Coaching Corps coaches have worked with over 75,000 young people, giving them the chance to experience the special relationship that comes from playing on a team with a caring adult.

Dré knows firsthand the difference sports and good coaches made for her on the soccer field and in the classroom. Because of her coaches, she pursued college and is now enrolled in medical school at the University of California, San Francisco.

Read more of Dré's powerful story here.

Few would deny that boards can play a vital leadership role for their organizations. Through the Haas Leadership Initiative, the Fund has witnessed the power of a strong board working in concert with staff leadership to achieve real impact.

Read the latest findings on effective board development in this new report, aimed at funders and others in the social change sector who are interested in tapping the potential and the power of boards to help organizations achieve their goals.

For the estimated 904,000 LGBT immigrants living in this country, it is a period of both great progress and uncertainty. This special report by Funders for LGBTQ Issues provides a snapshot of the unique needs facing LGBT immigrants. It also provides an overview of the current state of funding at the intersection of LGBT and immigrant rights, and of the ecology of advocacy and service organizations working to address the needs of LGBTQ immigrants and their communities. Finally, the report offers recommendations for funders as we look for a pathway forward. This report was supported in part by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.

California is home to more immigrants than any other state—over a quarter of the population, and growing. The biannual “Looking Forward” report by the California Immigrant Policy Center looks at who California’s immigrants are, what they do, and how they are shaping state policy and growing the economy. Among its findings: California’s immigrants contribute more than average to Social Security, provide much of the labor for a number of growing industries, and are raising more than a third of California’s future voters.

Looking Forward delves into the details behind immigrants contributions to California, with updated information on demographics, labor force participation, economic contributions, entrepreneurship, and numbers of eligible voters among all immigrants.

Across the country, extraordinary social justice leaders are tackling tremendous challenges with limited resources. They are called upon to lead not only their own organizations, but also to play key roles in larger movements, and even across movements. For even the most gifted and dedicated leaders, this can feel overwhelming and lead to missed opportunities. At worst, it can contribute to burnout.

In this video, eleven exceptional leaders of organizations that work in the immigrant rights and LGBT movements share their experiences and offer insights into how they navigate these challenges. They are all participants in the Haas, Jr. Fund’s Flexible Leadership Awards program, but the issues they raise are relevant to other organizations and social change movements.

In order to advance social justice, we need movements with strong leadership at every level. To learn more about how funders can invest effectively in leadership development, download the Haas Leadership Initiative Information Kit here.

The Haas Leadership Initiatives centers on the belief that the vision and skills of talented and committed leaders are the driving force behind social change. In this overview of our program, learn about what we’re doing to support them in getting better results for their organizations and movements.

Hear from more Season of Sharing recipients and donors in this video collection.

A national study reveals that many nonprofit organizations are stuck in a vicious cycle that threatens their ability to raise the resources they need to succeed. A joint project of CompassPoint and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, this first-ever study found high levels of turnover and lengthy vacancies in development director positions throughout the sector, as well as deeper organizational issues, including the absence of basic fundraising systems and a lack of shared responsibility for fund development among key board and staff leaders at many organizations.

Nonprofits across the country undertake heroic work to protect and advance fundamental rights and opportunities for all people,” said Linda Wood, Senior Director of Leadership and Grantmaking with the Haas, Jr. Fund. “And in this era of shrinking government, they are being asked to pick up a greater share of responsibility for meeting basic human needs. This country needs a nonprofit sector that is vibrant and robust. Yet too many nonprofits struggle year in and year out to raise funds, and we wanted to dig deeper to understand the nature of the challenges.”

“This study shows that the fundraising problems facing nonprofit organizations are more extensive and more entrenched than anyone imagined,” said Jeanne Bell, CEO of CompassPoint and coauthor of the study. “As a sector, we need to elevate the importance of fund development as a leadership issue, invest in a stronger talent pool, and strengthen the ability of nonprofits to develop the systems that enable fundraising success.”

Nonprofits across the country undertake heroic work to protect and advance fundamental rights and opportunities for all people... Yet too many nonprofits struggle year in and year out to raise funds, and we wanted to dig deeper to understand the nature of the challenges.

Linda Wood, Senior Director of Leadership and Grantmaking, Haas, Jr. Fund

With guidance and input from a national advisory group of fund development experts, CompassPoint surveyed more than 2,700 executive directors and development directors across the country. The research effort also included 11 focus groups with executive directors, development directors and nonprofit board members.

The participants’ organizations were notably diverse, but all had in common a senior-level development staff position, even if that position was vacant at the time of the study.

Key Findings

The report, UnderDeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising, describes three main challenges:

Revolving Door

Organizations often pin their hopes and dreams for fundraising on one person—the development director. Yet the study found high turnover and long vacancies in this position.

• Executive directors at organizations where the development director position was vacant said the posts had been open for an average of 6 months. Almost half reported even longer vacancies.
• Half the development directors surveyed said they expect to leave their current jobs in two years or less.
• Forty percent of development directors aren’t committed to careers in development.

Help Wanted

Organizations aren’t finding enough qualified candidates for development director jobs. Executives also report performance problems and a lack of basic fundraising skills among key development staff.

• More than half of the executives surveyed said their most recent development director search did not produce enough candidates with the right mix of skills and experience.
• One in four reported that their previous development director was fired.
• One in four executive directors said their development directors have no experience or are novice at current and prospective donor research and at securing gifts.

It’s About More Than One Person

Beyond creating a development director position and hiring someone who is qualified for the job, organizations and their leaders need to build the capacity, the systems, and the culture to support fundraising success. The findings indicate that many nonprofits aren’t doing this.

• Almost one in four nonprofits have no fundraising plan in place. One in five have no fundraising database.
• Three out of four executive directors say that board members are not doing enough to support fundraising.
• Over one in four executives identified themselves as having no competency or being a novice at fundraising.
• A majority of development directors reported only little or moderate influence on key activities such as getting other staff involved in fundraising or developing organizational budgets.

Breaking the Cycle: Calls to Action

UnderDeveloped concludes by offering a set of calls to action, key steps that nonprofits and their supporters can take.

Authors Jeanne Bell and Marla Cornelius suggest that nonprofits, their funders and capacity-building organizations in the sector must adopt “a profoundly different stance towards fundraising.” Linda Wood, Senior Director of Leadership and Grantmaking with the Haas, Jr. Fund, said she hopes the study becomes the spark for a national conversation about what can be done.

Watch more videos to hear new perspectives on funding and evaluating coaching.

Through the 21st Century Fellows Program, a cohort of up to 20 people of color managers at LGBT organizations can access a wide range of leadership development supports intended to help them advance in their careers and become stronger leaders.

The 21st Century Fellows Program is coordinated by the Pipeline Project, which focuses exclusively on building people of color leadership in the LGBT movement in partnership with Rockwood Leadership Institute, which provides nationally-recognized leadership programs, and the Haas, Jr. Fund’s Flexible Leadership Investments Program, which has been working to support nonprofit leaders since 2005.

The 21st Century Fellows Program is made possible by joint funding from the Arcus Foundation, Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, and the Gill Foundation.