Overview

The Inland Empire Community Foundation works with stakeholders from across the IE to understand, address, and resource important issues.  Working under a framework of Equity, Economy, Education and Environment, IECF supports collaborative processes and investments to affect lasting change.

Current Initiatives

California Creative Corps Inland SoCal is a program that connects artists with opportunities and partnerships that inspire, support, and appropriately compensate purposeful, and sustainable creative work. IECF is designated by the California Arts Council as an administrator of $4.7M in regranting funds specifically in the Inland Empire, through a collaboration with three local arts agencies – Arts Connection – the San Bernardino County Arts Council, Riverside Arts Council, and the CA Desert Arts Council.

Inland Economic Growth and Opportunity (IEGO) IEGO began as a collective effort to ensure environmental sustainability and racial equity within the growing logistics and innovation industry across the Inland Empire. Now, it has become a powerful network of industry leaders, educational institutions, and community stakeholders working together to ensure sustainable and equitable economic growth in the region. IEGO’s goal is to make sure that all innovation and economic growth are tied to benefits for workers and residents and is sustainable for generations to come.

IE Giving Hub promotes nonprofits and helps donors learn more about our community. Interested philanthropists can find detailed information about local organizations, make informed charitable decisions, and give all in one place. This resource was created to help people learn about and support Inland Empire nonprofits year-round, enabling them to financially support and/or volunteer for causes they care about.

Programs

Expanded Learning Advancing Educational Equity Program The goal of this grant opportunity is to advance educational equity, address learning loss and close learning gaps caused by the COVID pandemic by offering and strengthening expanded learning programs for students ages 5 to 19, residing in San Bernardino County, who are most impacted by the pandemic and have limited access to resources. The Inland Empire Community Foundation has received $2.7 million to strategically and judiciously reinvest back into San Bernardino County communities through grants to nonprofit and education-related organizations serving all public school students of San Bernardino County.

Youth Grantmakers was created to empower youth to address issues that are important to them by participating in grantmaking. Through this program – now in its fifteenth year – our young people are blossoming into active agents of change, preparing them for community leadership and philanthropy with purpose.

Supporting DEI Learning and Work in the IE

The Community Impact Fund is an endowed fund through which IECF has previously provided capacity-building grants. In March 2020, IECF adopted a focus on racial, gender, and economic equity. This means ensuring our staff and Board reflect the communities we serve and that our grantmaking builds the voice and power of our grantees to transform their communities. It also means listening to and incorporating the lived experiences of people who daily struggle to achieve safety, health, and prosperity in the Inland Empire. In doing this work, IECF will rely on data that shows where disparities exist to drive our grantmaking, programs, and partnerships. IECF invites organizations that are on their DEI journey to apply for future Community Impact Fund grants.

2021/2022 Community Impact Fund Grantees
  • A Coming Of Age Foster Family Agency
  • Academy for Grassroots Organizations
  • Assistance League of San Bernardino
  • Bear Valley Community Healthcare District Foundation
  • Bezerk Productions
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Inland Empire
  • Boys & Girls Club Of The Hi-Desert
  • Boys & Girls Club of the San Gorgonio Pass
  • Breast Cancer Solutions
  • Brightest Star Inc.
  • Camp Of Champions A & M, Inc.
  • Caravanserai Project
  • Cathedral City Senior Center
  • Child Advocates Of San Bernardino County
  • Consortium for Early Learning Services
  • Cove Communities Senior Association
  • Desert Rose Trauma Recovery
  • Empower You Edutainment
  • Faith in Action of San Gorgonio Pass
  • Feed My Flock Ministries
  • First Christian Church of Ontario, CA
  • First Tee-Coachella Valley
  • Fox Riverside Theater Foundation
  • Friends of the Desert Mountains
  • Garner Holt Foundation
  • Giving 365 Inc.
  • Gracious Heart Resource Family Agency
  • Inland Empire Community Collaborative, Inc.
  • Inland Equity Community Land Trust
  • Janet Goeske Foundation
  • Making Hope Happen Foundation
  • Mountain Counseling & Training, Inc.
  • Operation New Hope
  • Ophelia’s Jump Productions
  • People’s Collective for Environmental Justice
  • Positive Young People Inc.
  • The Arts Area
  • The Empowerment Center
  • The Hole in the Wall Inc.
  • Voices for Children

Inland Empire Changing the Narrative Toolkit for Nonprofits

Launched in 2019, the toolkit is designed to help nonprofits more effectively tell the story of their organizations from a position of strength as they seek funding from foundations, grantmakers and individual donors.

