A global line-up of community philanthropy in Cleveland!

It is a hundred years since the first community foundation, the Cleveland Foundation was established, the vision of lawyer and social entrepeneur, Frederick Goff. It is very fitting, therefore, that Cleveland is the location for the Council on Foundations (COF) 2014 Fall Conference for Community Foundations, which kicks off with pre-conference events from 17^th – 19^th October and the main conference from 19^th – 22^nd October.

The conference will reflect on 100 years of community foundation development and it will also look ahead to the next 100. With most of the growth of the community foundation field now taking place outside North America and Western Europe the conference has a strong international theme to it, with participants coming from 25 countries.

Some of the international highlights will include:

• A welcome reception for international participants and US community foundation leaders on Sunday 19^th October at 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm, hosted by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, COF and GFCF;
• The launch of the Community Foundation Atlas, the most comprehensive dataset and online directory community foundations worldwide, a project led by the Cleveland Foundation in collaboration with WINGS, the Foundation Center, CENTRIS and the GFCF with grant support from the Mott Foundation. The big launch will take place at the opening plenary on Monday 20^th October.
• A session reflecting on “Global Perspectives for Local Action” from 2pm – 3:15pm on Monday 20^th October, including a presentation from Anderson Giovani da Silva of Icom in Brazil.
• An invitation-only session for GFCF partners and supporters to reflect on the state of the global community philanthropy field, its strengths, its vulnerabilities and opportunities for growth. The meeting will take place on Monday 20^th October from 3:15pm – 5:15pm in Room 14 of the Cleveland Convention Center. For further information, please contact Wendy Richardson
• A whistle-stop tour of global community philanthropy! Set your alarm for the breakfast plenary on Wednesday 22^nd October from 7:30am – 9:30am which will consist of short “Ignite-style” presentations from community philanthropy practitioners all around the world, which will highlight the dynamic growth of the global field in recent years. Speakers will include Anderson Giovani da Silva (Icom, Brazil), Beata Hirt (Healthy City Community Foundation, Slovakia) Ansis Berzins (Valmiera Community Foundation, Latvia), Ian Bird (Community Foundations of Canada), Janet Mawiyoo (Kenya Community Development Foundation) and Avila Kilmurray (GFCF and former director of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland). Jenny Hodgson (GFCF) will moderate the plenary and there will be opportunities for the audience to pose questions and join in the discussion.  
• Immediately following the plenary on Wednesday, GFCF board member and President and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, Clotilde Dedecker, Chair of the Kilmani Project Foundation (Kenya), Irungu Houghton and Executive Director of Tewa – Nepal Women’s Fund will be in conversation in a breakout session: Assets, Capacities, Trust: Why Community Philanthropy Matters from Austin to Zagreb. Although the three organizations have evolved in very different contexts, they share much in terms of their aspirations and ways of working. Come and join the discussion, which will take place in Room 25C.

For information on conference programming, please visit the COF conference website.