RIF renews focus on inspiring community activism

Neil D. Steinberg

After an in-depth review, The Rhode Island Foundation has identified three pillars on which it hopes to continue building the organization: Lead. Transform. Inspire.
This new branding comes after years of separate revisions of the logo and mission statement, said Rhode Island Foundation President and CEO Neil D. Steinberg. The time had simply come for a comprehensive review and rebranding based on perspective from those within the organization and focus groups, he said.
“It’s about getting people to be active participants and not just passive observers,” said Steinberg.
“We think it reflects what we’ve been doing as an organization,” said Steinberg. “Being a trusted leader, transforming Rhode Island and inspiring the community.”
The new branding – which debuted publicly at the foundation’s annual meeting last week – is anchored in the organization’s history, Steinberg said.
“We’re approaching our 100th anniversary in 2016, so being a trusted leader is a reflection that over many decades, we’ve built up and earned the public trust,” Steinberg said.
That leadership isn’t just about history, but about taking a more active leadership role and engaging the community, he said. Last year, for example, the foundation launched three initiatives that reflect stepped-up engagement.
The initiatives include the Rhode Island Innovation Fellowship that’s designed to stimulate solutions by Rhode Islanders to local challenges. Fellows get $100,000 per year for three years, funded by philanthropists Letitia and John Carter, to help bring vision into reality.
“What that did is it put the foundation in a new space. The space of innovation, of more broadly engaging new ideas in the community, ideas that are solutions-oriented,” said Steinberg.
Make It Happen Rhode Island was driven by the urgent need to address economic development and the state’s stubbornly high unemployment rate. The goal is to push forward actionable plans to improve the state economy and supplement efforts in the private sectors. The foundation awarded $630,000 to 12 action-oriented projects in the Make It Happen RI initiative. The projects ranged from connecting manufacturers to expand the in-state supply chain to pushing the spectrum of Ocean State architects and other designers more broadly into the global marketplace.
The Civic Leadership Fund is another new initiative, said foundation Vice President of Strategy and Public Affairs Jessica David.
“Most of our work over time has been based on an endowment model. The Civic Leadership Fund supports what we describe as ‘beyond grant-making’ work,” David said.
“It could be research or advocacy work. It could be convening. We do a lot of just bringing people together, getting them in the room, trying to move things forward that way,” she said. “It goes beyond just making a grant to an individual project or organization.”
The Civic Leadership Fund allows the foundation to be more flexible, she said. For instance, Make It Happen was developed in five or six weeks and attracted 300 people to the event.
The Civic Leadership Fund also reflects the clarified vision of engaging more people in the foundation, in this case, philanthropically.
“Giving to an annual fund is different than setting up an endowment. Traditional endowments are larger dollar figures, minimum $10,000 to open an endowed fund here,” said Steinberg. “[In] a current-use annual fund the money comes in, it can be much less than the $10,000. It’s used every year and every year we will go out and raise it again.”
The first year of the Civic Leadership Fund successfully engaged traditional and new donors, said David.
“We set a fairly modest goal of $100,000 and ended up raising $175,000,” David said.
The fund supported the Make It Happen initiative. •

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