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Celebrate as The Agape Foundation Turns 40!

Monday, September 14th, 2009

2009_peace_prize_invitationYou are invited to join us at The Agape Foundation’s 40th Anniversary/5th Annual Peace Prize event on September 24, 2009, in San Francisco. Each year, Agape honors peacemakers in celebration of the U.N.-declared International Day of Peace.

From opposing the Vietnam War to supporting nonviolent solutions in urban schools, The Agape Foundation has been at the forefront of social change for four decades. Agape’s financial and technical support has helped over 800 peace and social justice groups take root and thrive. Agape’s early support was crucial to hundreds of transformative organizations, including Amnesty International and the United Farm Workers, and today, Agape continues to foster critical new organizations.

For more about The Agape Foundation and to buy tickets to the event, see www.agapepeaceprize.org. Come out with us to celebrate longtime and new peacemakers and support The Agape Foundation’s 40 years of work on behalf of peace and social justice!

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Walking the Walk

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

By Nina Dessart

As Agape’s administrative director for the past 7 years, I am proud of many things about the Foundation. Our commitment to supporting emerging social justice organizations.  Our efforts to reduce the power differential between grantor and grantees through transparent review processes and open granting sessions. And the Foundation’s diverse grant portfolio that includes groups working for peace, human rights, environmental protection, restoration and justice, economic justice, progressive arts & media, and grassroots organizing support.

Certainly, I am proud of all of that.  But today, on Earth Day, I am also proud to say that Agape not only supports grassroots environmental efforts, but we walk the walk ourselves.

Here is a list of just some of the things that we have been doing for years to lesson our impact on this precious planet.

We:

Re-use one sided paper.

Re-use “mistake” and used envelopes.

Buy only recycled paper products.

Print only with soy-based inks on 100% recycled stock.

Have switched to e-newsletters and annual reports.

Recycle paper, glass, cans, and all toner/ink cartridges.

Take turns carting home compostable items (in bio-bags, of course).

Buy water in bulk in reusable containers.

Use canteens for staff and real glassware for visitors and the Board.

Use real or compostable silverware for meals.

Use only non-toxic cleaning products in the office.

Keep a large collection of canvas tote bags available for office errands.

Buy only used office furniture.

Repair, instead of replace, office machines (3 of 5 are 10+ years old!).

Provide public transportation benefits to staff.

Use City Car Share when a car is necessary for Foundation business.

And of course, shop locally and support green businesses.

Even as I sit here, proud of our longstanding commitment to protecting the environment, I wonder what else can we at Agape do to walk the walk?

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Exercising My First Amendment Right

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Protestors mark 6th Anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq

By Karen Topakian

It’s not every day that you publicly get to exercise your first amendment rights. By dissenting. But I did on Thursday, March 19, 2009, on the 6th anniversary of the US’s invasion of Iraq.

Lying down in the middle of Market Street at Montgomery at 12:30 p.m., stopping business as usual. Sixteen of us lay in the sidewalk in a die-in.

The police gave us three warnings to leave or risk being arrested. I didn’t leave.

A cool breeze crossed my cheek as I listened to the chants against the war and in favor of more money for health, education, jobs and housing. I asked myself how many years will I have to lie in the street on this date to stop this war?

Sadly, I don’t have an answer. Because every year I do this I hope it will be my last. But the wars continue.

I know that lying in the street alone will not stop the invasion of Iraq. Nor will just marching down Market Street. Or only sending letters to the President and Congress. But we have to do all of them to ensure that the cumulative impact will be felt and heard by our elected leaders.

On March 19, I had to publicly say NO to war. For a moment we will focus on the lives lost and the money wasted and the environment damaged in this war.

The police removed us from the scene, charged us with disobeying a traffic signal and warned us to not return or we would be arrested, charged with a misdemeanor and sent to jail. Four of my colleagues chose to literally return to the scene of the crime. They lay down again and the police arrested them. I cheered from the sidelines.

Thank you James Madison. For 220 years ago, you included this right, the right of the people peaceably to assemble, as the first right of the Bill of Rights.

I’ve been exercising it every chance I get.

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Heritage Foundation holds Bake Sale

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

by Karen Topakian

Chances are, few of you read the article on page 26 of the recent issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The one titled, “Conservative Groups Turn To Grass-Roots Efforts To Seek New Donors.”

I have to admit, it was kind of music to my ears. The conservative group in question is the Heritage Foundation. You know, the one that brought us the “Reagan Doctrine” in the 1980s and early 1990s. According to Wikipedia, the Heritage Foundation was a key architect and advocate under which the United States government supported anti-Communist resistance movements in such places as Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and Nicaragua and generally supported global anti-communism during the Cold War. Heritage foreign policy analysts also provided policy guidance to these rebel forces and to dissidents in Eastern bloc nations and Soviet republics.

