// COLLABORATION CHALLENGES

Collaboration Challenges are extended work sessions in which Delegates intensively share missions and common issues around a central question or theme. Topics explore effective multi-dimensional poverty-alleviation strategies. Each 2.5 hour session follows a common format that is designed to elicit a genuine search for collaborative solutions and spark cross-sector insights and partnerships.

Each Collaboration Challenge opens with an aspirational brief or problem statement presented by a Conversation Catalyst, an independent thought leader with relevant expertise. Then, three, interrelated aspects for the stated Challenge are explored and reviewed:

A) Shared Understanding. Delegates refine the collaborative problem with their own institutional perspective in mind, but simultaneously consider the contributions and roles of other stakeholders. Collaborating Contributors, i.e, pre-selected Delegates with specific institutional expertise to offer, explain their mission, theory of social change and, most importantly, what problem they are confronting that attracted them to this Challenge session.

B) Collaborative Thinking. Delegates investigate, brainstorm and imagine solutions within individual policy sectors, between sectors and across sectors. Institutional boundaries are set aside.

C) Forward Planning. Delegates formulate pragmatic action steps to advance collaborative solutions.

Delegates act with generosity of spirit and a maximum amount of institutional cooperation. Lectures, powerpoints, static presentations, speechifying, organizational egos, pitches and filibusters are prohibited.

Collaboration Challenges occur throughout the Opportunity Collaboration. Thirty Challenges can be accommodated. Each Conversation Catalyst is expected to participate in an on-site, first-day training program.

Challenge Topics and Themes

Day One, Saturday, 3:00 pm

Profits and Pitfalls in Social Investing
Profit-seeking investors are employing sustainable social finance models and creative financing tools to address seemingly intractable poverty problems, yet competitive financial returns remain elusive and rare. Beyond microfinance, few social enterprises are profitable, many lack solid management and most are under-capitalized. “Remind people that profit is the difference between revenue and expense. This makes you look smart.” (Dilbert aka Scott Adams). Buyer beware or an asset class with conscience? Are there leverage and marketing opportunities to attract more investors? Catalyze an eco-system for impact investing.
Conversation Catalyst: Ronald D. Cordes, President, Cordes Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: Martin Fisher, Chief Executive Officer, KickStart; Peter H. Johnson, Partner, Developing World Markets; Jan Piercy, Executive Vice President, ShoreBank; Gerhard Pries, President, Sarona Asset Management; Keely Stevenson, Chief Executive Officer, Bamboo Finance USA

The Teaching Company
121 million children worldwide are not in school of which 72 million are of primary school age -- 57% are young girls. For the long-term, life-changing education is the widely-recognized pathway out of poverty for both adults and youth. Building, staffing and sustaining affordable schools for impoverished families requires new models. Government schools? Community-based school districts? Private charter schools? Learning networks? Schools without walls? Educate for all age groups, for all communities.
Conversation Catalyst: Øyvind Aadland, Secretary-General, Strømme Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: Clarke Blynn, Chairman, Nurturing Minds; Martin Burt, Executive Director, Fundacion Paraguay; Adam Weinberg, Chief Executive Officer, World Learning; Sakena Yacoobi, Chief Executive Officer, Afghan Institute of Learning

Brace for Impact! Looking for the Poverty Black Box
In America, airplanes are 45 times safer than autos per mile traveled because a centralized system systematically investigates the cause of each and every airplane accident. Poverty activists, social entrepreneurs, foundations and governments rarely investigate their failures and can be mediocre at understanding their successes. Is a common system of metrics in the poverty sector feasible? Are there desirable alternatives for peer-to-peer accountability and system improvement? What information do we need in the “black box”?
Conversation Catalyst: Anne Marie Burgoyne, Portfolio Director, Draper Richards Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: David Henderson, Chief Executive Officer, Idealistics; Melanie Moore Kubo, Chief Executive Officer, See Change; Katya Smyth, Founder, Full Frame Initiative; Heather B. Weiss, Director, Harvard Family Research Project

