Moderator: Regina Birdsell, Executive Director, Center for Nonprofit Management
Panelists: *Wendy Garen, President & CEO, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation
*Ray Reisler, Executive Director, S. Mark Taper Foundation
*Pamela Rubin Cohen, Program Officer, Jewish Community Foundation
*Jonathan Weedman, Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo Foundation
Course Description
Leading funders will discuss their strategic approach to grantmaking, the types of capacity building support they provide, how to establish and maintain a relationship with a funder (even if you're not asking for money), and the best practices and common mistakes of submitting grant proposals. The discussion will be moderated by the Center's president, Regina Birdsell, and will give participants the opportunity to ask questions and get in-depth answers about giving. Be prepared with all the questions you ever wanted to ask a foundation! Panelists Bios
Wendy Garen
Wendy Garen joined the staff of The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation in 1986 and was appointed CEO of the Foundation in November 2001. Prior to her service at the Foundation, Ms. Garen developed and administered programs for families. Her work experience includes service delivery, research, fundraising and advocacy for a wide range of projects serving children and families in the nonprofit sector.
She has an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA (1978) and a B.A., with honors, in Political Science from the University of Illinois. She completed the Kennedy School of Government program, Women in Power: Leadership in a New World in 2002, and was invited to join the Women’s Leadership Board at KSG, where she served in 2004 and traveled in a delegation with the Board to South Africa in 2005 and Egypt in 2006 where she met with international women leaders. In 2004, she was among ten distinguished leaders from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors who were invited to serve as Senior Fellows at the School of Public Policy at UCLA. She was elected to membership in the International Women’s Forum in 2008, and was a member of the founding Board of the Broad Stage at Santa Monica Community College.
Ray Reisler
Ray Reisler, Ed.D., is Executive Director of the S. Mark Taper Foundation. Prior to this, Dr. Reisler had been at the American Can Company where he was both Associate Director of the Policy Planning and Public Responsibility and Associate Director of the American Can Company Foundation -- one of the more progressive corporate foundations in areas of public policy such as economic transitions, hunger, and public schools. During this time, Dr. Reisler was on the Advisory Board of Grantmakers for Education.
Until this venture into the corporate world, Dr. Reisler had been in the public and non-profit sectors. In New Jersey, he was a Governor appointed Assistant Commissioner of Labor with responsibility for the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), the Employment Service and Vocational Rehabilitation. In Washington, DC, as a senior professional staff member at the President’s Commission for a National Agenda for the Eighties, he wrote the Education chapter of the Commission’s report. As a staff associate at the National Commission for Employment Policy and a special assistant in the Office of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, Dr. Reisler was thrust into the heart of Federal education and youth employment policy deliberations and legislation.
Pamela Rubin Cohen
Pamela Rubin Cohen joined the Jewish Community Foundation as Program Officer in early 2009. Previously, Ms. Rubin Cohen was a consultant to private family foundations and charitable trusts. She has served as a Program Officer for the California Community Foundation, The Eisner Foundation, The Walt Disney Company, and The Weingart Foundation. She has expertise in designing and implementing grant programs that promote creativity and innovation in K-12 education, literacy, medical research, housing, aging, and animal welfare. She has designed and facilitated peer learning programs for nonprofit organizations to identify and address common challenges, share effective strategies, develop collaborative relationships, and learn from experts in the field. Additionally, she worked in the field of education reform at WestEd Regional Education Lab, the Los Angeles Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN), and as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. for education associations, where she developed legislation related to teacher professional development for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. She received her B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in political science and her Master’s degree in education from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and is a member of the Advisory Board of Facing History and Ourselves.
Jonathan Weedman
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jonathan Weedman has served as senior vice president for the Wells Fargo Foundation since September 1996. He is responsible for managing the charitable contributions of the company’s largest market, which includes an annual budget in excess of $15 million dollars for Los Angeles, Ventura and west San Bernardino counties, in addition to the State of Arizona. Under his management, Wells Fargo has grown to become the largest corporate donor to charities in these regions.
Weedman began his career with Wells Fargo in 1989 as a business banking officer at the Los Angeles Main office, where he was responsible for the development and management of new and existing business banking client account relationships. Later, he joined the Premier Banking Division, where he developed business for numerous non-profit organizations in the Southern California market – at the height of his banking career, his portfolio included management of more than 500 local non-profit charitable institutions. |
Attend Meet the Funders for $75.