Inland Empire Changing The Narrative Toolkit

Community Indicator Reports

The following research/analysis documents track key indicators of economic, social and environmental well-being in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.

Community Indicator Report Survey

2020
San Bernardino Community Indicators Report
Riverside County Center for Demographics (most current statistics available are 2019)

2019
San Bernardino Community Indicators Report
Riverside County Center for Demographics

2018
San Bernardino Community Indicators Report

 

 
 
 

 
 
 

Initiatives

Census 2020: Ensuring the IE Counts

The Inland Empire Community Foundation is one of 10 organizations the State Census Office is partnering with to make sure everyone gets counted in the IE.

Picked by the California Census Office as an Administrative Community-Based Organization (ACBO), IECF is putting state and philanthropic resources behind local nonprofits in six regions across the Inland Empire in hard-to-count communities. As the ACBO, our goal is to ensure the most complete count possible of the residents of the Inland Empire – a count that will affect the flow of funds as well as political representation for the next decade.

IECF is playing a groundbreaking role by dispersing $2.4 million in state funds and $1.5 million in pooled private philanthropy to empower community-based organizations (CBOs) from the IE, and demonstrating that local organizations have the ability and are best equipped with the deepest roots and greatest trust among hard-to-count populations. Our central, decision-making partners are: Family Service Association, Alianza Coachella Valley, Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, Warehouse Workers Resource Center, El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center, UCR Center for Social Innovation, Inland Empowerment and NALEO Education Fund. Over 33 organizations have received grants and sub-contracts to ensure an accurate Census 2020.

CensusIE.org

Census Sub Contractors

Center for American Islamic Relations
Community Health Action Network
Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement
El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center
Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice
Inland Congregations United for Change
Inland Empire Labor Council
Empowering Success Now
Mi Familia Vota
Sigma Beta Xi, Inc.
TODEC (Training Occupational Development Educating Communities)
Warehouse Workers Resource Center

Pooled Fund Grantees

Alianza Coachella Valley
Bread of Life Church
Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice
Coachella Valley Justice
Community Health Action Network
Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas en Norte America
El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center
Food in Need of Distribution, Inc.
Great Harvest Community Center
Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Collective
Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity
Mi Familia Vota Education Fund
Motivating Action Leadership Opportunity
Nehemiah Charitable Fund
Organizacion en California de Lideres Campesinas, Inc.
Pomona Economic Opportunity Center
Sigma Beta Xi, Inc.
Starting Over, Inc.
TODEC Legal Services
Young Scholars for Academic Empowerment*
Youth Leadership Institute*

 
 
 

 
 
 

Listos California

Listos California is the state’s new emergency preparedness campaign led by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CAL OES) and California Volunteers to make sure our most at-risk residents – those who are socially isolated, seniors, low-income, disabled or limited-English speakers – will have a plan for themselves and their families in the event of a disaster. Listos also encourages community engagement in local disaster planning as an essential part of getting all California prepared for any emergency.

With $2.1 million in state funding, IECF is re-granting to nonprofits that serve diverse and vulnerable populations in Riverside County. For San Bernardino County, the state is partnering with El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center. IECF is part of a statewide network of community-based organizations in 24 counties designated to provide emergency preparedness education and outreach as part of the Listos Campaign.

Inclusive Economic Development & IEGO

​Regional economic development that supports higher wages and worker mobility and is environmentally sustainable is an important mission for the Inland Empire. In 2017 and 2018, private- and public-sector leaders from Riverside and San Bernardino counties worked together and with the Brookings Institution to understand the Inland Empire’s potential to create jobs at good wages for those without a four-year degree.

The process resulted in a strategic framework called Inland Growth and Economic Opportunity. IEGO documented its research and strategies in a report called “Middle Class Jobs for a Fast Growing Region,” April 2019. The strategy identifies sectors that can create these jobs and the workforce alignment needed to help workers capture more wages, benefits, and skills development in a dynamic and changing economy. Implemented, the framework has the potential to put the region on a more prosperous and secure future and lift thousands out of poverty.

Through research and visioning, participants agreed to align workforce and economic development efforts in growing industry sectors such as logistics, cyber security, air emissions and environmental technology, and advanced manufacturing. Some sectors, like logistics and advanced manufacturing, have a strong base in the region and need to adapt to rapid automation, improve conditions for workers, and adapt environmental regulations to be truly sustainable and benefit workers. Others, like green technology and IT/Cybersecurity, are emerging sectors with important business and educational assets in the IE that need to be leveraged for sector growth.

