A well-trained staff and an informed board are critical to the success of community foundations in our fast-changing world. This two-day course helps new and experienced foundation stakeholders build the essential skills they need to balance governance and management.

Created and led by experienced leaders, this course includes:

• Updates on key legal and legislative issues;
• Information on grantmaking; and
•  Review of community leadership and fiduciary responsibilities.

Developed in conjunction with Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy, these courses help community foundation staff, board members and volunteers master the unique aspects of the community foundation field. You'll learn about effective practices, get helpful tools and information, and have the opportunity to network with others in the field. Comprehensive and engaging, these courses are an efficient and affordable way to increase your knowledge of the field.

A well-trained staff and an informed board are critical to the success of community foundations in our fast-changing world. This two-day course helps new and experienced foundation stakeholders build the essential skills they need to balance governance and management.

Created and led by experienced leaders, this course includes:

• Updates on key legal and legislative issues;
• Information on grantmaking; and
•  Review of community leadership and fiduciary responsibilities.

Developed in conjunction with Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy, these courses help community foundation staff, board members and volunteers master the unique aspects of the community foundation field. You'll learn about effective practices, get helpful tools and information, and have the opportunity to network with others in the field. Comprehensive and engaging, these courses are an efficient and affordable way to increase your knowledge of the field.

This one-day workshop will explore how a wide range of foundations are playing effective roles in improving economic outcomes and prospects for rural communities and regions. The workshop will feature case studies, strategies and tactics that foundation and community leaders are using to help strengthen family and community economic success in ways that reduce inequality and increase prosperity for all.

Learn More & Register

Speaker(s): Marla Tofle, VP of Philanthropic Services, Napa Valley Community Foundation

For decades, foundations have made impact investments to complement grants, partnerships, advocacy, and other tools in the philanthropic toolbox. But how do you start your foundation down a path to use this emerging tactic? Incorporating impact investing into your foundation's philanthropic strategy requires thoughtful planning among foundation leaders and trustees. This interactive, one-day workshop will explore whether impact investing is right for your foundation, what you need to consider, and what steps you need to take to begin incorporating impact investing into your foundation's philanthropic strategy.

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Speaker(s): Christian Braemer, CEO, Benefunder; Jane Campbell, Director, National Development Council; Kimberly Eney, Associate, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP; Sted Garber, Senior Investment Analyst, The Annie E. Casey Foundation; Jenny Harms, , Incourage; Jane Henderson, President and CEO, Virginia Community Capital, Inc.; David Levitt, Principal, Adler & Colvin; Debbie McKeon, Senior Vice President, Member Services, Council of Michigan Foundations; Diana Meyer, State Director of Community Development, Citi Foundation; Joel Moore, Financial Advisor, Merrill Lynch

Bus begins loading at 10:45 am and will depart from the hotel at precisely 11 am.

Baltimore is a much-discussed city impacted by many myths. This immersive site session is intended to help participants understand key aspects of a vibrant city's philanthropic and civic life. The programming will focus on the ecosystem of factors impacting the long-term vitality of a great American city, and participants will leave with a better understanding of how Baltimore's leaders are working to address the challenges facing the city.

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At the 2015 Council on Foundations's Annual Meeting, some 200 community foundation leaders were galvanized by Dr. Robert Putnam's seminar on the growing "opportunity gap" facing 25 million young people in communities across America. This spring, two dozen of your colleagues are launching a national leadership and action network of community foundations committed to closing this gap, and we would like you to join us.

We invite you to attend this strategy session on how we can drive solutions, track outcomes, advance policy, share lessons, and establish a collective voice. This event will include the release of "Closing the Opportunity Gap" - a summary of the most promising solutions developed by leading experts through Dr. Putnam's Saguaro Seminar at the Harvard Kennedy School.

For more information or to get involved in the action network, contact Dick Ober, President & CEO of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

We live in an era of mistrust, fragmentation and where too many groups and individuals are pursuing their own good at the expense of the common good. And yet, even amidst our differences, Americans are yearning to come together and get things done. Rich Harwood will talk about the critical role community foundations can play in this environment - in engaging communities and marshaling collective resources to combat the negative conditions that are holding us back and creating a new trajectory of possibility and hope.

All conference attendees are welcome to attend this preconference event.

The Council is grateful to Lilly Endowment Inc., for their generous support as Lead Sponsor of Community Foundation programming.

Join others working in the field of corporate philanthropy and corporate social responsibility for a chance to mingle with peers over light snacks and refreshments. Vikki Spruill, the CEO of the Council on Foundations, and Paula Wolferseder Yabar, the Council's Senior Vice President of Membership and Development, will speak about the Council's commitment to advancing the field and provide insights into the Council's planned future contributions to the work of corporate philanthropists.

All conference attendees are welcome to attend this preconference event.

Before heading to the Global Philanthropy Dinner, meet international attendees and U.S. funders working in global programs over drinks and great conversation. You'll also get a chance to meet the Global Philanthropy Working Group and Council staff.

All conference attendees are welcome to attend this preconference event.

Are you tired of going to receptions where everyone is standing around only talking to the people they already know? Do you want a fun way to meet new people and start to build relationships with other private and family foundation peers? Then the Private-Family Foundation reception is for you! The Working Group has planned a FUN way for attendees to meet new people and expand your networks. Bring lots of business cards and your appetite for good food and networking!

All conference attendees are welcome to attend this preconference event.

Welcome to Washington, D.C. in 2016! It's election season. Who is winning? Who is losing? What is gaining traction? What is falling behind? Who will take the White House and what of Congress?

The Council and Independent Sector are co-hosting this campaign-style reception — complete with all the Star-Spangled bells and whistles that are fixtures during election season. The evening's entertainment will be provided by the ever-compelling duo, Charlie Cook and Stuart Rothenberg, as they share their insights and observations about this this year's election cycle.

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All conference attendees are welcome to attend this preconference event.

The 2016 Annual Global Philanthropy Dinner will provide a space for conference attendees to meet and connect before the full conference begins on Sunday. Dinner will feature a number of leading experts who will discuss how the global migration challenge is impacting communities around the world, the root causes and challenges that have led to growing migration flows, and what role philanthropy can play when responding to this crisis.

For attendees of the Council's annual conference, this event is free thanks to the generous sponsorship support of "la Caixa" Foundation, but registration is required.

The Council is grateful to the "la Caixa" Foundation for providing sponsorship support for this preconference event.

Thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their table sponsorship.

The Born This Way Foundation will help us kick off the conference through a special video featuring youth voices, who will share their aspirations for the future of community.

 The traditional notion of community is being reshaped by factors that expand beyond geography. Unbound by the limits of proximity, a more diverse, connected society enabled by technology and social media allows once disparate individuals to self-identify, lead together, and catalyze change. Now, groups, networks, and social movements coalesce around common interests that are increasingly being defined by a shared identity, purpose, and place.

Speaker(s): David McCullough, Historian, ; Vikki Spruill, President and CEO, Council on Foundations; Nick Tilsen, Executive Director, Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation

Is this your first Council conference? Do you want some tips for making the most of your time with us? If so, stop by. You'll be glad you did.

Visit the Concourse Level for these 30 minute sessions featuring new ideas, peer-to-peer discussions, and technology trends.

• Learning Lab: Scholarship and Student Support Trends with Scholarship America
• Tech-KNOWLEDGEY Bar: Assessing Your Private Foundation's MDR Environment with Moss Adams
• Tech-KNOWLEDGEY Bar: Streamline Your Workflow and Boost Productivity with Meeting Pool

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Nonprofit-corporate governance is dominated by boards of directors, but a traditional board might not be the best structure (or fit) for every nonprofit, particularly organizations that want to include more members of the community or other constituencies in their governance. Recent developments in nonprofit-corporate law (and some older, though little-used, provisions) permit a great variety of alternative governance structures-designated bodies, authorized third persons, committees, members, delegates, and designators-that can supplement or replace board governance. Use of these alternative structures can meet real governance needs of some nonprofits-not least expanding community participation in governance-but implementing alternative structures requires careful consideration, planning, and drafting.

Speaker(s): William Klimon, Member, Caplin & Drysdale

Join three Denver-based foundations to explore how distinct initiatives—outside of the regular grantmaking process—can engage the community and spur innovation. Rose Community Foundation launched Innovate for Good this past year, a new grant contest that brought applicants and reviewers from the broader community to identify and fund ideas that will make Denver a better place to live. Community First Foundation's Innovators Society invests in fresh new ideas around mental health and wellness, and the Denver Foundation's Colorado ART Tank awards a prize to a new and unique arts-based venture at an annual event. This interactive session will ask participants to engage with these three very different models and share ideas and experiences about soliciting and funding innovation.

The Council is grateful to Lilly Endowment Inc., for their generous support as Lead Sponsor of Community Foundation programming.

Speaker(s): Noah Atencio, Vice President of Community impact, Community First Foundation; Whitney Gustin Connor, Senior Health Program Officer, Rose Community Foundation; Lorii Rabinowitz, 2015 Innovate for Good Project Manager, Rose Community Foundation; Christiano Sosa, Director of Capacity Building and Collective Philanthropy, The Denver Foundation

Digital data are becoming a core resource for foundations. These data come in a variety of forms and serve many purposes — from the public data sets used to inform program strategy to the photos on your website. Foundations and nonprofits are committed to managing their financial and human resources effectively and efficiently, and they now need to bring those values - plus their mission - to governing digital data. Toward that end, the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society has launched digitalIMPACT.io - a web-based tool to curate and share the policies and tools being built by the sector for the sector.

This session includes an introduction to digitalIMPACT.io, a chance for you to do a quick "capacity check" for your own organization, and a facilitated discussion of the longer-term digital policy issues that matter to foundations and nonprofits. Participants should bring their own internet-enabled device (tablet, phone or laptop) to access the site during the session.

Speaker(s): Lucy Bernholz, Senior Research Scholar and Director, Digital Civil Society Lab, Stanford University

By 2030, the US and 192 other countries have agreed to eradicate extreme poverty, end hunger, achieve gender equality and take urgent action to combat climate change by 2030. This interactive session will work with funders of all types and sizes to explore the universal application of the Sustainable Development Goals. We will discuss why these goals matter to philanthropy, especially US funders working on domestic challenges. Speakers will provide important context around how the SDGs were developed and what they are, while funders will share how they are using the SDGs to support their work across the US. Speakers will share concrete tools and resources to help attendees creatively think about how their ongoing work to address domestic poverty issues is linked to this shared universal global agenda. Following this session, we hope funders of all types will be able to see their work within these new global goals.

