FROM THE PRESIDENT AND CEO
AUGUST 2026

AFN’s lane is future oriented, grounded in reality, community responsive, and focused on what has to be different to aggressively shrink the gaping wealth inequality we are experiencing. In a little over a month, in Philadelphia, we will do that work together at our biennial conference, Igniting Change for Inclusive Prosperity, October 6–8.

We will continue to acknowledge the root causes of inequity and their persistence into the present. Our economic system—along with the public policies and private systems built around it—was designed to benefit the wealthiest sliver of the population, and left unchanged, it will keep doing so at a cost to nearly everyone else, especially workers and children. That must change. We cannot continue to allow inequality to grow where costs keep rising, discretionary income for wealth building keeps shrinking, and the supports to ensure stability keep being reduced. Whether you think about food, gasoline, housing, reliable electricity, water, health care, climate change, education, or a host of other specific challenges to household incomes, the solutions are complex and interrelated and require advancing an expansion of ownership, wealth, and intentional enforcement of justice. It will not be easy since in the eyes of those benefiting from inequality, there is more to take before the economy reaches bottom. Thankfully, many cities and states and philanthropic organizations are fighting back.

In our convening and networking of peers, experts, and our talented staff, we will explore innovation, learn about emerging ideas, reinforce our resolve to act to change the results, and reflect on scaling proven practices. We will name uncomfortable truths and explore solutions we can achieve locally, in communities and state by state. We will also explore ideas that are not yet within reach, and develop the framing, needed investment, and narrative to make them possible. We do this among peers because fundamentally we believe in what informed, committed philanthropy can do in concert with purposeful financial institutions. It can take the risks and provide the funds that support and empower grantees in community. And it can coordinate and at times collaborate to achieve reform patiently with local and state government.

What would it take to build an economy that truly works for everyone? Adair Mosley of GroundBreak Coalition, the $5.4 billion system-changing effort in Minneapolis/St. Paul region, will take that up with AFN board co-chair Camille Emeagwali, Shammara Wright from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and me on the mainstage for Answering the Call: Building a People-Centered Economy.

Zora Neale Hurston wrote that “there are years that ask questions and years that answer.” This year demands answers. Our focus in the end is to achieve an inclusive people-centered economy where:

  • Community voices and goals are heard and incorporated;
  • The expansion of the ownership stake is a widely shared purpose;
  • Capital is far more readily available and affordable for those who have been marginalized or excluded;
  • Small business is supported over the long haul; and
  • Home ownership increases, but so does the ability to smooth out the inevitable challenges from disruptions.

What this all looks like for today’s economy that we live in and are evolving into, as opposed to the job-centered, high federal tax economy of the 1950s and 1960s, is the point.

The process to embrace the future testing of innovation and changing the outcomes will be challenging, since incremental change alone is insufficient. There will be lessons learned and mistakes made in the process of risk taking, and there will be adversity thrown into the path of change. We will need to learn from and not succumb. AFN members have proven their ability and understanding to do that.

We also need to move toward the future vision with urgency and the will to collaborate so that, over the next few years, we effectively launch, build, and produce the tools and realize the pathways for an economy that works for all—especially the currently marginalized and stressed households in rural and urban settings. Doing less will not allow our children, families, workers, small businesses, and local communities to thrive.

That collaboration begins in Philadelphia. We intentionally keep the conference relatively small and limited to funders who are or can be AFN members, because we want a room where everyone is heard and is actively listening. Twenty seats remain, and registration closes September 15. If you are already registered, bring a peer who should be in the room. If you haven’t joined us before, this is the single best opportunity to see the network in action.

Register here.