Nonprofit Community Leaders Will Gather in San Francisco at the INDEPENDENT SECTOR Annual Conference, Nov. 2-4

10/9/2003

From: Carla Bundy, 202-467-6134, or Patricia Nash, 202-467-6132, both of INDEPENDENT SECTOR

News Advisory:

WHO: The Nation's Nonprofit Leaders

WHAT: INDEPENDENT SECTOR Annual Conference; http://www.IndependentSector.org

WHERE: The Westin St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, Calif.

WHEN: Nov. 2-4

DETAILS: In the midst of a crisis in funding and growing demands on the nonprofit sector, 900 leaders of the nonprofit community will gather in San Francisco at the INDEPENDENT SECTOR Annual Conference, Nov. 2-4. Foundation CEOs, nonprofit executives and corporate giving professionals will convene at a time when state and federal budget cutbacks are drastically affecting nonprofits' ability to serve, the media and American public have raised concerns about the operations of America's charities; and the government has proposed strengthening its oversight of nonprofits. The INDEPENDENT SECTOR Annual Conference will present nonprofit and foundation leaders with the opportunity to create solutions to the challenges facing the charitable community.

The INDEPENDENT SECTOR Annual Conference is organized around three major themes: Building Accountability, Meeting the Fiscal Challenge, and Shaping Civil Society. These themes will be interwoven throughout more than thirty-five breakout sessions, forums, and plenary meetings of the conference. A key element of the conference will be the exchange of ideas between noted speakers such as California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and author Ben Barber with conference participants on strategies to meet sector challenges.

Highlights of the conference include:

-- Nov. 2 - Opening Plenary - Town Hall Meeting on "A New Vision for the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Community" with Diana Aviv, president and CEO, INDEPENDENT SECTOR and John Seffrin, CEO of American Cancer Society and chairperson, INDEPENDENT SECTOR.

-- "Nonprofits on the Frontlines of Federal and State Policy Challenges." Nonprofit political activists will advise nonprofits on how to navigate public policy issues and prepare for the 2004 election.

-- Dinner Plenary - Robert Kuttner, co-editor of the American Prospect, will discuss "Conquering the Fiscal Crisis: What Can Nonprofit and Community Leaders Do?"

-- Nov. 3 - "Facing the New Accountability Challenge" plenary with Bill Lockyer, attorney general for California.

-- Nov. 4 - "Under the Microscope: The New Environment of Scrutiny and Accountability," with Belinda Johns, deputy attorney general for California, and Art Taylor, president and CEO, BBB WiseGiving Alliance.

-- Closing Plenary with Benjamin Barber, author of Jihad vs. McWorld and Strong Democracy, to present his insights during the "What Kind of Society Do We Want?" plenary session.

Representatives from the California Association of Nonprofits, the Ford Foundation, Hispanics in Philanthropy, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, the Nature Conservancy, the Omidyar Foundation, and the United Way of America will attend this year's meeting.

Other conference participants include:

-- Bob Edgar, general secretary, National Council of Churches;

-- Anita Friedman, executive director, Jewish Family and Children's Services of San Francisco;

-- Brian Gallagher, president and CEO, United Way of America;

-- Angela Glover Blackwell, CEO, PolicyLink;

-- Joyce Roche, president and CEO, Girls Inc.;

-- William Trueheart, president and CEO, The Pittsburgh Foundation; and

-- Paula Van Ness, president and CEO, Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The INDEPENDENT SECTOR Annual Conference will recognize outstanding contributions to the field of philanthropy by awarding the John W. Gardner Leadership Award, Virginia Hodgkinson Research Prize, and the Leadership IS Award.

Barbara Dyer, president and CEO of the Hitachi Foundation, is the chair of the conference planning committee. Richard Schlosberg III, president and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, is the chair of the conference host committee.

Full-time journalists are welcome to attend the Annual Conference. Media must register with Carla Bundy by calling INDEPENDENT SECTOR, 202-467-6134 or e-mailing Carla@IndependentSector.org . A complete schedule of the conference is available at http://www.IndependentSector.org.

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INDEPENDENT SECTOR is a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of more than 700 national nonprofit organizations, foundations, and corporate philanthropy programs, collectively representing tens of thousands of charitable groups in every state across the nation. Our mission is to promote, strengthen, and advance the nonprofit and philanthropic community to foster private initiative for the public good.