Dear friends,

It has been an exciting summer for EPIP and as we look ahead to the next season, there is much to share about our organization.

In May, EPIP held a successful annual conference in New Orleans during the city’s 10th anniversary year of Hurricane Katrina. We had an overwhelming response from our membership who showed their support of the organization and the continued comeback of a community set to succeed. Led by our wonderful Interim Executive Director, the EPIP staff brought together talented speakers who shared their thoughts and ideas on the next phase for the philanthropic sector. We also saw some of the wonderful community arts and culture that New Orleans is known for. We all had an amazing time!

After Rahsaan’s departure, the EPIP Advisory board took a step back to think about our strategic direction and how we would begin to position the organization for continued success. This of course includes finding and hiring a strong leader. For our search process we brought on the consulting firm Strategies for Social Change. SSC are experts in organizational transitions and change and have played a crucial, and exemplary, role in the board moving seamlessly through our search process. They have helped us to clarify our search and think through our big picture items. With assistance from SSC the board has been able to develop a cohesive vision and will be hiring the right person to carry that out.

Throughout the search process, our operations have remained strong. Emily and her team (both former and new staff) have focused their efforts on our membership, our affinity group partners and our 12 local chapters. EPIP has experienced a significant growth in our membership and we now have over 1,000 members in our network! We are also sending 30 delegates as representatives of our People of Color Network to the Equity Summit taking place in LA, and Emily has done a fantastic job managing and continuing to build our programs and partnerships. As a result, all of our programs have remained on track, which has garnered great feedback from you, our members!

During this period, the board has been extremely active and hands-on and we are pleased to announce three new advisory board members who will begin their service in October. The newest advisors -- Caitlin Fisher (Hunt Alternatives), Janet Sandoval (Avery Dennison), and Nicholas Pelzer (Wallace Foundation) --each have provided exceptional service to the philanthropic sector and are committed to ensuring the success of EPIP. I hope that you will join me in welcoming them to the board.

Our staff has continued moving forward responding to the needs of our funders, partners and members, and we are excited at the prospect that a new ED will be able to share more about our vision and engage in conversations with all of you. We will keep you informed as we progress in the selection of a new ED in the coming weeks and months. As always, as we continue our programming, chapter support, and network building, we will also keep you informed on the latest happening with EPIP.

Yours sincerely,

Jasmine Hall Ratliff
Chair, EPIP National Advisory Board