Join EPIP and friends for a conversation around philanthrocapitalism and whether this approach is well-suited for social and environmental change.

Featuring former Ford Foundation Director Michael Edwards
Author of Small Change:  Why Business Won’t Save the World
and
Antonio Aguilera, Director of Social Enterprise, Community Vocational Enterprises

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Mitchell Kapor Foundation
543 Howards Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco
3:30 - 5:15 PM
Discussion will begin at 4:00, preceded and followed by time to meet the speakers and other attendees

Small Change has stirred up some discussion in our field about the concept of philanthrocapitalism, calling into question the idea that philanthropy pursued in business like fashion can in solve the ills of today's world.  In his new book Michael Edwards challenges the notion that the market is capable of solving social inequities; he writes about how a market approach hurts more than it helps and that in fact real change will come when business acts more like civil society, not the other way around.

Edwards will speak about Small Change, and Aguilera, a firm believer in both nonprofit and social enterprise models, will engage in discussion surrounding the ethos of philanthrocapitalism and social justice philanthropy.

Michael Edwards is an independent writer and activist based in upstate New York who is affiliated with the New York-based think-tank Demos, and the Brooks World Poverty Institute at Manchester University in the UK. From 1999 to 2008 he was the Director of the Ford Foundation's Governance and Civil Society Program in New York, having previously worked for the World Bank, Oxfam-GB, Save the Children-UK and other NGOs in Washington DC, London, Colombia, Zambia, Malawi, and India. His writings have helped to shape a more critical appreciation of the global role of philanthropy and civil society, and to break down barriers between researchers and activists across the world. Michael was educated in England at the universities of Oxford and London, and now lives with his wife Cora in the farmhouse they renovated together in the foothills of the Catskill mountains.

Antonio Aguilera is Chief Social Enterprise Officer at Community Vocational Enterprises. CVE uses three social enterprises to help people with mental health disabilities in San Francisco to recover wellness through employment.  Antonio is the chairman and founding member of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Social Enterprise Alliance, the largest membership organization for social enterprises in North America.  Antonio’s first social entrepreneurship adventure was to found a Social Enterprise in Mexico City in 2000. Many more followed as his diverse background includes working with for-profit and nonprofit organizations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Germany.  Antonio is a passionate thinker and doer of social enterprise and the triple bottom line.

About the Bay Area Chapter of EPIP
EPIP’s mission is to strengthen the next generation of grantmakers in order to advance effective social justice philanthropy and help the funding world address critical generational issues. It is a national organization that has a vibrant local peer-learning community that offers unique leadership and professional development, networking opportunities, and raises the voice for next generation issues and ideas. In a place like the Bay Area, where several of the largest US and global foundations grew out of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship, our region is leading the way in exploring new and different types of philanthropy. The EPIP Bay Area Chapter takes advantage of this innovation and supports the next generation with their contributions to an already forward-thinking local sector.