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South Central Texas Rural Philanthropy is back and on November 3rd 2023, in La Grange Texas with featured speakers from all over Texas. This event will be hosted by the Fayette Community Foundation (FCF), a professional development conference which is designed to alleviate the strain on our local nonprofits. They plan to do so by building their organizational capacity and strengthening their relationships with variety of funders. The goal is that no longer will rural nonprofits have to spend hundreds of dollars to attend professional development conferences miles out of town, because many nonprofit organizations can’t afford the expenses to go. Also joining FCF is Title Sponsor, and the Stanzel Family Foundation in hopes to bring that education local while ensuring it stays affordable for rural nonprofits so they can attend.
In this year’s event (FCF), Fayette Community Foundation is bringing 10 speakers from Texas to host a variety of professional development sessions. The morning block will feature a special deep-dive from speakers Kelty Garbee of Texas Rural Funders and Jerry Kenney of TLL Temple Foundation, who will also lead a forum on community development financial institutions. Educational sessions will address some of the most important topics facing rural nonprofits like, strategic planning, identifying and writing grants specifically for rural support, organizational and governance leadership, financial sustainability, storytelling in marketing, and increasing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). The educational speakers include Eric Erkwuzel of CivicAim, Sequoia Consulting LLC, Krystal Grimes of AMMA Empowerment, Angela Seaworth of Texas A&M University, Amy Allen of Austin Community Foundation, and Bridget Brant of Leander Chamber of Commerce.
For the afternoon block it will include lunch keynote speaker Wynn Rosser, CEO of TILL Temple Foundation, and will discuss the culture of collaboration. Then after him, Colton Strawser leading a in dept grant writing session which will focus on transitioning ideas into impactful ones.
In 2022, the Rural Philanthropy Day brought 166 attendees to Fayette County with 30 funders and 73 nonprofits organizations from all over the state of Texas. For this year it is projected to be 200 attendees from south Texas alone. Feel free to follow the South Central Texas Rural Philanthropy Day Facebook page, so you can stay up to date on all the information for the event. Tickets are limited and can be purchased on the FCF website at, www. faycofoundation.com/rpd. With the growth in popularity of the event, it is projected to sell out this year so it is recommended to buy tickets as soon as possible. If you would like to participate, sponsor or even have a table at the welcome reception, please contact susannah@fayofoundation. com for more information.
