’s most populous Tribe, the Yurok Nation, has developed internationally recognized MMIP justice efforts, working with the region’s Inter-Tribal Court to advocate for public and philanthropic resources, elevate research, and help bridge barriers to services. Some of those barriers are a result of legal and jurisdictional issues arising from a 1950’s era Congressional Act known as Public Law 280 (or PL 280), which applies to California and five other states. Tribes were neither consulted nor consented to the sweeping change.
This law has been used as justification to deny law enforcement funding to Tribes and has “dramatically altered criminal justice in Indian Country,” according to the Department of Justice’s Institute for Justice.
"We, al of those who are left behind, are failing. Our people are going missing. They are being trafficked and murdered," said Judge Abby Abinanti, Yurok Tribal Court Chief Justice. “We will not stop fighting for a fair and reasonable share of resources for our region, for our people, and our justice partners. Failures are mounting and we must unite and ensure justice as the right of all.”
You can help by getting involved in Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s Awareness Day on Thursday, May 5. Community members are invited to:
“The Foundations will continue to support and partner with Tribal and community leaders to advocate for awareness and healing. We will also champion efforts to advocate with our elected leaders and educate the public about the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous victims,” said Paula (Pimm) Tripp-Allen, Senior Advisor to the Humboldt Area Foundation. “With sustained efforts of philanthropic support and public action, we can begin to work together to forge a path of healing and prevention of this national and local crisis.”
For more information on how to support Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Awareness Day and the Pacific Redwoods Missing & Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Crisis Action Fund, please visit the HAF+WRCF Giving Page.
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About Pacific Redwoods Missing & Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Crisis Action Fund
The epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP) is a national humanitarian crisis, with California ranking fifth in the nation for incidents of MMIP, and the far north of the state accounting for most cases. The Pacific Redwoods Missing & Murdered Indigenous People’s Crisis Action Fund supports prevention and response to violence against Indigenous people in our region. Your investment in the Pacific Redwoods Missing & Murdered Indigenous People’s Crisis Action Fund supports regional research, policy advocacy, crisis response, recovery, and more. Funds allow for our continued partnership with Tribal leaders and Indigenous experts to facilitate community support and address the root cause of this public safety threat.
About Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation
The Foundations serve the residents of Humboldt, Trinity, Del Norte Counties in California and Curry County in Oregon, along with 26 Tribal Nations and Indigenous territories by promoting and encouraging generosity, leadership and inclusion to strengthen our communities. We envision a thriving, equitable, healthy, and just region for the generations ahead.
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