The 2019 Conference
A Funder/Movement “Encontro” towards a Philanthropy for Systemic Change
April 9-12, 2019
Next year’s Annual Conference is taking place near Rio de Janeiro on April 9-12, 2019.
[Please note: We are in close contact with our Conference Planning Committee members in Brazil, and will continue monitoring developments there. Our thoughts are with them, and with their grantee partners. Their counsel, along with the advice of other CPC members as well as social movement allies there and in the region, will help guide our decisions and planning over the coming period]
Next year’s events will offer us all an important opportunity to situate our work within the social, economic and political context of Brazil, Latin America and the wider world, to broaden perspectives, wherever we work and whatever strategies we pursue, on the systemic and global nature of today’s challenges.Within the context of our efforts to build foundation support for just transition and systemic change, holding the conference outside of Europe and the US offers EDGE and our members an important opportunity to situate this work within the social, economic and political context of Brazil, Latin America and in the wider global South. The aim is to broaden perspectives and raise awareness of the systemic and global nature of today’s challenges among all members, even those who don’t fund outside their own countries. Holding the conference in Brazil will allow us to:
- Lift up the importance of the “global” context: EDGE emphasizes the significance of global and international structures, policies and potential solutions, even for members working within a specifically local or national context. Holding the conference in a country of immense size, influence and historical importance and dynamism as Brazil will help members understand new contexts and realities, in ways likely to bring more international consciousness and commitment to their own grantmaking – and to our collective work as engaged donors for global equity.
- Lift up the importance of transnational organizing: EDGE strategies stress the important lessons to be learned from translocal and international movements organizing resistance and developing systemic solutions within different contexts and cultures. The activities and approaches to be contemplated will provide EDGE members with a deeper appreciation of different realities and terrains of struggle, supporting in direct and subtle ways a fuller understanding of how movements are contributing to global social transformation in the region and around the world.
Formal activities will begin with a funder assembly and introductions on the afternoon of Tuesday, 9th and close the evening of Thursday April 11, and we would like to encourage participants to join colleagues with the Rede de Filantropia para a Justiça Social/Philanthropy Network for Social Justice in Rio, to gain deeper insights into how grantmakers with ties to various communities in struggle are responding to local contexts, and current realities (see Philanthropy in Brazil: Obstacles, challenges and opportunities).
Our 2019 gathering seeks to achieve two overarching goals:
1) Supporting civil society and social movement organizations and networks in their efforts to advance and consolidate their own work of resistance and development of systemic alternatives;
2) Identifying and developing strategies aimed at moving more resources towards those struggles and alternatives by advancing a “systemic change philanthropy” that is informed by our engagement with social movement allies.
These events and the work leading up to them are intended to build on EDGE’s Barcelona Commitment and other discussions and insights from previous annual gatherings, momentum coming out of our Global Engagement Lab cohorts and the Gender Justice Initiative, as well as on the work and experiences of allied funder networks across the philanthropic landscape.
Together with movement partners joining us in Brazil, inspired by their approach to systemic alternatives captured dramatically in our short film Come to the Edge, we hope to bring together philanthropic allies to help collectively set terms of the debate, defining values and attributes, establishing benchmarks, and creating tangible and strategic guideposts for foundations and our field to move from transactional to transformational grantmaking, in support of deep and long term social change.
Our amazing Conference Planning Committee is still working on the last details, which will be constantly updated on this page. Stay in touch!
Movement planning and participation: EDGE is organizing this conference and encontro in partnership with emerging and growing systemic alternatives networks who will convene 8 participants from each continent and from Brazil, to be selected through criteria that includes gender, geography and core areas of focus, with one-third being younger activists under 35. Funders participating in the conference will be invited to nominate and sponsor grantee partners, with the final list of participants being determined by the core organizing group.
Movements Assembly (April 7-9): With our support civil society representatives will meet to discuss and build efforts towards transformational change on their terms, for their own ends. Their assembly will focus on “systemic alternatives in action,” analyzing systemic crises and alternatives emerging from resistance struggles across various areas of work (food, energy, democracy, work, feminisms, etc.). The assembly will focus as well on concrete medium and long term proposals, engagements, and investments needed in support of such efforts around the world.
Funders Assembly and Orientation (April 9): EDGE will convene up to 150 members and other funders interested in exploring systemic change philanthropy. Following an EDGE members lunch, funders will convene for a series of orientation, framing and community building exercises followed by a reception, which will also provide a “sense of place,” to explore specific local and national contexts and ground the work of movements and funders in Brazil.
Funder/Movement ‘Encontro’ (April 10): Funders and social movement partners will come together for a day-long series of consultations to learn about and delve deeply into resistance approaches and the development of systemic alternatives, in ways that increase understanding, inspire new insights, and can move the funder community towards greater commitments and action.
Funders Assembly on Building Towards a Philanthropy for Systemic Change (April 11-12): Funders will convene with a smaller number of partners from the movements assembly for a day-long series of focused discussions aimed at lifting up values and philanthropic tools, strategies and initiatives (those that exist and others that are needed) that can collectively contribute to the types of struggles, strategies and organizing referenced during the Encontro. A closing breakfast plenary on April 12 will allow us to summarize conference outcomes and if feasible, move to consensus on individual and collective commitments for advancing notions of a “philanthropy for systemic change” that EDGE and allied funders, funder networks and initiatives can build on in the months and years ahead.
Dine-Around Sessions: A call for sessions will be sent to participating funders for those interested in organizing dinner conversations focused on concrete collaborations around a particular initiative, for advancing concrete efforts within a funder working group, or determining next steps for moving forward with a collective project.
Pre/Post Conference Events: Grassroots International is putting together a delegation to meet with Brazilian partners in the days before the main gathering; and allies with the Brazil Philanthropy Network for Social Justice are planning an activity in Rio on April 12 for funders attending the conference and others within the Brazilian philanthropic community. More information on these and other possible conference related activities will be available soon.
Conference Co-Chairs
- Jovanna Garcia Soto, Solidarity Program Officer, Grassroots International
- Maria Amália Souza, Founding Executive Director, CASA Socio-Environmental Fun
Conference Planning Committee
- Amalia Fischer, Co-Founder and General Director, Elas Social Investment Fund
- Cristi Nozawa, Executive Director, The Samdhana Institute
- Ellen Dorsey, Executive Director, Wallace Global Fund
- Graciela Selaimen, Senior Program Officer, Ford Foundation, Rio
- Graciela Hopstein, Executive Coordinator, Brazilian Philanthropy Network for Social Justice
- Ledys Sanjuan, Senior Advocacy Officer, FRIDA – The Young Feminist Fund
- Martin Modlinger, Director, Renewable Freedom Foundation
- Matt Annunziato, Program Associate, Wallace Global Fund
- Sarah Pugh, Grants and Communications Manager, Bertha Foundation
- Stigmata Tenga, Executive Director, Africa Philanthropy Network
- Tanya Dawkins, Trustee, CarEth
- Tin Gazivoda, Senior Program Officer, Open Society Initiative for Europe
- Valeria Scorza, Program Director, Avina Foundation