By Tess Brown
Horizon Community Funds
More than 150 people gathered at the St. Elizabeth Training and Education Center in Erlanger earlier this week for the 2019 Next Gen Giving Summit, hosted through a partnership between Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky and the Kentucky Philanthropy Initiative.
Attendees learned more about what makes young funders tick, what life is like as a young funder, and how employers can attract and retain talent through incentivizing employees to give time, talent, and resources to the causes they care about most.
Young funder panelists. (Photo provided)
“This year’s summit was a terrific continuation of our 2018 symposium,” said Horizon Community Funds President Nancy Grayson. “Each of our speakers and panelists connected with the audience to share meaningful insights that bolstered the attendees’ approach to our future wave of givers and doers.”
Horizon Community Funds also announced its new giving circle, The 410, to the audience during the event. The 410 (pronounced the four-one-oh) gets its name and gift amount from the first three numbers that begin all 29 zip codes in Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties.
The Duke Energy Foundation presented a check for $10,000 to Horizon Community Funds during the announcement to support The 410 Fund Endowment and encourage future giving by young professionals participating in the giving circle.
“We are tremendously grateful to The Duke Energy Foundation for this gift,” said Grayson. “While our communities are as unique as Northern Kentuckians themselves, there is one number that ties us all together: 4-1-0. We took that number and created our big idea- a giving circle for young professionals who want to be involved in philanthropic leadership. This simple but powerful concept has the potential to be a catalyst to transform philanthropy in Northern Kentucky.”
The other portions of the event brought future giving insights to life through panels, presentations, and spotlights.
Panelists for the “Life As A Young Funder” session encouraged the crowd to bring young professionals to the decision-making table, and cautioned against isolating this important pipeline in ambassadorship and party planning roles. “Your volunteers will become your donors,” advised Jordan Klette-Cusher, Program Officer at The Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation.”
Dr. Una Osili (Photo provided)
“My peers want a personal connection to what they support,” added Clare Blankemeyer, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at The Mayerson Foundation and current President of Impact 100 Cincinnati. “The humanity and storytelling aspect to fundraising is becoming more important than ever.”
Other featured speakers highlighted philanthropy in the workplace, and how it becomes an easy way to elevate the culture and engagement across teams. Spotlights on Giving were incorporated throughout the morning, where stories of philanthropy were told through the lens of family donor-advised fund planning, middle school student-led leadership, and service learning and grantmaking at the higher ed level.
To culminate the event, Economist and IUPUI Lilly School of Philanthropy Associate Dean Una Osili, Ph.D. took the stage and urged attendees to put the data to work.
“We must use technological innovation to make our philanthropy more inclusive,” she said. “We need to use these insights to enhance the donor experience and impact, thereby improving philanthropy.”
Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky is a qualified public charitable 501(c)(3) organization established as a community foundation in 2017 by Northern Kentucky leaders. Its mission is to unite resources to raise the quality of life for all people in the Northern Kentucky community. More information can be found at the website.
