Are you curious about the powerful and creative philanthropic work making a real impact on people, places and policies? Are you looking for frank conversations about the challenges we face in the philanthropic sector?

Join us for TFN’s 25th Anniversary Conference on March 17-19 in Baltimore as we learn, share and spark joy together.

Concurrent Sessions will take place Wednesday, March 19 at 2 – 3:45 p.m. Read on to learn about our thought-provoking Concurrent Sessions or click here to view the full TFN25 agenda.

Concurrent Sessions

Regional Partnerships to Advance Local Solutions and Resilience

Partnerships of all kinds, especially regional partnerships, have important roles to play in advancing housing, economic mobility and environmental justice.

In this session, with the water sector serving as a learning lab for other fields, we will explore three models of regional partnerships that are enabling more robust, dynamic and equitable solutions to municipal challenges. We will also investigate the role that philanthropy can play in advancing these partnerships.

Featured Speakers:

  • Mami Hara (US Water Alliance)
  • Alaina Harkness (Current Water)
  • Kishia Powell (WSSC Water)
  • Megan Zeigler (Southwestern Pennsylvania Municipal Project Hub). 

This is What Democracy Looks Like: Building Power by Building Better

As transportation fuels rising sea levels and greenhouse gases, inaction means we will fail to meet our climate goals, prepare for a changing world and protect people from dire health consequences.

Join us to learn from advocates about how they’re leveraging power-building in frontline communities, developing policies that will impact virtually all of our infrastructure decisions, and directing and braiding federal funds toward climate and equity outcomes. We’ll also unpack the racial and economic justice ramifications of their work.

Featured Speakers:

  • Terrance Bankston (Friends of the Earth)
  • Vee Paykar (Zero Now Fund)
  • Renae Reynolds (Tri-State Transportation Campaign)
  • Nick Sifuentes (The Summit Foundation)

Building Power For Environmental Justice in Challenging Political Climates

How can place-based grantmaking strategies help communities on the frontlines of climate change build power and lead the charge for a just transition?

Join this session to learn strategies that groups in the heart of the fossil fuel industry, despite challenging political contexts, are using to build power for environmental justice communities and working-class people of color. We’ll also gain a better understanding of the types of climate finance infrastructure that can generate financial tools needed to build economic power and drive investment in historically disinvested communities.

Featured Speakers:

  • Vanessa Toro Barragan (Hive Fund)
  • Billy Briscoe (Clean Energy Fund of Texas)
  • Claudia Magana (Organized Power in Numbers)
  • Frances Valdez (Houston in Action)

Making The Green Transition Matter for Working People

The Southwest is seeing a boom in clean energy development that will exponentially grow over the next decade, driven in large part by the infusion of federal infrastructure investments since 2021.

In this session, hear from community, worker power and climate organizations that are leveraging the influx of federal dollars to ensure that positive impacts are widely felt by those most affected by the racial, environmental and economic inequities in the heart of the fossil fuel industry.

Featured Speakers:

  • Cecilia Behgam (Texas Climate Jobs Project)
  • Rosemarie Molina (Organized Power in Numbers)
  • Vianey Olivarria (League of Conservation Voters)
  • Amy Vruno (Invest in Our Future)

Resilience Investments: How Multi-Sector Collaboration Can Help Tap Federal Funding

Federal grant programs supporting resilient infrastructure and decarbonization present rare opportunities for communities that are most vulnerable to climate change. But the places that most need resilience investments often lack the capacity to secure them.

This session will focus on programmatic and policy efforts of two foundations, in the Northeast and the South, to maximize the likelihood of their regions attaining federal funding. Join us for a discussion between a public sector representative, a community-based organization leader and a place-based foundation sustainability program director, who will focus on recent efforts to increase multi-sector collaboration to develop competitive federal funding applications.

Featured Speakers:

  • Isabel Barrios (Greater New Orleans Foundation)
  • Rashida Ferdinand (Sankofa Community Development Corporation)
  • Andrew McElwaine (The Heinz Endowments)

Reclaiming Identity, Fighting Health Inequity: How BIPOC youth are changing narratives and advancing health and social justice

The stark health inequities faced by Black, Indigenous and other people of color not only impact an individual’s physical wellbeing but also deny, disregard and acontextualize identity and community — especially for young people.

Trauma-informed programs and storytelling initiatives that center the experiences and needs of BIPOC youth can help reclaim and affirm their sense of identity and build community power to address the dominant cultural conditioning of health and inequity.  This immersive experience will highlight The Kresge Foundation’s community safety and health partners in New Orleans, Detroit, Memphis, Fresno and the San Francisco Bay area. We’ll hear from funders and BIPOC youth-centered organizations with unique approaches to serving their communities.

Featured Speakers:

  • Erica Browne (The Kresge Foundation)
  • Kanwarpal Dhaliwal (RYSE Center)
  • Tanyanika Franklin (Daughters Beyond Incarceration)
  • Reign LaCour (Daughters Beyond Incarceration)

 

➡️Check out our TFN25 Anniversary Conference website to view our Learning Agenda, Accessibility and Wellbeing policies and more.