GCRI Welcomes New Executive Director, Courtney Bourns

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Picture of new Executive Director, Courtney Bourns

On behalf of GCRI’s Board of Directors, I am delighted to introduce Courtney Bourns as our new Executive Director.

Courtney comes to us with a unique range and depth of experience in philanthropy: for the last six years, Courtney has served as a strategy and program consultant to dozens of foundations around the country, and prior to that she was the Senior Program Officer at the Henry P. Kendall Foundation, which focused on strengthening sustainable food systems across the New England region. Courtney also served as the VP of Programs at Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), a national philanthropic support organization.

Courtney’s experience is the ideal match for the leadership of GCRI as we embark on our next chapter. She is ready to facilitate strategy conversations, design engaging programs and grow and strengthen our membership base. She is committed to a strong and effective philanthropic sector in Rhode Island, and is eager to get to know all of you and better understand how GCRI can tailor its offerings to your needs.

Courtney and I are working with GCRI’s board to map out the priorities for the next few months, which includes identifying a date for our next annual meeting and other opportunities to reengage our members in networking and learning opportunities. Stay tuned!

Please join me in welcoming Courtney to our community and wishing her well with all that lies ahead. You can reach her at courtney.bourns@unitedwayri.org.

Cheers,

Thomas Brendler

President, GCRI Board of Directors

 

Blue Cross Invests $1.5 Million to Support Expanded 2-1-1

by Posted in Basic Need, Children & Youth, Corporate Citizenship, Disaster Philanthropy, Education, Health and Wellness, Housing and Homelessness, Immigrants and Refugees, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy, Resources for Community Organizations, Systems Change, Uncategorized

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island Commits $1.5 Million to Expand Impact of 211, Improve Social Determinants of Health 

As part of an effort to improve the health of all Rhode Islanders, United Way of Rhode Island has upgraded the capabilities of its 211 service with a focus on linking health and social care providers around individuals with complex needs. In support of this work to expand the statewide role and impact of 211, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) has committed $1.5 million in funding.

A major enhancement to 211 is the addition of a specialized technology platform called Unite Us that interconnects a network of health and social care providers. Now, when someone calls 211 for help or lets a healthcare provider know they are in need of food, housing, or other assistance, their information is entered into the platform and an electronic referral is made for the services they need. The referrals are tracked within the system and 211 staff ensure that individuals’ needs are being responded to in a timely fashion.

Currently, when healthcare organizations refer patients to community-based organizations to address social care needs, there is rarely a mechanism for the healthcare organization to know the outcome of the referral. This prevents effective follow-up and outcome measurement.

With social factors being such a significant driver of a person’s overall health, knowing the outcome of these referrals is foundational to providers’ ability to effectively meet their patients’ unique needs and manage whole-person health.

Powered by the Unite Us platform and 211 staff, health providers across the network can securely refer and track every person’s total health journey with their community partners. At the same time, it allows providers to report on all tangible outcomes across a range of services in a centralized, cohesive, and collaborative ecosystem. 211 plays the role of the coordination center in the network, ensuring clients are connected to the best program to address their needs, providers are closing the loop on clients’ needs, and that all providers are meeting network standards and performance measures.

Point32Health Employees Invest Over 3,000 Hours of Service in Volunteer Week

by Posted in Basic Need, Children & Youth, Corporate Citizenship, Employee Engagement, Member Highlights, Member News, Uncategorized

During the week of June 13, Point32Health – the combined organization of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan – held its second annual Volunteer Week. Volunteering is at the core of Point32Health’s values, shaping our culture and impacting community health.

More than 1,250 colleagues volunteered 3,300 total hours at 57 projects benefiting 49 nonprofit organizations across five states. Employees served a range of organizations working to address food security, clean up parks, tend to community farms, support people experiencing homelessness and so much more – all to create healthy, thriving communities.

In Rhode Island, Point32Health volunteers packed Meals4Kids and supplemental nutrition boxes for older people served by the Rhode Island Community Food Bank (photo).

BankNewport 2021 Philanthropic Efforts Resulted in Over $1.2 Million Awarded to Over 350 RI Nonprofits

by Posted in Arts & Culture, Basic Need, Children & Youth, Climate/Environment, Employee Engagement, Health and Wellness, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy, Uncategorized

BankNewport announced that its 2021 philanthropic efforts resulted in over $1.2 million awarded to over 350 nonprofits in Rhode Island. The donations include all grants, sponsorships, community contributions from local branches, and year-end proactive and holiday support totaling $74,000 to nonprofits that meet basic needs for the underserved throughout Rhode Island.

Organizations in every county of Rhode Island benefitted from the giving effort, with areas of impact focused on basic human needs, children & families, education, economic security, healthy living, arts and culture and the environment. Over the past 11 years, BankNewport has awarded $7 million in grants, sponsorships, and donations to a wide range of nonprofits to help strengthen and enrich lives and communities throughout the state.

