Program

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
FUNDER ONLY DAY

6:00 – 7:00 am
Yoga Class

7:00 – 8:00 am
Breakfast

8:30 – 9:00 am
Welcoming Remarks
Spiritual Welcome
Peter Pino

9:00 – 9:15 am
Keynote Address: Arturo Sandoval

Arturo Sandoval is the founder and president of the Center of Southwest Culture, Inc., a non-profit organization promoting the peoples and cultures of the Southwestern United States. CSC focuses on developing cultural events and promoting groups who reflect the rich Mexicano and Native American cultural heritage of New Mexico and the Southwest.

9:15 – 9:30 am
Keynote Address: Regis Pecos

Regis Pecos was born and raised at Cochiti Pueblo and is a lifetime member of the Traditional Tribal Council. He has spent his professional life advancing the interests of American Indian citizens at the tribal, state and national levels. In 1996, he became the first American Indian to be appointed to the Board of Trustees for Princeton University. He was also named New Mexico’s Distinguished Public Servant, the state’s highest honor. He is the director and co-founder of the New Mexico Leadership Institute.

9:30 – 11:30 am

Featured Conversation: 20/20: Viewpoints in Environmental Philanthropy, 1987-2027

It has been 20 years since the Environmental Grantmakers Association was founded. What has environmental philanthropy done right? Where were our mistakes? How can we make the most of the next 20 years? How is the context of our work, both in the US and globally, evolving and what is the best way to take action? How do the changes in environmental philanthropy dovetail with philanthropy as a whole? How do other movements affect ours? Join this dynamic, powerful panel for a provocative discussion and hard look in the mirror and into the future.

Angela Glover Blackwell is founder and president of PolicyLink, a national nonprofit research, communications, capacity-building, and advocacy organization. Their mission is to advance new policies to achieve economic and social equity, based on the wisdom of local leaders. She previously served as senior vice president for The Rockefeller Foundation, where her work centered on issues of inclusion, race, and policy. Angela is a co-author of Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground: New Dimensions on Race in America. Previously, she was a partner with Public Advocates, a public interest law firm.

Jon Cracknell has worked with the family of the late Sir James Goldsmith since 1993, and has managed the family’s environmental grantmaking and other philanthropy since 1998. He is the director of the JMG Foundation, which funds campaign work on issues including industrial agriculture, trade policy and climate change. He also manages three other grantmaking structures, all funding environmental initiatives, primarily in Europe. He has been actively engaged in the Environmental Grantmakers Association since 1998. In 2003, Jon helped set up the Environmental Funders Network in the UK (www.greenfunders.org) which he coordinates. He coauthored the Where The Green Grants Went series, analyzing environmental grantmaking patterns and income sources for environmental groups in the UK. He is currently working with the European Foundation Centre and others to map environmental grantmaking activity across Europe. 

Katherine Fulton is a partner of the Monitor Group and president of the Monitor Institute, through which the Group applies its expertise and capital to complex social problem solving. She is the co-author of Looking out for the Future: an Orientation for Twenty-First Century Philanthropists and On the Brink of New Promise: the Future of U.S. Community Foundations, and has won a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University and a Lyndhurst Foundation prize.

Denis Hayes directs The Bullitt Foundation from the perspective of a practical visionary who has devoted his life to conservation. He is probably best known for having been National Coordinator of the first Earth Day, now the world’s most widely observed secular holiday. He is the seasoned veteran of many environmental legislative and litigation victories over the years. Mobilizing the resources of The Bullitt Foundation, Denis intends to make the Pacific Northwest a global model for sustainable development.

MODERATOR

Sandra Hernández, MD, is chief executive officer of The San Francisco Foundation. Previously, she served as the director of public health for the City and County of San Francisco. She is an assistant clinical professor at UCSF School of Medicine and maintains an active clinical practice at San Francisco General Hospital in the AIDS clinic. Her current and prior affiliations include the boards of the Council on Foundations, The Pew Commission on Environmental Health, The Foundation Consortium for California’s Children and Youth; Grantmakers in Health, the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Session on Philanthropy and the Latino Community Foundation, a supporting organization of The San Francisco Foundation.

12:00 – 1:00 pm

Lunch
Ad Hocs

1:30 – 3:00 pm

Concurrent Sessions

Ballot Measures—Yes, You Can!

