Werner-Kohnstamm Family Fund
OVERVIEW: WKF predominantly advocates for economic opportunity and rights for immigrants and migrant workers in California. Its civic engagement grants center on engaging youth in opportunities related to civic life.
IP TAKE: This small, donor-advised family fund does not accept or respond to unsolicited proposals.
PROFILE: The Werner-Kohnstamm Family Fund (WKF), established in 1994, is a small, donor-advised fund run out of Fidelity Charitable Giving. The foundation is run by Jo Ann Intili and Ed Kissam, who both have experience as “applied researchers on issues of social policy program design, evaluation, and technical assistance” and believe the key to social change is address the “broad spectrum of ways humans seek to make change in their lives and the lives of their families and communities—physical migration, lifelong learning, evolving modes of communication.” The foundation’s current priority is to promote “sound immigration policy reform and civic integration of immigrants” through three main focus areas: Lifelong Learning for Immigrants, Civic Dialogue & Community Opportunities, and Immigrant Rights, Inclusion, & Policy Reform.
Grants for Economic Opportunity, Democracy, Immigrants and Refugees
WKF’s Lifelong Learning for Immigrants program supports organizations that help “prepare youth and adults to better advocate for themselves, improve their work prospects and family well-being, and participate more effectively in civic life in their communities.” It supports “learning and mentoring opportunities for youth, for ‘anytime, anyplace’ learning needed by youth and young adults and seniors in urban and rural communities,” as well as “internships for youth and young adults to explore different work environments.”
The foundation’s Immigrant Rights, Immigrant Inclusion & Policy Reform program provides “modest support for legal support and help to unaccompanied Central American minors and their families for integrating youth into community life.” Additionally, WKF continues “to support efforts to oppose malicious and dysfunctional administration actions seeking to eliminate due legal process for immigrants such as expanded use of expedited removal, illegal detentions of DACA recipients, and expanded ‘collateral arrests’ of long-time settled immigrants.”
WKF’s Civic Dialogue & Community Opportunities aims to “provide youth with opportunities to explore personal, social, and career development and discover personally-rewarding ways to be engaged in community civic life.” Its grantmaking goes beyond “voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns” to support leadership development, after-school programs, efforts to inform and engage youth in “politics and policy advocacy,” and “sustainable opportunities for engaging new upcoming leaders.”
Past grantees include Building Skills Partnership, Liberty Hill Foundation, Social Justice Collaborative, the Institute for Local Government and National Skills Coalition.
Important Grant Details:
Grants generally range from $10,000 to $200,000. WKF is a donor-advised fund that does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding.
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