If you are interested in organizing a dine around for our upcoming conference, please contact us  by May 13th, with a brief, one-paragraph description of your topic. We will offer attendees an opportunity to sign up for these dinners at the conference.

Your job as an organizer will be to offer a short welcome and overview of the topic at the conference venue, then facilitate the informal conversation over dinner. While all diners at your table will pay their own way, our arrangement with Busboys is that they will provide one check per table. So another responsibility of dine around organizers is organize the payment of the bill at the end of the evening.

How to install:

• Go to your app store and download the free GUIDEBOOK app.
• Open Guidebook
• Scroll down to the bottom and click on “search for guides”
• Scroll down to the bottom and click on “redeem code”
• Enter “edge2013″ (all lower case)

What is to be done? And how do we do it?
Washington, D.C. May 21 – 23, 2013

See the Conference Program »    NEW! Download the Conference App! 

Conference Planning Committee:
Ellen Dorsey, Wallace Global Fund – Co-Chair
Tom Kruse, Rockefeller Brothers Fund – Co-Chair
Laine Alston-Romero, Ford Foundation
Holly Bartlng, General Service Foundation
Rajasvini Bhansali, IDEX
Tanya Dawkins, Global-Local Links Project & CarEth Foundation
Luis Dias-Albertini, American Jewish World Service
Laurie Emrich, Tet Ansanm Fund/National Progressive Leadership Campus
Monica Enriquez-Enriquez, Astrea Foundation
Leah Hunt Hendrix, The Sister Fund
Sara Mersha, Grassroots International
Chloée Ponchelet, Fund for Global Human Rights
Aditi Vaidya, Solidago Foundation
Katrin Wilde, Channel Foundation

About Just Giving 2013:
Last September over 250 globally-minded local and international foundations, donors and allies gathered at Just Giving 2012 to help launch the new EDGE Funders Alliance.  Plenaries, workshop sessions and funder-led “engagement labs” advanced a social change philanthropy committed to community empowerment and advocacy, within an analysis of global systemic challenges facing grantmakers and our grantees worldwide.Just Giving 2013 will continue providing a unique space for us to deepen our understanding of the current landscape of grassroots and transnational initiatives addressing structural injustice in key areas. The conference will also highlight ways in which global social change philanthropy can – and should – make a difference.

Plenaries and workshop sessions will focus on strategies making significant and actual change happen, and caucuses and working groups will prioritize ways of increasing funder involvement and collaboration, by expanding opportunities for networking, sharing and building relationships among grantmakers around the world.

1. Workshop Sessions

Within the spirit and context of this merger in fact, the gathering of over 250 donors, funders and activists from around the world at the Berkeley Marina’s Doubletree Hotel sought consciously to broaden the scope and deepen the nature of funder discourse by bringing together GwoB’s dedication to advancing community empowerment and social change with FNTG’s focus on the systemic and global nature of the challenges facing both international and domestic funders.

Learn about the 2013 Conference (May 21-23)

“What Does it Mean to Engage? A powerful, 5-minute film shot at the 2012 Just Giving Conference in Berkeley, CA.
Learn more about Just Giving»

* Please note: speakers are being confirmed and some sessions are subject to change

Tuesday, May 21

The Advisor is In
A choice of times throughout the conference

Healthy Conference Center
A choice of times throughout the conference

Networking Breakfast
7:30 am

Conference Orientation, Introductions, & Networking: A Funder-Free Zone
8:00 am – 10:00
A space for NGO representatives, social movement actors and other partner allies to meet, network, and share.

Morning Pre-conference Institutes
Cross-border Grantmaking: Essential Skills Every Foundation Needs
8:30 to 12:15
A growing number of globally engaged foundations are increasingly interested in working directly with their overseas partners and grantees. Especially for newcomers, though, the rules and regulations entailed in making cross-border grants can seem daunting. Fear not! This half-day seminar and workshop will explore all a private foundation or donor-advised fund needs to know to fund non-US grantees. In dialogue and exercise, we’ll cover the basics of expenditure responsibility and equivalency determination, anti-terror compliance, IRS reporting, grants to foreign governments, inflow challenges and restrictions, and more. This session will be of use to newcomers to overseas grantmaking as well as to more experienced grantmakers wishing to recharge their skills. With John Harvey, Managing Director for Global Philanthropy, Council on Foundations; and Kristy Tsadick, Staff Attorney, Council on Foundations
A special initiative in collaboration with the Council on Foundations. An addition $150 fee required. 

