The following post comes from our friends at Advocates for Youth (AFY) and, in particular, directly from an email from Julie Reticker-Flynn.  It invites any and all young activists to apply for AFY’s Youth Fundraising Advisory Board.  Through this experience and the resources provided by AFY, young people will learn valuable fundraising skills to help them raise money for the causes and organizations they care about. As a Foundation, we definitely understand how important successful fundraising abilities are for non-profit leaders. This is a great opportunity to network and gain these skills early on in your career:

Are you interested in or already pursuing a career in the non-profit sector? Do you volunteer with non-profit organizations and want to take on a leadership role? Want to learn fundraising skills but not sure where to start?

Advocates for Youth is accepting applications until June 30, 2013 for its Youth Fundraising Advisory Board (Y-FAB)!

Elizabeth, a 24 year old Y-FAB alum, says: The cool thing about the program is that it carves out this space for Millennials to practice philanthropy. Theoretically, anyone could raise funds for an organization, but without leadership, support, and resources, it takes a lot to do it on your own. Advocates providing all of that is what makes Y-FAB so great. It has the potential to evolve into a powerful fundraising and organizing tool…

20 applicants will be selected to join Y-FAB – a select group of young people interested in learning the essentials of fundraising.  Knowledge and skills in fundraising are vital for leaders of the non-profit sector.  Y-FAB gives you the opportunity to work as part of a team in a virtual learning environment towards a joint fundraising goal to test and improve your fundraising skills.

Don’t have any fundraising experience? No problem, no experience required! Members are selected to serve a one-year term from August 2013 to May 2013. Through Y-FAB you will receive fundraising skills training, ongoing coaching, resources to help with fundraising efforts, and networking opportunities with other youth leaders and nonprofit professionals.

Applications are due June 30th, 2013. Apply now!

The Report offers a series of innovative but manageable changes to zoning and building laws in the upcoming decade. The 250 recommended measures – from requiring emergency lights in stairwells to installing flood barriers to wind-resistant windows – would initially affect only new construction, but could be applied to existing structures, depending on how many of the measures are approved by the New York City Council.

And, while the estimated price tag of $20 billion seems high at first, the cost-factor changes when one considers that Hurricane Sandy cost the City almost $19 billion – and that a future storm could cost even more.

For an overview of the recommended changes, please see Urban Green’s executive summary. We are exceedingly proud to be able to support Urban Green in its work and role as key stakeholder in redefining the landscape of New York City, so that generations can enjoy the Big Green Apple – and not just on a canoe.

As a New York-based Foundation, Overbrook has wanted to support longer-term recovery and rebuilding efforts since Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast in late October. It is clear that this storm has deeply affected our region. Many people were displaced from their homes or lost electricity for extended periods. Critical longer-term issues have emerged, including the challenges of sustaining livelihoods during vast economic disruption and the health issues arising from environmental hazards (i.e., mold infestations and a lack of access to services). Those who are most impacted by hurricanes, those who are assisted last and those who are left out of the government-led recovery efforts altogether must be central in filling gaps in service provision and in developing community-based solutions.

In recent years, Overbrook has awarded grants outside of the established Board of Directors grants program areas to respond to natural and man-made disasters. For example, the Board supported recovery efforts in the Gulf region following the BP oil spill and in South Asia following the 2004 Tsunami. Following 9/11, the Foundation awarded a grant to the Fund for the City of New York to assist in sustaining New York’s non-profit community as the City began to recover.  In all of these cases, the Foundation awarded grants to intermediaries with existing relationships to impacted communities. They also possess the expertise to identify appropriate grantee organizations with the capacity and credibility to execute equitable and sustainable grassroots recovery efforts. North Star regularly funds and partners with community-based groups advancing economic justice, equality and human rights across New York City.

The Community Fund for Sandy Recovery also builds on two rounds of prior grantmaking through North Star’s Grassroots Hurricane Relief Fund from earlier in 2012 and 2013. North Star staff has thoughtfully directed resources to those grassroots organizations that already know and provide services to constituencies affected by Sandy and who have expanded those services since the hurricane. These service providers also partner with city and state advocacy groups to advocate for better more equitable and sustainable governmental recoveries going forward. As a part of this grant, North Star will work with grantees to write and distribute a report based on the lessons learned from this and past hurricane recovery responses (i.e. Hurricanes in the Gulf and in El Salvador) to inform future preparations and recoveries. These findings will inform efforts to respond to storms in the future.

