The census informs decision-making at the highest levels, ensuring equitable political representation and promoting fair distribution of public funds. Addressing the state's particular challenges of reaching hard-to-count communities, California Counts! is working hard to make sure to make sure everyone is included. (December 2009)

Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR)'s latest report discusses the major electoral impact that California’s immigrants and their children will have, potentially representing fully one-third of the electorate within four years. (May 2008)

This toolkit from Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees seeks to inform the development of program, policy and grantmaking strategies to promote immigrant integration. (September 2006)

This KQED documentary examines the economic impact of immigration in the San Francisco Bay Area (June 2006)

A new report by the Movement Advancement Project states that supporting and strengthening leadership in the movement for LGBT rights should be an explicit, long-term policy. With a foreward by Matt Foreman and Linda Wood of the Haas, Jr. Fund, the report makes a compelling case for why leadership development is a necessity rather than a luxury for the movement. (December 2009)

At a time when many faith communities are embroiled in issues of sexuality, this study looks at how well seminaries and rabbinical schools are preparing future religious leaders to address sexuality in their communities. (January 2009)

This new study takes a closer look at the numbers behind California's Proposition 8's passage, debunking myths about race and citing party, ideology, church attendance and age as major factors in determining how people voted. (January 2009)

This short documentary film, produced by the COLAGE Youth Leadership and Action Program during a 10-month activism training program in San Francisco, is an excellent tool for raising awareness and making the case for same-sex marriage in schools, community centers, churches, legislative offices and more.

Immigration Equality and Human Rights Watch investigate cases of discrimination and abuse by immigration officials in their landmark report, Family, Unvalued: Discrimination, Denial, and the Fate of Binational Same-Sex Couples under U.S. Law. (May 2006)

A new report by the New America Foundation's Early Education Initiative argues that, despite enormous challenges throughout the state, the time to expand access to high-quality PreK-3 education opportunities—particularly for low-income and minority children—is now. (October 2009)

When students participate in youth sports, it's not just their heart rates that go up. Learning to Play and Playing to Learn, a new study by Team-Up for Youth, shows that students who are involved in sports perform better in school, are more likely to complete their homework, and are more likely to attend college and land good-paying jobs. (March 2009)

Bringing together youth development principles and standards-based education, The Best of Both Worlds presents new strategies for deepening the quality of afterschool programming. This useful guide, produced by the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center, is being discussed by education experts across the field. (November 2008)

» Making the Match: Finding Funding for After School Education and Safety Programs

» Making the Most of Child Nutrition Funding: A Guide for After School Education and Safety Grantees

» Getting the Grant: A Guide to Securing Additional Funds for After School Education and Safety Programs

"California's Afterschool Expansion: The planning for implementation of Proposition 49 and considerations for planners in other states," released by the William T. Grant Foundation, tells how California mobilized to implement the largest state-funded expansion of after-school services in the nation's history. (June 2007)

Team-Up for Youth, a grantee of the Haas, Jr. Fund, is profiled in this report about creating strong citywide delivery systems for quality after school programs from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (July 2006)

Public/Private Ventures has compiled ten years' worth of experiences, challenges and lessons learned to shed light on the most pressing issues facing after-school programs. At the center of "Getting It Right: Strategies for After-School Success" is a discussion on how to create and manage programs that can produce specific, policy-relevant outcomes. (September 2005)

Bill Ryan, a fellow at Harvard University’s Hauser Center, reports on how leaders in the Haas, Jr. Fund's Flexible Leadership Awards program are using coaching, and to what effect. Ryan frames the conversation in the wider leadership development field, exploring under what conditions, and in support of what goals, coaching work best. (February 2010)

A new study, Creative Disruption: Sabbaticals as Capacity Building and Leadership Development in the Nonprofit Sector, examines how time off for nonprofit leaders can lead to powerful change. By reevaluating approaches to work, leadership and work-life balance, taking a break can have lasting effects on both the work itself and the way returning leaders see themselves in relation to the broader communities they serve. (January 2010)

Tim Wolfred's new book, Managing Executive Transitions, walks readers through the difficult choices and incredible potential that can come with nonprofit leadership transitions. With concrete tools for staff and board members, this book is full of resources for any organization preparing to make the most of this major shift. (July 2009)

What does it take to speak out on behalf of the interests of our youth? What are the unique challenges facing organizations that seek to change policies and local agendas so they reflect young people’s needs and concerns? A new book funded in part by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund provides some answers. (June 2009)

San Francisco is home to a large number of prominent nonprofit organizations. A new report, San Francisco's Nonprofit Sector: Contributions, Diversity, Challenges, co-authored by CompassPoint and the University of San Francisco, looks at the makeup of the city's nonprofit field and outlines places where we, as a sector, are getting it right, and where we must do better. (May 2009)

A new BoardSource study, Advancing Good Governance: How Grantmakers Invest in the Governance of Nonprofit Organizations, looks at how foundations are working with grantees to help strengthen nonprofit board governance, a critical and often-untapped resource in building an organization's effectiveness. (March 2009)

The Urban Institute recently released its study on board governance of small to mid-size nonprofits, a cohort that is often overlooked. As senior program officer Linda Wood explains in her foreword, this reflection is critical, "as our sector continues to focus on stronger leadership as a pathway to improved performance of nonprofits." (May 2008)

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations' latest report, The Departing: Exiting Nonprofit Leaders as Resources for Social Change, presents new research on how departing nonprofit executives are thinking about their futures and continuing to work for community good and social change. (November 2007)

Investing In Leadership, Vol. 2 from Grantmakers for Effective Organizations considers strategies to support nonprofit leadership as a means to improve organizational performance. It includes a foreward by Sylvia Yee, Vice President of Programs at the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. (February 2006)

Investing In Leadership, Vol. 1 from Grantmakers for Effective Organizations provides a grantmaker's framework for understanding nonprofit leadership development. (June 2005)