Published: June 2009
Speakers and panelists from the worlds of finance, philanthropy, and academe addressed a range of issues relating to “Wealth and Giving in the Current Economic Crisis,” which was the subject of a two-day conference sponsored by the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and the Eaton Vance Investment Council. A June 9 session in the Heights Room titled “What Do We Do Now?” featured (from left) Dean Schooler of the Schooler Family Foundation; Thomas Murphy ’50, founder of the T.B. Murphy Foundation Charitable Trust; Carmel Shields ’81, executive vice president of Shields MRI and the Shields Health Care Group; and moderator Paul Schervish, sociology professor and director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. “People were cautiously optimistic about a turnaround in the recession and the stock market,” said Schervish in describing the tenor of the discussion. “But they were cautiously pessimistic about how soon that will translate into a restored confidence and capacity on the part of donors.”