CIRHM Funding

Funding Source - The James Irvine Foundation

Foundation Background

The James Irvine Foundation was established in 1937 to serve as trustee for the charitable trust of James Irvine, a California agricultural pioneer. The Irvine family was San Franciscan so the headquarters of the Foundation are in San Francisco. Because of James Irvine's tie to agriculture and the land, the Foundation has always had a great interest in rural areas of the State.

Their Mission

The mission of the James Irvine Foundation is to promote the general welfare of the people of California. The Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the social, economic and physical quality of life throughout California, and to enriching the State's intellectual and cultural environment. The Foundation works statewide and supports programs in seven areas; Arts; Children, Youth and Families; Health; Higher Education; Civic Culture; Sustainable Communities; and Workforce Development. The overall goals of the Foundation's grantmaking are:

To enhance equal opportunity and support the values of a pluralistic, interdependent society
To improve the economic and social well-being of the disadvantaged and their communities, foster self-sufficiency, and assist ethnic minorities to function more effectively as full participants in society
To encourage communication, understanding, and cooperation among diverse cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic groups
To promote civic participation, social responsibility, public understanding of issues, and the development of sound public policy
To enrich the quality and diversity of educational, cultural, health, and human service programs throughout the state

Program Priorities and Partnerships

Because its resources are finite, the James Irvine Foundation targets its grantmaking to achieve greater impact, concentrating on those problems on which it may have a demonstrable effect. The Foundation also seeks to maximize the learning potential from its grants, not only for the Foundation itself but for its community partners, the fields they represent and for philanthropy in general. Accordingly, considerable attention is given to project outcomes, questions to be answered, definable goals to be achieved, and the process by which success may be measured. Further, the Foundation is increasing its dissemination activities to allow these lessons to be shared with interested audiences.

The Foundation's most successful grants have been those involving interactive relationships and close collaboration with community partners. The Foundation recognizes that project development and implementation are often iterative rather than linear, and Foundation staff work closely with grantees to seek innovative, yet practical solutions to community problems.

DRIS Initiative Contribution

The James Irvine Foundation is privileged to have a group of experts in rural health to advise the Foundation in the design and implementation of the DRIS Initiative. The DRIS Advisory Committee members played a key role in selecting sites for participation in this Initiative and continue to provide insights and direction on how to ensure that we are responding to the changing policy environment and to the rural communities with which we partner.

There are presently eight DRIS Advisory Committee members representing different key stakeholders in rural health policy and practice, public health, insurance, hospitals, clinics, physicians, medical education, a foundation and state government. The roles of the DRIS Advisory Committee members to the James Irvine Foundation are to:

Provide guidance on DRIS project implementation.
Provide feedback from the field. (The Foundation is often insulated from actual community reaction and relies on the Committee as well as the DRIS evaluator to provide information required in order to make changes and be responsive.)
Trouble-shoot and problem-solve. (When problems are identified and do arise, the Foundation may call upon Committee members to help respond, drawing upon their expertise, knowledge of areas and existing relationships.)
Identify public policy issues for further research and action.
Disseminate results to their respective constituents of the Advisory Committee.

The James Irvine Foundation, as well as the California Institute for Rural Health Management, is most appreciative of the interest, support and voluntary effort of the Advisory Committee members and the resources they bring to the DRIS Initiative.

Foundation Contacts

Marty Campbell, Director of Evaluation, Program Director
James Irvine Foundation

As Director of Evaluation, Marty has the primary responsibility for developing the policy and practice of valuation at the Foundation. As Program Director, she builds and manages a portfolio of related grant, research, evaluation and convening activities to support the Foundation's goals in the health and community foundation fields. She is currently responsible for the development and evaluation of three initiatives, all at different stages of implementation: a Women's Health Initiative, an Initiative for Developing Rural Integrated (Health) Systems and a Community Foundation Initiative.

In 1996-98, Marty served as a member of the Steering Committee for the Northern California Grantmakers, AIDS Task Force and a Chair for the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Evaluation Initiative, a regranting program that supports a unique collaborative effort among university researchers, private funders, and community-based organizations. Marty came to the Foundation in 1996 after a decade of work experience in Africa. In 1994-95, she provided technical assistance in project design and assessment to CARE and Save the Children on short-term assignments in Mali, Kenya, and the Republic of Georgia. In 1991-94, she was the Assistant County Director of CARE International in Rwanda. During the three-year period prior to that, she managed and evaluated community development and health programs in Sudan and Uganda for CARE, and in Senegal for USAID. From 1982 to 1985, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zaire.

Born and Raised in Berkeley, California and a graduate of Dartmouth College, Marty holds a Master's degree in Public Affairs with a focus on health policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University.

Dennis Collins, CEO and President
James Irvine Foundation

Dennis A. Collins is President and Chief Executive Officer of The James Irvine Foundation of San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, a private philanthropy with assets of $1.2 billion created by California businessman James Irvine in 1937.

Mr. Collins is a native of Seattle. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University. A former teacher of modern languages, Director of Admissions and subsequently Dean of Students at Occidental College in Los Angeles, Mr. Collins served as Principle of Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, before being named Founding Headmaster of San Francisco University High School. He was appointed President of the Irvine Foundation in 1985.

Mr. Collins currently serves as a trustee of the Foundation Center, as Vice-Chair of the American Farmland Trust, and services on the Humanities and Sciences Council at Stanford University.