Issues Facing the LGBT Community and Their Impact: Opportunities for Philanthropists and Advisers Date Tuesday 21 June 2016 Host/Venue Aon, The Aon Centre, The Leadenhall Building, 122 Leadenhall St, London EC3V 4QT Chair Sascha Gasser, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist Speakers Kevin Jennings, Executive Director, Arcus Foundation Bibi Bakare Yusuf, Publishing Director, Cassava Republic Press Ruth Hunt, CEO, Stonewall Ise Bosch, Philanthropist, Dreilinden Sean Eldridge, Activist and Philanthropist

Background

“Around the world, lesbian, , bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBT) people face discrimination in almost all aspects of their lives. They are denied access to employment, education, and health care. They are targeted for attacks solely because of their gender expression or perceived . Perhaps most painful of all, and unlike most other minority groups, many face violence and rejection from their own families and religious communities. While these issues are extremely challenging, LGBT people are taking control of their own futures and winning major victories.” (Fund for Global Human Rights)

Basic protections afforded to LGBT people in the United Kingdom have improved in recent years. However, the global LGBT rights movement continues to face challenges on an individual and on a societal level. The event will provide regional overviews of LGBT issues in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and Africa; as well as highlight implications for philanthropists and key opportunities for donors to engage in this work.

Participants will be able to learn from two experienced philanthropists who are at the forefront of strategic grant making throughout the international LGBT movement. Professional advisers will be able to learn about LGBT philanthropy in order to be able to respond to their clients interested in this area.

Chair

Sascha Gasser, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist

Sascha has more than 15 years of strategy consulting and operations management experience working for companies including EY in London and the BMW Group in Munich. He led an energy trading start-up until recently in London and was co-founder of an automotive technology start-up in Munich.

He teamed up with the Arcus Foundation, New York end of 2015 with an objective to raise awareness for LGBT issues in the Global South and East and motivate and enable others to make a difference and support positive change.

Sascha holds a MSc in Physics from Technical University, Munich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. Sascha is a trained Paramedic. He lives in London together with his husband Scott and their child.

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Speakers

Kevin Jennings, Executive Director, Arcus Foundation

Kevin has made a long and distinguished career as an educator, social justice activist, teacher, and author. He served as Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education in the Obama Administration, heading the department’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools where he led the Administration’s anti- initiative. Kevin began his career as a high school history teacher and coach in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. During this time he served as faculty advisor to the nation’s first Gay-Straight Alliance, leading him in 1990 to found the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a national education organization tackling anti-LGBT bias in U.S. schools, which he led for 18 years.

Kevin earned a BA (magna cum laude) from Harvard College, a Master of Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012, and an MBA from ’s Stern School of Business. He has been honored for his leadership in education and civil rights by the National Education Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of Independent Schools, and numerous other organizations. He is chairman of the boards of The Ubunye Challenge and First Generation Harvard Alumni. Kevin also serves on the board of Marjorie’s Fund and the Council on Foundations. His seventh book, One Teacher in Ten in the 21st Century, was published in 2015. Along with his partner of 20 years, Jeff Davis, he is the proud dad of a Bernese Mountain Dog, Jackson, and a Golden Retriever, Sloane.

Bibi Bakare Yusuf, Publishing Director, Cassava Republic Press

Bibi is co-founder and publishing director of one of Africa’s leading publishing houses, Cassava Republic Press www.cassavarepublic.biz. She has worked as a gender and research consultant in the public, private and development sectors for the BBC, UniFem, ActionAid, eShekels, Central Bank of Nigeria, the European Union and others. She recently co-founded Tapestry Consulting, a boutique research and training company focused on gender, sexuality and transformational issues in Nigeria. She has a Ph.D in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Warwick. She has published many academic papers and regularly presents papers at academic conferences. She sits on the editorial board of a number of influential journals. Bibi is also a Yale World Fellow, a Desmond Tutu Fellow and a Frankfurt Book Fair Fellow.