Financial education and community involvement by Bank employees in 2021 totaled over 7,300 hours. Through BNWise, BankNewport’s financial education program, over 2,500 students and community members were engaged in interactive financial education presentations on a variety of topics, from saving and budgeting to credit and entrepreneurship, which were made available in-person and virtually.

BankNewport also presented two high profile campaigns generating statewide awareness of food insecurity and for those organizations serving Rhode Island’s homeless population: Kind Souls Full Bowls benefitted the with a $50,000 Bank gift and over $7,500 raised from the community, and Kind Heart Fresh Start collected over 4,700 personal care items impacting more than 1,000 individuals in need with a $50,000 Bank gift and over $7,500 raised from the community, and Kind Heart Fresh Start collected over 4,700 personal care items impacting more than 1,000 individuals in need.

 

United Way Awards $4.5 Million in Racial Equity Grants

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United Way of Rhode Island announced $4.5 million in grants to 72 mission-driven organizations who are building racial equity and opportunities for all Rhode Islanders. Recipients are working in areas such as building economic security, advancing childhood learning, and driving policy and participation in Rhode Island.

“This is certainly an exciting grant opportunity for … how we can deploy resources with the mission of building racial equity and opportunities for all Rhode Islanders,” United Way Chief Community Impact and Equity Officer Larry Warner. “We’re really excited to make investments that will help remove systemic barriers to opportunities, as well as to prioritize work that addresses the needs to create equities for [Black, Indigenous and people of color] communities.”

Full list of grantees

Three GCRI Members Recognized as National Leaders in Corporate Citizenship

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Points of Light recently named three GCRI members, CVS Health, Hasbro and Tufts Health Plan, as national leaders in corporate citizenship, as part of the 2020 class of The Civic 50.  Points of Light, the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service, awards The Civic 50 each year to the top 50 corporate citizenship companies nationwide. All public and private companies with more than $1 billion in revenue are eligible.

This is the first year for Tufts Health Plan to be included on the list.  CVS Health has been recognized since 2017, and Hasbro has been recognized since the inception of the award in 2012.

The Civic 50 recognizes the 50 most community-minded companies in the nation each year as determined by an annual survey administered by True Impact. Since it was launched in 2012, the program has served as benchmarking tool and platform for sharing best practices in the corporate citizenship sector. The survey is based on Points of Light’s Corporate Civic Engagement Framework that creates a roadmap for companies committed to using their time, talent, and resources to drive social impact in their business and communities. The Civic 50 honorees are selected based on the four dimensions of their community engagement and social impact programs: investment of resources, integration across business functions, institutionalization through policies and systems and impact measurement.

Congratulations to CVS, Hasbro and Tufts Health Plan — we are so glad to have your leadership here in Rhode Island!

 

Latest Round of Funding from RI COVID-19 Response Fund Brings Total Grantmaking to $7.2 million

by Posted in Aging, Basic Need, Disaster Philanthropy, Health and Wellness, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy, Uncategorized

The Rhode Island COVID-19 Response Fund has now allocated a total of $7.2 million to 180 organizations, to provide emergency support for food, rent, utilities and medical expenses.

The sixth round of grants also provided protective gear for health care workers caring for patients at nearly a dozen nursing homes and medical facilities across the state.  The fund includes over $1 million in funding from GCRI member organizations, and is spearheaded by the Rhode Island Foundation and United Way of Rhode Island.

Full list of grantees

Collette Hosts New Pawtucket/Central Falls COVID-19 Outreach

by Posted in Disaster Philanthropy, Employee Engagement, Health and Wellness, Immigrants and Refugees, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy, Uncategorized

GCRI member Collette has announced that it will serve as a partner and section leader of the CFP BEAT COVID-19 initiative. Colette will be contributing to the leadership of the CFP BEAT COVID-19 incident command team, providing the entire enterprise with logistical support, including information management services and phone banking.

“We are proud to support the efforts of both the City of Pawtucket and Central Falls,” said Mike Vendetti, Director of Property Safety and Security at Collette. “We know that this is such an important task to benefit the community as a whole.”

The CFP BEAT COVID-19 initiative has committed itself to reach out to every single household in the two cities, so that every resident in the cities knows what to do and who to call the moment they get sick due to the exponentially growing numbers of positive cases.

“We are deeply grateful for the resources and workforce that Collette and the Sullivan family have committed to this effort. There is no better corporate citizen anywhere,” said Pawtucket Mayor Donald R. Grebien. “We estimate that nearly 50,000 people in Pawtucket and Central Falls do not have a primary health care doctor. Collette’s invaluable assistance will help us reach out to every single household in our two cities”

“Roughly 45% of the Covid-19 positive tests are Latino, and Central Falls and Pawtucket cases continue to increase exponentially,” said Central Falls Mayor James A. Diossa. “Bringing an organization like Collette has come to our rescue, in a way that we hope will allow us to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in our communities.”

