Black Creativity 2009: Green Revolution

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is currently featuring its Green Revolution exhibit, part of the Museum's annual Black Creativity celebration.

Green Revolution explores green technology and innovation and celebrates achievements by African Americans in the green movement.

The exhibit highlights more than 30 individuals with green careers. Among those featured in Green Revolution are: Van Jones, founder of Green for All; Majora Carter, most known as the past director of Sustainable South Bronx; Michael Dorsey, environmental advocate and professor at Dartmouth College; and, Warren Washington, head of the Climate Change Research Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. For a full list, click here.

Congratulations to all those working hard to revolutionize the way we interact with the planet!

The exhibit will continue through March 1, so hurry up if you're in the area and haven't seen it yet! For more information on the exhibit, click here.

What's in Your Paper?

Environmental Paper Network, a coalition of leading conservation groups, has a cool new website called What's in Your Paper? The new site offers a Purchaser's Toolkit that helps paper purchasers save money by cutting paper waste and buying paper products responsibly.

Confused about which papers are environmentally friendly? The Paper Steps provides guidance to the hierarchy of papers out there. Additionally, a What's Hot page features organizations and projects that promote environmentally responsible products and services.

For news and features, the website provides a link to the Paper Planet, an international blog reporting on the social and environmental transformation of the paper industry. Check it out!

The new site is great because its user friendly interface allows paper purchasers to grasp the importance of environmentally friendly paper and to learn how to go about purchasing responsible paper. To see the website, click here.

New Resources for LGBT Movement and Its Donors

Looking for some good resources on the LGBT movement and its donors? Well look no further than three new reports now available at the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) website.

First check out the Advancing Transgender Equality – A Guide for LGBT Organizations and Funders comprehensively describes the movement for transgender equality in the US. The report comes at an important time, as autonomous transgender organizations add full-time staff and increase their budgets, while general LGBT groups add trans-specific programs to their agendas. The report has five main sections:

· The evolution and growth of the movement for transgender equality, including an in-depth look at the movement today;
· The obstacles that face transgender Americans, including issues related to physical and mental health; safety and physical security; legal documentation and relationship rights; and employment and self-sufficiency;
· Work underway to overcome these obstacles;
· Recommendations for general LGBT organizations to make their work more trans-inclusive and relevant; and
· Recommendations to help funders increase their support for transgender equality.

Second, be sure to look through the 2008 State of the States Report. Its issued jointly with the Equality Federation, and provides LGBT movement organizations, allies, partners, and funders with an overview of statewide LGBT advocacy organizations, including those organizations’ capacity, the issues they are addressing, and the strategies and tactics they employ to achieve LGBT equality. It analyzes data on 41 state-based groups in 36 states. The report can help organizations craft strategies to achieve local, state, and national LGBT political victories and help donors determine how to direct their funding of state-based work.

Lastly there is some imoprtant information on the state of Nonprofit Endowment Funds – Why and How LGBT Movement Organizations Should Establish Them, a snapshot of current endowment funds and planned giving programs at US LGBT nonprofit organizations. Overall, they find that most organizations have little in the way of permanent or board-created endowments, and few are engaged in active planned-giving development.

The report provides a starting point for LGBT organizations interested in building endowment funds or launching planned-giving programs.

Save the Mangroves!

A recent edition of NewScientist has a small article on the world's largest surviving mangrove ecosystem, which is also home to the endangered royal Bengal tiger. According to the article, in February, the state government of West Bengal and the Indian government approved plans for a petrochemicals hub on the island of Nayachar, located in the Hooghly River.

If finalized, the plan would refine crude oil and produce petroleum by-products. The island is nearly 10 km from the Sunderbans, a biodiversity hotspot containing a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Noxious effluents would flow into the coastal waters and spread into the network of rivers and creeks. Sunderban, home to a range of marine, coastal and estuarine lifeforms, would be subjected to the pollution.

