Opportunity Collaboration Summit
October 17th-20th, 2009, Ixtapa, Guerrero, Mexico
The Opportunity Collaboration is a learning, teaching, and networking summit amongst and for foundation trustees/executives, social investors, entrepreneurial nonprofit leaders, policy thought leaders, and social entrepreneurs. The Collaboration’s focus is economic justice and poverty alleviation. The registration fee is 4,250 USD for early-bird registration, which includes: all elements of the Collaboration agenda, room and board (5 nights lodging, 3 meals per day), internet access, airport shuttle service, gratuities, etc. A delegate’s only other expense is airfare. The early-bird discount expires on March 30, 2009.
Applications for the 2009 Collaboration are now being accepted. Review the delegate application criteria and apply now. Further details regarding contact information, organizers, and sponsors have not yet been made available.
More about the Opportunity Collaboration
Confirmed delegates to date – 68 foundation trustees/executives, social investors, entrepreneurial nonprofit leaders, policy thought leaders, and social entrepreneurs.
Economic Opportunity Achievement Award – Mary Houghton, Co-Founder & President of ShoreBank Corporation and Chair of ShoreBank International is the 2009 honoree. Delegates and Mary’s friends are invited to celebrate her life and work.
Collaboration Chancellors – Calvert Social Investment Foundation, Global Philanthropy Forum, Social Venture Network, Stanford Social Innovation Review (Stanford Center for Social Innovation), Women Donors Network, Worldways Social Marketing, and Convening Coordinator Jonathan C. Lewis.
Conversations for Change – Four-day marketplace of exemplary projects, programs, social investments, case studies, social change ventures, and partnering opportunities that have achieved “proof of concept.” All Conversations are proposed and presented by delegates.
Colloquium for the Common Good – Senior executive seminar about the transcendent principles that drive poverty alleviation. Refine executive judgment, explore the interdependence of systems, and set the collaborative stage for sustainable social change. Delegates think realistically about the nature of economic justice and what makes a “good” society.
Delegate Application Criteria
Whether in the nonprofit or for profit sectors, successful delegates have evidenced in their actions, careers, and leadership styles the following characteristics and intangible qualities:
Passionate tenacity – The entrenched scourge of poverty will not be ended by small-thinking or starry-eyed proclamations. The Collaboration depends on delegates who are tough, determined, and intrepid.
Pragmatic vision – Change agents and social entrepreneur respect that good ideas are not enough. The Collaboration depends on delegates who are doers, administrators, businesspeople, implementers, and managers in the service of visionary ideas.
Multi-dimensional thinker – The causes of poverty are not compartmentalized and neither are the cures. The Collaboration depends on delegates who can comfortably present their parochial institutional perspective and needs without abandoning their ability to problem solve in an interdisciplinary way.
Adaptive leadership – Leadership requires, amongst many skills, the capacity to listen attentively to stakeholders and to change direction when needed. The Collaboration depends on delegates who realistically challenge assumptions and can make mid-course organizational corrections.
Team player – Sharing recognition is a cornerstone of successful team-building, yet in the quest for donor or social investment dollars, some organizational leaders adopt a winner-take-all, ego driven posture. The Collaboration depends on delegates who care more about ending poverty than in claiming credit.
Non-ideological activism – Altruism by itself is meaningless, and ideology is not an end point. The Collaboration depends on delegates who gravitate towards pragmatic, market driven, evidenced based problem solving over windy theoretical discussions.
By Yanni Hao
Additional Resources:
Opportunity Collaboration Summit
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