1st Pacific Northwest Global Donors conference

Pathways for Strategic Giving, held on 19 and 20 March in Seattle, Washington was the inaugural gathering of a new community of global donors, Pacific Northwest Global Donors. Over 180 donors attended, including representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates, Channel, Seattle, Seattle International and Washington Women’s Foundations, as well as from the World Affairs Council, giving circle members and individual donors in the Northwest.

Fashioned after its sister organization, the Chicago Global Donors Network, the conference promised four key outcomes for its attendees: to provide information on many of today’s most significant global issues; to increase confidence in global grantmaking; to identify best practice in addressing the root causes of global poverty and fundamental human rights issues; and to link participants to a growing community of global philanthropists in the region.

Opening the conference, Kavita Ramdas of the Global Fund for Women emphasized the need for a collective vision for a more just world. The problems are not too huge to tackle, she argued, urging the need to ground funding decisions in the voices of those seeking support on the ground.

Topics ranged from building sustainable assets for the poor to gender and empowerment, access to education, sustainable agriculture and food security, disaster relief and recovery, conflict resolution, and peace and human security. Panels on giving practice covered advocacy as a change strategy, how to make a site visit, working at the grassroots, monitoring and evaluation, and programme-related investing.

Closing the conference, Bill Gates, Sr asked: ‘Why do I remain optimistic?’ His answer: ‘It’s because knowledge is not a finite resource and neither is compassion.’

As many attendees remarked, global giving is somehow ‘in the water here [in Seattle]– it’s part of people’s blood’. No doubt this conference is just the beginning for the rapidly evolving global donor community in the Pacific Northwest.

Betsy Brill is the founder and president of Strategic Philanthropy, Ltd, a philanthropic advisory practice based in Chicago serving clients worldwide. Email betsy@stratphilanthropy.com

Event Pathways for Strategic Giving
Date 19-20 March 2010
Location Seattle, US
Organizer Pacific Northwest Global Donors

For more information
Conference highlights and overview can be found at http://globaldonors.wordpress.com