The Conference on Investing dedicates a half-day dedicated to market trends, the latest investment strategies and different approaches foundations can use to maximize not only returns, but also impact. Includes breakfast and lunch.

Cost: $250 for members / $350 for non-members

Session 1: Economic & Market Review: Where We Are and Where We Are Headed

More details about this session will be announced soon!

Speaker: Adam Taback – Chief Investment Officer – Wells Fargo, The Private Bank (Charlotte, NC)

Session 2: Investment Portfolios That Make a Difference: A Journey Towards Mission Alignment

How can you effectively navigate the process of constructing a highly customized investment portfolio that aligns with your mission and values? This session will focus on how to gain support from Board members and stakeholders, identifying key themes and issue areas and effectively measuring success – both financially and via impact.

Speakers:
Linda Stephans – Managing Director, Institutional Consulting Director, Graystone Consulting (Chicago, IL)
Christine Reeves Strigaro – Executive Director, The Sapelo Foundation (Savannah, GA)

Session 3: The Investment Case for Net Zero

Climate risks may be mispriced in the markets. An eventual 2°C rise in temperatures above pre-industrial levels could expose investments to meaningful uncertainty and portfolio volatility. In response, the transition to a low carbon economy is accelerating. Assessing climate transition risks within a net zero investment framework is an extension of fundamental ESG analysis that is focused on financial materiality.

Speakers for this session will be announced soon!

Moderator: Tim Coffin – Director of Sustainability Breckinridge Capital Advisors (Boston, MA)

Session 4: Macro Disruptors: What we need to relearn about economics and markets

COVID-19 changed all our lives, likely forever. It also changed the way we need to think about economics and markets. Our prior economics education just won’t cut it as we progress forward: from central banks’ evolving focuses beyond inflation, to integrating climate change and income inequality into the investment outlook, to asset allocation decisions in a persistently low-rate environment, and much more, the textbooks need to be rewritten.

Speaker: Frances Donald – Global Chief Economist and Global Head of Macroeconomic Strategy, Multi-Asset Solutions Team, Manulife Investment Management (Toronto, Ontario)

This year’s Conference on Investing is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

Foundations have shifted practices and adapted in a time of great challenge and crisis these past several years. This session will explore what has changed, what hasn’t, and the additional possibilities for foundations to contribute to a better future for communities and for the country. Phil Buchanan, president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy and author of Giving Done Right, will share CEP’s latest research on foundation practices and approaches and facilitate a candid conversation about the most pressing issues on the minds of foundation CEOs. How can foundation governance and board composition evolve to meet the moment? How can racial equity best be advanced? How can foundations help to dismantle structural inequities while also countering polarization? How can foundations best work productively with the nonprofits they fund to seek to achieve common goals – and how can the power dynamics that often get in the way best be countered? This highly interactive session will engage these questions and others on participants’ minds. Session attendees will come away with new ideas, new relationships with colleagues, and new knowledge of sector-wide trends and data.

Speaker: Phil Buchanan – President, The Center for Effective Philanthropy (Cambridge, MA)

Cost: $75/person

This session is designed to build the skills, knowledge and resources of community foundation staff to embrace and/or deepen their community leadership practice. Participants will increase their understanding of how community leadership is defined and practiced, examine and reflect on their respective foundation’s current community leadership practices, and develop a clearer understanding of core competencies for effective community leadership and deeper community impact. Participants will also create peer connections and share ideas, resources and support around three key interdependent areas in which we are seeing momentum in the field: insisting on racial equity, amplifying community voice, and influencing public policy and systems. This session includes lunch.

Speaker: Len Bartel – Vice President for Learning and Impact (Capacity-Building), CFLeads (Boston, MA)

Moderator: Katharine Pearson Criss – Senior Fellow, Center for Rural Strategies, and Philanthropic Advisor for Financial Marketplace, Cetera Advisor Networks (Knoxville, TN)

Cost: $75/person

Cancer is expected to kill more than 600,000 Americans this year while nearly 2 million will receive a cancer diagnosis that requires costly and physically exhausting treatment. While incredible progress has been made against this disease in recent decades, there is still much work to be done. Your philanthropy has an essential role to play.

