The Art of Community illustrates how weaving art and culture into program initiatives can lay the foundation for newcomers and the receiving society to find common ground and work together to build vibrant communities in which everyone has a stake. It offers strategies, lessons, and insights to inform foundation giving at the intersection of arts and community services.

Including art as part of the process of immigrant integration is discussed on the Americans for the Arts audio blog by Amy Skillman, the Institute for Cultural Partnership's vice president and director of arts and heritage program, and Laura Marcus, independent consultant and folklorist. 

The California Counts! Census Campaign detailed in this report provides a roadmap for how foundations and affinity groups can support the next Census in 2020. More immediately, it provides lessons learned and reflections regarding funder collaboration and the role of affinity groups in catalyzing and supporting such collaboration. It also explores how a network approach to collaboration can advance philanthropic efforts, spark innovation, and increase impact.

Download GCIR's California Counts! 2010 Census Campaign: A Network Approach to Funder Collaboration.

This brief provides grantmakers in education with guidance on DACA, including its implications and areas for investment that would enhance educational opportunities and outcomes for undocumented immigrant children and youth. It highlights the fact that DACA offers a chance for young immigrants to pursue further education and access better-paying jobs in the formal economy.

Responding to changing demographics, the public and private sectors are developing new ways of communicating with limited English-speaking individuals. In 2007, nearly one in five Americans lived in a household that spoke a language other than English at home, yet meeting the needs for language services and English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction remains a challenge. Language assistance programs can benefit immigrant families and the broader community by improving public safety, health, education, and other important government functions. A growing number of state and local agencies have adopted language access policies over the past decade, but many struggled to implement them. The Annie E. Casey Foundation established the Language Access Practitioners Network in 2006, connecting otherwise isolated government practitioners that work in child and family serving agencies, as well as staff from mayors’ and governors’ offices who oversee immigrant-serving programs. This report builds on participants’ conversations on how public agencies can communicate more effectively with limited English-speaking residents and lessons learned from language access programs across the country. The report concludes with a check list for developing effective language access practices and further resources.

For many low-income immigrants, relief under the DACA policy remains out of reach due to the $465 application fee. The fee is often cited as the top reason DREAMers delay filing their DACA applications. This informational brief provides examples of DACA loan programs that GCIR and our philanthropic partners are involved in nationwide, helping to make DACA a reality for DREAMers.

Informed by the experience of the Fund for Immigrants and Refugees, this article provides insight into effective collaborative grantmaking and important lessons learned.

This document provides key information, data, and funding recommendations for grantmakers regarding undocumented youth in rural areas of the United States and the implications of DACA in their lives. It addresses their special needs, including the fact that rural immigrants are less likely to be college-bound or enrolled in college, and more likely to work in low-wage positions with little job security.