President's Message - September 2023 Dear Fellow PPP-RI Friends, or, should I say, CGP-RI Friends, Welcome to the start of a new and exciting academic year! It is my pleasure to introduce myself as the 2023-2024 President of the Board of Directors. I look forward to the opportunity to work alongside this year’s board to provide meaningful content both virtually and in person. We are excited to kick-off our new year with a new name and a new look that we believe better reflects the caliber of our professional membership and the work we do. So, welcome to Charitable Gift Planners of Rhode Island! PPP-RI has been the Rhode Island state affiliate of the national organization of Charitable Gift Planners for several years. This year, the Board decided it was time to better reflect our national affiliation with a name change. We know this is a big change but we are thrilled to mark this change as the first step towards the future of our organization. Charitable Gift Planners of Rhode Island (CGP-RI) will continue to deliver the same educational content, networking events, and scholarship opportunities as PPP-RI has for the past thirty years. We are starting this new programing year off with a robust educational program on the hot topic of the Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action initiatives in the academic community and how our experts think this decision will impact philanthropy in all sectors. We will also continue our focus on ensuring our educational content throughout the year will aid our members and future members from all areas of charitable giving, including those working in small nonprofits and fundraising professionals wearing multiple hats. Content will speak just as much to our rising stars as well as our seasoned veterans. Also, back as a result of high demand, we will continue to offer our virtual “Coffee & Conversation” events free and open to members and non-members alike. After phenomenal attendance last years, these Zoom hosted events offer an open platform that encourages conversation, networking, and learning among charitable giving professionals and our allied members in the field. We encourage you to invite a friend, a colleague, or even your boss to attend. It is a great way to showcase what we do and potentially attract new members. Attracting new members remains a large focus of the board for ’23 - ’24. As a board, we look forward to working with our current members to invite our peers to join us and work to grow our membership numbers together. One small way to help with this is to make sure you are a member of our LinkedIn page and be sure to invite your fellow colleagues. Registering for events and sharing who we are will be easier than ever with our new rebranded website launching this Fall. We will continue to open our events to guests to show off the benefits of membership. New this year, we will be co-hosting an event with the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Rhode Island (AFP) and New England Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (NEAHP). We are excited to team up with the broader fundraising community to offer a joint panel conversation this Fall. We are hopeful that this will begin a new era of collaboration and sharing of resources, and see this an opportunity to reach out to prospective new charitable gift members. A cornerstone of PPP-RI has long been in-person networking. Our rebrand to CGP-RI keeps with this mission. Jessica Null, CGP-RI Vice President and Programming Chair, along with her team, have assembled a robust calendar for the year so please make sure to mark your calendars as the schedule rolls out and invite your colleagues. One of the strongest legacies of PPP-RI is the Alan Axelrod Scholarship. CGP-RI continues to honor the legacy and is offers an opportunity to attend this year’s National Association Charitable Gift Planners conference with a complimentary registration, flights, hotel and meals via the Scholarship. Please visit our Alan Axelrod Scholarship page to apply for a scholarship and to be considered among the recipients attending the in-person conference in October. If you are interested in supporting the scholarship with a financial contribution, please use the online donation form on the scholarship page. As a reminder, this scholarship is funded by donations from CGP-RI members and is for the betterment of our members as we grow professionally and personally. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at aanthony@counsel1st.com with your ideas, questions, and interests! Best regards, Alicia L. Anthony President, Charitable Gift Planners of Rhode Island (CGP-RI) |