Leading Together 2021 - Raising the Bar Sessions
Raising the bar
These sessions focused on sharing the best practices, resources, and tools for philanthropic leaders to be agents of change in their organizations and communities.
Participation, Power and Philanthropy: Putting Nonprofits and Communities in the Driver's Seat
Tuesday, June 15 | 1:10-2:00 p.m. ET
As grantmakers, our desire to have a transformational impact on the communities we serve catalyzes and ignites our work. To create the greatest impact, we must work in tandem with nonprofits and those with lived experience to sufficiently understand the issues and to co-create a path forward. What does it truly look like to have nonprofits and communities drive our work? When and how should participation be employed to center our work on community needs?
Emergence and Evolution: Pivoting Internal Culture Amidst Crisis
Wednesday, June 16 | 1:20-2:10 p.m. ET
In a year of massive change and rupture, our internal cultures and practices had to radically pivot to adapt. From creating fully virtual workplaces to holding space for processing anti-Black racism, to accommodating the needs of working families, the internal workings of philanthropy look about as different as its grantmaking. That said, massive pivots do not necessarily guarantee more inclusive and equitable practices. Drawing on the 2018 Dissonance and Disconnects Report published by Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and our members’ experiences from 2020 onward, this session will examine how philanthropy can mobilize this moment of rupture to implement organizational practices that disrupt white dominant cultural norms. Some key questions of discussion include: What adaptations worked well? What have we learned from disability justice communities that inform our adaptations? What assumptions did we have about the culture of work that have been disproved? What would a workplace culture that truly supported its early- and mid-career professionals look like? Join EPIP for a roundtable featuring chapter leaders and EPIP staff for a candid conversation about ways to create more equitable communities, starting in our own organizations.
Democracy, Healing Divides, and Civic Life
Wednesday, June 16 | 1:20-2:10 p.m. ET
With heightened polarization and divisiveness, growing mistrust of public institutions, protests against racial injustice, and uncertainty over the electoral infrastructure, recent events have revealed the remarkable fragility of our institutions and the norms supporting them. At the very least, these events are a reminder that the survival of our democracy can no longer be taken for granted. Instead, democracy must be actively nurtured, strengthened, and constantly reinforced. Moreover, our democracy depends not only upon fair elections, but also on an ecosystem of shared norms and habits that enable long term confidence in the system. What are the key priorities for funders when the nation urgently needs to rebuild social trust and confidence in democracy itself?
Building the Next-Generation Community Investment Ecosystem: How Foundations Can Advance Racial Equity
Wednesday, June 16 | 2:20-3:10 p.m. ET
Will recovery from COVID-19 and racial reckoning finally bring our society closer to racial justice? This session will explore how foundations can shift the ways capital enters communities of color by helping to build investment ecosystems that finance community priorities. Participants will explore examples of community ownership and control, wealth-building strategies, and ways to expand capital access for businesses owned by people of color, as well as workshop how foundations can intervene to advance these approaches.
Best Practices for Equitable Philanthropy: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic
Wednesday, June 16 | 2:20-3:10 p.m. ET
Center for Disaster Philanthropy and Candid have conducted two research reports on COVID-19 philanthropy, tracking over $20.2 billion in disaster giving for the pandemic within 2020. Our data from the reports have shown an increase in BIPOC giving over the course of the year, as well as increased flexibility in grantmaking. This is also a direction CDP has been engaged in as it expands its DEI and localization work in the context of disasters, generally, and COVID-19 specifically. Our session will share data about disaster grantmaking and COVID-19 philanthropy. More importantly, it will also stimulate conversation about how we have to move forward as grantmakers in looking at racial justice, disaster recovery, and more, in ways that build trust and share power with grantees.
Strategies for Shifting Power
Thursday, June 17 | 12:50-1:40 p.m. ET
Do your foundation’s policies and procedures reflect a changing philanthropy that raises the bar on diversity, inclusion, and equity? Learn about one global foundation’s journey to ensure that grassroots partners have a place at the table and that their voices are heard. During this interactive session, GoPhilanthropic Foundation and a partner organization will share their engagement strategies, practical resources, and challenges encountered in developing a more inclusive, trust-based, co-creator partnership model.
The Family Giving Lifecycle: Orienting Toward Effective Outcomes
Thursday, June 17 | 1:50-2:40 p.m. ET
While every philanthropic family is unique, there are common points of inflection. The NCFP Family Giving Lifecycle names those inflection points and provides questions for donors to ask at each stage, recognizing that philanthropy is iterative and ever-evolving. This session will share the lifecycle framework, which challenges donors to be intentional and guides families to explore strategic questions, learn from examples of successful practices, and orient toward effective outcomes.