CONFERENCE UPDATES
Transitioning to a Virtual Conference
Registration is Now Open
Harambee: Let’s All Pull Together 2020 Virtual Conference Schedule
ABFE Virtual Harambee 2020 - Issue Areas Update
Harambee 2020 Sponsors
Transitioning to a Virtual Conference
In light of the World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus a pandemic, the consensus on proceeding with our planned in-person 2020 conference has shifted. The Board of Directors and staff of ABFE have made the difficult decision, after careful consideration and review of currently available information related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, to organize our annual conference Harambee: Let’s All Pull Together (April 15 – 17, 2020) as a virtual convening.
We realize that, like us, many of you are disappointed about this change and will miss the opportunity to come together in person as a community of professionals to network and to advance the work of promoting effective and responsive philanthropy in Black communities. We are actively planning an in-person, one-day gathering for some time in the fall. However, please be assured that the virtual conference will deliver quality plenaries and workshops, and experience you have come to expect from ABFE.
We are actively working to transition the in-person conference to a virtual format. We will continue to share updates, including what to expect as an attendee, exhibitor, vendor, or sponsor. Please, check the conference website for these updates in the next week or so.
Please note the following:
- Paid conference registrants will be eligible for a refund minus the cost of the virtual conference. The virtual conference fee is $150 for ABFE members and $250 for non-members.
- Many of you have very generously offered to waive all or part of a potential refund as a way to support us. For this, we are incredibly grateful. To be clear, providing registration refunds means that we have a significant financial hole to fill to pay for the conference contracts that we owe by not holding the conference in North Carolina. There is no action needed if you would like to donate the difference between the costs of the in-person conference and the virtual format.
- If instead of a refund or donation to ABFE you would like to use the balance of your paid registration to become an ABFE member or renew your individual ABFE membership, please reach out to our Director of Membership, Evelyn Rivera, at erivera@abfe.org or (646) 392-9868.
- For those registrants who wish to receive full or partial refunds, please contact Evelyn Rivera at conference@abfe.org or (646) 392-9868 by April 1, 2020.
- If you have not paid for conference registration and would like to attend the virtual conference, please click the button, ‘Register for Virtual Conference,’ above when it becomes available shortly.
- To cancel your hotel room, you will need to contact the Marriott directly or click here Marriott Reservation Cancellation.
We much appreciate your participation and engagement with ABFE.
Sincerely,
Susan Taylor Batten
President and CEO
Pictured above: ABFE Co-founder Ambassador James A. Joseph
FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2019 | DETROIT MARRIOTT AT THE RENAISSANCE CENTER
Dear Members,
ABFE is pleased to announce our 2019 Call for Nominations for the 28th Annual James A. Joseph Lecture & Awards Program and Dinner. This signature event, taking place during our 2019 Annual Conference, “Harambee: Let’s All Pull Together,” will include the keynote James A. Joseph Lecture on Philanthropy, as well as remarks from the Emerging Leader in Philanthropy Award and the Institutional Award for Philanthropic Leadership recipients. To read more on last year’s recipients, click here.
The application deadline is on Friday, February 22, 2019. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at conference@abfe.org.
Thank you for your nomination!
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We Want to Know What’s Working
Data is important to providing accurate narratives. It’s even more important to share promising practices that are working for Black people and communities. Our calls for ideas in each thematic category are as follows:
Category 1: Building and Sustaining Black Wealth and Economic Power
- What are the myriad of ways that philanthropy is using its power and investments to stabilize and sustain Black wealth (for households and communities)?
- What philanthropic grantmaking and impact investment strategies are underway to help advance Black business and entrepreneurship that show promise?
- What are funders and front-line organizations doing to retain, preserve and protect Black land and their rich histories in both urban and rural communities?
Category 2: Growing and Sustaining Black Political Power
- How are grantmakers and donors advancing Black political power to support issues that they fund?
- What investment strategies in the area of voting are showing promise (including protection for the right to vote and efforts to mitigate federal, state and/or locally created obstructions to a fair and free election)?
- What are donors engaged in to build power amongst Black immigrant and LGBTQ populations ensure access and opportunity for our communities?
