An Initiative of the Nancy Neffson & Wetmore Family Foundation

Bottom view of cheerful multi-cultural children
Boy Playing in the Park

Who We Are

The Kinship Fund is a Private Foundation Serving the San Diego Community

An initiative of the Nancy Neffson and Wetmore Family Foundation, our mission is to build the resiliency and wellbeing of women and girls through the financial and capacity-building support of nonprofit organizations, with a focus on:

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Pursuit of Education to End Poverty

An education can change the trajectory of someone’s story.

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Interruption of Youth Incarceration

Interrupting the incarceration of our youth will do more to stop crime than prison sentences.

Development of Whole-Person Health

Health is more than physical wellbeing. Whole person health means addressing systemic barriers.

How We Work

Partnerships for a Thriving Community

We develop supportive partnerships with local nonprofits, focusing on funding innovative solutions to the challenges facing our community. Our goal is to drive change through:

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Partnerships

Driven by mutuality and feedback from those with lived experience.

Build Trust

Transparent and responsive communication that roots relationships in trust.

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Flexible Funding

Streamlined processes that offer flexibility and exhibit confidence in our partners.

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Beyond the Check

Responsive support that bolsters our partners and leverages our connections.

The Kinship Fund strives to be a part of a growing community of funders who are pushing the boundaries of philanthropy to provide more effective support to our nonprofit partners. We pursue this goal through practicing trust-based philanthropy practices.

Kimberly Jones

I hope to be a small part of the efforts to shift philanthropy to a place where we trust the leaders doing the work on the ground, and accompany them with a posture of humility and learning. The values of The Kinship Fund reflect the best of who I hope to be as a person and member of our community.

Kimberley Jones

President

Learn More about Kim's story
Meet our Board of Directors

Everyone inside the circle

What is Kinship?

The idea of Kinship has been elevated by Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries. The largest gang intervention and reentry program in the world, Homeboy Industries embodies radical kinship through its innovative programming.

“If you go to the margins to make a difference, then it’s about you and it can’t be about me. It has to be about us,” said Boyle. “So, if you go to the margin so that the folks at the margins make me different, well then suddenly it’s mutual. It’s exquisitely mutual and everybody is inhabiting their truth and their dignity and their nobility. Kinship is we belong to each other. So how do we stand against forgetting that? How do we imagine a circle of compassion and imagine nobody standing outside that circle?” said Boyle. “The human task is to dismantle any barrier that exists that keeps us from each other. We’ve been so historically reliant on moralism and moralism hasn’t kept us moral. It’s only kept us from each other. So, you want to bridge any distance there is between us and them. And how do you keep it connected? So that’s what kinship is, that we may be one.”

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Our Mission

The mission of The Kinship Fund is to build the resiliency and wellbeing of women and girls through the financial and capacity-building support of nonprofit organizations.

OUR VALUES

We acknowledge that unbalanced power, bias, and inequity shape our systems, including philanthropy, and we remain committed to redistributing power in service of a more equitable world.
We are here to learn and believe those closest to the issues are best positioned to guide our giving practices.
We focus on relationships, not reports.
We seek to model humility, honesty, and mutual accountability.
We understand trust is built over time and only when we show up to align our actions with our words.

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The Kinship Fund

An initiative of the Nancy Neffson and Wetmore Family Foundation

[email protected]  |  Kinshipfund.com
8697 La Mesa Blvd., Suite C‑102, La Mesa, CA 91942  |  619‑460‑4458
Federal Tax ID #87‑2907153  |  Copyright 2024

Kim's Story

In the 1990’s, Kim led the marketing of Sharp HealthCare’s new hospital in Chula Vista, Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, and went on to serve on the senior team to launch Sharp Advantage, Sharp HealthCare’s first managed care product for families insured by California’s Medicaid program.

She then created and led a boutique marketing firm, Canopy Marketing, serving a diverse clientele locally and nationally. With over 50 clients, she focused on strategy and project management, and led the design and implementation of campaigns. While at Canopy, Kim continued her volunteer work in the community, which led to a significant career shift in 2013.

After learning about the epidemic of human trafficking in San Diego, Kim began volunteering at her alma mater, Point Loma Nazarene University, dedicating herself to establishing a brand, outreach strategy and donor base for the university’s Center for Justice & Reconciliation. While there she launched the first college scholarship program for survivors of trafficking, the Beauty for Ashes Scholarship, welcoming their first students in 2016.

Kim went on to lead the Center for Justice & Reconciliation as Executive Director, setting the vision and strategy for the Center, directing Center operations, leading donor development and serving as a Community Engagement Officer for PLNU.

After a decade in this work, Kim made the decision in 2023 to shift her focus to the other side of philanthropy. “After a decade writing grants, working with foundations and navigating the challenges of running a nonprofit, I was thrilled with the opportunity to bring this experience to the funder-side of the house,” said Kim. “Our systems are inequitable and the racial wealth gap is widening, while our infrastructure continues to deteriorate. There’s a power dynamic between funders and the nonprofit organizations that depend on that funding. I hope to be a small part of the efforts to shift philanthropy to a place where we trust the leaders doing the work on the ground, and accompany them with a posture of humility and learning. The values of the Kinship Fund reflect the best of who I hope to be as a person and member of our community.”

The Kinship Fund

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Jessica's Story

Jessica D. Naidu is a restorative leader with more than a decade of experience teaching and learning around the globe. Most recently, she was the Assistant Director of the Center for Restorative Justice at the University of San Diego where she provided vision, strategy and direction for a national team, facilitated trainings and supported day-to-day operations including the management of multi-year federal grants. Jessica has a Master of Arts in Higher Education Leadership and a Certificate in Restorative Justice Facilitation & Leadership from USD. Her graduate research examined institutional willingness to use restorative justice as a resolution for cases of gender-based misconduct, and it resulted in USD allowing students to choose restorative resolution in these sensitive cases. She also recently published a chapter in the book, Applying Restorative Justice to Campus Sexual Misconduct: A Guide to Emerging Practices. As a writer and former journalist with a passion for education, Jessica is inspired by the community and healing that comes from restorative processes rooted in the power of storytelling. She spent five years managing teen services programs at literacy non-profit Words Alive where she supported students in San Diego who were undocumented, impacted by the justice system and/or experiencing homelessness, pregnancy or parenting. Jessica has also taught English in Santiago, Chile, and trained teachers and developed young leaders in rural West Africa.

Sydney's Story

Sydney Pidgeon, serving as Treasurer of the Kinship Fund, brings her experience in higher education and commitment to educational access and community development to the board. Sydney presently holds the position of Study Abroad Manager in the department of International Affairs at University of San Diego, a renowned international leader in global immersion and education. In this role, she builds international education programs to foster cross-cultural understanding and development, while offering direct advising for students on the alignment of their educational pursuits with their academic and professional aspirations.

This experience, in partnership with Sydney’s Masters Degree in Higher Education Leadership and Certificate in Restorative Justice, inform Sydney’s approach to community partnerships and collaborative dialogue aimed towards creating a sustainable impact. Sydney has demonstrated this commitment through her career in Higher Education and work as a Restorative Justice practitioner focused on community reentry, police-community collaboration, victim-offender mediation, and community building.

Sydney is a life-long San Diegan, and dedicates much of her time supporting San Diego based initiatives. Sydney currently serves on the Board for San Diego County Crime Stoppers, is an active member of the La Mesa Village Association, volunteers through the National Center for Restorative Justice based in San Diego, and serves on the personnel committee at her church, Normal Heights United Methodist. Sydney currently resides in La Mesa, California, with her husband, Zach, and two dachshunds, Willie and Juni.