COF Conference Coverage from Chris Cardona (that's alot of C's)

Chris Cardona, from the Venture Philanthropy Fund is one of my favorite philanthropy thinkers and an all around nice guy. Chris did conference coverage for a variety of blogs and he did a great summary of the conference for the Doing Giving Differently blog.

From Chris:

The Council on Foundations is the trade association for organized philanthropy. Its annual conference generally draws about 2,000 people. Given that there are maybe 10,000 foundation staff in the whole country, this is a big number. CoF also holds sector conferences for family foundations, community foundations, and corporate foundations. This year, it combined them all into one big event. It also made a conscious, if not entirely successful, effort to attract more funders from abroad. As a result, the attendance this year was in the neighborhood of 3,500.

After a few days back home, here are some reflections:

• Institutional philanthropy is in the midst of a full-fledged identity crisis.
• The “next gen” is the place to be.
• We’re only beginning to scratch the surface of engagement with our counterparts in other countries.
• Strategic philanthropy is important, but don’t underestimate charity.
• It’s not clear to me that most foundations are ready to engage with giving circles in a meaningful way.
  

For Chris' full post go here.

'Millennials and the Moment'

Entering the 'Millennials and the Moment' session, I scanned the room and noticed a much wider and well-distributed range of generations in the crowd. After a few days milling around in the Gaylord, I realized that I now recognized many in the once-indiscernible herd of philanthropists.

The panelists Cassie, Eddie, Andrew, and Carmen maturely reflected on their leadership experiences. Particularly striking points below:

• Cassie started Campus Climate Challenge and hosted a conference of over 6,000 environmentalists featuring Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
• Eddie started an organization for improvement of public housing in Oregon - at the age of twenty.
• Andrew, a young City Councilperson from Tallahassee, wanted more opportunity to network with other young elected officials so he started an organization that now serves over 400 young elected officials.
• Carmen is the Vice President of USSA a student-led and -run organization that advocates for educational equality.

Other than talking about their specific experiences, the students made the salient point that ours is the most diverse generation in US history and that it is up to us to reverse the polarization perpetuated by past generations.

THANK YOU

A gigantic thank you to all of New Voices of Philanthropies guest bloggers at the COF Conference. Your varied perspectives created a great picture of what was happening at the conference and is much appreciated.

A big hello to all of the new readers of the blog that were introduced to the site at the conference, there are new posts every Monday and Thursday and you can find some background on the blog here and you can subscribe to our RSS feed here.

There will be continuing coverage of the conference by me and our fabulous guest bloggers. I would also like to hear your perspectives of the conference in the comments section below. What was a highlight of the conference for you? What did you learn? What lessons will you use? What ticked you off? (Hint: the thing that ticked me off happened at the diversity plenary...more to come on that later)

Philanthropy 2.0

I'm blogging live from the philathropy 2.0 event sponsored by the Case Foundation, EPIP, and 3rd Wave. Packed, hot, techie. About to break a sweat hot.

Just a quick observation. In today's session on faith and feminism, the director of the Women's Funding Network, Chris, pushed me to present my small group's discussion points. Although the rest of the group urged her to speak, she clearly indicated that she wanted me to present because I am an emerging voice in the feminist movement.

This is not the only time this has happened. Today, in the session I co-designed, Luz gave way to Charles and Trista to allow them airtime. This level of collegiality and respect for the voices of young people in philanthropy is new to me. Just by creating it as a focus area of the summit and by hearing leadership frame the conference on Sunday, people are already taking action.

We are not just here to learn, existing leadership is not just here to teach. It is an exchange.

Leadership for the Next Generation

Next generation, emerging practioner, 'newbie'. Many of us who read and contribute to this blog fit under one of those categories, either because we're young or we're not so young but new to the field. So what can we do to fit in the category of LEADER? What are the strategies of getting to the corner office with (as one of my grad school professors would say) "the big leather chair"?

This was the topic of the session Cultivating the Next Generation of Foundation Professionals. Moderated by Yolanda Alindor from the San Francisco Foundation, panelists Luz Vega-Marquis (Pres/CEO, Marguerite Casey Foundation), Charles Fields (Program Officer, Marguerite Casey Foundation) and our own Trista Harris discussed the strategies and philosophies for young philanthropists who are cultivating their careers.

Rusty started out with some informal polling of the room, asking questions about how many generations were represented in the various foundations attendees worked for and how many agreed with the current issue of the leadership gap. He also gave some historical content that demonstrated how foundations are often the last to see how important tit is to recognize talent in hiring considerations.