Join this special Annual Meeting preconference where we will hear from national leaders in cancer research and funding who will reveal details of how philanthropy moves research progress for even the deadliest cancers.
 

Speakers:
Michele Cleary, Ph.D.– Biomedical Research Advisor (New York, NY)
Raymond Dubois, M.D., Ph.D. – Director, Medical University of South Carolina Hollings Cancer Center (Charleston, SC)
Olivia Tournay Flatto, Ph.D. – President, Pershing Square Foundation & Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance (New York, NY)
Margaret Foti, M.D., Ph.D. – CEO, American Association of Cancer Research (Philadelphia, PA)
Douglas Graham, M.D., Ph.D. – Director, Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Atlanta, GA)
Jed Manocherian – Founder & Chairman, ACT for NIH (Washington, DC)
Allen Mast – Senior Vice President, Truist Foundations & Endowments Specialty Practice (Atlanta, GA)
Sue Merrilees – Senior Advisor, Science Philanthropy Alliance (Palo Alto, CA)
Electra Paskett, Ph.D. – Marion N. Rowley Chair in Cancer Research, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (Columbus, OH)
Rachel Pollock – Vice-President, ACT for NIH (Washington, DC)
David Tuveson, M.D., Ph.D. – Director and Roy J. Zuckerberg Professor of Cancer Research, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center (Cold Spring Harbor, NY)

This session is sponsored by Truist Foundations & Endowments Specialty Practice.

In the era of Jim Crow, African Americans sought to escape the stress of segregation by retreating to “Black Beach” communities – including Amelia Island’s American Beach, which was established by A.L. Lewis, president of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company, in the 1930s. Over the next three decades, the American Beach resort became a sought-after destination for celebrities, local residents and visitors alike. African Americans traveled to American Beach from across the Southeast. Today, the A.L. Lewis Museum celebrates the triumph of residents and visitors over segregation and other forms of racial discrimination and disfranchisement. The museum’s mission is to document and interpret the rich tradition and legacy of African Americans’ ingenuity, perseverance and achievements.

Tours will depart from the hotel lobby at 9:00am and 10:30am – you may choose which time to depart. Transportation will be provided. Following welcoming remarks at the museum, guests can participate in a self-guided tour lasting 45-60 minutes before taking a shuttle back to the hotel.

Cost: $25/person

More details about this session will be announced soon! This session includes lunch.

Speakers for this session will be announced soon!

Cost: $75/person

This luncheon for leaders of corporate foundations and giving programs will allow an opportunity for networking and connection to discuss unique aspects of corporate philanthropy. This session includes lunch.

Speakers for this session will be announced soon!

Cost: $75/person

For those new to Philanthropy Southeast or the Annual Meeting, this is your chance to learn more about us, our team, our leadership and how you can get the most out of your Annual Meeting experience – and your Philanthropy Southeast membership!

Speakers:
Jaci Bertrand – Vice President of Member Engagement, Philanthropy Southeast (Atlanta, GA)
Robert Dortch – Philanthropy Southeast Board Chair and Co-Founder, Ujima Legacy Fund (Richmond, VA)
Tiffany Friesen – Vice President of Programs and Partnerships, Philanthropy Southeast (Atlanta, GA)
Eric Kelly – 2022 Annual Meeting Chair and President, Quantum Foundation (West Palm Beach, FL)
David Miller – Vice President of Marketing & Communications, Philanthropy Southeast (Atlanta, GA)

In Evicted, Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of 21st century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible. The principal investigator of The Eviction Lab, Desmond’s research focuses on poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography.

Speaker: Dr. Matthew Desmond – Professor of Sociology, Princeton University, and Author, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Princeton, NJ)

Chris Gates and Mark Gerzon, leaders of the Philanthropy Bridging Divides project, will lead a conversation about the roles that philanthropy can, and can't, play in bridging political divides in our nation. This session will explore questions like: · What are the challenges for foundation executives regarding bridging ideological divides? · What strategies have worked or failed? · Are place-based funders especially well equipped to take this issue on?

