10 survey respondents
Location: Innovation 404 Euclid Avenue, San Diego, 92112 CA
EIN: 33-0683658
10%
90%
4 hours
Median
5%
95%
0%
100%
2017 Deadlines:
Types of Grants Awarded:
Geographic Focus:
For Fiscal Year
Total Assets:
Total Grants:
Change in Assets FY :
Amount of Grants to Minnesota Nonprofits:
Largest Grant:
Smallest Grant:
Average Grant:
Professional in the field
I work with a grant-making organization that made a grant to JCNI that was to be used for a particular purpose, within a particular time frame, and the funds were to be spent along with JCNI's own money to support a project in SE San Diego. JCNI never used the funds as promised, and the CEO did not return the funds to us for re-granting to another organization. Though there are now a few new board members at JCNI, the CEO that has been acting questionably is still in charge. I'd therefore suggest avoiding entanglements with The Jacobs Center until that changes.
Inadvertently exerts negative influence in the field, Difficult to work with, Culturally incompetent
California
Professional in the field
Funded for amount requested
2017
Bad
When we originally created our partnership, there were some excellent people on staff, who were very communicative, and effective. It's why we made the gift. Those people were all let go in early 2017.
Bad
They're not. The original hope for community driven change is gone. They're now just a real estate developer that holds a large portion of the land within a poor community.
Replace your CEO. Word on the street is that he created a #metoo environment, in which a harasser was promoted, and people who were affected were fired. I have personally asked a woman that I'm sure must have been involved to comment--but she is honoring whatever settlement was made. Her response was right out of the house of cards series. "You might very well think that, but I couldn't possibly comment."
I'd steer clear until things undergo a major shift in leadership.
Misdirect community members.
0
Grant Applicant - applied in 2017
The CEO has a bad reputation locally, in because he has repeatedly downsized, fired community members, and changed his strategy, to the point that nothing good ever happens. He hired some good people a while ago, but they all left or were fired. There was considerable talk of a sexual harassment scandal at this place in which the women involved were all fired and the male involved was promoted to within the president's office.
Inadvertently exerts negative influence in the field, Culturally incompetent, Bureaucratic
California
Current or former grantee
Funded for lesser amount
2017
Bad
They do not return calls these days.
Bad
They have spent millions of dollars with no visible results. Despite spending millions to promote minority owned businesses, there are none in market creek plaza.
The current CEO has got to go if you ever want to have positive impact. None of the people that he needs as partners trust him at this point.
Just avoid them. It's a headache. If something goes right, they'll want all the credit, and if things go south, you'll be scapegoated.
Public relations and spin. But after watching it for several decades, you realize the emperor has no clothes.
More than 15
Grant Applicant - applied in 2015
End of the day I would say go elsewhere. The new CEO since like 2012 has broken promise after promise. And if anyone ever criticizes him in public, he makes it a personal mission to destroy them and the organization they work with.
Inadvertently exerts negative influence in the field, Doesn't "get" nonprofits and issues, Difficult to work with, Culturally incompetent, Bureaucratic
Georgia
Current or former grantee
Funded for amount requested
2015
Bad
They used to have some staff that were very responsive, but they were all fired by the CEO between like 2015 and very recently.
Bad
No. And the philanthropy goals keep changing. I was working with them in education and reading supports in the community group of DEEP. They no longer support this at the Jacobs. It's so sad.
I've given up and have moved, so it is beside the point.
Work with RISE or someone who is actually trying.
Abandon things. Abandon bilding a master plan of the neighborhood. Abandon a solar energy program. Abandon the education DEEP programs. Abandon the workforce programs. Kill the outreach program. It goes on and on. I thought the people they brought in during 2014 would turn things around, as they were all really quality and known people. But they couldn't work with the CEO, or he couldn't work with them, or they contradicted him in public which always gets people fired with him.
5
Grant Applicant - applied in 2015
Jacobs has just added some quality people to their board, including people from a religious nonprofit, the YMCA, and a health nonprofit. But I have my doubts that this will turn things around, because just two years ago, the current CEO added great people with great backgrounds and a great track record in education, job training, community outreach, real estate management, accounting, and fundraising. ALL of those people have been fired or left in the past couple years. I think the only way to turn it around is if the new Board members decide to fire the current CEO and try new leadership at the top. Because the guy they have has no one else to fire or blame now. He has to own his track record, and it isn't good.
Friendly
Georgia
Current or former grantee
Funded for lesser amount
2015
Average
There are individual people who are good at getting back. The education area director is very responsive. The fundraising team is responsive, though they lost the former team leader who would always respond in surprisingly short time, and with actual answers. Most of the people they fired were actually pretty responsive.
Bad
Under the current leadership this place is completely adrift.
You have lost so many good people. What is wrong here?
The priorities are always changing. If you have a maybe to an idea act fast because the leadership won't think that's a good idea two months later.
Strategic planning. Community planning. Surveys. More strategic planning. More planning. And end the programs that are actually working.
