Deep Dive Sessions

Community Foundation Executive Roundtable

Monday, April 29 - 8-11:00 a.m.

The Council on Foundations is inviting executive staff of community foundations for an exchange of ideas to help strengthen communities across the United States. As a field, we need to come together to discuss the current mischaracterization of donor advised funds, and how we can implement strategies for success for all community foundations.

The Community Foundation Executive Roundtable in Miami, FL, is a half-day, invitation-only, roundtable ahead of the Leading Together 2019 Conference that brings together community foundations of various size, scope, and location to gain understanding from diverse viewpoints.

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Tapestry Grantmaking: Weaving Communities, Populations and Resources Together

Tuesday, April 30 - 10:30-11:45 a.m.

Organized by the Albuquerque Community Foundation

How can funders effectively remove barriers around historically underfunded and under-resourced populations in order to create equitable grantmaking opportunities for communities with the highest need? The Albuquerque Community Foundation discuss how their new community-based grant program, TAPESTRY: A City Woven Together, is bolstering economic and social prosperity, and building bridges between geographic communities, diverse populations and burgeoning local industries. This presentation focuses specifically on Albuquerque’s International District (previously referred to as the “War Zone”) and how TAPESTRY is [planning to] leverage multiple community and corporate partnerships to support Albuquerque’s immigrant and refugee populations. 

Speakers: Kelli Cooper, Vice President, Albuquerque Community Foundation; Joanna Colangelo, Community Impact Director, Albuquerque Community Foundation

Helping Foundations Understand their Connection to Social Impact... with the Arts

Tuesday, April 30 - 10:30-11:45 a.m.

Organized by Americans for the Arts

Using as a jumping off point Americans for the Arts' new interactive tool, the Arts + Social Impact Explorer, this interactive workshop engages participants in a dialogue about how foundations can support work being done at the intersection of social sectors, the arts and healthy and vibrancy communities. The Arts + Social Impact Explorer is an online primer that draws together top-line research and case studies at the intersection of the art and 25 other sectors in a visually appealing, highly interactive tool. This tool is meant to drive conversation, and is accompanied by customized Fact Sheets that are downloadable and printable for sharing with board members, public and private sector policymakers, and more. It also is mobile-friendly, and future work on this project is about aligning the information in the Explorer with advocacy and decisionmaker education efforts to help expand the conversation about the arts and their value to communities. Functioning as the surface of a “lake” of knowledge, this tool is sourced so that people who wish to can visit the websites of all the example projects, click directly to the research referenced, and engage directly with the other partners doing this work around the country. We consider several specific topic areas and then facilitate dialogue about social impact.

Speakers: Robert L. Lynch, President & CEO, Americans for the Arts

Creating a Health Equity Movement for Inclusive Economic Prosperity

Tuesday,  April 30 - 1:15-2:30 p.m. 

Organized by the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg

In 2015, a new, place-based private foundation embraced an activist health equity mission in Pinellas County, Florida, just a generation after the segregation and discrimination of the Jim Crow era. After four years of listening within the community, the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg is launching a social change incubator in order to provide space, technology, funding, information on advocacy, and other resources to support multisector efforts to achieve equity across the social determinants of health. This approach is helping the Foundation and community partners advance a comprehensive strategy for economic equity in a southern community with a legacy of racial injustice. Attendees discussed lessons learned and provided input on the formation of the Pinellas Equity Center. 

Moderator: Randall H. Russell, President and CEO, Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg
Speakers: Janine Lee, President and CEO, Southeastern Council of Foundations; Dr. Katurah Jenkins-Hall, Board Chair,  Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg; Chris Steinocher, President and CEO, St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce

Reimagining the Council on Foundations: A Member Visioning Session with Kathleen Enright

Tuesday, April 30 - 4:30-5:30 p.m. 

What is the highest and best role for philanthropy? And how can the Council support our members and the field to reach our potential and address the most pressing issues of our time? Kathleen Enright, President and CEO of The Council on Foundations, held an interactive visioning session to explore these key questions and shared insights and feedback on how a reimagined Council can best serve the field of philanthropy and advance public good.

The Age of Uncritiqued Philanthropy is Over

Wednesday, May 1 - 9-10 a.m.

Organized by the Peery Foundation

Jessamyn Shams-Lau, Executive Director of the Peery Foundation, had a frank and practical discussion on how to navigate the new wave of critique of our industry. We cover talking about feedback with your team, how to keep your board informed and keep your job, and how to personally react to critique, and then use it as a positive force in your work. If you've read Winners Take All, Decolonizing Wealth, or Just Giving and are now staving off an existential crisis about your life's work, this might have been the session for you! 

Speaker: Jessamyn Shams-Lau, Executive Director, Peery Foundation

Breakfast Roundtables

Breakfast Roundtable: How a Phone Call — and Smart Data Tracking — Led to a $100 Million Gift 

Wednesday, May 1 - 8:00 - 8:45 a.m.

