Why You Need an Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Tides CEO Melissa Bradley participated in a January advisory board meeting of Dell’s recently established Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) program. Led by clean energy entrepreneur Ingrid Vanderveldt, the EIR concept has created a corporate innovation shop inside Dell to foster creativity and new ideas. The concept is distinct from traditional R&D as it focuses on vetting new ideas with a panel of serial entrepreneurs.  In other words, the EIR concept brings external creativity to “R” before moving to “D.”

Tides Applauds Cecilia Muñoz's appointment as Director of the Domestic Policy Council

Tides congratulates civil rights and immigrants' rights advocate Cecilia Muñoz on being named the new White House Director of the Domestic Policy Council by President Obama. This historic announcement marks Muñoz as the first Latina in the position, as well as the highest ranking Latina in the White House.  "I am delighted that President Obama has appointed such a talented and tireless community advocate to this post," said Tides CEO Melissa L. Bradley. "Cecilia Muñoz represents the new emerging majority in this country, and has the skills and experience to change the conversation on many key domestic issues."

New Year, New Tides

We are so excited to kick off this year with new and exciting programs and initiatives aimed at better supporting our clients, partners and the field.  Last year Tides spent a great deal of time revising internal systems to support organizational sustainability and improve service delivery to our partners and clients. This year we are poised to continue to offer our current services to donors and activists as well as explore new opportunities to support positive social change.  We look forward to partnering with you to make 2012 a record year for Tides and the communities we serve.

Announcing the 1% Campaign

This month, one of our newest board members, Anne Mosle, kicks off the 1% Campaign.  The campaign is designed to engage Tides donors in support of Tides’ vision for social change. By investing 1% of her DAF back into Tides, Anne is supporting many of the new and exciting programs and initiatives.  Join Anne and other Tides’ donors in this effort by contacting your fund advisor—think of this as the social change 1% that will yield real positive results.

Launching the Tikkun Olam Fund

The Tikkun Olam Fund is launching at Tides this month with the goal of creating a vehicle to support the work of progressive organizations and efforts within and on behalf of the Jewish community. There are many Jewish organizations that are deeply mission aligned with Tides and are doing exemplary work in the social justice sphere. They speak to and for the American Jewish community on issues as diverse as economic justice, gender equity, environmental sustainability, LGBT equality, and immigration rights.

Toward a Two-Generation Strategy: Voices of American Families

As America struggles to regain its economic footing, the nation’s most vulnerable families—parents of young children who live at 200% of poverty or less—express strong feelings of frustration and disappointment with their lives today.  But they are working hard to ensure that their children have better lives.  Anne Mosle shares a new report from the Ascend program at the Aspen Institute that examines the experiences, perspectives, and needs of low-income families.

The Future of Tides

I am excited to share some good news as the Tides family of people and programs is growing. We have added over 30 new clients to the Foundation since last year and increased grants processed through the Center by over $1.5M since 2010.  Over the course of the past year we have made important decisions because our world needs Tides more than ever. We are committed to building the most effective social change platform and delivering the most effective services and programs in pursuit of that vision.

Building Momentum at Tides

Innovation and impact are words that we hear more and more often these days in the nonprofit world.  The truth is, we need more of both in an era of stagnant foundation endowments and besieged individual donors reeling from recession. Yet innovation and impact are imprecise terms that are hard to both qualify and quantify. What distinguishes innovative from interesting?  To jumpstart the conversation, I am delighted to announce the inaugural issue of Momentum, a new quarterly publication of Tides dedicated to advancing thought leadership and action in support of progressive social change.

Racial Justice at Tides

It's an exciting time at Tides. Not only do we have a wonderful CEO in Melissa Bradley, who has just completed her first year of service with Tides, we have been building our capacity to build Black donor engagement and increase our support to Black communities. Tides has long been committed to racial justice. This is an important time for Tides to build it's relationships with communities of color broadly.

HIV Response at a Turning Point

This World AIDS Day, we have much to reflect on about our current HIV response. In 2011, a groundbreaking study by the National Institute of Health revealed that HIV treatment called antiretroviral therapy is 96% effective in reducing HIV transmission in couples where one partner has HIV. However, this incredible news has not resulted in increased funding for critical HIV treatment and other services.  As the world looks towards the future of the AIDS response, there is a critical need to enable a new generation of advocacy, activism, and action that can contribute to changing the unacceptable reality of a world in which some people get sick and die, while others access medicine and live.