Case Study Innovation

Towards A Just East Bay – Lessons From EBCF’s Change Journey

April 22, 2019
“For a foundation like EBCF that is doing cutting-edge work, we served as a thought partner to help them develop clarity around what activities have been effective and why they were doing them. As that partner, we could help EBCF articulate, ‘This is what a justice framework for a community foundation looks like.’”
—Micah Gilmer

Our Role

For several years, EBCF went about quietly implementing new ways of partnering with donors, social movements, and the community at large, from political advocacy in support of funding early childhood education to development of Black-led nonprofits and equity-focused donor engagement. At a moment when the value proposition of community foundations is shifting, Frontline helped EBCF to see and speak clearly about itself. We established a framework, conducted interviews, and otherwise documented the process of how EBCF invited donors to partner in advocacy work and treated its community as an equally weighted stakeholder. Our concluding report highlighted several new EBCF initiatives and made transparent the lessons the foundation had learned along the way. Finally, we coached the staff through the change process that emerged from this framework as it pertained to their leadership.