NonProfit NewsPod: Philanthropy Summit 2026 - That's a Collective, Collaborative, Communicative Wrap!

Jeff Holden: [00:00:00] Welcome to this nonprofit podcast, NewsPod, where we amplify the voices of nonprofit leaders making a difference in their communities. And that is our community today, the greater community of Sacramento. I'm joined by Kelly Siefkin, chief philanthropy officer at our Sacramento Region Community Foundation, and she is gonna be sharing some incredible information that's a wrap-up of the Philanthropy Summit, the third annual Philanthropy Summit.

Kelly, welcome. 

Kelly Siefkin: Thank you so much, Jeff. 

Jeff Holden: So it was an amazing day. I mean, the weather couldn't have been any better. The venue couldn't have been any better, especially for the first time in the organization and the ease of navigating everything. Let's dive in. Y- first, you, [00:01:00] Kerry, Kerry Wood, the CEO of the organization, the entire team at the Sacramento Region Community Foundation have got to be beaming with joy, proud, probably a little bit of exhaustion as well, after the event.

Uh, give us kind of a high-level overview of what you saw. 

Kelly Siefkin: I think all of the above were incredibly proud that the event was so successful. To bring in over 600 individuals for a day at a new venue, you know, we've taken feedback from the last couple of years. We made sure that we had food throughout the day for everybody.

We made sure that there was parking. We made sure that it had accessibility options. We put a lot of effort into the AV, so hopefully we're putting off a really well-produced and smoothly run event for our community. I've heard really great things from attendees about the quality of the education sessions, the connections that were made, and I'm, I'm really, really proud that the tiny team was able to, to work to offer this for the Sacramento region.[00:02:00] 

Jeff Holden: Tin- tiny but mighty. I will say that- 

Kelly Siefkin: Oh, great ... 

Jeff Holden: just to concur with what you were j- just, uh, exemplifying, it was very easy to navigate- Did league of our jobs correctly. ... as an audio platform, you know, and, and, and looking at how everything came across, when I hear, hear bad sound, it just, I can't stand it. It makes me nuts.

It was, it was... Every, every room was great, you know? It was really well done. I didn't even see a single snafu in presentations, you know, unless somebody- Yeah, unless maybe Flickr went the wrong way, but that's a button and operator error 'cause I know I saw a few of those. It really was, and I think everybody saw that and the time and attention to detail that went into it, the, the drinks at the back of the room, the snacks throughout the day.

The boxed lunch was awesome. I, and I know Raley's puts those together. It was wonderful. I had people commenting on the, on the potato chips, "Hey, these are Miss Vickie's. These are great. I love these." So, [00:03:00] all so well done. Were there any real standout highlights that you heard from, from attendees that were saying, "Wow, that was amazing"?

Kelly Siefkin: I think everyone has shared how incredible Cherian's keynote presentation was. I think people really loved, um, having the opportunity to have someone from outside of our region come in and really talk about philanthropy and why people give and, and how we can really reframe how we're thinking about it, either as a donor or as an organization, was really powerful.

A beautiful speaker. I think a lot of people walked away with some nuggets. Something else I kept hearing that was really interesting of the day, while people really liked the education sessions, they loved the time together. So we had a, like, a big stretch in the morning for our coffee break, and people were gathering and talking and exchanging business cards and meeting and brainstorming.

And then in some of the sessions, you would see that everyone was exiting the room, and a few people were staying behind to connect in small groups. So I think that connection piece should not be overlooked. We're, we're helping [00:04:00] build community with nonprofits, with donors, with, with community members. 

Jeff Holden: I, I wanna compliment and applaud you on something that you did do.

Many of these things that we go to, these conferences, these big presentations with breakouts and stuff like that, you have 15 minutes from one to the other. That, that is never enough. It's never enough. You gave us half an hour, in some cases 45 minutes, depending on what it was. It was wonderful because you did have the ability to stop and talk and realize, "Okay, well, we got a few minutes.

Let's stand over here." And, and I know I got engaged in a couple of conversations where I, I, I didn't even make it back into the session because the conversation outside was so necessary, and we had been trying to connect, that that was equally and as valuable as had I made the presentation itself. 

Kelly Siefkin: Great 

Jeff Holden: Aside from all the great content, you mentioned Chirian Koshy.

I learned more about our city of Sacramento in his [00:05:00] presentation on some things that I didn't know about. Now, I knew about the tunnels in the city in Old Sac. I didn't realize we actually raised the buildings 10 feet over the course of a couple years, inches at a time, instead of just building on top of what flooded.

It blew me away. I will be sure to take that tour now as a result of an outsider coming in to tell us about our city. I can't tell you how many people walked out, and we were all saying the same thing. We had no idea. 

Kelly Siefkin: I think it's a great learning opportunity. There's a nonprofit involved that you can participate with on that, and it's a wonderful metaphor to, you know, when, um, challenges arise in the, in the sector, in philanthropy, what we can do, um, to make sure that we can move forward.

So I think his presentation was fantastic, and I'm glad that someone from outside of our region could help, help show all of the incredible things we should be proud of in our city. 

Jeff Holden: Isn't that amazing? And that [00:06:00] he took the time to learn a little bit about the city itself and, and learn some of that history.

And for anybody that hasn't taken that tour, I think you'll be amazed if you didn't know that we raised the buildings 10 feet. Now, that would be Sacramento, too. We seem to do things the harder way, as opposed to just building on top. Well, why, why don't we just raise everything 10 feet, right? Why don't we go that hard route instead of looking at ways that we can make it a little bit simpler?