Congratulations to North Star on this grant and we thank them for their excellent work to support an equitable and sustainable recovery in our city and the surrounding regions!

Most of these awards renewed previous grants; however, first-time grants have been awarded to the US Human Rights Network and Rights Working Group. Rights Working Group, a coalition of 340 local, state and national organizations striving to promote racial justice, immigrant rights and human rights, and end racial profiling, received a $25,000 grant for general operating support. The US Human Rights Network was awarded a grant of $30,000 to support its conference – Advancing Human Rights 2013: Dignity. Justice. Action. This conference, taking place from Friday, December 6, 2013 to Sunday, December 8 2013, will consist of sessions along four thematic tracts: immigration policy and enforcement; criminal justice and mass incarceration; economic policy and workers rights; and, environmental and climate justice. It will be a great opportunity for a wide variety of grassroots and national organizations to come together, share, learn and build a stronger inclusive and connected movement for human rights in the United Sates. As national organizations, both Rights Working Group and the US Human Rights Network play critical roles bringing together and supporting the work of grassroots groups advocating for human rights domestically.

Next, we would like to list the grantees receiving renewals from the Foundation at this meeting. These organizations further the following Foundation initiatives: building a domestic human rights movement, expanding reproductive justice in the US, advancing media reform, defending Latin American Human Rights Defenders and promoting gender rights in Latin America. Throughout the summer, we will be highlighting many of these grantees on the blog so that readers can learn more about their strategies and initiatives, as well as specific victories and accomplishments. Below we have simply outlined the grants awarded, the projects supported by Overbrook and links to our grantee partners’ websites with more information:

Domestic Human Rights

Domestic Human Rights Movement

• The NYCLU received a grant of $70,000 over two years for Advancing New Yorkers’ Human Rights

• The Urban Justice Center’s Human Rights Project and Sex Workers Project were awarded a grant of $40,000

Reproductive Justice

• A $30,000 grant for general operating support was awarded to the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program

• Forward Together also received a $30,000 grant for general operating support for its Youth Organizing Program and its leadership role in the Strong Families Initiative

• Freedom Network USA was awarded a grant of $20,0000 for Training, Technical Assistance and Mentoring: A Road to Rights Based Advocacy in Human Trafficking

• Human Rights Project for Girls received a general operating support grant of $20,000

Media

• Mother Jones received a $20,000 for its reporting on human rights, environmental issues and the role of money in politics

• WNYC has been awarded an $80,000 grant over two years for On the Media

International Human Rights

Human Rights Defenders

• A $60,000 grant over two years was awarded to Peace Brigades International for protecting Human Rights Defenders in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia

• Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights – Latin America received a $40,000 renewal for general operating support

• WITNESS received $90,000 over two years for promoting Human Rights in the Americas Through Video-For-Change

Gender Rights

• The 2013 International Human Rights Fellowship Program at the University of Chile Law School’s Centro de Derechos Humanos will be supported with a grant of $50,000

These are all fantastic organizations and we encourage you to explore their work through their websites and social media outlets. As we renew and initiate partnerships with these 14 groups, we thank them for the innovation, dedication and tireless activism that they bring to their work advocating for and building a more just and equitable world, a world with strong movements for social justice where human rights are respected.

In total, the Environment Program in June awarded $440,000 to its grantees, whose work is listed below. The Foundation is extremely proud of the work of all its grantees, and congratulates them on their many and impressive successes!

Biodiversity Conservation in Latin America

Earthworks received a twelve-month grant of $35,000 for its Protecting Ecosystems and Communities from Dirty Mining initiative. Earthworks, a non-profit organization, is dedicated to protecting communities and the environment from the impacts of irresponsible mineral and energy development while seeking sustainable solutions.  In that vein, it is helping to launch the “Initiative for Responsible Mining” (IRMA) this year.

The Overbrook Foundation awarded a first-time grant of $50,000 to Mongabay.org for its Special Reporting Initiative. Founded in 1999 by Rhett Butler, Mongabay is a leading environmental web site with a special focus on tropical forests. In 2012 Mongabay launched its non-profit arm, Mongabay.org, to facilitate in-depth reporting on key issues affecting forests and the communities that depend on them. Mongabay.org’s Special Reporting Initiatives Program on “Innovation in Biodiversity Conservation” will enable a professional journalist to do a series of articles on a particular issue (candidates and topics will be selected by a panel of expert judges). The resulting articles will published on Mongabay.com under an open Creative Commons license that allows for re-publishing elsewhere.