Speakers:
Chris Gates – Co-Founder and Co-Director, Philanthropy Bridging Divides (Boulder, CO)
Mark Gerzon – Co-Founder and Co-Director, Philanthropy Bridging Divides (Boulder, CO)

Do you know how the Latino community fits within your organization’s vision? In partnership with Hispanics in Philanthropy, Philanthropy Southeast invites you to come prepared to learn how others helped build Latino leadership pipelines to support grantmakers’ missions. Begin refining your plans of action that helps integrate the Latino community with your institution. We hope you leave with an even deeper commitment to build Latino power in service of building equity.

Speaker: Jazmin Chavez – Vice President of Social Innovations and Communications, Hispanics In Philanthropy (Denver, CO)

Leaders from the John Rex Endowment, a white-led organization, will share courageously about their journey to understand ways to center racial equity in their work by understanding the intersection of race and lived experience of its staff. Learn how to support healthy environments that serve as a retention and recruitment tool for all staff that increases the efficacy of external work as well.

Speakers:
Kellan Moore – President & CEO, John Rex Endowment (Raleigh, NC)
Sabrina Slade – Director, Racial Equity and Advocacy, John Rex Endowment (Raleigh, NC)

Moderator: LaTida Smith – President, The Winston-Salem Foundation (Winston-Salem, NC)

This multimedia session will feature a video tour of BIPOC farming and food access communities in rural Virginia permitting attendees to see inside the reality of systemic barriers to capital, infrastructure and sustainable practices. A live facilitated discussion with rural funders and food justice partners investing together to create a more equitable and sustainable food system will follow. Session participants will leave with a deeper understanding of the people and places that feed the Southeast and how trust-based philanthropy and the tools of impact investing have begun to address generations of rural inequity.

Speakers:
Kirsten Dueck – Director of Community Investment and Impact, PATH Foundation (Warrenton, VA)
Annie Martinie – Director of Collaboration & Senior Program Officer, Danville Regional Foundation (Danville, VA)
Tom McDougall – Founder and CEO, 4P Foods (Washington, DC)
Sarah Morton – Founding Board Member, Minority and Veteran Farmers of the Piedmont (Gainesville, VA)

As the COVID-19 Pandemic continues to affect communities across the country, in the Southeast there is an observable impact within schools and organizations supporting student success and educational professionals. Hear from experts in the field about the current state of education including teacher recruitment and retention efforts, the state of students’ academic performance and mental health, and how policy efforts and federal/state government funding are impacting the field. A panel of experts will dive deep into the current state of the education system and speak to strategies that can be implemented by the philanthropic sector to support successful programs and initiatives in the short- and long-term future.

Speakers for this session will be announced soon!

This interactive session will explain the current status of important legal issues as well as the latest developments in federal and state legislation that impact community foundations. Specific topics will include donor-advised funds, expenditure responsibility, impact investing, scholarship management, use of agency and designated funds, changes to fund preferences over time, transfers of trusts or private foundations, planned and asset gift issues and opportunities, application of the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, and more. Time will be available for questions and discussion.

Speaker: Phil Purcell – Consultant, Philanthropy, LLC, and Adjunct Faculty, Indiana University Maurer School of Law and Lilly School of Philanthropy (Noblesville, IN)

Newcomers to the Annual Meeting are invited to connect with our staff and Board at this informal gathering.

Celebrate the start of the Annual Meeting and connect with colleagues from across the region! Our opening event honors Marianne Gordon, Philanthropy Southeast’s longtime director of meeting planning who organized dozens of Annual Meetings before her retirement in 2020.

The first day of the Annual Meeting wraps up with dinner, conversation and entertainment, along with the presentation of the 2022 Truist Promise Award honoring innovative philanthropy!

This year’s Business Meeting will include the election of new Trustees to the Philanthropy Southeast Board, a review of the past year and reflections from outgoing Board Chair Robert Dortch and his successor, Kristen Keely-Dinger.

