• REDF Welcomes Carla Javits, Our New President
• REDF Launches a New Portfolio
• Spotlight on Two REDF Board Members — Dr. Lande Ajose and Julia I. Lopez
• REDF’s 2006 Donors

REDF’s board and staff are very happy to announce that Carla Javits will become REDF’s President on February 1, 2007.

Carla was previously with the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) for 15 years, leading it for the last six, and has worked for the State of California and for the San Francisco Department of Social Services. She holds both an MPP and BA from the University of California, Berkeley. Carla’s deep dedication to helping people move out of poverty and her seasoned entrepreneurial leadership will be a wonderful complement to REDF’s efforts.

Many thanks to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for their executive search firm grant which ensured our successful leadership transition.

We hope that many of you will have an opportunity to meet Carla in the coming months and are pleased to welcome her aboard!

As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, we not only say hello to a new leader, but also to a new portfolio of nonprofit organizations. The first two organizations have joined the REDF Portfolio this month: Community Housing Partnership and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County. Throughout 2007, we will continue to assess other organizations that may be a REDF Portfolio fit — stay tuned!

Community Housing Partnership (CHP) is a San Francisco nonprofit community development corporation that has provided housing, social services and economic opportunities to formerly homeless persons since 1990. The organization operates 7 properties with 429 units of housing for over 700 people. CHP also runs job training programs that serve over 200 formerly homeless adults each year. They have developed an extremely successful model for providing opportunities to formerly homeless adults and families.

CHP is a great fit for REDF’s portfolio because its focus on and approach to poverty alleviation is closely aligned with REDF’s mission. We are impressed with both the clarity of their strategic direction and their operational excellence. CHP’s social enterprise development is at a critical stage and will benefit greatly from REDF’s help. A successful social enterprise at CHP could potentially become an innovative model for hundreds of supportive housing organizations nationwide.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County (SVdP) has a strong track record of providing emergency assistance to homeless and low income people — it has been at the forefront of assisting the needy in Alameda County since 1938. The agency assisted 100,000 county residents in 2005, and is now exploring expansion of its services to help clients become more self-sufficient. REDF’s expertise and resources are going to have significant impact at this early stage of the organization’s social enterprise development, a time that is a strategic inflexion point for SVdP.

In 2005 more than 17 million people received services from SVdP nationwide. The organization’s district councils, or branches, provide programs and services such as food pantries, free dining rooms, clothing distribution, housing referrals and spiritual support in virtually every corner of the U.S. If REDF and SVdP Alameda jointly develop an approach that is successful in Alameda County, the benefits could spread to SVdP district councils around the country.

In 2006 REDF’s board expanded to include Lande Ajose and Julia Lopez, two experienced, thoughtful women who bring significant expertise in areas that are critical to REDF.

Dr. Lande Ajose recently joined BTW Consultants, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in nonprofit evaluation, research and planning, as their Managing Director. She was previously a researcher at MDRC, a national social policy research organization dedicated to learning what works to improve the well-being of low-income people. Prior to joining MDRC, Dr. Ajose was a senior program officer at the James Irvine Foundation, where she managed the workforce development and civic culture programs. A graduate of Occidental College, she earned a master’s degree in urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, and holds a doctorate in urban and regional studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has also served on several nonprofit boards, including the Coro Center for Civic Leadership, Northern California, and Common Sense California.

Julia Lopez recently retired as senior vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation. In that position she had overall responsibility for strategic oversight, management and integration of the Foundation’s programmatic and administrative functions. Prior to being named senior vice president, Ms. Lopez was vice president, and before that she led the Working Communities unit as program director for nearly nine years. Prior to joining the Rockefeller Foundation, Julia served in various senior level positions in state and local government, including General Manager of the San Francisco Department of Social Services, several senior staff positions in the California Legislature and Director of Planning and Administration for the New Mexico Department of Criminal Justice.

Julia and Lande’s individual interests and skill sets bring valuable perspectives to REDF and we are so pleased they have joined our board.