VIRTUAL EVENT: Our Collective Power - Giving Circles Now

Giving circles are everywhere. Composed of people pooling their charitable giving, they mobilize and make a difference in their communities by funding causes that have been traditionally overlooked and underfunded. By 2025, the movement is expected to grow to 3000 giving circles in the United States, involving a total of 350,000 people giving $1 billion. Join DER and our panel to learn about giving circles as a philanthropic resource for your organization with one of the Bay Area’s most influential giving circles, Battery Powered.

Our esteemed Panelists include:

Sara Lomelin, Executive Director, Philanthropy Together and Board Member, Battery Powered
Sara Lomelin is the Executive Director of Philanthropy Together, a global initiative that is growing and supporting the giving circle movement.  Most recently she served as Senior Director of Leadership Philanthropy at Opportunity Fund, the largest nonprofit lender in the United States. Previously at the Latino Community Foundation, Sara served as Vice President of Philanthropy for seven years and brought her high-energy approach to creating the Latino Giving Circle Network™, the largest network of its kind in the country. Sara is dedicated to a vision in which everyone is invited to participate in philanthropy. She is a member of the Peninsula Latina Giving Circle.
Sara graduated with honors from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and received her Administration and Management Certificate from Harvard University, where she also earned the prestigious Katie Y. F. Yang Prize. Born and raised in Mexico City, Sara now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Danielle Rose, CEO, SMASH, a 2021 Battery Powered grantee
Danielle Rose is the CEO of SMASH, a non profit organization that is building a strong, diverse and socially conscious tech workforce by leveling the playing field through academic learning and experiential engagement for high school and college students.  After spending nearly two decades pursuing her education and early professional career in Georgia, Texas, and Illinois, Danielle’s return to her native Bay Area community in 2013 was more than welcomed.
 

As an experienced operations and education leader, Danielle joined SMASH in 2015 with the aim of leveraging her skills within an organization positioned to sustainably improve the educational experience of our nation’s underserved youth of color. Prior to joining SMASH, Danielle built and managed the operations for Redbird Advanced Learning, an EdTech startup recently acquired by McGraw-Hill. Her transition into education was preceded by eight years in the energy sector, where Danielle held a diverse set of engineering and business roles for BP America, Inc. in Houston and Chicago.
Danielle holds a B.S. from Spelman College in Mathematics and a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. 
 

Leti Light, Executive Director of Principal Gifts & Strategic Initiatives, UC Berkeley/Co-founder & President, SIGAP, and Battery Powered member
Leti McNeill Light is a leader in transformational higher education philanthropic partnerships, often in the form of cross-cutting, multidisciplinary initiatives.
As Executive Director, Principal Gifts & Strategic Initiatives at UC Berkeley, Leti and her team collaborate with a wide range of academic and program leaders, and work with the world’s leading philanthropists to achieve their vision through partnerships with the university. Over the last 20 years, Leti has led philanthropic development efforts at Cornell University, UCLA, and now UC Berkeley. 
Leti is also the President of SIGAP, the Strategic Initiatives Group for Advancement Professionals. SIGAP is a national community organized by and for fundraising professionals dedicated to securing transformational support for large-scale institutional priorities, interdisciplinary research initiatives, institutes, and centers. She also serves on the boards of directors for Coro Northern California and the Headlands Center for the Arts.

Colleen Gregerson, Executive Director, Battery Powered
Colleen Gregerson is passionate about innovating in philanthropy to unlock tremendous talent and generosity toward the most important issues of our time. She currently serves as the Executive Director for Battery Powered, an innovative philanthropic model that is activating the generosity of the Battery community to find and fund people and projects with a serious chance of making society stronger. Prior to Battery Powered, she led the Maverick Collective, guiding philanthropists' talents and treasure toward ending extreme poverty. As head of Business Development at Population Services International (PSI), she developed and executed a strategy that raised over $1.9 billion for global health initiatives during the four years of her leadership. Colleen holds a masters degree in international development from American University and is proud to serve on the Board of ETR.
 

Moderator: Dr. Rebecca Joseph, DER Treasurer and Principal, Rebecca Joseph Consulting

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Registration for this event is required.  The cost of the event is $20 for DER members and $40 for non-members.   (NOTE: To receive the discounted members' rate, you must sign in to your account before registering.)  Click here to join DER or renew your membership!!  Registration deadline is Thursday, January 13th at 5 PM!

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Cancellation Policy: If you contact us to cancel your registration before the deadline (01/13 at 5pm), you may receive credit towards a future event. If you cancel your registration after the deadline, the payment will be considered a tax-deductible donation to DER. Thank you for your support!

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Venue:  This social event will be held on a virtual Zoom.  Final details will be sent to all registrants the evening before the event, 01/13 by 8 PM from DER's Administrative Director. A reminder will be sent to each registrant the morning of  our panel to each registrant's email address from administrator@dersf.org.  Please be sure to check your SPAM or Junk folder for the Zoom information or contact administrator@dersf.org if you have NOT received an email with your event details and information the morning of our social event.