Van Milligen Speaks at America Forward Washington Forum
November 17, 2011
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Nancy Van Milligen, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque (CFGD) was a featured speaker at the America Forward Washington Forum, held November 16-17 in Washington, D.C. The event focused on leveraging local results to achieve national impact and also included presentations by Melody Barnes, director of the Domestic Policy Council; Jonathan Greenblatt, special assistant to President Obama and director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation; and Peter Wehner, former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush and director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives and current senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Van Milligen’s presentation concentrated on addressing social problems at the local level through collaborative, impact-driven initiatives. She focused on the Community Foundation’s work in Dubuque, Allamakee, Clayton and Delaware counties and presented the Rebuilding Rural Livelihood effort, a framework designed to support four core strengths of healthy communities—leadership, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and youth engagement—and to create plans for their sustainability. Rebuilding Rural Livelihood seeks to address the issues currently challenging rural community leaders, including the decline in population resulting from the consolidation of farms and businesses, as well as the out-migration of young people and the loss of capital assets.
CFGD supports Rebuilding Rural Livelihood by providing philanthropic expertise and support. In particular, CFGD is involved in two major projects including convening the Northeast Iowa Funders Network in six northeast Iowa counties and the healthy food and fitness initiative.
“In addition to serving donors and nonprofits, a major role of the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque is to serve as a catalyst for community improvement by convening and creating local partnerships,” says Van Milligen. “The Rebuilding Rural Livelihood effort is making a positive difference in community attitudes, particularly in how communities organizations work together to move development forward.”
Van Milligen’s co-presenters included: Desh Deshpande, chairman of The Sparta Group and founder of The Deshpande Foundation; Emily Tow Jackson, president and CEO of the TOW Foundation; and Blair Taylor, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Urban League. John Bridgeland, president and CEO of Civic Enterprises, a public policy firm in Washington, D.C., facilitated the session.
This is the second time in the past month that Van Milligen has been on the national stage. On October 18, she submitted testimony on behalf of the Council on Foundations as part of the Senate Finance Committee hearing on “Tax Reform Options: Incentives for Charitable Giving,” noting that proposals to cap the charitable deductions would be harmful to philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.