Tuesday, May 4, 2004: Volume #2, Issue #28
The VERB Weekly Email Digest
Edited by Sophy Pich, VERB Project Associate

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In This Week's Issue

1. Announcements
• Lao American Women Association Mother's Day Annual Banquet
2. Promising Practices
• Advice Making Board Retreats More Productive
3. News
• Protest, Documentary Prompt Vietnamese Immigrants to Re-Examine
• Spirit Reset in Stone
• Home of Hmong Leader's Son Burns in Maplewood
• Cambodian Despot's Hideout Seen As Tourist Draw
• Arson Investigated in House Fire of Hmong Leader's Son
• Hmong Refugees: English Language Education Resources
• Conviction in Cambodian Actor's Slaying Overturned
• Vietnamese Governor Questions U.S. Government
• Melting Pot Stirred in Land of Betty Crocker
• Crepes à La Vietnam
• Alleged Hmong Hit List Surfaces
• Southland Officials Want to Close Doors to Visiting Vietnamese
• St. Paul Ready for Hmong Refugees
• Celebrating Asian Culture
• Rights Lapse in Little Saigon
• an Urgent Call for Aid for Hmong Refugees
• Many Hmong of 2 Minds
• Southern California Youths Prepare for
• Recent Violence Highlights Divisions in Hmong Community
• Hmong Refugee Policy Seems to Be Softening
• In Laos, Sifting the Earth for American Dead
4. Funding Opportunities
• The Bradley Foundation (Wi)
• The Wal-Mart Foundation
• The Foundation for the Improvement of Justice
• The SBC Foundation
5. Resources
• Axis of Ideology

I. Announcements

Lao American Women Association Mother's Day Annual Banquet

You are cordially invited to join us in celebrating the Mother's Day annual banquet on Friday, May 7, 2004, from 7:00 pm - 12:30 am, at the Harvest Moon Restaurant [7260 Arlington Boulevard (Rte. 50), Falls Church, VA; phone: 703-573-6000].

Sit-down Dinner: $25.00 per person (Cash bar available), includes Lao classical dances and a live band!

All proceeds will go to support the LAWA of Greater Washington, DC area.

For further details and table reservation, please contact: VA: Vannasone: 703/394-4611

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II. Promising Practices

Advice Making Board Retreats More Productive

By Jeffrey Klineman

The Christian Children's Home of Ohio has learned that sometimes a retreat can help a charity advance. The organization, a nonprofit foster home and child-care center in Wooster, was growing rapidly and needed to make big changes to keep up with the demand for its services, says Gary Porter, the executive director. From the group's founding in 1969, he says, it had gone from serving five children to serving 500 by the spring of 1996, when it began seriously exploring its need to revamp and make changes for the future. "We had many things ahead of us," Mr. Porter says. "But the board had to change. We had to move from a board that micromanaged to a board that could dream, could move ahead."

The organization booked a night at a meeting facility about an hour away from Wooster, hired a board expert to serve as a facilitator, and gathered the board. The retreat, which cost the charity $3,000, was time and money well spent, according to Mr. Porter and Gary Dolan, the board's president. In the event's aftermath, says Mr. Dolan, the board added an internship program to help bring in new trustees, started a governance committee, and crafted a mission statement. "What happened is, an outsider came in with a lot of experience, and he literally just kicked our butts," Mr. Dolan says. "He said, 'You're not functioning as a board, and you need to get together.' People actually began to take ownership, and to recruit other board members who would lead us further."

The newly unified trustees, says Mr. Porter, have helped the charity further its mission: Since 1996, the group has nearly doubled the number of children it serves. "Now, as the executive director," he says, "my board is one of my best assets."

Read on: http://philanthropy.com/jobs/2004/04/29/20040513-704865.htm

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III. News

Protest, Documentary Prompt Vietnamese Immigrants to Re-Examine Their Roots 29 Years After Fall of Saigon
April 26, 2004
Houston Chronicle

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Spirit Reset in Stone
April 26, 2004
Los Angeles Times

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Home of Hmong Leader's Son Burns in Maplewood
April 26, 2004
Star Tribune

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Cambodian Despot's Hideout Seen As Tourist Draw
April 26, 2004
The Seattle Times

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Arson Investigated in House Fire of Hmong Leader's Son
April 27, 2004
Pioneer Press

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Hmong Refugees: English Language Education Resources Will Be Stretched by Resettlement
April 27, 2004
Pioneer Press

***

Conviction in Cambodian Actor's Slaying Overturned
April 27, 2004
Los Angeles Times

***

Vietnamese Governor Questions U.S. Government Involvement in Central Highlands Protests
April 27, 2004
The Mercury News

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Melting Pot Stirred in Land of Betty Crocker
April 28, 2004
The Science Christian Monitor

