Opportunity Zones in Rural and Native Communities – A Funder to Funder Virtual Exchange

About

There are 328 Opportunity Zones (OZ) in the Northwest. Check out this map or this list of Qualified Designated Opportunity Zones by County. Is your community within an Opportunity Zone and you're not quite sure what it means for your foundation or your community? You're not alone. With all the news and hype that's surrounding OZs it's hard to understand whether philanthropy has a role.

Our Discussion Leaders will highlight the many ways that philanthropy can play a role to support specifically rural and Tribal communities including:

• With its convening capital, philanthropy could host learning sessions that bring together philanthropy, government officials, community leaders and private development experts.
• With its influence capital, philanthropy could advise state governments and local municipalities on setting up specialized economic development units that track Opportunity Zone investment data.
• With its advocacy capital, philanthropy could request to sit at the decision making tables and advocate on behalf of the voices that should be present but may not be.
• With its intellectual capital and vast knowledge in how private capital works, investment officers could advise OZ projects on finance flow. It could also work with investors on a wide range of issues: acting as a strategy advisor, measuring impacts, and pooling funds with investors to dilute their risk in areas that the foundation thinks are worthwhile but may seem too risky to investors.
• Lastly, philanthropy could create programs that will connect investors with high-impact projects across a geographic region.

Discussion Leaders include:

•  Mauri Ingram, CEO, Whatcom Community Foundation
• Anne Kubisch, CEO, The Ford Family Foundation
•  Adam Northup, Advisor, Locus Impact Investing
• Amber Shultz Oliver, CEO, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) Economic Development (invited)
•  Ernie Rasmussen, Senior Planner, The Confederated Tribes of Colville Reservation
•  Rosalie Sheehy Cates, Executive-In-Residence, The Giving Practice and Philanthropy Northwest

What this call is: This call will be particularly useful for place-focused foundations including community foundations, family foundations and issue-focused funders who support the vitality of our Northwest places that we call home particularly in rural and Native communities.

What this call is not: This is not your regular webinar nor is it a technical impact investing call. This Funder Exchange will be facilitated as a learning meeting so that we can learn as a network using lay language and terms. Participants will be asked to join via audio and video to enhance everyone's meeting experience (most cell phones have built-in cameras that can be used!). Due to the nature of this call, we ask that only funders from philanthropic organizations participate unless otherwise invited.

Please contact the following team members for questions:

Participation Eligibility: Danielle Crystal, Membership Manager
Technical Assistance: Mares Asfaha, Program Manager
Content: Lyn Hunter, Director of Regional Strategies & Networks

This webinar is from 1:00pm to 2:30pm PDT.