About the event

Join the Philanthropy Northwest Corporate Funders Group for an in-person lunch in the Seattle area! This is an opportunity to gather, connect and deepen relationships throughout the corporate funder community. We will hear from Sudha Nandagopal, owner of Bend the Horizon and expert in  storytelling for impact, navigating change, building innovative community-rooted solutions and transforming systems. 

Sudha will join us for a fireside chat designed for corporate philanthropy and community investment staff who are often “the only ones” making the case for this work inside large institutions. We’ll explore how to use storytelling to build power for your role and your portfolio, especially when impact is long-term, emergent, hard to quantify or less directly tied to “business outcomes.” We’ll also talk about the challenges of these kinds of roles and how you can leverage peer networks to support you to lead through those challenges. 

Through a conversational format with time for group questions, we’ll explore real-world examples of case-making, naming both the constraints and the opportunities of larger bureaucratic settings. The goal is not to offer a one-size-fits-all template, but to share a few practical lenses and questions participants can bring back to their own organizations.

You will leave this session with peer connection, expanded awareness and tools to tell the story of impact and make the business case for philanthropic investment. 

This event will be in-person at the BECU campus in Tukwila. Lunch will be provided by Puget Sound Energy. We look forward to gathering as a Corporate Funders Group this spring!

Speaker

Headshot of Sudha Nandagopal, smiling outdoors, with long dark hair swept to one side, wearing a coral blazer over a white top, with water softly blurred in the background.

Sudha Nandagopal

Founder, Bend the Horizon

Sudha Nandagopal is an interdisciplinary leader working at the intersection of narrative, culture and systems change. For over 20 years, she has transformed who leads, who shapes decisions and who gets resourced in environmental, racial justice and social justice efforts. As co-creator of Seattle's Equity & Environment Initiative and its signature Environmental Justice Fund, board chair of Sunrise Project, Inc. (a global climate regranting and movement organization) and as the former CEO of a global philanthropic network, she brings both the on-the-ground and governance perspective of someone who has built lasting infrastructure for change. Now, as the founder of Bend the Horizon, a strategy and advisory studio, she partners with philanthropic, government and movement leaders to unlock imagination, harness the power of story to build cultural power and create more just systems. Sudha shares reflections on leadership, narrative strategy and building power at sudhanandagopal.substack.com

Eligibility

Participation in this meeting is open to members of Philanthropy Northwest who identify as corporate funders. If you are unsure about your eligibility, please contact our programs team.

 

Accessibility

Philanthropy Northwest strives to ensure that in-person programming is inclusive and accessible to everyone. If there is any accommodation that you may need provided, or barrier that may prevent you from fully participating in this event, please don’t hesitate to direct your requests to our programs team.

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