Workshops

Philanthropy as a Catalyst for Voter Engagement

To achieve our shared goals of healthier, thriving, and equitable communities, our voters must reflect our communities. As funders, conveners, collaborators, and catalyzers, foundations can inspire and support voter engagement work that builds a more inclusive and equitable democracy and ensures local communities are heard in our democratic process. Whether …

Shifting Power in Tribal Communities To Advance Economic Mobility

To support Indigenous youth and family success while honoring tribal sovereignty, communities must focus on shifting power. Power-shifting practices should empower community members to lead, and national intermediaries should be working directly with place-based partnerships. Session participants will learn key lessons from national, community, and Indigenous perspectives — from best …

Catalyzing Change: A New Philanthropic Model for Addressing Homelessness

Housing Forward is the lead agency in addressing homelessness in Dallas and Collin Counties. Through a unique philanthropic partnership with the Homeless Funders Collaborative led by The Meadows Foundation, they have combined the power of private and public funding to make an immense impact on the homeless response system. This …

Transparency, Trust, and Ethical Practice in the Nonprofit Sector

Independent Sector’s 33 Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice offer standards for nonprofits and foundations to self-regulate – which is essential to maintaining public trust. As distrust in nonprofits and philanthropy grows, we know that the general public continues to demand transparency and accountability from our institutions in return …

Impact Investing: Identifying the Role You Can Play in the Ecosystem

Have you heard about “impact investing” but you’re not sure what the term includes or how it relates to you and your organization? Have you wondered how mission-driven investing can benefit the communities you serve? Come to this session prepared for a discussion directly with workshop leaders. Together you will …

Giving Big: Lessons Learned From a Radical Approach to Philanthropy

MacKenzie Scott’s massive unrestricted gifts to nonprofits, including many seeking to advance equity, represented a radical departure from the proscriptive approach of many of her peers —which is often characterized by much smaller, frequently restricted grants. What can funders and nonprofits alike learn from the experience of the recipients of …

Fort Worth’s Fund to Advance Racial Equity: Perspectives From Two Grantees

Hear from March to the Polls and Community Frontline, two Fort Worth-area nonprofits that have received grants and capacity-building support under the Fund to Advance Racial Equity at the North Texas Community Foundation. Nonprofit leaders will share about their programming, as well as their experience participating in a cohort-based grant …

I Just Want To Help: Understanding the Problematic Roots of Volunteerism and Moving Forward With Compassion

The desire to help others can be a powerful motivation to volunteer, but when that desire is rooted in pity and paternalism, or a need to save someone seen as less fortunate, it can do more harm than good. Too often, organizations use language based in saviorism to recruit and …

Neighborhood Self-Defense Against Environmental Racism

Black, Brown, and low-income neighborhoods have been racially zoned to disproportionately host toxic polluters along floodplains, highways, and switchyards. Downwinders at Risk, a local 30-year-old grassroots clean air and environmental justice nonprofit, is working with neighborhoods to reverse this racist zoning practice in Dallas. This session will provide an overview …

Sustainable Philanthropy — Creating and Scaling Impact

For nearly a decade, the Sapphire Foundation has been developing an ecosystem of tools, capital, and structures that spark and grow sustainable, scalable impact. Join Chief Impact Officer Salah Boukadoum to find out what’s worked for the foundation and the lessons they’ve learned. If you’re new to impact investing, social …

Win Some, Lose Some: Lessons from Nonprofit Policy Successes and Failures

In recent years, nonprofit policy advocates have put a lot of proverbial points on the board. While incomplete, major victories at the state and federal level have advanced the work of nonprofits nationwide.   How on earth did a universal charitable deduction come into existence for the first time in decades, …

Social Purpose Real Estate to Advance North Texas Biotech and Social Impact

Pegasus Park is a 26-acre campus dedicated to innovative companies and organizations across science, technology, health care, and social impact. Pegasus Park offers state-of-the-art facilities and amenities that enable the daily convergence of entrepreneurs, strategic business partners, social impact organizations, and North Texas’ biotech ecosystem. To strengthen North Texas as …

