Grantmaking 2.0

Agenda and Presenters

DAY 1 - April 2, 2010

The New Normal: The Impact of the Financial Downturn on Nonprofits and Foundations Presenter: 
Fred Ali, President & Chief Executive Officer, Weingart Foundation
This guided discussion examines the impact of the financial downturn on nonprofits and foundations. What will sustainable nonprofits look like in the years ahead and how can philanthropy help in this new environment? Will the work of foundations require permanent adjustments, or are incremental changes sufficient?

Beyond Grants: Tools for a Diversified Grant Strategy
Presenter: Jim Canales, President & Chief Executive Officer, The James Irvine Foundation
While making grants is the core work of the program staff at foundations, a wide range of other tools can be employed by foundation staff to advance program goals and to drive change. This interactive session draws on the experiences of both the participants and facilitator and explores non-grant tools that can be employed as a complementary strategy to grantmaking.

Not Just Another Meeting: Becoming a More Effective Facilitator
Presenter: Lisa Beutler, Associate Director, Center for Collaborative Policy, Sacramento State
Foundations spend a great deal of time bringing grantees and colleagues in an effort to create collaborations, share knowledge, create consensus and add value to the grants they make. This session provides valuable tips on how to become a more effective facilitator, design meeting methodologies, address conflicts, move agendas forward and engage participants fully.

DAY 2 - April 9, 2010

Nurturing Leadership
Presenter: Claire Peeps, Executive Director, The Durfee Foundation
Strong leadership is a critical component of an effective and robust nonprofit. This session focuses on how foundations can play an important role in recognizing and nurturing leadership and provides opportunities to share specific, successful foundation strategies that have been used in building nonprofit leadership. 

Financials Plus
Presenter: Adrienne Wittenberg, Program Officer, S. Mark Taper Foundation 
With increased scrutiny on the financial health of nonprofit organizations, foundation staff is called upon to navigate and interpret a multitude of financial information. Through an interactive case study approach, participants increase their comfort level with the basic aspects of financial review and learn what and where to look for critical information.

DAY 3 - April 16, 2010

Knowledge Sharing
Presenter: Magdalena Beltrán-del Olmo, Vice President of Communications, The California Wellness Foundation
In recent years, philanthropy has invested time and money in evaluating programs, conducting research, and commissioning studies. How do we ensure that this information reaches the right audience and has maximum impact? This session examines how foundations can be more active in "knowledge sharing" and add value through strategic communications that accents the work of grantees. The role of technology and working with the media is also examined.

Funding Policy Advocacy
Presenter: Gigi Barsoum, Program Officer, Innovation, The California Endowment
Policy advocacy is a strategy to which many nonprofits are increasingly turning as they strive to expand their impact and bring about systems change.  How can funders support that work and what elements should be considered before making a grant? Following a presentation on the topic, participants play an interactive game designed specifically for foundation officers and others interested in how to advance change through advocacy.

Building Your Career Path
Moderator: Lynn Alvarez, Philanthropic Consultant to Southern California Grantmakers
Presenters: Sushma Raman, President, Southern California Grantmakers;
Karin Berger Stellar, Partner, Morris & Berger
This session focuses on career options within philanthropy and related fields. A frank discussion with seasoned foundation professionals explores how to develop personal career goals, what the challenges are, and identifying the opportunities.

Presenters

Fred Ali
President and Chief Executive Officer, Weingart Foundation
Fred Ali is president and chief executive officer of the Weingart Foundation, a leading philanthropic institution making grants exclusively in Southern California. He serves as chairman of the Board of the Southern California Grantmakers and sits on the Board of The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy, University of Southern California. Ali’s previous leadership roles include serving as vice chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage, as well as executive director of Covenant House, where he developed a multi-service program working with homeless and at-risk youth in Los Angeles and Oakland. Ali began his career as a volunteer teacher and counselor in a small Eskimo village in western Alaska.

Lynn Alvarez
Philanthropic Consultant to Southern California Grantmakers
Lynn Alvarez consults with foundations on training, program development, planning, evaluation and grantmaking services. She has served previously as senior program officer at The California Endowment, where she led the development of a new grantmaking program, designed a customer satisfaction survey, refined grantmaking procedures and implemented a comprehensive program officer training program. Alvarez has also worked  as a program officer with the California Community Foundation and the Peninsula Community Foundation. Currently she is part of the faculty of The Grantmaking School at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. She taught ethics and immigration law at the UCLA School of Law and has served on the boards of Para Los Niños, Human Rights Watch and the Central American Refugee Center.

