Film and Media As Organizing Tools
Led by Louis Massiah, filmmaker and founder of Scribe Video Center and Sarah Lutman, Founder and Principal at 8 Bridges Workshop
Join in a discussion with Louis Massiah, filmmaker and founder of Scribe Video Center, in a preview of his new film, The TCB School of Organizing. This feature documentary is a biography of the novelist, filmmaker and cultural worker Toni Cade Bambara. Considered one of the finest American fiction writers of the 20th century, Bambara used art in the struggle for self- determining African-American communities and for women’s equality. The film is structured as a primer on how to use cultural production as an organizing strategy, using lessons from Bambara’s life shared through interviews with friends, colleagues, and a younger generation of artist activists, including writers Toni Morrison, Nikki Finney and Sonia Sanchez, filmmakers Haile Gerima and Shirikiana Aina, and cultural theorists Clyde Taylor and Manthia Diawara.
Because this film is meant to fundamentally have a social utility, it will be screened in settings that support interactive and engaged audiences. Massiah plans to actively secure exhibition venues that allow the film to serve the purpose of sharing strategies for organizing through the use of culture. Both the Wyncote Foundation and Independent Public Media Foundation have made grants to support this documentary and its engagement activities.
Community Foundation and United Way Grantmaking: How Philadelphia Stacks Up
Led by Keith Wardrip, Community Development Research Manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and Kat Rosqueta, Founding Executive Director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy
Community foundations and United Way affiliates are important sources of local capital for the nonprofit sector, but the local grantmaking activities of these organizations have not been fully explored. This discussion will first highlight preliminary research findings from an analysis of the grantmaking of more than 1,500 community foundations and United Way affiliates between 2012 and 2016. Consisting of 500,000 grants totaling around $24 billion, this session will shed light on the types of activities supported by this capital, how the money is distributed geographically, and which community characteristics are associated with higher and lower levels of philanthropy. Importantly, this session will also compare the grantmaking activities of organizations in the Philadelphia region with their peers nationally. These research findings will tee-up a conversation about whether and how grantmaking has changed since the study period and what can be done to promote a more equitable future for the region.
What If You Could? Finding Opportunities in Challenge and Change
Led by , The PoKelly Stewartsitive Business
The dynamic and often chaotic environments in which we all operate are fertile grounds for challenges and change. They’re also a wellspring of opportunity when you’re curious about what works and how to use that as a springboard for future success. Join us to learn about a two-step practice you can use right away to imagine what you want more of – for yourself, your organization, or the people you create value for – and how to paint a vivid picture of what that could look like. Bring a challenge or change you’re facing, and we’ll work together to flip it to something you do want and help you answer, “What if you could?”
Is it Time for Us to Think Differently About Strategic Planning?
Led by Ellen Marshall, Independent Consultant
Strategic planning processes can be stimulating and engaging or dull and laborious, or anything in- between. Whatever the strategic planning process is, it’s what happens afterwards that too often leads us to ask: What difference did that work make for our organizations? Why do we continue to engage in strategic planning? What value do our organizations derive from it? In this conversation we’ll explore the various experiences organizations have with strategic planning and our ideas about what makes for a good strategic planning process and resulting plan. Are there new approaches to strategic planning in operation or emerging? Should there be?