Quixote Foundation, Inc.

Prometheus Radio Project is holding its 12th annual community radio barnraisings: weekend-long radio building and movement building events. Individuals from the local community and participatory media folks from around the country come together to share ideas, experiences, and skills in the launching of a community radio station. All are welcome for general registration; if you live in Greene, Columbia, Dutchess, Ulster, Albany, Rensselaer, or Delaware counties in New York, or Berkshire counties in Massachusetts, visit the local registration page for more information.

The Applied Research Center’s Facing Race 2010 conference will feature lively discussions on today’s hot-button race issues while offering models for real change. Facing Race serves as a focal point for people changing policy and shaping culture to advance racial justice. Melissa Harris-Lacewell is the keynote speaker, and the conference includes plenary sessions, topical workshops, a film series and an arts and culture component. Three thematic tracks will guide issue and skill-building workshops: racial justice policy change, strategic communication and media, and community organizing.

The Future of Music Coalition’s 10th Anniversary Future of Music Policy Summit will focus on the artists who bring clarity to pressing issues facing the entire music community.  Musicians, arts advocates, policymakers, technologists, media representatives and industry figures will discuss new issues at the intersection of music, technology, policy and law.

The Social Change Institute at Hollyhock Educational Retreat Centre gathers seasoned and emerging leaders with thinkers and trainers from the progressive change-making world. SCI offers workshops, creative practices, dialogue circles, and community building to enhance organizational effectiveness.  The five-day convening will focus on movement and organizing strategies, online tools, campaigns and leadership practices.  Hosts include Joel Solomon, Karen Mahon, Derek Gent, Stina Brown, Melanie Redman, Pravin Pillay, Kevin Damaskie and Vanessa Richards.

The sixth installment of Northern California Grantmakers‘ terrific Social Media & Grantmaking series offers insights for foundations considering how they might use Twitter to move their mission.  (We may be a little biased, since the article features our own “QuixoteTilts.”)

The Center for Media Justice recently gathered two expert panels to brief funders on using communication as a tool for change. Hear what they had to say about “The State of Grassroots Communications: Shifting the Landscape Toward Justice.”

Grab some coffee and take a couple of minutes to read this clear and eloquent Ford Foundation opinion:  Why Foundations of All Kinds Should Promote Internet Access.  A teaser:   “Our actions today will decide whether that future belongs to a few or to all Americans. We must move beyond the notion of the Internet as a luxury and instead understand it as a necessary tool for anyone who aspires to be a full member of our society and economy—just as telephone service was defined in the last century.”  Thanks, Ford Foundation!

We don’t know about you, but we’d certainly take time to fill out a form if it ensured we were represented in our democracy and helped steer hundreds of billions of tax dollars toward infrastructure and services where they’re needed most. Now’s your once-a-decade chance: fill out the 2010 Census when it arrives, and help spread the word to others. Everyone’s needed to show how much has changed in ten years (besides the government’s learning how to launch useful web sites)!

On Wednesday, January 20, 2010 the Kaiser Family Foundation released Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, one of the largest and most comprehensive publicly available information sources on the amount and nature of media use by American youth.  The survey is the third wave of the Foundation’s studies of children’s media use, providing a detailed look at current media use patterns among young people and documenting changes in children’s media habits from five (2004) and ten (1999) years ago.

Net Neutrality is critical to keeping our society free, fair & healthy! Find out about the issues and comment directly to the FCC.

Protect your investments in projects and organizations you care about by promoting good policy through nonpartisan civic engagement.  The Funders Committee for Civic Participation has put together a fantastic set of resources for foundations wanting to learn more about how they can fund civic engagement while staying firmly within tax and legal boundaries.  Check out the legal guidelines and other resources, get to know FCCP and get involved!

Let Malkia Cyril of the Center for Media Justice tell you why. Download a PDF of her speech–it’s fabulous reading!

The Beldon Fund recently launched www.beldon.org to share information gained during an intentional spend-down of foundation assets. As planned, after ten years of grantmaking, the Beldon Fund closed its doors on May 31, 2009.

The website includes a PDF called “Giving While Living: The Beldon Fund Spend Out Story,” filled with practical advice and tips, and other information on the foundation’s program strategies, grantees, lessons from the work, and external assessments of Beldon’s impact. Take a look—the information may lead you to consider spending down and, if not, it can be applied broadly to your ongoing work. Send any feedback to beldoninfo@yahoo.com.