Hosted by:
Jason Franklin

Featuring Bold Giver: Jason Franklin

As we launch into 2015, have you thought about what you want your giving to look like this year? How could you have a bigger impact? Feel more excited? Give more effectively?

As we kick off the new year, we invite you to join our Executive Director, Jason Franklin, PhD, to imagine what your “giving resolution” might look like in 2015 and explore strategies for creating the supports you’ll need to make them stick. We hope you’ll join us and let us be part of your journey to become the most adventurous, courageous, outrageous, and effective donor you can be in 2105.

Hosted by:
Babbie Jacobs

Featuring Bold Givers: Anjhula Mya Bais, Rose Feerick

Faith and religious beliefs are one of the biggest factors in our decisions to give. Research shows that a religious person is 23% more likely to give and 26% more likely to volunteer than a nonreligious person. But what specific role does faith or could faith play in your philanthropy? How do you balance certain teachings of your faith and your own values in giving?

We invite you to join two of our amazing Bold Givers, Rose Feerick and Anjhula Mya Bais, who come from very different faith backgrounds and hear about their philanthropic journeys and how they’ve integrated their understanding of faith in meeting the needs of the underserved.

Anjhula, a next generation philanthropist and successful Indian model, has embraced the responsibility of being born into wealthy Hindu family and embarked on a personal spiritual journey through teachings of Buddhism to seek spiritual value in money. Through these experiences, she founded the Bais-Selvanathan Foundation, aimed at corrective and supportive action for a host of anti-corruption activities and pro-humanity endeavors in India and around the world.  Rose channeled her Catholic faith to engage with money as a spiritual practice and sought something deeper within her faith that could hold in the face of injustice. At Harvest Time, organization she leads, she created a safe space for peers to talk about money and Christian faith. 

As we draw close to the end of the year, we hope you’ll join us to explore important issues at the intersection of faith and philanthropy and explore how faith may be a factor in your own giving.

Hosted by:
Jason Franklin

Featuring Bold Givers: Jeff Zinsmeyer, Jessie Spector

Ever feel frustrated that you don’t have enough money to create the changes you want to see in the world? Join two of our amazing bold givers, Jeff Zinsmeyer and Jessie Spector, who have both leveraged their financial resources to achieve big impacts advancing a social justice agenda. Hear about how to leverage progressive philanthropy to promote equity and human wellbeing and the power of small gifts to make big change.

As founder of the Discount Foundation, a small foundation focused on supporting winnable campaigns around economic opportunity for the poor, Jeff leverages his foundation’s grants and access to other funders and leaders. Discount’s focus is on eliminating economic inequalities by assisting people who lack wealth and power in improving their lives and making the “American Dream” a reality for all. They’ve played a critical role in building and securing support for the Living Wage movement and continue to focus on workplace organizing as a crucial avenue for low-wage workers to achieve greater economic justice.

As Executive Director of Resource Generation, Jessie uses the privilege of a wealthy upbringing to organize a multi-racial constituency of young people with wealth and class privilege who are committed to organizing toward the equitable distribution of land, wealth, and power. She is also moving her own resources through several cross-class models of wealth redistribution including the Criminal Justice Initiative, a circle of donors and activists who use consensus to fund the transformation of the criminal justice system.

Get inspired by Jeff & Jessie’s experiences and gain insights and inspiration about what you can do to invest in big change, regardless of how much you have to give. As Jeff says, “Don’t discount what you can do!”

Hosted by:
Jason Franklin

Featuring Bold Givers: Bonny Meyer, Mark Reed

Most giving happens locally as we act on our commitment to our community, work to build a stronger local economy, develop civic pride, and teach the next generation about the importance of giving back. But how we give locally is expanding – we can make gifts, invest in social businesses, serve as community volunteers, mobilize other donors in-person and online, develop new communities and more. We hope you’ll join two of our amazing Bold Givers, Bonny Meyer and Mark Reed, for an intimate conversation about what it can mean to be a bold local leader and leverage your giving, investing and leadership to drive social change in your own community.

Through the Meyer Family Fund, Bonny supports empowerment programs for underserved teens and vulnerable adults in California's Napa and Anderson Valleys. Recognizing that safe, net-zero energy affordable housing can have a positive impact on the environment, economic and social resilience and health, she is building Thriving Communities urban and suburban ecovillages in Napa. Through the Contact Fund, Mark works at the intersection of philanthropy and investing and uses a “place-based’ investing philosophy to concentrate capital in under-served neighborhoods throughout New York City. Hear about these and other experiences they both have to share, and explore possibilities for your own local giving and investing.

Hosted by:
Jason Franklin

Featuring Bold Giver: Charlie Rounds
Participant:
Jodie Evans

Many donors see their role as simply funding great work. Others take a step beyond as board members or volunteers. And still others give 100% and more – stepping up as organizers, leaders, networkers, fundraisers and funders for the causes they believe in. Join us in a conversation with two Bold Givers, Jodie Evans & Charlie Rounds, who will stretch the limits of your imagination about what an engaged donor can do.

