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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27Bodymind Motion Class Take a break from all that heady conversation with colleagues and nourish your body, mind and spirit with this energizing movement class. Emphasizing breath, energy, alignment, release, strength, stretch and fun, this class is designed to renew and refresh your sagging (or maybe just overworked and weary!) soul. Wear comfortable, loose clothing and bare feet. 8:00–9:00 am Ad Hocs Takings Policies and the Impact on Environmental ProtectionBallot initiatives like Oregon’s Measure 37, which requires government compensation to land owners when land use rules reduce property values, are cropping up in many states that have been known for their model land use policies and practices. Many are describing Measure 37 as a “voter revolt against land protection”. Learn more about what’s happening on the ground and understand some of the tactics needed to successfully limit the undoing of local government environmental protections around the country. ORGANIZERS LOCATION A Global Warming Strategic Framework and Update on Federal PolicyKathleen Welch, Pew Charitable Trusts, will provide an update on the status of the federal climate debate, including a quick review of the recently passed energy bill. A strategic framework for building a mandate for domestic action, endorsed by the Climate and Energy Funders Group, will be presented and discussed. The group will discuss important near term opportunities to move the global warming issue. ORGANIZER LOCATION From Klamath to Cochabamba II: Strengthening the Water Grantmaking CommunityThe Water Funders Alliance is convening an ad hoc session to bring together funders interested in and supporting advocacy and organizing around water issues both in the US and nternationally. The session will provide an opportunity to hear what other funders are supporting, what we see as challenges and emerging opportunities for their water-related grantmaking, and to get an update from the Alliance on its current and future programs and activities. The session will also highlight some innovative approaches by grantmakers to connect social justice issues to their water grantmaking. ORGANIZER LOCATION Forest Service Roadless Area ProtectionThe Roadless Area Conservation Rule that was instituted in January of 2001 protected 58 million acres of roadless areas on our National Forests. That rule has now been replaced by the Forest Service with a new more speculative process that gives Governors formal input and responsibility for identifying and proposing levels of protection for Forest Service roadless areas in their respective states. This new rule has led to multiple responses from governors and conservation organizations, from encouraging states to participate in the new process, to renewed litigation challenging the new process. This ad-hoc will give an up-to-the minute status update, and then purse a discussion about strategic choices that the conservation community faces given the current situation. ORGANIZERS LOCATION State "Tables": Collaborative Work Around Civic Engagement at the State LevelOver the last couple of years, many organizations have invested significant time and energy to develop collaborative plans for state level advocacy and civic engagement. The collaborative processes and plans developed by these "tables" have varied from state to state; but all "tables" are working to strategically engage the public on a variety of public interest issues, including, but not limited to, the environment. We're interested in the potential these "tables" offer for efficiencies, like joint polling or message work; and for creating a clear plan for advocacy groups to continue to collaborate on targeting, "turf" division, and other important work. ORGANIZERS LOCATION Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Economic GlobalizationNo community of peoples has been more directly impacted by globalization than the world's 350 millions indigenous peoples, yet their voices have been largely excluded from the debate. "Paradigm Wars" is a spectacular new exhibit format 250 page book that is meant to inject these issues into public debate and provide support for indigenous struggles. Discounted copies of the book will be available at the session. ORGANIZER LOCATION Funders Update on the Keep Antibiotics Working Campaign - the Crossroads of Sustainable Ag and Environmental HealthLessons and victories of this market-corporate-legislative effort to get antibiotics out of agriculture, and the funder collaborative that supports it. ORGANIZER LOCATION The Emerging Wal-Mart CampaignAn update and discussion on the emerging inside and outside campaign strategies to change Wal-Mart's environmental policies and that of its 25,000 suppliers. ORGANIZER LOCATION From Barnraisings to Blogs II: Innovative Models for Successful Engagement and OutreachDespite rapid technological advances and progress in marketing and outreach in the for-profit sphere, does it seem as if the non-profit community is stuck in the dark ages of direct mail or, at best, email alerts? Are there more effective - and affordable - outreach and engagement strategies out there? Join us for the release of a report documenting the results of a set of small grants designed to test the effectiveness and replicability of several engagement projects, and including original interviews with the creators of the Meatrix, moveon.org and meetup.com. ORGANIZER LOCATION The Grant Application Process - From LOI to Final Evaluation and Everything In BetweenAn informal discussion among Program Officers to compare the process that each Foundation utilizes. We will discuss the letter of inquiry, grant application, reporting requirements, database, and evaluation process. ORGANIZER LOCATION Growing Localized Philanthropy for the Environment: How Can Foundations Help to Broaden the Base of Local Giving?An informal discussion of questions needing to be addressed by newly-forming foundations, for effective management, administration, program development, decision-making, etc. Emphasis on smaller foundations ($5 million in assets or smaller); both newer and more established foundations encouraged to participate and compare notes. ORGANIZER Main Dining Room Four
