Summit onPhilanthropy V! by Will Schneider

Yesterday at the Yale Club in New York City, over 300 people got together for the fifth annual Summit onPhilanthropy. The Summit, which is hosted by FLiP’s parents, onPhilanthropy and Changing Our World, Inc., is an annual gathering of the leading voices in the world of philanthropy.

I know I’m a little biased, working for the company that produces the event, but year after year I find the Summit to be the smartest conference about the philanthropic sector.  This year the all day event featured three panel discussions and two separate speakers. Topics ranged from branding to microfinance and from global engagement to the future of online causes.

Here are some high notes from the conference:

• Webcasting. For the first time all of the speeches and panels were videotaped, and excerpts will soon be available at onPhilanthropy.com!

• Cause Wired. The first panel of the day kicked us off with a lively discussion of where online causes are taking us. More than ephilanthropy, more than political organizing, what is the future for causes online? Is this the end of fundraising by organizations? Will fickle Facebook groups be the new standard for raising money? What about the next big thing? The panel, moderated by Tom Watson, Publisher of onPhilanthropy and future author of the book CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World [due out in November], addresses these issues and more. Check out excerpts from the panel on the onPhilanthropy.com homepage.

• Microfinance. The second panel, which was billed as a discussion of emerging, innovative market models, spent a lot of time talking about one in particular: microfinance. Moderator Stacy Palmer, Editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, led the discussion and managed to clear up about 90% of my questions… but also raised more than a few new ones. Fundraisers of the future may need accounting/law/business degrees just to keep up.

• Branding. The last panel of the afternoon, led by Marcia Stepanek,  Editor-in-Chief of Contribute Magazine, centered around getting your organization’s message out to the public. Susan Smith Ellis, CEO of (RED), was a member of the really outstanding panel and told the audience how (RED) is fighting its way out of Bono’s shadow, and around some bad, inaccurate, press. I don’t mind admitting, she turned me around on the (RED) concept, and if you watch the excerpts I bet she’ll win you over too.

• Keynote. The keynote address, delivered by Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Robert Orr, presented those in the room the opportunity to partner with the programs and services of the United Nations. How can we achieve our goals together?

• Plenary. Dr. Susan Raymond, who has given an address at each of the last five summits, gave a speech entitled, “For What?” [transcript and excerpts to be available on onPhilanthropy.com shortly] – that received the longest round of applause for a philanthropy-related speech I’ve ever heard. Susan called out the industry top-dogs, many of whom were in the room, for not truly deserving the tax-exemption our government has given them. Sure, as an industry we’ve raised and spent a ton in the past 40 years, trillions of dollars actually, but we haven’t ended poverty, cured diseases, or housed the homeless. In fact, in that time, many of the problems we’ve dedicated our lives to haven’t gotten better at all. Most have gotten worse! If that is true, why do we deserve to circumvent our tax burden? Why should society carry organizations with poor results? For what? Susan also has all of the answers, but for those you will need to watch the speech at our parent site, onPhilanthropy.com. When you do hold on tight and enjoy.

• After party. Not to be overlooked, the cocktail reception in the Tap Room provided an outstanding opportunity to network and de-brief about the overwhelming amount of information delivered throughout the day.

It was a great day, and as soon as it was over the organizers started to map out the plan for Summit VI! You want to join us next year? Book early!

Comments

[Akira]

I have to agree wholeheartedly with Will that the summit is indeed the smartest conference about the philanthropic sector. Having attended Summit onPhilanthropy IV and V, I can say that of all the professional conferences I've attended I have never experienced one where the content from start to finish was more relevant to my own work and the issues I experience in the field. As one of the speakers frankly pointed out, the mainstream media is only now beginning to report events and trends in the philanthropic world that The Summit and OnPhilanthropy has already addressed.