For instance, Cal State San Bernardino has the number 3 school for Cybersecurity in the U.S., yet workers leave for jobs in other places. The relocation of the California Air Resources Board offers tremendous potential for the relocation and growth of businesses working on green technology and air quality.

At the core of IEGO is the need to transform how we work together to build partnerships, collaborations, and networks to align the efforts of this 27,000 square mile region. In part because of the sheer size of the Inland Empire, and the scale of change IEGO requires, the effort operates as an intentional network of businesses and institutions throughout San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, committed to creating better jobs and increasing access to them in what has become one of the fastest-growing population centers in the U.S.

In 2020, with facilitation led by consulting firm Jobs for the Future, IEGO began implementing its recommendations with greater and greater inclusion of the many voices needed to create a more just and sustainable economy. Private and public sector leaders from Riverside and San Bernardino counties have catalyzed an effort to forge a strategic agenda for advancing inclusive growth and opportunity that will benefit residents of both counties and put the region on the path to a more prosperous and secure future. This strategic agenda endeavors to lift thousands out of poverty and broaden local access to opportunity by investing in better pathways to good jobs, improving educational outcomes, inspiring the region’s brightest young people to stay and strengthening civic infrastructure necessary to address emerging opportunities.

IEGO partners include the Brookings Institution, Inland Empire Community Foundation, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, businesses, economic developers, higher education, and more. Today, IEGO is supporting teams to begin aligning cross-sector efforts and maximizing the assets of the IE for good jobs, strong businesses, and vibrant communities.

Grantmaking with an Equity Lens

In the past, IECF has provided capacity-building grants through its endowed fund. In March 2020, IECF adopted a focus on racial, gender, and economic equity. This means ensuring our staff and Board reflect the communities we serve and that our grantmaking builds the voice and power of our grantees to transform their communities. It also means listening to and incorporating the lived experiences of people who daily struggle to achieve safety, health, and prosperity in the Inland Empire.  In doing this work, IECF will rely on data that shows where disparities exist to drive our grantmaking, programs, and partnerships.

Nonprofits wishing to apply need to demonstrate a commitment to building organizational capacity. This includes having developed short and long-term strategies for addressing identified organizational needs based on board and staff assessments or strategic planning. Strong candidates in the competitive grant process should show potential for how the award will make a difference in how the organization is governed, managed, financed, or operated in the future.

Nonprofits interested in applying can view the 2023 grant schedule and instructions.

For more information, contact Celia Cudiamat, SVP of Grants & Community Impact at ccudiamat@iegives.org.

 

Women’s Giving Fund

The Women’s Giving Fund is an inclusive opportunity for female donors to learn about women’s economic security issues, focus giving on issues impacting women and children, and experience the power of collaborative philanthropy.

To support the Women’s Giving Fund and help uplift women and their families in the IE, click the button below.

GIVE TODAY

For more information, contact Darcy McNaboe, Regional Charitable Giving Officer at dmcnaboe@iegives.org.

Women’s Giving Fund PDF

 

Youth Grantmakers

Now in its 15th year, Youth Grantmakers empowers young people to become active agents of change and responsible community leaders by learning about the nonprofit sector in their communities, working to understand equity as a grantmaking lens, and undertaking a grantmaking process for local organizations. Education Equity is their focus area of support for the region.

To support Youth Grantmakers and help create civic leaders of tomorrow, click the button below.

GIVE TODAY

During their academic year training, students survey other students to understand what is important to them, learn about local nonprofits serving youth, undertake service projects, analyze grant applications, debate critical needs, and prioritize worthwhile requests. IECF manages YG programs in Riverside, San Bernardino, and Coachella Valley.

Youth Grantmakers PDF

2022 Grantees

Coachella Valley Grantees

ABC Hopes, Inc.
Assistance League Coachella Valley
Highlanders Boxing Club
Project Fighting Chance
RMC Charitable Foundation

Riverside Grantees

Assistance League of Riverside
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Inland Empire
Girls on the Run Riverside County
Love Riverside
Riverside Area Rape Crisis Center

San Bernardino Grantees

Assistance League of Victor Valley
Empowering Success Now
Foothill Family Shelter
Magdalena’s Daughters
S & L Foster Family Agency

For more information on how to become a Youth Grantmaker or for further details about the program, contact Denisha Shackelford, Program Manager at dshackelford@iegives.org.

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