Inequities, Identities, and Power
8:30 – 10:45
How do identity and power impact the contexts in which we operate as grant makers? How does privilege play out in our work? How can addressing institutional power imbalances contribute to deeper transformation? In progressive grant making circles, the power that is inherent in being a funder is often fraught with ambivalence. Many engaged in social change come to the work from a personal experience with the oppressive use of power. As such, building and expanding popular democratic power to actualize an inclusive and democratic global society is a central, if not explicit, goal of our work. Unfortunately, this does not mean that we - or our institutions – don’t (inadvertently) reproduce systems of oppression in how we operate. Through a series of exercises, interactive activities and group discussions, this institute will help us think about ”identities” and their intersections, around disability, sexuality, gender, race and ethnicity, class and age to name a few, in ways that can deepen our grantmaking practice. Participants will work together to identify the types of questions, interventions and collaborations that have the potential to change systems of inequity. Join us as we explore questions of identity and power in the context of philanthropy, consider how power and privilege play out in our work as grant makers, and discuss organizational and institutional practices to address power imbalances as integral to our work of social, political and economic transformation. With: Constance Cagampang Heller, Co-founder, Linked Fate Fund for Justice; Monica Enriquez-Enriquez, Program Officer, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice; Diana Samarasan, Executive Director, Disability Rights Fund, Inc.

Gender Caucus & Working Group Meetings
11:00 to 12:30

Gender Caucus (11:00 to 12:30)
This caucus is designed for those who are incorporating a gender perspective into their work to network and discuss strategies for moving forward in support of engendered grantmaking. Facilitated by Katrin Wilde Channel Foundation, and Jane Barry, Linksbridge; with special guest Cindy Clark, Director of Programs, AWID, with the latest research on Where is the Money for Women’s Rights.

Africa Grantmakers Working Group
This working group will provide an opportunity for conference attendees working in Africa to network and learn more about areas and topics of mutual interest. Facilitated by Rajasvini Bhansali, Executive Director, International Development Exchange (IDEX); Niamani Mutima, Executive Director, Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group; Marcia Thomas, Executive Director, USA for Africa.

Lunch, Opening Welcome Remarks
12:30 to 1:30

A Just Transition: Weaving equity and ecology to create the transformation we need
In this session, participants will explore three perspectives on the ‘just’ transition that bring together equity and ecology to affect systemic change – from a strategic framework for how civil society organizations can develop effective strategies for a cultural and economic paradigm shift, to local strategies of resilience based organizing where people work together to meet their needs and confront unjust policy, to fighting “transactional towards transformational” campaigns around financial transaction taxes, dirty energy money in politics, and ‘financializing’ nature. The session will draw on the experience and knowledge in the room to discuss how funders can help support the long-term, cross-silo organizing at the heart of a just transition. With:Imad Sabi, Program Officer, Oxfam NOVIB; Michael Narberhaus, SMART CSOs Lab; Mateo Nube, Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project; Janet Redman, Institute for Policy Studies.

Land and Water Grabs: Resisting the New Resource Wars, Transitioning to Economically and Ecologically Just Societies
Big Energy, Big Finance, and repressive regimes are gobbling up land and water around the world—whatever it takes to make a profit and wherever they can find it.  Particularly hard hit are regions such as Africa and Latin America where corruption and denial of basic human rights are opening the door wide to this grab tsunami. But the most vulnerable –farmers, women, indigenous peoples – are fighting back. Can they win?  In this session, hear a perspective on resource grabs in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and learn more about ongoing struggles in Afro-descendant communities in Honduras and indigenous communities in the US.  Find out how unlikely David-and-Goliath battles for land and water rights and climate justice are being waged and won by rural communities around the globe to transform these battles into inspiring alternatives and solutions. Join us for a discussion of what human rights funders are doing, and can do more of, to accompany these movements as they face increasing repression for their courageous actions.  With: Jeff Furman, Trustee, Ben & Jerry’s Foundation; Miriam Miranda, OFRANEH (Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras); Jihan Gearon, The Black Mesa Water Coalition (USA); Sara Mersha, Grassroots International.

