From The Chair

Over the past year, our board and staff have focused on re-grouping to create a sustainable future for Fund for Idaho. We now have many building blocks in place to allow us to move forward with increased impact.
Grants!

We just finished our 2013 grant selection process. We faced many hard choices, and we are pleased to offer our congratulations to our 2013 Grantees:

• Idaho Community Action Network – $3,500
• Idaho Organizing Project – $3,000
• Idaho Safe Schools Coalition – $3,500
• Idaho Self Advocacy Leadership Network – $3,000
• NAMI Far North – $3,000

We know these groups will use our grants to have the maximum results and we look forward to hearing about their work.

As a first time member of the grant committee, I would like to thank our other grant committee members, Sen. Michelle Stennett, Emily Jackson-Edney, Kim Steinberg, Roger Sherman and Alex Zamora for their time, passion and dedication to the mission of Fund for Idaho.

Welcome New Board Members!

After extensive efforts to expand our reach and capacity, please join me in welcoming our newest board members, Tim Walsh, Kim Steinberg and Jonny Carkin, who combined bring three decades of experience to our growing table. We are all very excited to welcome such great new energy to the Fund.

(left to right) Tim Walsh, Kim Steinberg, Jonny Carkin

Learn more about our entire board and staff here!

Idaho Perspective:

Like most nonprofit organizations, the great recession hit many of us hard and Fund for Idaho was no exception. Along with efforts to reverse that trend and build a more sustainable funding future for progressive values in Idaho, we have been acutely concerned about Idaho’s loss of progressive organizational infrastructure and capacity over the last several years.

This loss of organizing infrastructure matters because, while issues like gun safety and marriage equality are making significant headway in national public opinion polls, what is happening in the states it is quite another matter.

Right wing conservatives in Republican controlled states like Idaho are doubling down in their attempts to wipe out programs that support the issues we care most about, such as women’s health and reproductive freedom, education, immigration fairness, economic, LGBT equality, environmental protections and more.

This is why Fund for Idaho needs your support now more than ever. Your help will enable us to provide vital funding to Idaho’s grassroots organizations that are too small, too new, or too controversial for traditional funders. With $47,000 in grant requests and only about 1/3 of that amount available for this cycle’s budget, we had to make some very uncomfortable and difficult decisions this funding cycle.  We wish we could have done much more.

Rest assured, our growing board is fully engaged and working hard to increase our giving in future grant cycles, and with your help we are confident we can do much more. If you care as deeply as I do about progressive values, then please join us in supporting those on the ground doing the hard work to make Idaho a better place to live.

We are all in this together!

Thank You,

Fund for Idaho Board Chair
Supporting Progressive Change in Idaho

Add The Words Update

This past legislative session, Idaho legislators once again failed to include language to protect people from being discriminated against due to sexual orientation or gender identity.

Commonly known as the “Add the Words” campaign, the legislation sought to protect individuals in the realms of employment, housing, school, and public accommodation.

Legislation was introduced to the Senate State Affair Committee, but was not given a print hearing, which allows legislation to become part of public record. For the past six years, human rights advocates have brought this issue to the statehouse only to be denied a hearing each year but one.

The Chair of the Senate State Affairs Committee, Curt McKenzie, has refused to print the bill claiming that he doesn’t think there is enough support in the Senate for it to pass the floor.

Whether or not this is true, it is important the legislation be printed so that the community has a chance to be heard at a public hearing.

Prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation would protect LBGT community members from wrongful termination. It would also help law enforcement pursue dangerous perpetrators of assault, since many victims don’t want to come forward and potentially put their jobs at risk.

No one should be fired from job for a personal trait that is completely unrelated to job performance and no one should let concern for their job keep them from reporting a crime.

“Add the Words” organizers will continue to bring this important legislation to the capitol year after year until it passes. If you are interested in joining the campaign, please contact the “Add the Words” organizer, Mistie Tohlman at mistietolman @ yahoo.com