News

Dear Full Circle Fund community,

After nearly four fantastic years at Full Circle Fund, I have decided to take the next year to go on an around-the-world travel and art adventure with my husband Todd. Today is my last day at Full Circle Fund.

As the longest serving staffer at Full Circle Fund I enjoy a unique perspective on our dramatic growth and stunning potential. Full Circle Fund is at the best place we’ve ever been - so far. We’re involved in truly meaningful, innovative work in the community. Most importantly of all, we’re making a difference. I’m so proud of the organization, board, staff, members, grantees, investors, sponsors, partners - and you!

If you’d like be an arm chair traveler on my global adventures, please follow along with me and Todd via our website Ephemerratic (www.ephemerratic.com). There, you can sign up for an RSS feed or email alert, or just check in occasionally.

Keep inspired and keep inspiring each other. You inspire me.

Thanks,
Lauren Girardin
Director, Marketing and Outreach

Posted in Lauren Girardin, special announcement

We are honored to announce that the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund has awarded a $150,000 grant to Full Circle Fund.

This award will provide us the financial resources so that we may expand our capacity to recruit young professionals and grow them into the next generation of engaged, active philanthropists making a difference in our community.

Posted in grant, Richard and Rhoda Goldman, Richard Goldman, Goldman Fund, investor, special announcement

Join us at the Corporate Philanthropy Summit & Awards on Thursday, July 17, when executive director Amy Lesnick will be part of a panel that will discuss strategic approaches to skill-based volunteering.

The panel also includes Gwyneth Borden, IBM; Juliana Deans, Deloitte; Joel Bashevkin, Taproot Foundation; and moderators John Power, The Volunteer Center and Colin Lacon, Northern California Grantmakers.

Visit our event calendar for more information on this event, hosted by the San Francisco Business Times.

Posted in Corporate Philanthropy Summit & Awards, San Francisco Business Times, Amy Lesnick, event, special announcement

Over 140 members and guests came to Full Circle Fund’s event on May 20 to network, learn more about our work in the community and hear an inspiring panel of top social entrepreneurs as they imagined the unimaginable.

Our panelists - Premal Shah, President of Kiva; Deb Levine, Founder of I.S.I.S., Inc.; and Jim Fruchterman, President, CEO, Founder of Benetech – talked about the ways their organizations use technology to empower individuals and communities today in ways unimaginable just a few years ago.

Thank you to our sponsors, including Dogpatch Studios for the stunning venue, M. Woodward Catering for the abundant and scrumptious food, and Bartenders Unlimited for their well-tended and well-stocked bar service.

Visit our event recap page for photos and more.

Posted in Deb Levine, Jim Fructerman, Benetech, Kiva, Premal Shah, speaker, event, SexInfo

On June 3, Full Circle Fund Executive Director Amy Lesnick was among the more than 100 of the “Bay Area’s Most Influential Women Business” honored at a gala hosted by the San Francisco Business Times.

The evening began with a private reception for the honorees. Attendees included Laura Alber, President, Williams-Sonoma; Eunice Azzani, Senior Client Partner, Korn/Ferry International; Gwyneth Borden, IBM; and Janet Lamkin, California Market President, Bank of America.

At the award dinner, each winning woman was asked to share ten to fifteen words on leadership; some were humorous, some were insightful, and some used the stage time to give advice to their daughters and the next generation. Amy chose to share these words: “Dream Big. Leverage your own uniqueness. Be an agent of change and make a difference.”

Deloitte Vice Chairman and Regional Managing Partner Mark Edmunds addressed the gala crowd and spoke of Deloitte’s long-time commitment to the cultivation of women leaders, inspiring everyone in the room to be role models and mentors to other women. He also congratulated Deloitte’s five winners, such as Barbara Adachi, National Managing Principal, Initiative for Retention and Advancement of Women.

Many of Full Circle Fund’s supporters gathered to celebrate Amy’s achievement, including Forum 2007 sponsors Alexandria Albers, who was also among the honored women and Scott Pofcher, both from Morgan Stanley; long-time investor Tom Perkins, JaMel and Tom Perkins Foundation; corporate sponsor Juliana Deans, Deloitte; our founder and board chair, Josh Becker, New Cycle Capital; board members Mike Anders, Goldman Sachs and Kirsten Green, Forerunner Ventures LLC; and members Bob Tinker, MobileIron, Inc, Shawn Simpson, V1 Private Jets, and Steven Lurie.

Our thanks to Mary Huss, Tom Van Ess and everyone else at the San Francisco Business Times for their recognition of Amy’s leadership.

> Click here to view more photos from the event.

Posted in Deloitte, San Francisco Business Times, Amy Lesnick, event, special announcement

For four years, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP has been a highly engaged corporate supporter of Full Circle Fund, generously providing pro-bono legal services, sponsoring our annual Forum, and hosting our Community Fellows orientation.

Cooley’s support of Full Circle Fund is part of the firm’s robust pro-bono practice, which Cooley has integrated into its core values and culture. Legal compliance is a critical component for any nonprofit to successfully flourish and expand. It is a service that so often runs unnoticed in the background, which is why Cooley’s support deserves a standing ovation.

In 2004, former Cooley lawyer Pete Szymanski added his talents as Full Circle Fund’s board secretary, advising our leadership and staff during a phase of dramatic programmatic and operational growth. When Pete left the firm for a start-up opportunity he proactively enlisted another Cooley lawyer, Peter Werner, as our new counsel, ensuring that Full Circle Fund’s legal support continued uninterrupted. We are also honored to have both Pete and Peter as part of our vibrant member community.

