AFN Grantmakers Meeting 2012
March 20th & 21st
Hotel Derek
Houston, TX
Paving the Road to Financial Security
Come and join your fellow grantmakers and friends in a series of conversations on grantmaking strategies needed to help families rebuild financial security.
Meeting Framework
This year's meeting of the Asset Funders Network will serve as a forum for a series of in-depth conversations on the grantmaking strategies needed to help protect, rebuild, and grow the assets low-income families lost during the great recession.Meeting Goals
In recognition of AFN 2012 Strategic Theme of Financial Access and Recovery, the goals of the meeting include:
- Reflecting on the 20 year anniversary of Michael Sherraden's Book "Assets and the Poor" - What have we learned, what is the state of the asset building field, and what does it mean for our grantmaking.
- Discussing a vision for building financial security in America during the next 20 years.
- Engaging in a series of discussions among foundation colleagues regarding policy, practice, innovation, impact, and how we can leverage our influence and resources.
- Discussing how to promote alternatives to bad financial options, supporting integrated service delivery approaches, advancing sustainable homeownership options, working with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and responding to the income inequality movement.
- Networking and learning from colleagues to inform your grantmaking
Download preliminary meeting agenda.
AFN Member Discount - receive discounted meeting fee as an AFN member!
If you are already a 2012 dues paying member, have made a grant to AFN for 2012, or plan to become a member prior to March 10th, 2012, you are eligible for the member discount. Please review membership criteria and fee structure and download membership application. Thank you!
A 30 room block has been reserved for the AFN meeting at the Hotel Derek on a first come first serve basis. Reserve your room at Hotel Derek today!
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Please contact Siobhan Mulvey, AFN Membership and Administrative Coordinator, at siobhan@assetfunders.org for assistance
AFN Announces Merger with Microenterprise Funders Group
The Asset Funders Network (AFN) is pleased to announce that, effective October 1, 2011, the Microenterprise Funders Group (MFG) has become a part of AFN. This merger acknowledges the important connection between investments in microenterprise development and AFN’s focus on asset accumulation, retention, and preservation for low-income individuals and communities.
Like AFN, the Microenterprise Funders Group was formed in 2005 by a group of foundations seeking a forum to explore their mutual interest in microenterprise development in the United States. As both organizations looked to increase their ability to serve as a catalyst for change it became clear that we could leverage the talents, expertise, and resources of both funder groups to build a sustainable organization capable of having a real impact on the overall asset-building field.
As AFN welcomes the former members of the Microenterprise Funders Group into the Asset Funders Network, the merger will offer several critical advantages:
- Access to an expanded network of funders dedicated to asset development
- Opportunity to participate in a broader roster of learning events connected to the full asset building continuum
- Ability to combine forces for advocacy and policy relevant to low-wealth individuals and communities, and
- Greater opportunity to explore the increasing connections between microenterprise and microfinance practice, credit building, savings and other forms of asset development.
Elaine Edgcomb and Joyce Klein of the FIELD program at the Aspen Institute, who currently manage the Microenterprise Funders Group, will continue to provide their leadership and expertise in leading the microenterprise programing of the Asset Funders Network. We are thrilled that they will be joining us and looking forward to having them on the team.
For more information, please contact Rick Williams at rick@assetfunders.org
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AFN Welcomes Amaad Rivera as new Project Coordinator
AFN is pleased to announce Amaad Rivera as our new Project Coordinator. We are excited to bring his talents and expertise to AFN. Welcome, Amaad! Please take a moment to read Amaad's biography below.
Amaad Rivera has committed in life's work to addressing inequality and economic disparities. He currently serves as a City Councilor in Springfield, Massachusetts where he wrote and passed the strongest anti-foreclosure ordinance in the country.
Previously, he was the Director of the Racial Wealth Divide Initiative for United for a Fair Economy and lead author of "State of the Dream 2009: The Silent Depression" and "State of the Dream 2008: Foreclosed". His articles and publications have been featured in major media outlets such as the Washington Post, Black Agenda Report, Huffington Post, National Public Radio, Democracy Now, Too Much, BET.com, numerous local radio stations, CSPAN and Boston Neighborhood Network News. In the past, Amaad served as AmeriCorps Program Officer for the Massachusetts Service Alliance, co-managing a portfolio of organizations dedicated to addressing issues of poverty, health care disparities, environmental disasters, education inequity, civic engagement, volunteerism and youth development. He was recently named Advocate's magazine 40 under 40.
He is attended Bentley University where he received a Bachelors in Marketing and the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he received a Master's degree in Education.
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AFN Welcomes Beadsie Woo of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to Steering Committee
SEPT 2011
AFN is pleased to welcome Beadsie Woo, Senior Associate in the Center for Family Economic Success at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, as our newest AFN steering committee. We are excited to bring her talents and expertise to AFN. Welcome, Beadsie!
Beadsie's work to increase financial stability for families and children includes strategies focused on asset development and protection, including those related to foreclosure, as well as those focused on work supports, including access to public benefits, tax credits, and work-family policies. She is a co-author of Upside Down: The $400 Billion Federal Asset-Building Budget, that examines the size and distribution of federal support for individual asset building. Beadsie holds an AB in Economics from Davidson College, a MPP from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and earned her PhD in the Department of Economics from the University of North Carolina.
Learn more about the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
AFN Welcomes Laura Sparks of Citi to Steering Committee
AFN is pleased to welcome Laura Sparks, Director of Development Finance Initiatives at Citi, as our newest steering committee member this spring. We are excited to bring her talents and expertise to AFN.
As Director of Development Finance Initiatives, Laura works with Citi Community Development, the Citi Foundation, and a range of Citi businesses to develop innovative programs that expand Citi's partnerships and initiatives with Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), locally and nationally, to innovate, attain scale and achieve financial sustainability. This work is central to Citi’s focus on responsible and inclusive finance and on asset building strategies designed to empower undeserved people, families and communities.
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Prior to joining Citi Community Development, Laura served as the Director of Business Strategy for the CitiMortgage Strategic Markets division. In this capacity, Laura focused on initiatives designed to increase responsible and sustainable homeownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income and minority people and communities. Prior to joining Citi, Laura was the Senior Vice President for Financial Services at Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), a national nonprofit serving Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) across the country, where she managed OFN’s investments in CDFIs. She previously worked as an investment banker for corporate, municipal, and higher education clients at Goldman Sachs and UBS.
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Laura recently served as Director, Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee for Philadelphia V.I.P., a nonprofit providing last-resort pro bono legal services to low-income clients, including representation in one of the leading foreclosure prevention programs in the country. She also served as an inaugural Grant Making Committee Co-Chair for the Asian Mosaic Fund Giving Circle, a diverse donor group committed to advancing the well-being of the Greater Philadelphia Asian community. Laura received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, her M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and her B.A. in Philosophy from Wellesley College.
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For more information on the Bay Area AFN, please see the Bay Area AFN webpages on the Northern California Grantmakers website.
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Please email articles and information to be included in the AFN monthly newsletter to Rick Williams at rick@assetfunders.org. Not all submissions will be able to be included in the newsletter. Thank you for submitting!
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