Speakers:
Jen Algire – Philanthropy Southeast Secretary-Treasurer and President & CEO, The Greater Clark Foundation (Winchester, KY)
Robert Dortch – Philanthropy Southeast Board Chair and Co-Founder, Ujima Legacy Fund (Richmond, VA)
Dr. Laura Gerald – Philanthropy Southeast Governance Chair and President, Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust (Winston-Salem, NC)
Kristen Keely-Dinger – Philanthropy Southeast Board Chair-Elect and President & CEO, The Healing Trust (Nashville, TN)

Bold moves to build a brighter future for the Southeast are already taking place throughout our region. A group of leaders unafraid to take big risks will help us kick off the second day of the Annual Meeting for a conversation examining the why and how of channeling courage and commitment into actions that are poised to transform their organizations, empower communities and transform lives.

Speakers:
Frank Fernandez – President & CEO, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta (Atlanta, GA)
Brennan Gould – President & CEO, Charlottesville Area Community Foundation (Charlottesville, VA)
Troy Hanna – President & CEO, The Spartanburg County Foundation (Spartanburg, SC)
John Lumpkin, M.D., MPH – President, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation (Durham, NC)
Upendo Shabazz – Regional Vice President, Palm Beach, Allegany Franciscan Ministries (Palm Harbor, FL)

Moderator: Darrin Goss, Sr. – President & CEO, Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina (North Charleston, SC)

More details about this year’s service project will be announced soon!

The idea of power is often glossed over in foundations. Many of us may truly believe we are partners with the organizations we support but fail to recognize our own power or don't know the extent of it. How can we acknowledge it to build trust with those we serve? How can we responsibly wield power beyond our grantmaking, tapping into our social, moral, intellectual and reputational capital? Join us to discuss how foundations show up in their community, how to recognize power, and know when to divest it?

Speakers:
Tracey Greene-Washington – Social Change Philanthropist/Author, Indigo Innovation Group (Charlotte, NC)
Eleni Refu – Senior Engagement Associate, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (Washington, DC)

At last year’s Annual Meeting investment session, we brought together philanthropic leaders and asset managers to discuss the potential benefits of cognitive diversity for investment portfolio returns. Extending that important conversation a step further, our session will explore the second order effects of improving manager diversity, with a focus on the career pathways that can emerge for young people of diverse or non-traditional backgrounds in the investment profession. How can we optimize investment returns while also emphasizing positive impact in the communities we care about?

Speakers for this session will be announced soon!

Sponsored by Truist Foundations & Endowments Specialty Practice

The philanthropic sector is increasingly recognizing the value of listening to people and communities at the heart of their work, especially those whose voices, historically and because of persistent systemic and structural racism, have been least heard. Funders and the organizations they support can be more effective, do more good in the world, and partner in the creation of more equitable outcomes, if we are open to systematically listening to, and acting on, that feedback. In this session, we’ll dive into what we mean by listening and acting on feedback from those at the heart of our work, why it's important, and how listening can be a tool for equity. We’ll present examples of how several foundations in the Southeast United States are listening, and how they’re supporting their grantees to do the same.

Speakers:
Kelley Gulley – Chief of Staff, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation (Atlanta, GA)
Mari Kuraishi – President, Jessie Ball duPont Fund (Jacksonville, FL)
Britt Lake – CEO, Feedback Labs (Washington, DC)
Melinda Tuan – Managing Director, Fund for Shared Insight (San Francisco, CA)

Effective philanthropy “loves humankind” by broadening the scope, depth, and breadth of how we define, understand, and uplift humanity. We're reassessing everything from the roots to the fruits of our work, starting with embracing the simple premise that communities are made up of diverse and dynamic individuals. Just as social identities are aspects of a whole person, education, housing, health, civil rights, and the environment all profoundly influence individual and community lived experiences.

For funders, this means working to simultaneously address multiple issues and identities in culturally competent ways. But how? Community-led philanthropy evolves traditional philanthropic frameworks by using an intersectional equity lens to center people most affected by the issues funders seek to address. In this conversation, funders will find a supportive space to learn how to apply a more intersectional, equity-based lens to better understand their communities' needs and maximize their impact on issues they care about most deeply.

