CFANZ conference - Empowering Communities
Shifting the power, community agency and the indigenisation of philanthropy were just some of the powerful themes at the Community Foundations of Aotearoa NZ conference Empowering Communities - Te whakamana i ngā hapori, in Ōtautahi Christchurch over the days of 21-22 October.
Barry Knight from the Global Fund for Community Foundations kicked off the conference by embracing the living vibrancy of community philanthropy, particularly with a global lens. Barry challenged Western-centric ways of thinking about ‘impact’ and that lifeless indicators – typically money- do not capture the crucial energy and empowerment of community and change.
Nick Deychakiwsky (Mott Foundation) and Larry McGill (Ambit 360 consulting) followed with a dive into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to empower community foundations work, along with examples from across the world, including shifts: from institutions to community, from social bankers to social change and from independent action to more coordinated impact, utilising the SDGs as a powerful driving framework for community led change.
The vibrancy and energy radiating from community philanthropy was captured in a series of ‘Innovation Sound Bites’ over two days, with subjects ranging from building your brand through powerful comms, understanding the ‘donor journey’, Gisborne’s inaugural ‘Sunrise Week’, corporate CSR programmes, and harnessing the power of professional advisors.
Ian Bird from Community Foundations Australia shared insightful perspectives of how community philanthropy has evolved across the world, including from his time as CEO at Community Foundations of Canada. Ian’s challenge to Aotearoa NZ was for us to grapple with those things that are deeply problematic in our communities; and that there are inherent tensions of being legacy organisations that must be ‘future keepers’: “As community leaders, what bold decisions might we need to make that are unpopular in the past or present?”
Day two dawned with some early breakfasts for our Chair and CEO networks and an insightful exploration of current investment markets including topics of sustainable investing with Helen Bullick from Craigs Investment Partners, as always such collaborators and supporters of the wider work of community foundations across the country.
Finally, the conference ended with a powerful challenge and reverberating message from Dr Hana O’Regan, challenging communities to understand the long-jagged tail of colonisation which continues to disempower and marginalise the indigenous people of this land. For community foundations, this means a crucial shared understanding that coloniality – of power, of knowledge, of being - perpetuates inequities and that we hold an important role of driving togetherness as community, with a shared commitment to advancing equity and justice. Thank you, Hana, for your powerful challenge, which reinforces to us that this collective mahi matters deeply in progressing a just society.