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Friends,
We know that the success in philanthropy relies heavily upon the strength behind our partnerships.
As we celebrate this holiday season, we wanted to be sure to take time to thank everyone in the GPD community — from our grantees to the many friends and colleagues we’ve made along the way. Thank you for joining our mission.
If you work for or know of an organization working toward these goals and would like to explore ways to collaborate with GPD, please don’t hesitate to reach out us directly at jdeblasio@gpdcharitabletrust.org.
Here are some recent updates:
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GPD Celebrates #GivingTuesday
On Tuesday November 28th, GPD celebrated #GivingTuesday with one of our Partner organizations, Syra Direct, for its first-ever crowd funding campaign. As international funding becomes increasingly scarce, Syria Direct launched this campaign to help ensure the continuity of independent media training for Syrian civilians as well as reporting focused on the events unfolding inside Syria.
GPD is proud to commit an additional $5,000 — to match the campaign’s donations from its launch on Monday, November 26th until midnight on Tuesday, November 27th. Please join us in this effort by visiting their website or visit Syria Direct on Facebook.
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El Faro joins GPD as Stardust Grantee
This month, GPD welcomed El Faro, as a GPD Stardust grantee by committing $25,000 to an initiative titled, “The stories about Central America for people in the U.S.” The project’s mission is to publish journalistic stories about Central America in English for a United States academic and NGO audience in an effort to increase understanding of the social and political dynamic of the Central American region.
El Faro is a Salvadoran media outlet that has been reporting on El Salvador and the region since 1998. It is specialized in investigative journalism and focuses on themes like migration, violence, organized crime, impunity and the political processes of the countries in the region. During the last years, El Faro has become a multiplatform project that publishes videos, documentaries, chronicles, podcasts, books and produces a bi-weekly radio program.
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PHOTO: John Korbel and John DeBlasio
The University of Dinner hosts Annual Korbel Dinner
GPD Partner, the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, recently hosted its annual Korbel Dinner in Denver, Colorado. The philanthropic impact of the Korbel Dinner benefits the school's programs, scholarships, and research centers, which are designed to serve our students and the community at large. This years program featured a conversation about the state of international diplomacy with two former Secretaries of State, John Kerry, and Madeleine Albright.
In 2012 GPD pledged two million dollars over ten years to launch and establish the Center for Middle East Studies (CMES) at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. CMES generates scholarly research and fosters public understanding of the Middle East and the broader Islamic world’s societies, political systems, and international relations through dialogue and debate on the contemporary politics of the region. The first academic center of its kind in Colorado, CMES focuses specifically on the relationship between Islamic societies and democracy in the context of the modern Middle East and supports the concept that democratic governance can and will emerge in the region.
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GPD Fosters New Partnership between WorldDenver and DU Latin America Center
With the support from the GPD Trust, WorldDenver partnered with the DU Latin America Center during the 2017-2018 academic year and brought several high-caliber events to both the DU campus and the Denver community.
These events included:
• US Ambassador to Ecuador Todd Chapman, which took place on March 13, 2018
• Two day symposium on Puerto Rico which took place from April 15-16, 2018.
• A Mexico Security Panel, “US Mexico Relations: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” which took place May 3, 2018
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Iraq Leadership Fellows Program Graduate
With the support of GPD Charitable Trust and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Iraq Leadership Fellows Program successfully graduated the first cohort of Fellows in June 2018. The 2017/2018 class of Fellows met three times for intensive and participatory training in advocacy, campaigning and leadership skills. The training sessions were led by a world-class, Harvard-educated instructor and featured high-level guest speakers. As part of the training, Fellows devised and launched their own campaigns, enabling them to immediately put their new skills into practice. In between sessions, fellows received one-to-one mentoring to help them to further develop their campaigns and to troubleshoot emerging issues.
Upon completion of the Fellowship, Fellows joined the alumni network and continue to be offered opportunities for further development and support for their campaigns. The Fellows program enabled three of the highest achieving Fellows to participate in an international conference on Middle East affairs in February and August 2018. Three further Fellows have been selected to attend the Perennial Fellows Program in Seattle in October 2018. A range of Fellows have been introduced by Fellowship staff to Iraqi and international mentors and contacts to help them further develop their campaigns and their careers. The best campaigns have been offered opportunities for potential financial assistance. The Fellows have also been active in recommending candidates for the 2018/2019 Fellowship Program.
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For updates on our activities with GPD’s smaller grantees, please visit the Stardust Fund page.
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