Speaker(s): Mike Beard, Advocacy Director / Director, Better World Campaign, United Nations Foundation; Jennifer Chavez Rubio, Senior Director of Global Engagement, Medtronic Foundation; Natalie Ross, Senior Director for Global Philanthropy and Partnerships, Council on Foundations; Nancy Van Milligen, President and CEO, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque

Have you ever had a board member or donor ask why your community foundation has a specific policy or procedure? This session will highlight how the community foundation field, informed by years of experience and input from federal and state regulators, creates frameworks for organizational excellence. The National Standards team will be joined by the Independent Sector's Guiding Principles team to discuss tools you can use. Don't worry, there will be plenty of tips on how to participate in and pass National Standards.

Speaker(s): Amanda Broun, , ; Hazle Hamilton, Executive Vice President, Community Foundation of Central Georgia; Svetlana Hutfles, Executive Director, Kansas Association of Community Foundations; Lara Kalwinski, Executive Director of National Standards and Senior Counsel, Council on Foundations

In this roundtable discussion participants will suggest topics they'd like to discuss and share best practices with each other. Occurring at the opening of the conference, this session will be vital to establishing relationships central to the practice of corporate philanthropy.

Speaker(s): Wendy Hawkins, (Retired) Executive Director, Intel Foundation/ Consultant & Coach, Wrhawkins Consulting

Often in philanthropy, our intention is to design and supportsystems to set people up for success. But the reality is we frequently do not spend sufficienttime listening to people about what is currently setting them up for failure. In this interactive session, participants will be engaged in real life experiences of a formerly incarcerated HIV positive individual who has struggled to stay out of jail, in treatment, housed and gainfully employed. One grantmaker (Kaiser Permanente) will describe their approach to designing a funding initiative with an evaluation plan for the purpose of learning what would lead to better outcomes and have lasting impact, including some surprising findings and new hope. Agrassroots community based organization and grantee, the Fortune Society, will engage in a candid "fireside chat" withparticipants about how they are addressing HIV care consistent with the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States: Updated to 2020. This national strategyemphasizes a reduction in HIV-related health inequities and achieving a more coordinated national response to the HIV epidemic, including care and services at the community level that help to build lives.

Sponsored by Kaiser Permanente

Speaker(s): Jill Poklemba, Associate Vice President of Development and Communications, The Fortune Society; Melissa Ramos, Evaluation Consultant, Kaiser Permanente; Nilda Ricard, Director, Drop-in Center Health Services, The Fortune Society; Stanley Richards, Senior Vice President, Programs, The Fortune Society

Cross sector leadership is the work of building and supporting alliances of individuals working within and across sectors that together have a role in solving a problem and achieving a shared goal. This work requires leaders who can facilitate the members of these alliances in coming together as a team, understanding and solving problems, and achieving impact. In this session, participants will be introduced to the concept of cross sector leadership, learn directly from practitioners applying them to real life case studies on complex problems like education and skills acquisition, and understand the connection to and implications for philanthropy.

Speaker(s): Noel Anderson, Clinical Professor/Director of Educational Leadership, New York University; Vincent Baxter, Deputy Chief, Family Engagement, District of Columbia Public Schools; Marco Davis, Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hisp, U.S. Department of Education; Jane Hodgdon, Education Program Specialist, U.S. Department of Education; Lynsey Jeffries, CEO, Higher Achievement; David Styers, Manager of Program and Business Development, Presidio Institute - A Presidio Trust Initiative

How do you build authentic collaborative engagement among nonprofits? This session offers a unique insight into how to create meaningful nonprofit collaboration.

Sponsored by The Nonprofit Centers Network, a cohort of 23 nonprofit shared space centers formed The Collaboration Project in 2015 to better understand, document, and replicate collaborations that occur within our shared spaces. Because shared spaces bring together groups of nonprofits under the same roof, they are a rich laboratory to understand how and when nonprofits initiate collaboration, under what conditions they find working together beneficial, and what challenges they face.

Participants will learn best practices developed by this learning community; including the up's and down's of managing shared space projects, how to foster community and measure the benefits of sharing.

Attendees will hear about the efforts of two centers, both developed by foundations. We will focus on why Grantmaking foundations have embraced developing shared space nonprofit centers, what they hope to gain from these collaborations, and whether or not their expectations are being met.

The audience will take away tools for engaging in conversations about collaboration by untangling the web of jargon and identifying the goals, roles and strategies needed to meet expectations around nonprofit collaboration.

Speaker(s): Jenny Camhi, Senior Manager of the Hub and North County Jewish Life, Leichtag Family Foundation; Katie Ensign, Senior Program Officer, Jessie Ball duPont Fund; Lara Jakubowski, Executive Director, The Nonprofit Centers Network; Jessie Mackinnon, Vice President, Programs & Partnerships,

This is a particularly interesting year in Washington: the November elections provide fewer days in-session on the Congressional calendar, a seat on the Supreme Court bench unexpectedly became available, and there is growing energy around major policy reform in anticipation of the transition to a new Administration.

So how does the environment of policymaking in Washington impact foundations and the important work of philanthropy? Join us to hear insight from experts from the Hill and colleagues in the field about the implications of this current atmosphere, and the role that philanthropy might play to advance the common good under these circumstances.

Speaker(s): David Biemesderfer, President and CEO, Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers; Peter Bird, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Frist Foundation; Cathy Hurwit, Chief of Staff, Office of Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), United States House of Representatives; Mary Jalonick, President and CEO, The Dallas Foundation; Sue Santa, Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Legal Affairs, Council on Foundations

The future of communities is strongly tied to the arts, culture, and heritage of those communities. Beyond simply the deepening understanding of how cultural identity and a rich cultural life positive impact a community's health, vibrancy, and equity, there is ample evidence that integrating the arts with other community contributors-whether you're talking about transportation, activism, incarceration, etc-makes more change possible. In this session, explore how and why foundations should consider constantly involving the common denominator of arts and culture in the strategic planning of philanthropic initiatives. The arts are vital to community well-being, and the integration and utilization of creative arts-based interventions in community issues can (1) transform systems that might otherwise stay stuck, (2) amplify positive and mitigate negative impacts that might otherwise be harder to impact, and (3) reduce barriers to participation and opportunity for people of all sorts whose voices are necessary in the conversation.

Speaker(s): Clayton Lord, Vice President of Local Arts Advancement, Americans for the Arts; Karen Minkel, Home Region Program Director, Walton Family Foundation, Inc.; Tom Walton, Home Region Program Committee Chair, Walton Family Foundation, Inc.

Visit the Concourse Level for these 30 minute sessions featuring new ideas, peer-to-peer discussions, and technology trends.

• Conversation Caf: Aligning for Purpose with the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy
• Tech-KNOWLEDGEY Bar: Advancing Shared Leadership through Technology with BoardEffect
• Tech-KNOWLEDGEY Bar: Tips & Tricks to Get to Know Your Mobile Devices Inside & Out! with Meeting Pool

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Visit the Concourse Level for these 30 minute sessions featuring new ideas, peer-to-peer discussions, and technology trends.

• Learning Lab: Best Practices for Engaging NextGen in Your Philanthropy with J.P. Morgan
• Tech-KNOWLEDGEY Bar: Apps for Work/Life Balance with Meeting Pool

Learn More

Both of the women featured in this first Leadership in Action session have built massive movements. Maria Teresa Kumar has helped mobilize millions of Latinos in the U.S. to engage with the country's leaders and sparked a movement of civically engaged young people. As Co-Founder of the Malala Fund, Shiza Shahid has worked to mobilize communities across the globe around the social advancement of women and girls. In this discussion, these two leaders will speak about how they came to find their purpose and align others around it. Robert K. Ross, M.D., the president and chief executive officer for The California Endowment will moderate this session.

Lunch will be served during this Leadership in Action session.

Speaker(s): Maria Teresa Kumar, President and CEO, Voto Latino; Robert Lynch, President and CEO, Americans for the Arts; Robert Ross, President and CEO, The California Endowment; Shiza Shahid, Co-Founder, The Malala Fund

Philanthropy in America is a bursting, bubbling impulse that has vital effects on almost every sector of our society. In this lively talk, widely published author Karl Zinsmeister argues that without philanthropy there would be no America as we know it-and explaining why. This presentation includes material from The Almanac of American Philanthropy, a monumental new resource created by The Philanthropy Roundtable to explain, inspire, and defend private giving. The book was published in early 2016, and serves as a kind of missing manual for the field.

The Almanac encapsulates in one authoritative volume the greatest achievements of U.S. philanthropy, the most influential donors, crucial facts and statistics, and the best ideas-all in a brisk narrative full of quirky characters and fascinating Americana.

Speaker(s): Christopher Gates, Senior Advisor, ; Mason Rummel, President & CEO, James Graham Brown Foundation, Inc.; Karl Zinsmeister, Vice President of Publications, The Philanthropy Roundtable

Anecdotal observations from community development practitioners and funders suggest that distressed metropolitan areas operate at a disadvantage when competing with their better-resourced, larger counterparts, even those also thought to be in distress. Though only a relatively small source of funding, foundation grants play an outsized role in supporting and catalyzing local community and economic development. Focusing specifically on grants for community and economic development, this session will present the findings from research that explores how a metropolitan area's size, socioeconomic characteristics, economic vitality, and the resources present in its nonprofit and philanthropic sectors affect its level of funding from the nation's largest foundations and what these findings mean for funders working to revitalize smaller cities and prepare them for the new economy.

Speaker(s): Kathleen Annette, President and CEO, Blandin Foundation; Alicia Kitsuse, Program Officer, Flint Area Program, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; William Lambe, Senior Community and Economic Development Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Donald Schwarz, Vice President - Program, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

In 2015, more people than ever before were displaced from their homes, seeking refuge in new countries and cities around the world. The war tragedies close to Europe’s borders resulted in more than one million refugees arriving in 2015 only in Europe, among them more than 100.000 unaccompanied minors. But also the US have accepted almost 700.000 refugees over the past ten years. This leads to massive challenges not only in short–term reception of the newcomers but also in the long–run, i.e. the integration of these new populations. The socio–economic and cultural background of the newcomers especially in Europe in an increasingly hostile environment puts another layer of complexity to these challenges. Likewise in the US anti–immigration rhetoric is becoming increasingly hostile. How has philanthropy reacted in Europe and the United States so far to support refugees and migrants entering new communities? This panel will discuss differences and similarities between the US and the European situation, funding opportunities and promising strategies for receiving and integrating new members of local communities, and share how funders new to working in this space can provide support, locally and transatlantic, to the migration challenges we are facing today.

