Welcome to the Fall Retreat 2003:
Beyond Borders

For the first time in the history of the Environmental Grantmakers Association the Annual Retreat is being held outside of the United States, and in conjunction with our Canadian partners, the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network. We are pleased to welcome you to Ottawa, the beautiful capital of Canada, where we will be staying in the historic Château Laurier, on the banks of the Ottawa River. We are confident that this Retreat will provide fertile ground for grantmakers to explore, examine, and exercise ideas and strategies to more effectively collaborate, to seize this moment together, and envision the world as we want it to be.

We extend our deep appreciation to our gracious hosts, our Canadian EGA members and the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network, for their generous hospitality and thoughtfulness throughout the planning process and during the Retreat. At a moment when those of us in the US face profound and daunting domestic challenges to our shared goal of environmental protection, we are heartened to meet with you in a nation that has been an international leader on many environmental fronts.

As the Program Committee framed this Retreat, we found the concept of moving “Beyond Borders” resonant for many reasons. As we have long recognized, countless environmental concerns are not limited by borders, whether they are political or issue-based. In an era of growing international interdependence and instability, decisions that are taken within one nation’s borders have profound implications across the globe. During this period of far-reaching attacks on the environment by the powers-that-be, we are compelled, more than ever, to think outside of the traditional borders that have governed the strategies and organizing principles of environmental protection. This includes looking beyond our political borders to other nations for ideas and leadership.

Thus, within the theme “Beyond Borders,” the Program Committee has developed a Retreat agenda that we hope will inform, challenge and inspire you to think beyond our traditional philanthropic boundaries. We are offering “Featured Conversations” where extraordinary and compelling thinkers, advocates and organizers will offer fresh perspectives on four overarching themes: Time, North America, Power and The Commons. Smaller sessions will follow these thematic tracks, where issues of common interest can be pursued in greater depth.

Another border we are crossing is structural. The Program Committee took a long, hard look at the evaluations from last year’s Retreat, and responded to your concerns with some bold format decisions. In response to concerns about program overload, we have reduced the number of sessions by nearly one-third. Your requests for fewer talking heads challenged us to re-think how ideas are shared – from Featured Conversations that will use innovative programming techniques to engage members in designing their own follow-up discussions to Small Sessions that will utilize creative formats such as fishbowl discussions, roundtables, intensive case studies, and even a game show!

Finally, we will draw a border around ourselves and look inward. As a result of a call for more funder-to-funder time, we have made the third day of the Retreat a “funders only” day. We hope that this will be an opportunity for the kind of frank, in-depth conversations, networking and funder organizing that members have asked for! We will start with a featured conversation during which several of our seasoned members discuss their “Theories of Change,” followed by small sessions focusing on such topics as collaboration, foundations and elections, leadership development, global governance, and Australia, another country that offers intriguing and important lessons for environmental sustainability.

Equally exciting are this year’s Institutes, which have been ramped up to offer not only the traditional 101s on such topics as environmental grantmaking, the precautionary principle, and cross-issue collaboration; but also a more advanced “201” track designed to facilitate extended discussions on such issues as media strategy, campaign finance reform, and federal policy.

Planning this Retreat in this extraordinary historical moment was a gratifying challenge, as was responding to member calls for dramatic change in format and structure. We have sought to craft a Retreat that will satisfy our membership’s needs for inspiration, information, collaboration, and camaraderie. We hope this agenda will allow us all leave Ottawa with fresh perspectives, new ideas and dynamic strategies and partners in the struggle for environmental protection.

We applaud this year’s Program Committee’s focus and creativity. As always, we appreciate the exceptional commitment of EGA members, staff, and of course, the broader environmental community, as we work together towards our common goals.

See you across the border!

Program Committee Co-Chairs
Allison Barlow, Albert A. List Foundation
Denise Joines, Wilburforce Foundation