Ballot measures are a key tool for advancing progressive policy and building power. In 2006, more than 20 states asked their voters to weigh in on conservation issues through the ballot box. From regulatory takings to renewable energy, more and more state and local policy makers are by-passing elected officials and going straight to the voters. While private foundations are limited in their ability to support ballot measures directly, there are numerous ways to legally play, and many foundations are. We will explore the reasons that we must engage in ballot battles and creative ways to support them.

Bill Mitchell works with with groups on energy and natural resource development in the Northern Rockies, Canada and Alaska, and has worked on both sides of the foundation desk, seeking to leverage support for grassroots work. He has been an advisor to the Alki Fund since its inception in 1991.

Rhea Suh is a program officer with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Previously, Rhea spent four years as a senior legislative assistant for Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, focusing on energy and natural resource issues. Honors and interests include receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to South Korea and a growing competence in fly-fishing.

FACILITATOR

Scott Denman is a senior program officer at the Wallace Global Fund.    

Bringing New Partners to the Dance

We all recognize the need to engage new constituencies in environmental advocacy, but this is not always the easiest dance. When to lead and when to follow? How can we avoid stepping on toes? What has worked—and what has not—to generate powerful new and unexpected voices? Bring your own foundation’s experience to what is sure to be a dynamic exploration of strategies that our colleagues are fostering to effectively reach broad new communities: people of faith, hunters and anglers, organized labor, young leaders of color, health professionals and others. Take away fresh thinking, best practices, and winning strategies for filling your dance card with new environmental advocates!

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. Michelle serves on the board of the Environmental Grantmakers Association.

Ruth Hennig is executive director of The John Merck Fund. Ruth has served on the management and program committees for EGA, and she is currently on the Health and Environment Funders Network steering committee. Ruth is on the boards of the Beldon Fund and SmartPower, an NGO building clean-energy markets.

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.

Anita Nager is director of programs at the Beldon Fund. 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.

MODERATOR

Jon Jensen is the executive director of the Park Foundation.  He was formerly the senior program officer for the environment program of the George Gund Foundation.  He has also served as executive director of the Wildlife Preservation Trust International. A founder of the Environmental Grantmakers Association, he currently serves as chairman of the board of the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities.

Competing for Attention: Leveraging Funding to help Grantees Communicate Effectively

Public communication is often crucial to the success of EGA’s grantees missions. But often program support grants do not address poorly planned, resourced and executed communications strategies. We will begin by examining a communications assistance program implemented by the Woodcock Foundation and other partners for its grantees. We will explore lessons learned in leveraging program support by improving communications capacity. The panelists will share insights on the structure and outcome of innovative assistance models to help grantees engage the public in their missions, and will lead audience members through a hands-on discussion that reveals differing approaches and opportunities for immediate implementation by grantmakers.

Eric Brown is communications director with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Previously, he was with the Center for a New American Dream and was press secretary and speechwriter for Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez. As a political media consultant, Eric produced hundreds of television and radio ads for U.S. Senate, Congressional and statewide campaigns.

Doug Hattaway has helped foundations, nonprofit organizations and advocacy groups evaluate their communications and develop effective strategies. His clients have included Vice President Al Gore, Woodcock Foundation, World Bank and Center for American Progress. He also has unique experience working with conservation organizations that work to shape national and international policy.

MODERATOR

Eric Kessler has advised family, business and government donors and worked alongside institutional funders in 23 countries.  His firm has developed grantmaking strategies for foundations ranging from the Gates Foundation to individual donors coast-to-coast, and hosts the Creation Care Support Fund, a collaborative engaging evangelical youth in environmental advocacy.

The State of Change: Innovations and Opportunities in State-level Grantmaking

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, “states are the laboratories of democracy,” and indeed, many of the environmental victories we have seen in recent years, from combating global warming to phasing out the most toxic chemicals, have been won in states while the federal government balked.  Many national funders support state-level work, but working in states can be complicated. This session will explore innovations and new models for grant making at the state level.  We will discuss the necessary components for building long-term effectiveness in state policy-making; and will outline some important gaps in capacity in states from the perspective of state funders.

Courtney Cuff runs the Western Conservation Foundation, a public charity that works to build the conservation movement in western states.  Previously, Courtney worked as a consultant to the Wyss and Hewlett foundations and on the staff of the National Parks Conservation Association, Friends of the Earth and League of Conservation Voters.

Anne Summers is executive director of Brico Fund and has 15 years of nonprofit management experience. Anne previously worked as a policy analyst in the Wisconsin state legislature, and is a board member of the Donors Forum of Wisconsin and the Planning Commission for the Village of Whitefish Bay.