9:00–10:30 am Featured Conversation: Confronting the Growth Taboo—Environmental Consequences of a Global Economy Predicated on Unending Growth As grantmakers, we invest significant resources to combat environmental ills that are, arguably, merely the symptoms of a global economic system with an insatiable appetite for growth. Yet we’re reluctant to confront the underlying problem: the economic forces that drive societies to exploit natural and human capital in ways that are unsustainable. Why is discussing this topic taboo? To what extent do our environmental goals depend upon our ability to realize an alternative vision? What are innovators doing and how can we support them? This conversation challenges us to engage in a dialogue that shatters the “growth taboo.” SPEAKERS Carlos Quesada-Mateo is a civil engineer and a water resources and environmental expert. He is a private consultant, does volunteer community work and, since February 2003, has been an honorary professor at the Research Center for Sustainable Development (CIEDES), University of Costa Rica, where he has taught since 1972. Betsy Taylor is president of the Center for a New American Dream, an organization working with households, institutions and corporations to reduce and shift consumption to enhance quality of life, protect the natural environment and secure greater social justice. The Center has a network of 80,000 conscious consumers and 3,000 institutional buyers. FACILITATOR Bill McKibben is a journalist and author who has written extensively about environmental issues. Bill makes his home in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, which are also discussed in his latest book, Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America's Most Hopeful Landscape, Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks.
11:00 - 12:30 am Concurrent SessionsBreaking Through: Going Beyond Issues to Move Values through the Culture Researchers who study the values that motivate behavior suggest that there is a widening gap between the values held by environmentalists and those held by the American public. This interactive session will challenge participants to examine new ways of creating change by learning to navigate the current values environment more effectively while working to transform it over time. We will present an overview of the American values landscape to set the context for speakers from two organizations that are reorienting their work around strategic initiatives designed to build an eco-values majority. This session continues the discussion on "The Death of Environmentalism." SPEAKERS Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is the executive director of Working Partnerships, a collaboration among labor, environmental and other community-based organizations that crafts solutions to the problems of the New Economy. Phaedra is also a leader of the California Alliance and has been instrumental in moving the Alliance to adopt a values orientation. Cara Pike is the communications director of Earth Justice, a national public-interest law firm for the environment. Cara has been a driving force within her organization for an initiative that seeks to transform it from within while it commits itself to the work of building broad-based support for ecological values over time. FACILITATOR Adam Werbach has served on the board of the General Service Foundation since 2000 and was elected president of the Sierra Club at age 23. He is co-founder of the Apollo Alliance, a commissioner of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and recently presented a speech entitled "Is Environmentalism Dead?" Intuition: The Open Secret of Effective Grantmaking Increasingly, grantmaking is a matter of rigorous analysis, logic models, metrics and outcome evaluations. But grantmakers also rely heavily on another form of knowledge: intuition. With a particular focus on environmental and grassroots grantmaking, this session explores intuition as a resource for effective grantmaking. By taking a hard look at this “soft” knowledge, our goal is to raise awareness, understanding and confidence in intuition as a tool for grantmaking. SPEAKERS William Ryan is a consultant to nonprofits and foundations and a research fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He has studied many aspects of grantmaking, including the importance of the individual grantmaker’s judgment, and can relate grantmaking to a wide set of ideas about personal effectiveness in various contexts. Gayle Williams is executive director of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, which has extensive experience with environmental grassroots grantmaking in the American South. She is a seasoned funder who has begun to look carefully at the role intuition plays in good social-change grantmaking and how best to blend it with analytic tools. FACILITATOR Chet Tchozewski is founder and executive director of the Global Greengrants Fund. He has helped pioneer international re-granting as an effective means to support the growth of community-based civil society organizations in developing economies and emerging democracies. He is the recipient of the Council on Foundations 2004 Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking.
