Force Forum #1: Sharing Power – Definitions, Examples and Visions for the Future
Blue Sky Funders Forum is hosting a series of virtual "Force Forums" to engage thought leaders and leverage their own collective experience, wisdom and thinking to impact the forces working for and against us realizing our shared vision – a world where everyone has the right and opportunity to experience meaningful connections to the outdoors that improve the quality of life, health and social wellbeing.
Blue Sky members and movement leaders identified three forces:
- Power Sharing
- New Leaders / Community Voice
- Narrative
Power sharing will be the focus of this first session, which will highlight a spectrum of power shifts in philanthropy from building community voice on a family foundation board to fully community-led grantmaking. Speakers Nancy Bales, Executive Director of the Gray Family Foundation, Rajiv Khanna, Vice President of Center for Transforming Philanthropy at Thousand Currents, and Joleen Ruffin, Chief Financial and Operations Officer of the Kataly Foundation, will:
- Compare and co-create definitions of power,
- Describe what power sharing means in the context of their own philanthropic practice,
- Discuss challenges and opportunities they have encountered as they deepen power sharing in their work, and
- Lift up examples of power sharing in philanthropy generally, and how we may advance this practice across our sector.
This session will be open to all funders and philanthropic serving organizations and will be recorded. A follow-up session, Force Forum #2: Sharing Power – Strategies, Tactics, and Action, will be scheduled for Blue Sky members only, where we will facilitate small group discussions to surface actions toward shifting power on individual, organizational, and systemic levels.