For the past two years, Cooley has further demonstrated its commitment to both the community and Full Circle Fund by becoming a Supporting Sponsor of our Forum, an annual event that inspires individual leadership. Finally, thanks to the enthusiastic leadership of Peter Werner, the firm hosted a warm and welcoming orientation for our newest class of Community Fellows.

Full Circle Fund is deeply appreciative to Cooley for its indispensible guidance and their help building our organizations strength.

Posted in supporter, corporate supporter, Cooley Godward Kronish, spotlight

Congratulations to our Technology Circle grant partner SexINFO, which was featured in a new report, Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in Mobile Use by NGOs, by The Vodafone Foundation and the United Nations Foundation about innovative uses of mobile technology by NGOs working to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals.

The report identifies emerging trends in “mobile activism” through 11 case studies, and highlights the results of a global survey of NGO usage of mobile technology. and co-managing organizations.

Full Circle Fund has been an engaged supporter of SexINFO since its early beginnings, so we are especially excited to see this innovative project receive much-deserved attention from an international audience. A special congratulations to co-managing organizations I.S.I.S., Inc. and the San Francisco Department of Public Health, as well as our member team led by Marc Smolowitz, for their success in building awareness of SexINFO.

> Click here to download the full report as a PDF

> Click here to read SexINFO’s interview of the report co-author, Katrin Verclas

Posted in SexInfo, grantees, technology

A highlight of news articles, reports, videos and websites on philanthropy, grantmaking, and beyond that have caught the eye of Full Circle Fund’s staff and members this week. If these resources inspire you to get involved, check out our Community Calendar for upcoming events.

It’s been a quiet week in the inbox, so instead of a lot of meaty reports and robust resources, we’d like to share an inspiring video about the power of the individual.

The video, called “Moving Windmills,” tells the story of William Kamkwamba, who under the most unlikely of circumstances taught himself how to build windmills at his home in Malawi and how, when word got out about his remarkable accomplishment, a new world of opportunity opened up. Have a wonderful weekend!

Posted in resources, Resource Round-Up

A highlight of news articles, reports, videos and websites on philanthropy, grantmaking, and beyond that have caught the eye of Full Circle Fund’s staff and members this week. If these resources inspire you to get involved, check out our Community Calendar for upcoming events.

Zazzle.com and Craigslist Foundation invite you to their event on Tuesday, June 10 at 5:30 pm at Temple SF for a panel on “Earned Income for Nonprofits: Strategies for Sustainability.” Full Circle Fund member and Craigslist Foundation executive director, Darian Rodriguez Heyman promises that this free event will provide expert insight on earned income and a chance to connect with emerging and established nonprofit leaders. Full Circle Fund is proud to be a marketing partner for this event! Click here for more information and registration.

Macro trends blogger Tim Bauer happened upon our video of the talk that angel investor Ron Conway gave to our members back in March about “Infinite Need, Infinite Opportunity.” Tim did a Tim did a nice writeup about it on his site, writing:

“Who doesn’t like [the] song from Barenaked Ladies, “If I Had a Million Dollars.” Well for Ron Conway its “I Have More Than A Million”. And this webcast by him caught my eye initially as I was curious on his take on startup funding process (he has participated in some of the larger startup financing plays in the valley). But, as life goes, the talk was to other people with millions and how to give away all that ’spare change’ (philanthropy). He also commented that his process of philanthropy was the same as his investment selection models.”

Read Tim’s post and watch the video of Ron’s talk:

Posted in Craigslist Foundation, Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Ron Conway, resources, Resource Round-Up

On Wednesday night, 40 members and guests gathered at the serene campus of Intuit, Inc. in Mountain View (many thanks to member Georg Gerstenfeld for hosting the meeting!). Starting the night off was Rupesh Shah, Director of Corporate Sustainability at Intuit, who welcomed the group and spoke about Intuit’s efforts to become more environmentally and socially responsible. Afterwards the group introduced themselves by sharing a book, blog, television show they were reading/watching. The group shared an eclectic list of materials including Silent Spring from Rachel Carson, the season finale of “Lost”, Blood and Oil by Michael Klare, and Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. One blog that came up often was the highly acclaimed Story of Stuff Blog and Video revealing the underside of everything we consume and produce.

After introductions, inquiry teams began to present their findings from the last month of research into pressing environmental problems, the organizations that are working to solve them, and the impact that Full Circle Fund members can have in finding and implementing the solutions.

>MEMBERS: Check out the presentations on the members only website by clicking here.

Energy Efficiency and Green Building Inquiry Team

The first presentation was the newly combined Energy Efficiency and Green Building Team lead by members Johanna Werther and Marc Payne. They noted that some of the main issues that should be addressed is the dwindling supply of energy sources, the rising demand for fuel, and the inevitable time it will take to develop alternative energy solutions. They emphasized that energy efficiency, particularly in the way of new greener buildings, is a solution that many organizations are working towards and much impact can be made if there was more collaboration within the field.

Environmental Health Inquiry Team

Stephen Zollman, Environment Circle member and public defender in San Francisco, presented the findings from the Environmental Health inquiry team. He noted that the public sector has been making strides towards solutions for many years, including measures like San Francisco’s Precautionary Principle, but strong citizen knowledge about toxins in our environment and their disastrous effects on the population is still lacking.

Producer Responsibility Inquiry Team

The final presentation was by Patrick Koppula and his inquiry team focusing on producer responsibility. The team presented that the many the organizations working in the field focus falls into three categories: legislation reform, retail, and investments. The team will continue to look into where members have the largest impact and bring these findings to next month’s meeting.

Posted in environment