This post is authored by Paul Bachleitner, the Joint Affinity Group Project Director, as a part of the EPIP-JAG blogging partnership “Wit and Wisdom.” It’s dreadfully easy to get lost beneath the big tent of the Council’s annual conference. This is one reason why the JAG partners and other affinity groups like EPIP hold their conferences before, during, and afterwards. We help you recharge your racial and social justice mojo. But if you don’t have a stout boat to navigate the flood of activities, they can soak you like a philanthropalooza tsunami. How do you ride the wave? It’s exciting to be sure. But staying on top of the constant stream of activities and multiple locations can be challenging. Read more

Special Program for EPIP Members! See. Hear. Speak: Communicating with Authenticity Friday, June 28 10:30 AM – Saturday, June 29 1:00 PM The San Diego Foundation 2508 Historic Decatur Rd, San Diego, CA 92106 Most people perceive communication as a means for transmitting information, but it is so much more than a simple exchange of knowledge. Communicating with authenticity generates opportunities to transform relationships and paves the way to creating intentional spaces for learning and discovery. In this two-day workshop, Meenakshi Chakraverti of Public Conversations Project will help us explore the art of dialogue and lead us through experiential learning activities. Learn more… Read more

EPIP San Diego is taking happy hour to the beach! Thursday, May 2, 6:00 p.m. JRDN at Tower 23 723 Felspar Street, San Diego, CA 92109 Don’t miss this monthly gathering of San Diego’s emerging leaders in philanthropy. Read more

The following is written by Elizabeth Kidd, Steering Committee Co-Chair of the EPIP-Michigan Chapter, and staff at the Community Foundation for the Holland/Zeeland Area.  Moving up on the proverbial career ladder is a frequent topic of conversation among young professionals in any field; the philanthropic/social change sector is certainly no exception.  We analyze potential next steps, lament the often limited options for upward mobility, confess our fears that we might be stagnating, and celebrate when we ourselves or our colleagues have opportunities to move up.  However as I talked with other participants at the 2013 EPIP National Conference and listened to them describe the work they were doing, I was struck by how woefully inadequate the career ladder metaphor is to capture the many valuable ways we can and do move professionally – particularly in the field of philanthropy. Read more

Learn how your organization can evaluate more strategically in a short webinar this May 2nd (free for EPIP members) (To register for this webinar, email Kate Seely at [email protected] for the registration link as this webinar is restricted to EPIP members.) EPIP in partnership with the American Evaluation Association (AEA) is offering EPIP members free access to the Coffee Break webinar “Evaluate More Strategically” on Thursday May 2nd from 2:00 pm to 2:20 pm ET. The webinar will be presented by Efrain Gutierrez from FSG, also Steering Committee member of the Seattle EPIP chapter. Webinar Description: There is an emerging trend in the philanthropic sector toward being more deliberate about the intersection of strategy and evaluation. Foundations and nonprofits are being more intentional about learning from their work by evaluating their programs and initiatives, but often lack an overarching structure that brings evaluation activities together into a comprehensive strategy. This webinar will explain one solution – the concept of Strategic Learning and Evaluation Systems. They describe learning in terms of “why”, “how”, “when”, and “by and with whom”, and determine to what extent various programs, initiatives, processes, or policies will be evaluated and with what resources. If you are interested in attending, email Kate Seely at [email protected] for the registration link. AEA Coffee Breaks are a series of short coffee-break-length demonstrations of 20-minutes each that introduce tools of use to evaluators. These demonstrations are free for AEA members. Efrain Gutierrez works for FSG, a nonprofit consulting firm that specializes in helping foundations, nonprofits, and corporations develop […] Read more

The Los Angeles Chapter of EPIP invites you to their upcoming Spring Leadership Salon:   Philanthropy is changing. Are you ready? EPIP LA’s Spring Leadership Salon will address where philanthropy is heading and the qualifications emerging practitioners should develop to prepare for future leadership positions.                 Please join us and take advantage of the opportunity to ask our speakers your general and specific questions! Space is limited to 20 attendees, so buy your ticket today! When Wednesday, May 1 5:30pm to 8:00pm PT Location Malo 4326 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90029 For more information on this exciting opportunity and to buy tickets, please view the event page at http://www.epip.org/events/epip-la-spring-leadership-salon-philanthropy-is-changing-are-you-ready-2/. Not a member of EPIP? Join now at http://www.epip.org/membership/. Read more

The 2013 EPIP National Conference included an awards ceremony. The EPIP Unity Award, which honors the chapter that has grown the most over the past year, went to EPIP Hawai’i, recognized as a chapter at the 2012 National Conference in Los Angeles. During the awards ceremony, Kevin Chang of the EPIP Hawai’i chapter and Executive Director of the Hawai’i Community Stewardship Network, sang and played the song Hawai’i 78. The following is a series of excerpts from a letter he wrote to the EPIP staff. Mahalo nui (big thank you) for including a sense of Hawaiʻi in your conference and for the opportunity to share a song. For all you knew I was going to do my best Jerry Lewis impersonation so I appreciate the trust you had in us. Although, since Jerry Lewis was a philanthropist, too, maybe it would have gone over quite well! I wanted you to know that my EPIP Hawaiʻi Chapter friends work hard to bring people together here at home to tackle the wicked issues of our time. It was important to us to express that we are not just an island but part of a larger context and we have role to play. The phrase that makes up the song we presented –“Hawaiʻi 78 “- is for some of our community a veiled kāhea (or call) of independence, the chorus: “Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono”- our state motto: “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness”- relates to […] Read more

The following is written by Alexis King, Steering Committee Member of the EPIP-NY Chapter, and staff at Living Cities, Inc.  Priding itself as a space that supports innovation in philanthropy, this year’s EPIP Annual Conference, LEAD!, did not disappoint in the range and depth of knowledge explored. There are three major points addressed during the conference that serve as great takeaways for attendees and the EPIP members unable to attend. Breaking silos. Throughout the conference there were many references to silos that block resources, connections, and opportunities to various communities. This year’s EPIP Conference made strides to not only address these silos but to ensure that the conversation help the next generation of leaders in philanthropy break those silos. From the lunch Plenary Session on Thursday, April 4th that exchanged ideas on how foundations can think outside of the box, to the honest and candid, “The Personal  is Political: Race, Class, and Gender as Ongoing Conversation” and, “‘Doing Good’ in the Twenty-First Century” concurrent sessions, the conversations to create action tools included an emphasis on expanding  allies for your work and thinking with a cross sectored mindset for how to combat these silos were a stride in the right direction as a philanthropic community. Read more

As you can tell from our conference reflections, EPIP had a great week in Chicago. NBC 5 Chicago News covered our 2013 national conference; our innovations gallery and awards highlighted the great work of our members; and we worked together with our colleagues of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) to create a vision for collective leadership. Read more

Hi, I’m Efrain Gutierrez. I work for FSG and I’m the brand new co-leader of the Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy  (EPIP) Seattle Chapter. I attended my first EPIP National Conference two weeks ago in Chicago and it was an incredible experience. It was energizing to be among a group of diverse and passionate mid-career professionals that will become the future leaders of the philanthropic sector. As I reflected on what I learned during the conference around this year’s theme – LEAD – I identified four recommendations for current and emerging leaders in philanthropy: be humble, know who you are not, listen, learn and adapt. I believe these recommendations represent the beginning of a paradigm shift in the way we exercise leadership in the sector. Let’s discuss each of them: Read more