MODERATOR

Antha Williams is a program officer at the Beldon Fund, where she is responsible for making grants to build support for environmental issues by policymakers through education and advocacy in Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina and Wisconsin.  Antha previously served as Organizing Director with Green Corps, a training program for environmental leaders.

Wildlands Philanthropy: A “Just Buy It” Approach to Saving Wild Nature

Buying private property to exploit it is a foundation of the modern economy. Buying land to protect it from exploitation is an effective conservation tool—albeit often controversial—with a rich history and promising future. Using private wealth, American philanthropists have protected or expanded natural areas from Alaska to Patagonia. In this free-wheeling discussion, we’ll explore the history, modern resurgence, and prospects for wildlands philanthropy. We’ll consider the challenges and controversies related to privately funded parks and wilderness areas, and discuss how American conservationists in Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina have engaged local communities while working to save wild nature.

SPEAKERS

Tom Butler is a board member of the Northeast Wilderness Trust, and works on editorial projects for the Foundation for Deep Ecology. He wrote the text for a forthcoming book on natural areas saved through private philanthropy, and is presently editing a book on mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia.

Kristine Tompkins, former CEO of the Patagonia clothing company, lives in Chile. She is the president of Conservación Patagonica and a board member of the Conservation Land Trust, through which she and Douglas Tompkins have preserved more than two million acres in Chile and Argentina and helped create three national parks.

MODERATOR

Don Weeden, as executive director, oversees the Weeden Foundation’s land conservation work in the Pacific Northwest, Latin America and the Altai Republic, Russia, including the foundation’s 125,000 acre wilderness reserve in Eastern Bolivia. He is currently co-chair of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity’s Land & Freshwater Conservation Working Group.

3:30 – 5:00 pm

Concurrent Sessions

An Arranged Marriage: Linking Reproductive Justice and Environmental Health to Transform a Movement

An arranged marriage to transform a movement.  Since the 1960’s, environmental and reproductive health activists have known each other but have not started a steamy affair … until now! Learn about new alliances reshaping how we look at environmental toxins and a woman’s right to bear and raise a healthy family.  At every stage of the reproductive process, chemicals affecting our health, fertility and survival bombard us. Linking women’s health and the environment is creating enormous opportunities to challenge the chemical industry and implement revolutionary changes in legislation, the media and the way we consume goods.

Vanessa Daniel has over 10 years of experience working in the social justice movement as a union and community organizer, researcher and freelance journalist. She joined Tides Foundation in 2005, where she currently leads the Reproductive Justice Initiative, and the Colin Higgins Foundation (focused on LGBT youth).

Ellen Dorsey is an Environmental Program Officer at the Heinz Endowments, where she has spearheaded a women’s environmental health initiative. With a doctorate in political science, Dorsey works at the nexus of advocacy and academic research to advance the work of NGOs in the human rights, environmental and development fields.

Lourdes Rivera joined the Ford Foundation in 2006 as Program Officer for Sexuality and Reproductive Health. Previously as managing attorney with the National Health Law Program, Lourdes directed an initiative to promote reproductive health care for low-income women. Lourdes is a co-founder of California Latinas for Reproductive Justice.

FACILITATOR

Tina Eshaghpour leads the environmental health and justice program at The Women’s Foundation of California. She authored “Confronting Toxic Contamination in Our Communities: Women’s Health and California’s Future,” a seminal report on women’s environmental health.  Tina serves on the Health and Environmental Funders Network’s Steering Committee and co-chairs the Women’s Environmental Health subcommittee.

Meet Your Allies

Join us for a strategic discussion among environmental, arts, and media funders about how to work together effectively. We will address concrete opportunities for collaboration. Together we will examine examples of cross-sector collaboration that illustrate promising practices and concerns about this work, addressing such questions as: How do art, culture, and media frame and communicate visions of change; humanize polarized issues and expand who is included in organizing and how they are included? What impact do media democracy issues have on the environmental movement? How can we best evaluate cross-sector programs? 

Michelle Coffey is director of the Starry Night Fund of the Tides Foundation. Starry Night’s grantmaking centers on racial justice, global women/girl’s issues, human rights (US), arts/culture and social justice movement building. Previously she was Senior Philanthropic Advisor at Tides and program officer for New York Foundation for the Arts. 

Alyce Myatt is managing director of Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media (GFEM). She was previously Vice President of Programming for the Public Broadcasting Service and program officer for media at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  Production credits include Smithsonian Institution, Nickelodeon, and the news magazine, 20/20.