But it has worked, and it's held, and here we are today, almost 200 years later, looking at it going, "Hey, we still have a tour down there. It hasn't flooded." There was a celebratory breakout session with the Association of Fundraising Professionals. We saw some awards and recognition given out, and, and I'd like you to address that, but I'm going to recognize one, and that was for the Outstanding Fundraising Professional.

It was none other than You. And congratulations. I think it was [00:07:00] well-deserved, and it was so neat to see that you even had your parents there. Congratulations. Walk us through the, uh, the others. 

Kelly Siefkin: Yeah. Uh, the foundation's really honored to partner with the Association of Fundraising Pro- Professionals for the California Capital Chapter, because a day of philanthropy involves a lot of individuals in this sector.

So we had the outstanding changemaker. That's Gary Mizell, the retired CEO of Western Health Advantage. We had the outstanding organization. That was the Sacramento Metro Chamber Foundation Leadership Sacramento program. We had outstanding corporation. That's Sacramento Venture Philanthropy. And outstanding youth in philanthropy, and that was Nathan and Victoria Sweeten.

They are youth volunteers with the Food Literacy Center, and they stole the show. It was such an incredible experience to see young people who are the true future of philanthropy getting involved from such a young age, and we have to remember there's so many ways that you [00:08:00] can take care of one another as a philanthropist, and they're doing that not only with their volunteer time, but the foundation made a, a gift of $500 through AFP for those youth to do what they chose, and they chose to give it to their favorite non-profit 

Jeff Holden: organization.

Wasn't that amazing? The- Incredible ... here's some money for you. Well, we don't, we don't want it. We just... You know, why don't you just write the check over to, to them? That, that was, that was so cute, and seeing them both up on stage. What, uh, 10 and 8 or something like that? I don't recall their ages.

Kelly Siefkin: Youngsters, that's for sure. 

Jeff Holden: Right? It, it, very. And to think, they're speaking to an audience of 600 people up there. They held their own. They did just a- They're fantastic ... wonderful job, and they were so cute. Mm. 

Kelly Siefkin: Yeah. They're doing it right, and I think they are an inspiration for everybody in their community when they don't, when somebody doesn't know where to start.

Start with something that you're passionate about. Start with learning. Start with research. Um, do, do anything that you, that you can to just dip your toe in the [00:09:00] water, because that leads to great opportunity, and that leads to great change, and I think that's what everybody wants in our community, great things to come from it.

Jeff Holden: Gary Mizell, uh, such a deserving individual and, you know, full transparency, Western Health said yes to us when I first went to them with the concept for the Nonprofit Podcast Network. And Gary said, "I love it. I love the idea. I wanna see it take off." And he was there, you know, immediately. So, a- and we worked with Sacramento Venture Partners and, and Brad Squires.

I know he received the recognition up there, and the, the Metro Chamber as well. So it's, it's just... It, it's wonderful to see these organizations that are so deserving, that bring so much to the community to make us a better place in so many different ways. Now, one of the things I'm hearing from people after the fact, and these are attendees too, they're saying, "Hey, do you know if there's gonna be any decks shared, or we'll be able to get any information on what happened?"

Or even for [00:10:00] those who weren't able to attend. 

Kelly Siefkin: For any of the attendees we s- or anyone who had registered, we sent out a email on Thursday that included links to those decks that we were given permission to share. So if anyone, um, who registered was interested, check out that email. There's a link to all of those slide decks.

So we, we hope you, you're absorbing the information, but if you wanna go back and get some reference points, those are really, really helpful. E- 

Jeff Holden: excellent, because there were some great presentations. I know I was in the room just taking pictures of the slides that were up on the, the screens- Yes ... because y- you just don't know, and if I s- if they said it, I didn't hear it, 'cause I was probably talking to somebody or something like that.

But nonetheless, if you missed the event, you really did miss something. A- and every year, and not, not just this year, these have been incredible, but they have gotten better each year for a variety of different reasons. And, you know, I wanna be sure to suggest that next year, Kelly, it, it... There's going to be a [00:11:00] next year, Philanthropy Summit?

We'll be back. Make sure... I'm, and I'm thrilled too. Uh, register right away so that you don't have this issue. Yeah, maybe it'll accommodate a few more people. We know there was room in those rooms, but there's a management part of all of this too. When you get 600 people, that's a lot of people. When you get 800 or 1,000, it changes the dynamic considerably too.

So it may just be 600, but we'll find that out as we get closer to next year. I'm excited for what this portends. I know that I saw you and Carrie at the very end, and i- it's not a moment to sit back. You get a maybe a day of relish the, uh, the accomplishment, but we got another big event coming up again next year, and it's, it's gonna be here before we know it, and that is?

Kelly Siefkin: Big Day of Giving. Coming up May 6, 2027. We're already working on it. 

Jeff Holden: A- and boy, wasn't that a topic of conversation, that $15.4 million? It was everywhere. People were sharing it in a lot [00:12:00] of the sessions. It, it- It was ... it's just amazing what you are doing with the Sacramento Region Community Foundation. That benefits all of the nonprofit community.

Kelly, congratulations again on just an incredible Philanthropy Summit. Appreciate it. You nailed it. The community benefits. Thank you to everyone who made it happen. You're very, very welcome. Thanks for listening. If you like our program, please subscribe, give us a positive review, and share with someone you know, especially this episode.

This Nonprofit Podcast News Pod is a production of Hear Me Now Studio.