Registration
OPENING PLENARY AND PANEL PRESENTATION EVENTS SPONSORED BY CASEY FAMILY PROGRAMS, WILLIAM C. BELL, PRESIDENT AND CEO
Sunday, 10:00 a.m.– 4:00 p.m.A separate registration is required to attend this event. $80 members, $125 nonmembers
As the leader of a grantmaking or corporate giving foundation, you are expected to maintain current knowledge of the internal and external factors that affect your foundation. But this is not an easy task. Join foundation leaders from across the nation at the CEO–Trustee Summit and experience a day of peer learning, in-depth discussions, and networking. At this session you can meet with and hear from your peers, experts, CEOs, trustees, and top executives from foundations. You will also have the opportunity to engage in high-level yet practical discussions on diverse topics and gain new perspectives and insight on issues that affect your work.
For more information contact Sophie Dunbar at leaders@cof.org or 703-879-0768.
Opening Plenary and Brunch
10:00am–Noon
Plenary Speaker: Geoff Mulgan, Director, Young Foundation, London, UK and former official in the government of Tony Blair.
Geoff Mulgan brings a global perspective to this CEO-Trustee Summit. His foundation has been involved in initiating many innovations which have subsequently spread worldwide, as well as working at the very local neighbourhood level. His particular interest is in strengthening the practice of social innovation in fields like disability, chronic disease, education and integration, through global networks, systematic lesson learning and new forms of funding and support. He will also talk about the changing nature of civil society and the role of foundations and foundation leaders in supporting dynamic and independent civic action.
Session designer and facilitator: Hilary Pearson, President and CEO, Philanthropic Foundations Canada
Master of Ceremony: Richard L. Moore, President, Weaver Foundation
Breakout Discussions
Noon–2:00pm
Once you register for the CEO-Trustee Summit, we will contact you and invite you to select one breakout session. You'll be invited to share your learning expectations with the presenters before the event.
- How to Be Effective: Rethinking the Compact Between CEOs and Boards in a Changing Society
At this session, you'll hear how foundation CEOs and their respective board members work together to negotiate what is often unexpected change both inside the boardroom and outside the foundation. Foundation leaders will learn how to reconsider and refine their roles in light of changing external circumstances.
This session will help:
Speakers:
- Foundation executives understand how external and internal factors influence the way CEOs and trustees work together.
- Tenured CEOs and trustees evaluate, assess and rethink changes in their own and in their foundations’ roles as a result of external circumstances.
- New CEOs and trustees understand how key stakeholders can influence foundation work and the importance of fostering solid relationships with partners.
- Dr. Ivye Allen, CEO, Foundation for the Mid South, Inc.
- Dr. Beverly Hogan, Chair, Foundation for the Mid South, Inc
- Carol Goss, CEO, The Skillman Foundation
- Stephen Ewing, Chair, The Skillman Foundation
Session Designers:
- Tom Beech, President and CEO, The Fetzer Institute (Session Facilitator)
- Sherry Magill, President, Jessie Ball duPont Fund
- How do Foundation Leaders Work Strategically with Intermediary Organizations?
Success in achieving your philanthropic mission is driven, in most cases, by the capacity and leadership ability of your nonprofit partners. Their innovation and effectiveness are key to the sustainability of your investment. To strengthen nonprofit capacity, some foundation leaders have opted to work strategically with intermediary organizations (such as the Nonprofit Finance Fund and the Tides Center) to build human, financial, and technical capacity within nonprofits. This panel session will address questions such as: What motivates some foundation leaders to choose a strategy of working through capacity-building intermediaries? How do foundation leaders and intermediaries establish mutually satisfying working relationships, including defining goals and outcomes? How do nonprofits themselves perceive this experience? What are some of the lessons that all partners can learn in this area?
This session will help foundation leaders:
- Assess the merits of a strategy of working through an intermediary to support grantees and to achieve their own philanthropic goals
- Gain a better understanding of the skills and capabilities required to manage successful partnerships with intermediaries
- Learn about how to measure the impact and effectiveness of pursuing an intermediary strategy
Speakers:
- Ellen Friedman, Vice President, Tides Foundation
- Clara Miller, President and CEO, Nonprofit Finance Fund
- Elizabeth Sullivan, Senior Vice President of Programs, Nonprofit Capital, Kresge Foundation
- Diana Wells, Co-President, Ashoka
- John Kostishack, Former Executive Director, Otto Bremer Foundation
- Hilary Pearson, President and CEO, Philanthropic Foundations Canada (Session Facilitator)
.
- Foundation Accountability: What Does it Really Mean?
Foundations are unique institutions. While foundations recognize that they must operate in an ethical manner, what does accountability mean within the field of philanthropy? Who are foundations accountable to and what are they accountable for? What is a foundation’s social value? This session will engage panelists from inside and outside the world of philanthropy to consider some of these philosophical questions about our field.
In this session, attendees will:
Session Designers:
- Gain a greater sense of the characteristics of foundations that have made them agents of important social and cultural change in the United States and the world.
- Understand more clearly how foundations are unique American institutions for their independence from government, relative to other types of institutions.
- Gain a greater understanding of the ways in which foundations should be held accountable and other areas where they should remain fiercely independent
Speakers:
- Alan Abramson, Professor, Department of Public and International Affairs, George Mason University and Senior Fellow, Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program, The Aspen Institute
- Lance Lindblom, President and CEO, Nathan Cummings Foundation
- Stacy Palmer, Editor, Chronicle of Philanthropy
Session Designers:
- C. David Campbell, President, McGregor Fund (Session Facilitator)
- Lance Lindblom, President and CEO, Nathan Cummings Foundation
Reflections on Leadership and Change: Panel Presentation and Table Discussions
2:00pm–4:00pm
This session will feature a panel of leaders who have managed through “crises”—dramatic and change-producing events or circumstances—that have brought both challenges and opportunities to their foundations. Whether generated internally or externally, a crisis disrupts “business as usual” in ways that challenge the CEO and the board. Immediately following a short discussion among the panelists, the audience will be invited to join—and continue—the conversation at their tables and within the group.
Participants will:
- Learn from experienced foundation leaders about how they have confronted particularly challenging circumstances and how these experiences transformed them as well as their organizations
- Reflect on their own leadership styles and how they have reacted to similar situations or might react to them in the future
- Identify some of the core competencies, skills and capacities that enable a CEO to turn significant disruptions in "business as usual" into positive personal and organizational growth as a result of change
Speakers:
- Judy Belk, Senior Vice President, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
- William C. Bell, President and CEO, Casey Family Programs and Trustee, Marguerite Casey Foundation
- Gregory Ben Johnson, CEO and President, Greater New Orleans Foundation
- Carol S. Larson, President and CEO, The David & Lucile Packard Foundation
Session Designers:
- Richard L. Moore, President, Weaver Foundation (Session Facilitator)
- Elizabeth B. Smith, President, Hyams Foundation, Inc.