Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees - GCIR

Membership Information

As a grantmaker, you know your region best and are in touch with its needs and concerns. Becoming a member of GCIR can strengthen your work by giving you access to the most relevant research, data, and best practices available on a wide range of immigration and immigrant integration issues.

Whether your focus is on poverty, education, health, employment and labor issues, civil and human rights, or civic participation, by joining GCIR, you will expand your knowledge, connect with diverse colleagues, and become part of a dynamic movement to fully integrate immigrants into U.S. society.

Click here to join GCIR today.

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Membership Benefits

In the spring, GCIR members will benefit from a variety of additional resources that will enhance networking and information sharing through a password-protected members-only portal:

• Searchable membership database, including members' geographic focus, issue interests and funding guidelines.
• Promising immigrant integration practices, with a search function not available on the public site.
• Talking points and communications tools to help foundations address tough immigration issues.
• Templates for presentations and handout materials on a range of immigrant integration issues.
• Archives of materials from previous GCIR programs, including PowerPoint presentations, handouts, and MP3 recordings.

"GCIR is the preeminent national resource for grantmakers working to improve how our country welcomes and supports immigrants and refugees. We especially value the useful information in the e-newsletters and the excellent national and regional meetings that bring the broader national and international perspectives to our locally focused grantmaking."

Nikki Will Stein, Executive Director, Polk Bros. Foundation, Chicago, Illinois

Members help define GCIR's direction and focus through:

• Priority input on GCIR programs and publications.
• Participation on GCIR committees and board of directors.
• Right to elect board members.

Members receive discounts on:

• Conference registration fees.
• Publications.
• Technical assistance and consultation.

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Become a Member

Foundation leadership can help communities experiencing demographic change address both the challenges and the opportunities of immigration. Strategic foundation investment can ensure that immigrants and refugees, working with native-born Americans, play a central role in building secure, vibrant, and cohesive communities in which everyone has a stake.

We invite your grantmaking institution to become an institutional member and benefit from a rich array of resources to inform your immigrant-related grantmaking. Eligible organizations include independent foundations, family foundations, community foundations, public foundations, operating foundations, corporate foundations and giving programs, United Ways, and public funding agencies.

If your foundation prohibits institutional membership in affinity groups, you can join as an individual member. Individual membership is also open to philanthropic advisers who focus on immigrant and refugee funding.

Click here to join GCIR today.

"GCIR is a valuable resource for grantmakers in emerging immigrant gateways. Its information and educational opportunities help us gather a better understanding of the complex set of issues facing immigrants and refugees settling in central Ohio, and how these issues impact our existing community residents and resources. This information helps inform The Columbus Foundation's strategic grantmaking decisions."

Douglas K. Kridler, President/CEO, The Columbus Foundation, Columbus, Ohio

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Why Immigration Is an Important Issue for Foundations

The face of America is changing.

• Today, immigrants constitute 12% of U.S. population and 14% of the workforce. In contrast, they made up only 4.7% of the population and 6.7% of the U.S. workforce in 1970 (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• With the decline in the U.S. birth rate and the retirement of the Baby Boom generation--and assuming current immigration levels--newcomers will account for half of the growth of the working-age population between now and 2015 and all the growth between 2016 and 2035 (Congressional Budget Office, 2005)

Issues affecting immigrants are issues that affect the broader society.

• 26% of all low-income children in 2002 lived in an immigrant family (Urban Institute)
• 56% of low-income, non-citizens were uninsured in 2004, compared to 23% of low-income natives (Migration Policy Institute)
• 85% of immigrant families have at least one U.S. citizen (Urban Institute, 2005)

"The California Endowment is committed to improving the health and well-being of California's richly diverse immigrant communities. We firmly believe that the diversity of the state is one of its greatest assets. Harnessing that asset to develop community-based solutions to improved access to health care is but one way philanthropic organizations can partner with these communities to make a difference. We strongly encouraged other philanthropic organizations to take advantage of GCIR's educational resources to help them realize their full potential as grantmakers."

Robert K. Ross, M.D., President and CEO, The California Endowment, Woodland Hills, California

Immigrants are critical to the growth of our economy.

• 80% of immigrants are working age, compared to 60% of the native-born (U.S. Census, 2004)
• Among U.S. computer scientists and mathematicians in 2000, half of all doctorate holders and a third of all master's degree holders were foreign-born (National Science Board, 2004)
• 41% of workers in farming, fishing, and forestry and 22% of workers in the food service and construction industries are immigrants (American Immigration Law Foundation, 2005)
• Between 1997 and 2002, the number of Asian-American businesses grew 24%, and Latino businesses grew 31%, compared to 10% growth in all U.S. firms (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 2005)

In light of immigrants' expanding role in our society, addressing immigrant issues is fundamental to improving the well-being of our society. Drawing on a variety of resources from GCIR, many foundations, regardless of their funding priorities, are now supporting programs and policies to integrate newcomers into our society. They are utilizing GCIR's immigrant integration framework to inform their discussions and guide the development of their funding strategies. Immigrant integration--which GCIR defines as an intentional two-way process in which newcomers and communities work together--is essential to our nation's well-being, prosperity, and security now and for generations to come. Funding goals that target the well-being of an entire community can only be realized when newcomers are successfully integrated.

Read this funder-produced booklet about the changing landscape of New Hampshire and see how two foundations are impacting their donors and boards with 10 inspiring stories about immigrants in their communities.

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