Speaker(s): Margie McHugh, Director, National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, Migration Policy Institute; Maria Teresa Rojas, Director, International Migration Initiative, Open Society Foundations; Stefan Schaefers, Chair, European Programme for Integration and Migration, King Baudouin Foundation

Every day, many are denied the opportunity to compete for jobs that can provide stability and security for their families when they are asked to disclose convictions or arrests on employment applications and are subsequently excluded from consideration. Over 70 million Americans have arrest or conviction records that can show up in background checks for employment.

Leading corporations, 21 states and over 100 municipalities have taken action to adopt hiring practices that limit inquiries into conviction or arrest status. A number of foundations have also taken action—most recently with the launch of the "Ban the Box" Philanthropy Challenge, in which over 40 foundations announced that they have adopted fair chance hiring measures and challenged all U.S. foundations to follow suit.

In this session legal and HR experts will share components of a proposed model fair chance hiring policy and toolkit designed specifically for philanthropic institutions. They will also offer lessons learned from prior efforts in the private and public sectors, as well as the national "Ban the Box" movement.

Speaker(s): Daryl Atkinson, Second Chance Fellow, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice; Maurice Emsellem, Program Director, National Employment Law Project; Damon Hewitt, Senior Advisor, Open Society Foundations

Visit the Concourse Level for these 30 minute sessions featuring new ideas, peer-to-peer discussions, and technology trends.

• Conversation Caf: The Art of Partnership with J.P. Morgan
• Conversation Caf: Family Foundations as Collaborators with the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy
• Tech-KNOWLEDGEY Bar: Tech and Solutions: Note Taking and Capturing Data - Speech and Handwriting Recognition with Meeting Pool

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All too often, leaders in older American cities either do not know what to do with their stock of aged, vacant buildings or default to tearing down these buildings in favor of new construction and developments. New and shiny equate to progress and innovation, right? Not necessarily. The National Trust for Historic Preservation's Preservation Green Lab provided analysis and support to cities like Baltimore, Chicago and Los Angeles, helping city leaders to understand that reusing and retrofitting their older, historic buildings can lead to:

• Thriving creative economies;
• An influx of millennial residents;
• Job creation at new small businesses, many owned by women and people of color; and
• Significant environmental savings over demolition and new construction, such as CO2 emissions and carbon-related impacts. 

This session will share the Preservation Green Lab's process and findings. Attendees will learn how a partnership with Urban Land Institute District Councils is bringing together real estate, preservation, community development, and local government leaders to develop strategies to overcome the barriers to building reuse and foster more economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable cities for the future.

Speaker(s): Alicia Berg, Assistant Vice President for Campus Planning & Sustainability, University of Chicago; Eleanor Gorski, Assistant Commissioner - Landmarks, City of Chicago; James Lindberg, Senior Director, Preservation Green Lab; Cynthia McSherry, Executive Director, Urban Land Institute - Chicago; Stephanie Meeks, President, National Trust for Historic Preservation; Janet Owens, Executive Director, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Jacksonville

Through an unprecedented partnership with the San Francisco Planning Department, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) launched an open source model that has the people of San Francisco profoundly influencing the design of their city. Launched in 2015, the Market Street Prototyping Festival incubates citizen-designed ideas for activating public space and making Market Street a more welcoming, inspiring destination for the diverse communities that live and work along its path. Through this session, you will learn how to leverage cross-sector partnerships, to reimagine the role art centers can play in our communities, and to empower citizens to help shape the cities they live in.

Speaker(s): Deborah Cullinan, Chief Executive Officer, Yerba Buena Center For the Arts

With practices increasingly integrated, what are best practices when carrying out your employee engagement, employee giving and volunteering, and corporate grant making? This session will address these questions through a discussion of promising technological trends and learnings about the possibilities and limitations of tech in practice.

Speaker(s): Rachel Hutchisson, Vice President, Corporate Citizenship & Philanthropy, Blackbaud, Inc.; Angela Parker, Co-founder, President, Realized Worth

Over the last two decades, hundreds of resources have arisen to make nonprofit data available to the public. This information is now an integral part of the decision-making process for thousands of nonprofits, funders, and donors. Managing their data on multiple platforms is inconvenient and time-consuming for the nonprofits, however. Join GuideStar CEO Jacob Harold and other leaders of the nonprofit data community as they examine the current state of data in the nonprofit sector, how developing data standards will help streamline use of nonprofit data, the opportunities for learning and collaboration possible with the right data systems, and where nonprofit data is going in the near and distant future.

Speaker(s): Jacob Harold, President & CEO, GuideStar USA, Inc.; Mari Kuraishi, Co-Founder and President, GlobalGiving

Does organizational form matter when it comes to charity? What tools are available to direct private capital towards the most promising outcomes, regardless of form? Are "new" ways to give really new at all, or just new names for old practices?

This conversation, grounded in the Council's Evolution of American Philanthropy Initiative, will explore "new" constructs of philanthropy at a time when philanthropy is undergoing change in both available giving vehicles and types of recipients of charitable dollars. In this age of expanded options for philanthropy, come gain a better understanding of today's vehicles, how they have evolved, and expert advice on navigating the many tools at your disposal to make the greatest impact with your philanthropic investments.

Our experts from academia and real-world practitioners will share their insights on tools like mission-related and program-related investing, hybrid organizational forms, and venture philanthropy.

Speaker(s): Shena Ashley, Director, Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, The Urban Institute; Joshua Mintz, Vice President & General Counsel, John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ; Una Osili, Director of Research, The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy; John Tyler, General Counsel and Secretary, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

The Paris COP21 accord is an extraordinary turning point in the fight against climate change. Importantly, it also links that fight to the broader sustainable development agenda. After years of sharp divisions and stalled actions there is a widely shared recognition of the dangers of delay and greater collective resolve to act at the global, national, state and local  levels. All major world leaders have signaled their strong support for the ambitious Paris agreement. Yet it is remarkable that moving forward on the road from Paris appears to be such a bumpy ride for the second largest emitting country—the United States. This session will bring together funders and advocates to explore what it will take to help the U.S. achieve its carbon reduction goals and work with all nations to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda.

Sponsored by Wallace Global Fund

Speaker(s): Reid Detchon, Vice President for Energy and Climate Strategy, United Nations Foundation; Fletcher Harper, Executive Director, Green Faith; Gihan Perera, Executive Director, New Florida Majority; Erin Rogers, Program Officer, Environment Program, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Learn from the Boston Community Foundation on how community foundations can use their centennial to engage donors on major campaigns for permanent endowments to the foundation. Panelist will share how this was more than just a one-time event, that worked through engagement with donors, branding, marketing campaign, and numerous public events to raise the profile and awareness of the Foundation, and what it has meant to the history and fabric of Greater Boston, to a new level.

Speaker(s): Kate Guedj, Vice President and Chief Philanthropy Officer, The Boston Foundation; Mary Jo Meisner, Senior Vice President for Public Affairs, The Boston Foundation

Visit the Concourse Level for these 30 minute sessions featuring new ideas, peer-to-peer discussions, and technology trends.

• Conversation Caf: Equivalency Determination Made Easier with NGOSource
• Tech-KNOLEDGEY Bar: Leveraging Technology to Tell Your Impact Story with MicroEdge
• Tech-KNOLEDGEY Bar: Top 10 Apps-on-the-Go: Tech Solutions for the Traveling “Road Warrior” with Meeting Pool

Learn More

Due to their local mission, access to local information and ability to form local relationships; place-based foundations are perfectly situated to drive local policy change that can lead to significant improvements in people's lives. They are uniquely positioned to work with community members who are seeking to influence the systems and policies that affect them and engage directly with policymakers who are in positions to make change. This approach requires the skills to listen to the community and a commitment to be in the public sphere. And it starts with the board. Hear from two community foundation trustees/CEOs about what it takes to change the conversation in the board room - and the practice on the ground.

The Council is grateful to Lilly Endowment Inc., for their generous support as Lead Sponsor of Community Foundation programming.

Speaker(s): Nelson Colón-Tarrats, President & CEO, Puerto Rico Community Foundation, Inc.; Deborah Ellwood, President and CEO, CFLeads; Josh Fidler, Board Vice Chair, The Baltimore Community Foundation; Walker Sanders, President, Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, Inc.

At the Council on Foundations Annual Conference in 2013, a panel of speakers discussed strategies to equip corporate philanthropy practitioners with the tools to better define value and measure impacts of their philanthropy. Since then the conversation has continued throughout the field. This session will discuss lessons learned in conducting effective impact measurement and evaluation over the past few years since this original vital conversation.

Speaker(s): Laura Hollod, Manager, Monitoring & Evaluation, Corporate Contributions, Johnson & Johnson; Farron Levy, Founder and CEO, True Impact LLC; Sally Marietta, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs Program Manager, IBM Corporation

One thing Republicans and Democrats alike can agree on is that our politics and our democracy are in serious need of reform and renewal, and the 2016 campaign cycle has clearly driven that point home. Voters are routinely expressing their frustration both to pollsters and then again when they go to the polls. Philanthropy is playing a leading role in the conversation about how we can make our political process more fair, inclusive and equitable. Join us to hear from a thoughtful group of foundation executives who are making the state of our democratic practice a funding priority. Their approaches to the problem are diverse but they all share a commitment to improving our democracy.

Speaker(s): John Dedrick, Vice President and Program Director, Kettering Foundation; Keesha Gaskins-Nathan, Program Director, Democratic Practice - United States, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc.; Christopher Gates, Senior Advisor, ; Joe Goldman, Director, Democracy Fund

The expanding national conversation about our criminal justice crisis and the solutions that can make a difference could not be more heartening. Yet the crisis in civil justice - where Americans are particularly vulnerable because there is no constitutional guarantee of legal assistance in critical civil cases - also puts millions in jeopardy, while drawing much less attention.