MODERATORS

Claudine Brown is director of the Arts and Culture Program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Prior to that she worked with the Smithsonian Institution and the Brooklyn Museum.  She was President of the Board of Grantmakers in the Arts and has taught at New York University and Bank Street College.

Helen Brunner directs the Media Democracy Fund. Previously she was consultant to Albert A. List Foundation’s Freedom of Expression, Arts and Communications Policy and Advocacy Programs. As Director of Foundation Services for Art Resources International, she has also advised Ford, Pew, Warhol, Quixote, Women Donors Network, Leeway, and other foundations.

Nuclear Power: Lighting a Cleaner Tomorrow or Darkening Our Future

Funders struggle with renewed interest in nuclear power as clean energy and its destructive legacy.  New Mexico alone has over half of the high-grade uranium in the US, most of which is located on or near indigenous peoples’ homelands. These stories have sparked a long environmental justice battle. With foreboding evidence of global warming and increased pressures to support alternatives to fossil fuels, many funders are caught in a serious conundrum. The session will discuss the increasing urgency to address our dependency on fossil fuels, to examine the pros and cons of the nuclear fuels chain and its continued threat to human existence.      

Laurie Betlach is a program officer at the Lannan Foundation, focusing on the Indigenous Communities and Cultural Freedom Programs. Previously, she was a news reporter for Pacifica Radio’s KPFK in Los Angeles.  She holds bachelors degrees in History and Print Journalism from the University of Southern California and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Chris Peters is the president of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development, a grantmaking organization dedicated to promoting and maintaining the uniqueness of Native peoples throughout the Americas.

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. Michelle serves on the board of the Environmental Grantmakers Association.

Transcending our Philanthropic Comfort Zones: Bold Grantmaking in Earthshaking Times

Ready to stimulate fresh thinking about grantmaking in a time of planetary crisis? This session will facilitate conversation cafes to help donors examine fundamental philanthropic assumptions and explore new models for achieving an impact. What is our historic and moral obligation in these catastrophic times? How might we tap our deepest capacities to make positive change? Trustees are especially encouraged to attend. Build new relationships, share your own wisdom, and start taking more risks. Our future may depend on it. 

MODERATOR

Betsy Taylor has directed six foundations including the Merck Family Fund and the Stern Family Fund and founded and led two national environmental organizations. She is currently a trustee of the Town Creek Foundation and Ottinger Foundation and a consultant to the Better Tomorrow Fund and Quixote Foundation. She is co-author of Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the 21st Century.

Winning at the State Level: The Power of a Common Agenda

In more than a dozen states, environmental and conservation advocates are collaborating in new ways to win environmental policy victories. By identifying collective priorities, groups are speaking with a more powerful voice and policy makers are responding. We will use case studies from Washington, Colorado and Wisconsin to describe the “common agenda” and how it can work. We will discuss the key themes that characterize this approach and underscore the contrast between the traditional way advocates have approached their work and the new paradigm that is evolving through collaboration.

Adam Eichberg has more than ten years experience with foundations and organizations.  Prior to his work with the Department of Health and Environment, Adam ran the Western Conservation Foundation, a public charity, and has worked with environmental organizations including the Trust for Public Land and the League of Conservation Voters.

Keiki Kehoe has been a program consultant with the Brainerd Foundation since 1996. A survivor of a 15-year stint inside the D.C. Beltway, Keiki has extensive experience as an activist and advocate and has consulted with many philanthropic organizations.

MODERATOR

5:30 – 7:00 pm

EGA 20th Anniversary: Reflect and Celebrate

Join colleagues old and new for storytelling and birthday cake in honor of EGA’s first 20 years. Bring your memories to share or just sit back and enjoy!

7:15 – 8:15 pm
Dinner

8:30 – 10:30 pm

A Sense of Wonder
A One Woman Play about Rachel Carson by Kaiulani Lee

EGA is honored to present this inspiring play during the centennial celebration of Rachel Carson’s birth.

Rachel Carson has been called “the patron saint of the environmental movement.” She was a marine biologist and zoologist best known for her book Silent Spring, which alerted the world to the dangers of chemical pesticides and launched our modern environmental movement. Less known is that Miss Carson was one of America’s great poets of the natural world. In her earlier works she brought alive the beauty and the mystery of the seas and its creatures to millions of readers.

In their purest form the poet and the scientist are one and the same. They are seekers after truth. Through the power of her knowledge and the beauty of her language, Rachel Carson became one of the great champions of the living world.

About the Actress