Building a Data-Driven Strategy to Re-Engage Opportunity Youth in the DFW

Communities Foundation of Texas will describe the regional mobilization that is underway to better coordinate services for Opportunity Youth. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is home to the largest number of young adults who are disconnected from school and work in Texas. The workshop will highlight data assets and innovative new …

Better Language: A New Voice for Philanthropy

The past few years have been pivotal for philanthropy. In the midst of simultaneous health, economic, and racial justice crises, foundations and philanthropists have shown how flexible they can be to support the immediate needs of communities across the U.S. Despite this, there is still uncertainty about what philanthropy as …

Shifting Power to Community Leaders: A Case Study in Participatory Action Research

To advance racial equity in the nonprofit sector, we must shift the power at all levels — including in research and evaluation. Research in nonprofits has historically been grounded in white supremacist mindsets and ideologies that view impoverished neighborhoods and communities of color as passive recipients of services. In an …

Making Demographic Data Work for Nonprofits

There is heightened interest in nonprofit demographic data — to gain visibility into equity in the sector, uplift the work of BIPOC-led organizations, and direct resources to the communities they serve. But duplicate and disparate requests for this information have created a significant burden on the same nonprofits we pledged …

Bridging Boundaries for Social Change

Shared values. Collective action. For nonprofit and philanthropic leaders, driving social change requires building collaboration across diverse individuals, teams, organizations, communities, and identities. However, forging partnerships amid complex power dynamics is challenging. Join Jayke Hamill and Michelle Schneider, senior faculty from the Center for Creative Leadership, to identify barriers to …

What Everyone Can Learn From Leaders of Color

“How do we make sure things at an organization meaningfully change besides just the faces around a table?” “Does the diversity of leadership really matter if an organization already factors race into its strategy?” We have heard a variety of questions like these in response to the calls to elevate …

Can We Abolish Dying Wages for Early Childhood Educators?

How can innovative budgeting solutions unlock a true living wage for our early childhood educators while expanding access and quality? The field of early childhood education struggles to provide living wages to educators, many of whom can now make more working at Walmart or Amazon warehouses. It’s time to unlock …

Riding The Wave of Impact Investing

During this panel discussion, a group of funders, investees, beneficiaries, and academics will deep dive into the mechanics of impact investing (the practice of making investments in good social enterprises for a financial return) and the tools used to evaluate potential investments. You’ll learn how creating impact through investing for …

The Digital Divide: How We Can Bridge the Gap With Digital Navigators

Every day, we use technology to make our lives easier. Yet millions of Americans still don’t have what they need to learn, work, or access information online—a problem called the digital divide. That’s why support from community-based experts, or Digital Navigators, is critical to build trust and help people get …

Listening Session: Emerging Strategies to Support Coalition Advocacy

Coalitions can help nonprofits to work towards their missions, provide services to the communities they serve, amplify their voices, and share intelligence, resources, and workload. In fact, research commissioned by Independent Sector indicates that nonprofits belonging to collaborative working groups such as associations or coalitions advocate at higher rates than …

Elevating Diverse Voices Through New Models of Civic Engagement

Points of Light’s Civic Circle® is a framework that helps the social sector advance a cause or social issue based on the idea that a diversified engagement strategy, intentionally expanded beyond volunteering, can create pathways for increased and deeper engagement. For those not yet involved, it provides an onramp where …

Continuous Becoming: Artistic Practice and Community Building In Response to Racism, Ableism, and Shame

Black and Disabled   individuals living in the United States consistently contend with institutional and compounding systemic racism, ableism, heterosexism, ageism, sexism, and classism. In recent years, these systemic challenges have compelled artists and leaders within Black and Disability communities to rely on art and protest as a way to find …

Leveraging Racial Equity Assessments to Spark Change in Communities of Practice

As the nonprofit sector doubles down on its commitment to advance workplace equity, we must collectively cultivate spaces for peer learning and offer accessible tools to assess diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts across the industry. Join the Building Movement Project (BMP) and ProInspire for an interactive workshop exploring how …

How Today’s Scholarships Create Tomorrow’s Leaders

Investing in young people is vital to increase economic mobility and build an economy centered on equity, justice, inclusion, and impact. By helping to fund the education of today’s under-resourced students, philanthropic organizations and corporations can champion visibility and increase representation in the workforce, paving the way for a diverse …

