Pressing Pause
We have decided to pause our annual conference for 2023. We are leaning into intentional and strategic thinking about how we most meaningfully gather as a network and are taking this year to reflect, listen to your feedback, expand our creativity and build the best experiences to meet our members’ needs. Later this fall we hope to share more about our refreshed convening strategy.
Looking for more opportunities to engage with the network? We have you covered with affinity groups, Network Calls, skill-building programs and more! Stay in the know about our events by subscribing to the FOMO Antidote!
Looking Back at PNW22 Illuminate
The theme for our 2022 gathering – Illuminate – focused on the role of storytelling and truth-telling to activate change. Throughout the Virtual Summit and the In-Person Member Retreat, we learned about the power of narrative change to bring forth new truths and perspectives, and we left revitalized for the important work ahead. To help you bring PNW22 learnings into your work, we created a high-level recap of our time together below.
Virtual Summit registrants may access recordings of the plenary, opening and closing sessions, and our art-in-action break from the summit. Member Retreat registrants may access a more detailed overview of the learnings and materials from the retreat. If you attended PNW22 but did not receive an email to access the Virtual Summit recordings or Member Retreat learnings, please email JulieAnne Behar, senior program manager.
Virtual Summit
Plenary: What We’ve Been Told – The Power of Story
During our Virtual Summit plenary, we heard from groundbreaking speakers who shared their thoughts on what philanthropy needs to unlearn, how challenging dominant narratives has shifted their thinking and next steps funders can take to pursue untold truths.
"Narratives eat policy for breakfast. Narratives are the drivers of all of our decision-making. They are our worldview. It's how we see the world." – Anne Price, President of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development
"Philanthropy, how do you use data after you collect it? How does it influence your decisions about what direction you're going in? The actual impact we're going for is much longer-term and much more qualitative than the data you are collecting." – Jihan Gearon, Artist and Organizer at Jihan Gearon Consulting
"The lesson is really simple. The narrative of history depends on who's telling it. Start to build the muscle of questioning, whose perspectives are being centered?" – Ayyu Qassataq, Vice President at First Alaskans Institute
“Philanthropy in general needs to unlearn the notion that they know more about the nature and solution to the issues in our communities than we do. Because they don't.” – Jeffery Robinson, Founder and CEO of The Who We Are Project
Art in Action with Lehuauakea
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Māhū mixed-Native Hawaiian interdisciplinary artist and kapa maker Lehuauakea shared their art with us and how it serves as a means of exploring cultural and biological ecologies, Indigenous identity and contemporary environmental degradation. |
Closing Session with Jill Nishi and Jason Graham (MOsley WOtta)
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We came together as a network to close out the Virtual Summit with inspiring words from our CEO Jill Nishi and energizing stories from Northwest artist MOsley WOtta, also known as Jason Graham. “Let’s challenge ourselves to think about how a fuller story of what has been and what is, can catalyze aspirations for what might be.” – Jill Nishi, CEO of Philanthropy Northwest |
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| “In thinking about illumination, I kept coming back to the heart because it is something that is in the dark that lights our way, but it does not do away with the dark or the darkness. The heart is radically inclusive.” – Jason Graham, Artist at Wake Creative |
Member Retreat
Workshops with Storytellers for Change
Luis Ortega from Storytellers for Change led us through a set of workshops designed to interrogate what we believe to know as true, and the narratives that often limit a holistic understanding of who we are and our ability to recognize our shared humanity. We learned about identifying dominant narratives, asset-based storytelling, concealed and resistance stories, and transforming stories.
“What are the stories we can tell where we can speak the truth, so that we can heal and be in just relationships with each other?” – Luis Ortega, Director of Storytellers for Change
Art in Action, the Indigenous Walking Tour and a Tour of Racial History of the Northwest
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During our art break, local storyteller, playwright, singer and songwriter Mirabai Kukathas, represented by Totem Star, performed her music for us, sharing her own stories from her life through song. |
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Owen Oliver led us on the Indigenous Walking Tour, highlighting the Indigenous presence around the University of Washington. Owen showed us the Indigenous knowledge systems rooted in the natural landscape and explained the connections to language and sacred history. |
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Sankofa Impact took us on a virtual tour of the often untold racial history in the Northwest. From Mukilteo, Washington to Coos Bay, Oregon to Minidoka, Idaho, they shared how the racial history of the Northwest that has been told often overlooks communities, obscures narratives and keeps heritage cloaked in fog. |
PNW22 Planning Committee Members
We want to give a special thank you to our member engagement committee who served as the planning body for PNW22 Illuminate. We could not have done this without their help. Thank you to this group of philanthropic leaders from across our network:
| Huong Vu, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation** | Cat Martin, Vulcan Philanthropy** |
| Liahann Bannerman, United Way of King County | Amber Fowler, The Dental Foundation of Oregon |
| Shona Carter, Black Future Co-op Fund | Ayyu Qassataq, First Alaskans Institute |
| Mark Dederer, Hohimer Wealth Management | Ernie Rasmussen, Bigfoot TeleCommunications of the Colville Tribes |
| Michelle DeWitt, Bethel Community Services Foundation | **Committee Co-Chairs |
PNW22 By the Numbers
This year, the PNW22 Illuminate Virtual Summit and In-Person Member Retreat brought together folks from across our region, spanning a wide variety of roles including board members, CEOs, staff working across programs, communications, finance and more! See more information on who joined us below:
PNW22 Attendees By Experience in Philanthropy
| 22% | 30% | 48% |
| Less than 3 Years | 3-10 Years | More than 10 Years |
PNW22 Attendees By Organization Type
