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In
Dedication
The Rose Foundation for Communities
and the Environment was founded by Jill Ratner and Tim Little
in 1992. The Foundation is dedicated to the memory of Rose Ratner,
whose wit and wisdom were forged in the neighborhoods of Chicago
over the course of 50 years of community activism. The Foundation
is based upon the principle that environmental protection and
community regeneration must go hand in hand and are inextricably
linked to a healthy economy.
The Rose Foundation fulfills its mission through direct advocacy
and grantmaking programs. Rose currently manages over 15 separate
grantmaking, donor-advised, contract, and direct project funds.
The Foundation has a full-time staff of three, supplemented by
outside financial and legal consultants – many of whom donate
their services on a pro-bono basis.
The
Rose Foundation's Mission
- Fostering
community and environmental stewardship.
- Improving
communications between businesses and their neighbors.
- Recognizing
individual responsibility for the environmental consequences of
personal actions.
- Forging
positive links between environmental stewardship and sustainable
job creation.
- Harnessing
economic power to leverage environmental sustainability.
- Instilling
respect for the inalienable rights protected by our nation’s constitution
and the essential human rights to clean air, clean water and individual
dignity.
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In-House
Policy Initiatives
From
time to time, the Foundation Board determines that the most efficient
and effective way to fulfill Rose's mission is through direct involvement
in pressing environmental policy issues. In house advocacy projects
are designed to meet needs that are not fully addressed by existing
networks and organizations.
For several years, the Rose Foundation’s Headwaters Forest Debt
for Nature Project played a central role in efforts to secure public
acquisition and permanent protection of the ancient redwood groves
of Northern California’s Headwaters Forest. Although permanent protection
of the full forest has not yet been achieved, the project helped
catalyze the state/federal purchase of the 7,500 acre Headwaters
Forest Reserve and focused national shareholder attention on the
need to reform the corporate governance policies of the company
controlling the forest -- Maxxam, Inc.
Past Foundation
initiatives have also included publishing Environmental Principles
for Military Base Closures, a consensus document endorsed by over
40 environmental, economic development and labor organizations,
and adopted by the East Bay Conversion and Reinvestment Commission
to help guide the redevelopment of closing military facilities.
Current in house advocacy projects focus on the nexus between fiduciary
responsibility and corporate environment performance, and youth leadership development.
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Environmental
Fiduciary Project
The Rose Foundation's goal for the Environmental
Fiduciary Project is to encourage trustees who are responsible
for pension funds, foundation endowments and other pools of capital
managed on behalf of specific beneficiaries or society at large
to respond to the increasing evidence that environmental performance
is an economic value driver. Trustees who ignore this evidence
poorly serve their fiduciary mission and may even be subject to
legal challenge in future years.
New
Voices are Rising Project
New
Voices Are Rising strives to develop young leaders in low-income
communities and communities of color in Alameda and Contra Costa
Counties by helping young people gain the skills and experience
in civic engagement required to tackle the many problems - especially
environmental health problems -- that disproportionately impact
their communities. In so doing, the project seeks to reduce pollution
- especially diesel air pollution and associated particulates-
which severely impact both human health and the health of the
San Francisco Bay.
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