Evidence-based decisions are intrinsic to the way that AbbVie operates and its approach to philanthropy is no different. A candid conversation between leaders at AbbVie, a researched-based biopharmaceutical company, and Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) to learn about the expansion of resources to hospitalized children and families, supported by a $100 million donation from AbbVie, and the role corporate giving programs play in the sustainability of nonprofits. Anticipate lively discussion around:

• AbbVie’s partnership approach, empowering expert nonprofit organizations to take the lead on designing the most efficient, effective and impactful use of funding;
• How RMHC’s mission, unique model of system alignment and networked infrastructure facilitated a donation of this magnitude;
• The funder and grantee’s perspective on the curation and implementation of a large gift

Moderator: Jessica Zar, Associate Director, Corporate Responsbility, Abbvie  

Speakers: Heather Gandy, Director, Global Engagement & Giving, Abbvie; Kelly Dolan, Chief Marketing and Development Officer, Ronald McDonald House Charities

Breakfast Roundtable: Engaging Diaspora in Philanthropy — Lessons from Ayiti 

Wednesday, May 1 - 8:00 - 8:45 a.m.

Through building an endowed fund and grant making, Ayiti Community Trust invests in high-impact community organizations focused on the environment, entrepreneurship, and civic education. This session highlights innovative approaches used to engage and motivate Haitians in the diaspora and in Haiti to contribute towards building the Trust.

Organized by Ayiti Community Trust

Speakers: Dr. Guerda Nicolas, Board Secretary, Ayiti Community Trust; Pierre Jonas Imbert, Co-founder & CEO,  Ayiti Community Trust

Breakfast Roundtable: National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations

Wednesday, May 1 - 8:00 - 8:45 a.m.

Positive changes are coming to the National Standards program! Members of the Community Foundations National Standards Board, the National Standards Legal Director and the National Standards Managing Director had an informal breakfast discussion about this valuable program and what you can expect in the future.

Speakers: Diana Anderson, Board President, The Community Foundations National Standards Board; National Standards Staff

Invitation Only Small Group Discussions

These sessions are by invitation only.

Foundations and Democracy: What Is Philanthropy’s Role in a Time of Division and Mistrust? 

Tuesday, April 30 - 1:15-2:30 p.m.

Organized by the Kettering Foundation and the Council on Foundations

While polarization and mistrust have been building for decades, our political climate appears to have reached a new level of anger and divisiveness in recent years. Given the magnitude of the many challenges facing our society, our country urgently needs to come together, and yet, we are more divided than ever. Moreover, such a climate has implications for philanthropy, as disagreements over philanthropy’s public purposes intensify, and the very notion of a “common good” is threatened. Building on a new report by the Council on Foundations and the Kettering Foundation, Our Divided Nation: Is There a Role for Philanthropy in Renewing Our Democracy?, this session aims to catalyze thinking within philanthropy as to how it can best serve our democracy, and itself, in these challenging times.

The Impact of Mergers & Acquisitions on Corporate Philanthropy

Tuesday, April 30 - 1:15-2:30 p.m.

Organized by Kaiser Permanente and the Council on Foundations

Mergers and acquisitions are increasingly common for companies - across sectors, size, and geographic footprints. And, while the market impact of these combinations is regularly documented and discussed, data on the related impact on corporate philanthropic portfolios and programs is rarely analyzed. At the Council, we have seen growth in the number of corporate philanthropy practitioners asking for guidance and promising practices on how to navigate strategic options and manage change to support philanthropic portfolios in times of transition. This invitation-only roundtable discussion is designed to explore the experiences, questions and guidance needed to support companies and corporate philanthropy practitioners as they plan for, respond to, and/or adjust charitable efforts before, during and after a merger or acquisition.

Executive Session: See Sooner, Act Faster

Wednesday, May 1 - 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Organized by the Knight Foundation, Council on Foundations, and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

Philanthropy faces an increasingly turbulent future in which the digital, social, political, and economic forces of change will become less predictable. This puts a premium on the ability of foundation leaders to detect, anticipate, and respond to early signals of threats and opportunities.

In this small conversation with foundation executives, Wharton Professor Paul Schoemaker discussed “vigilant” organizations that see the looming risks and opportunities sooner than their rivals and position themselves to act faster when the fog of uncertainty lifts. Their leaders look for weak signals of threats and opportunities, take time to figure out what they mean through probing and monitoring, and place small bets early to learn more and improve their market position. Drawing upon a study of foundation leaders conducted in partnership with the Council on Foundations and the Knight Foundation, Paul shared broader insights from his forthcoming book with George Day, See Sooner-Act Faster: How Vigilant Leaders Navigate Digital Turbulence, that will be published by MIT Press in the fall of 2019.

Invitation Only Philanthropic Support Organization Convenings

These sessions are by invitation only.

Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS) Reception

Tuesday, April 30 - 5:45-7:00 p.m.

Organized by WINGS

Language Perception Project

Wednesday, May 1 - 8-9:30 a.m.

Organized by Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE)

Discussion of results from a recent project to understand perceptions of language associated with civic engagement and democracy work. By invitation only, but reach out to Adiel@PACEfunders.org if you are interested in learning more.

Trustee Listening Convenings

Wednesday, May 1 - 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Organized by Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) and BoardSource

Leveraging the Infrastructure

Wednesday, May 1 - 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Organized by CHANGE Philanthropy

Board and Council Meetings

These sessions are closed.

The Community Foundations National Standards Board (CFNSB) Meeting

Sunday, April 28 - 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

Presidents' Council on Impact Investing Meeting 

Monday, April 29 - 9 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

Council on Foundations Board Meeting 

Monday, April 29 - 1:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.