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Crepes à la Vietnam
April 28, 2004
The Mercury News

***

Alleged Hmong Hit List Surfaces
April 28, 2004
Star Tribune

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Southland Officials Want to Close Doors to Visiting Vietnamese
April 28, 2004
NBC4.TV

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St. Paul Ready for Hmong Refugees
April 28, 2004
Pioneer Press

***

Celebrating Asian Culture
April 29, 2004
Times Dispatch

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Rights Lapse in Little Saigon
April 29, 2004
Los Angeles Times

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An Urgent Call for Aid for Hmong Refugees
April 29, 2004
Star Tribune

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Many Hmong of 2 Minds
April 29, 2004
Wausau Daily Herald

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Southern California Youths Prepare for Black April 2004 Commemoration
April 29, 2004
UVSA

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Recent Violence Highlights Divisions in Hmong Community
April 30, 2004
Minnesota Public Radio

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Hmong Refugee Policy Seems to Be Softening
May 1, 2004
Wausau Daily Herald

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In Laos, Sifting the Earth for American Dead
May 1, 2004
MSNBC

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IV. Grants

1. (Wisconsin)
   The Bradley Foundation

   The focus of the Bradley Foundation is on projects that cultivate a renewed, healthier, and more vigorous sense of citizenship among the American people, as well as among people of other nations. The Foundation seeks to reinvigorate churches, families, schools and neighborhoods, and encourage decentralization of power and accountability away from centralized, bureaucratic, national institutions. The Foundation is interested in supporting projects in any arena of public life -- economics, politics, culture, or civil society -- where citizenship is an important issue. Eligible projects include demonstrations of the resuscitation of citizenship; policy research and writing about approaches encouraging that resuscitation; academic research and writing that explore the intellectual roots of citizenship, its decline, and revival; and popular writing and media projects that illustrate the themes of citizenship for a broader public audience. The Foundation is also interested in community and state projects in Milwaukee and Wisconsin that focus on increasing educational and cultural opportunities, grassroots economic development, and effective and humane social and health services.

   Letters of inquiry are accepted year-round.

2. (National)
   The Wal-Mart Foundation

   The Wal-Mart Foundation's emphasis is on local programs that improve the quality of life in Wal-Mart communities. The Community Matching Grant Program is the largest program funded by Wal-Mart and SAM'S Club. Associates raise funds with a local nonprofit organization at local stores and Wal-Mart and SAM'S Club match a portion of the funds raised. Community-based nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply for this program as well as organizations that are exempt from needing nonprofit status, such as public schools, churches, and government agencies. All requests for funding must be directed to the Good Works Coordinator at the local Wal-Mart store, SAM'S CLUB, Neighborhood Market or Distribution Center.

3. (National)
   The Foundation for the Improvement of Justice

   The Foundation for the Improvement of Justice encourages improvement in the various systems of justice by rewarding accomplishments in the following ten categories: simplification of the law; child protection; crime victims' rights; reducing recidivism; lowering the cost; speeding the process; crime prevention; effecting restitution; alternative sentencing; and other significant efforts. Up to ten nominees annually are awarded $10,000 for innovative programs that have proven to be effective and can serve as models for others. These are awards given for accomplishments, not for future projects. Nonprofit organizations and individuals throughout the United States are eligible to be nominated.

   The nomination deadline is June 1, annually

4. (National)
   The SBC Foundation

   The SBC Foundation, the chief philanthropic vehicle of SBC Communications, Inc., is accepting applications for its SBC Excelerator technology grants program, which this year will focus on helping nonprofits fully integrate technology into their ongoing operations and community outreach.

   The SBC Excelerator program seeks to fund projects that build the technology infrastructure of nonprofits, enabling them to increase their organizational effectiveness and/or service delivery capability. Examples of qualifying projects include expanding/enhancing Internet access; data networking; online outreach; increasing staff technology capacity; and pooled technology resources.

   To qualify, the major focus of the organization and its project must fall into one of the following areas: education, community development, health and human services, or arts and culture.

   One-year SBC Excelerator grants range from $2,500 to $25,000, with the typical award totaling $5,000. Collaborations by two or more organizations will be considered for grants of up to $50,000. Grant funds may be used for data communications services, hardware, software, technology training, personnel, and application development.

   See the SBC Web site for complete program details.

   Deadline: August 13, 2004

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V. Resources

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) released the results of a year-long examination of the philanthropic grantmaking of politically conservative foundations. The report, Axis of Ideology, details the philanthropic strategies that 79 conservative foundations have used to support the activities of 350 public policy-oriented right-wing think tanks at the federal, state, and locals levels. The report revisits and greatly expands upon the analysis and conclusions reached in NCRP's seminal report on conservative philanthropy in 1997.

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If you wish to contribute to the VERB Weekly e-Digest, please send all materials to sophy@searac.org