Past Gatherings
The idea for the Gathering of Leaders first emerged in 2004 when a small group of social entrepreneurs shared their mutual frustration with the current pace of social change in America. These innovators had built high-performing, results-focused organizations, yet remained dissatisfied with their impact.
One had considered running for Senate, another moving to the for-profit sector, and yet another experimenting with a new organizational model, all in an effort to increase their ability to create social progress. But as they compared experiences, they began to wonder if they could be more effective by finding ways to dialogue and work together.
Thus the Gathering of Leaders began—an annual event bringing together social entrepreneurs and leaders from across sectors to work beyond the bounds of individual organizations and building community to increase social impact.
With an advisory board of social entrepreneurs, input from partners like the Monitor Institute, and essential financial support from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, New Profit launched a year of preparation.
Beginning with a focus on social entrepreneurs committed to scaling social innovation, the advisory board set out to identify a diverse group of other leaders from across sectors who could help to challenge assumptions, generate new ideas, and contribute to the dialogue.
The first Gathering of Leaders, held in February of 2005, brought together just 80 participants. They worked together across three days to explore how to balance efforts to scale high-impact nonprofit organizations with efforts to engage the policy and market forces that could dramatically increase the impact of social entrepreneurs' work.
Having completed its sixth year, the Gathering of Leaders community has grown to include more than 370 social entrepreneurs and other leaders from business, government, philanthropy, academia, and the nonprofit sector. Of that number, 160 or so meet in person each year. Together this community has forged new cross-sector partnerships, established new relationships with individual and institutional funders, shared tools and practices to address human capital management challenges, and coordinated efforts to bridge the social entrepreneur community and policymakers who are shaping the next domestic agenda.
To learn more about what happened at each Gathering visit the year at-a-glance pages.
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