SHARP FOCUS EXPANSIVE VISION 2013 ANNUAL REPORT A Message from Ronna Brown and Leisle Lin This past year was the last covered in our 2011-2013 • We can and will deepen our program offerings Progress Was strategic plan. It was a year in which we assessed with a greater variety of formats, including “deeper our progress while simultaneously building the dives” into timely topics, which may include more the Precursor structure outlined in the plan. As the board engaged conferences and multi-day programming series. in a very detailed look at our progress and the plan • Our policy work should concentrate on developing itself, they determined, unanimously, that our existing for Our New opportunities to convene funders and public top line goals were well-crafted and our progress policy leaders to allow for mutual learning and against them demonstrably strong. The decision was for organic partnerships to blossom. Strategic Plan made, and confirmed by member comments, that PNY should forge ahead by keeping the existing goals • Our meeting space and technology investments for the 2014-2016 period but update the strategies are critical to the services we provide our and tactics. What, in short, have we achieved in the members and our future sustainability depends last three years? We have expanded the number, on growing our capacity as a central hub for complexity and visibility of our programming. We philanthropy. have strengthened the structure of our peer networks at all levels of professional responsibility. We have Our vision, articulated in the new strategic plan, is supported both collaborative activities and policy for Philanthropy New York to serve as a connector of related connections with our members. And we people, institutions, ideas and resources, as well as a have done this while steadfastly managing our catalyst for positive change. This annual report high- organization’s finances and strengthening our long- lights just a fraction of what we’ve accomplished in term sustainability. the past year. But we believe these accomplishments are a precursor to greater strides in the coming years. Our new strategic plan weaves together our strong commitment to our existing mission and basic operating model, with an ambitious vision for exciting new ways to engage members, inform public policy and grow our institutional sustainability. This is what we know based on the past three years: Ronna D. Brown Leisle Lin President Board Chair PHILANTHROPY NEW YORK 2013 ANNUAL REPORT 02 Three Big Initiatives Responded to Member Engagement Some of our biggest projects in this last year came directly out of Philanthropy New York members’ engagement in pressing issues. Sandy, Philanthropy and a Year of Hard Lessons In the days and weeks after Sandy swept through the region, hundreds of people from member organizations participated in half a dozen conference calls PNY organized to help coordinate and learn from government and nonprofit leaders involved in Jack Schneiderman, a Long Beach government official, gave a tour of the recently rebuilt boardwalk and surrounding communities direct response. That was just the beginning of our to a group of funders organized as part of PNY’s Hurricane Sandy intensive efforts to try to make the most connections one-year anniversary programming. between the many organizations working to help communities across our region recover. Philanthropy New York created a dedicated webpage on Sandy Manhattan at the Museum of Jewish Heritage and PNY’s half-day conference on Hurricane Sandy relief and recovery to collect our members’ giving helped funders, key government officials and com- recovery included a panel that featured key community leaders in conversation with the three stories, important news updates and other resources. munity organizers share what they know about largest contributors to Sandy recovery: Robin We dedicated our Annual Meeting in April 2013 to the ongoing needs of communities. PNY’s work on Hood Foundation, American Red Cross and the Mayor’s Fund for New York City. Pictured: exploring recovery topics—including an informative Sandy recovery continues with research we have Josh Lockwood, American Red Cross; Gonzalo discussion with U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban commissioned from the Foundation Center that will Mercado, El Centro del Inmigrante; Megan Sheekey, Mayor’s Fund Development (and “Sandy Czar”) Shaun Donovan shed light on how philanthropic dollars were spent and his State and City counterparts. Over the following on the disaster, a report on which will be released six months, we continued to coordinate funder in the second half of 2014. meetings and organized a set of events around the one-year anniversary. It included a funder bus tour of the Rockaways and Long Beach, two communities still struggling to recover today. The half-day convening, “Sandy, Philanthropy and a Year of Hard Lessons,” took place at the water’s edge in Lower PHILANTHROPY NEW YORK 2013 ANNUAL REPORT 03 Education Funders Research Initiative Building on significant planning and organizing in 2012, the Education Funders Research Initiative blossomed in 2013, with sixteen funders coming together to produce three research reports, a set of “Six Priorities” for the new Mayor and Chancellor, two high-profile events that garnered impressive media coverage along with several hundred attendees, a website that hosted all of the initiative’s products, as well as several online debates among nationally recognized experts on education reform. Many of our members told us that their grantmaking benefited directly from the work produced. Another Discussants of the EdFunders research and “Six Priorities” important outcome of the initiative was that it lay included (l to r) Ocynthia Williams, Garth Harries, Pedro Noguera, Shael Polakow-Suransky and David Steiner. the groundwork for a substance-based conversation with the new leadership at the Department of Education. The Six Priorities EdFunders articulated around early childhood literacy, Common Core implementation, college and career planning, accountability systems, school leadership and systemic support for all schools—neighborhood, magnet and charters alike—have proven to be extremely valuable starting points for our funders’ work with the In November, PNY’s Education Funders Research Department of Education and will continue to be Initiative revealed its third research report and the central organizing point around which much linked “Six Priorities,” which was discussed in opening remarks by New York State Board of of our education work will revolve. Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch. PNY President Ronna Brown appeared on NY1 to talk about the Education Funders Research Initiative. PHILANTHROPY NEW YORK 2013 ANNUAL REPORT 04 Money and Power in Post-Election America: Where is Philanthropy? One of the most popular PNY programs of 2013 was this day-and-a-half conference exploring the relationships between philanthropy and democracy. It came out of members’ desire to examine whether or not philanthropy could have a more effective role in ensuring that government be responsive to the needs of all Americans in an era when vast amounts of private and corporate donations were flowing into the coffers of increasingly polarizing political campaigns. The conference brought On the opening night of the Money & Power conference, David together some well recognized individual donors Gergen of CNN interviewed three wealthy donors employing vastly different approaches to giving (l to r): Abigail Disney, such as David Rubenstein, Jonathan Soros and Jonathan Soros and David Rubenstein Abigail Disney, who are pursuing vastly different approaches to their engagement in the political process. And with inspiring leaders such as Ai-jen Poo, Eric Schneiderman and Andrew Rasiej on hand to spur our thinking, PNY members working across all kinds of program areas generated new ideas about how to align their civic principles with their grantmaking. It was also a great partnership with key leaders from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman spoke and took questions from participants of the Money & Power conference. Ai-jen Poo of the National Domestic Workers Alliance addresses attendees of the Money & Power conference. PHILANTHROPY NEW YORK 2013 ANNUAL REPORT 05 MEMBER ENGAGEMENT PROFILE In New Era of The Brooklyn Community Foundation has been on Hurricane Sandy recovery, including helping Organizational Growth, deeply engaged in the philanthropic community PNY think through the development of its half-day through PNY for years, but this past year was especially conference at the one-year anniversary of the Brooklyn pivotal. Sometimes new leadership at a foundation disaster. Communications Director Liane Stegmaier means a change in direction for how that organization has long been a member of the Communications interacts with their peers. In this case, new President Advisory Group, and this year was an important Community Cecilia Clarke brought with her more than 20 years of advisor on PNY’s website redesign. And Alex Villari service in the nonprofit arts and youth development has been an important contributor to the work of Foundation sectors in New York, including serving along with Ronna the Committee on Members. Taps Into PNY’s Brown on the NY Attorney General’s Leadership Strengths Committee for Nonprofit Revitalization. So she understood the role that PNY plays in connecting