Half the Sky is Falling
“WHO estimates that over 500,000 women perish in pregnancy or childbirth annually, a toll that has barely budged in 30 years; 99% of those deaths occur in poor countries. Women aged 15 to 44 are more likely to be maimed or die from male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined. 40% of all pregnancies globally are unplanned or unwanted and almost half of those result in induced abortions. (source: Half the Sky). End gender genocide.
Conversation Catalyst: Jensine M. Larsen, Chief Executive Officer, World Pulse Media
Collaborating Contributors: Patti Chang, Chief Executive Officer, Feed the Hunger Foundation; Susan Plimpton, Chair, Board of Directors, Minnesota International Center; Charles V. "Chip" Raymond, Partner, Hudson Heights Partners; Whitney Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Girls For A Change

UnSocial Entrepreneurs
A common view holds that business creates social and environmental problems and the role of non-profits and government is to clean up the mess. Support for this claim is everywhere: From tainted baby formula to predatory lenders, from oil spills to Wall Street greed. Can for-profit models be used to create widespread positive change? How should the power of markets and financial returns be leveraged to address the world's most pressing problems? With practitioners from across the ecosystem: entrepreneurs, investors and everyone in-between, write the future of social change for the 21st Century.
Conversation Catalyst: Benjamin Rudick, Director, Programs, Schoenfeld Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: Alex Hartzler, Principal, WCI Partners LP & Chair, Sarona Fund; Jordan Kassalow, Chairman, VisionSpring; Todd Manwaring, Managing Director, BYU Economic Self-Reliance Center; Terry Provance, Executive Director, Oikocredit USA; Kim Scheinberg, Founder, Presumed Abundance

Fattening Up the Food Supply
Seventy-five percent of the world's poor, over one billion people, live in rural areas. Agriculture is the largest employer in the developing world. In most developing countries the amount spent on food ranges from 50% to 60% of household income. Does overcoming hunger hinge on slash and burn, ecosystem-destroying agricultural? Is financing smaller, high-end food import companies the overlooked catalytic solution? Link the world's poorest farmers to international markets, strengthen local food systems and sustain eco-friendly agriculture.
Conversation Catalyst: Laura Hattendorf, Portfolio Director, Mulago Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: William “Willy” Foote, Chief Executive Officer, Root Capital; Tony Kalm, Director, One Acre Fund; Florence Reed, President, Sustainable Harvest International; Rachel Zedeck, Managing Director, Medea Group Limited

Day Two, Sunday, 3:00 pm

Jobs at the Base of the Pyramid - 97% of all emerging markets jobs are created by small and medium enterprises, all locally developed. Fair trade and expanded trade campaigns recognize that markets exploit labor and/or discriminate against products from the developing world. Local entrepreneurs with good ideas have three hurdles to overcome: inadequate financial capital (i.e., poor risk assessment or unrealistic collateral requirement by risk-adverse bankers), insufficient human capital (i.e., untrained management or workers) and a shortfall of pragmatic knowledge (i.e., how to secure government permits or subsidies, access regional or overseas markets, etc.). Design robust job creation models for poverty alleviation.
Conversation Catalyst: Marlys Boehm, President, Boehm Gladen Foundation; Ron Boehm, Principal, Boehm Gladen Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: Shashin Chokshi, Director of Education, Moneythink; Ulrich Frei, Executive Director, FUNDES (Foundation for Sustainable Development); Chid Liberty, Chief Executive Officer, Sustainable Global Sourcing; Harold Rosen, Executive Director, Grassroots Business Fund

