This year's theme is giving circles. A giving circle is a group friends who pool their charitable donations and decide together how to use the money to benefit the causes they care about.
Darryl Lester of Hindsight Consulting is a guru in this field, having provided donor education and technical assistance to enable the creation of numerous giving circles through the Community Investment Network that Hindsight Consulting launched in 2004. He created this video to provide an overview of the roots of philanthropy in the African American Community.
Black Philanthropy: From the Individual to the Collective from Darryl Lester on Vimeo.
The keynote speaker is Glinda Bridgeforth, an author, financial expert, and tv/radio personality who explores the emotional and cultural factors that block financial success. Getting your financial house in order is necessary before you can help others.
Valaida Fullwood, author of Giving Back: A Tribute to Generations of African American Philanthropists will also address the summit. Using pictures and words, the book tells the story, of the centuries old tradition of giving by Americans of African decent. According to the Black Gives Back blog, Valaida Fullwood's book was named was named as one of the 10 Best Black Books of 2011 and was one of Amazon's bestsellers in Arts & Photography (Portraits).
For more information on the Summit, including registration information, visit: http://clevelandfoundation.org/philanthropySummit.html