• Recent Reports
• Books
• Articles/Monographs

Recent Reports

• Great Communities Collaborative, 2011
(Great Communities Collaborative, 2011) The Great Communities Collaborative (GCC) was formed in 2006 to work towards a future where mixed-income transit-oriented communities would become prevalent in the Bay Area. In its first five years the GCC has helped 25 communities work with their local governments to complete station area plans. As a result of its successes, Bay Area agencies have tripled their financial commitments to support planning processes that focus on transit-oriented development. GCC was also instrumental in the creation of the Bay Area Transit-Oriented Housing Fund, now capitalized at $50 million. Given this significant track record and the growing need for transit-oriented development, the two community foundations and five nonprofit organizations that constitute the collaborative decided to carry out a strategic planning process. Teamworks designed the planning process and facilitated the seven organizations in creating the GCC's new five-year strategic plan.
Read the Great Communities Collaborative Strategic Plan Summary
Read the Great Communities Collaborative Complete Strategic Plan

• Mexico Community Foundations: A Comprehensive Profile
(C.S. Mott Foundation, Ford Foundation, Inter-American Foundation and the Global Fund for Community Foundations, 2009) Community foundations began emerging as philanthropic institutions in Mexico less than two decades ago. As Mexican civil society flourished, many leaders with strategic vision realized that institutions needed to be created in order to effectively gather and channel local resources to various social development initiatives. This report is a comprehensive study of Mexico’s community foundations, the purpose of which is to provide a detailed picture of their organizational, financial, and programmatic characteristics, ascertain how they meet their own institutional development needs, and identify the obstacles they face in fulfilling their goals. The report is based on extensive research that included interviews, site visits, and analysis of financial data. It was prepared by a bi-national collaboration, joining Teamworks (San Francisco) and Alternativas y Capacidades (Mexico City).
Read the Complete Report in English
Read the Summary Report in English
Read the Complete Report in Spanish
Read the Summary Report in Spanish

• U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership: Final Evaluation
(Ford Foundation, Inter-American Foundation, C.S. Mott Foundation, and others.) The Border Philanthrophy Partnership was initiated in 2002 by a group of funders from the U.S. and Mexico who shared the goal of fostering philanthropy through building the capacity of community foundations. The longer term goal is to strengthen the civil sector along the border and address dire poverty. The final report looks at the progress made by the roughly 20 community foundations participating in the project. In 2008 BPP became an independent bi-national organization.
Read the Complete Final Evaluation Report in English
Read the Executive Summary in English
Read the Complete Final Evaluation Report in Spanish
Read the Executive Summary in Spanish

• Evaluation of a Comprehensive Community Initiative: Assessing Strategy and Impacts
(William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2005) This is a report of the fourth year of a six-year comprehensive community initiative targeted to a low-income area in East Palo Alto (EPA), California. The evaluation focuses on (1) the alignment of the stated theory of change with actions taken, (2) the critical competency of strategic networking to build partnerships, and (3) progress achieving outcomes. EPA is a small city lying within Silicon Valley, but has not been able to benefit from its location. It has undergone rapid demographic change from majority African American to a majority Latino population. The evaluation uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques and introduces a research instrument to assess strategic networks.
Read the Evaluation

• Final Report of the West Oakland Neighborhood Improvement Initiative
(William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2003) West Oakland was one of three sites for the Hewlett Foundation's Neighborhood Improvement Initiative, a multiyear effort to address conditions in a lower income areas. West Oakland has been the beneficiary of government and foundation largesse and numerous studies to assess why impacts have fallen short of expectations. This site had a troubled course in Hewlett's initiative and this report documents what happened, what failed to occur, why, and the lessons learned from the experience.
Read the Final Report

• Community Foundation Initiative on Management Assistance, Phase I Evaluation
(David and Lucile Packard Foundation, 1999) This report documents the early implementation experiences of eight Northern California community foundations participating in the Community Foundation Initiative on Management Assistance, a program designed to assist the community foundations to address the management needs of nonprofit organizations in their local communities.
Read the Phase I Report

