I am truly humbled and honored at the same time to be stepping into this leadership role to serve as Chair of The Giving Institute over the next two years. It was great to see many of you at the Summer Symposium in Indianapolis in July where we experienced a wonderful time, sharing knowledge, building meaningful connections and enjoying being together.  Thank you, Lee and Ryan along with your Committee for truly one of the best Summer Symposiums on record!

I would like to start by expressing my gratitude to Peter Fissinger, our outgoing Chair, for his extraordinary leadership on navigating The Giving Institute through Covid, our DEI journey and steady growth during a time when other associations were shrinking.
We would not be here and 70 strong without his and the past board’s commitment. 
As we look forward, my main goal is to build a more inclusive and connected organization, one that provides opportunities for meaningful participation and value for all members.  

I see The Giving Institute as a community of leaders. It is a forum for support, a place where we can learn from each other, as well as an incubator for new and exciting ideas that can help our sector become more resilient, inclusive and the driver for creating greater generosity nationally and globally. 

Throughout my career and tenure at Alford Group, I have been passionate about advocating for disrupting narratives in the nonprofit world. This work has led to the advancement of women and people of color in philanthropy, more organizations centering equity and inclusivity in their work, and the nonprofit community expanding the definition of who is seen as a philanthropist and what counts as philanthropy.

I want to bring that mindset to The Giving Institute.

My immediate objectives include:

• Launching the Marketing Committee, which will pave the way to heightened brand visibility for existing and potential member firms
• Strengthening our infrastructure including systems and processes, committees goal settings and member community building
• Updating our website
• Continuing our efforts to be a more intentionally inclusive and welcoming organization

While I may be Chair, The Giving Institute is OUR organization.  I cannot be effective without your active participation and support. I am pleased to be working with our Leadership as follows:

Executive Leadership and Board of Directors for 2023-2025

Paul Koreen, 1st Vice Chair
Deb Taft, 2nd Vice Chair
Jon Biedermann, Treasurer
Richard Tollefson, Secretary
Ted Grossnickle, CFRE, Past Chair
Ben Golding, At Large Member

Committee Chair/Co-Chairs

Poonam Prasad & Deb Taft, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
Tim Burcham, Marketing
Sarah Dave & Kate Roosevelt, Membership
Ben Golding, Program and Education
Sally Ehrenfried, Public Policy

We welcome the opportunity to connect and collaborate–both with member firms and with all other aligned partners in the sector. On that note, I am happy to share that hard work is already underway to put together some exciting programs for this year: 

• November meeting in Chicago on November 6-8th Board meeting where the Mentor Series Bootcamp for new consultants and educational programming take place.
• March 2024 (TBD) meeting scheduled in St. Peterburg Fla. Betsy Taylor and Chad Parrish are planning a meeting where we better understand the operating environment of divergent ideology and its impact on philanthropy. We will be hearing back from the program planning committee in the next few months and will keep you updated.
• Virtual Networking/Educational Events: Our continued efforts to stay connected will include several virtual events that are created to foster networking, mentorship, and ways for members to learn from each other throughout the year. Keep an eye out for our SAVE THE DATE emails and be sure to register.
• Online Forum: Our online forum, also known as SLACK, will continue to serve as a hub for online communication among our members. This is a great place to ask questions, share information and network.
• Affinity Groups: Due to overwhelming interest, we are working on increasing online engagement with our member firms by piloting Affinity Groups. More to come on this. Stay tuned! 

 
We welcome your insights and encourage your involvement. Please feel free to contact me or any of our board members with thoughts and ideas that will allow us to grow together. I am excited about what we will accomplish together in taking The Giving Institute to the next level. 

Making no small plans!

Brenda