Social Innovation Forum
The Social Innovation Forum (SIF) is proud to partner with the Immigrant and Refugee Funder Collaborative on Capacity Camp, an initiative to support greater Boston-area nonprofit organizations that focus on promoting successful advancement and integration for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
Seven local organizations have been selected to participate in this eight-week program designed to build the capacity of innovative nonprofits and provide them with a set of valuable tools to help move their organizations to the next stage of development. Key topics include communication and messaging, performance measurement, fundraising, and governance.
These nonprofits are doing critical on-the-ground work at a time when policy changes are threatening the rights of immigrants and refugees across the United States.
“These nonprofits are doing critical on-the-ground work at a time when policy changes are threatening the rights of immigrants and refugees across the United States,” said SIF Executive Director Susan Musinsky. “Through this program, we aim to give them access to the tools and resources they need to accelerate their work.”
Experienced business and nonprofit leaders from the SIF community will join staff to deliver content and provide pro-bono services to participants, including one-on-one coaching and advising. Participants will develop, practice, and refine a brief presentation, or a “pitch,” with an accompanying PowerPoint deck and two-page written prospectus, to describe their organization’s programs, accomplishments, and aspirations.
The program will conclude with an event in the morning of April 12 at The Boston Foundation where participants will present their pitches in front of an audience of potential funders and others interested in their work.
February 2018 Capacity Camp Organizations
La Comunidad
La Comunidad's mission is straightforward: full integration of Latino immigrants into the mainstream society of Everett (and surrounding towns of Chelsea, Revere, East Boston, Somerville, Lynn and Malden which also contains large Latino populations). Services provided include immigration assistance, citizenship training, adult education, basic social services, and active civic engagement.
Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores
Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores strives to enhance the working experience of immigrants in New Bedford and surrounding areas through community building and organizing. The organization is unique among Massachusetts immigrant workers’ centers in that its staff and leadership are drawn exclusively from the immigrant worker community it serves.
English for New Bostonians
English for New Bostonians’ mission is to invest in the future of our region by fostering a high-quality, targeted system that prepares English language learners to pursue their educational, economic and civic aspirations.
Justice At Work
Justice At Work provides strategic workplace-related legal services to community-based worker centers in order to support and encourage low-wage immigrant worker organizing that enables workers to directly impact conditions at work and in their communities and families.
Matahari Women Workers' Center
Matahari Women Workers' Center is a greater Boston organization where women of color, immigrant women, and families come together as sisters, workers, and survivors to make improvements in ourselves and society and work towards justice and human rights. The organization’s goal is to end gender-based violence and exploitation.
Mujeres Unidas Avanzando
Mujeres Unidas Avanzando has a track record of encouraging Latina girls and women to believe in themselves and grow into leadership roles within the community. Building from this foundation, students are then in a position to grow further, serving as mentors to their peers and families, and as leaders within the community.
The Welcome Project
The Welcome Project builds the collective power of immigrants to participate in and shape community decisions through programs that strengthen the capacity of immigrant youth, adults and families to advocate for themselves and influence schools, government, and other institutions.
The upcoming program is SIF’s second Capacity Camp. A pilot version of the program (formerly called Boot Camp) ran in 2016 for organizations working in the field of environmental sustainability and a third program focused on youth-serving organizations is planned for later in 2018.
About the Immigrant and Refugee Funder Collaborative
In early 2017, as policy changes threatened rights of immigrants and refugees across the United States, SIF and many in the funding community sought ways to take action. SIF convened a group of local funders to come together to collectively support a social issue track focused on organizations promoting advancement for immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers for our 2017-2018 Social Innovator Accelerator. Within weeks of our initial call to action, eight funding partners signed on to participate. These partners both provided enough support to sponsor an Accelerator track, which will provide 24 months of support to one organization, and decided to fund a Capacity Camp program to provide support to additional organizations working in this issue area.
The Collaborative is made up of the following: Ansara Family Foundation, Barr Foundation, The Clowes Fund, The Hyams Foundation, Landry Family Foundation, Macomber Family Fund, Suhrbier Family Fund, and John H. and Naomi Tomfohrde Foundation.