8 Ways to Map Your Foundation’s Transformational Movement-Building
“Doing good” is not enough!  So, how can we do more inside and outside our organizations?  This workshop shares 8 concrete, time-tested ways your philanthropy can catalyze transformative movement building.  First, we tackle the INTERNAL.  After a fun get-out-of-your-seats mapping activity, each of our 4 panelists will share their top approach for catalyzing movement building inside an organization.  Second, we tackle EXTERNAL.  After an interactive word-association activity, each of our 4 panelists will share their top approach for catalyzing movement building outside an organization.  Finally, we will apply what we learned in small group discussions, each led by a panelist.  With: Christine Reeves, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Senior Field Associate; Laine Romero-Alston, Ford Foundation, Program Officer; Jeff Campbell, Christensen Fund, Director of Grantmaking; Nikhil Aziz, Grassroots international, Executive Director; Sue Hoechstetter, Alliance for Justice, Senior Advisor for Foundation Advocacy & Evaluation.

Where Hast Thou Been, Occupy?
While Occupy Wall Street may no longer be on the front page or at the top of the evening news, the organizers and the ideals are as active and as relevant as ever. This session will provide an overall assessment of the current state of the movement and its diaspora, as well as an exploration of four areas of ongoing work: post-Hurricane Sandy relief and resilience, housing justice, radical student organizing, and organizer training and development. In addition to our panel, attendees will be encouraged to share their own assessments of the state of the movement, as well as their sense of the most compelling next steps. With: Farhad Ebrahimi, Chorus Foundation;  Biola Jeje, New York Students Rising; Yotam Marom, Wildfire Project; Shab Bashiri, Occupy Our Homes Atlanta; Penny Lewis, co-author of Changing the Subject: A Bottom Up Account of Occupy Wall Street In New York City.

Fighting Corruption: Citizens are succeeding in their efforts to combat corruption, secure greater transparency and claim their human rights
Civil Society Organizations in the developing world are increasingly taking the initiative  to tackle corrupt practices and promote transparency at the local and national levels. The Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) has developed a model for aiding these efforts which supports local CSO initiatives through the provision of small grants combined with expert volunteer technical assistance. This model has been the subject of several evaluations all of which are highly positive. Using specific examples and drawing on best practice, this session will identify key ingredients for the success of such interventions and draw the lessons from some of the failures. With: Frank Vogl, Board vice-Chair, Partnership for Transparency Fund;  Cissy Nabazinga Kagaba, Executive Director Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda.

Philanthropy Game and Cocktail Reception
6:00 to 7:30

Wednesday, May 22

Networking Breakfast
8:00 am

Morning Opening review, and Funder Soapbox
9:00-9:30

Plenary: Migration, Global Mobility and the Future of Work
9:30 to 11:00
Issues related to migration begin and often end far beyond national boundaries. Massive shifts in the global economy have effectively changed the landscape of work around the world; the global economic crisis, trade policies favoring multinational corporations, climate change and the changing nature of work itself has spurred high levels of un- and underemployment in many countries, driving migrants in search of work that will sustain their families.  On arrival in new lands, migrants often occupy the bottom rung of the labor market, taking low paying jobs with few protections and experiencing significant abuses. Harsh immigration policies in many receiving countries force migrants underground, exacerbating already precarious situations.  New strategies, legal and policy frameworks, partnerships and organizational forms of worker power that are transnational in scope and scale, and are able to intervene and represent workers’ interests are helping inform the future of a global labor movement. Many funders are supporting pieces of the puzzle, but how does it all fit together? How can we as funders be better positioned to respond to the complex nature of migration, and to the changing nature of work itself? Can we begin to connect the dots, and address root causes? What are some and offer possible solutions to these challenges? This plenary will be moderated by Laine Romero-Alston, Program Officer with the Ford Foundation, and feature Ana Avendaño, Associate General Counsel and Director of the Immigrant Worker Program at the AFL-CIO, Alejandra Ancheita, Executive Director of the Project on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ProDESC) based in Mexico City, Colin Rajah, International Coordinator, Global Coalition on Migration (GCM); and Anannya Bhattacharjee, founder and President of Garment and Allied Workers Union and founder of the Society for Labour and Development in Delhi.