Speaker:
Chantelle Fisher-Borne – Project Director, Out in the South Initiative (Durham, NC)
Libby Kyles – Director of Community-Led Grantmaking, Tzedek Social Justice Fund (Asheville, NC)
Marco Antonio Quiroga – Executive Director, Contigo Fund (Orlando, FL)

Moderator: Dr. Shonda Jones – Executive Director, School of Professional Studies, Wake Forest University (Charlotte, NC)

Today’s political landscape has become increasingly divisive leaving foundation leaders, staff and board grappling with how to do the best by a variety of stakeholders with various viewpoints. As a leader how do you push for what you believe is right while balancing the dynamics of politics in organizations and in communities? How do we reframe difficult conversations as courageous conversations while staying true to ourselves and the missions of our foundations? This workshop led by Braver Angels will give you strategies for moving away from polarization, having courageous conversations, and creating collaboration.

Speaker: Randy Lioz – Director of Events, Braver Angels (New York, NY)

More details about this session will be announced soon!

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and creator of the landmark 1619 Project. The New York Times's 1619 Project commemorates the 400th anniversary of the beginning of slavery in what would become the United States by examining slavery's modern legacy and reframing the way we understand this history and the contributions of black Americans to the nation. Nikole's lead essay, "Our Democracy's founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true," was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize.

Speaker: Nikole Hannah-Jones – Journalist, The New York Times, and Knight Chair in Race and Journalism, Howard University School of Communications (Brooklyn, NY)

Moderator: David Dodson – Senior Fellow, MDC, Inc. (Durham, NC)

In recent years, our region and our country have been faced with unprecedented challenges ranging from a global pandemic to heightened political polarization. Philanthropy has responded not only with increased funding, but also new approaches to grantmaking and community impact. Philanthropy Southeast will unveil a new report identifying key social, demographic, economic, and political factors affecting philanthropy in our region and examining the ways that foundations and other philanthropic institutions are adapting to our changing ecosystem. The report will share emerging trends and innovative practices in philanthropy through the stories of Philanthropy Southeast members and other experts in the field. This session will share highlights of the report, including stories of adaptation and resilience from member funders.

Speakers for this session will be announced soon!

Learn from family philanthropists how they leaned in on particular issue areas and placed based issues to better understand how they could leverage their philanthropic impact. Impactful philanthropy is not just about philanthropic dollars. It is also about a philanthropist sharing within their funding networks and communities their expertise, their connections and their knowledge gained in the learning process.

Speaker: Kaky Grant – Principal, Grant Philanthropic Advisors (Charleston, SC)

Are you interested in moving your foundation into the world of impact investing, but feel intimidated by the alphabet soup of options? If so, community development financial institutions (CDFIs) may be the best way to get started – and convincing your foundation’s leadership of their benefit is easier than you think. CDFIs represent a great way to begin aligning your investing strategy with your broader mission, whether you’re a small-staffed foundation or a larger regional funder. Leaders of two foundations – different in many ways, including their impact investing experience – will not only explore the potential of CDFIs but also demonstrate how to get staff and trustees on board with this powerful tool for sparking investment in your community.

Speaker: Chris Crothers – Director of Impact Investing, Jessie Ball duPont Fund (Jacksonville, FL)

The 2021 Annual Meeting closed with powerful words from author Heather McGhee about how racial inequality hurts us all. For many of us, this was one more reason “why” philanthropy should use its resources to spark transformation that allows all people to reach their full potential, unhindered by hatred, bigotry, exclusion, or discrimination. In this session we’ll address “how” philanthropy, particularly white-led philanthropic organizations, can engage in practices to help build a more racially equitable south.

The moderated panel includes three philanthropic leaders representing different types of organizations, all at different stages in their racial equity journey. We’ll discuss issues such as, but not limited to: What do you do to build your infrastructure for racial equity work? How do you fortify your thinking? How do you ‘move’ trustees, who may also be family members, to engage in racial equity work? What challenges have these three leaders faced? What mistakes have they made? And where have they succeeded in centering racial equity.

