March 2016—
13
7:00 pm—9:30 pm

When: March 13, 2016 | 7-9:30 p.m. EST
Where: Sofitel Hotel | 120 S. 17th St. | Philadelphia, PA 19103
Please join us from 7-9:30 p.m. on March 13 at the Sofitel Hotel in Philadelphia for a screening of the documentary film If You Build It, followed by a conversation with filmmakers Christine O’Malley (Wordplay; I.O.U.S.A.) and Neal Baer (ER; Law & Order: Special Victims Unit).

Register now (funders only; deadline to register is March 7)
Media and communications will be a strong recurring theme at the Funders’ Network’s annual conference, which this year includes an opening plenary produced by The Moth, a keynote address by noted architecture critic Inga Saffron from the Philadelphia Inquirer, and a panel discussion with media funders and journalists. Learn about the power of media to document impact and stimulate change in your communities with master storytellers O’Malley and Baer. In partnership with Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, this special gathering will take place immediately following the welcome reception for the 2016 annual conference of the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served prior to the screening.
If You Build It follows designer-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller to rural Bertie County, the poorest in North Carolina, where they work with local high school students to help transform both their community and their lives. Living on credit and grant money and fighting a change-resistant school board, Pilloton and Miller lead their students through a year-long, full-scale design project that does much more than just teach basic construction skills; it shows 10 teenagers the power of design-thinking to re-invent not just their town, but their own sense of what’s possible. Directed by Patrick Creadon and produced by O’Malley and Baer, If You Build It offers a compelling and hopeful vision for a new kind of classroom in which students learn the tools to design their own futures.
Register now (funders only; deadline to register is March 7)