Massive Debt as an Environmental Issue The national debt is now $7.5 trillion and continues to skyrocket. Consumer debt totals more than $2 trillion—$10 trillion if mortgage debt is included. America’s negative balance of trade this year will exceed $600 billion, the highest fraction of GDP in history. These are all economic signs of a nation living beyond its means. Vastly more important are the biological signs that humankind is borrowing against the natural capital of the whole planet—aquifers, forests, fisheries—much faster than it can be replenished. When any species persistently exceeds the carrying capacity of its environment, it collapses. This session will broadly explore debt, consumption, depletion and the environment and will explore policies to encourage a sustainable economy. SPEAKERS Bob Kuttner is the author of six books, including Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets, which challenges the claim that markets invariably work more efficiently than governments. He is co-founder of the Economic Policy Institute and winner of the United Nations’ Paul Hoffman Award. Senator Ted Kennedy says, “A Bob Kuttner column a day keeps the conservatives at bay.” Maya MacGuineas advised the McCain for President Campaign before joining the New America Foundation. She previously worked at the Brookings Institution, the Concord Coalition and on Wall Street. Maya has written widely for periodicals including The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, Financial Times, and WashingtonMonthly. FACILITATOR Denis Hayes is president of the Bullitt Foundation and former chair of the Energy Foundation. He has been visiting professor of Engineering and Human Ecology at Stanford, Regents Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California and a Silicon Valley attorney. He appears to be chairman-for-life of the Earth Day Network.
New Constituencies: Speed Dating or Long-Term Relationships? Now more than ever environmental grantmakers need to engage nontraditional allies to both hold the line and gain lasting victories. Who are these potential partners and what makes them tick? How do we build relationships with people who don’t think like environmentalists without alienating them? Join us for a conversation about how we can develop lasting and productive partnerships with new constituencies who care about issues such as protecting their hunting ground, creating places for recreation and raising healthy families in resource-dependent communities. They have a voice, and we need to learn how to further engage them. SPEAKERS Matt Connolly is executive director of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, which works to “guarantee you a place to hunt and fish.” He served as president of Ducks Unlimited, chaired the North American Wetlands Council under Bush and Clinton and received the Times-Mirror/Chevron National Conservation Award and the US Forest Services Chief’s Award. Lynn Jungwirth works with the Watershed Research and Training Center to promote healthy forests and healthy communities in Hayfork, California, a town of 1,800 in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. She has served as founder and chair of the Communities Committee of the Seventh American Forest Congress and served on the US Forest Services’Chief Dombeck’s Collaborative Stewardship Committee. Menno Van Wyk is founder and CEO of Montrail, a Seattle-based manufacturer of technically innovative outdoor footwear sold throughout the US and 27 foreign countries. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He worked in both the nonprofit arena and the private sector before starting Montrail. FACILITATOR Katie Distler Eckman is a program officer with the Turner Foundation, directing investments in biodiversity protection. In addition to previous work with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, she has caught snakes in South Carolina swamps, raised endangered species for release into the wild and protected sea turtles in the Caribbean. Her background is in wildlife biology and forestry.