The rising number of people in poverty, the 75 percent of people in civil cases with no lawyer, and the severe funding deficiencies take our civil justice system further than ever from fulfilling the promise of equal access to justice for all, not just for those who can afford it. In communities across the country, all too many Americans face potentially life changing situations-like domestic violence, unlawful evictions or the loss of veterans' health and disability benefits-because they must navigate these complex problems alone. Without legal help, many lose their families, homes and livelihood, fall further into poverty and may even wind up incarcerated.

This session will illuminate the little-known dimensions of this worsening crises including the crisis in the courts; highlight the array of innovative solutions in our communities that are emerging to address it; and focus on how philanthropy can be an effective partner in securing a future of justice for all, while at the same time increasing the impact of funders' support in all areas of poverty work and more.

Speaker(s): Martha Bergmark, Executive Director, Voices For Civil Justice; Lisa Foster, Director, Office for Access to Justice, U.S. Department of Justice; Yvonne Mariajimenez, Deputy Director, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County; Mary McClymont, President, Public Welfare Foundation; Jim Sandman, President, Legal Services Corporation; Zafar Shah, Attorney, Public Justice Center, Maryland

Some have described risk as philanthropy's 'calling card.' Philanthropy is able to invest in new and emerging strategies and take risks that government and business often cannot—even when the potential reward is great. This session will feature case studies of foundations who took a gamble and by many accounts lost. One foundation will share what happens when a project developed with best practices for community collaboration collapses when unforeseen circumstances throw a wrench into the works and requires extra money that is not readily available. Another foundation will share their experience around power dynamics and how "choice and control" in social change must be shared between the foundation and its grantee partners. Participants can expect a candid, interactive and peer-led dialogue designed with colleagues who took a risk and emerged better, more effective grantmakers.

Speaker(s): Tiziana Dearing, Associate Professor/Co-Director, Boston College School of Social Work; Heather Peeler, Vice President of Member & Partner Engagement, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations

American philanthropy is a cornerstone of our society, harnessing investment for the common good as a catalyst for social change, investment in our present and future, and a counter to the public and corporate sectors. Whether philanthropic dollars are positioned as risk taking or stalwart resources for a community, they are critically important investments in our civil society.

Against this backdrop, scrutiny over philanthropic endowments is mounting. Why aren't more dollars being spent now? How are resources invested? Who is benefiting? What's foregone?

Join us for a discussion, grounded in the unique history of American philanthropy that will explore the factors fueling skepticism about endowments and how we reframe the narrative to counter these challenges.

Speaker(s): Elizabeth Boris, Institute Fellow, The Urban Institute; David Hammack, Haydn Professor of History, Case Western Reserve University; William Schambra, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute

Community foundations face many issues in their work each day, but when we look across these issues we often identify a common theme - who's in control? Join this session to discuss issues related to donor relationships, advisory committees, and fund management. The Council's legal team will be joined by your colleagues to discuss the tricky bits of foundation management.We will apply for CLE credit for this session.

Speaker(s): Alexander Reid, Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP; Mark Sidel, Doyle-Bascom Professor of Law and Public Affairs; Consultant, ICNL, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Philanthropy has done critically important work promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity in our organizations and communities. We have yet to fully operationalize our shared desire for a truly inclusive workforce designed to achieve optimal impact. To meet our potential, we must get serious about understanding organizational culture, the strategic role of talent management and leadership, and clarifying the relationship between talent, strategy, and impact. We will highlight important achievements in this area and discuss strategies for reaching our aspiration of real inclusiveness to advance the common good. After reflections on the D5 Coalition's work over the last five years, participants will get candid and sometimes uncomfortable insights into the habits and culture of philanthropy.

Speaker(s): Judy Belk, President and CEO , The California Wellness Foundation; Richard Brown, Vice President, Philanthropy, American Express Foundation; Stephen Heintz, President, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc.; Robert Ross, President and CEO, The California Endowment; Sandra Vargas, Former President and CEO, The Minneapolis Foundation; Luz Vega-Marquis, President & CEO, Marguerite Casey Foundation

Please join us for an exciting networking experience at one of Washington, D.C.'s most beloved locales. The National Museum of the American Indian houses one of the world's largest and most diverse collections of its kind. The museum's sweeping curvilinear architecture, its indigenous landscaping, and its exhibitions, all designed in collaboration with tribes and communities from across the hemisphere, combine to give visitors from around the world the sense and spirit of Native America.

Sponsored by:

To stay competitive, the U.S. needs a workforce that continually refreshes its skills, and that will require us to reimagine how our institutions and communities educate people to meet the needs of a rapidly changing economy. We live in a time when the traditional markers of expertise, like a degree or certification, no longer guarantee a successful career.

Foundations of all types and sizes are looking critically at investments that support essential skill acquisition and that improve existing educational institutions. In this morning plenary, a panel of cross-sector leaders from business, philanthropy, and higher education will discuss a continuum of strategies that could cultivate talent and teach adaptive skills. This session will focus on how foundations can keep pace with a shifting global economy and modern workforce.

Doors open at 7:45 a.m.

Speaker(s): Freeman Hrabowski, President, University of Maryland Baltimore County; Jamie Merisotis, President & CEO, Lumina Foundation; Carla Roberts, President and CEO, Fremont Area Community Foundation (MI); Michael Strain, Resident Scholar and Deputy Director of Economic Policy Studies, The American Enterprise Institute; Kerry Sullivan, President, Bank of America Charitable Foundation

Funder collaboratives that are part of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions cite achieving systems change in regional education and workforce development systems, employer practices, and the behavior of philanthropy as their most significant accomplishments. This session draws on the experience of these regional funding collaboratives.

The Council is grateful to Lilly Endowment Inc., for their generous support as Lead Sponsor of Community Foundation programming.

Speaker(s): Kelly Ryan, President/CEO, Incourage; Navjeet Singh, Deputy Director, National Fund for Workforce Solutions; Lisa Soricone, Senior Research Manager, Jobs for the Future

Donors and organized philanthropy are working in a sector of unprecedented richness and diversity. With over 1.6 million public charities in the U.S., the many options for achieving charitable purpose can be difficult to sort out. In its ongoing effort to bridge gaps within the charitable sector and convene important conversations about the future of philanthropy, the Council is hosting this session with leadership from the United Way to discuss how philanthropic leaders might collaborate for the benefit of communities. The conversation will focus on developing place-based funding strategies.

Speaker(s): Rosie Allen-Herring, President and CEO, United Way of the National Capital Area; Eileen Ellsworth, President and CEO, The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia; Brian Gallagher, President & CEO, United Way Worldwide; Sherry Magill, President, Jessie Ball duPont Fund

The sector's ability to understand and talk meaningfully about whether or not we are successfully living up to our ambitions around diversity, equity and inclusion depend, in part, on our ability to collect good data. In Sunday's afternoon plenary, the case will be made that the field still has work to do to implement better practices and policies that help to create more diverse, equitable, and inclusive institutions. In this session, we will explore the impact of the actions promoted by the D5 coalition by doing a deep dive on data collected by the Council on Foundations and the Foundation Center over the past five years. Join an interactive conversation about the implications of the data and recommended next steps.

Speaker(s): Brandolon Barnett, Director, Partner Solutions | Growfund, Global Impact; Kelly Brown, Director, D5 Coalition; Carly Hare, Coalition Catalyst/National Director, CHANGE Philanthropy; Lawrence McGill, Vice President of Knowledge Services, Foundation Center

In our interconnected world, Americans are increasingly engaging in and supporting international causes, from disaster relief to social development projects abroad. In 2014, Americans donated $15.1 billion to international affairs, up from $8.9 billion five years earlier. And according to Foundation Center analysis, as of 2012 more than 5% of grantmaking by large US community foundations was flowing to international activities. At the same time, small and medium sized community foundations are providing new opportunities for donors in their community to support global activities that matter most to them. Please join us to hear from representatives of community foundations of a variety of sizes on how they are working globally - through international grantmaking, innovative partnerships, and a new learning project with several US and South American community foundations. What strategic and structural questions do community foundations ask as they consider whether to offer global grantmaking options? What do you need to know if you'd like to add an international activity to your community philanthropy?

Speaker(s): Michele Frix, Chief of Staff, The Seattle Foundation; Les Garner, President & CEO, The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation; Anne McEnany, President and CEO, International Community Foundation; Sylvia Perez, Vice President for Corporate Governance and International Affairs, The Cleveland Foundation; Natalie Ross, Senior Director for Global Philanthropy and Partnerships, Council on Foundations

One sign of climate change is more frequent and severe weather events. This results in disasters that often exacerbate long-standing environmental justice issues for many communities. During this session, learn about efforts to increase the preparedness of communities to proactively and reactively address the challenges of disasters at the community level, especially those that impact vulnerable populations. Understanding how environmental justice issues are at the root of many disasters is critical in understanding how to maximize strategies to support our local communities. This session will explore the role of philanthropy and promising strategies to strengthen local communities, advance environmental justice, and support vulnerable populations.

Speaker(s): Lauren Alexander Augustine, Director of the Disasters Roundtable at the National Academies, The National Academies; Elaine Delio, Director of Environmental Programs, The Greater New Orleans Foundation; Robert Ottenhoff, President and CEO, Center For Disaster Philanthropy; Nancy Van Milligen, President and CEO, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque

In this interactive session, using the Innovation Strengths Preference Indicator, you will explore hidden dynamics of your innovative potential and how to recognize and appreciate it in others. With new insights, participants will explore how to leverage their innovation to better collaborate and invest in the future of our communities.

Interested attendees need to RSVP for this session. There is no additional fee to attend, but pre-registration is required as there is advance work required including a psychometric test and webinar.

Speaker(s): Térèse Coudreaut Curiel, Vice President, Administration, John S. & James L. Knight Foundation; Ryan Ewers, Director of Mosaic Partnerships, Idea Connection Systems; Andrew Harrison, Innovation Ambassador, Idea Connection Systems; Gretchen Hartke, Managing Member, Hartke Designs; Julie Vives, Director of Professional Advisor Engagement, The Miami Foundation

At every stage of the "school to prison pipeline," youth of color are more likely than their white peers to receive harsh and ineffective punishments, including school suspensions and expulsions, referrals to juvenile court, incarceration in youth prisons, and adult court sanctions. School discipline and juvenile justice advocates across the country have been pushing -often with much success- to dismantle these discriminatory policies that in essence "criminalize" youth of color. New and unlikely alliances have been created, and the federal government has raised national awareness of the need for continued reforms to ensure equity and opportunity for youth of color. But much more work remains to be done to advance a transformative vision that ensures equity and opportunity for youth of color.

