From the President

2008 has opened the door to tremendous opportunities for the Twenty-First Century Foundation and the people we serve. We have dramatically increased our fundraising and administrative capacities over the past few years, and have added respected businessmen Robert Andrews of New York and Darryl Smith of Houston as new members of our Board of Directors. These new allies will help us in our efforts to cultivate new relationships within a wider circle of powerbrokers and policymakers, which will ultimately make us more effective for our constituents.

When we say that 21CF leads, innovates, and influences giving for Black community change, it really is about finding solutions tailored to the needs of people of color, providing the resources to implement those solutions, and sustaining them over the long term. The Foundation continues its support for those building after Hurricane Katrina, as well as for our Black Men and Boys initiative. These are both matters of tremendous importance, and two areas of our greatest strength as an organization. In January, 21CF held a highly successful Hurricane Katrina Recovery Fund program donor briefing in New York. Concurrently, several thousand dollars was raised for the Katrina initiative at a house party hosted by a generous Gulf South Allied Funders (GSAF) ally.

A critical part of the 21CF mission is to engage new donors and allies to show how their philanthropic investment can make a quantitative difference in people’s lives. As mentioned previously, in an effort to stimulate activity among this group, we were awarded a Cultures of Giving challenge grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation through the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Our fundraising efforts are focused in Los Angeles and in New York, with a programmatic emphasis on education and the Black Men and Boys Initiative. We look forward to sharing good news regarding our successes in our next edition of the eVision newsletter..

In closing, I am pleased to report that the Foundation is building up our endowment, thanks to a recent major commitment from a valued friend. We are very grateful for this gift and send heartfelt thanks to all those who have contributed generously to the Twenty-First Century Foundation. See you when the summer is upon us!