EPIP 2026 Call For Sessions

About EPIP 2026

The Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy 2026 National Conference (EPIP 2026) brings together emergent leaders to strengthen their philanthropic practice through learning, connection, and collective action. The conference is a chance to connect across generations to build the skills to shape practice, policy, and culture so that philanthropy works for all communities.

EPIP 2026 has three core programming pillars:

Intergenerational Leadership - we are all emerging into our leadership, and there is wisdom to learn across all axes of work experience. While the majority of EPIP programming is tailored for early- and mid-career philanthropic practitioners, EPIP 2026 carves out space for senior leaders to learn and share alongside.
Skills for this Moment - in addition to core grantmaking, we need organizing skills to meet this moment with clarity and conviction. Skills like power mapping, advocacy, strategic decision making, coalition building, how to pick your battles, and narrative change will be featured at this conference.
Rest for Rigor - throughout the conference, there will be spaces for rest and space for healing so we can show up with integrity, purpose, ancestral wisdom, and rigor for this work.

We look forward to seeing your submissions!

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

This call for proposals is open to all leaders, changemakers, and activists working in the social impact sector, though content should be intended to be received by an audience working primarily in the philanthropic ecosystem. Whether you work in philanthropy, a public charity, or directly with communities, we invite you to submit a session proposal.

Be sure to read all information on this page carefully to ensure a successful proposal submission. Once ready, please submit a session proposal for EPIP 2026 through Whova.

During the review of proposals, if the conference committee finds that your session idea aligns closely with others, we may pair you with other session designers. In this case, you will be notified and given the chance to respond.

Additionally, if we have any feedback or need clarification about your proposal, we will contact you.

To submit your session idea, please complete the form on Whova by March 5th.

CONFERENCE PRIORITIES

Provide transformative learning opportunities that allow emergent leaders to develop hard and soft skills to help navigate rapidly-changing ecosystems
Support deep connection and intergenerational relationships between current EPIP members and senior leaders to help strengthen the fabric of our network
Share EPIP’s new strategic framework against the backdrop of Chicago, highlighting the powerful impact of artists, organizers and changemakers

AUDIENCE

The EPIP community is primarily made up of early- and mid-career philanthropic professionals from across a range of organizations, geographies, and roles. Our members are grantmakers, evaluators, students, philanthropy advisors, administrative staff, philanthropy-serving organization staff, and more. The unifying thread across the EPIP community is our members’ curiosity and belief in the ability of philanthropy to operate in more equitable ways to transform the world, and a desire to build robust peer networks as part of that work.

EPIP’s membership consists of over 70 institutional members and over 2,000 individuals. We expect approximately 250 attendees in person in Chicago. Most of the conference attendees will have been in the philanthropic sector for less than five years, and represent a huge range of lived experiences. EPIP strives for our programming to be pro-Black, pro-queer, and pro-rest, and we expect that proposed content will center and prioritize the experience of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, and/or the experiences of those most impacted by systemic oppressions.

SESSION CONTENT

EPIP will be curating a selection of sessions to accompany this call for proposals.

All EPIP 2026 sessions should have a high degree of interaction built-in. Panels will be deprioritized.

Remaining topics should be relevant to early- and mid-career philanthropic practitioners and/or have a focus on intergenerational learning. All sessions and presenters should hold a firm commitment to intersectional equity and justice. Each session should address one if not more of our Inclusive Leadership Framework.

Sample topics could include, but are not limited to:

Sector Knowledge:

Accurate and complete stories of BIPOC communities’ contributions to building wealth and cultures of giving outside the dominant narrative
Futurism, design thinking, and building a liberated vision of the future
Ethical AI considerations, digital security & funding organizer safety
Histories of wealth accumulation in philanthropy & political education
Alternatives to the nonprofit structure and 501c4, LLCs & collaboratives

Equity Analysis:

Integrating a collective liberation lens to create greater impact and strategy
Local and international approaches to resisting authoritarianism
Disability justice and applying a disability lens to our philanthropic partnerships
Abolition and collective liberation movements (particularly in the midwest)
Climate crisis; climate adaptation; climate resilience; climate refugees
Efforts to engage in truth and reconciliation, restorative justice, or other transformational processes
How to practice racial justice grantmaking when the social sector is under increased federal scrutiny

Self Advocacy:

Practices for philanthropic practitioners to explore healing individually and collectively
Carving out space for rest for ourselves and for frontline organizers
Navigating the current job market and career pathways
Professional development outside of role changes
Tools for preserving your spirit when your organization is misaligned with your personal values

Resource Mobilization:

Financial or administrative review with an equity lens
Rapid response funding and supporting movement workers
Building trust-based, philanthropic partnerships with communities
Sessions that uplift philanthropic partnerships and community-led strategies in Chicago and the midwest more broadly
Equitable and creative approaches to tools like DAFs

