Geri and I laid the foundation for the blog coverage in two posts – the first announcing the blog and Twitter effort and the second outlining several issues that would be raised during the conference.
On the first day of the conference, Geri published a series of posts in response to specific sessions at the conference. She highlighted Robert Steel’s comments on the need for a growth capital system, Gordon Berlin’s presentation on the importance of evidence to justify growth, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey’s luncheon speech on energizing social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders, a panel discussion on readiness to scale, and Judith Rodin’s speech on collaboration and innovation(Judith’s speech is also available here). I summarized the day with an overall review of five issues raised during the first day of the conference.
The second day of the conference offered more breakout discussions and plenary sessions for the conference attendees. Geri highlighted Nancy Roob’s discussion with Greg Dees on the importance of developing collaborative funding partnershipsand a panel discussion that further amplified the need for collaborations. She provided a summary of the seven organizations that participated in the Investment Fair at the conference. And she also provided an overview of David Gergen’s luncheon speech, Dan Heath’s closing presentation on how to ensure the social impact movement sticks, and a thoughtful reflection on the theme of collaboration and private investments. I closed the blog coverage for the day with an overview of the business plan competition winners.
Following the conference, the Ventureneer blog hosted a series of guest posts by other conference participants reflecting on key issues and discussions. Judith E. Katz of On Target Strategies provided two guest posts discussing the elements needed for successful replication of social programs and reviewing a breakout session focused on scaling youth and education programs. Gayle A. Brandel, President/CEO, Professionals for NonProfits, discussed the importance of nonprofit staffing plans for successful scaling, Yves Salama, CEO of CharityMatrix, reflected on the importance of evaluation in business planning for nonprofitsand financing options for impact investments. Geri also included a more detailed overview of the other business plan competitors.
During and after the conference, additional reflections and articles were provided by Nicole Wallace of the Chronicle of Philanthropy on nonprofit challenges for growth and the bumpy partnership between philanthropy and government, Barry Varela of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy & Civil Society at Duke, and Mike Burns of the Nonprofit Board Crisis blog. John Brothers, of Cuidiu Consulting, posted an excellent opinion article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review on including mid to later stage nonprofits in scaling efforts.
Moving forward, we will continue to highlight new posts and conversations emanating from the Social Impact Exchange conference leading up to the next gathering.
Tags: Scaling Social Impact, Social Innovation, Philanthropy, Nonprofits, Social Impact Exchange
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