This piece was originally published as the feature article of the July 2014 issue of the New York PhilanthroPost Policy Edition
So many working groups, so many ways to engage!
Welcome to the New York PhilanthroPost Policy Edition. This newsletter replaces the Philanthropy Connects newsletter you’ve been receiving. As you’ll see as you scroll down, this newly formatted newsletter more closely resembles the New York PhilanthroPost website in its content and design. We hope it does a great job of presenting policy-focused information that is useful to you.
You will also notice that it presents information about the many issue-based working groups that Philanthropy New York operates or supports. Since we try to present extensive information and news for all the various groups, even if they are run by other organizations, we thought it might be helpful to provide a little bit of a primer here on what’s coming up and how you can get connected.
If you are a PNY member, you received an email from PNY President Ronna Brown talking about how you can engage in these working groups, as well as various committees and networks. The most important thing to know is that there will be many activities taking place in the fall, so get connected now!
Education Working Group: This group is managed by PNY and will be presenting several programs in the Fall, many of which are closely aligned with the Six Priorities of the Education Funders Research Initiative. These funders are working to develop a set of “listening sessions” linked to the Six Priorities. Each session will present the issues in context and will engage leading practitioners and advocates in identifying opportunities and challenges across the school system, and will focus on how policymakers and philanthropy can help to move projects from the “can work” to the “is working” stage. Additional Education Working Group meetings will focus on other topics of interest to a broad range of education funders.
Health Policy Working Group: This group is managed by PNY and last week presented an especially productive session on what populations still need attention in the long-term effort to get all New Yorkers healthcare coverage. The Program Planning Subcommittee will continue to develop and present information around key issues.
Funders of Women & Girls: This group is managed by PNY. Last week PNY convened the group along with other funders that have expressed interest in getting more involved in gender-focused project, along with representatives of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation to talk about what direction PNY’s work in this area should focus. There was extensive dialogue about balancing attention on local/national work and international work – and having each inform the other. This group is welcoming all funders interested in applying a gender lens to diverse areas of funding. Yesterday’s program, The Rollback on Reproductive Rights and Justice came out of discussions with the Women & Girls group, and there are several programs in development for the Fall, including the October 15 program Busting the Business of Trafficking Women and Children.
Community Food Funders: This group is managed by North Star Fund. They produce a great regular update newsletter. For more information on upcoming programs, check out the CFF website.
New York Juvenile Justice Initiative: This group is managed by The Prospect Hill Foundation. It maintains an active listserv and produces many programs showcasing innovative model initiatives. For more information on upcoming programs, check out the NYJJI website.
New York City Workforce Funders: This group is managed by The New York Community Trust. The next Quarterly meeting of the Workforce Funders will be held on September 10 at New York Community Trust The meeting will include a presentation on JobsFirstNYC’s Young Adult Sectoral Employment Project.
Not only does it produce highly informative quarterly programs, the Workforce Funders group has also produced successful white papers that made concrete recommendations to the new City administration on how to better align workforce training programs with current complexities of the marketplace.
NYC Youth Funders: This group is an independently managed affinity group coordinated by Janet Kelley. It presents many programs every year, many in collaboration with PNY. For more information on upcoming programs, check out the NYC Youth Funders website.
Philanthropy New York also works with a variety of other local and national affinity groups to develop programs and initiatives, such as New York Grantmakers in the Arts, Funders Concerned about AIDS, NY, Funders of LGBTQ Initiatives, Grantmakers in Aging and many others. If you are working with a national or local affinity group with which you want us to connect , we want to hear from you.