Event

EVENT: Council on Foundations 54th Annual Conference
WHEN: April 28–30, 2003
WHERE: Dallas
ATTENDANCE: 1,600

The Honorable Timothy E. Wirth called on grantmakers to continue addressing "challenges that know no borders"—education, poverty, healthcare and the environment—in his opening plenary at the Council on Foundations 54th Annual Conference held recently. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund, reminded attendees of their power to participate in creating solutions, both as engaged citizens and foundation staff members.

Creating Linkages

The conference theme, "Working Together for the Common Good—What Have We Learned about Collaboration?" was a touchstone for many of the sessions. The successful collaborations described took many forms and occurred across cultures, racial groups, borders and even phone and cable lines.

Partnerships also came to the fore in the remarks of the plenary speakers and award winners. Appearing via satellite, First Lady of Mexico Marta Sahagún de Fox focused on collaboration between the public and private sectors to serve the needs of young people. She said, "Alliances, partnerships, linkages and connectivity are the means through which we can build today the future we want for our young men and women."

Current events were never far from attendees' minds, with many sessions addressing limited resources and global issues. "The Role of Philanthropy in a Time of War" focused on the worldwide needs that funders and nonprofit organizations can help remedy, directly and indirectly. Among the suggestions for encouraging conflict resolution and open debate were building the capacity of peace groups, funding education, and supporting media work and investigative reporting.

Bridging the Racial Divide

In "Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground: Race and Its Implications for Philanthropy," moderator Lori Villarosa explained that the session and the book, Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground, were created to help people grappling with often divisive racial issues. The book's three co-authors shared their experiences:

Manuel Pastor observed that foundations are polite and don't want to talk about race, but it needs to be talked about openly. Angela Glover Blackwell continued this thread, with the suggestion that foundations need to give to grantees whose work has an explicit racial focus. For this to occur, though, there needs to be an internal conversation about race. But Glover Blackwell also acknowledged that race is a difficult topic for most people to talk about.

Finally, Stewart Kwoh stressed that foundations should focus on increasing the diversity of their boards. He also suggested that funding advocacy strategies was a way for foundations to bridge the racial divide.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's plenary delineated the difficulties faced by state and local governments in a time of decreased prosperity. He recognized foundations' work to meet increased needs, even as many foundations are reassessing priorities due to shrinking endowments. Yet Richardson also encouraged foundations to take a more direct role in solving grassroots problems—to be innovative in the communities they serve, rather than simply bringing money to the table. And he stressed that the relationship between foundations and government, at all levels, still has room for growth.

To read the plenaries, visit www.cof.org/index.cfm?containerid=75&menuContainerID=0&crumb=2&navID=48.

—Paula J. Kelly

55th Annual Conference
April 26–28, 2004
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
www.cof.org