From new grantee to established partner! Overbrook continues its relationship with the New York Botanical Garden with a $50,000 grant for its Professional Woodsmen for Managed Forests in Amazonian Brazil program. Following the successful implementation of a second Training Course for Amazonian Woodsmen in 2012, the Garden proposes to extend the project’s scope and scale by continuing the course in the Saracá-Taquera National Forest in eastern Amazonia and bringing human and institutional resources from eastern Amazonia into the project. Changes in policy and practice at this scale have the potential to affect the sustainable forestry of over millions of hectares of forest in the Brazilian Amazon. Recently, the mateiros (woodsmen) training program was adopted by the Brazilian Forest Service, with the aim to standardize the training process.

The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) will continue its Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign to persuade Cargill to adopt sustainable palm oil policies. RAN began this effort with its “Cargill Friends and Family Campaign,” a robust print and online ad campaign where it infiltrated the ad space of the Wayzata community (home to many Cargill executives) using values-based messaging. In expanding the project, RAN will focus on strategically persuading Cargill customers to adopt sustainable policies of their own,  and in turn, put pressure on Cargill to overhaul its practices. Overbrook is supporting this work with a $40,000 grant.

Sustainable Production & Consumption

Clean Production Action received a $45,000 grant for General Operating Support. Its mission is to design and deliver strategic solutions for green chemicals, sustainable materials and environmentally preferable products.The organization’s unique role is to translate the systems-based vision of clean production into the tools and strategies that NGOs, governments and businesses need to advance green chemicals and sustainable materials. Projects include GreenScreen (GS), currently the leading application for identifying safer chemicals, and BizNGO, which is at the center of cross-sectoral efforts to transform the chemical and material economy. Another useful development will be the “List Translator” – a software tool that will enable users to quickly evaluate whether a known chemical is of concern.

And toxic chemicals shouldn’t be in our products, let alone our food. New Overbrook grantee the Food Tank aims to align agricultural systems with nutritionally sound and environmentally responsible production, and connect sustainable growth for farmers with healthy food for eaters. Launched in 2013, the Food Tank will provide original research and an aggregation of agriculture news and commentary, curated and produced several times daily. In furtherance of its efforts, the Foundation is giving $35,000 to the Food Tank for General Operating Support.

The Foundation has also awarded $25,000 to the Green Press Initiative for General Operating Support. The purpose of the Green Press Initiative is to advance systemic changes within the paper production and consumption cycle which result in the preservation of endangered forests, greenhouse gas reductions, conservation of natural resources and protections for affected communities. In addition, it will work with the Project for Improved Environmental Coverage, a fellow initiative of SEE Innovation.

The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) will receive $70,000 over twenty-four months for its Don’t Waste LA campaign. LAANE has seen impressive and rapid success in its efforts to create a franchised commercial recycling system, which began in 2010. After a hard fought campaign by LAANE’s team and allies, the City Council voted in November 2012 in favor of converting to a franchise system. Regulations and an ordinance are presently being developed with LAANE’s input. For 2013, LAANE’s objectives are to ensure that the competitive franchise policy to be finalized by late 2013 will maximize recycling and reuse, establish safety, labor and environmental standards for hauling and processing facilities, and will be implemented in the most sustainable manner.

But wouldn’t it be nice if there was less waste to recycle in the first place, and the burden wasn’t all on the consumers? The Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) aims to address exactly those issues as well as promote the expansion of extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws. In 2013, it will focus on the materials and states where such battles have the greatest likelyhood of winning. To that end, The Overbrook Foundation is awarding PSI $20,000 for its Building Capacity to Pass EPR Legislation for Packaging, Batteries & Mattresses initiative.

The Story of Stuff will receive $40,000 for General Operating Support. The Story of Stuff Project was founded in 2008 by Annie Leonard to leverage the remarkable success of The Story of Stuff, a 20-minute web-film that explores the hidden environmental and social consequences of America’s love affair with its Stuff. The Project seeks to fundamentally transform systems of production and consumption — the way we make, use and throw away Stuff — so that they serve, rather than undermine, environmental sustainability and social equity. In 2013-14, The Story of Stuff will produce and release its ninth webfilm, The Story of Solutions; produce, beta test and launch an innovative, online Citizen Muscle Boot Camp; and create and introduce three, Community-generated campaigns on reducing plastics volume and toxicity, increasing sharing of infrastructure and diminishing political corruption, with a focus on overturning Citizens United.