Gigi Barsoum
Program Officer, Innovation, The California Endowment
Gigi Barsoum is a program officer at The California Endowment, where she develops and advances the organization’s health policy agenda at the local, state and federal levels. She has served previously as a senior health policy analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, public health advisor to the District of Columbia Mayor’s Office of Health Policy for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as coordinator for the Institute for Advanced Studies in Immunology and Aging’s National Coalition for Adult Immunization. Barsoum recently developed and implemented Advocacy for Change, The Endowment’s curriculum to boost the advocacy capacity of its grantees.

Magdalena Beltrán-del Olmo
Vice President of Communications, The California Wellness Foundation
Magdalena Beltrán-del Olmo is vice president of communications for The California Wellness Foundation. Before joining the Foundation in 1996, Beltrán-del Olmo was a director of public affairs and communications for Kaiser Permanente in the Los Angeles area.  She has also served as vice president for Coronado Communications, a firm specializing in social marketing, where she oversaw public education, entertainment and corporate accounts. Beltrán-del Olmo worked as a newspaper reporter with the Orange County Register and Gannett-owned Salinas Californian. She currently serves on the North Los Angeles County Task Force of the California Senate Select Committee on Autism Related Disorders.

Karin Berger Stellar
Partner, Morris & Berger
Karin Berger Stellar is a partner with Morris & Berger, an executive search firm with a specialty practice that reaches across the nonprofit sector including independent schools, foundations, human and social service agencies and arts organizations. She has worked at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business in alumni relations; the University of California, Berkeley, in development; and as director of development for the libraries at the University of Southern California (USC). Berger holds a Masters in public administration with an emphasis in nonprofit management. She currently serves as chair of the Alumni Board for the School of Policy Planning and Development at USC and as an interviewer for the University of Pennsylvania.

Lisa Beutler
Associate Director, Center for Collaborative Policy, Sacramento State
Lisa Beutler is associate director of the Center for Collaborative Policy, where she serves as lead facilitator on numerous complex, collaborative projects, including initiatives with the Office of the Governor. She has expertise working with executive teams, boards and commissions. She is a nationally recognized practitioner in large group processes. This included designing a meeting methodology for engaging 400 global religious leaders--in partnership with civil society, government and business leaders--to address the availability of clean, safe water. Beutler serves on several nonprofit Boards and is the president of the Sacramento Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration.

James E. Canales
President and Chief Executive Officer, The James Irvine Foundation
James E. Canales is president and chief executive officer of The James Irvine Foundation, where he has served the foundation in a variety of roles, including vice president and corporate secretary. Canales currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Stanford University and the board of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and is chairman of the Board of Directors for the College Access Foundation of California. Canales' previous board memberships include KQED Public Broadcasting, the Stanford Alumni Association, BoardSource in Washington, D.C. and Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco. He is also cofounder and past board chair for Grantmakers for Effective Organizations.

Claire Peeps
Executive Director, The Durfee Foundation
Claire Peeps is executive director of the Durfee Foundation, a private foundation that supports nonprofit leadership, arts and culture, community development and education, primarily in Southern California. She has served as a consultant previously with the J. Paul Getty Center, the San Francisco Art Institute, the Music Center of Los Angeles County, ARTS Inc. and the Festival of Art & Ideas in New Haven, Connecticut. Peeps has served on the Boards of Southern California Grantmakers, the California Council for the Humanities, ARTS Inc. and the UCLA Center for Civil Society. She is author of Activists Speak Out: Reflections on the Pursuit of Change in America.

Sushma Raman
President, Southern California Grantmakers
Sushma Raman is president of Southern California Grantmakers, a regional membership association of private-sector grantmakers advancing effective and responsible philanthropy for the public good. Raman has previously worked as a program officer and program manager with the Ford Foundation. Raman currently serves on the National Center for Family Philanthropy's Board of Directors and the Council on Foundations' Family Foundation Committee. She also serves as a juror at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

Adrienne Wittenberg
Program Officer, S. Mark Taper Foundation
Adrienne Wittenberg is a program officer at the S. Mark Taper Foundation in Los Angeles. She has worked at the Foundation for the past 12 years in both financial management and grantmaking positions. Wittenberg has served as a member of the Southern California Grantmakers management committee as well as the organization’s program committee. Prior to joining the field of philanthropy, Wittenberg earned her license as a Certified Public Accountant while working as a tax consultant with the public accounting firm, Deloitte and Touche.