We are grateful for the over 645 attendees who joined us for this year’s Retreat on October 5th-7th, far more than we have ever convened in person, a spotlight on the unique opportunity that meeting virtually allows for us to host more inclusive gatherings for our membership!
Our Retreat audience had the chance to participate in sessions that grappled with the challenges of our day as we consider what’s next for supporting our environment at the intersection of all that has come forward in 2020. Monday’s plenary ‘Pandemic - How Did We Get Here and What Can We Learn?’ with Steve Curwood, Sonia Shah, and Dr. Howard Frumkin confronted the level of global coordination required to act on both environmental challenges and the pandemic, connecting the origins of COVID-19 to environmental priorities including deforestation and animal agriculture.
On Tuesday, our audience heard directly from funders & frontline leaders alike in the plenary ‘Building Power for the Environment & Health of our Democracy.’ In this session, funders Jennifer Ching and Nicole Boucher with moderator Angie Chen shared about their efforts to support democracy organizing at the local level, and frontline democracy organizers Desmond Meade, Angela Lang, and Alejandra Gomez discussed their efforts to build power in community and work in relationship with funders.
On Wednesday, leaders Farhad Ebrahimi, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Colette Pichon Battle, and Majandra Rodriguez Acha shared insights in conversation on the future for philanthropy during the plenary ‘Shifting Into High Gear: Philanthropy's Duty to Advance Equitable, Systemic Change’ reflecting on the experience of building trust and sharing power, interrogating extraction and restricted funding considering philanthropy’s history.
Throughout the Retreat we are grateful for the conversations that our featured speakers lifted up on the importance of our work in the environmental movement to build bridges across silos. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi shared in conversation with Michelle J. DePass about the parallels between climate denial and the denial of racism, as environmental funders seek opportunities to challenge the COVID-19 pandemic and our racial pandemic. Lisa Jackson joined us in conversation with Aileen Lee to expand on the role of business in meeting our climate goals, sharing about Apple’s commitments toward carbon neutrality and advancing racial justice. To conclude our Retreat, Jane Fonda joined us in conversation with Mark Magaña to share about her work advocating for climate justice alongside a coalition of environmental leaders across generations in the Fridays for Future effort.
We are also grateful to our member sponsors for presenting a variety of concurrent sessions to engage our audience featuring leaders from Chicago to Brazil and beyond, and spanning member priorities including freshwater equity, gender-just climate action, Indigenous sovereignty, COVID-19 and biodiversity loss, impact banking, and more. Attendees also had the opportunity to connect via virtual coffee chat conversations, and a virtual dance party with music by DJ Omé and a dance lesson by Matthew Johnson Harris! Thank you to all the artists who helped bring arts & culture to the Virtual Retreat with music, comedy, mindfulness, and virtual arts - Antonique Smith, Hip Hop Caucus, Aisha Fukushima, and Santiago X.
We are especially thankful for our 2020 Retreat Program Committee for all of their committed work to plan the Retreat as well as our event producers at Corporate Events Online for all the behind the scenes work to bring the event to our audience!
And save the date for our next convening, the EGA Federal Policy Briefing - February 23-25, 2021. Stay tuned for more information as the event approaches.