Current Projects

Upcoming Activities

HIRI's 50th anniversary conference, Envisioning California - The Nonprofit Sector: Crises and Untapped Opportunities, brought together 180 nonprofit, government and philanthropic leaders at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles on October 14, 2011. HIRI President Dr. Thomas E. Backer's keynote speech "Managing and Living with the Future," can be downloaded here. We thank our co-hosts, California State University Northridge and California State University Sacramento, as well as all who attended.

Current Projects

PHILANTHROPIC CAPACITY BUILDING RESOURCES (2002 - 2012) supported by John S. & James L. Knight Foundation, Bruner Foundation, Ewing M. Kauffman Foundation, Agnes and Eugene Meyer Foundation, The California Wellness Foundation, Southern California Association for Philanthropy, The California Endowment, UniHealth Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, Surdna Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation/Fieldstone Alliance and an anonymous donor

Creating and maintaining a national database on foundation funded or operated nonprofit capacity building programs; creating a directory of Los Angeles capacity building resources, as part of community infrastructure-building for San Fernando Valley and the greater Los Angeles area; creating a directory of capacity building resources for the Central Valley area of California; conducting national research on topics such as foundation financing of capacity building.

PROSPER DISSEMINATION AND SYSTEMS CHANGE SUPPORT (2002 - 2012) supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse/Iowa State University

Providing support on dissemination and systems change strategies to the PROSPER Project (PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience), which is studying the efficacy of partnerships between agricultural extension and other community organizations in addressing youth development and youth problem-solving in areas like substance abuse prevention.

CMHS KNOWLEDGE APPLICATION PROGRAM (2004 - 2014) supported by Center for Mental Health Services/Westat

Designing and conducting, in partnership with Westat, a program for increasing the dissemination and utilization of innovative mental health services for homeless and severely mentally ill people; synthesizing dissemination and social marketing strategies for providers, funders, community organizations, professional associations and the general public.

DWIGHT STUART YOUTH FUND CAPACITY-BUILDING INITIATIVE (2006 - 2010) supported by Dwight Stuart Youth Fund

Developing and administering a capacity-building grantmaking initiative for the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund, which supports youth-serving nonprofit organizations in Southern California, including a comprehensive needs assessment and opportunity analysis, creating online resources nonprofits can use, and supporting operation of a multi-part grantmaking initiative.

VALLEY NONPROFIT RESOURCES (established 2007) supported by UniHealth Foundation, Weingart Foundation and other funders; conducted by the Institute in partnership with California State University Northridge and MEND

Providing comprehensive capacity-building information and services to the more than 4,000 nonprofits in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, using an innovative virtual model with dispersed performance sites, a range of funders, and a partnership of four Valley organizations.

ENGAGING COMMUNITIES IN IMPLEMENTING EVIDENCE-BASED YOUTH VIOLENCE PREVENTION PROGRAMS (2008 - 2011) supported by Centers for Disease Control & Prevention/University of California Riverside

Developing for professional publication an edited book on strategies for community engagement as part of the process of implementing evidence-based youth violence prevention programs, focused on CDC's Academic Centers for Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention.

CO-OCCURRING DISORDERS INITIATIVE (2009 - 2011) supported by Center for Mental Health Services/Westat

Supporting a program for increasing the dissemination and utilization of innovative mental health services products for services to people with co-occurring disorders, as well as technical assistance to organizations providing or facilitating these services.

SUPPORT FOR FAMILY HEALTH DIFFUSION SYSTEM PROJECT (2010 - 2012) supported by supported by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/Kaiser Permanente/Institute for Health Research

Supporting the creation and field-testing of online decision support tools for use by program staff of the Gates Foundation in estimating the potential for wider dissemination of Gates-supported family health research.

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