Organizational Leadership & Governance:

Liberatory leadership for senior leaders
Enacting change within an organization without decision making roles
Developing inclusive, anti-oppressive workplaces to encourage and nurture diverse leadership
Making change from where you sit, regardless of position / title
Engaging in practices of organizational repair and accountability (internally or with partners)

Advocacy and Policy:

Understanding and managing risk tolerance in the current political climate
Non-cooperation tactics and resisting authoritarianism within the social sector
Power mapping as a strategy for change-making in and outside of your institution
How to build effective local campaigns and support multi-racial coalitions

Interpersonal Leadership:

Navigating inter-generational workplaces
Staying connected, curious, and grounded through prolonged crises
Managing up and across in hybrid or virtual work environments
Anti-oppressive facilitation tools
Building trusting, mutually respectful relationships within our institutions and with communities
Identity-based affinity spaces and healing spaces

SESSION FORMAT:

EPIP encourages submissions that are creative and seek to engage participants beyond the traditional panel-style presentation model. In particular, we will prioritize sessions that demonstrate how they will ensure greater interaction and dialogue among the group.

See below for examples of some creative presentation types.

Skill Workshop
Duration: 90 minutes OR 3 hours (i.e. two 90-minute sessions)
Facilitators demo a concept and then present interactive ways for attendees to practice and/or experiment with the concept through adult-learning practices. This format is great for those with experience facilitating and/or who are interested in teaching a concrete skill or exploring a new concept with peers. These extended workshop sessions were extremely popular at our 2024 conference.

Roundtable
Duration: 75 minutes
You’ll facilitate a roundtable session for your peers where they’ll share ideas and best practices concerning a single topic related to emerging practitioners and professional development. This is a great opportunity to grow your facilitation skills!

Formal Presentation with Audience Participation
Duration: 75 minutes
If you have a big, well-developed idea you may want to prepare a formal presentation, and plan time during the session to involve the audience with small group discussion or individual reflection.

Connection Before Content
Duration: 60 minutes
Hold space for community members and intentionally connect with peers to help rekindle our commitment and passion for transforming philanthropy and becoming inclusive leaders. While these are casual, we encourage creating structure so participants get the most out of the time. These can be identity-based affinity spaces and/or specific discussion topics that you want to connect over.

Healing or Movement Space
Duration: 60 - 90 minutes
If you are a healing practitioner who wants to offer your gifts for our conference attendees, we welcome your proposals. Healing spaces could be identity-specific, offer a particular modality, be movement-based, or incorporate an artistic practice.

Off-site session
Duration: Minimum 3 hours, including transportation
These sessions should be presented by Chicago-based contributors who have connections to local leaders, in which learning would be best done on-site as opposed to at the conference venue.

PROPOSAL DETAILS:

Submitters will be asked to provide the following:

Your name, title, and organization
How many speakers you envision having, what diverse perspectives you/they represent, and speaker accessibility accommodation information (if needed)
Your session’s title, description, primary learning objectives, agenda overview, target audience, Inclusive Leadership Framework cornerstone, ideal session format, ideal length, and how the session would support participants of multiple learning styles and identities.

The Conference Planning Committee and EPIP staff will review all submitted proposals and select sessions for the EPIP 2026 National Conference. Before making final selections, we may contact those submitting session proposals to ask for clarification, recommend different tracks, and offer other feedback to session presenters.

Final selections and notifications will be shared by late March, 2026, with the expectation that session proposals and titles will be finalized for conference materials by late April 2026.

SPEAKER REGISTRATION AND TRAVEL EXPENSES

Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy is a membership association with a responsibility to its members to carefully manage its resources. We aim to keep our conference accessible to our members and those in the field who may have reduced access to professional development funds.

Speakers are responsible for covering their own travel and registration costs. If the session designer is a foundation who is inviting non-profit leaders to present, then the session sponsor is responsible for ensuring that their nonprofit speakers are also able to attend. Speaker stipends and additional support for participation in EPIP 2026 will be considered on a case-by-case basis and upon request.

Speakers will receive a $100 discount off of their registration fee and will receive a discount code upon acceptance to the EPIP conference. There will be three options for speakers to choose from: attending the full conference, attending for one day, or for local speakers who are coming just for their session. The EPIP team will work with you to make sure you and your co-presenters are registered through the correct channel. To receive the discounted registration rate, the name of the presenter should be given in the proposal, or at minimum, the specific presenter role. Additional presenters or roles developed after proposal submission may not be eligible for the discounted registration rate and will need to be discussed with EPIP staff.

If you have additional questions, please contact [email protected] with CALL FOR PROPOSALS in the subject line.