Philanthropy-serving organizations offer thousands of programs throughout the year for members, nonmembers, grantmakers, and nonprofits. These programs take many forms, from intimate brown bag lunches to elaborate annual conferences. As the hub of the network, the Forum has collected program agendas, ideas, notes, communications pieces, and more to help regional associations replicate successful programs and better serve their members.
Below you'll find some of the best practices and program ideas developed by PSOs through the years. If you have resources to share, please share them online or by emailing Courtney Moore.
Program Peer Community
The Program Peer Community is for those who are responsible for their PSO’s member programming, educations and partnerships.
- Program Listserv (programs@lists.unitedphilforum.org)- You must be a member of the Forum & this Peer Community to post to this list.
- Three round-robin calls per year
- In-person meeting at Forum’s Annual Conference
Interested in joining this Peer Community? Submit your email address on the form at the bottom of the Our Networks page.
Forum Staff Lead: Traci Slater-Rigaud, (202-457-8784)
Co-Chairs
Akilah Massey, Grantmakers for Effective OrganizationsAkilah Masseyis a director of programs at Grantmakers for Effective Organizations and an experienced program designer with over a decade of experience creating educational programs for grantmakers. She oversees GEO’s conference development and delivers other programming for GEO. Before joining GEO, she developed programming at Exponent Philanthropy, an association of small-staffed grantmakers. While at Exponent Philanthropy, she spearheaded the CONNECT Conference, a philanthropy conference devoted to highlighting the connections that sustain philanthropic work. She also led Exponent Philanthropy’s technology content area, writing articles, blog posts and building programs on technology resources forgrantmaking organizations. She further collaborated with grantmakers, colleague organizations, and nonprofit organizations to craft seminars, workshops and online programming on a variety of philanthropy-related topics with the intent of improving the effectiveness of small-staffed grantmakers.
Alex McCray, Philanthropy MassachusettsAlex McCray joined Philanthropy Massachusetts as the Senior Director of Programs Summer 2017. With a career in the nonprofit sector that spans nearly 25 years, prior to Philanthropy MA Alex McCray served in Resource Development capacities at several United Ways. Before working within that network, Alex was a Senior Associate at Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), helping to strengthen nonprofits and enabling social sector leaders to make sound strategic decisions. In addition to engaging in resource development and consulting, Alex has held leadership roles within youth, workforce development and arts-focused nonprofits. For four years Alex gained a funder's perspective as a Program Staff member at The Rhode Island Foundation, where he continues to serve on an Advisory Council. Alex serves as a Planning Committee Member of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) 2020 National Conference. He also values his contributions as a Board Member of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (MNN), and Project STEP, which seeks to racially diversify the classical music profession.