This session will feature examples of cutting edge advocacy targeting various points of intervention along the school-to-prison pipeline. Panelists will discuss the power of youth organizing to dismantle exclusionary school discipline policies; a new national initiative to end the youth prison model and redirect resources into communities of color; state campaigns that are successfully rolling back policies allowing youth to be tried and sentenced as adults; and a new effort to cultivate leaders of color to push for reform.

Speaker(s): Daquon Beaver, Community Organizer, Legal Aid Justice Center; Allison Brown, Executive Director, Communities For Just Schools Fund; Mike de la Rocha, Founder, Justice Policy Network; Katayoon Majd, Program Director for Juvenile Justice, Public Welfare Foundation; Liz Ryan, President and CEO, Youth First Initiative; Jessica Sandoval, Vice President,

Though we gather in Washington DC, it is important to remember that all levels of government can-and do-have a profound impact on our communities and how foundations and charities are able to serve them. County and city commissions, state legislators and regulators, the Governor, and Members of the U.S. Congress - each of these players has a hand in how you're able to advance your work.

In this session we will discuss federal-, state-, and local-level trends, what's being done to push back on disruptive actions, and the bright spots throughout the country that could be effective models for othe

Speaker(s): Matthew Chase, Executive Director, National Association of Counties; Karen Gano, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General (CT); Lara Kalwinski, Executive Director of National Standards and Senior Counsel, Council on Foundations; Steve Taylor, Senior Vice President and Counsel for Public Policy, United Way Worldwide; David Thompson, Vice President of Public Policy, National Council of Nonprofits

Last December, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife announced that they had formed an LLC, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, as a vehicle to give away 99 percent of their wealth. The initial structure is not tax exempt, rather it's a limited liability company owned by the couple. The LLC is not constrained by tax law restrictions, nor able to take the benefits, yet it was formed explicitly to give money to social causes. Other corporate forms and structures including the public benefit corporation, certified B Corp, and L3C are also emerging as alternative vehicles for individual and corporate giving, and have been embraced by a new generation of philanthropists.

This session will provide the legal background for these alternative structures and discuss the opportunities and pitfalls they offer to would-be philanthropists. From a grantor's perspective, the panel will discuss what it means to give or invest in an entity that may be different from the traditional charitable organization.

Speaker(s): Sarah Duniway, Principal, Gray Plant Mooty; Suzanne Friday, Senior Counsel and Vice President of Legal Affairs, Council on Foundations

Partnerships and collaboration are central to corporate grantmaking, giving, and volunteering. With each year these partnerships become more central to achieving meaningful impacts. This session will gather together philanthropy leaders from several federal agencies to discuss their efforts to form more impactful and strategic partnerships with corporate philanthropy and provide specific examples of what is working.

Speaker(s): Matt Blakely, Director, Motorola Solutions Foundation; Doug Carmon, Special Assistant to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Denise Gilliam, Philanthropic Advisor, Individual Assistance Division, DHS/FEMA; Anthony Love, Senior Advisor and Director of Community Engagement, VHA Homeless Programs, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Nathaniel Ohle, Senior Advisor, U.S. Economic Development Administration

Join us for a discussion with a panel of experts about the tough issues related to civility, reputation, and reality in working with government and private sector actors that have become professionally dysfunctional, immobilized, or even corrupt (real or perceived). Explore what being a "white hat" and the moral arbiter can mean in a short-term crisis with your long-term community or corporate partners. We'll discuss how these crises arise, their short- and long-term effects, and crisis management responses.

Speaker(s): Tonya Allen, President and CEO, The Skillman Foundation; Kristen Grimm, President, Spitfire Strategies; Cindy Lott, Interim Program Director, Nonprofit Management Programs, Columbia University; Terry Mazany, President and CEO, The Chicago Community Trust

Despite tremendous investment and activity, foundation measurement and evaluation (M&E) systems are too often falling short. Program staff are confused by an alphabet soup of methods ranging from randomized controlled trials to developmental evaluation. M&E directors are frustrated with being seen as critical "auditors" rather than as partners to program leadership. Donors and boards are disappointed that evaluation has often overpromised and under-delivered in its efforts to measure organizational impact. And nonprofits are required to spend time and money reporting on outcomes that serve nearly everyone's purposes except their own.

At the core of the problem is that the flows of information produced by M&E have become uncoupled from productive action. Many funders have gotten so absorbed in the nuances of measurement and methodology that they've lost focus on why they were measuring in the first place: to make better decisions and guide action. The field has inadvertently placed measurement and methods, rather than decision-making, at the center of the M&E system.

This session will share learning from Monitor Institute's recent M&E work and engage participants in interactive exercises to help re-imagine M&E systems, structures, and processes at their foundations in a way that puts decisions back at the center.

Speaker(s): Rhonda Evans, Specialist Master, Monitor Institute; Gabriel Kasper, Managing Director, Monitor Institute; Tony Siesfeld, Director, Deloitte Consulting, LLP

Visit the Concourse Level for these 30 minute sessions featuring new ideas, peer-to-peer discussions, and technology trends.

• Learning Lab: Saving Money for Mission with Purchasing Point
• Conversation Caf: Helping Students Succeed in Higher Education with Scholarship America
• Conversation Caf: Creating Culture Change: A New Frame for Human Services with Purchasing Point
• Tech-KNOWLEDGEY Bar: Using LinkedIn to Your Foundation's Advantage with Meeting Pool

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Visit the Concourse Level for these 30 minute sessions featuring new ideas, peer-to-peer discussions, and technology trends.

• Learning Lab: Ask the Experts: Accounting and Tax Issues with Moss Adams
• Conversation Caf: Learn Foundation Law: Free Online Training Modules on Legal Rules for Private Foundations with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Conversation Caf: Discretion, Non-Discretion, No Direction? Too Many Investment Consulting Terms! with Mason Advisory Investment Services, Inc
• Conversation Caf: Growing Talent in Your Community with NCAN
• Tech-KNOWLEDGY Bar: Improve Your Life with Wearable Technologies with Meeting Pool

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Join us for the Council on Foundations's Annual Meeting of the Members where you will hear from the Council's Board of Directors. The meeting will include the election of the 2019 class of directors of the board and the presentation of Council awards.

Members are encouraged to attend to help ensure the presence of a quorum for the election of new board members.

Lunch buffets will be available beginning at 11:15am.

For over 27 years, DC Central Kitchen has worked to rearrange DC's existing resources to liberate hungry and homeless individuals from poverty. Their belief is that "food can do so much more than fill stomachs." Explore DC Central Kitchen's main distribution center and witness the transformative power of their Culinary Job Training program for unemployed men and women. In addition to learning about their innovative food recycling program, replicated school food program and anti-food desert "Healthy Corners" program you'll hear from Capital area leaders who are utilizing dynamic and innovative approaches to employer engagement, supporting small business, and addressing economic security for high-barrier populations including immigrants and refugees, low-skill and low-literacy adults, and returning citizens. Explore and learn about DC Central Kitchen and more of the Washington region's best programs that are exploring the intersections of workforce development to break the cycle of poverty and hunger.

Please note, space is limited to 25 participants. If you would like to add this event to your registration, contact registration@cof.org or 703-879-0600.

Through a collaboration of partner organizations (public and private), THEARC - Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus - provides access to high quality educational, health, cultural, recreation and social service programs to the community revitalization of Southeastern Washington. Take a tour of this one-of-a-kind campus that houses everything from a professional-style ballet studio to a world-class 365 seat theater in addition to the services of Covenant House Washington and the Children's Medical Center. THEARC's programs range from their urban farm promoting nutrition and healthy eating to their 11th Street Bridge Park project which will be a new venue for environmental education. Hear from community leaders and pioneers in community revitalization about the journey of collaborating for success and plans for the future.

Please note, space is limited to 45 participants. If you would like to add this event to your registration, contact registration@cof.org or 703-879-0600.

Employee engagement has become a top business priority and the companies that are doing it best are aligning employee interest with mission impact. Not only does volunteering and employee giving/matching help the community, data suggests that when employees are engaged in corporate giving and volunteering, companies experience lower turnover, increased productivity, and higher morale. How are companies harnessing the power of employees in volunteerism and grantmaking and what benefits are they seeing for community, the company, and employees? What are best practices for involving employees in decision-making for corporate giving?

Speaker(s): Dinah Dittman, National Director, Community Benefit, Kaiser Permanente; Jennifer Lawson, Vice President, Corporate Strategy, Points of Light; Melissa Robinson, Senior Manager, Global Corporate Responsibility, Hilton Worldwide

Join the Council's policy team along with other policy experts and practitioners for an active afternoon that will cover the how-to's, the ins-and-outs, and everything in between that foundations need to know when it comes to advocacy or working with government entities or legislators.

Whether your foundation is just beginning to venture into public policy and advocacy strategies, or is assessing how to grow current efforts, this "boot camp" will use case studies, active Q & A, group exercises, visuals, and guided discussions to help you increase your impact in the policy arena.

Speaker(s): Joanne Florino, Senior Vice President for Public Policy, The Philanthropy Roundtable; Edna Garrett, Assistant General Counsel, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Geoffrey Plague, Vice President, Public Policy, Independent Sector; Sue Santa, Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Legal Affairs, Council on Foundations; Steve Taylor, Senior Vice President and Counsel for Public Policy, United Way Worldwide; David Thompson, Vice President of Public Policy, National Council of Nonprofits; Kristy Tsadick, Associate General Counsel, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation has met the challenge of resilience building in cities using an approach they call "Resilience by Design". Over the past 4 years the foundation has built a portfolio of large-scale experiments to demonstrate place-based resilience building via partnerships and collaborations between diverse funding interests - government funding, philanthropy, and private dollars and communities ready to enhance their long-term resilience. The Resilience by Design approach has evolved through its application: It combines resilience theory which can be off-putting given its basis in complexity and systems dynamics with design thinking which makes problem identification and solving more approachable using visualization, innovation, iteration and engagement.

