Building connections is the secret of this event

Sessions to help attendees reconnect in the wake of the pandemic have become an important part of Index Philanthropy’s annual meeting programming.

Exponent Philanthropy is an association of nearly 1,600 members who are all lean funders, meaning nearly all of its members are very small organizations and three out of 10 have no support staff at all. Lauren Kotkin, senior director of education at Exponent Philanthropy, said an inside joke about the organization’s founding nearly 30 years ago was that “someone sat at a meeting and held up a sign that said, ‘You alone face millions. People? ‘”

Given the solitary nature of Exponent Philanthropy’s members, connecting them is central to its strategic plan, and this focus is reflected in the networking opportunities structured around Exponent Philanthropy’s annual meeting, which she said is “not prescriptive.”

After the outbreak, “our first meeting was in the fall of 2022,” Kotkin said. She said she realized that without a “cushion,” attendees wouldn’t be able to start learning about the educational program right away. Originally called “R&R: Reconnecting and Reflecting Post-COVID” and changed to “Connections” the following year, the interactive sessions remain part of the conference program.

Lauren Kotkin

Member volunteers with facilitation experience moderated group conversations of 25-50 people in the first post-pandemic meeting. “The first question in the first round is: It’s 2035 and you’re asked, ‘What’s the one inspiring thing that really stands out to you during the pandemic?’ It’s open-ended,” Co. Turgeon said. “They chatted for about 15-20 minutes. Then I asked the coordinator to encourage people to get up and move around so they had a chance to meet other people.

“The second question is: How has COVID-19 changed your foundation’s priorities? And then the third round is: How has COVID-19 changed your thinking about…? I have a two-page handout that lays out 20 different things possible,” she said. “You can talk about one of the things, or you can bring up your own thing.”

The 2023 Connect session had two rounds of questions, with participants writing their responses to the second question on post-it notes. The first asked the question: “What trends are you seeing in the headlines that could impact your charity work? How does this impact what you are doing?” In the second round, participants were asked to write about the past Practices or efficiencies that change over the course of the year. “Everyone stood up, found a couple of people they didn’t know and brought their Post-it notes and talked about what they did,” Kotkin said. “I encourage people to put their names on it, and then we set up a wall after the meeting and we organize them by taxonomy, including appropriations, governance, management, tax and legal. We add sticky notes in there and you People can be seen taking photos and talking about it during the meeting.”

Choose questions that everyone can answer, regardless of the nature of the charity they represent. “People really love it,” Kotkin said, and as a bonus, the sticky notes help keep staff informed of members’ ideas.

At the end of the annual meeting, attendees were asked: “Do you feel more connected to your peers? Because we know from years of work that the more you feel you have to share and give, the more connected you are to your network,” Kotkin said. “Coming out of COVID, what’s the value of a conference if I can attend a webinar on this topic? I come to the conference to network. We even encourage (speakers) to allow pause to ask questions to the participants , let them chat with each other for two to three minutes, so you feel like, ‘Oh, I have an opportunity to connect with someone new.'”

Michelle Russell Is the editor-in-chief held.

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