“People are positive at a very high rate in Pawtucket and Central Falls,” said Michael Fine, M.D, Medical Director of CFP BEAT COVID-19 initiative. “At Blackstone Valley Community Health Care, Central Falls and Pawtucket residents are testing at 36% and 33% Covid-19 positive respectively. This is nearly three times the state average rate. Our communities are a likely hotspot.  We are very grateful to Colette Travel so we can together make sure that people are getting tested and isolating accordingly when sick.”

As part of the CFP BEAT COVID-19 initiative, the Mayors and Care New England have announced a Coronavirus testing site that has more than triple the capacity of existing test sites in the Blackstone Valley as a first step. The team is now working on the next step to combat Covid-19, aiming to create a telephone consultation service for people in our cities who do not have primary care physicians.

Philanthropy Sector Pledges to Be Responsive and Equitable Facing COVID-19 Crisis

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The Council on Foundations has joined in a sector-wide Philanthropy Call to Action to be flexible in light of the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19.  United Philanthropy Forum and many peer organizations have signed on to a philanthropic pledge:

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has created a global health and economic crisis that is testing every one of us. We know that the shocks of this “new normal” are severe and unanticipated for our sector and grantee partners.

As leaders in philanthropy, we recognize the critical need to act with fierce urgency to support our nonprofit partners as well as the people and communities hit hardest by the impacts of COVID-19.

We invite funders and other leaders in the philanthropic sector to join us in making these commitments and collectively holding ourselves accountable to them by signing this pledge of action.

Our Pledge

Over the days, weeks, and months ahead, each of our foundations pledges to:

  • Loosen or eliminate the restrictions on current grants. This can include: converting project-based grants to unrestricted support; accelerating payment schedules; and not holding grantees responsible if conferences, events, and other project deliverables must be postponed or canceled.
  • Make new grants as unrestricted as possible, so nonprofit partners have maximum flexibility to respond to this crisis. We will also support organizations created and led by the communities most affected that we may not fund currently.
  • Reduce what we ask of our nonprofit partners, postponing reporting requirements, site visits, and other demands on their time during this challenging period.
  • Contribute to community-based emergency response funds and other efforts to address the health and economic impact on those most affected by this pandemic.
  • Communicate proactively and regularly about our decision-making and response to provide helpful information while not asking more of grantee partners.
  • Commit to listening to our partners and especially to those communities least heard, lifting up their voices and experiences to inform public discourse and our own decision-making so we can act on their feedback. We recognize that the best solutions to the manifold crises caused by COVID-19 are not found within foundations.
  • Support, as appropriate, grantee partners advocating for important public policy changes to fight the pandemic and deliver an equitable and just emergency response for all. This may include its economic impact on workers, such as expanded paid sick leave; increasing civic participation; access to affordable health care; and expanded income and rental assistance. It should also include lending our voices to calls to action led by grantee partners, at their direction and request.
  • Learn from these emergency practices and share what they teach us about effective partnership and philanthropic support, so we may consider adjusting our practices more fundamentally in the future, in more stable times, based on all we learn.

Take the Pledge

We encourage other foundations and philanthropic organizations to join in making these commitments and holding ourselves accountable to them by signing this pledge of action.

COVID-19’s impacts are reaching every corner of the world. We must stand together. By acting together to provide flexibility to our grantee partners, we believe we can help them move their essential work forward powerfully and confidently in this critical moment.

Sign On Now

Rhode Island Foundation to Provide $1 Million to Support Public Education

by Posted in Advocacy, Children & Youth, Education, Equity, Leveraging to Multiply Impact, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy, Uncategorized

The Rhode Island Foundation announced that it is committing $1 million – above and beyond the Foundation’s annual grantmaking in education – to support improvements to the state’s pre-K to 12th grade public education system.

The funding announcement comes as the Long Term Education Planning committee, convened in late 2018 and led by the Foundation, releases final recommendations for improvements. The Foundation’s investment of $1 million will align with the recommendations in the report. The report includes input provided by more than 300 parents, students, educators, policymakers and leaders from the nonprofit and for-profit sectors at the Make It Happen: A World Class Public Education for RI brainstorming session at the R.I. Convention Center in December.

The Long Term Education Planning Committee, a 26-member group of educators, policymakers and leaders from the nonprofit and for profit sectors convened at the request of the Foundation, developed the 10-year plan for improving education in Rhode Island. Click on a link below to read the plan, “Chart a Course, Stay the Course: Rhode Island’s Path to a World Class Public Education System.”

“Participants at the Make it Happen event were extremely vocal about the need to amplify the role of student and family voice. These voices are fundamental and critical to making improvements in the system,” said Steinberg, who served on the committee. “We encourage all Rhode Islanders to work together on this effort – be ambitious and bold, display strong support for educators and continue to demand more for all students, in every community.”

In addition to a vision for the future of public education in Rhode Island, the final plan includes a set of four priorities and accompanying strategies, including aligning the state funding formula with both state and local needs and sustaining a rigorous, statewide assessment system.

Full report