One Corporate Foundation’s Learning Journey

Citi Foundation and Urban Institute share Community Progress Makers Cohort 3, Citi Foundation’s flagship initiative across six place-based markets. Learn how a corporate foundation redesigned its practice as a Learning Organization and partner – not just funder, enhanced grantee partners’ experiences, co-created a learning community, and used enterprise capital (multi-year, …

Exploring the Decline of Nonprofit Advocacy and Public Engagement

Nonprofits are a catalyst for democracy and systems change in the United States. Our organizations bring individuals together to educate leaders — particularly policymakers — about our missions, community challenges, and potential solutions. Unfortunately, findings from recently released research commissioned by Independent Sector determined that a significantly lower proportion of …

Southern Dallas Thrives: Co-Creating Community With Intentional Investment

Created in partnership with the PepsiCo Foundation and Frito-Lay North America, the Southern Dallas Thrives initiative provides vital investment opportunities to the Southern Dallas community to create lasting change and measurable impact. In this session, you’ll learn about the role of philanthropic investment and community partnerships that advance the lives …

Public Dollars for Public Good

Public investments transcend what philanthropy generates in a lifetime. Our federal government spends trillions of dollars on everything from improving the conditions of roads and subsidizing food for poor families to providing healthcare to the elderly and education for our children. But, over the past 60 years, our government has …

Black Joy in Green Spaces: Exploring Nature’s Positive Influence on the Health of Black Women

What is Black Joy? It is an everyday aspect of the Black experience. Furthermore, it is a response to the flawed Strong Black Woman phenomena that promotes hyper-productivity over holistic pause. Black women often prioritize productivity over our personal peace of mind. And, sadly, the efforts we pour into achieving …

A Tale of Three Cities: Voices, Experiences, and Lessons Learned from Bridge Building in Chicago, Dallas, and Pittsburgh

A diverse group of 40 changemakers from Chicago, Dallas, and Pittsburgh came together through Independent Sector’s Bridging Fellows program, supported by IS member Walmart, to strengthen and advance their collective leadership capacities, deepen and expand their relationships and networks, and amplify and embody bridge building as understood, experienced, and practiced …

People-Powered Philanthropy: Giving Circles as a Tool for Change

Giving circles bring groups of people together to pool their money and decide where to make a collective gift. This is people-powered philanthropy—giving that is values-aligned and centers our communities and people. Giving circle members give in more strategic ways, are increasingly diverse, and bring more diverse opinions and information …

Philanthropy’s Role in Reparations: Building a Culture of Repair

The issue of reparations has recently gained considerable momentum. However, many define reparations narrowly — as cash payments, relegated to the public sector, and only benefitting Black people. Liberation Ventures and The Bridgespan Group think differently. Reparations for slavery and its legacy are not just about money or policy; reparations …

Breaking Down Barriers: Reimagining Equitable Access to Data, Tools, and Funding

Roughly 10% of the nation’s nonprofits are led by individuals from Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color, but they only receive about 4% of grant dollars annually. There are many reasons for this, but it is no coincidence that over 90% of foundation CEOs are white, while organizations led …

Inclusion STARTS with Disability

Disability advocate and innovator Michael Thomas talks with us about inclusivity efforts in work, housing, and the community. Specifically, he demonstrates the importance of not only engaging the disability community, but starting with them as a central point to any and all universal design efforts.

Racial Equity and Systems Change: Learning from Collective Impact

What does it take to create systems change that centers racial equity in the process, participation, and outcomes of a coalition? This interactive session will share lessons and practical tools created with and inspired by the work of hundreds of coalitions across the U.S. The session will be grounded in …

Leave No Power on the Table: Connecting Civic Engagement to Mission

Elections have a direct impact on fundamental issues related to quality of life and nonprofits’ ability to pursue our charitable missions. But, according to new research commissioned by Independent Sector, 56% of nonprofits report that policy engagement does not apply to their mission and only 13% engage in nonpartisan voter …

How and Why Humans Form Groups: A Solution to Us vs. Them

How and why do humans form groups? How does othering and division take hold, and why do people move from us and them to us versus them? Understanding the ways we’re wired for belonging can help us understand these dynamics, as well as pinpoint divisions and opportunities for healthy belonging in …