Melinda Fine - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Melinda Fine

Harvard Educational Review, Dec 1, 1993

Educational Leadership, 1991

Teachers of Facing History and Ourselves in schools with immigrant populations have a unique oppo... more Teachers of Facing History and Ourselves in schools with immigrant populations have a unique opportunity for multicultural practice. Adolescents grappling with issues of belonging and not belonging have much to gain from listening to the "outsiders" in their midst. MELINDA FINE A t 8:45, the students in Katie Green's class spill into the room. I make some quick calcu lations: 19 students, 10 boys, 9 girls: 9 whites, 8 blacks, 2 Hispanics; Addidas has it all over Nikes and Reeboks. Though all are 7th and 8th graders, the girls look several years older than the boys. Bobby walks in as noisily as possible, a prelude to the incessant, though insightful, commentary he will carry on throughout the class. Daphine seems only grudgingly present, squeezed into jeans that taper at the ankles. Eddie sports a mohawk, earring, and unlaced sneakers. Louise wears a ponytail, a pink sweater, and braces. David's jean jacket is torn and open, displaying a faded heavy-metal T-shirt. Jacques and Sylvia, in jeans EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Canadian Journal of Education, 1997

Teachers College Record, 1993

... Collaborative Innovations: Documentation of the Facing History and Ourselves Program at an Es... more ... Collaborative Innovations: Documentation of the Facing History and Ourselves Program at an Essential School. ... Students read the story out loud to each other in groups; some stumble frequently over words but for others reading comes easily. "I'd like to live in this society. ...

Benchmarking 2018-19 report offers insights on the current and evolving priorities of the educati... more Benchmarking 2018-19 report offers insights on the current and evolving priorities of the education funding community. It can help funders to understand their role in supporting education innovation and identify future priorities that hold the greatest promise for benefiting America's learners. This latest report in Grantmakers for Education's series of benchmarking studies identifies what's now and what's next for education philanthropy. Findings are drawn from the survey responses of Grantmakers for Education members and other education funders and presented in the context of the 10-year anniversary of the benchmarking report.

The Foundation Review, Jun 30, 2017

TCC Group conducted confidential interviews with a small number of staff at a subset of the 54 fo... more TCC Group conducted confidential interviews with a small number of staff at a subset of the 54 foundations that participated in TCC Group's Foundation Core Capacity Assessment Tool, to gain their perspective on lessons learned from the process. remarked, "There can be a mindset among foundations that focusing on our own capacity may diminish our ability to be mission driven." 1 Others may see addressing their own capacity needs as a luxury. Another foundation official interviewed for this article noted that in the

Most funders agree that effective grantmaking requires pursuing a range of complementary approach... more Most funders agree that effective grantmaking requires pursuing a range of complementary approaches.Direct grants are the lifeblood of organizations and the cornerstone of funder practice, but grantmakers also provide critical value when they help grantees develop organizational leadership and governance, strengthen strategic collaborations with peers, network with new allies, and expand field knowledge, among other things.This report explores how grantmakers can leverage their investments by coupling direct grants with strategically delivered capacity building supports. It focuses on building capacity for community organizing and advocacy groups, though many of its lessons are more broadly applicable

For many years, the social sector has paid substantial attention to the issue of nonprofit effect... more For many years, the social sector has paid substantial attention to the issue of nonprofit effectiveness. By contrast, comparatively little attention has been paid to the capacities that foundations themselves need to achieve impact. What capacities are essential to advancing a foundation's own mission? How do these elements compare to the capacities their grantee partners need?TCC Group believes that foundation capacity – like nonprofit capacity more broadly – is essential to impact. In developing the FCCAT and sharing aggregate findings in this report, the core purpose is to elevate attention to this important issue

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and heightened global protest responsive to racial in... more Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and heightened global protest responsive to racial injustice, funders are increasingly investing in strategies to build power within communities of color and other traditionally marginalized groups. Today's heightened interest builds on work many funders have pursued for some time, often supported by the regional, issue-focused, and/or constituency-focused Philanthropy Support Organizations (PSOs) of which they are members.This new report captures insights from interviews conducted in Fall 2019 with PSO leaders who describe how their diverse members understand what it means to build community power; the perceived strengths and challenges of supporting this kind of work; and perspectives on how it may leverage foundation mission. The report also includes an extensive resource library of relevant literature and tools funders may turn to for this work. Support for this research was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's proj...

This report shares collected insights from funders and advocates across the country, in the hope ... more This report shares collected insights from funders and advocates across the country, in the hope that their observations will helpfully contribute to other funding and campaign efforts. The respondents noted that while considerable attention has been paid to factors informing the development of sound campaign strategy, comparatively less attention has been paid to the structural and operational issues that undergird successful campaign efforts. Our research accordingly focuses on these matters

This report explores how grantmakers can help strengthen collaborations among supported groups to... more This report explores how grantmakers can help strengthen collaborations among supported groups to advance ambitious social change goals. As noted by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations in Many Hands, More Impact, grantmakers can play a number of critically important roles in supporting social movement building: investing in a broad range of organizations, change strategies, and issues; brokering relationships among groups and their allies; connecting grantees to one another in impactful ways; fostering learning to grow a field; and influencing peers and policy through these supports. We focus on grantmakers' "connector" role because we see it as a crucial -- and often underexamined -- strategyfor expanding impact. But how, specifically, can grantmakers nurture connections -- and productive collaborations that may eventually arise from them -- while remaining attuned to the strategic intentions of supported groups and the relationships they themselves want to cultiv...

CPER (also referred to here on as the "Fund") is a national funders' collaborative ... more CPER (also referred to here on as the "Fund") is a national funders' collaborative committed to improving educational opportunities and outcomes for students -- in particular students of color from low-income families -- by supporting community-driven reforms led by grassroots education organizing groups. CPER originated in discussions among funders active in Grantmakers for Education's Working Group on Education Organizing.They launched the collaborative in 2007, in partnership with NEO Philanthropy (then Public Interest Projects), the 501 (c)(3) public charity engaged to direct the Fund. CPER's founding funders saw that, in the education debates of the day, the perspectives of those closest to the ground were often left out. These funders recognized that students and families have a crucial role to play in identifying, embracing, and sustaining meaningful school reform. Students and families know their own needs and see first-hand the inequities in schools. O...

Communities for Public Education Reform (CPER) is a national funders' collaborative committed... more Communities for Public Education Reform (CPER) is a national funders' collaborative committed to improving educational opportunities and outcomes for students -- in particular students of color from low-income families -- by supporting community-driven reforms led by grassroots education organizing groups. A project of NEO Philanthropy, CPER has engaged 76 local and national fund members, investing $34 million in 140 community groups, advocacy allies, and national coalitions over the Fund's eight year lifespan. Powered by multi-year campaigns that involved organizing, advocacy, research, communications, and alliance building, CPER grantees played a key role in securing more than 9 policy wins at the school, district, state and federal level between 2007 and 2014. This summary of selected wins begins with those achieved at the federal level and follows with district- and state-level reforms grouped by CPER's six investment sites across the country. Organizations must rema...

The 2016 US presidential election is reminding philanthropy of its value.