Hear from some of the attendees about their takeaways in their blog posts! Click on the attendees to read their story.

How can philanthropy help build stronger, more prosperous communities?

Philanthropy can play an important and action-changing role in community and economic development. But figuring out how best to act – and what gaps to fill – takes knowledge of your community’s needs and opportunities, know-how about using your full range of foundation tools, and the creation of a targeted strategy to fill gaps using those tools. Whether you have been doing it for a long-time or just beginning to explore entry points to have an impact, join Philanthropy West Virginia for an insightful and action-oriented seminar titled Building Economic Development Philanthropy Capacity for West Virginia Philanthropy on September 10-11, 2018 at the offices of Steptoe & Johnson, 400 White Oaks Blvd., Bridgeport, WV.  The program is being delivered by the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group and the LOCUS Impact Investing. This two-day seminar is for teams of two, including board members, CEOs, and staff from community, private, family, or corporate foundations and corporate giving programs. The special seminar building economic development philanthropy capacity, includes:

• Economic Development Philanthropy content and sessions created based upon your current experience level
• How a foundation identifies a productive niche in economic development in its region and community
• How a foundation takes inventory of its own readiness and existing tools to act in that niche
• The set of core tools and skills that foundations can use to address economic challenges and opportunities – including stories from across the country
• Each foundation has an opportunity to build a short-term action plan or “next best step” to start or advance their economic development effort

Seminar Presenters:

 Deb Markley, Senior Vice President, LOCUS Impact Investing and co-founder of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. Deb has more than 30 years of experience in field-based research and practice in rural economic development.

Janet Topolsky, Executive Director, Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group.For 35 years, Janet has helped community leaders, organizations and policymakers across the country find, create and spread development strategies that work – with a special emphasis on building the capacity of place-rooted foundations to improve local economies.