Category 3: Support to Black-led Social Change Organizations
- What strategies are being used by foundations, giving circles and donors to support Black-led organizations and their leaders?
- How are Black-led organizations engaging Black individuals, youth, families and communities across diverse areas to build and implement agendas for their future?
In our sessions, we want to highlight work that aligns with ABFE’s Responsive Philanthropy in Black Communities framework and the importance of supporting Black-led social change. As such, we are particularly interested in session ideas that lift up the use of the following strategies:
- Civic Engagement & Political Power;
- Community Organizing & People Power;
- Policy Advocacy & Systems Reform;
- Economic Development & Economic power;
- Research & Intellectual Power;
- Communications Narrative & Social Power; or,
- Leadership Development & Strategic Convenings.
We welcome content ideas from:
- Individual or institutional philanthropy;
- Philanthropic networks (pooled funds; giving circles; etc.)
- Public-private partnerships; and
- Grassroots Leaders powering their community change.
The voices of youth/next generation leaders are greatly desired.
THE PROCESS
We greatly appreciate your investment of time in submitting a proposal (or two). Unfortunately, we will have limited time and space, and won’t be able to accommodate all of the submissions. We will select sessions that best fit our vision for the 2020 conference.
If selected, ABFE will work with the session curators to create an ideal session for 2020!
- As a session designer, you’ll be responsible for covering your travel costs.
- Funders and representatives of larger organizations are expected to cover expenses.
- Very limited resources are available for speakers that might have limited travel budget. Travel support will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
- Session times, titles & descriptions may need to be modified to accommodate timing & placement in the agenda.
- There might be opportunities to collaborate with another colleague, with a similar submission topic. We ask that you are amenable to collaborative opportunities, should we decide to accept & merge similar ideas.
The ABFE team appreciates the amazing ideas submitted by our network and allies. Our virtual conference limits our ability to provide all of the programming, but it still allows us to connect in new ways. Technologies will afford us the opportunity to provide important learning & information sharing around critical issues & inequities, which have, frankly, been globally exposed because of COVID-19.
Racial equity for Black people and other people of color, and our communities, remains central to our work at ABFE. These conference themes will show up in the programming of ABFE Virtual Harambee and beyond. The themes, below, are followed by questions. Some answers will be identified in the sessions. Some answers can be found amongst the ABFE network. Others, still need new and better answers – together, we can find those solutions.
- Building and Sustaining Black Wealth and Economic Power
- What are the myriad of ways that philanthropy is using its power and investments to stabilize and sustain Black wealth (for households and communities)?
- What philanthropic grantmaking and impact investment strategies are underway to help advance Black business and entrepreneurship that show promise?
- What are funders and front-line organizations doing to retain, preserve and protect Black land and their rich histories in both urban and rural communities?
- Growing and Sustaining Black Political Power
- How are grantmakers and donors advancing Black political power to support issues that they fund?
- What investment strategies in the area of voting are showing promise (including protection for the right to vote and efforts to mitigate federal, state and/or locally created obstructions to a fair and free election)?
- What are donors engaged in to build power amongst Black immigrant and LGBTQ populations ensure access and opportunity for our communities?
- Support to Black-led Social Change Organizations
- What strategies foundations, giving circles and donors to support Black-led organizations and their leaders, are using?
- How are Black-led organizations engaging Black individuals, youth, families and communities across diverse areas to build and implement agendas for their future?
The content aligns with ABFE’s Responsive Philanthropy in Black Communities framework and the importance of supporting Black-led social change:
- Civic Engagement & Political Power;
- Community Organizing & People Power;
- Policy Advocacy & Systems Reform;
- Economic Development & Economic power;
- Research & Intellectual Power;
- Communications Narrative & Social Power; or,
- Leadership Development & Strategic Convenings.
- We welcome content ideas from:
- Individual or institutional philanthropy;
- Philanthropic networks (pooled funds; giving circles; etc.)
- Public-private partnerships; and
- Grassroots Leaders powering their community change.
These are challenging times for everyone. No one is exempt from the impact of COVID-19, which means everyone has a role to play in supporting our people and communities. After, we tackle COVID-19, there remains much work to be done. Let’s keep working to create a more equitable place for us all.
The ABFE team
For inquiries, please contact us at conference@abfe.org.
