Involving the Philanthropic & Corporate Community

Purpose of This Guide

Our intended audiences for this guide are city leaders and those who provide services for them, and both the private and business philanthropic community.

For city leaders, we hope to convey

• Why partnering with the philanthropic community is essential;
• The wide variety of roles the philanthropic community can and has played<;/li>
• How to frame requests for support from the private sector (making the case); and
• Identifying and helping to overcome barriers to private sector involvement.

For the philanthropic community, we hope to convey

• Why supporting violence prevention efforts is essential;
• The variety of ways the private sector has framed its support for violence prevention activities;
• Examples of what the private sector has funded; and
• What questions the philanthropic community needs to answer when venturing into violence prevention waters.

This guide should make clear that any successful, comprehensive crime and violence prevention effort requires the private sector as a partner to be successful—and is an essential partner.

This is not a theoretical guide. This guide is based on the direct experience of those shaping policy and delivering services in addition to the philanthropic community that invest in and supports those services. This guide grew directly from formal interviews with seven individuals directing citywide violence prevention efforts, and 17 philanthropic entities along with information drawn from the collective experience of the Working Groups and extensive history in 10 National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention cities and 13 cities in the California Cities Gang Prevention Network. City leaders interviewed included those from Boston, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.; Detroit, Mich.; Memphis, Tenn.; New Orleans, La.; Salinas, Calif.; and San Jose, Calif. Foundations interviewed included the Allstate Corporation, the Boston Foundation, the California Endowment, the California Wellness Foundation, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (New York, N.Y.), the Joyce Foundation (Chicago, Ill.), Kaiser Permanente (Northern California), the Kellogg Foundation (Battle Creek, Mich.), the Lake County Community Foundation (Chicago, Ill.), the New York Community Trust, the Open Society Foundation (New York, N.Y.), SAIL Advisors Research, Inc. (New York, N.Y.), the Skillman Foundation (Detroit, Mich.), State Street Foundation, the charitable arm of the State Street Corporation (Boston, Mass.), and the Stoneleigh Foundation (Philadelphia, Pa.). The foundations' scopes ranged from local to state to national. Invaluable advice and direction was provided by the Council on Foundations (Washington, D.C.) and the Foundation Center (New York, N.Y.). Casey Family Programs, though not formally interviewed, also informed the development of this guide.

The interviews were conducted over a 5-month span, beginning in March 2013.