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featured items
Please click on a category below to view one of our featured items.



Documentaries

Flow

This award-winning documentary investigates what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis. Interviews with scientists and activists reveal the global and human face of this rapidly building crisis and introduces many of the culprits behind the water grab, while asking the question "CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?"

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Reports

UNTAPPED: How Community Organizers Can Develop and Deepen Relationships with Major Donors And Raise Big Money
This guide is a free, downloadable manual on reaching major donors to tell them about community organizing! It is a crucial addition to community organizing's fund development toolbox full of insights and specific how-to's to engage long-term supporters.

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Criteria for Philanthropy of Its Best
This report is a set of measurable guidelines to help foundations and other institutional grantmakers operate ethically and maximize the impact of their dollars.

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Giving While Living
A comprehensive look at how the Beldon Fund handled the practical implications of putting the foundation on a spend-out course while seeking to accomplish an ambitious mission.

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Funding Social Movements
This report by the New World Foundation explores what Social Movements are and why they are critical to social change.

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Podcasts - SouthWest Organizing Project

Part 1 - Community Organizing
In this interview, SWOP Executive Director, Robby Rodriguez, sits down with Marjorie Fine, Director of the Linchpin Campaign of the Center for Community Change to discuss the organization's successes in community organizing.

Listen to Part 1 »

Part 2 - Organizational Development
SWOP Executive Director, Robby Rodriguez, continues his conversation with Marjorie Fine, Director of the Linchpin Campaign of the Center for Community Change to discuss the organization's successes in organizational development.

Listen to Part 2 »

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Videos

Atlantic Philanthropies
Gara LaMarche, President and CEO of Atlantic Philanthropies speaks about supporting advocacy for social justice as the best way to achieve lasting social change. Atlantic believes in empowering the people who need the change the most to advocate for a more equitable and just world. Like FACT, Atlantic Philanthropies is planning to completely spend down its assets and close its doors within the next ten years.

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Communities for a Better Environment
Daphne Zuniga explores the environmental justice work of Communities for a New Environment (CBE) in Los Angeles.

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West Virginia woman wins the Goldman
Environmental Prize

In the heart of Appalachia, where the coal industry wields enormous power over government and public opinion, lifelong resident Maria Gunnoe fights against environmentally-devastating mountaintop removal mining and valley fill operations. Her advocacy has led to the closure of mines in the region and stricter regulations for the industry.

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No Food Taxes!!
Tennessee's sales tax on groceries hurts low income families and costs Tennessee millions in lost revenue each year. This video by Tennesseans for Fair Taxation (TfT) describes the negative impacts of the stateÕs regressive food tax.

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Blasting on Coal River Mountain, as soon as TODAY!
In the face of an impending 6,600 acre mountaintop removal strip mine, activists fear blasting for the proposed site on Coal River Mountain, which rests beside a 6 billion-gallon toxic coal waste sludge dam above underground mines, could be catastrophic for the communities downstream.

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Victories

CBE and Richmond Communities Win Another Major Victory: Appeals Court Upholds Case Against Chevron

In April, The California Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision that threw out an Environmental Impact Report that Chevron Corp. used to justify plans to expand their Richmond, CA refinery. The court stated that the EIR was "far from being an informative document" because "the EIR's project description is inconsistent and obscure as to whether the Project enables the Refinery to process heavier crude." In a precedent-setting decision the Court also found fault with the EIR for failing to include specific, proven plans to mitigate a projected increase in greenhouse gas emissions and for allowing Chevron itself to come up with a mitigation plan later, outside the publicly involved CEQA process. Additionally, the court cited the case CBE previously won against ConocoPhillips stating that the "EIR completely fails to properly establish, analyze, and consider an environmental baseline."

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CBE Wins Court Victory Protecting the Definition of Environmental Baseline Under CEQA

In a precedent-setting case in the California Supreme Court, Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) successfully challenged a definition of what is an appropriate baseline against which to determine whether an industrial project will adversely affect the environment. The court unanimously ruled against the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) in Los Angeles, finding that they "abused their discretion" in determining that a new industrial process at the ConocoPhillips refinery did not merit a full Environmental Impact Review. SCAQMD had approved ConocoPhillips to move forward with the production of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel based on a hypothetical emissions baseline, rather than actual conditions. The court ruled that the proper baseline for consideration of the impact of new emissions must be the actual current conditions. This industrial process has been shown to dramatically increase nitrogen-oxide emissions, creating smog that can result in asthma and other respiratory illnesses. The case sets a precedent in determining what constitutes a real baseline under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) which will impact future cases and provides an important tool for communities working to protect the health of their neighborhoods from corporations attempting sideline environmental regulations.

