Winnipeg in June: Overview of CEGN Pre-Conference Program and CFC Conference

June 5th - CEGN Pre-Conference Program: Communicating Change – Giving Voice to Our Shared Aspirations

9:00 – 11:30 a.m. Informal Funder Group Meetings: A Water Funders’ meeting is being developed and a session on energy is emerging. Let us know if you are interested in participating in these sessions or if you would like to help gather funders around another issue or topic.

11:45 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Lunch with Keynote Speaker – Allan Gregg, one of Canada’s leading pollsters, political advisors and pundits, will speak to: “Canadians, Complacency and Culture Wars – Today’s Challenges to Charity and a more Sustainable Nation”

1:45 – 4 p.m. Communicate. Engage. Mobilize. Over the past year, a growing sense of urgency and purpose has energized Canadians around a number of strategies designed to strengthen our ability to find common ground, and take collective action in order to achieve positive social and environmental impacts. Through inspired communications and storytelling, public engagement and mobilization efforts, new leadership is taking shape that helps connect, nurture and grow a base of people-powered sustainability interests. Our afternoon session will fuse short Pecha Kucha-style presentations by 6-8 dynamite speakers, followed by an opportunity for attendees to participate in small, fast-paced conversations with 2-3 presenters of their choosing. Speakers and conversations will help funders consider how environmental voices/stories are being created, negotiated and expressed, particularly in current movement-building. Speakers are being identified, but we can confirm the participation of Mitzie Hunter, CEO of CivicAction in Toronto and Matt Price, a leader in engagement organizing. Mitzie, Matt and others will help us think about how we communicate the science and culture of sustainability work in a way that connects people across common values, for common cause. They’ll even help us see the relevance of these efforts to funders who share a desire to offer community leadership, expand levels of citizen engagement, and increase social and environmental impact!

4 – 5 p.m. Closing Keynote Speaker – Jeremy Bird, the National Field Director for the 2012 re-election campaign for President and the founding partner of 270 Strategies, will speak to the important role that grassroots campaigns can play in changing the world.

5 – 5:30 p.m. CEGN – Annual General Meeting

6 – 8 p.m. Manitoba Welcome Reception for CFC Conference

7:30 – 10:30 p.m. CEGN Green Drinks and Social Networking – Featuring a special performance by Shane Koyczan, award-winning spoken word poet, author and performer

