A Week in the Life of EPIP

Last week was busy and productive all across the EPIP network. Here’s a snapshot of what happened…

On Wednesday, January 14, approximately sixteen members of Los Angeles EPIP met to unanimously approve a paper outlining a structure for chapter governance and programming. They made initial plans for a program this in spring, discussed how social justice themes can be integrated into the chapter’s work, and shared information about upcoming conferences and meetings.

The next day, a snow-filled Thursday morning, EPIP New York City held a breakfast concluding the six-month pilot phase of the chapter’s Mentoring Program. Due to the weather, not all eight pairs of mentors and mentees were in attendance, but there was still a good-sized crowd. The Mentoring Committee, which planned and ran the program, solicited evaluation and feedback from mentors and mentees. It quickly became clear that all participants found value in the program, particularly in learning about other types of foundations. The group concluded that they will implement another six-month round of pairing, and continue to support pairs from the pilot round, if they wish to continue.

At lunchtime on Thursday, The Philadelphia Foundation (TPF), in partnership with Delaware Valley Grantmakers (DVG), hosted an EPIP luncheon meeting attended by twenty-five new and young local foundation staffers. This was the fourth Philadelphia EPIP exploratory meeting, and participants showed great enthusiasm to start local brown bag discussions, workshops, and mentoring opportunities. TPF has enabled EPIP Board member Kisha Bird, a Program Officer there, to use staff time to coordinate local activities, and Kisha has been invited to join DVG’s annual conference committee.

At the same time on Thursday afternoon, members of the local EPIP organizing committee and others met in Washington, DC over lunch at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. The meeting focused on formalizing the committee, which is now ten people strong. Participants committed to various roles and tasks within the committee, and began planning an event to reach out to more colleagues in the DC area, in order to officially launch the chapter.

And so grows the movement to organize the next generation of grantmakers…

Yours,
Rusty