Inyathelo Philanthropy Symposium has top US speaker

The aim of the Inyathelo symposium is to discuss the new global culture of giving, philanthropic trends and encouraging clients to become active in philanthropy.

RPA is one of the world's largest philanthropic service organisations and manages over US$ 200 million in grants each year to nearly 70 countries. The non-profit organisation was developed by the Rockefeller family, as its private philanthropy service and traces its roots to John D. Rockefeller, Sr., who in 1891 began to professionally manage his philanthropy "as if it were a business."

Philanthropy has attracted much international interest and prominence since high profile American billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill Gates pledged to commit more than half their fortunes to good causes. Their campaign to convince others to do the same has created awareness around the world and philanthropic activity is now becoming an integral part of financial planning.

Page leads staff dedicated to helping individual donors, charitable institutions and corporate foundations to develop strategies, manage grant-making programmes and assess their impact. He and his team administer programmes in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and the US. He leads RPA's donor outreach programmes in Africa and Europe as well as its social investing practice. He chairs the Advisory Committee of the Gateway Financial Innovations for Savings (GAFIS) project, an effort to engage selected financial institutions in the development of savings products for the poor and unbanked in Colombia, India, Kenya, Mexico and South Africa.

With over 30 years of non-profit leadership experience, his career has been largely focused on issues of poverty alleviation, community development and family financial security. Prior to joining RPA, he served in the Ford Foundation's rural poverty and economic development programmes with a portfolio that included public-private partnerships and programme-related investments. He also co-founded the foundation's Affinity Group on Development Finance, an 11-country research and grant-making collaborative.

Page serves as a Trustee of the Carbon Disclosure Project, a UK-based non-profit global climate change reporting system utilized by over 3000 organisations in 60 countries. He chairs the board of Community Resource Group, a US non-profit organisation that develops safe drinking water, affordable housing and consumer finance services in poor rural communities. He has a B.S. and M.S. degrees from the School of Community Economic Development at Southern New Hampshire University.

For more information on the symposium, email Amanda Bloch on or call +27 (0)82 377 3458.