Just Cities: Implementing Urban Development Strategies to Reduce Poverty and Expand Economic Opportunity in Global South Cities

Just and Sustainable Cities: Implementing Urban Development and Citizen Participation Strategies to Reduce Poverty and Expand Economic Opportunity in Global South Cities

Our globalized world is and will continue to become increasingly urban. By 2050, it is expected that nearly 70 percent of the world’s population will reside in cities, an increase of nearly 20 percent as compared with 2009. This important shift is bringing with it increased pressure on infrastructure, government services, natural resources, climate and many other aspects critical to quality of life. Not surprisingly, a large proportion of new city dwellers in the coming decades will be among the poorest people in the world, with an estimated 1.4 billion people living in urban slums by 2020. Drawing on the strategies and experiences of Ford Foundation and Fundación Avina, this session will explore how philanthropy can contribute toward the creation of more sustainable cities with improved urban quality of life. In particular, the session will introduce the Ford Foundation’s new Just Cities initiative, which focuses on urban development strategies as a means for reducing poverty and expanding economic opportunities for marginalized people in Global South cities, as well as Avina’s Sustainable Cities strategy, which over the last five years has supported the emergence and consolidation of engaged citizens platforms in more than 70 Latin American cities. Participants will discuss and explore funder-supported urban development strategies in the areas of housing, slum upgrading, infrastructure development and service provision, and urban planning. Funders will discuss important themes like technology applications, the links between urban development implementation and rights-based movements, citizen engagement, social accountability and democratic decision making. With Don Chen, Senior Program officer, Ford Foundation; Emily Fintel Kaiser, Executive Director, Avina Americas and Executive Team Member of Fundación Avina. 

Sex Work is Work: Exploring creative strategies for promoting the economic rights of sex workers.
Globally, sex workers face stigma, violence and discrimination with severe consequences for their health, economic status and human rights.  Sex worker activists are often ostracized from mainstream human rights movements and funding for their organizations is extremely limited. As grantmakers interested in self-determination and autonomy, we have yet to come together to create a well-coordinated global case for sex work as an economic right and, therefore, a human right.  In this session, we will hear from activists and funders about effective strategies focusing on core economic rights issues, such as the recognition of sex work as work, the decriminalization of sex work, alternative employment strategies, and the economic empowerment and social inclusion of sex workers.  With: Svati Shah, New York University; Anna Kirey, Urgent Action Fund Advisor; Andrea Ritchie, Streetwise and Safe; Liz Coplen, Red Umbrella Fund.

Women Hold the Solutions! Women forging solutions to build community resilience and environmentally sustainable solutions
Women are responsible for half of the world’s food production and produce between 60-80% of the food in most developing countries, and in North America, women now control over half of the wealth and are behind 80% of all consumer purchases. At the same time, indigenous women and women from low-income communities and developing countries bear a heavier burden from the impacts of climate change. From international climate negotiations to the front lines of the tar sands and Keystone XL Pipeline, from seed saving to economic/environmental justice, women are taking a stand for systemic change. Learn why women are key to climate change and sustainability solutions and hear some concrete solutions to the most pressing issues of our time. Discuss the unique and essential ideas offered at this turning point in history when humanity is making decisions about our very existence and how we are treating our Earth – and each other. With: Ursula Miniszewski, Philanthropic Partnerships Manager, Global Greengrants Fund; Osprey Orielle Lake, International Women’s Earth and Climate Initiative (IWECI); Crystal Lameman, Beaver Cree First Nations, Alberta, Canada .

Our Growing Edge: Young People Moving Money to Social Change
Young people have always been catalysts and instigators in social movements. Today, faced with a changing workforce, a shifting economy, and ever-increasing migration, young people are finding creative ways to support each other and to fund the necessary work needed to change the world. Come engage in conversation with young people who are testing out innovative cross-class giving structures with an internationalist and social justice lens. What’s the growing edge of your giving?  What tricky questions are you grappling with in your own giving model?  Bring your hardest questions and greatest challenges, and we’ll talk them through together. With: Jessie Spector, Resource Generation; Zeke Spier, Social Justice Fund Northwest; Jess Champagne, Diverse City Fund; Nico Amador from the Trans Justice Funding Project; Rajasvini Bhansali, IDEX and Resource Generation’s POC wealth redistribution project; and Sha Grogan-Brown, Grassroots Global Justice.