Luz provided a lot of insight from the perspective of a CEO who truly believes in hiring young people and helping to develop their careers in philanthropy. She emphasized that she sees this as ensuring the "dna" of the foundation is maintained through the next wave of leaders who will carry the organization's mission over the long haul. Her passion for diversity in the field comes from when she started out in philanthropy and saw no one like her in the where organization she worked. She discussed the reality of distrust between the generations and encouraged young philanthropists to seek out opportunities to get to know the senior staff and Board members by reaching out to the best in these individuals--in turn they will be willing to share.

Charles described his experience as a fellow through the San Francisco Foundation's Multicultural Fellowship Program. He encouraged CEOs to be thoughtful about creating a "good back bench" who can move the agenda forward. He also noted that institutions need to have value around diversity, not only ethnic but also generational. When asked about the importance of life experience for those trying to become leaders in philanthropy, he said that working on the ground gives insight and credibility in one's foundation work. He encouraged attendees to find mentors in their institutions who they connect with.

Trista also encouraged finding a mentor, in addition to seeking activities outside of one's comfort zone. She advised more experienced foundation staff to tell young staff about the unwritten rules of the foundation and helping them navigate the landscape. She also encouraged young staff to write down goals and recognize that the older generation want to leave a legacy and begin to learn from them.

All three presenters emphasized branching out and seeking the opportunities to grow and learn within the field, both through experience and from those who came before us. The big leather chair awaits all of us, but it's up to us to take the initiative to begin the path to occupy it.

A New Generation of Foundation CEO's

Personal journey? Professional mission? How do new CEO's find their paths?

This session focused on the personal journeys of three young and/or new CEO's. Jamie Merisotis talked about his move to Lumina instantly making him smarter, taller, and prettier... something everyone new to the field experiences. He went on to discuss how he is always looking for new avenues to make scalable change. His career has been in creating educational opportunity and Lumina was the obvious next step. While not an emerging leader anymore, he is the youngest CEO of one of the 50 largest foundations, and as such, he still carries the mantle of young leadership.

Monique Mehta from the Third Wave Foundation talked about her move to CEO as part of her journey from social services and volunteering as a high school and college student to moving into the corporate sector, becoming a volunteer, then a law student, finally coming full circle to Third Wave. While hers was a personal journey, it sounded like her turning point was her volunteer work after college. She found a personally compelling mission which put her on the CEO path. Now she works with her colleagues to make sure that she and her foundation have a seat at the table.

Perhaps the most compelling story was Nathanial Williams. He talked about his five year plan to become a foundation CEO, which happened a couple of years ago, but more importantly he talked about his background, both his family background and his educational experiences informing what he brought to his job. Because of his focus, I think he gave the most concrete path to executive leadership.--becoming part of national networks, taking on board work and taking leadership roles in everything he did. His career is clearly personal, but like Jaime he has had a relatively narrow focus area-- in youth leadership development and organizing.

Other key learnings from this session include: taking advantage of the fact that as a young person, you will be underestimated--excel when you can, marshall your resources when you can't. Create a "kitchen cabinet," that is, smart, accomplished colleagues and friends that will give you good, sometimes tough, feedback. No one climbs the executive mountain alone. And lastly, reclaim philanthropy. It doesn't mean rich, it doesn't mean old and it doesn't mean white. it means "love of mankind," we can embrace the term and redefine it.

Athena Adkins is a senior manager for community relations at Travelers and membership chair for the Minnesota chapter of EPIP

I AM NEXT GEN

EPIP is having a huge impact at this conference. The "I am next gen" and I support next gen" stickers (available at the Next Gen lounge in Resource Central) have been a big hit.

EPIP also hosted a welcome session to orient 65+ participants to the summit and the generational leadership track. I think we may have had the smallest room in the convention center for this session. It felt a little like the kids table at Thanksgiving but we are not going to let space issues cramp our style. Donna Edwards, a passionate social justice advocate, Executive Director of the Arca Foundation, and future politician provided us withgreat advice on how to get the most out of the conference including using it as an opportunity to find foundations of like mind and spirit to creat powerful funders collaboratives to meet community needs. She challenged us to leverage our connections in the field for the most community impact.

It has been fabulous meeting readers of the blog in person. I'd just like to tell the blog readers that you are the funniest, smartest, and prettiest people at the conference. Keep saying hi.