Speakers:
Shell Berry – President and CEO, Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area (Augusta, GA)
Shannon Cofrin Gaggero – Director of Grant Services and Trustee, The Homestead Foundation (Atlanta, GA)
Dena Kimball – Executive Director, The Kendeda Fund (Atlanta, GA)

Moderator: Tené Traylor– Fund Advisor, The Kendeda Fund (Atlanta, GA)

The Southern United States experiences the greatest geographic burden of many health inequities in the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the South represented 52 percent, or more than half, of HIV diagnoses in the country at the end of 2020. Nine of the 10 metropolitan statistical areas/cities in U.S. with the highest HIV diagnoses are in the region, and Black, Latino and LGBTQ communities are disproportionately impacted by HIV. COVID-19 cases and deaths also have a disproportionate impact on counties with higher proportions of Black residents as well as Black rural and small metro counties. Finally, risk factors for cardiovascular disease are disproportionately focused among residents in the South. The collective impact model, however, can be used to solve these health inequities and other complex social problems. This discussion will demonstrate approaches to shifting power paradigms among grantmakers and grantees with novel solutions to increase funding access and equity among historically marginalized communities, particularly in the American South.

Speakers:
Dr. Samira Ali – Associate Professor, University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work (Houston, TX)
Dr. Shonda Jones – Executive Director, Wake Forest University School of Professional Studies (Charlotte, NC)
Marvell Terry II – Senior Program Manager, AIDS United (Washington, DC)

The 2021-22 Class of Hull Fellows will complete their year of leadership development by presenting capstone projects that address critical issues facing Southern philanthropy and the communities it serves.

In the face of pressing and persistent systemic inequities and nearly three years of unprecedented change and disruption, foundation boards are working to prioritize purpose and show respect for the communities and ecosystems where they operate. This requires a commitment to equity and recognizing that power flows from the people who are ultimately served by those who benefit from philanthropy’s support. Thinking around the “purpose-driven board” was first outlined in an SSIR article by BoardSource in 2021, and challenges boards to reimagine their most essential board roles, focusing on equitable social outcomes, broad-based impacts, community representation, and inclusive listening to accomplish its mission and vision. In this trustees-only session, we will explore these key principles:

· Purpose Before Organization
· Respect for Ecosystem
· Equity Mindset
· Authorized Voice and Power

Working through these key aspects, we can think deeply about how a board sees itself, help assess where your foundation stands on the path to purpose-driven board leadership and provide the knowledge you need to plot your foundation’s roadmap for moving further along this continuum.

Speaker: Andy Davis – Associate Vice President of Member Education & Outreach, BoardSource (Washington, DC)

When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, millions of Americans were forced to remain at home and engage their communities and the world through a digital environment. Children were forced to attend school remotely, while businesses and their employees took extraordinary measures to remain viable as government simultaneously pivoted into a digital environment. This sudden and massive shift exposed a digital divide that had been growing steadily over the last three decades, leaving low-income, minority, and rural Americans without a lifeline as a global crisis unfolded. What we have speculated for years is now apparent: Internet access is an essential modern utility that is deeply intertwined with access to health care and education, participation in the contemporary economy and civic engagement. Clearly, there are significant disparities in access based on income and race, and differences along racial lines are pronounced in underserved urban and rural communities.

We have learned that four main digital inclusion issues persist within our communities:
• Communities lack the physical infrastructure necessary to connect communities adequately.
• Access to the appropriate connection can prove unaffordable for many.
• Residents may not have access to devices with effective connectivity capabilities.
• Digital literacy continues to challenge adults and children alike.

How is philanthropy tackling digital equity? What have we learned over the past two years? Are there likely paths forward?

Speakers:
Norma E. Fernandez – CEO, EveryoneOn (Los Angeles, CA)
Garry Long – Place-Based Philanthropy Program Director, The Zeist Foundation (Atlanta, GA)
Hardmon Williams III – VP, AT&T Believes & Community Engagement, AT&T (Dallas, TX)
Christopher Worman – Co-Founder, Chief Partnership & Strategy Officer, Connect Humanity Fund

Moderator: Tené Traylor – Fund Advisor, The Kendeda Fund (Atlanta, GA)

Access to information is essential to the health of a thriving democracy for at least two reasons. First, it ensures that citizens make responsible, informed choices rather than acting out of ignorance or misinformation. Second, information serves a “checking function” by ensuring that elected representatives uphold their oaths of office and carry out the wishes of those who elected them. Hear from three media professionals who will address the democratic role of the press, foster new solutions to meet community information needs, and make the case as to why local news needs to be a priority for philanthropy.