This article caught my eye, since I just visited Belize this past week, a place that Mangrove Action Project (MAP) says is also in danger of losing its mangroves due to construction.

In this case, the South Beach Belize Project, a private gated resort, would cut down the mangroves that border the island of Ambergris Caye to make way for the development. The biggest casualty would be the nearby Hol Chan Marine Reserve (where I just spent a whole day snorkeling!). The reserve is the single most visited site in Belize and encompasses more than 21 square miles of ecologically linked coastal mangrove swamp, sea grass meadows and coral reef habitats, including a portion of the Belize Barrier Reef, the Western Hemisphere's longest coral reef.

According to MAP:
Many marine species, particularly reef fishes and certain invertebrates, rely on mangroves and seagrasses for the feeding and protection of their young. Numerous bird and reptile species nest, rest and feed among mangroves, safe from predators. The food chain for Hol Chan's marine life begins in the mangroves with the algae that grow on mangrove roots and the bacteria and fungi that feed on decomposing mangrove leaves. When mangroves are destroyed, the effects are felt by all the species dependent on them, including bird and fish populations far away from the site of the damage.

Mangroves trap sediment washed into the water by rain and serve as a filter, keeping the water clear and protecting Hol Chan's reef and seagrass beds. Dredging, even when it does not directly destroy corals and seagrasses, adds sediments to the water. These sediments harm corals and seagrasses by reducing the light that can reach them, smothering them and altering the area's nutrient levels and sources. While dredging for South Beach Belize is slated for the back lagoon, westerly winds are known to send currents from the back lagoon towards the reef with drastic increases in suspended sediment.

You can find the full article on MAP's website by clicking here.

These two scenarios demonstrate the current threat that mangroves throughout the world are facing due to development projects that do not take into account their important role. To get a good background on mangroves, click here.

Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate

We’ve blogged before about what great resources Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate are, but they’re worth mentioning again! Both website provide great content that compiles top stories about the climate crisis, solutions, the consequences and politics of the environment.

The mission of Environmental Health News is to advance the public’s understanding of environmental health issues by providing access to worldwide news about a variety of subjects related to the health of humans, wildlife and ecosystems. Environmental Health News is published daily by Environmental Health Sciences, a non-profit organization founded in 2002. Its daily e-letter, Above The Fold, is available for free. Its syndication services also are available for free and are used by over 300 other websites around the world.

The Daily Climate was formed in 2007 and strives to be the source of record on climate change news. Its core purpose is to provide a daily summary highlighting the best news on climate change from around the globe. Since November 2008, The Daily Climate has commissioned and published high-quality enterprise pieces on unheralded and oft-overlooked aspects of climate science. Those reports are published along with a daily compilation of news about climate change from mainstream media sources around the world. An index, with links to the stories, can be found in the TDC Newsroom. The Daily Climate is published every morning by Environmental Health Sciences, a global nonprofit media company with headquarters in Charlottesville, Va. It offers a free daily e-letter with summaries and links to the best 15 stories of the day. Be sure to check them out and spread the word!

The Smart Streetlight

Today's regular streetlamps turn on or off when a photocell attached to them reacts to darkness or sunlight. They use one level of power, and when they burn out, the only way they get fixed is if someone notices.

Smart streetlamps, however, are controlled from a central point to turn on and off, dim, and flash continually in an emergency, like a car. This is what five test "smart" streetlamps in San Francisco are capable of doing. Run by Pacific Gas and Electric, these lamps use 100 LEDs to produce light similar to that of a regular streetlamp.

The new streetlamps can send and receive data, so a central monitoring station--or even a cell phone that connects to a secure website--can remotely program them to turn on and off. Furthermore, the illumination can be changed (presumably during dusk or dawn), thereby decreasing overall power usage. Even if full power is used, however, each streetlamp would draw 127 watts, compared to 290 watts for regular streetlamps.

