Progress Comes Through Collective Action
Register Now! April 3-4, 2014 for the Charities@Work 13th Annual Best Practices Summit on Employee Engagement in Corporate Citizenship.
______________________________________
By Scott Jackson, CEO of Global Impact
I have worked in the international philanthropic sector for more than 20 years. Each day, my colleagues and I have the same goal—get one step closer to raising the resources needed to eradicate poverty the world over. The challenges we face as we try to do this are formidable. Despite the enormous strides we have made towards this goal in the past few decades, much remains to be done. So how do we tackle our problems? Two words: collective action.
The problems we face are too great for any one group to take on alone; we need collective action to tackle these issues. While we’ve known for some time that multi-sector partnerships and collaboration are necessary to deal with challenges like global poverty, disease and gender-based violence, the tools or outlets for organizations to work together can be inefficient or worse yet, nonexistent. A variety of organizations are working to bridge this gap, including two with which we partner, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize Laureates Collaborative and Clinton Global Initiative.
Another promising opportunity to create and support collective action lies with harnessing the power of charities that are focused on common issues. To meet this need, Global Impact has created High Impact Funds. These funds bring together under one umbrella organizations that are leaders in specific thematic areas, including women and girls, health, education, disaster relief and clean water. We then leverage this collective action to make a larger scale impact and provide donors, whether it be an individual, a corporation or a foundation, the opportunity to take advantage of these funds so that their gifts and investments go further toward helping those, creating a more lasting impact.
In honor of International Women's Day, which is just around the corner (March 8), we are launching our Women & Girls High Impact Fund. Investing in women and girls is an essential ingredient in bringing an end to global poverty. By investing in a girl, she can lift herself out of poverty and abuse, altering the condition of her family, her community and, ultimately, the world.
Global poverty has decreased over the last three decades, yet the percentage of women living in poverty continues to rise.
_________________________________________________________________________
Join us this spring, April 3-4, 2014 for the Charities@Work 13th Annual Best Practices Summit on Employee Engagement in Corporate Citizenship.
The Annual Charities@Work Summit is one of the country’s leading conferences on employee engagement and corporate social responsibility. Attendees include Fortune 500 companies across all sectors of business, each with philanthropic and employee engagement programs of varying sophistication and a desire to collaborate on best practices for practical improvements.
2014 Summit Theme: Collaborating for Impact
Incorporating various formats, including key note presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and peer-to-peer breakout sessions, topics from this year’s summit will include:
- Building successful cross-sector collaboration initiatives
- Engaging employees in the non-traditional workforces
- How digital culture is transforming philanthropy
- The evolution from workplace giving to employee engagement