Speakers:
Mary Ellen Klas – Capital Bureau Chief, Miami Herald (Miami, FL)
Julie Reynolds Martínez – Founding Editor, Voices of Monterey Bay (Salinas, CA)

During these times, how can we respond to the needs and vision of communities most often left out of traditional philanthropic efforts? How do we reckon with the power dynamics within philanthropy and build authentic partnerships with community organizations? Join us to learn from grantmakers who are practicing the art of participatory grantmaking to answer these critical questions. This session will bring together grantmakers who have designed structures within their institutions to make it possible for communities - especially communities of color, LGBTQ and rural communities - to design and direct grantmaking strategies. Speakers will share a variety of examples of participatory grantmaking that represent a range of structures and modalities. Participants will leave with concrete ways to integrate participatory grantmaking into their work.

Speakers:
Melanie Allen – Co-Director, Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice (Durham, NC)
Leah Jones-Marcus – Impact Associate, Dogwood Health Trust (Asheville, NC)
Katrina Mitchell – Chief Community Impact Officer, United Way of Greater Atlanta (Atlanta, GA)
Marco Antonio Quiroga – Executive Director, Contigo Fund (Orlando, FL)

Moderator: Tamieka Mosley – Director, Grantmakers for Southern Progress (East Point, GA)

Local journalism plays an important role in bringing together communities, holding community leaders accountable, and elevating the voices of marginalized groups. Unfortunately, the sector is in crisis with thousands of reporters being laid off and newsrooms closing across the country. However, a growing movement of nonprofit news organizations is leading innovative efforts to reinvigorate local news outlets. Place-based funders across the nation are finding that supporting local journalism advances their strategic objectives by raising the visibility of the challenges they seek to address. Jacksonville’s WJCT Public Media is part of this vital industry shift, illustrated in part through its partnership with Report for America that aims to boost coverage of low-income communities in the city. Join us for an enlightening evening including a studio tour, conversation, and dinner.

Cost: $50/person

More details about this activity will be announced soon!

Philanthropy Southeast’s strength and stability over the past two years, not to mention the Annual Meeting and other events and programs, would not be possible without the support of our sponsors and Sustaining Members – their contributions provide the resources necessary to fulfill our mission. The PSE Board of Trustees and the Philanthropy Southeast staff will honor and celebrate our supporters at this exclusive event. This reception is by invitation only.

Details for this event will be announced soon!

Details for this event will be announced soon!

Start your day with yoga on the beach led by Yoga4Change. This 1-hour gentle flow class is open to all levels. Please remember to bring your yoga mat, a towel, and a bottle of water to stay hydrated. If you do not have a yoga mat, please let us know and one can be provided.

Cost: $45/person

Vu Le is an internationally-known keynote speaker and nonprofit leader. He talks about a variety of subjects: nonprofit funding, challenges, the Overhead Myth, the Sustainability Myth, equity, diversity, the Nonprofit Hunger Games, collaboration, collective impact, what lessons we can learn from the pandemic, community engagement, organizational culture, why nonprofit professionals are so awesome, how to stave off burnout, lessons nonprofits can learn from various TV shows, etc. He brings humor, insight, and usually pictures of baby animals to every keynote he gives. If you like blunt and provocative insights along with humor and pictures of baby animals, this is the session for you!

Speaker: Vu Le – Writer, Nonprofit AF (Seattle, WA)

Vu Le will lead a follow-up session providing a deeper and more interactive exploration of the themes discussed during his morning plenary.

