Join us for the VIRTUAL 16th Annual Central Texas Funders Forum with 3 half days (9am-12pm) of learning, networking, and idea-sharing with more than 200 Central Texas grants and fundraising professionals and dozens of area funders, presented by the Austin-Central Texas Chapter of the Grant Professionals Association and the Nonprofit Austin at ACC!

This year's virtual edition will explore the theme "Where do we go from here? Reflecting & Re-energizing." The program will include:

• A keynote presentation by Vu Le, creator of the blog Nonprofit AF
• In-depth panel discussions with local funders
• Hands-on breakout session workshops
• Our signature "Relationship Relays," which offer a chance for intimate, small group conversations with area funders

Schedule:

Day 1 – Monday, October 4

• Keynote Presentation by Vu Le , 9am-10:30am: "Beyond White Moderate Philanthropy: It's Time that Grantwriters, Fundraisers, and Funders Embrace Our Roles As Agents of Justice" (read the full description below).

• Panel Discussion 1, 10:45am-12pm: "Reflecting " - Panelists: Elizabeth Love, CEO of the Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation , Jaclyn Kolar, Director of National Service at OneStar Foundation, Lourdes J. Rodríguez, DrPH, Senior Program Officer at the St. David's Foundation, and Richard Tagle, CEO of the Andy Roddick Foundation; Moderated by Michelle Vryn, CFRE, Community-Centric Fundraising leader.

Day 2 - Tuesday, October 5

• Panel Discussion 2, 9am-10:30am: "Re-Energizing" - Panelists: Ellen Ray, Executive Director at the Still Water Foundation, Jackie Sekiguchi, Community Affairs Manager at Texas Mutual, and Tammy Heinz, Senior Program Officer/ Consumer & Family Liaison at Hogg Foundation for Mental Health; Moderated by Corinna Archer Kinsman, MSSW, & GPA Board Member.

• Breakout Session Workshops, 10:45am-12pm:
• 1) "Marketing your Consulting Business" with Lydia Howie, MS, GPC, President & Grant Writing & Marketing Communications Consultant and Carol Bornstein, MPA, GPC, Carol Bornstein Consulting, LLC
• 2) "Decolonize Your Grant Writing" with Catherine Ashton, Founder & CEO, Giant Squid Group, LLC
• 3) "The Adversity Hack" with Ronda Rutledge, Partner & Consultant at Mission Squared
• 4) "Tips and Strategies to Tame the Chaos - Grant Seeking Start to Finish" with Dana Schuler Drummond, MA, CFRE, GPC , Founder, Sharpshooter Communications/Grant Holster

Day 3 - Wednesday, October 6 - Relationship Relays (9am-12pm) with area funders, including:

• AMD
• Bank of America Charitable Foundation
• Carl C. Anderson, Sr. and Marie Jo Anderson Charitable Foundation
• City of Austin Cultural Arts Division
• City of Austin Grants for Technology Opportunities
• Hogg Foundation for Mental Health
• Impact Austin
• Moody Foundation
• OneStar Foundation
• Reissa Foundation
• The Simmons Foundation
• Still Water Foundation
• Texas Commission on the Arts
• Texas Gas Service
• United Way for Greater Austin

Tickets can be purchased for each day individually, or as a 3-day bundle for a discounted price. Registrants will receive Day 1 and Day 2 recordings! The Relationship Relays will remain a, live, virtual event only.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us! You can email our team at gpa.austin@gmail.com.

Keynote Presentation by Vu Le: "Beyond White Moderate Philanthropy: It's Time that Grantwriters, Fundraisers, and Funders Embrace Our Roles As Agents of Justice"

The world has been out of whack. Our sector has been playing a vital role holding back to the tides of injustice. However, there are still many barriers preventing us from achieving our full potential. The pandemic and society's reckoning with systemic racism should teach us that our community cannot afford for us to go back to the ways things were. It's time we chart a bolder path forward, one that moves us out of the white moderation that Dr. King warned us about, one where we fully embrace our roles as agents of justice. This will require us to reexamine many grantwriting, fundraising, and funding philosophies and practices we've been used to, cut through the BS, have some uncomfortable conversations, and flip some tables over.