Editor’s Note: The following message is from Andrea Pactor, Associate Director, Women’s Philanthropy Institute, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, regarding the 2020 Women Give conference.
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your patience as we wrestled with whether or not to move forward with Philanthropy Plugged In in light of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 situation. Yesterday, the Indiana University President made the decision to cancel the symposium easier. At Indiana University, as at several universities and businesses across the country, all travel outside the state is suspended through April 5 and we are discouraged from scheduling events with more than 100 attendees. Sad as we are not to see you in Chicago, we know, as one speaker mentioned, that this is the right thing to do.
While this is disappointing news, I am excited to share that we are developing a plan to more fully leverage the Women Give 2020 study and the symposium themes in ways that, with your help, will disseminate the content more broadly. We may lose the opportunity to create community together in Chicago but we will repurpose the content and provide templates for you to engage with it and discuss it in the communities you create locally and with your constituents.
We are looking at podcasts, webinars, perhaps a Facebook live stream for the research release, and maybe video, too, over the next few months. It seems fitting given our theme of technology, gender, and giving to explore moving the big ideas from the symposium and the Women Give 2020 report to the digital space.
Next steps:
- Please connect with us on social media if you have not already – Facebook, @WPIInsights on Twitter, and the WPI site on LinkedIn. Once we have the new plan in place, we will email you and also promote the activities via our social media. We want to be sure you will know what to access and when.
- We had hoped to introduce the new WPI director, Jeannie Sager, to you in person at the symposium. Instead, please meet her through the Lilly Family School blog and on LinkedIn. One of the symposium themes is that women create community online and offline. Connect to Jeannie to keep in touch with all things symposium and WPI-related.
Related:
What Melinda Gates Says, and Doesn’t Say, About Women in COVID
WPI Plugged In: Podcast Series on Gender, Giving and Tech
Innovation Symposium Will Look at Gender-Based Giving, Participatory Grantmaking