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Victory for Hotel Workers Near LAX
LAANE recently won victories in the fight for workers rights in the hotel district on Century Blvd - the corridor leading to LAX. The end of 2008 saw the final implementation of a living wage law that will provide an estimated $12.3 million in wages and benefits to the families of 3,500 workers through the end of 2012. Along with the living wage law, four major hotels have since unionized including Westin, Four Points Sheraton, Sheraton Gateway and most recently the Radisson LAX. LAANE continues to work with a coalition of advocates for workers rights and is pressuring Hilton LAX to join other hotels in allowing its workers to unionize.

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South Florida Workers Protected From Wage Theft
Low-wage and immigrant workers in south Florida are one step closer to winning the battle against wage theft thanks to the Florida Immigration Coalition (FLIC), a FACT grantee who recently won the passage of Miami-Dade County's wage theft ordinance. Wage theft takes many forms including forcing workers to work off the clock, refusing to pay overtime, shaving hours from time cards, paying less than minimum wage, and outright refusing to pay for work performed. This victory is a result of a two year struggle led by a task force that FLIC facilitated-The South Florida Wage Theft Task Force. This ordinance is a powerful piece of legislation that prohibits wage theft and gives the county legal authority to help recover back pay for workers who have been cheated.

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Oakland City Council Approves Instant Runoff Voting; Oakland Rising to Begin Voter Education
In January 2010, the Oakland City Council finally approved Oakland voters' decision to switch to a system of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), passed as Measure O in 2006 with 69 percent of the vote. The new system of IRV, also known as Ranked Choice Voting will eliminate the June primary election and save the city $800,000 per year after its initial implementation. During the City Council meeting, over 70 community members signed up to speak on the agenda item, with an overwhelming majority speaking in favor of IRV. Voices of support included Esperanza Tervalon-Daumont, Director of Oakland Rising who assured the Council that her organization would work to educate Oakland voters to understand the new system when they go to vote in November. "Oakland Rising is ready, we have been ready and now we are waiting on you. We are waiting for City Council members to show leadership." Tervalon-Daumont stated at the meeting.

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Clean Trucks Program Continues at the San Pedro Bay Ports
In a victory for the movement led by organizations like FACT grantee LAANE who are working to push policy that would clean the air and create good green jobs at our nation's ports, a U.S District judge denied a preliminary injunction that would have threatened the San Pedro Bay Ports' Clean Trucks Programs in Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA. This was a critical test for the Clean Trucks Programs, which aims to reduce diesel truck pollution by 80%, deliver $5 billion to the regional economy, and create stronger safety and security enforcement.

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Articles

Grassroots Efforts in Richmond
Read this article on the grassroots effort to stop the expansion of Chevron's refinery in Richmond, CA.

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Why Spend Out
John Hunting, founder of the Beldon Fund talks about why he chose to spend down the assets of the foundation in ten yearsÉ

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Every Dollar Spent
When the office-equipment manufacturer Steelcase Furniture went public just over a decade ago, the deal supplied its major stockholder, John Hunting, with the financial muscle to endow his small foundation with $100-million.

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Featured Organizations

The LA Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)
LAANE is a leading advocacy organization based in southern California dedicated to building a new economy that works for all. Combining dynamic research, innovative public policy and the organizing of broad alliances, LAANE promotes a new economic approach based on good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment.

View The LAANE Update »
   
The California Alliance
The California Alliance works toward a common progressive vision through innovative public policy and civic participation strategies for communities of color and low-income communities. The CA Alliance is predominantly led by people of color and is comprised of 15 recognized social justice, environmental justice and labor-affiliated organizations.

View The California Alliance Update »

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What's New

President appoints San Diego environmental justice leader to Advisory Committee
President Obama appointed Environmental Health Coalition Executive Director Diane Takvorian to the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.

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