The CEGN pre-conference program is open to all CFC conference participants, as well as CEGN members. The cost for CEGN and non-CEGN members will be: $100. There will be a separate ticket price of $40 for those who wish to attend the lunch and Allan Gregg keynote only. Speaker Bios: Allan Gregg is one of Canada’s most recognized and respected senior research professionals and social commentators. From 1979 through 1993 Gregg was known as the official pollster of the Progressive Conservative Party and participated in over 50 central election campaigns on three continents. In 1995, he co-founded The Strategic Counsel, a research partnership he left in 2007. That year, he set out on his own to form Allan Gregg Strategies, offering high-end, value added, research-based consulting and ! ! communications advice to private and public sector clients. At the same time, he returned to roots and assumed the position of ! ! Chairman of Harris/Decima, a company he founded almost 30 years earlier that has recently merged with the fastest growing JEREMY!BIRD! research firm in the world. Allan is a pioneer in the integration of consulting, public-opinion research, public affairs and ! Jeremy!Bird!is!a!founding!partner!at!270!Strategies!and!a!longtime!grassroots!organizer!with!communications. He not only has an intimate knowledge of the dynamics of policy-making but also a deep understanding of broad!experience!across!domestic!and!international!politics,!labor,!and!policy.!He!helped!launch! 270!Strategies!after!serving!most!recently!as!the!National!Field!Director!for!the!2012!recultural Dchangeelection! and the communications processes necessary to forge a public consensus around government and business campaign!of!President!Barack!Obama,!where!he!had!primary! responsibility!for!building!a!nationwide!army!of!staff!and!volunteer! initiatives. organizers.!Dubbed!the!campaign’s!“Field!General”!by!Rolling'Stone! magazine,!Jeremy!was!listed!among!“The!Obama!Campaign’s!Real! Heroes”!and!has!been!cited!as!“a!former!Harvard!divinity!student! Jeremy Bird is a founding partner at 270 Strategies and a long-time grassroots organizer with broad experience who!took!to!political!organizing!as!though!it!were!his!higher!calling.”! He!is!credited!with!helping!establish!a!ground!game!and!turnout! across US and international politics, labour and policy. He helped launch 270 Strategies after serving most machine!that!in!2012!“reproduced!–!through!brute!force,!dedication! and!will!–!a!turnout!in!the!swing!states!that!in!some!cases!bested!the! recently as the National Field Director for the 2012 re-election campaign of President Barack Obama, where campaign's!remarkable!performance!of!four!years!ago.”! ! he had primary responsibility for building a nationwide army of staff and volunteer organizers. Dubbed the Jeremy!has!played!a!number!of!key!leadership!roles!in!support!of! campaign’s “Field General” by Rolling Stone magazine, Jeremy was listed among The Obama Campaign’s Real President!Obama!since!2007!–!including!serving!as!the!South!Carolina! Field!Director!in!the!2007D08!primary!campaign!and!as!the!Ohio!General!Election!Director!in! Heroes and has been cited as a “former Harvard divinity student who took to political organizing as though it 2008.!As!the!National!Deputy!Director!of!Organizing!for!America!–!the!grassroots!organization! born!out!of!the!2008!campaign!–!he!was!also!central!to!some!of!the!Obama!Administration’s!was a higher calling.” most!historic!policy!achievements!between!2009D2011,!including!the!Affordable!Care!Act!and! Wall!Street!Reform.!Across!these!roles,!Jeremy!helped!create!and!implement!the!Obama!Prior to organizing with President Obama, Jeremy worked for several issue campaigns and candidates at the US federal and campaign’s!neighborhood!team!organizing!model!–!an!approach!which!transformed!organizing! in!presidential!politics!by!merging!peopleDfocused,!community!organizing!with!empowering!and!local level – including the presidential campaigns of then-Senator and former Governor . He also has inclusive!digital!technology!and!cuttingDedge!data!analytics.!Jeremy’s!theory!of!organizing!was! described!by!The'Wall'Street'Journal'as!“one!part!data!and!one!part!emotional!connection.!He!experience advocating for educational equality and worked as an organizer for the United Food and Commercial Workers. keeps!close!track!of!which!states!are!making!their!targets!each!day,!but!also!preaches!the!value! of!relationships—between!the!campaign!and!its!volunteers,!and!between!volunteers!and! Jeremy is a graduate of Wabash College and . voters.”!His!contributions!to!this!groundbreaking!organizing!model!led!Rolling'Stone!magazine! to!recognize!him!on!its!2012!“Hot!List,”!calling!him!“the!Obama!campaign’s!secret!weapon”! with!“a!massive!army!of!staff!and!grassroots!volunteers!for!which!Romney!has!no!answer.”! Shane Koyczan is an award winning Canadian poet, author and performer. He participated in the ! Prior!to!organizing!with!the!President,!Jeremy!worked!for!several!issue!campaigns!and! opening ceremonies at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics where he wowed a live audience of over candidates!at!the!federal!and!local!level!–!including!the!presidential!campaigns!of!thenDSenator! John!Kerry!and!former!Governor!Howard!Dean.!He!also!has!experience!advocating!for! 60,000 people (1 billion worldwide) with his piece “We Are More”. To date, Shane has published three educational!equality!and!worked!as!an!organizer!for!the!United!Food!and!Commercial!Workers.!! ! works of fiction: Visiting Hours (2005); Stickboy (2007) and our Deathbeds will be Thirsty (2012). Shane’s Jeremy!is!a!graduate!of!Wabash!College!and!Harvard!Divinity!School.!He!grew!up!in!a!trailer! first published collection, Visiting Hours, was the only work of poetry selected by both the Guardian and park!in!High!Ridge,!Missouri!and!is!passionate!about!grassroots!politics,!traveling!the!world,!and! talking!about!sports!–!especially!his!hometown!St.!Louis!Cardinals!and!his!newfound!love!of! the Globe and Mail for their Best Books of the Year lists. In 2012, Shane released his first full-length album soccer.!You!can!find!his!ramblings!about!the!power!of!grassroots!organizing!and!how!to!change! the!world!on!Twitter:!@jeremybird.! with his band Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long. The album includes the viral hit “To this Day”.

June 6th – 8th – CFC Conference with CEGN Input From June 6th to June 8th, we’ll connect with our community foundation colleagues through shared learning opportunities, as well as social time at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights The overall CFC program is a rich one and CEGN’s program contributions will focus increased attention and, hopefully, subsequent action on sustainability issues. To this end, CEGN is hosting sessions within the CFC conference on; Sustainable Cities; Healthy Planet/Healthy Kids; Smart, Caring (and Sustainable!) Communities: Making the Case for Environmental Philanthropy; as well as a shared session with CFC focusing on Food. We’re also working to provide a number of Community Learning Forums, including one on First Nations Perspectives on Environmental Issues.

Logistics Registration for the June 5th workshop and the broader CFC conference is through CFC’s conference website which can be accessed by clicking on the following link: http://www.cfc-conference.ca/en/home The cost of the June 5th workshop is $100 and the fee for the CFC conference is an additional $695 (if registering before April 15th). This is the same rate that CFC members pay. Conference accommodation is at the Delta Winnipeg Hotel and the information for booking is on the conference website.

Questions? If you need more information, please contact Pegi at: 647-288-8891 or at: [email protected]

Reminder: Early Bird Deadline for conference registration is April 15th