10 to 15 hours
Professional in the field
This is an organization with enormous debt, poor judgement, and questionable stability. Things looked promising a few years ago, when Jacobs hired a cadre of top-notch people in all of their director-level positions. But these people were professionals, who told the leadership the truth with great consistency, by all accounts. The current CEO and the JCNI board didn't want to deal with reality--and continue to evade it. There are better, and more stable places to partner.
Inadvertently exerts negative influence in the field, Difficult to work with
California
Professional in the field
Other
Before 2014
Bad
These are very muddy waters.
Bad
JCNI has damaged many of the small nonprofits with which it has partnered. Most recently, the stopped being the fiscal agent of a local literacy improvement program. Why? This group is doing great work and showing real results.
Though Jacobs said it wanted to promote resident ownership of neighborhood change, it stopped listening years ago. I've reached the point at which I believe advice would be useless--so the only advice I can give is that potential partners look elsewhere, or at least have multiple partners to support stability.
The Jacobs Center was founded by a prominent Republican family, whose patriarch was known for coining the term "Compassionate Conservatism," a phrase that became a rallying cry for President George W. Bush's run for office. Founder Joseph Jacobs proposed a "hand up instead of a hand-out" to residents of a poor San Diego community, which is largely Latino and African American. JCNI rehabilitated a brownfield and built a shopping mall called Market Creek Plaza. As Republicans, the Jacobs family wanted to create a public stock offering in the plaza--and create a situation where poor San Diegans could literally invest in their neighborhood. Jacobs gave grants to enable small entrepreneurs to create businesses in the plaza. Unfortunately. JCNI didn't think things through. They were so committed to creating a "Republican" approach to charitable giving, that they didn't ask the questions that any investor should consider before making an investment: 1) What was the risk associated with this venture, and was the investment that was created appropriate to poor people?; 2) Is it appropriate for poor people to invest in a shopping mall before investing in getting their own house, or car that could get them to work, or indeed community college degree?; How would the shopping mall be kept full of retailers (if most of them were "community entrepreneurs," with no business education, and no market research to support their store concept? You get the idea. The result is that hundreds of poor people invested hard-earned money in a risky investment that JCNI itself did not know how to run effectively. All of the community-based businesses and restaurants have failed, since the mall opened--and Jacobs never had anyone on staff with the credentials required to give that necessary "hand up" to want-to-be entrepreneurs. Like all shopping malls, Market Creek has suffered massive vacancy, and the residents who once got stock dividends (though the financial disclosures required of a public company seem not to be publicly available on EDGAR!), now receive nothing. Their money is locked into an "investment" of questionable value, which has never been professionally or well-managed. JCNI's founder was a successful businessman. But the second and third generation that inherited the family foundation have never succeeded at being anything other than San Diegans with money. They were ill-equipped to achieve the mission that their patriarch articulated, and an entire community has suffered because of their actions--and more often lack of action.
Fire staff members who rock the boat (which often just means make things right and follow established standards).
0
Grant Applicant - applied in 2014
The original CEO of JCNI had a strong vision to 'engage' the community and use it's input as part of our neighborhood's redevelopment. All of that stalled when the economy died in 2008 and the family blamed the CEO because they bought blighted land at the hight of the market. But in the begining there was a vision for developing things and it had to do with what people said they wanted. The new CEO did a total replanning of the work, and hired a team to do it. He completely redid the planning and neighborhood meetings that had already been done. And then he fired that whole team! Now he has contracted out another planning process that has no actual neighbor input, and fired another team. And now he is saying maybe they will just sell of the land. It is a real mess. The first thing the new CEO did was good. He hired people who were the absolute best at what they do in San Diego. The second thing he did was fire all those people and freak out and stop listening to the communty entirely. That isn't what nonprofit leadership should look like.
Inadvertently exerts negative influence in the field, Doesn't "get" nonprofits and issues, Difficult to work with, Culturally incompetent, Bureaucratic
Michigan
Current or former grantee
Funded for amount requested
2014
Bad
We were promised that Neighborhood Unity would have growing shares in Market Creek Plaza. Those were taken away. We were promised community group meeting space for free. That is taken away. We were promised assistance starting business in market creek plaza. That stopped and no one they 'helped' ever succeeded, so they don't know what they are doing.
Bad
Other broke promises include that there isn't a movie theater though people said this was a priority. There is no new grocery store, though Jacobs spent all sorts of money travelling people to the midwest to see Aldi and other stores. The restaurants that were going to come were never built.
Bring back the original CEO. And bring back the people the second CEO hired. Combine those two things and you might actually succeed. First you had the right CEO and the wrong team. Then you had the right team and the wrong CEO.
Community trust is gone here. It will take a total shakeup to restore it.
They sold some land that a clinic group made in to a health center. That is a really good health center. But it isn't anything Jacobs did. They just sold some land they bought. They have not otherwise improved health in the region and had to kick everyone out of the apartmens they bought because they let the roof leak and didn't keep them up and they got mold in the walls.