San Francisco isn't the only city changing the way it lights its streets. According to Inhabitat, New York City is expected to test and install LED streetlamps this year. The Department of Transportation, in coordination with the Office for Visual interaction, is designing the new lamps with two light lenses that shine light not only directly below, but in different directions. The new lamps will therefore save money and energy, while also providing a safer habitat for New Yorkers.

To see the original blog in the New York Times, click here.

Tweeting from our Grantees

I’ve noticed recently that several of the Foundation’s grantees are on Twitter! (To see an earlier explanation of what Twitter is and why it’s helpful read my earlier blog post here). Here's a list of current grantees that I could find that are already tweeting:

1Sky
American Civil Liberties Union
Breakthrough
Committee to Protect Journalists
Forest Ethics
Free Press
Grist
Green for All
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
WITNESS
Natural Resources Defense Council
Planned Parenthood of New York City
Reporters Without Borders

Did I miss any? If so feel free to e-mail me at emiller@overbrook.org and add your organization’s twitter name in the comment box below and I’ll be sure to add them. The Foundation has two active Twitterers (Tweeters?). You can follow me here and Environment Program Assistant Christine Terada here

Tweet on!

DNA Testing and Constitutional Rights

Over the past two decades later, DNA evidence has been used to exonerate more than 230 people wrongfully convicted nationwide. This includes including 24 here in New York State.

In an effort to prevent more wrongful convictions, last week prosecutors and victims of crime joined people exonerated with DNA testing and leading legal rights organizations urged the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize that the federal Constitution allows prisoner’s access to DNA testing that could prove their innocence.

The Innocence Project reported that five amicus briefs were filed on behalf of William Osborne, an Innocence Project client, who has been seeking DNA testing for eight years to prove his innocence. Osborne was convicted of rape, attempted murder and related charges in 1993 in Alaska.

Alaska is one of just six states without a law permitting prisoners to apply for post-conviction DNA testing. Prosecutors in Alaska have refused to permit Osborne to conduct DNA testing at his own expense, even though they concede that favorable DNA results would “conclusively prove Osborne’s innocence.”

In 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny him access to DNA testing, and the state appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments in the case on March 2.

We’ll keep you updated on what happens on the case in March. We couldn’t agree more with Peter Nuefeld, the Innocence Project Co-Director who said, “Our Constitution gives every citizen the right to prove that he’s innocent.”

A Dry Spell for Green Energy?

With the current economic downturn, the once-booming wind and solar power industry is also experiencing quite a fall. According to an article in the New York Times, despite the promise of a green-minded Obama administration, factories building parts for wind and solar power installation have recently announced a wave of layoffs.

Without help from the government, trade groups project that installation of new equipment is set to decline by 30 to 50 percent this year. DMI Industries of Fargo, a plant that makes towers for wind turbines, recently announced a cut of about 20 percent of its workforce due to falling sales.

Before the credit crisis, almost 20 big banks and financial institutions took advantage of generous federal tax incentives by helping finance installation of wind turbines and solar arrays. Now, with banks in trouble, the number has dropped to four, according to Keith Martin, a tax and project finance specialist with Chadbourne & Parke as quoted in the Times.

Wind and solar companies are urging Congress to help revive the market by adopting new measures. According to the Times, with the stimulus bill, both House and Senate would extend an important tax credit for wind energy for three years. Meanwhile, the House version of the stimulus bill would help both wind and solar industries become less dependent on banks by providing more immediate tax incentives.

Despite the current downfall, it is hoped that Obama's interest in clean energy and green jobs would not let this industry collapse. The issue of clean energy should remain a priority so this downturn would only be seen as a brief dry spell in the long-run.

Taxing Plastic Bags in NYC

Last week Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proposed a 5-cent fee on new plastic bags distributed at grocery stores, department stores, restaurants and other retailers. The fee is a penny lower than the 6 cents per bag proposed in November.

