What Should Grantmakers Talk about?

Ever wonder what grantmakers talk about when we get together? Each year, the Ohio Grantmakers Forum--a membership association of funders in Ohio--has an annual conference where grantmakers get together and share ideas. This year's conference is in Cincinnati, and I'm on the planning committee. We met earlier this week to talk about topics for the sessions. The conference has sessions specific to different types of funders--community, family, private, corporate, and other foundations--as well as sessions on different topics, including grantmaking.

We came up with a list of topics for the grantmaking session: responses to the economic downturn, capacity building grants, green initiatives, operating grants, how people look to grantmakers to replace funding cut from state budgets. The committee was charged to get some more ideas on what we could talk about during these sessions, or to come up with some specific topics or speakers related to these ideas.

Since our grantmaking affects you, what do you think we should talk about? What topics would you like to see Ohio's grantmakers tackle when we meet in November?

(And while the majority of the conference is open to funders only, the closing luncheon is open to nonprofits and others. We welcome you to join us on Wednesday, November 10, at 12:30 p.m. Mark your calendars!)