From producing Oscar winning documentaries and preserving the ecosystem, to tirelessly advocating for peace, philanthropist and co-founder of Code Pink Jodie Evans uses her “passion for taking on the impossible” to drive social change. Charlie Rounds has magnified his giving through the Mark and Charlie Gay Lesbian Fund for Moral Values with continued volunteering and organizing for LGBTQ and human rights, including envisioning and helping launch Bolder Giving’s Give OUT Day which has raised over $1.6 million for LGBTQ organizations nationwide in the last 2 years.

What do you do for the causes you believe in? What else might be possible? Join us and explore what it can mean to be a hands-on, tireless philanthropist & advocate and give 100% of yourself for social change.

Hosted by:
Babbie Jacobs

Featuring Bold Givers: Roxanne Meshar, Nancy Thurston

What motivates you to give? What stops you? What fears hold you back?

These are some of the questions that each of us reflect upon along our giving journey, and they’ve been central questions faced by two of our extraordinary Bold Givers, Roxanne Meshar and Nancy Thurston. We hope you’ll join us for a candid conversation as we talk about the emotions and fears that drive our giving behavior.

We’ll explore ways to navigate the sometimes contradictory inner voice that troubles us with questions like: Am I giving too much? Is this the right way? How do I navigate issues of power and access? What assumptions am I making across big topics like race, class and gender? We’ll talk about the sense of guilt that can be associated with having money in an unjust world and hear about Nancy’s & Roxanne’s journeys toward realizing their full potential as catalysts for social change and conquering their giving fears. 

In addition to sharing their own stories of personal transformation, Nancy & Roxanne will also discuss some of the effective strategies and tactics they’ve seen and used for embracing the fears of giving and confronting the guilt often associated with wealth. Join us and get inspired to push the limits of what you think is possible with you giving.

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Hosted by:
Jason Franklin

Featuring Bold Givers: Ian Fuller, Brent Kessel

The socially responsible/impact investing market is growing and changing.  How can you participate?  

The questions we hear from donors are wide ranging.  How do I align my investments with my philanthropic values?  What's the difference between socially responsible and impact investing?  Can I achieve both financial and social returns?  What are the risks?  How should I think about the aligning my giving and my investing?  What’s possible for me with X money to invest?  Do I have to be a finance expert to get involved? 

Join us for an interactive conversation with two of our new bold givers who model integrated giving and investing for change in their own lives and run their own firms helping clients answer these and other daunting questions. Ian Fuller, managing director of Westfuller Advisors, and Brent Kessel, CEO of Abacus Wealth Partners will help us explore the fears and questions that holds us back from unleashing our potential to invest for impact and offer tested ideas and strategies on how we can move past them.

Hosted by:
Jason Franklin

Featuring Bold Givers: Barbara Meyer, Elspeth Gilmore

What does it take to fund social change in the South? Barbara Meyer and Elspeth Gilmore have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of funding and supporting grassroots community organizing in the South to create social change.

From her home in NYC, Elspeth has invested in Southern leadership including coalition building with Project South and as a founding member of Gulf South Allied Funders, a group of donors supporting equitable rebuilding in the Gulf South, While as a long-time Atlanta resident, Barbara launched the Southern Partners Fund to empower rural grassroots community organizing in the South to address the systems and structures that cause community problems.

Elspeth and Elizabeth share many values when it comes to grassroots organizing but bring very different lived experiences. Join us for a unique opportunity to hear more on what it takes to create social change in the South by funding communities seeking social, economic and environmental justice. 

Hosted by:
Jason Franklin

Featuring Bold Givers: Ruth Ann Harnisch, Levani Lipton

What does it take to unlock creativity and empower people to change their world? Ruth Ann Harnisch and Levani Lipton have witnessed firsthand the power of small gifts to create big change, join us for our May Bold Conversation to hear more!     

Through the Harnisch Foundation, Ruth Ann has partnered with the Awesome Foundation to make a weekly $1000 grant to celebrate ideas and projects that spread goodness. Meanwhile, through the Ananda Foundation, Levani and her mother have supported amazing social change leaders in Africa and Southeast Asia engaged in sustainable grassroots initiatives that strive for a world free of poverty and suffering.

They spark and support passion, celebrate creative community solutions, and enable change to happen - all with small gifts we could all make. Join us for a conversation that will spark your own giving imagination.

Hosted by:
Jason Franklin

Featuring Bold Giver: Russell Roybal

LGBTQ equality is on a roll with major victories across the country with marriage equality victories, local trans supportive legislation and more. These victories are the result of decades or organizing and advocacy and have happened with the support of donors large and small. Yet even as we celebrate, we know there is so far still to go!

Join us for a conversation about what it means to give boldly in the LGBTQ community featuring Russell Roybal, Bold Giver and Deputy Executive Director at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force who’ll share his philanthropic journey and lessons from sitting on both the donor and donee sides of the philanthropic table.