This session will provide an overview of the Resilience by Design methodology to demonstrate that alternative paradigms, when put into practice, can yield more resilient places, use tax payer money much more wisely, and attract private investment. The session will use case studies from the Foundation's work to highlight the Resilience by Design strategies which included partnerships and collaborations with entities like HUD and US Army Corps of Engineers that have the authority, money, and power to shape the resilience of the United States and its cities, counties, and states. These agencies and others who were participated can advance a shift toward resilience through administrative actions and could do even more so with legislative changes, especially to the Stafford Act.

Sponsored by S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation

Speaker(s): Nancy Kete, Managing Director, The Rockefeller Foundation; Christine Morris, Chief Resilience Officer, City of Norfolk

There is an oft-cited mantra within the community foundation field that a foundation must choose between being "community centric" and "donor centric." But evidence suggests that a growing number of community foundations are rejecting this dichotomy and operating in new ways, bringing into closer collaboration and alignment their foundation-led and donor-led activities. In some cases, this means that foundations are inviting donors co-invest with foundation-led initiatives. In other cases, foundations are helping donors - with grants and/or staff time - to galvanize other partners and funders towards a goal. Finally, donors and foundations are "co-creating" innovative solutions to local problems, bringing their diverse and combined assets together in ways that neither could have done alone.

In this session, we will draw upon research conducted this past year by TPI with 18 leading community foundations, which have embraced and wrestled with the challenges of finding the balance and synergy between foundation and donor led priorities. Foundation CEO's will share both successes and challenges, with a focus on overcoming the barriers they encountered of culture, capacity and fear of the unknown.

Speaker(s): Kate Guedj, Vice President and Chief Philanthropy Officer, The Boston Foundation; Ellen Remmer, Co-Managing Partner, The Remmer Family Foundation, Inc.

American cultural discourse has been marked by ever increasing vitriol in which warring factions demonize their opponents. This plays out starkly in presidential politics and is intensified by the filter-bubble effect of social media -- but it is not confined to racism and xenophobia at stump speeches and rallies. What role can philanthropy productively play in a public discourse characterized by hardened lines of hatred? How should philanthropy and others create more opportunities for people to engage with others who are different from them? What are the risks and downsides of doing so?

Speaker(s): Heidi Beirich, Intelligence Project Director, The Southern Poverty Law Center; Kevin Jennings, President, Tenement Museum; Brad Rourke, Program Officer, Kettering Foundation; Shireen Zaman, Security & Rights Collaborative Director, Proteus Fund

New technologies are created every day that are fundamentally changing how we work, live and play. What opportunities will these changes create for communities around the world and here at home? How can philanthropy use innovations in technology to advance social good? And are we prepared to address the challenges that inevitably come with change?

Join Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) leaders for a session that addresses this question by looking at the use of Big Data, and previews SVCF's inaugural Innovation Conference, a three-day, first-of-its-kind event in San Francisco, California, October 9-11, 2016.

This session will bring together leaders from the nonprofit, technology and philanthropic sectors to have a lively and robust discussion about the benefits using Big Data brings to social change organizations-and its limitations.

Session attendees will also learn more about SVCF's upcoming Innovation Conference including a preview of the conference program and sessions that will cover Education, Health, Jobs and the Economy, and Big Data; an interactive, hands-on expo where attendees will be able to see, touch and feel the innovative technological advances making a difference; and opportunities to connect and network with other philanthropy leaders concerned about ensuring the positive benefits of technology.

Speaker(s): Bradley Myles, Chief Executive Officer, Polaris; Jake Porway, Founder and Executive Director, DataKind; Erica Wood, Chief Community Impact Officer, Silicon Valley Community Foundation

In 2015, our global community faced several critical humanitarian disasters, including the earthquake in Nepal, the continuing Syrian crisis, and the still growing flows of migrants around the world, not to mention the ongoing impacts of climate change on communities. Philanthropy is often a critical actor in providing short-term humanitarian aid, as well as supporting communities as they transition from disaster response to longer-term development. In 2016, there is an opportunity for stakeholders globally to come together to rethink how humanitarian aid is delivered. The May 2016 World Humanitarian Summit will bring together governments, humanitarian organizations, people affected by humanitarian crises and new partners including the private sector to propose solutions to our most pressing development challenges and set an agenda to keep humanitarian action fit for the future. Join the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and a panel of speakers to learn more about the agenda of the upcoming global summit, the potential for philanthropy to engage, and to hear speakers share best practice for humanitarian response by funders of all types and sizes, whether a community foundation or corporate grantmaker.

Speaker(s): Anna Hurt, Disaster Management Analyst, Center For Disaster Philanthropy; Lawrence McGill, Vice President of Knowledge Services, Foundation Center; Robert Ottenhoff, President and CEO, Center For Disaster Philanthropy; Shannon Scribner, Humanitarian Policy Manager, Oxfam America

Higher education has a historic mission to cultivate democracy by creating prepared, informed, and engaged civic leaders. Today, that civic mission must be balanced with an economic mission to cultivate development and preparation for the workforce and help students compete for jobs in the changing world of work. This changing world requires more advanced degrees, specialized credentials, constant learning and adaptation, problem solving, and increasing levels of literacy. This session will explore the role--and our expectations--of higher education in building and cultivating both the economy and democracy of the 21st century. It builds on the experience of PACE members who are exploring this question through research and community dialogues, and are generating an urgent, nationwide conversation with significant implications for philanthropy.

Speaker(s): Harry Boyte, Senior Scholar in Public Work Philosophy, Sabo Center For Democracy and Citizenship; Kristen Cambell, Executive Director, Philanthropy For Active Civic Engagement (PACE); John Dedrick, Vice President and Program Director, Kettering Foundation; Catalina Ruiz-Healy, Vice President, Rappaport Family Foundation

Millennials, typically defined as the generation of individuals born between 1980 and 2000, are now the largest generation in the American workforce. The ways that Millennials think about social issues, their careers, and their giving will have huge impacts on local, regional, and national communities for decades to come. They are already changing how nonprofits and foundations recruit and retain employees, engage volunteers, and support donors. To that end foundations and their grantee partners must authentically engage millennials in critical ways. This session will focus on how foundations can evolve practices to best connect with this generation. Participants can expect a rich discussion about how to authentically millennials in identifying problems, proposing solutions, and most important, by working together to implement these solutions on their campuses and in their communities.

Speaker(s): Maya Enista Smith, Director, Impact & Operations, Born This Way Foundation; Monisha Kapila, Founder and CEO, ProInspire; Kerry McHugh, VP, Program Officer, The Helen J. Serini Foundation, Inc.

Despite the contentious public rhetoric, a new report on immigrant integration from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, finds that today's immigrants are adapting to their new communities as well, if not better, than immigrants from past centuries. The report, published in September 2015, outlines key outcomes for immigrant well-being - including education, occupational distribution, income, residential integration, language ability, and poverty - while noting challenges in the areas of health, crime, and family patterns. These issues appear to be most closely linked to the legal status and race, with poor undocumented immigrants - especially Blacks and Latinos - experiencing substantial disadvantages relative to the native-born population and other categories of immigrants. How is philanthropy addressing the needs of these new Americans, especially at the state and local level? How can the report's recommendations be incorporated into core grant making strategies? Funders will hear from immigrant-integration experts whose knowledge and insights will provoke new ways of thinking about grant making priorities in our increasingly complex and diverse society.

Sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York

Speaker(s): Marita Etcubanez, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC; Geraldine Mannion, Director, US Democracy and Special Opportunities Fund, Carnegie Corporation of New York; Karthick Ramakrishnan, Professor and Associate Dean, School of Public Policy, University of California, Riverside; Mary Waters, M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology, Harvard University

Philanthropy has worked for decades to help people in our communities who are struggling the most by financing programs and policy advocacy to reduce poverty and inequity. But grant makers in the Washington, D.C region have decided they can no longer do this work without explicitly addressing racism as a major contributor to poverty and inequity.

As part of this work D.C.-based grantmakers are leading conversations about issues like structural racism, unconscious bias and white privilege and gathering facts and ideas that will influence their work for years to come. You will hear perspectives from a foundation that has been immersed in these issues for a long time, one that is at the very beginning of the journey to understand the intersections of race and racism with its investments and work in the community as well as a regional association of grantmakers that is seeking to build knowledge and action across philanthropy in the region.

Join us for a frank discussion about how philanthropy can play a larger role in addressing the issue of racism in our communities.

Speaker(s): Tamara Copeland, President, Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers; Nicola Goren, President & CEO , Eugene & Agnes E. Meyer Foundation; Yanique Redwood, President and CEO, Consumer Health Foundation

Would you like to learn more about the positive and sometimes challenging relationships between community foundations and geographic affiliate funds? This session will cover the legal relationship between the community foundation and the advisory committee. Participants can expect to share and learn from colleague experiences through an exchange of peer to peer dialogue. If you would like to submit questions before this session, please email submissionscfstandards.org.

Speaker(s): Lara Kalwinski, Executive Director of National Standards and Senior Counsel, Council on Foundations; Carla Roberts, President and CEO, Fremont Area Community Foundation (MI)

Visit the Concourse Level for these 30 minute sessions featuring new ideas, peer-to-peer discussions, and technology trends.

• Learning Lab: Catalyzing Communities: The future of Convening - New Possibilities of Purpose and Place with Covison
• Conversation Caf: Measuring 'Net Positive Impact' of Public Companies with UBS
• Conversation Caf: Let's Talk About Diverse Asset Managers with The Raben Group
• Tech-KNOWLEDGY Bar: Let Us Help You Make Incredible Happen! with CyberGrants, Inc.
• Tech-KNOWLEDGY Bar: Cybersecurity - A Clear and Present Danger with PFK O'Connor Davies
• Tech-KNOWLEDGY Bar: Streamline Your Workflow and Boost Productivity with Meeting Pool

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Good work is not enough. Corporate foundations and giving programs must also align their work with the business needs of your organizations, and that requires that the story get told. This concluding roundtable will focus on best practices in the art of planning, crafting, and promoting compelling stories. Participants will share their best communications practices and tips with their peers in a facilitated discussion intended to leave participants with clear actions for improving their communications.

Speaker(s): Kimaya Dixit, Senior Associate, Hattaway Communications; Douglas Hattaway, President, Hattaway Communications

Since January 2012, more than 50 countries have introduced or enacted legislation constraining civil society in various world regions (Africa, Asia, Latin America and Middle East). Several other countries, including Russia, China, Uganda, and Mexico, have passed or proposed new laws that have made cross-border philanthropy more difficult for funders. Globally, these trends add complexity to philanthropic investments flowing across borders, which could shrink philanthropic funding in many countries worldwide.