Urban Green – the New York City arm of the U.S. Green Building Council – will receive $80,000 over twenty-four months General Operating Support. Urban Green Council’s mission is to lead the advancement of sustainability in the urban built environment and to serve as a model for other cities through education, advocacy, collaboration and research. It helmed the Green Codes Task Force, which released 111 proposals to green New York City’s codes in February 2010. Through the Council’s advocacy, 35 proposals have been adopted with more under consideration. Urban Green also provides a wide range of educational and networking events for its members and the green building community at large; conducts research; and advocates for change that will make cities more sustainable. After the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg asked Urban Green to chair the Building Resiliency Task Force.

Media & Other

Longtime Overbrook grantee Island Press received $25,000 for General Operating Support. Its mission is to provide the best ideas and information in the field to those seeking to understand and protect the environment and create solutions to its complex problems. In 2013, it will continue to expand its online focus: in 2012, it converted the majority of its backlist to e-book formats, which has enabled it to increase its presence with both e-tailers like Amazon, Nook, and Apple, and e-textbook sellers like Chegg and University Readers. Its e-book sales grew from about $37,000 (1.3% of sales) in 2011 to more than $140,000 (5.1% of sales) in 2012.

The Vance Center is a nonprofit public interest law firm advancing just governance by engaging lawyers across borders to strengthen civil society in countries undergoing legal and institutional reform. The Environmental Sustainability Program is one of four thematic programs, which together involve more than 120 lawyers in more than 40 law firms in 30 countries in pro bono legal support of dozens of human rights and environmental NGOs.

One example of its environmental sustainability work is its partnership on coral reef preservation. Lawyers from 15 countries, including the U.S., are helping the Vance Center provide a regional Latin American environmental organization with legal advice and strategies for protecting coral reefs around the world.  Currently, a U.S. law firm is reviewing reports by lawyers in reef-rich countries, such as Bermuda, Australia, Majorca, and the Cayman Islands, and integrating them with its own analysis of U.S. laws, offering protection to reef structures in their jurisdictions.  This work will culminate in a “Guide to Legislative Approaches for Reef Conservation” containing model legislative and regulatory tools for reef protection and conservation from all over the world.  As with all of the Vance Center’s projects, the law firms involved are providing their services entirely on a pro bono basis.

Once completed later this year, the Guide will be a critical tool in a larger strategy to advocate for better legal protections throughout Latin America.  Lawyers from a variety of Latin American nations will analyze the gaps that in the existing regulatory regimes in their jurisdictions, in order to help the Vance Center and the NGO develop and implement targeted advocacy strategies to protect threatened reef ecosystems country by country and throughout the Latin American region.

Overbrook is incredibly proud to partner with the Vance Center, and looks forward to future collaboration.

Take, for instance, the Wildlife Conservation Society‘s (WCS) discovery that sushi isn’t just for a Saturday date night with your girlfriends: fish is also fodder for the native Brazillian mammal known as the peccary. Douglas Fernandes snapped the first known photos of the previously exclusively vegetarian creature. It is yet another example of the adaptive nature of ecosystems – but also the importance of preserving them. You can read more at WCS’s website here.

Speaking of conservation, Disney recently named the Corps of Community Park Guards as “Disney Conservation Heroes.” A joint venture by Overbrook Grantee the Fundacion Cordillera Tropical (FCT), CELEC EP Unidad de Negocio Hidropaute, and the Ministry of Environment, it aims to strengthen the protection of the valuable natural resources found in the Nudo del Azuay region of southern Ecuador. The Guards have been instrumental in monitoring and protecting the regional spectacled bear population. Put on your glasses and read more about their efforts here.

In contrast to the lush rainforests in Brazil and Ecuador, many parts of the world are suffering the effects of desertification. Exacerbating those effects, Earthworks outlines in its new in-depth report, are hard-rock mining companies. It estimates that 17 to 27 billion gallons of polluted water will be generated by forty mines each year, every year, in perpetuity. This is equivalent to the amount of water in 2 trillion water bottles – enough to stretch from the earth to the moon and back 54 times. You can also learn more about its efforts to reform the industry by checking out the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance.

