Plenary Sessions

FIONA ELLIS

“Local Pebbles, National Ripples”

Regional grantmakers have a local focus. But can they also have national or international impact? Fiona Ellis will address this theme from her perspective as a local UK grantmaker with an international reputation.

Fiona Ellis stepped down in March after 11 years as Director of the Northern Rock Foundation (NRF) based in Newcastle in the United Kingdom. NRF is one of the largest grantmakers in the North East of England and Cumbria.

Before coming to NRF, Ms. Ellis was Assistant Director (arts) for almost six years at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. She was also associated, in a freelance capacity, with the Baring Foundation and later the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust. Prior to her career in philanthropy, she worked in the arts as in a variety of roles including a community arts worker, stage manager, theatre director, funding officer and director of a rural arts centre. She is joint author of Fairness in Funding, an equal opportunities guide for grant-makers published by the Association of Charitable Foundations in the UK.

JOHANN KOSS

“The Power of Sport and Play to Develop Community”

Olympic athletes are role models for young people across the world. Increasingly these athletes are using their profile to support philanthropy. One of the most successful partnerships between athletes and philanthropy has been Right To Play. We look forward to welcoming Johann Koss and Beckie Scott, medal-winning former Olympic athletes, to speak about sports, philanthropy and child development around the world.

A four-time Olympic Gold Medallist, Johann is President of Toronto-based Right To Play, a humanitarian organization committed to improving the lives of the children through sport. Under his leadership, Right To Play has grown into an internationally respected NGO with operations in over 20 countries.

Outside his role as President and CEO of Right To Play, Johann is active in a number of sport and Olympic causes. In 1997, Johann was appointed Chairman of the Norwegian Government Forum against Drugs and Doping. He is also on the board of an organization called “MOT” (Courage) that mobilizes Norwegian athletes in the fight against drugs and doping. He was a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athlete’s Commission from 1998 to 2002 and was on the Medical Commission and the executive board of the IOC 2000 Commission handling issues of reform. He also served as a founding board and executive board member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (2000 to 2002) where he initiated the Athlete anti-doping passport. In 1994, Johann was appointed Special Representative for Sport for UNICEF International.

Beckie Scott

Scott was a trailblazer for nordic sports in Canada from the moment she joined the country’s national program in 1994. During her 11-year career she re-wrote the Canadian record books, winning two Olympic medals – a gold medal in the five-kilometre pursuit race at the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games and a silver medal with teammate Sara Renner in the team sprint event at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games – as well as 15 World Cup medals, among her other achievements.

Her career accomplishments off the snow are equally impressive. Scott’s pursuit of justice around her 2002 Olympic gold medal was a triumph for athletes’ rights and fair play. She is also a tireless advocate for drug-free sport, and is currently Canada's representative on the World Anti-Doping Agency's newly formed Athlete Committee.

During the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, Scott’s peers elected her to the IOC Athletes’ Commission for an eight-year term. She also serves on the board of directors for the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and the Trans-Canada trail.

Scott joined Right To Play as an Athlete Ambassador in January 2003 and is now also a co-chair of its Canadian advisory council. In addition, she was named a UNICEF Canada special representative and in the spring of 2003 travelled to West Africa with UNICEF as part of its "Girl's Education" campaign. In recognition of her numerous achievements, Scott has twice been the recipient of the John Semmelink Memorial Award (2002, 2003). She was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

Born in Vegreville, Alberta, Scott attended the University of Waterloo. When off the trails, she enjoys reading and cooking and is also a competitive swimmer. The longtime Albertan and her husband now make their home in Panorama, BC and Bend, Oregon.

Eric Young

President, E.Y.E. | The Social Projects Studio™

For over twenty-five years, Eric Young has been at the vanguard of social marketing, a discipline focused on the development of strategies and campaigns to promote social change. He is the founder and president of E.Y.E., an agency that works with leading government, corporate and voluntary organizations to address some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary society. Young has been the architect of numerous campaigns for change and social innovation projects in areas ranging from health, environmental sustainability and ethics in sport, to citizen engagement, corporate social responsibility, community development and global humanitarian relief.

He has written and lectured extensively throughout North America on the challenge of change, and the remaking of community in the 21st century.

He is on the faculty of the Boston College Centre for Corporate Citizenship. His current voluntary roles include: membership on the board of Ecotrust Canada, the Canadian advisory board of Right To Play and the editorial board of the Social Marketing Quarterly. He is a fellow of The Royal Society of the Arts and a member of Massey College’s Quadrangle Society. In 2008 he became a fellow of SiG (Social Innovation Generation) at the University of Waterloo.

PHIL BUCHANAN

"The Essential Elements of Foundation Effectiveness"

What does foundation effectiveness look like? How do foundations best deploy all their resources to maximize their impact and achieve their goals?  What’s working – and what isn’t – in the foundation response to the current economic environment?  Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) President Phil Buchanan will address these questions in a talk that draws on CEP’s research over the last 8 years as well as its experience providing assessment tools to 200 foundations in the United States, Canada, and the UK.

Phil Buchanan is the first chief executive of CEP. At CEP, Phil has built a research team, secured funding, developed a research agenda, and managed the development and introduction of new performance assessment tools. Phil speaks regularly on issues of foundation effectiveness, foundation-grantee relations, foundation governance, and assessment of foundation performance at national and regional gatherings of foundation and nonprofit executives and trustees.

His writings on education, foundation, and management issues have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Alliance Magazine, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, among other publications.