Program

EGA’s Commitment to Building Diversity

For more than a decade EGA has been committed to inclusiveness and diversity. The first step was recognizing that lack of diversity (including but not limited to gender, class, age, race and sexual orientation) impacts the strength of the environmental movement and our growth and relevance as a philanthropic affinity group. Thus, the Inclusive Practices Committee was formed, working to create new resolutions and diversity goals each year. These include: ensuring that the presenters at our annual retreat reflect a variety of values; focusing more explicitly in our retreats on issues of environmental justice, racism and equity; promoting diversity in hiring among funders; and providing resources for members to increase their awareness of diversity issues. Last year the EGA board created the Walking the Talk committee, with the aim of combining the values of diversity with eco-sustainability—values that are of equal importance as we build an environmentally healthy world for all people. Interest in diversity continues to grow in the EGA community, and we hope you will take a step to learn more by participating in this workshop.

For the past several years EGA has worked with The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond to present their Undoing Racism workshop at our retreats. While numerous colleagues have benefited from the experience, this year we are researching new trainers so that our members can benefit from a variety of approaches and theories. Watch your e-mail and visit our website at www.ega.org for updates, or e-mail Rachel Goldstein at rgoldstein@ega.org for more information.

Don’t miss this valuable opportunity to challenge your thinking and enrich your grantmaking.

Diversity Workshop for Funders

Time and details to be determined.

Institutes

The EGA Institutes are geared toward new funders, those new to an issue area, or anyone who wishes to expand their knowledge of the basics. The sessions are hosted by fellow funder affinity groups. Institutes are for funders only.

Cost for EGA Institute is $55, which covers the full day and includes lunch.

8:30 - 10:00 am

Blaming the Developer and Other Environmental Heresies: Effective Ways to Talk about Land Use
with the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities

Land is a core concern for those who are concerned with the environment. We used to say that urban sprawl was gobbling up our land, creating congestion, pollution, blight, economic shifts and contributing to social inequity, obesity, asthma and loss of community. But now we know how to better advocate for the health and protection of this critical resource. Smart growth practices, which began in the environmental movement, recognize the power of local decisions about growth and development. Get reacquainted with land use as a high-leverage issue and learn how to avoid ineffective ways of approaching the subject. 

SPEAKER

Ann Fowler Wallace is a program consultant to the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth & Livable Communities. For 15 years, Ann headed Grant Management Associate’s environmental grantmaking consulting practice serving the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust, the Conservation, Food & Health Foundation, the Dolphin Trust, and The Elizabeth Ordway Dunn Foundation. She is also a trustee of the Beldon Fund and the Environmental League of Massachusetts.

Kim Ogren is senior program manager at the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities. Prior to joining the Network, Kim was a principal planner with local governments, including the Florida Keys and the state of Florida. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Off the Defensive: Farm Policy and the Environment—A Way to Progress
with the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders

With traditional protections such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act besieged in Washington, it’s hard today to make progress on the issues of clean water, habitat protection and open space. Farm policy reforms offer another way—an opportunity to leverage billions in federal funding and target them to solving water quality problems, protecting habitat and preserving biodiversity, and keeping farm and forest land in open space. And there are opportunities to make a difference at the federal, state and local levels. Hear from colleagues about how funding in this area connects to their missions, whether they are protecting North American waters, saving habitats for endangered species or fighting sprawl.

SPEAKER

Oran Hesterman is program director for Food Systems and Rural Development programming at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan. In this role, he provides primary leadership to the Foundation's Food and Society Initiative, in addition to focusing on Food Systems and Rural Development policy.

Margaret O’Dell is program manager for environment at the Joyce Foundation, where she has worked since 1989 on environmental issues including transportation, sustainable agriculture, water quality and toxics. She is also a member of the EGA Management Board and chairs the Transportation Funders Group of the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities.

Heather Podoll is an advisor to the William Zimmerman Foundation, a private family foundation committed to sustainable agriculture, food quality and the development of entrepreneurial skills of underprivileged youth. Heather has worked with many organizations on organic agriculture and local food systems in Iowa and California.

FACILITATOR

Virginia Clarke-Laskin coordinates the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders, a national group working to foster communication and information exchange between grantmakers interested in these issues. In her off hours she proudly tends her garden with her 7-year old daughter, who eats only fresh food.

10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Aqua Es Vida: Grants to Protect Water Resources
with the Water Funders Alliance

Join us and a team of knowledgeable veterans for an interactive seminar featuring a popular education-based role-play. The session will provide an overview of the US and global water landscape, including key issues and stakeholders, a discussion of how water is connected to other important environmental, social and economic issues grantmakers support and a review of opportunities for enhancing one’s grantmaking on water-related issues. Bring your sense of humor and experience with the environment, public health, social justice and economics to work collaboratively to analyze water issues and develop grantmaking strategies that protect water resources and the human and natural communities dependent on them.

SPEAKERS

Sam Passmore is a program officer at the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation who is working to advance conservation of freshwater ecosystems in the bi-national Great Lakes basin and portions of the southeastern US. Sam previously worked for the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. Sam received an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Arlene Rodriguez is the program office at the San Francisco Foundation for the environmentand social justice, and supports environmentally sustainable development practices by addressing urban and natural environmental issues and promoting environmental health and justice. She serves as a commissioner for the City and County of San Francisco Department on the Environment.

FACILITATOR

Torri Estrada currently serves as coordinator for the Water Funders Alliance and is a program officer at the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program, where he manages grantmaking on environment, civil rights, global democracy and media. Torri has worked at the intersection of the environment and social justice for more than 20 years.