And we all remember and live with those failed policies.

The Heritage Foundation always had a handful of donors with big money to support them and didn’t need to go to such efforts to engage new recruits. But now they do.

It looks like they’ve taken a page out of the book many of us in the grassroots social change world use, Fundraising for Social Change, written by my good friend Kim Klein. They have created advocacy programs in 10 major policy areas and are seeking donations for those areas, they are wooing young supporters by upgrading their web pages, starting pages on Facebook and Twitter, and according to the article, they regularly send files of conservative speech and as news reports to YouTube. Wow!

I find it humorous because this is what many of us in the grassroots peace and justice world have been doing for years.  I wonder if they’ll be holding a bowl-a-thon or a hosting a raffle or selling ads in an ad book any time soon?

The article ended on a funny note with a quote from a professor at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs. “You only need 10 billionaires. And there will be 10 conservative billionaires.”

Chances are there are more than 10. But for those of us in the social change world, we know there probably aren’t 10 progressive billionaires to support our work. So instead we ask all of you to give because there’s strength in numbers.

The Heritage Foundation’s new fundraising effort, reminds me of a bumper sticker from the last millennium, “It’ll be a great day when the schools have all the money they need, and the army has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.”

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There but for the grace of…

Friday, February 13th, 2009

by Karen Topakian

The current issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports on which foundations have taken the biggest hit in their assets since the financial crisis hit. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation lost 20% of their assets – from $38 billion to $31. I can’t imagine how it must feel to lose seven billion dollars. I feel badly when I misplace a twenty-dollar bill. Despite this loss, they are increasing their grantmaking in 2009.

But the Gates Foundation didn’t even lose the largest percentage, according to the Chron of Phil. That title belongs to the Starr Foundation in New York, which has lost 57% of their assets since 2007. And yes they are decreasing their grantmaking budget for 2009.

You will be happy to know that the Agape Foundation didn’t lose a dime of our endowment in the stock market. How were we such smart investors? Easy, we never put a dime of into the market. Despite my request to the Board to form an Investment Committee. Despite their recommendation to the Board of Trustees to invest in equities. Despite the Board’s approval of a plan I helped draft, I never followed through.

Do I look smart now? Sure I do. Did I follow the wishes of the Board? Nope. I am merely the lucky survivor of procrastination. In August, when I should have authorized our financial manager to move the money from Calvert Community Investments with a fixed rate of return of 3% to socially responsible investing, I was too busy focused on making the Peace Prize event a success in September. And that’s when it all came tumbling down.

The good thing is, we didn’t lose any of our assets. The bad thing is, I disobeyed the Board’s direction. Will I get punished? Probably not. But if it had gone the other way and we lost money because we weren’t in a booming market, I would have a lot of explaining to do.

Not sure what the lesson is here. But I do know one thing, years ago when the board began raising money for the endowment, the Trustees decided not to invest in the market because two board members lived through the depression and remembered how so many people suffered. Their personal experiences coupled with the other Trustees’ healthy skepticism about capitalism created a risk-free plan for our donors’ hard earned contributions.

And it paid off.

So thank you, Shirley and Harold, for leading us towards conservativism, but only when it comes to investing.

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I can’t believe this is my last blog entry!

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

The Staff of Agape Foundation (L to R) : Nicole Hsiang (Development Associate), Karen Topakian (Executive Director), Nina Dessart (Administrative Director) Photo by Bob Hsiang

Dear Friends,

After two fulfilling years of working as the Development Associate for the Agape Foundation, I’m sad to announce that I’ll be leaving my position at the end of the year. I am incredibly grateful to the staff of Agape for having nurtured my growth as a grassroots fundraiser for social justice. Although I’m moving on from the organization, my commitment to working for social change only strengthens with time.

It was a pleasure to work with my friends and colleagues, Karen Topakian and Nina Dessart. One would never know that all of the Foundation’s accomplishments are achieved by a team of three. Like most non profit organizations, we wear multiple hats, filling in the gaps when needed to make sure everything gets done. Instead of a place of scarcity, we work from the abundance of our hearts.

Fundraising is not easy, and I wouldn’t be able to do it if I wasn’t passionate about the Agape Foundation’s mission and work. I believe that funding local, emerging grassroots organizations working for social change will create the world we envision. A world where ordinary people can make a difference. And that’s why we raise money from you, and you, and you. We’re building a mass movement for peace and justice.

To every donor of Agape, I thank you for being a daily affirmation of my work. There is no greater motivation than knowing the power of generosity.

With extreme gratitude,

Nicole Hsiang

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