Annual Conference Recap

More than 300 grants management professionals gathered in Denver, Colorado last month to learn, debate, and collaborate with each other at the Grants Managers Network’s Fourth Annual Conference, “Grants Management:  Exploring New Frontiers.” GMN members can access streaming videos of each plenary speaker as well as materials from the concurrent sessions on GMN’s online community.

The weakened economy and shrinking endowments were on many minds, and these problems sparked new thinking on how to approach grantmaking and grants management.

“I've begun to see structural shifts in philanthropy,” Lauren Casteel, the Denver Foundation’s Vice President of Philanthropic Partnerships, said in her insightful opening plenary on diversity and inclusiveness in philanthropy.  Casteel believes that grants managers are well-positioned within a grantmaking organization to work towards inclusiveness. “[Grants managers] are essential,” she said, “Your tools help to shape the most important questions: Who are the people or environments affected?  What strategies have we employed to engage them?  Who was and wasn't at the table? What did we learn?  Whom did we tell?  What did they say?”  

The conference’s 29 breakout sessions provided opportunities for in depth focus on both emerging trends in the sector and new approaches to grants management basics.  Nicole Buggs from the Public Welfare Foundation in Washington, DC, attended one of these sessions, “The Art of Reviewing Financial Statements,” and gained new insight on a topic many grants managers often find complicated. “It's great to have basic definitions, and I found I was connecting with it on a level I wasn't before.”

Technological frontiers drove one conference track, showcasing online grantmaking as the main challenge and opportunity facing grantmakers.  A session on social media engaged both experienced “netizens” and “newbies” to such websites as Twitter and Facebook.  Other conference tracks highlighted best practices in grants management, key GMN activities, legal and financial compliance, and professional development opportunities.
 
Many of the attendees were relatively new to grants management, including Mark Feister of the East Bay Community Foundation.  "I started at my job in September, so there's a lot to learn,” he said.  The conference included sessions specifically for new grants management professionals, as well as opportunities to network with veteran GMN members and learn how to become involved at the regional and national level.  The conference drew participants from most of the 50 states (including both Alaska and Hawaii), Canada, and as far away as Eastern Europe.  One of the many local grantmakers in attendance, Mary Rose Corser from the El Pomar Foundation, said that the conference had “ignited a fire to get excited about my job; I will definitely continue” to participate in GMN.

A session on the final morning of the conference helped seasoned grants management professionals brainstorm about what they can do to bring their organizations – and their own careers – to the next step.  “Seasoned grants managers don't often get a chance to go to higher-level training, and too often they get into a rut,” commented Anna Johnson, Grants Manager at the Altman Foundation.

The conference closed with a thought-provoking challenge to traditional philanthropy from Bill Somerville, Executive Director of the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, who advocates supplementing, or even replacing, paper-based grantmaking with streamlined trust- and relationship-based grantmaking.

GMN’s post-conference survey confirmed that the conference goals were met and exceeded.

• 99% of respondents reported that the conference gave them concrete tools and resources to apply in their work.
• 94% reported that the conference was worth the cost of registration.
• 62% reported that they will make changes in their work as a result of the conference.
• 70% reported that they are likely to attend GMN’s 2010 conference.

GMN’s 2010 conference will be held March 15-17 in Baltimore, Maryland. We look forward to seeing you there.