Ruth Hunt, CEO, Stonewall

Ruth Hunt is the Chief Executive of Stonewall. Ruth was appointed in August 2014, having worked in senior positions in the organisation since 2011. She has successfully led the development of the Stonewall’s groundbreaking policy, campaigns and research outputs, including its work to tackle homophobic bullying in schools, effective interventions to improve the health of lesbian, gay and bisexual people and Stonewall’s acclaimed leadership development programmes. Since taking on the leadership, Ruth has committed to bringing Stonewall even deeper into communities, engaging with groups from different ethnicities, religions and geographies – both in the UK and abroad.

She has also spearheaded Stonewall’s commitment to campaign for trans equality; a decision that will shape Stonewall’s work going forward. This historic move followed an extensive consultation with over 700 trans people and will see Stonewall use its platform and experience to help create real change for trans people.

Ruth attended St. Hilda’s College, Oxford where she studied English and was elected President of Oxford Student Union. Prior to Stonewall, Ruth worked at the Equality Challenge Unit where she led work advising Higher Education Institutions on sexual orientation and equality.

In 2015, Ruth was voted the third most influential LGBT person in Britain in the Independent’s Rainbow List. She received two honorary degrees in 2015, one from Cardiff University and the other from Keele University.

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Ise Bosch, Philanthropist, Dreilinden

Bosch has 20 years of funding experience in human rights, women and sexual minorities. Her book "Besser Spenden! Ein Leitfaden für nachhaltiges Engagement" (Donating better! A guide to sustainable commitment) is the only German language advisory publication on strategic giving from a donor’s perspective. Bosch is a fellow-founder of Pecunia e.V., the network of women with inherited wealth in German speaking countries, and a fellow-founder of filia.die frauenstiftung, the German women’s fund.

Through Dreilinden gGmbH, her not for profit LLC (www.dreilinden.org, since 2006), she invests and makes grants in the field of international LGBTIQ and gender human rights. To date, the sum of Bosch’s grants and endowment gifts is more than Euro 80 Mio.

Bosch’s advisory positions include oeco capital lebensversicherung (insurance), Hannover, and GLS-Bank (social and ecological bank), Bochum.

Sean Eldridge, Activist and Philanthropist

Sean Eldridge is an American investor and political activist. He is the founder and president of Hudson River Ventures.

In 2014, Eldridge was the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in New York's Hudson Valley. Eldridge serves on the board of directors of Outright (previously IGLHRC). He previously served as Communications Director and then Political Director at Freedom to Marry, the campaign to win marriage equality in the United States. In 2012, he was a founding member of New York Leadership for Accountable Government (NY LEAD), a bipartisan group of business and civic leaders advocating for campaign finance reform. Eldridge continues to support efforts to reduce the influence of money in politics in the United States.

Eldridge received his B.A. in Political Philosophy & Ethics from Brown University. He lives in New York with his husband Chris and their dog Lucy.

About Philanthropy Impact

Our vision is to increase philanthropy and social investment across borders, sectors and causes. Our mission is to achieve greater sector knowledge and expertise. Through our links with key sector stakeholders we develop thought- leadership on philanthropy and social investment.

We do this by delivering activities that include:

 Events: a comprehensive programme of events that support professional training and development

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 Advocacy: we advocate for policies and regulations that encourage philanthropic giving and social investment

Philanthropy Impact exists for the benefit of its members. For more information visit our website at www.philanthropy-impact.org

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About the Arcus Foundation

The Arcus Foundation is a leading global foundation dedicated to the idea that people can live in harmony with one another and the natural world. Arcus believes that respect for diversity among peoples and in nature is essential to a positive future for our planet and all its inhabitants. We work with experts and advocates for change to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and our fellow apes thrive in a world where social and environmental justice are a reality.

The Arcus Foundation grantees work in more than 30 countries around the world, and affect millions of lives. In 2014, 48 grants totaling more than $10 million were awarded to organizations working to protect the great apes, and 178 grants totaling more than $18 million were awarded to organizations working to advance social justice for LGBT people around the world.

Arcus’ funding strategy targets general operating support, project support for specific programs, public policy and research, capital projects and capacity building, in two main areas of focus: social justice and great apes conservation. We do not make grants to individuals, or for scholarships, lobbying purposes, political campaigns, film production, or medical research.

The Arcus Foundation requires all organizations seeking funding to have in place a board-approved Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy that specifically includes and lists sexual orientation and gender identity, and requires compliance with all other applicable federal and local EEO laws. For more information visit www.arcusfoundation.org

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