We are delighted that Gara LaMarche, President and CEO of The Atlantic Philanthropies has accepted our invitation to be this year's keynote speaker. As an internationally recognized leader in the field of philanthropy and advocacy, he often challenges the norms. On the relationship between philanthropy and government for example, he said, "Philanthropy has too often in the last several decades kept an arm's length relationship with government and public policy. That has to change if we are to have any hope of making real progress on many of the leading challenges of our time."

His talk Is There Anything New About Innovation? A Cherished Philanthropic Buzzword will address philanthropy's inclination for "the new" and how that approach has impacted our focus on the most critical issues.

As a major national and international funder, The Atlantic Philanthropies are committed to making improvements in the lives of people who need change the most. In keeping with the Giving While Living philosophy of their founder, Charles "Chuck" Feeney, co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers, they believe in making large investments to help solve urgent social problems now, so they are less likely to become larger, more entrenched and more expensive challenges later on. To that end, Atlantic will become the largest foundation in history to spend down their endowment. Since its founding in the early 1980s, they have made grants totaling more than $5.5 billion. More about The Atlantic Philanthropies.