Despite the decreased fee, the projected revenue is $84 million. According to an article in the New York Times, other estimates suggest the revenue could rise to $144 million by 2011 and $124 in 2012. The falling revenue assumes that plastic bag consumption would decrease each year. In Ireland, plastic bag use decreased by 94 percent just a few weeks after the country adopted a 33-cent charge in 2002.

Because the fee is actually going to be considered a tax, the proposal still needs to be approve from the State Legislature in Albany. If the proposal passes, New York City would become one of the first cities in the United States to assess a plastic bag tax. Remember that San Francisco banned plastic bags at grocery stores in 2007.

I agree with those who worry about the tax, citing their need to use some bags to clean up after pet waste or to use for trash. I do know, however, that most people accumulate way more bags than can be used for these purposes. In my apartment, for example, between four roommates, there is always a large bag stuffed with extra plastic bags waiting to be recycled during the next trip to the grocery store. I hope the tax passes so that people will make more of a conscious effort to cut down on their plastic bag use.

The release of Emilio Gutiérrez Soto

Yesterday, Reporters Without Borders published an interview it obtained with Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto of the newspaper El Diario del Noroeste after his release on January 29th, 2009 from the detention centre in the Texan border city of El Paso where he was held for seven months. Gutiérrez fled across the border with his teenage son seeking asylum on June 15th, 2008.

In this interview, Gutiérrez describes his hasty departure after being threatened by military personnel in the northern state of Chihuahua where he lived and worked. He also recounts the circumstances of his arrest by the US immigration authorities and the conditions in which he was held in El Paso.

"I would have been a murder statistic if I hadn't fled to the United States," Gutiérrez said. In fact, one of his fellow journalists working for the same newspaper, Armando Rodríguez Carreón, was murdered in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez last November during a period of extreme violence.

It’s more than unfortunate that Gutiérrez's experience typifies the terrible situation that Mexican journalists experiencing on either side of the US border. Hopefully an increased awareness of the situation can be part of an effort by both US and Mexican federal authorities to make the border region safe.

A Greener Olympics

Anyone already excited about the 2010 Winter Olympic Games will be even more happy to know that the ice rinks will be greener than they've been in the past. Resurfice Corporation, an ice resurfacing company, has developed a greener, cleaner machine that is powered by electricity. The company currently supplies propane-powered resurfacers to five National Hockey League rinks, but is hoping to put the electric models on the market soon.

According to the article in The New York Times, resurfacers first ran on gasoline, then diesel fuel, then propane. Busy ice rinks have to be resurfaced hourly, and fossil-fuel-powered resurfacers pose even greater problems by emitting fumes that can linger in a closed arena.

Although they are cheaper to run, electric resurfacing machines are expensive, selling at $160,000--about twice the amount a propane model costs.

The article quotes Denis Hainault, director of ice sports for the Vancouver Organizing Committee, as saying the electric resurfacers are "one of the pillers of the Olympic movement to be sustainable as much as possible." The Vancouver Olympics committee has ordered 17 electric machines so far, which are being leased by Resurfice.

As someone who's definitely looking forward to the 2010 Games (I already have my tickets!), I'm even more excited by the thought of going to a green Olympics! Look out for my review blog in 2010...

The New York City Venture Philanthropy Fund

It’s 2009 and the New York City Venture Philanthropy Fund (VPF) is still going strong! VPF is a group that seeks to provide an effective method for identifying emerging under-funded, under-recognized projects or programs that embody an entrepreneurial spirit, and promise high impact and effectiveness for complex, persistent social problems. VPF is especially interested in supporting startups and fledgling organizations that have not yet received significant support from major funders.

In order to focus on issues in a meaningful way, each year VPF invests in one critical area, such as education, the arts, poverty, etc. For 2008-2009, VPF members voted to support unique, innovative ideas that seek to improve the environment in New York City. To learn about the 2008/9 investee, Concrete Safaris click here.

There are some exciting opportunities coming up in 2009. First, if you aren’t a member of VPF, you can now join online. There are also three committees within VPF, the grants committee, the project management committee and the public relations committee. If you’re interested in participating in any of these committees or just in learning more about what they do, send an e-mail to guidanceboard@nycvpf.org.