People: Who Needs Them? - Population and poverty are linked. “The world is growing by 80 million hungry people a year,” (NY Times Magazine, November 22, 2009). “We have been God-like in our planned breeding of our domesticated plants and animals, but we have been rabbit-like in our unplanned breeding of ourselves.” (Arnold J. Toynbee, 20th Century British historian). Women, health, children, education, faith, migration, men, technology, culture, jobs, sex; add the missing change ingredient.
Conversation Catalyst: Musimbi R. A. Kanyoro, Director, Population Program, David and Lucile Packard Foundation 
Collaborating Contributors: Sono Aibe, Senior Advisor, Strategic Initiatives, Pathfinder International; Aaron Charlop-Powers, Special Assistant, U.N. Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti; Jane Roberts, President, 34 Million Friends

Earth, Wind, Fire...Water? - Drinking dirty water kills more people than the world’s hurricanes, floods, tsunamis and earthquakes combined. 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85% of its water, and these 12% do not live in the Third World. Nearly 1.1 billion people (roughly 20% of the world’s population) lack access to safe drinking water. No solution, from governmental or technological, from private sector to civil society, has generated widespread, replicable results. Global public health crisis or $20 billion bottom of the pyramid market opportunity?
Conversation Catalyst: Regina Starr Ridley, Publishing Director, Stanford Social Innovation Review
Collaborating Contributors: Hasan Alemdar, Executive Director, Equality & Opportunity Foundation; Cynthia Koenig, Founder/President, Hippo Water International; Patrice Martin, Practice Lead, IDEO; Lisa Nash, Chief Executive Officer, Blue Planet Run; Anand Shah, Chief Executive Officer, Piramal Foundation/Piramal Water

Asset-Building in America - About 50 million Americans lived in households without consistent access to food (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture). Last year, this hunger number rose by 13 million. 22 million Americans are unbanked; 80% of US micro-entrepreneurs have never received a bank loan. In the midst of the greatest recession and job loss seen by Americans in years, is microenterprise the answer? Build an asset, finance a business, save some money and generate community-based jobs.
Conversation Catalyst: Kenneth Nickerson, Founder & Trustee, Eos Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: Robert E. Friedman, Chair, Board of Directors, Corporation for Enterprise Development; Gina Harman, Chief Executive Officer, Acción USA; Deborah Lindholm, Chief Executive Officer, Foundation for Women; Ben Mangan, Chief Executive Officer, EARN; Claudia Viek, Chief Executive Officer, Calif. Assn. of Microenterprise Organizations

Donors and Donuts - It takes more than free donuts to convince smart high-net-worth people to invest their time, money and expertise in global development. What is the mindset of the rich and engaged? “There are two things people want more than sex and money... recognition and praise.” (Mary Kay Ash, American businesswoman). Without upsetting the balance of institutional power, organizational mission or executive leadership prerogatives, make money the quintessential force multiplier.
Conversation Catalyst: Robert Pattillo, President, Gray Ghost/Rockdale Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: John Anner, Executive Director, East Meets West Foundation; Beth H. Cohen, Director, Global Philanthropists Circle, Synergos; Clare Golla, Senior Vice President, ShoreBank; Randy Allison Hustvedt, Principal, Federal Street Advisors; Susan Cornell Wilkes, President, Adventures in Giving

Someone Isn't Listening - “I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn’t poor, I was needy. They told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy. I was deprived. Then they told me underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged. I still don’t have a dime. But I have a great vocabulary.” (Jules Feiffer, American humorist). Is the language of poverty reduction a joke? Is it poetry for the heart or poverty pornography to shock the conscience? Move your message with social change marketing.
Conversation Catalyst: Karen Kalish, President, Estelle W. & Karen S. Kalish Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: Dana Dakin, President, WomensTrust, Inc.; Philip DeVol, Consultant, aha! Process, Inc.; Mark Marosits, President, Worldways Social Marketing; Gina Miller, Managing Partner, DMD Insight

