Member Education Team - 2020

The mission of Ninety-nine girlfriends is equal parts grantmaking and learning – using our collective giving circle as an opportunity for each of us to deepen our awareness, understanding and influence on urgent community issues. As some of you know, each year our member education programming focuses on a specific “learning question.” In past years, we’ve learned about community issues, philanthropy trends, and social change frameworks. This year, our learning question is “How can philanthropy influence policy?”

It’s a big question, and it turns out a lot of foundations and grantmakers are pondering this as well. We all know that despite the millions that grantmakers contribute to nonprofit causes, the amount is dwarfed by the billions of dollars that the government invests in our social fabric. Philanthropy’s efforts to right wrongs or provide resources for a resilient society have to somehow align, inform or connect with government’s regulations, funding, priorities, and resources. Here’s a great article to understand this more deeply.

In April of this year our Discovery Forum will introduce our learning question with stories from local foundations that are influencing policy and a presentation about social change frameworks by Chris Grumm. In addition, we’ll hear from experts about which local, state and federal policies, priorities and challenges should be considered as philanthropies strive for action.

In addition to this learning question focus, we will continue to offer the popular workshops on implicit bias, nonprofit board service and volunteer leadership skills. Our “women power and giving” salon, summarizing our learning from our first years, will be held in the fall. Watch your email for invitations to register for our member education events!

Deborah Edward and Tammy Wilhoite
Member Education Committee co-chairs