Beyond Charity: Disability Inclusion in Practice.  Perspectives from the gender, development and indigenous rights fields
Using an open dialogue of learning, this session will explore what disability inclusion looks like within women’s funding, the Indigenous Peoples’ movement, and advocacy with the World Bank. With the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), many funders are hearing more about disability, but still have limited knowledge of what it means, it’s relevance for their grantmaking and what funding with an inclusive lens looks like in practice. The goal of this session is to address these questions and to provide helpful tips for beginning the change processes that lead to inclusion of people with disabilities within philanthropic efforts. With: Mohammed Ali Loutfy, Senior Advisor on Strategic Policies and Inclusive Development, Lebanese Physical Handicapped Union (LPHU), Disability and World Bank Safeguards Campaign; Diana Samarasan, Executive Director – Disability Rights Fund; Katrin Wilde, Executive Director, Channel Foundation; Lesley Carson, Program Director (Human Rights), Wellspring Advisors.

Lunch (and EDGE Funders Members Meeting

) 1:00-2:30

“Where We Live” documents one of the fastest-growing and most effective forces combating climate change: organized grassroots movements. Centering around efforts to overturn California’s historic global warming legislation, the film highlights how community organizations and networks throughout the state played a crucial role in mobilizing the vote in immigrant and low income communities to defeat Proposition 23, making the case that equity-based and community-driven solutions are essential in bringing about the deeper restructuring of societies to confront the climate crisis.

Wins such as the Prop 23 fight against a dirty oil ballot measure that tried to kill AB32, California’s state climate legislation, brought new voters to civic life and leaders to the table. Wins like this demonstrate that the change and the political power shift is and can continue to occur. In California, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Virginia, Florida and others, there is an emerging layer of expanded former as well as new organizations with civic and electoral vision and skill to target the emerging new electorate. Operating across issues, these organizations are anchored in the grassroots while strengthening their capacity to engage in legislative and electoral arenas to activate a new majority electorate to power beyond single-issue politics or campaigns.

Learn more about the film project at: www.wherewelivefilm.org

What hasn’t been recognized is Latinos’ potential to play a similar role on climate change: providing the electoral muscle to compel politicians to get serious, finally, about the crisis. Just as Latinos overwhelmingly supported Obama over Romney, they also—along with African-Americans, Asian-Americans and youth of all races—demonstrate the highest levels of support for action against climate change and air pollution, according to extensive polling data.

In one sense, this should come as no surprise. Minorities are more likely to live in areas burdened by extreme pollution, and young people are the ones fated to spend the rest of their lives coping with worsening climate change. Of the 6 million people living within three miles of America’s coal-fired power plants, 39 percent are minorities, according to a report by the NAACP, “Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People.”

Read Full Article on The Nation

2012 was a trailblazing year. Until this year, no state had defined fiscal policy in human rights terms. Vermont took the first step. The state Legislature amended the budget to explicitly include human rights principles, stating it “should be designed to address the needs of the people in Vermont in a way that advances human dignity and equity.” Just the year before, Vermont passed universal health care legislation, also grounded in human rights principles. The legislation resulted from a statewide campaign built on the platform of health care as a human right. Through the campaign, Vermonters advocated for health care based on the principles of equity, universality, transparency, accountability and participation because these principles were key to addressing the state’s health care crisis.

Vermont represents just one of a growing number of states and localities integrating human rights principles to advance local policy. Most often in the United States, however, human rights are perceived as something relevant outside of our borders — useful as a foreign policy tool, but of little import domestically.

Monday, International Human Rights Day, offers a welcome opportunity to reflect on how and why these rights have meaning here at home — in local communities across the United States.

Read Full Article.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/human-rights-principles-should-start-here-at-home-84806.html#ixzz2FPBHLkpb

http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/human-rights-principles-should-start-here-at-home-84806.html

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