Bay Area Inequity and Homelessness

Legacy members convened in April 2019 for a dinner conversation with Daniel Lurie, Chairman and Founder of Tipping Point Community. Here are a few of the myths and facts that were surfaced during the discussion:

Key facts to consider:

• Poverty has been criminalized since the 1990s.
• 80% of those on the streets have mental health issues, but let’s note that you may develop mental illnesses while being (and possibly because of being) on the streets.
• Three important areas of focus that relate to the issue of homelessness: behavioral health, criminal justice, and child welfare.
• Showing up to community meetings and advocating for solutions is a meaningful action that everyone can take.

Myths to be aware of:

• There aren’t enough units available.
• People want to live on the streets.
• San Francisco is a magnet for homelessness (LA, Seattle, etc. would say the same).
• Shelters decrease home values (homelessness decreases home values).
• If we solve the issue of homelessness, we’ll attract more homeless people to the area.

Ending Child Trafficking 

Legacy members convened in March 2019 for a lunchtime conversation moderated by a Legacy member with Thorn CEO, Ashton Kutcher, and Google.org CEO, Jacquelline Fuller. Here are a few of the points that were made during the discussion:

One approach to driving solutions is the creation of products and technology:

• Spotlight
  • Tracks emojis, language, etc. to determine victim’s geographic movement and identifying characteristics.
  • Turns these numbers, pictures, words into an actual person who can be identified, enabling law enforcement to collaborate across state lines.
• Solace
  • Tool for indexing and monitoring the dark web and its unique challenges.
  • Being used by 37 countries, the Department of Homeland Security, and Interpol.
• Safer
  • For small/medium companies that don’t have tools and resources to find images on their sites as they hit the open web.
  • Enables these smaller companies to index and report those photos to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Solutions are enhanced by technology:

• One of the most dangerous parts of this issue is that if you’re exposed to child abuse in a video, the likelihood of committing a hands-on offense goes up by 50%.
• Opportunity to aggressively contain this issue if we can suppress amount of content online and cut off the gateway from the dark web.
• Best way to support progress in ending child trafficking: Introduce solutions to more companies that could adopt technology and tools to combat child trafficking.

China Learning Journey

Legacy members traveled to Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai for a learning experience in one of the world’s rapidly transforming countries. The trip included a full agenda that allowed members to explore the transformative forces at play and meet the leaders behind exciting innovations in business, philanthropy, and social development in China.

Trip Highlights:

• Discussions at Leping Social Entrepreneur Foundation
• Visits to Meituan-Dianping, DiDi, Jack Ma Foundation, Alibaba, B Corp China, and Shanghai Social Innovation Park
• Fireside chat with Jenny Lee, Managing Partner at GGV, a venture capital firm in which Legacy invests
• Tours of the Art District, Summer Palace, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, West Lake, and Shanghai Tower
• Performance of Enduring Memories of Hangzhou
• Tea picking at Longjing Tea plantation

Next Gen Dinner on Philanthropic Involvement

Legacy hosted a dinner for Next Gen members on beginning their philanthropic involvement in the community and family foundations. You can find the resources mentioned below.

• Organizations: Full Circle Fund, SV2, and Effective Altruism
• Publications: Stanford Social Innovation Review
• Academic courses and centers: Philanthropy: Strategy, Innovation, and Social Change, Essentials of Program Strategy and Evaluation, and Wharton U Penn Center for High Impact Philanthropy
• Philanthropic news: Giving Compass
• Nonprofit ratings: Impact Matters and Give Well
• Conferences: The Gathering, Professionals in Christian Philanthropy, National Center for Family Philanthropy, and Council on Foundations

 One-Table Dinner Conversations

Legacy hosted dinners for our members across the country. You can find the resources mentioned at each dinner below.

January Dinner on the Future of Cities in Phoenix, Arizona

• Books: The Executive’s Compass by James O’Toole and The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt

February Dinner on Artificial Intelligence in Dallas, Texas

• Moment (startup by a Legacy member to help you use your phone in a healthy way)
• One Degree (an app to help low-income families access the resources they need to achieve social and economic mobility and improve their lives)

March Dinner on the Opportunity Gap in New York City

• Books: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas, In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State by Charles Murray, and Crisis 2038 by Gerald Huff,
• Organizations: Bail Project, Harlem Village Academy, One Goal, Shining Hope for Communities, and Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education
• Videos: What is Privilege?
• Articles: “Only 7 Black Students Got Into Stuyvesant, N.Y.’s Most Selective High School, Out of 895 Spots”,  “How the Few Black and Hispanic Students at Stuyvesant High School Feel”, “What is Universal Basic Income”, and “Will ‘basic income’ become the California norm? Stockton starts $500 no-strings payments“

April Dinner on the Opportunity Gap in Boston, Massachusetts

• Books: Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, The Price of Civilization by Jeffrey Sachs, Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, and These Truths by Jill LePore
• Videos: PBS WGBH Reconstruction Series