5 to 10 hours
Grant Applicant - applied in 2017
I do not see a long term plan at this place. When they started, they built cultural houses on the JCNI property and funded cultural groups to present music and dances and cultural art. They tore the houses down this year. The promises of the past are all broken and the CEO keeps firing his teem. What has happened here?!
Inadvertently exerts negative influence in the field, Difficult to work with, Culturally incompetent
California
Current or former grantee
Funded for lesser amount
2017
Bad
There used to be one guy that would always call you back within like ten minutes and who helped groups get funds even if not from the Jacobs. They let him and his team go this past year. If you get the media relations people who seem to do everything now nothing happens because they just want to put a glossy face on everything and hide the fact that they have stopped doing what the Jacobs said they would.
Bad
I've lost all hope in these people.
Fire your CEO. He has messed up everything and hurt the whole community in the process and lost over 100 residents their jobs. He has had Market Creek half empty for three years. What on earth is he doing and why are you supporting it?
The founder said they were about the compassionate conservatism. It turns out that doesn't really exist.
Lie, go back on promises, not pay out commitments they made. There's three things. It is easier to not deal with them.
5 to 10 hours
Did not apply
The family running it isn't doing what their parents said it would be and they have instead hurt people including people who lived in the Jacobs buildings and over 100 families that had jobs at the Jacobs Center when the founder set it all up. They could have made a bigger difference if they bot everybody a car to get to a job instead of buying all the land and building a strip mall.
Inadvertently exerts negative influence in the field, Doesn't "get" nonprofits and issues, Culturally incompetent, Bureaucratic
Georgia
Did not apply
Other
2015
Bad
The president office never calls people back and you can't believe what they say.
Bad
They started good with the grandparents and then became a slum lord then kicked people out of where they lived.
Why because they wouldn't listen anyway.
Jacobs bought lots of land in my neighborhood and said it would clean things up the way we wanted and do what the neighbors said we wanted. They owned the building I lived in because they bought it with everything else. They were nothing but a slum lord. We got the black mold in the buildings because they didn't keep them up and they evicted instead of fix the mold.
Lye.
0
Professional in the field
Be warned that the senior leadership here is of questionable competence and dubious morals. Although JCNI purchased 50+ acres of blighted land to create a community benefit, the land has sat undeveloped for over a decade, and no actual benefit has accrued to the community. When presented with potential development opportunities that meet the community's criteria (for example a charter school), JCNI does not act--and treats the land bank in a fashion that would be fitting for a for-profit entity. The staff turnover at this place is legendary.
Inadvertently exerts negative influence in the field, Culturally incompetent, Bureaucratic
Georgia
Professional in the field
Other
2016
Bad
Decision makers do not get back to you, or the appropriate decision maker has been fired because JCNI is "changing its emphasis" again.
Bad
Most community members have entirely despaired of securing any sort of local benefit from this outfit. Even the corporate entity that enabled the family foundation and Jacobs Center will have nothing to do with JCNI.
For an entity that promotes "resident ownership of neighborhood change," JCNI has never actually taken residents' opinions into account. They circulate endless surveys--that the senior leadership then ignores. People are frustrated.
JCNI would be a good case study in why land banking for community redevelopment may not work.
I am not a grantee, but rather a local philanthropist that tried to work with JCNI.
1) Excite the local community about a decent idea, and then repeatedly fail to deliver.
0
Grant Applicant - applied in 2017
They never return calls this passed year. They are shady and disrespect the community by not doing what the community wants after taking all those community surveys.
Inadvertently exerts negative influence in the field, Doesn't "get" nonprofits and issues, Difficult to work with, Culturally incompetent, Bureaucratic
Georgia
Current or former grantee
Other
2017
Bad
They are hiding from the light of day.
Bad
It is the worst run thing in Encanto. They have hired some really good people in the passed but they always get fired in a year.
A passed employee told me you fly relatives of the senior leaders around on the charity's money. If that is even legal it doesn't look right when we can't redeem our market creek shares and they're not worth anything.
They are not risk averse which you gave as a problem choice above. They actually do stupid things that are risks all the time.
I'm writing as a community member that supposedly benefits from JCNI's work. This place has big problems. It's signature program was the construction of a strip mall where local residents like I could buy shares and have ownership in a community benefit. The did tear down a factory site, and they got the EPA to clean it up (not their money). But the shares are not sellable and the CEO that runs it leaves empty businesses for 2 years at a time so there are no dividend. The new leader has fired his entire senior staff team three times at least now--and so nothing gets done. No actual benefit has EVER come from this "charity." They built a palace to themself and took a loan to do it and they are 33 million in debt from what the paper says. They had some team that started to get real things done like the promise zone but I hear the entire accountancy and fundraiser team were fired because they wouldn't tell lies on the federal granting or IRS papers.
Public relations. There are city people who think they are charity and they mean it, but it isn't true.
Less than 5