Drawing on case studies and inputs from a range of countries, this session bring funders together to discuss how they can work within this changing environment. We will also identify opportunities for foundations to work collaboratively to strengthen the case for an enabling operating environment linked to contributing to a better society; and discuss the skills and capacities required for Foundations to respond effectively to an increasingly dynamic policy environment on this agenda.

Speaker(s): Barry Gaberman, Chair, Global Fund For Community Foundations; Poonam Joshi, Director of European Office, ; Regan Ralph, President and CEO, Fund for Global Human Rights; Douglas Rutzen, President and CEO, International Center for Not-for-Profit Law; Suzanne Siskel, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, The Asia Foundation

Shared measures are essential for any collective impact effort, but agreeing to them can be a challenging process. Join Social Innovation Fund grantees to discuss progress made on their shared purpose initiatives, including: early childhood education in San Mateo County; back to work economic stability for women age 50 and above nationwide; and diabetes and depression management in twelve South Texas counties. If you are working to align multiple programs around the same performance measures, join this session to learn how to assess the value of shared measures to your own organizations and your readiness to undertake such efforts.

The Council is grateful to Lilly Endowment Inc., for their generous support as Lead Sponsor of Community Foundation programming.

Speaker(s): Rebecca Brune, President & COO, San Antonio Area Foundation; Avo Makdessian, Director, Center for Early Learning, Silicon Valley Community Foundation; Marc McDonald, Vice President, Grants & External Initiatives, AARP Foundation; Lois Nembhard, Acting Director, Corporation for National and Community Service

In Lancaster, Texas, a community located in South Dallas, a story of innovation, partnership, and transformation is unfolding. A school district looking to break out and shine after years of lagging performance. A Fortune 500 corporate foundation looking to improve educational outcomes in underserved communities. A community foundation looking to create a model for propelling more kids toward college and careers by expanding proven reforms across an entire district.

These are the elements of a unique partnership that has brought the Lancaster community and its Independent School District together with the Texas Instruments Foundation and Educate Texas, a public-private initiative of Communities Foundation of Texas. The goal was to change the trajectory for the nearly 7,000 Lancaster ISD students, who are over 80% economically disadvantaged and are predominately underrepresented, and have them become more aware, exposed, and experienced in the skills and knowledge required to succeed in the 21st Century.

Speaker(s): William Generett, President and CEO, Urban Innovation21; George Tang, Managing Director, Educate Texas, Communities Foundation of Texas

Grantmaking strategies with a positive impact often reflect an institution whose operations are as innovative as their programming. Grantmakers who are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within their own institutions, intimately comprehend how culture change impacts their identity.

 The Race and Equity in Philanthropy Group (REPG) provides a space for grantmaking institutions to share experiences and innovate. REPG has reached a pivotal stage, in building the capacity of foundations (wherever they are situated along a continuum of levels of experience). We begin this effort by engaging foundations and associations in the field to clarify what it takes to demonstrate commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion through policies and practices.

This session will provide a snapshot of the California Endowment, California Wellness and Ford Foundations funding and operational strategies that develop, implement, and measure approaches to improve grantmaking outcomes, with significant consideration of race, diversity, and inclusion. During the session, participants will have the opportunity to discuss strategies to actualize institutional commitment and embed principles of diversity and equity within their institutional operations and grantmaking

Speaker(s): Chris Cardona, Program Officer, Ford Foundation; Crystal Crawford, Program Director, The California Wellness Foundation; Dolores Estrada, Director, Grant Operations, The California Endowment; David Maurrasse, President & Founder, Marga Incorporated

For more than 40 years ago, the charitable field has followed the most widely accepted standard for trustee conflicts of interests that was decided in the case Stern v. Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School for Deaconesses and Missionaries, better known as the Sibley Hospital case. This case marked the first time a legal opinion was rendered to "comprehensively review the obligations of trustees of private charitable corporations and to set out guidelines." Sibley Hospital was also the first widely recognized case to apply the common law fiduciary duty of loyalty to a nonprofit organization and provide guidance into the procedures necessary to ratify a conflict of interest transaction.

As we meet in Washington, D.C., where all of this took place four decades ago, it's fitting that we revisit the Sibley Hospital case to explore the issues of self-dealing, duty of loyalty, conflicts of interest and the procedural hurdles for proving - or countering - those claims.

Speaker(s): Carrie Garber Siegrist, Associate, ; Matthew Journy, Counsel, Venable, LLP

Visit the Concourse Level for these 30 minute sessions featuring new ideas, peer-to-peer discussions, and technology trends.

• Learning Lab: Measuring 'Net Positive Impact' of Public Companies with UBS Asset Management
• Conversation Caf: Creating Communities Resilient to Environmental Change with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
• Conversation Caf: Fostering Transformation of Local and Regional Food Systems in Cities and Rural Communities with the U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Conversation Caf: NTIA's Community Connectivity Initiative with the National Telecommunications and Information Agency
• Tech-KNOWLEDGY Bar: Cybersecurity - A Clear and Present Danger with PFK O'Connor Davies
• Tech-KNOWLEDGY Bar: Let Us Help You Make Incredible Happen! with CyberGrants, Inc.
• Tech-KNOWLEDGEY Bar: Apps for Work/Life Balance with Meeting Pool

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In this second Leadership in Action session, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a world-renowned philosopher, ethicist, and intellectual historian will share his insights into identity and the moral considerations that identity raises. Having written extensively about color consciousness, cosmopolitanism, and history, Appiah brings a multi-disciplinary approach to thinking about the future of community. He will share original remarks about how his work connects with the responsibilities of philanthropy, and he will offer insight into how foundation leaders might think through the ethical challenges of the age. Kevin Jenning, Executive Director of Arcus Foundation, will moderate

Speaker(s): Kwame Appiah, Professor of Philosophy, New York University; Kevin Jennings, President, Tenement Museum

Chelsea Clinton and Julia Stasch both lead large foundations with global reputations and impact. In their roles, they have had to make important decisions about the direction of their work. These two globally engaged foundation leaders will speak about their journeys to philanthropic leadership and the innovative work of their respective foundations. They will also reflect on the conference's theme, The Future of Community.

Carrie Walton Penner, Member of the Walton Family Foundation's Board of Directors, will make opening remarks on philanthropic leadership with a reflection on her own experiences. The Council's President and CEO, Vikki Spruill, will moderate the plenary.

Thanks to the generous support of our plenary sponsor:

Speaker(s): Chelsea Clinton, Vice Chair, The Clinton Foundation; Vikki Spruill, President and CEO, Council on Foundations; Julia Stasch, President, John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ; Carrie Walton Penner, Board Member, Walton Family Foundation, Inc.

Join your fellow attendees in the Heights Conference Rooms on the Lobby Level for networking and light fare. The following rooms will be hosted by or focused on:

• Rural Philanthropy Sponsored by The Blandin Foundation
  Northwest, Lobby Level


• Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE)
  Jay, Lobby Level
  Please note, this reception by invitation only.


• Worldwide Inititatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS)
  Morgan, Lobby Level


• US Department of Education and MBK School Success Mentors Initiative
  Holmead, Lobby Level

This final Leadership in Action examines the future of community in the context of place. Our planet and how we interact with our environment whether in local cities and towns, as a nation, or within the interconnected global citizenry influences the overall health and well-being of our communities. Climate change will continue to disrupt civil society as natural disasters increase, infrastructure is damaged, and populations shift because of new natural systems.

Featuring a keynote by Sir Richard Branson, as well as remarks from pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha on the Flint water crisis and a tribute to the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, this plenary will address philanthropy's opportunity to catalyze innovation, set a vision for the future, and lead action to ensure we protect and nourish our place and planet now and for future generations.

Breakfast will be served at this event.

Thanks to the generous support of our plenary sponsor Medtronic Foundation.

Speaker(s): Richard Branson, Founder and President, Virgin Group; Mona Hanna-Attisha, Director, Pediatric Residency Program, Hurley Medical Center/Michigan State Univ,

A job "confers not just income, but structure and dignity and a sense of connection to community" (Obama, 2015). Acting alone, philanthropy has been challenged to help workers build essential skills and prepare for sustainable, long-term employment. A new social enterprise ecosystem framework of jobs supports has emerged, revealing a growing coalition of cross-sector partners being mobilized by philanthropy's leadership. Learn how a ground breaking new project that drives consensus and collaboration among business, public sector agencies, philanthropy, academia, and non-profits helps individuals- especially those facing the most complex challenges build skills, secure jobs, and contribute.

Speaker(s): Gregory Irish, Executive Director, City of Los Angeles Workforce Development Board; Vivienne Lee, Director, Strategic Partnerships, REDF; Kathlyn Mead, President and CEO , The San Diego Foundation; Mark Wilson, Executive Director, Coalition For Responsible Community Development

Top official(s) from the US Department of Education will provide an important briefing on highlights of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which was passed by Congress with strong bi-partisan support and signed by President Obama in December, 2015. The ESSA is the law governing the nation's K-12 education policy. It reauthorizes the 50-year old Elementary and Secondary Education Act and replaces the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.

This session will provide an overview of the new law, highlighting key provisions of interest to partners in philanthropy, including early childhood education, family engagement, shifting authority to state and local education agencies, resource equity, support for English Language Learners and educator leadership/preparation. Attendees will come away with an understanding of key provisions of the new law and opportunities for philanthropic involvement at the national, state and local levels as ESSA is implemented.

Speaker(s): Leslie Cornfeld, Special Advisor to the Secretary and Director, Office of Strategic Partnerships, U.S. Department of Education; Kati Haycock, President, Education Trust; Lisa Klein, Executive Director, Alliance For Early Success; Ralph Smith, Senior Vice President, The Annie E. Casey Foundation; Ann Whalen, Senior Advisor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

Many grantmakers are already collaborating in ways both large and small around shared concerns or core issues and beliefs, and many had been doing so before collaboration became the latest philanthropic buzzword. And yet, because collaboration is hard and messy, many grantmakers and nonprofits find forging consensus challenging and remain uncertain about the best way to move forward.