And, to paint a more positive picture, the Vermont State Legislature voted on May 14 to enact a law requiring manufacturers to fund and operate a post-consumer paint take-back program across the state. This makes Vermont the 5th state to enact such legislation. Similar to the other paint take-back programs, Vermont’s will be funded through a small per-container assessment fee (“PaintCare Recovery Fee”) that manufacturers pay to PaintCare. Manufacturers pass the assessment fee onto retailers, who then pass it on to consumers at point-of-sale. You can read more about it here, and on the Product Stewardship Institute’s efforts to nationalize EPR legislation here.

The one New Yorkers might be more familiar with is the announcement of rigid plastic recycling – now you can put anything but saran wrap and your cherished VHS tape of your 10th birthday party in the recycling bin! Much of the recycling will be done by SIMS – and you can visit their new center in South Brooklyn, when it opens this spring.

Bloomberg is also pushing for a ban on styrofoam, which lovingly wraps your burgers and contains your caffeine, but also breaks down easily and contaminates existing recycling streams, organic waste, as well as our parks and waterways. The Overbrook Foundation, along with several other foundations, recently sent a letter of support for the ban to both Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn. You can read it at: Letter of Support_Styrofoam Ban_Bloomberg

A new pilot program for composting food waste in schools will also be expanded system-wide this fall. To handle the increased volume (all those sandwiches prepared by mom and chucked in favor of a Snickers), the Administration has also issued a Request-for-Proposals for a new recycling facility.

You can read about more planned changes at NRDC’s blog post, and the City’s website. And maybe I’ll see you at a Greenmarket soon, bringing our compostables for drop-off. Because we may be the Big Apple, but there’s no reason we can’t also be the Big Green Sustainable & Recyclable Apple City of the future.

Last week, ForestEthics was slapped with a ‘cease and desist’ from a firm representing the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) – an industry ‘eco-label’ ForestEthics has worked to discredit. Despite being funded almost exclusively by industry and never having withdrawn certification from any participant, it claims it is an independent verification system. This hasn’t stopped companies like Hewlett Packard, Office Depot, and AT&T from withdrawing their membership, and pledging to use only Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper. No wonder SFI is resorting to aggressive tactics. You can read more about ForestEthics response on their blog.

Speaking of certification, check out this piece in the Huffington Post featuring the Rainforest Alliance! It looks at the myriad benefits of shade-grown coffee – from environmental benefits to improved taste – and how the Rainforest Alliance (RA) is working with farmers to increase the practice. It also details how the Alliance actively works with farmers to improve not only their farming techniques, but their quality of life, from wages to education. Since 2011, the Rainforest Alliance has seen a 45% increase in RA-certified coffee – and now represents 4.7% of the world’s coffee production.

Still, all is not well in the world of coffee. Willy Foote, founder and CEO of Root Capital, recently blogged about the devastating impacts that coffee rust is having on both farmers and production, highlighting again the vulnerability on mono-crop economies.

Today is Wednesday, April 29 – International Dance Day. And what better way to celebrate than by signing up for the Product Stewardship Institute’s Spring Webinar series! Tackling issues ranging from lessons learned to maximizing eco-design, PSI’s series are great opportunities for those in related industries to connect and share ideas on the future of extended producer responsibility (EPR).

Speaking of EPR, the Rhode Island House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources held a hearing earlier this month on H5264, “An Act to Reduce Marine Debris and Conserve Landfill Space while Increasing the Recycling of Post-Consumer Packaging.”  The bill would put the responsibility for collecting and recycling packaging and printed paper (PPP) onto the companies that sell products into the marketplace, and would be the first of its kind in the nation. You can read more about the bill – and the intriguing absence of industry opponents – at Product Policy Institute’s website here.

In other ‘reducing stuff’ news – The Story of Stuff is getting ready to kick off its first community-chosen campaigns, including one on reducing plastics pollution. Watch the movie that got it all started – and learn how you can participate in the campaigns!

And, if you’re one of our more tech-savvy readers, why don’t you consider entering NYC’s “BigApps” competition?  It’s the fourth annual contest hosted by the New York City Economic Development Corporation for software developers and members of the public to create web or mobile applications using official City data. Matt de la Houssaye of Global Green’s Coalition for Resource Recovery was named an advisor for the BigApps Competition in in the “Cleanweb” category.

Until next week!