Not the Usual Suspects: How the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders Redefine Political Power The “next generation” of environmental leaders: Who are they and how are they analyzing power? What makes their work different? How are they catalyzing change for the long haul? In this session we will hear sharp and fresh perspectives on what it will take to win the next generation of Americans—one that will be unprecedented in its diversity—to environmental action. Most important, funders will be able to engage with a dynamic group of strategists focused on shaping the new environmentalism into a movement for social, political and economic rights in the United States. SPEAKERS Vivian Chang is executive director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, which brings her background in urban planning and development to the environmental justice mission. A well-recognized organizer in the Asian community, Vivian has spoken on numerous panels as well as in media outlets. She holds a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles. Robby Rodriguez is director of the Southwest Organizing Project, an Albuquerque-based activist group. He is a member of the City of Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Water Resources Advisory Committee and the Building Movement into the Nonprofit Sector Project, and he serves on the board of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. FACILITATOR Anita Nager is director of programs at the Beldon Fund, which seeks to build a national consensus to achieve and sustain a healthy planet. Prior to Beldon, Anita served as senior program officer for Community Development and Environment at the New York Community Trust. She serves on the board of the Environmental Grantmakers Association, the Hudson River Foundation and Cause Effective.
The Perfect Storm: the Convergence of China’s and Wal-Mart’s Growth Ambitions Last year industrial production grew 20% in China, with much of that output going to supply Wal-Mart, which exported about $15 billion in goods from the country. If Wal-Mart were a nation, it would be China’s eighth-largest trading partner. In many respects, the exploding partnership between these two players is merely the natural and inevitable outgrowth of the globalization trends sweeping the world economy. What are the forces propelling the alliance between China and Wal-Mart? And how will their growing relationship reverberate across the global economy and environment? We will examine these questions and explore potential solutions. SPEAKERS Jim Harkness recently completed a six year stint as chief representative of the World Wildlife Federation in China. Under his leadership, WWF engaged leading Chinese and multinational companies on numerous conservation issues. He has worked on conservation programs in China for more than 25 years, including managing the Ford Foundation’s Environment and Development Program for China. Katie Quan is the associate chair and director of the Center for International Labor Relations at the Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California, Berkeley. Katie has worked for many years in China on labor and human rights issues. FACILITATOR Michael Marx is an advisor to the Panta Rhea Foundation and executive director of the Business Ethics Network. He has extensive experience leading efforts to reform the business practices of major corporations. 12:30–1:30 pm Lunch
2:00–3:30 pm We Can Get There from Here: Setting an Agenda for EGA to Craft a Positive Environmental Future Day Two: Movement and Strategy We will gather in small groups to discuss how environmental grantmakers can better effect the change described in the headlines developed in the previous day’s session. We will examine the underlying factors that enable or impede our progress toward our aspirational future. We will challenge each group to think hard about how to overcome perceived barriers and take advantage of emerging and prospective opportunities to achieve our goals. We will then delve into the nuts and bolts of what it will take “to get from here to there.” Join your peers for a lively discussion of the outcomes and strategies we can embrace to realize our shared environmental goals. 4:00–5:30 pm Concurrent Sessions
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime… Funding Environmental Media You will be “transported” into a television set as the “live” studio audience. We will engage in an interactive discussion by analyzing paid advertising from environmental campaigns seeking state-based policy victories. A media strategist will lead us through what makes a successful paid campaign ad, highlighting a 2004 state-based human-health campaign. You will see and hear a variety of print, radio and television advertisements, using your new skills to assess the effectiveness of the advertising. The discussion will include questions such as: How did earned and paid media components interact? Was the organizational capacity strengthened? How effective were the paid media components as compared with other tactics? Did the budget match the task? SPEAKERS Kevin Kirchner is a seasoned policy and media strategist with an extensive background in environmental advocacy campaigns at the state and federal level on a wide range of issues, including wilderness and forest protection, clean water, endangered species, energy and climate change, takings, and toxics and pesticides. He is currently managing partner at MacWilliams Robinson & Partners. Maureen O’Connell is director of Save Our Cumberland Mountains, a community organization in Tennessee that organizes around environmental, economic and social justice issues in rural and small-town communities. She was previously a community organizer for 20 years with SOCM and a board member of the Youth Project, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and a number of state and regional coalitions. FACILITATOR Selena Mendy Singleton is a trustee of the Proteus Fund and executive vice president of TransAfrica Forum, where she heads the One Standard! Campaign to ensure rights for Haitian asylum seekers. She was a senior research associate for US Senator Bill Bradley and has been an active advocate for human rights in Zimbabwe.