• An Evaluation of the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program: The First Decade
(Neighborhood Revitalization Policy Board, McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis Foundation, 2000) This report evaluates the NRP's ability to fulfill its founding goals of building neighborhood capacity, creating a sense of community, enhancing inter-governmental cooperation, and informing government policy by voicing neighborhood priorities. Over 10 studies were conducted including a random telephone sample of residents in 1,100 Minneapolis homes about the neighborhoods in which they live.
http://www.nrp.org/R2/News/NewsArch/2000/20000623.html

• Community Foundation Initiative on Management Assistance, Phase II Evaluation
(David and Lucile Packard Foundation, 2001) This report further documents the implementation experiences of eight Northern California community foundations participating in the Community Foundation Initiative on Management Assistance, a program designed to assist the community foundations to address the management needs of nonprofit organizations in their local communities.
Read the Phase II Report

• Strategic Planning: A Review of Grantee Practices
(David and Lucile Packard Foundation, 2002). This report is an analysis of a set of grants awarded by the Foundation to nonprofit organizations to conduct strategic planning.
Read the Strategic Planning Review

• Durable Community Development Corporations
(Local Initiatives Support Corporation of the San Francisco Bay Area, 2003). This paper discusses the critical issue of sustainability planning, drawing upon experiences of community development corporations.
http://www.bayarealisc.org/bay_area/resources/publications_5474/conference_5475.pdf

• Customer Service Survey Findings
(The San Francisco Foundation, 2004). This summary reviews the findings of one of the most comprehensive customer service surveys undertaken in the field of philanthropy.
Read the Report

Books

• E.B. Knauft, Renee Berger, and Sandra T. Gray, Profiles of Excellence: Achieving Success in the Nonprofit Sector (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers) 1991
This book explores the inner workings of ten organizations to explain the factors that contribute to organizational effectiveness.
(NOTE: Out of print though limited availability through Amazon)

• Fosler, R. Scott, and Renee A. Berger (ed.) Public-Private Partnership in American Cities: Seven Case Studies (Lexington Books: MA) 1982.
This book is often credited as the seminal study of public-private sector partnerships and continues to be used in universities in the U.S. and abroad in urban planning and corporate responsibility courses.
(NOTE: Out of print though limited availability through Amazon)

• Renee Berger, "People, Power, Politics: An Assessment of the Federal Empowerment Zones" Planning, Vol.63: no. 2 (American Planning Association: Chicago, Illinois) Fall 1997.

• Renee Berger and Gabriel Kasper, "An Overview of the Literature on Community Development Corporations," Nonprofit Management and Leadership, vol. 4, no. 2 Winter l993 (Jossey-Bass, Inc.: San Francisco).

• Renee Berger (with Carol Steinbach) A Place in the Marketplace: Making Capitalism Work in Poor Communities (Washington, DC.: National Congress for Community Economic Development) 1992

• Mitchell (Mike) Sviridoff and Renee Berger, "Corporate Leadership and the Public Weal," in Executive Talent ed. Eli Ginzberg, (John Wiley and Sons: New York) l988.

• Renee Berger, "Unfinished Agenda: A Critique of Government and Business and Their Social Involvement in the '80s," in Making Community Relations Pay Off: Tools and Strategies (Public Affairs Council: Washington, D.C.) 1988.

• Renee Berger, "Private Sector Initiatives in the Reagan Era: New Actors Rework an Old Theme," in The Reagan Presidency and the Governing of America (reissued in l986 by the Academy of Political Science in conjunction with the New York City Partnership)

• Renee Berger, "Technology, Innovation and Regional Economic Development: Encouraging High-Technology Development," Background Report #2 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment OTA-BP-STI-25) February l984

• Renee Berger, "Building Community Partnerships: Vision, Cooperation, Leadership" in the National Civic Review Vol 72 No. 5 May l983

• Astrid E. Merget and Renee Berger "Equity as a Decision Rule in Local Services," in Richard Rich, Analyzing Urban Service Distributions (Lexington, MA) 1982

• R. Scott Fosler and Renee Berger, Public-Private Partnership: An Opportunity for Urban Communities (Committee for Economic Development: Washington D.C.) l982

• Renee Berger (et al) Investing in America: Initiatives for Community and Economic Development (Presidentís Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives: Washington:DC) l982

• Renee Berger and R. Scott Fosler, "Public-Private Partnership: The British Experience" Urban Innovation Abroad (Washington, D.C.: Council for International Urban Liaison) November l982