Grantmakers and nonprofits that want to be more collaborative need to ensure that their organizations offer an enabling environment for doing so. In other words, they need to take steps to ensure that their organizations are "collaboration-ready." Looking inward and ensuring that an organization has the right elements in place to be a good partner and collaborator is necessary even though the tactics of how to collaborate vary depending on who an organization may work with or on the size, type and formality of the effort. To partner with anyone for anything, an organization needs effective internal culture, practices and priorities that can open and orient its board, staff and volunteers toward being better collaborators.

This session will describe the three areas of conditioning for collaboration and the action steps grantmakers can take toward building a collaborative culture that might help foster better partnership. We will have grantmaker speakers who have made internal collaboration a priority and offer learning notes to lead participants through a self-reflective exercise to determine what their organizations can do to become "collaboration-ready."

The Council is grateful to Lilly Endowment Inc., for their generous support as Lead Sponsor of Community Foundation programming.

Speaker(s): Meghan Duffy, Associate Vice President of Programs, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations

In recent years, there has been increasing national attention on how the criminal justice system is failing us and negatively affecting communities of color: mass incarceration, disproportionate and punitive sentencing laws, police brutality, and more. This has led to one of the biggest opportunities in the country: a vibrant national movement calling for criminal justice reform and the end to mass incarceration. A broad array of bipartisan voices is joining the call for reform and advocates and system leaders are redoubling their efforts to take advantage of this momentum and push for wide scale, transformative change.

Yet, key obstacles to slashing incarceration rates and racial disparities remain. The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world-with 2.3 million adults incarcerated in prisons and jails, 60 percent of whom are people of color. Smart alternatives to jails and prison, including a greater emphasis on community based programs and effective community supervision, remain elusive in many "tough on crime" cities and states. Winning durable reform victories and creating alternative, forward-looking approaches require a variety to strategies and approaches for long term change.

The session will feature a full discussion on the incarceration tsunami- from police encounters and arrest, to jail and prison detention, to reentry of formerly incarcerated back into communities. The discussion will review strategic approaches underway in our states and localities to tackle excessive incarceration and racial disparities while advancing a new, transformative vision of justice and public safety, as well as how philanthropy can be a partner in the effort.

Speaker(s): Lenore Anderson, President, ; Susan Burton, Founder and Executive Director, A New Way of Life Reentry Project; John Chisholm, District Attorney, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin; Damon Hewitt, Senior Advisor, Open Society Foundations; Jim Pugel, Chief Deputy, King County Sheriff's Office

New to global grantmaking? Come learn how new, final regulations on the equivalency determination process impact your global grantmaking. A representative from the Treasury Department will speak alongside in-house counsel from a private foundation and an attorney from NGOSource.

A panel of subject matter experts and practitioners will address the rationale behind the changes, and how they directly affect your operations.

Our experts will also cover successful strategies for navigating the equivalency determination process.

Speaker(s): Lara Kalwinski, Executive Director of National Standards and Senior Counsel, Council on Foundations; Elinor Ramey, Attorney Advisor, Office of Tax Policy, Department of the Treasury; Kristy Tsadick, Associate General Counsel, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; Sheila Warren, Vice President of Strategic Alliances, General Counsel, NGOsource/Techsoup Global

Climate change is the most pressing environmental and human rights threat of our time. Solutions to climate chaos exist on the front lines of the struggle to save our planet, yet the voices of the most impacted peopleindigenous, youth, women, poor, ruraloften go unheard. This session will provide a space for conversation among funders about climate justice, specifically through the lenses of women's and youth leadership. Participants will hear from domestic and global activists about community struggles with climate change and how grassroots leaders are taking action. The session will incorporate participatory discussion with the audience on how philanthropy can build and strengthen grassroots movements for climate justiceespecially after the (inadequate) solutions presented by the COP21 Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Speaker(s): Michael Guerrero, National Coordinator, Climate Justice Alliance; Samantha Harvey, Environment Program Officer, The Overbrook Foundation; Juan Carlos Soriano, Next Generation Climate Board Advisor, Global Greengrants Fund; Juliana Vélez, Advocacy and Projects Associate, Women's Environment & Development Organization

Think it has taken a long time to climb out of the Great Recession of 2008? The years of federal budget sequestration and the political culture wars have taken a toll on the national public policy-making process as well. This session will be a salon conversation with foundations and federal officials about the changed public policy environment and how the traditional expectations and pathways to social change are faring in current and anticipated environments. Is it realistic to expect that federal policy platforms will be available to foundations to scale bring their evidence-based practices to scale? Is the federal government a viable vehicle to achieve social change? How should foundations be thinking about partnerships with federal entities as new occupants arrive in the White House and Congress in 2017?

Speaker(s): Alan Abramson, Professor, School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs, George Mason University

The water crisis in Flint, MI gained national visibility only after that community suffered nearly two years of lead exposure in the city's water, creating life-long health consequences, serious economic challenges, and a loss of trust in government. This man-made disaster is the result of a government failure at all levels that not only raises issues of long-term community health, education, and infrastructure, but also fundamental questions about democracy and the voice of community through its elected officials. Although this crisis is a result of government failure, philanthropy and the private sector will have to play a critical role in the community's long-term health, educational, and economic recovery strategies.

Hear from Flint-area foundation and local leaders on the current status of the community crisis, the short- and long-term needs of the people of Flint, as well where philanthropic investment is needed. The session will also raise how well-prepared all communities are to mitigate and respond to large-scale infrastructure and health emergencies.

Speaker(s): Cornell Brooks, President & CEO, NAACP; Kyle Caldwell, Executive Director, Johnson Center For Philanthropy; Mona Hanna-Attisha, Director, Pediatric Residency Program, Hurley Medical Center/Michigan State Univ, ; Ridgway White, President, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

An unprecedented movement is emerging across philanthropy and far beyond that sits at the intersection of gender and race. Sparked and shaped by leaders working at the grassroots, this organic, rapidly-expanding movement is paving the way for new partnerships, increased funding, and deeper dialogue across our sector.

The result is a moment of incredible opportunity for funders of all kinds whose work intersects with the lives of our nation's women and girls of color. This workshop will explore opportunities to build on this momentum, providing an overview of opportunities for collaboration, as well as an update on new programs and partnerships that are emerging at local and national levels across the country. We'll also provide space for a candid, open conversation about what's still needed, and how we can work together to ensure this moment of opportunity is translated into long-term, meaningful change.

Organized by the Ms. Foundation for Women, New York Women's Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation, this is a welcoming session for all. It's gender and race like never before.

Although climate change is a critical and compounding threat to well-being everywhere, philanthropic response has been slow. For many place-focused funders, it has been difficult to initiate meaningful responses to this global crisis.

This panel showcases philanthropic investments that can serve to educate, inspire, and challenge place-focused funders. Specific examples include innovative programs directed at energy, transportation, public health, and green jobs; these case studies illuminate opportunities for action by smaller foundations or those with regional focus.

The session will be action focused and highly interactive. Attendees will leave with specific ideas and models they can use in their own place-focused philanthropy.

The Council is grateful to Lilly Endowment Inc., for their generous support as Lead Sponsor of Community Foundation programming.

Speaker(s): Scott Cooper, CEO, RE-AMP Network; Nicola Hedge, Director, Environment Initiatives, The San Diego Foundation; Kiki Jamieson, President, The Fund for New Jersey; Mary Skelton Roberts, Senior Program Officer, Climate, Barr Foundation

Demographic shifts and advances in technology are changing the nature of how people communities relate to each other and to community institutions. What do we know about how philanthropy can best engage and support communities in transitional times? The Council has partnered with The Foundation Review on a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal of philanthropy on The Future of Community. Join the editor and three of the article authors in a discussion about effective practices in working in diverse communities.

Speaker(s): Kelly Brown, Director, D5 Coalition; Maureen Conway, Vice President & Executive Director, Economic Opportunities Program, The Aspen Institute; Janet Topolsky, Executive Director, Community Strategies Group, The Aspen Institute; Keith Wardrip, Community Development Research Manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Climate and energy funders are increasingly seeing the ways that their work touches on many other spheres, including health, national security, equity, urban areas and beyond. In turn, climate change and energy greatly impacts these arenas. This funder to funder discussion will centered on helping funders from differing sectors understand how they each view their work, set strategies, how are they organized? Finally, how do funders from other sectors think about climate change, if they do?

The funder discussants would be grounded by background information on a map of funding flows to key sectors (health, security, conservation, climate and energy) and a short list of priorities within these fields. Funder participants could include: health funder, equity funder, security, community foundation representatives.

Visit the Concourse Level for these 30 minute sessions featuring new ideas, peer-to-peer discussions, and technology trends.

• Learning Lab: Hedge Funds or Private Equity or Neither? with Mason Investment Advisory Services, Inc.
• Conversation Caf: Expanding Who's at the Table with Covision
• Conversation Caf: Let's Talk About Diverse Asset Managers with The Raben Group
• Tech-KNOLEDGEY Bar: Top 10 Apps-on-the-Go: Tech Solutions for the Traveling Road Warrior with Meeting Pool

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Visit the Concourse Level for these 30 minute sessions featuring new ideas, peer-to-peer discussions, and technology trends.

• Tech-KNOWLEDGEY Bar: The AmericaServes Initiative: Integrating Community, Coordination, and Technology to Best Serve Veterans, Servicemembers, and Their Families with The Institute for Veterans and Families at Syracuse University
• Tech-KNOWLEDGEY Bar: Tips & Tricks to Get to Know Your Mobile Devices Inside & Out! with Meeting Pool

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The U.S. justice system isn’t working. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and adults and young people—particularly those in poverty—are routinely denied access to the civil legal processes that might help them overcome the pressing problems of everyday life, like home foreclosures, landlord disputes, custody cases, and employer violations.

The current conversation around and political focus on justice reform reflects a multi-faceted challenge in our communities and the realization of our country’s leaders that bold action is necessary.

This plenary will examine major aspects of the justice system, including law enforcement (with a specific focus on young people), civil legal processes, incarceration, and re-entry while highlighting the roles and leadership philanthropy can have in this ongoing American crisis.

Speaker(s): Lenore Anderson, President, ; Daryl Atkinson, Second Chance Fellow, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice; Jake Horowitz, Director, Public Safety Performance Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts; Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama, The White House, ; Patrick McCarthy, President & CEO, The Annie E. Casey Foundation; Xavier McElrath-Bey, Youth Justice Advocate, The Campaign For the Fair Sentencing of Youth; J. C. Watts, Former Congressman and Chairman, Watts Partners,