Why it Matters and How Funders Can Be Involved
Civic engagement is teaching, providing tools and supporting local community serving nonprofits, as well as enabling community leaders to take ownership of and vision for, their communities. A community, whether blue, red or purple can’t “own” their futures if the non profit organizations assisting them aren’t utilizing all the tools available to help support their work and give voice to the concerns of the citizens they serve about the things which directly impact their lives. Grantmakers can have a direct impact on the ability of nonprofits to achieve the goal of raising the voice of the citizens the organizations serve.
Join us to hear the how and the why grantmakers have actively engaged in funding civic engagement work from various organizations including the Miami Foundation, Joyce Foundation and the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. We will also hear about the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘Vote Your Voice’ initiative which is active in Florida through partnership with community based groups.
About the Speakers
Carrie L. Davis
Democracy Program Director, Joyce Foundation
Prior to joining the Joyce Foundation, Carrie served as Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio for six years, where she managed all aspects of the statewide organization including membership and leadership development, coordinating state advocacy and public education with a special focus on voters’ rights, fund development, communications, and supporting League activities at the local and national levels.
Carrie served eight years as staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, where she litigated and lobbied on a variety of issues including voting rights, free speech, criminal justice, racial justice, LGBT rights, reproductive freedom, and government accountability. As a community activist, Carrie is perhaps best known for training citizens in how to lobby their government officials and empowering citizens to exercise their voting rights. She has also volunteered with advocacy groups working on issues such as ending the death penalty, protecting reproductive freedom, and expanding protections for the LGBT community. For several years, she served on the board of Ohioans to Stop Executions. In 2006, Carrie was honored as a “Champion of Choice” by NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.
Carrie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and a Concentration in Public Policy and Public Service from Albion College as well as a JD from Case Western Reserve University.
Amy Dominguez-Arms
Amy Dominguez-Arms consults with philanthropies and nonprofits on program strategy, design and implementation, grantmaking, and assessment. Currently Amy serves as the lead consultant for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Vote Your Voice initiative, which supports Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi organizations for their civic engagement activities. Amy also is a senior advisor with the National Democracy Funder Collaborative’s 2020 Census Project and Fair Representation in Redistricting Initiative.
Amy has worked with the Barr Foundation, Democracy Fund, Ford Foundation, Haas Jr. Fund, Hewlett Foundation, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and Packard Foundation, among others.
Amy earned her MPA at Harvard’s Kennedy School and her BA in International Relations and Spanish at Stanford University.
Frank Fernandez
President & CEO
Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
Frank Fernandez joined the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta in August 2020, where he leads one of America’s top 20 largest community foundations.
Prior to joining the Foundation, he served for six years as the Senior Vice President for The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation where he led transformational revitalization of Atlanta’s Westside while simultaneously directing Blank’s community development, global giving, health access and social justice initiatives.
A recognized leader on affordable housing, transportation and economic development, Fernandez’ 15 years in management positions in Texas prior to joining the Blank Foundation included eight years leading Green Doors, an Austin nonprofit devoted to transforming lives and neighborhoods and five years as Deputy Director of PeopleFund, a community development financial institution.
A son of Cuban immigrants, Frank is a Florida native and holds a B.A. in philosophy from Harvard University and an M.P.A. from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. After graduation, he worked on Wall Street as a public sector financial analyst for Salomon Smith Barney, structuring over $1 billion in financial transactions, before pursuing his graduate degree.
Rebecca Fishman Lipsey
President and CEO, The Miami Foundation
Prior to The Miami Foundation, Rebecca was the founder and CEO of Radical Partners, a social-impact accelerator that incubates organizations seeking to strengthen Miami.
Before launching Radical Partners, Rebecca served as executive director of Teach For America in Miami-Dade. Under her leadership, the organization tripled in size and fundraising efforts multiplied 16-times over. She became the youngest person in history to be appointed to the Florida Board of Education, where she served a four-year term, overseeing educational policy that impacted 3 million students from kindergarten through college.
Rebecca began her career as a teacher in Harlem, NY. She holds a master’s from Bank Street College of Education, and graduated as valedictorian of her University of Pennsylvania undergraduate class.
Program Moderator
Susan Racher
Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Wallace Coulter Foundation
Susan is in charge of the endowment’s investment portfolio, including a portfolio of health care venture capital investments. She also oversees the tax; accounting; and compliance and is part of the grant team. Prior to joining the Foundation in 1998, Susan was a Senior Managing Director of Bank of America’s Florida Group, in charge of the bank’s $4 billion in capital committed to Florida corporations. Susan was named as “Small Foundation Investment Manager for 2013” by Institutional Investor Magazine. She has a B.A. from Smith College in English and Economics, and an M.B.A from the University of Chicago in Finance and Accounting.
For programmatic questions,
please contact Geula Ferguson.
For registration issues, please email here.