Speaker: Vu Le – Writer, Nonprofit AF (Seattle, WA)

The past two years have seen the introduction of hundreds of anti-LGBTQI+ bills in state legislatures across the country, with many of these bills originating and passing in the American South. This flurry of anti-LGBTQI+ legislation has been aimed at transgender and gender-expansive youth by restricting access to life-saving healthcare, prohibiting discussions of race, gender, and identity in schools, and enforcing state-sanctioned family separation policies that criminalize parents caring for their LGBTQI+ children. Listen and learn from LGBTQI+ leaders about the implications of these policies on the health of LGBTQI+ youth, the efforts to counter state-based preemptions that have prohibited pro-LGBTQI+ policies from being passed, and the role of individual foundations in securing equal protections and advancing human rights for LGBTQI+ people.

Speakers:
Marco Antonio Quiroga – Executive Director, Contigo Fund (Orlando, FL)
Ian Siljestron – Associate Director, Equality Florida (St. Petersburg, FL)

Affordable housing is at or near crisis levels in almost every community. While many factors contribute to the affordability equation and add up to a huge challenge, there are many opportunities for funders large and small to make a meaningful investment in safe and affordable housing within the neighborhoods they serve. In this interactive session, we will discuss the full continuum of housing needs, from emergency shelter to permanent home ownership, and explain the many key inflection points where potential funders can make meaningful investments. We’ll also look at the full range of tools and strategies funders can deploy to build out their own affordable housing strategies.

Speakers:
Sarah Grymes – VP of Impact – Housing, Dogwood Health Trust (Asheville, NC)
Betsey Russell – Senior Director of Communications, Dogwood Health Trust (Asheville, NC)
Randy Scheid – Chief Strategy Officer, Quantum Foundation (West Palm Beach, FL)

As the dust settles from this year’s midterm elections, join us for a discussion of the results and what they will mean for philanthropy’s public policy priorities over the next two years and how leaders in the sector can best respond to both opportunities and challenges on the horizon.

Moderator: Sandra Swirski – Founder, Integer (Washington, DC)

In a world of uncertainty, fatigue, division and challenges to democracy and human rights, it can be quite daunting to “do all the things” – build a learning organization that supports its staff and trustees, support our nonprofit partners to meet their needs, and be responsive to the conditions of the world around us. It’s more important than ever for philanthropy to lean in and do the hard work of being vulnerable and empathetic in our communities.
Adapting a learning culture rooted in equity with our communities can lead to transformative relationships, shifting power dynamics, and progress. How foundations set up a learning culture within and alongside community partners can look quite different, but many foundations struggle with similar questions: Are staff and trustees open to learning from experts in community and changing how they evaluate progress and impact? How do we build relationships with our nonprofit partners rooted in trust, creativity, and mutual discovery of knowledge? When the work gets hard or uncomfortable, how do you pivot and keep moving? What does impact and progress really mean, who defines it, and is it measurable?
Join us for a discussion with the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation and a nonprofit partner to hear stories of learning and co-creation to build deeper and more trusting relationships in community.

Speaker: Dr. Chera Reid – Co-Executive Director, Center for Evaluation Innovation (Washington, DC)

For over 15 years, MDC has worked through its Passing Gear Philanthropy program to address the deep, heavily racialized inequities riddled through our region’s communities by helping Southern foundations build the vision, will, and capacity required to effect change towards a more equitable and thriving society. Learn from MDC Senior Fellow David Dodson on how Passing Gear helps foundations align their capacity with their aspirations to change civic culture and reform the systems and policies that allow inequities to endure. David will lead us through a conversation with three place-based funders and Passing Gear alumni, who will share lessons on how Passing Gear principles have changed how they work and what they fund- all while tackling tough equity issues in their own communities.

Speaker: David Dodson – Senior Fellow, MDC, Inc. (Durham, NC)

Edgar’s multi-industry disrupting message of decolonizing wealth and using money as medicine has been shared with captive audiences around the world. Villanueva, a Hull Fellows Alumnus, is the principal of the Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital and author of the bestselling book Decolonizing Wealth, which was re-released as an expanded 2nd edition in 2021. He advises a range of organizations including national and global philanthropies, Fortune 500 companies, and entertainment on social impact strategies to advance racial equity from within and through their investment strategies.

Speaker: Edgar Villanueva – Author, Decolonizing Wealth

Moderator: Fay Twersky – President & Director, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation (Atlanta, GA)