Winning Federal Pollution Control Measures: A Retrospective and Prospective Look
with the Climate and Energy Funders Group, a project of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity

The first Conference of the Parties/Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP) to the Kyoto Protocoltakes place in Montreal in late November. At this Institute, come find out what the COP/MOP is and discuss progress on climate change, lessons learned from the acid rain battle, and key investment opportunities that will help us win a national cap on greenhouse gas emissions. We will talk about the role foundations played in the battle against acid rain, and then focus on strategies for the states and how to bring the US back into an international leadership role.

SPEAKERS

Stewart Hudson is president of the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, which makes grants in the areas of the arts, environment, and learning disabilities. Previous positions include executive director of the Jane Goodall Institute and vice president for Educational Outreach at the National Wildlife Federation. 

David Wooley is vice president for Domestic Programs of the Energy Foundation and serves on Governor Pataki’s Greenhouse Gas Taskforce. He directed Pace University’s Energy Project, leading a coalition to establish a fund promoting renewable energy technologies. David helped convince Governor Pataki to establish a Renewable Portfolio Standard for New York.

FACILITATOR

Paige Brown is the coordinator at the Climate and Energy Funders Group. She previously was senior program manager for Natural Assets at CFED. She served as climate change program director at Redefining Progress and research analyst at the World Resources Institute, where she worked on incentive-based measures for biodiversity protection.

12:00–1:00 pm

Lunch

1:30–3:00 pm

The Healthiest Groundswell: Grantmaking Where Environment Meets Health
with the Health and Environmental Funders Network, a project of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity

Philanthropy—and the work supported by it—is blooming at the nexus of environment and health. This peer discussion seminar will give a “big picture” overview of funding and science. We’ll then move into a deeper discussion of popular areas of grantmaking such as environmental health and environmental justice; women and environmental health; and chemicals-related work. Marketing campaigns, policy work, grassroots-to-global organizing, science and alternatives development, constituencies and allies, framing and communications—it’s all strategically interconnected. This seminar will feature the expertise of a “teaching team” of veteran funders in environmental health who are leaders in these areas. Newcomers, veterans, and anyone seeking a jolt of positive energy are all welcome.

FACILITATOR

Kathy Sessions coordinates the Health and Environmental Funders Network under the auspices of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity. A trustee of the Barbara Smith Fund, Sessions holds an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College.

It Can Happen Here: Leveraging Overseas Leadership on Sustainability
with the Funders Network on Trade and Globalization and the Sustainable Consumption and Production Funders

It’s no secret that the US focus on consuming vast quantities of stuff at ever cheaper prices-- without regard to who makes products, where and with what-- is driving the destruction of the environment and communities. In response, many countries have passed forward-thinking policies that embody worker protection, the precautionary principle and extended producer responsibility. Why are some policies mandatory in the EU and not in the US? US-based funders are a part of a global movement as the US drives the engine of production and consumption. We will explore how funders are leveraging change overseas and supporting parallel efforts in the US, and how entities like the WTO could prevent such progress.  

SPEAKERS

Cathy Lerza is a senior philanthropic advisor at the Tides Foundation. She has 30 years of experience as a grantmaker, advocate, organizer, writer and editor, working with nonprofit organizations and foundations on a range of issues including the environment, economic policy, food and agriculture, and sustainability.

Sandra Smithey is the program officer for the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation’s Reform of International Finance and Trade program area, which is part of the foundation’s environment program.

3:30–5:00 pm

Bringing it Home: Creating a World without Environmental Human Rights Violations
with the International Human Rights Funders Group

Toxic emissions from chemical factories threaten the health of communities; giant dams and oil spills obliterate traditional fisheries; and mine tailings and leachate poison land and water. These are not only environmental disasters but egregious human rights abuses, destroying livelihoods and sometimes life itself. This session will look at some of the most dangerous environmental human rights violations here and abroad and at some of the solutions that have emerged in the past few years, from new organizing approaches as well as new legal and public policy opportunities. Funders will learn ways to join the effort.

SPEAKERS

Larry Cox serves as senior program officer for the Ford Foundation’s Human Rights unit. Before coming to Ford, he was executive director of the Rainforest Foundation for five years, an international organization that works with indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon to protect their land and rights.

Mark Ritchie is founder and current president of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and serves as an advisor to the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Last year he ran the National Voice NOVEMBER 2 voter-mobilization campaign in the United States.

FACILITATOR

Chet Tchozewski is founder and executive director of the Global Greengrants Fund, which makes small grants to grassroots environmental groups around the world. He is the recipient of the Council on Foundations 2004 Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking.

Gaps and Overlaps in Funding Environment, Peace and Security
with the Peace and Security Funders Group

The militaries of the world and weapons manufacturers are among the largest generators of radioactive and toxic wastes. Regional conflicts and wars are increasingly being fought over natural resources. In turn, wars cause tremendous damage to the environment, animals and public health. The US military budget has risen dramatically while environmental budgets have been cut. Are these matters of concern for environmental or peace –and security funders? Come hear about opportunities for environmental and peace funders to work together, and what issues and organizations fall through the gaps.

SPEAKERS

Stuart Clarke is executive director of the Town Creek Foundation. He previously managed the Turner Foundation’s Water and Toxics portfolio as a program officer. He has served as a member of EGA’s Management Board and Program Committee. Stuart has also taught at Yale and Wesleyan Universities and Williams College.

Meg Gage founded the Peace Development Fund in 1981 and served as its executive director until 1992. She was executive director of the Ottinger Foundation and founded the Proteus Fund in 1995, where she now serves as president and executive director. She was awarded the very first Council on Foundations Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking, in 1985.

FACILITATOR

Wayne Jaquith has served as president of the Council for a Livable World Education Fund, National Security News Service and Natural Resources News Service.  He previously served as executive director of Nantucket Land Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control and Ploughshares Fund. 

6:00–8:00 pm

Opening Reception featuring Slow Foods