2018 GPC Members Meeting
2018 GPC Members Meeting
New York, United States, May 9, 2018
Building Trust for Philanthropic Impact
“In order to get impact in the world, we need collaboration. People need to be able to work together effectively. And in order to get collaboration, we need bridging leaders. Leaders who reach out across divides.”
- Peggy Dulany
Over 110 GPC members, experts, and staff convened for the Members Meeting in New York on May 9th, 2018. This meeting brought together a diverse group of philanthropists and social investors, spanning five continents and 21 countries.
The meeting was comprised of interviews, keynotes, breakout sessions, and member insight talks, and allowed for the participants to connect and exchange ideas with each other - increasing members' knowledge and capacity to act effectively, find inspiration, and explore possibilities for collaboration.
Resources
Welcome and Framing Remarks: Building Trust for Philanthropic Impact
Peggy Dulany, Founder and Chair Synergos
Innovations in Education
Carlos Rodríguez-Pastor, Founder, Innova Schools
Carlos Rodríguez-Pastor, GPC Member and founder of Nexus Group, InRetail, and most recently the Innova School program, spoke to fellow GPC Members regarding innovations in education across Peru. Awardee of the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award, Carlos spoke about his goal to eventually help Peru become a thriving developed country. “I had to figure out where to start. I needed to identify what was the keystone that could maybe help change the country around”.
As a Bridging Leader, Carlos explained the need to open your eyes and look around and ask a lot of questions. “Our goal is to change Peru. I know it's a lofty goal. But I’d like to do it in my lifetime. And the keystone for us is education. I think that's where it all starts. We are very aware of our challenges. And we have to think differently along the way”.
To date, Carlos has opened 49 schools across Peru, with 2,000 teachers and close to 37,000 students.
GPC Member Insight Talks
Jeannie Blaustein, Founding Board Chair, Re:Imagine
Jeannie Blaustein is deeply committed to issues related to End of Life care and practices in this country. Founding board chair or Re:Imagine, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating evocative citywide community-driven events about end-of-life designed to transform our thinking, our living, and our dying. During her insight talk, Jeannie shared her experiences with End of Life care and education. “I think what we have to reimagine is how to live fully as mortal beings. Death will teach us a lot about life if we let it. In the face of death, the best and most healthy orientation is indeed to be joyful”.
Elizabeth Tanya Masiyiwa, Co-Founder, Simba Education
During her insight talk, Tanya Masiyiwa explained that once you take responsibility to change and shape communities where you make the people that you’re helping part of the solution; where you give them a voice and you continue to give them dignity, only then you can transform the lives of many. In order to make a difference, you have to understand the need of the people you wish to help.
The need that Tanya has chosen to tackle through Simba Education, is accessible quality education for African students. Simba is a social enterprise that designs and develops technologies that improve education outcomes. “Technology and innovation have the transformative power to create social impact, and not just any impact; the kind that brings about concrete social change”.
Raza Jafar, Co-Founder, Global Sustainability Network
Raza Jafar, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, provided insight to his fellow GPC members regarding his lived experiences and work surrounding the Sustainability Development Goals. Founder of the Global Sustainability Network (GSN), Raza urges members to be concerned about the dignity of human beings and the dignity of the planet. “We're here to answer the question, and help the structures that make society work, and that we need to hold us together to help them adjust through our network of people sharing commitment, sharing ideas, sharing inspiration”.
Bridging Leadership for Sustainable Impact
Corazon Soliman, Former Minister of Social Development, Philippines
Ernesto Garilao, President, Zeulling Family Foundation
Interviewed by Peggy Dulany, Founder and Chair, Synergos
Corazon Soliman, former Minister of Social Development in the Philippines, and Ernesto Garilao, President of the Zuellig Family Foundation, spoke with Founder and Chair of Synergos Peggy Dulany on their experiences surrounding Bridging Leadership. During their talk, they focused on past successes as well as their personal experiences with inner work and creating sustainable impact through their leadership in the Philippines.
Garilao, when speaking about bridging leadership, explained that “In a sense the process is inner work, although not as deep as you would have wanted it to be. When they link mission to the work, then they bring a lot of energy and passion to the work”. When speaking on building trust with communities on the ground, Corazon explained that “trust building is not just fluffy airy type. It's actual delivery of services that recognizes their dignity and humanity”. This discussion brought up a very relevant question: How can you take the learning from the bridging leadership on a national level, personal level, and build those bridges across cultures and nationalities, so that we as a human community have a better change of successfully managing the opportunities and challenges that we face that are transitional in nature, where no one country can fix this?
Art for Social Impact
Olafur Eliasson, Artist and Founder, Little Sun
Interviewed by John Heller, former Managing Director, Synergos Consulting Services; current CEO, Little Sun
Olafur Eliasson, whose art is driven by interest in perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self, strives to make the concerns of art relevant to society at large. Together with Frederik Ottesen, Eliasson founded Little Sun, a social business and global project which provides clean, affordable light to communities without access to electricity. While speaking with John Heller, Eliasson explained the kind of trust that culture contributes to civil society. Eliasson shared the creation process of Little Sun, and how tangible the ripple effects of providing light to communities really was. “What happened with the Little Sun is that girls spent a lot more time doing homework since the families would not be depending on limited kerosene used primarily by boys, so the boy had 20 percent more homework impact and the girl had 80 percent more housework impact, leading to the fact that she would have a much larger impact”.
Closing Reflection
Peggy Dulany, Founder and Chair Synergos
Breakout Sessions
Refugees and Migration
- Becca Heller, Director, International Refugee Assistance Project
- Marie-Christine Nibagwire, Founder, Saferefugerwanda
Impact Investing
- Christian Lorentzen, Impact Investor
- Henri van Eeghen, Impact Investor
Shifting the Food System
- Richard McCarthy, Executive Director, Slow Food USA
Next Gen Philanthropy
- Leah Hunt-Hendrix, Founder, Solidaire
- Thiciana Zaher, Vice President, Instituto SEB
Bridging Leadership
- Daniel Domagala, Director, Synergos
- Daniela Nascimento Fainberg, Senior Advisor, Global Philanthropists Circle
Collaborative Leadership and Partnerships for Sustainable Impact
- Abera Tola Gada, Synergos Regional Director, Ethiopia
- Kasee Ithana, Synergos Country Director, Namibia