The next event for VPF will be for supporting its partner Green Spaces, at the Green Business Competition Launch Party on February 9th from 7:00-1:00 PM.

To see more about the VPF Guidance board, the VPF Advisory Council, and its members, click here. There’s also a great interview with VPF Founder, Heather Rees, here.

2009 Progressive Women's Voices Program

Good news for some great progressive women! The Women’s Media Center (WMC) is pleased to announce the first class of our Progressive Women’s Voices program for 2009. Now in its second year, Progressive Women’s Voices is an intense media training and outreach program that involves in-person intensive training, weekly interview practice, and ongoing WMC strategy and support.

In its first year, PWV was resounding success, with participants diversifying the media landscape by adding their intellectual, progressive, female perspectives. In 2008, PWV women were featured in high-profile outlets like CNN, MSNBC, PBS, The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, as well as hundreds of other significant media outlets in print, online, radio, and broadcast.

To see the great women chosen for the program this year, click here. Interested in participating for a future program? Click here to apply.

Recycle Your Electronics Nationwide!

In the wake of Circuit City's collapse, Best Buy is poised to set itself up as the nation's leading seller of electronic goods. And it's setting a good example, too.

As of February 15, 2009, Best Buy will bring its electronics recycling program to all of its 1,006 stores nationwide. In the fiscal year 2010, the program is expected to expand to stores in Puerto Rico.

The program adds to Best Buy's growing list of recycling options. The company already offers recycling kiosks in front of every store for ink cartridges, rechargeable batteries, cell phones, CDs, DVDs and PDA/smart phones. Best Buy also offers to trade in select gently used electronics for a Best Buy gift card. For more information on the trade-in program, click here.

The new program will allow consumers to bring up to two units per day, per household, for recycling at any U.S. Best Buy store. The stores will accept most consumer electronics, including televisions and monitors up to 32", computer CPUs and notebooks, small electronics, VCR and DVD players, phones, and such accessories as keyboards, mice and remotes.

A $10 recycling fee per unit will be charged for items with screens (televisions, laptop computers, etc.), though this will be offset by a $10 Best Buy gift card in exchange. Interestingly, these fees do not apply for units recycled in California stores and does not apply to any of Best Buy's Exclusive-Branded products.

Unfortunately, the program does not include everything. People hoping to recycle televisions or monitor screens greater than 32", console televisions, items containing Freon or microwaves are encouraged to find other ways to recycle.

For more information on Best Buy's recycling program, click here.

Congratulations to WITNESS

The Overbrook Foundation would like to extend its congratulations to Yvette J. Alberdingk Thijm, the Executive Director of WITNESS for being named one of Fast Company’s most influential women in technology. Thijm, a member of WITNESS Board of Directors since 2005, joined the nonprofit human-rights video community as its Executive Director in 2008, as was chosen as one of the five women who is using technology to change the world through activism.

Overbrook has supported WITNESS since 2004, specifically for its efforts at promoting video advocacy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For a full list of this year’s Women in Tech, click here. We bet you’ll recognize a few more of the names and faces listed there.

Obama set to grant emissions waiver

According to an article on Grist.org, President Barack Obama is set to reverse the Bush administration's decision to deny California's request for a waiver that would allow it to set higher fuel-economy standards for vehicles. Today, President Obama will direct federal regulators to move quickly on the request from California and 13 other states, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Washington.

Mr. Obama's memorandum will order the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider the Bush administration's former rejection of the application. An article in the New York Times says that the announcement fulfills Obama's campaign pledge and signifies a change in environmental policy.

Even though a decision has yet to be made, the agency's regulators are expected to approve the California emissions waiver. Despite lobbying against the regulations by the automobile manufacturers, once the approval happens, the manufacturers will quickly have to phase-in cars and trucks that get higher mileage than the national standard.

