Where’s Bill? Follow PVF’s Executive Director, Bill Somerville, out of the office, for site visits and meetings with outstanding grassroots leaders.

On April 24, I had the pleasure of giving the plenary speech to the Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) at their National Conference in Denver.

48 hours later I was at Stanford University celebrating the 10^th anniversary of the fellowship programs that place university students at foundations around the United States.  These fellowship programs were initiated by PVF and are now an established offering of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University.  Over 92 students have held fellowships in philanthropic foundations.  I am honored to introduce these talented young people to the philanthropic field, and to mentor them in their fellowships. This is the only program of its kind in the country.

Young people are coming into philanthropy and PVF is dedicated to playing a major role in helping this come about.  We need their new energy and fresh thinking, and I hope we in the field can listen carefully to their voices.

The Denver presentation to EPIP was covered by several conference bloggers whose articles can be read here:

Rosetta Thurman, in Stanford Social Innovation Review, April 2010, “We Need to Do Better: How the Now Generation of Leaders Can Change Philanthropy.” https://ssir.org/articles/entry/we_need_to_do_better_how_the_now_generation_of_leaders_can_change_philanthr

Caroline Preston, in Chronicle of Philanthropy, April 24, 2010 “Young Grantmakers Urged to Make Bigger and Riskier Grants.” http://philanthropy.com/blogPost/Young-Grant-Makers-Urged-To/23437/

Elizabeth Miller, Overbrook Foundation Blogspot, April 25, 2010, “EPIP: Day Two.” http://overbrookfoundation.blogspot.com/2010/04/epip-day-two.html