I’m No Environmentalist! I’m doing Community-Based Work Is it any surprise that many community-based initiatives are led by people who are not environmentalists? Nonpartisan activity is a well-kept secret. Come hear the stories of two leaders who do not consider themselves “one of us” yet have built inclusive, constructive initiatives forging lasting “environmental” solutions. Learn how the national “values gap” debate plays out in communities as they struggle to address climate change, food security and other issues while building environmentally and economically sustainable communities. This is an interactive workshop in which you will help map out how community-based initiatives link local to statewide and national work without losing their local identities. SPEAKERS Daniel Ross has served for nine years as executive director of Nuestras Raíces, a grassroots organization that uses food, agriculture and the environment to promote sustainable community development in inner-city Holyoke, Massachusetts. Prior to joining Nuestras Raíces, Daniel worked for the East Coast Migrant Health Project. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1994. Beth Sachs is co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, which provides energy-efficiency and renewable-energy consulting services throughout North America and overseas. In 1999 VEIC won the contract to create “Efficiency Vermont,” the first energy-efficiency utility in the US, which won Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government’s “Innovations in American Government Award” in 2000. FACILITATOR Cheryl King Fischer is executive director of New England Grassroots Environment Fund, a funder-activist collaborative that funds local citizens to participate effectively in community-based environmental issues and municipal affairs. Cheryl has worked extensively in the public and nonprofit sectors, professionally and as a volunteer, was elected to her City Council and is now organizing Montpelier’s Energy Team.
Market Campaigns as Tools for Environmental Advocacy: Hope or Hype? Market campaigns are increasingly recognized as one of the most powerful instruments in the environmental conservation toolbar. They attract media, increase consumer knowledge and, ultimately, may transform corporate social and environmental practices across an expanding number of sectors: from forestry and agricultural commodities to financial institutions and mining. This panel will explore the following themes: What are current campaign strategies? What is working, and what is not? Is this a critical basis for changing corporate practice in the future? The panel will feature the perspectives of a veteran leader of market campaigns and a corporate CEO who is working to bring about industry-wide change in the sourcing of gold and silver. SPEAKERS Michael Kowalski is the chairman and CEO of Tiffany & Co., the internationally renowned jeweler. He also serves on the board of The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, the Wildlife Conservation Society and The National Parks Conservation Association. Michael earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard University. Jennifer Krill has worked with Rainforest Action Network since 1995 as a grassroots organizer and negotiator on the Old Growth Forest campaign transforming the US forest products marketplace, directing RAN’s presence in protests against the 1999 WTO Seattle Ministerial and more recently leading the Zero Emissions Campaign targeting Ford Motor Company. FACILITATOR Daniel Katz is senior advisor to The Overbrook Foundation where he directs their environmental giving program. He co-founded the Rainforest Alliance in 1987 and is currently board chair. Daniel serves on several other boards and has edited two books. He has worked on conservation-related issues for more than 20 years.
