History
One of the fastest growing affinity groups in the philanthropic community, Grantmakers In Aging (GIA) today boasts more than 100 members, a vibrant annual meeting, a highquality Web site, assorted elegant publications, and a dynamic network of funders and experts in the field-all focused on strengthening grantmaking for an aging society.
With an energetic professional staff and volunteer Board, GIA has come a long way since its early years. Indeed, the organization has changed and grown from its beginnings as an informal and dedicated group of philanthropic prophets announcing to any who would lend an ear-the "good news" of the coming demographic wave, with all its attendant challenges and opportunities.
GIA's founders have carefully preserved a litany of proceedings, announcements, newsletters and other artifacts that describe the modest beginnings and exciting trajectory of our common work.
Our story commences in April of 1982 with Trudy Cross, at the time a consultant on aging for the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Inspired by an article by Jack Ossofsky, then Executive Director of the National Council on Aging, Cross asked the Mott Foundation for funds to sponsor a preconference meeting on aging issues at the Council on Foundations meeting in Detroit. The monies were appropriated, and 19 people came to the meeting. Fifteen others sent their regrets.
As is still the case today, the meeting heard from an expert in the field (Richard Shute from the Department of Health and Human Services), but focused on information sharing. The gathering enabled foundation executives and staff, many of whom were in their early stages of funding in aging, to exchange knowledge and program ideas. Minutes were ultimately circulated. That summer, Terrance Keenan pulled together a seminal, two-day meeting focused on health care and older adults at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey. This united the group and resulted in a plan moving forward. There was a fall meeting at the Mott Foundation in Flint, Michigan. New connections were forged. A network was born.
With help from Keenan and others, Cross, the consummate organizer and cheerleader, kept the ball rolling, publishing the group's first newsletter in January 1983, and then serving as its editor for another decade. Her literary sophistication included not only this copious prose, but poetry as well. In addition to "hip-hip-hooray cheers," she assembled thoughtful poems to help close subsequent meetings with a rhetorical flourish. As early stalwart Bob Eckardt of the Cleveland Foundation notes, Trudy really helped set the tone."
After a couple of gatherings, the group officially named itself Grantmakers In Aging and settled into a predictable rhythm. There was a meeting at the spring...CONTINUE (PDF)