Under the Clean Air Act, California can seek a waiver from federal rules if it can demonstrate that its own regulations are more stringent and are needed to address its air pollution problems. It is the hope that California can set the stage for other states to follow suit.

Pushing beyond this act, Mr. Obama will also direct the Transportation Department to quickly finalize interim nationwide regulations requiring the automobile industry to increase fuel efficiency standards to comply with a 2007 law. According to the Times article, Mr. Obama will avoid losing another year by ordering temporary regulations to be completed by March so automakers have enough time to retool for vhicles sold in 2011.

Less than a week in office and he's already making headway!

The Hidden Costs of Orange Juice

Ever pick up a glass of orange juice and wonder how much your morning drink contributes to global warming? It's about time we begin questioning the everyday things in our lives to see how our lifestyles are contributing to the growing climate change problem.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, in an effort to answer increasing public concern, PepsiCo, which owns the Tropicana brand, decided to use orange juice as a case study. The company became interested in determining its product's carbon footprint in England, where carbon anxiety is more apparent than in the United States. In 2007, Walkers, a PepsiCo potato chip brand, published the carbon footprint of its product on its Website and package.

The process of making orange juice seems relatively straightforward, and therefore, easy to calculate its footprint. Oranges are picked by hand, trucked to the plant, squeezed, pasteurized, packed into cartons and shipped by train to distribution points around the country. Tropicana made its own rough carbon footprint calculations before the Carbon Trust, an outside auditor, made its official calculations.

It turns out that Tropicana's initial estimate was off by more than 20 percent. Why?

Fertilizer.

According to the article, growing the oranges--and producing and applying fertilizer--accounted for about a third of the carbon produced in the entire process, which is way more than PepsiCo had predicted. Citrus groves use a lot of nitrogen fertilizer, which requires natural gas to make. The fertilizer can then turn into a potent greenhouse gas when it is put onto the fields.

Similarly, Nancy Hirshberg, vice president for natural resources at the yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm, said in the article that measuring a product's carbon footprint is a good tool for companies to pinpoint areas to reduce emissions. Stonyfield Farm, like PepsiCo, was surprised to learn that production--in this case, the production of milk--was a far bigger contributor to greenhouse gas emissions than its factory.

Although putting a number on a package can be misleading and somewhat complicated to fully comprehend, figuring out a company's footprint is a great tool for companies looking to reduce their impact on climate change.

Since figuring out its carbon footprint, PepsiCo said it plans to work with its growers and researches to find ways to grow oranges using less carbon. The company is even thinking of ways to teach the public how to interpret the carbon footprint of a product. In addition to Tropicana, PepsiCo is publishing carbon footprint numbers for such products as Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Gatorade.

Hopefully PepsiCo's work can challenge other companies to increase their transparency by publicizing the hidden costs of their products!

To see the company's news release, click here.

January 2009 Letter From The Chair And President

Today's blog is a copy of a statement from The Overbrook Foundation's President, Stephen Foster, and its Board Chair, Vincent McGee. It was written in response to the changing economic environment, its impact on the Foundation moving forward, and our grantmaking activities for 2009.

January 2009 Letter from the Chair and President

Last year, 2008, was challenging for many non-profits and foundations, including The Overbrook Foundation. We remain committed to the important work of our grantees and we look forward to continuing our support of work in human rights and the environment. However, we are very concerned about the depths of the global financial crisis and the uncertainty it brings. We would like to update you on Overbrook's response to the crisis and to the opportunities the Foundation and our grantees face as we move into 2009 and beyond.