The Millennium Assessment and New Ecological Visions: Novel Solutions for Living on the Planet The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) produced the first global inventory of the state of our ecosystems, quantifying the effects of human activities and making suggestions for the future. The Ecological Visions Committee of the Ecological Society of America explored the scientific activities required to develop novel solutions to environmental problems. Humans are part of the natural world, and our activities are leading to unprecedented environmental changes. Protecting and restoring the health of natural systems will require strategies that engage the entire public as partners in changing the way we live on the planet. This session will report on the findings of both of these efforts and their implications for solutions. SPEAKERS Angela Cropper is co-founder and president of The Cropper Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic organization committed to Caribbean development across a range of disciplines and sectors. She also co-chaired the Assessment Panel of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Angela was a member of the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development and editor of the Commission’s Report. Margaret Palmer focuses on theory and experimentation in restoration ecology in her research. She chaired the Ecological Visions Committee of the Ecological Society of America and has organized a national-level scientific synthesis to inform policy and link the practice of ecological restoration and the science of restoration ecology. FACILITATOR Barry Gold heads the Packard Foundation’s efforts in ecosystem-based management and combining science and policy. Before joining the foundation, he led science activities in support of the Glen Canyon Dam adaptive management program. Barry has dedicated his career to working on environmental science and policy and has worked in Congress and in the Interior Department as well as with the White House and NGOs.
On What Theory Do We Stand? Ecological Economics vs. Libertarian Economics What are the theoretical underpinnings of the environmental grantmaking that we do? Are we consistent? Are we building our work on the best theory available? Some of the newest approaches come from “ecological economics,” which makes economic systems a subfield of ecology and reaches surprising conclusions about many of our long-held beliefs. Others suggest that we should build environmental policy on a “libertarian economics” theoretical basis, which leaves the management of ecosystems to the market. Come hear two forceful and articulate advocates debate the relative merits of these approaches and apply their perspectives to the day’s most pressing environmental issues. SPEAKERS David Batker, who studied with Herman Daly, is a leading national spokesman for the field of ecological economics. He directs the APEX Center for Applied Ecological Economics. He previously taught in the Training Department of the World Bank and worked for Greenpeace International, specializing in trade and international finance. Jerry Taylor promotes decentralized, market-oriented approaches to environmental protection, highlighting the importance of private property rights. Under Taylor’s direction, the Cato Institute has become the nation’s most influential critic of federal and state environmental policy. He is one of the most frequently cited experts in energy and environmental policy in the nation. FACILITATOR Aileen Lee is program director for the Moore Foundation’s Wild Salmon Ecosystems initiative. Aileen is a lawyer, and prior to joining the foundation in 2002, she was an associate principal at McKinsey & Company, the management consulting firm.
Step out of Your Role, Step into Your Issue Walk the talk! Step out of your day job and into the shoes of a stakeholder—parent, health researcher, advocate, public official. Participate in a mock “community meeting” and grapple with the challenges our grantees face as they struggle to forge agreements to protect community and environmental health. Our session speakers will offer promising strategies that apply international human rights law and emerging environmental health science findings to the advocacy arsenal. SPEAKERS Martha Arguello works to redevelop environmental protection as a public-health right by educating and mobilizing the medical community to build respectful coalitions with residential and worker communities threatened by toxic chemical exposures. Her work in coordinating diverse coalitions of medical, community and environmental advocates has contributed to establishing model environmental policies and programs in California. Monique Harden works to connect human rights, environmental justice and health advocacy with Advocates for Environmental Human Rights. AEHR recently filed the first human rights petition with the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, seeking reform of the US environmental regulatory system and remedies for government-sanctioned health and environmental damage in Mossville, Louisiana. FACILITATOR Michelle DePass is program officer for the Ford Foundation’s Community and Resource Development Unit, where she leads the foundation’s work in the area of Environmental Justice and Healthy Communities. As a lawyer and policy analyst, Michelle has worked in a variety of capacities in environmental justice organizations, government and academia. 6:00–7:00 pm Mingle with a glass of wine as you browse poster presentations by colleagues on various issues of the day.
Dinner Comedy featuring Kate Clinton Kate Clinton has performed nationally for more than two decades, from comedy-club appearances to several off-Broadway runs. She has released seven recorded collections of humor, and her latest book is entitled What the L? Her politically charged humor is both provocative and hilarious! Dance Party
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