Overbrook is a family foundation started in 1948 by Frank and Helen Altschul. Its directors are descendants of the founders and one non-family director. The family has a long history in investment banking and the Foundation has relied heavily upon equity investment growth to sustain and build the endowment and to fund grantmaking over its 60 year history. Between 1990 and December 2007, the Foundation's fair market value increased from $60.3 million to $187.3 million after paying grants and expenses, growing 6.3% annually. This growth rate does not reflect the Foundation's investment performance as it has been reduced by both grants and expenses. Over this time period, the Foundation made grants of over $100 million.Since 2001, the Foundation's payout has annually exceeded the mandated 5.0% minimum required by the IRS. Between 1990 (the year of its last significant bequest) and the end of 2007 the Foundation was able to fulfill its mission while growing its portfolio faster than inflation.When facing national crises, the Foundation has reached into capital to support emergency grant making. For example, after 9/11, the Foundation made a one-time $1 million commitment to stabilizing New York's non-profit community. More recently, it committed $2.5 million to addressing climate change. We believe the current economic and financial crisis represents another moment in time for the Foundation to step forward.Our endowment experienced great volatility and serious decline in 2008. As of December 31, 2008, the endowment totaled $111.6 million as compared to $187.3 million just one year ago. We know that our grantees have experienced similar challenges; and we are concerned about the implications for support for all nonprofits dependent on fundraising from government, foundations and individuals in 2009. We seek to respond prudently to this very serious financial situation and change in our endowment, while at the same time remaining focused on the work of our grantees around critical concerns and the likely enormous opportunities in human rights and the environment in 2009.We are taking a series of steps to manage through this difficult period that include:

	Honoring our commitments to current Human Rights and Environment Program grantees.
	Using a newly created, "by-invitation-only" fund initiated by the Foundation's Directors to take advantage of emerging opportunities for advancing human rights and environment work.
	Significantly limiting any other new grant awards to organizations not currently supported by the Foundation.
	Structuring the investment portfolio so that 2009 expenses can be met without requiring disposal of equity investments at an inopportune moment.
	Instituting a no growth administrative budget for 2009 and planning for additional cuts to administrative expense in 2009 and 2010.
	Undertaking an evaluation of all Foundation grantmaking in 2009 in anticipation of the need for further cuts and reorganization of program priorities in 2010 and beyond.
	Working with individual grantees on a case by case basis to assist them in whatever ways possible.

Beyond managing the Foundation's grantmaking, the Overbrook Board of Directors expects staff to play an activist leadership role in the philanthropic community. As such, the Foundation's program officers are heavily involved in organizing and managing funder collaborative partnerships such as the U.S. Human Rights Fund and the Civil Marriage Collaborative; creating vital new non-profit organizations to advance change; e.g., Catalog Choice, www.catalogchoice.org, and assuming leadership roles in a variety of foundation associations like the Sustainability Funders Work Group. Through these various efforts, the Foundation has been able to influence the direction of significant philanthropic resources to those issues most central to its human rights and environment mission. We will use all of these mechanisms moving forward to protect and strengthen the fields in which our grantees are active.

Despite the financial crisis and the decline in our endowment, we maintained a 6% payout rate in 2008 and expect to exceed that rate in 2009. But even with an increase in our 2009 payout rate, the Foundation anticipates significant cuts in its total grant expenditures for 2009. It is also likely that we will be forced to absorb further significant cuts in 2010. Because of these anticipated cuts, the Foundation plans to limit awards to very few new grantees in 2009, with one exception, the emerging opportunities fund that is bulleted above. The Foundation's resources will focus on maintaining its mission in support of the environment and human rights.

Our expectation and our goal is that we will preserve the viability of the Foundation and continue to advance its mission as we work through these very difficult times. Despite these challenges, we look forward to working with you in the coming year to move forward a progressive agenda for change.

Save The Date!

New America Media announced last week the dates of its 2nd Annual Ethnic Media Expo and Awards Ceremony. Save the date so that you can join New America Media and the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication for the largest convening of ethnic media in the United States. This June 4-5, 2009, New America Media will host a gala dinner, the awards ceremony, and a series of seminars and workshops designed expressly for the ethnic media.

To keep up to date on the event, click here. And to check out last year's awards so you know what to expect, click here. And to see past award winners, click here.

We'll blog on more updates on the two days as they become available. Be sure to mark your calendars!