Day Three, Monday. 3:00 pm

Healthcare Recovery Room - Health and poverty are twin sisters. “Imagine living in a country like Malawi or 35 other African countries, in which you share your doctor with 50,000 others.” (Musimbi Kanyoro, Packard Foundation). To respond, Western public health activists have launched numerous disease-specific programs against malaria, AIDS, guinea worm, TB, etc. Social entrepreneurs have created healthcare franchises covering vision care, pharmaceuticals, women’s reproductive services, anti-malaria bednets, water purifiers, etc. Interventions include education, prevention, diagnosis and treatment services. Design a holistic healthcare delivery program to reach the poor.
Conversation Catalyst: Jose "Oying" Rimon, Senior Program Officer, Global Health Policy & Advocacy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: Andrew E. Barrer, President, U.S. Coalition for Child Survival; Molly Coye, Chair, Board of Director, PATH; Wendy Leonard, Founder, The Ihangane Project; Jocelyn Wyatt, Social Innovation Lead, IDEO

The Art of Economic Sustainability - Artistic and cultural traditions are economic assets. Historically, art and ethnic craft-based economic development has focused on financing, supply chain development and marketing to Western consumers and, significantly, operated independently of other poverty programs and rarely on a financially sustainable basis. “An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.” (Andy Warhol, American pop artist). Within the larger anti-poverty movement, paint a picture of economic prosperity for marginalized indigenous artists.
Conversation Catalyst: Emily A. West, Executive Director, The West Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: Judith Espinar, Creative Director, Santa Fe International Folk Art Market; Lars Erik Harv, Microfinance Director, Strømme Foundation; James A. Richardson, Executive Director, National Rural Funders Collaborative; Nina Smith, Executive Director, GoodWeave USA

Client and Community-Centered Financial Services - Microfinance doesn’t clear land mines, save rain forests or stop global warming. It is not the next Industrial Revolution. “There are 350 varieties of shark, not counting loan and pool.” (L.M. Boyd, American journalist). Just what are“best practices” in microfinance and community banking? Scaled to reach millions or scoped to include social performance? Bank the unbanked with social and commercial imperatives in balance.
Conversation Catalyst: Sean Foote, Founder, Principled Capital
Collaborating Contributors: Monique Cohen, President, Microfinance Opportunities; Christopher Dunford, President, Freedom from Hunger; James Gutierrez, Chief Executive Officer, Progreso Financiero; Donna Katzin, Executive Director, Shared Interest

Money Taboos: Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine - Money is power. And, talking about the power of money remains a sensitive topic for funders and poverty activists alike. For some, the fundraising dance squeezes out creativity and frankness. “You never suffer from a money problem, you always suffer from an idea problem.” (Robert H. Schuller, American televangelist-pastor). For others, it monetizes and cheapens the funder-grantee relationship. “A foundation is a large body of money surrounded by people who want some.” (Dwight Macdonald, American social critic). Construct a pragmatic, yet graceful, financial conversation.
Conversation Catalyst: Amy Herskovitz, Executive Director, Pershing Square Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: Jim Fruchterman, Chief Executive Officer, Benetech; Maurice Miller, Chief Executive Officer, Family Independence Initiative; Scott Miller, Chief Executive Officer, Move the Mountain Leadership Center; Terry Odendahl, Chief Executive Officer, Global Greengrants Fund

Millennial Generation Social Entrepreneurs - The next generation of change agents are at our doorstep, ready to step up. Unfettered by old paradigms about economic development, they seek the end of poverty as a mission, as a career path and as a matter of global justice. Tempered by hands-on local and international public service, they embody a global conscience about poverty and a keen sense of personal ownership for a better world. Build the infrastructure to catalyze this force for good.
Conversation Catalyst: Dave Peery, Executive Director, Peery Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: T.J. Cook, Executive Director, HiDef Web Solutions; Jonny Dorsey, Executive Director, Global Health Corps; Saul Garlick, Executive Director, ThinkImpact; Kate Raftery, Vice President, Education & Leadership, International Youth Foundation

Poverty and Pollution: The Poisonous Pair - Human habitat loss is now a pressing reality. Homo sapiens at all income levels are learning firsthand what it feels like to be on the road to extinct species status. In the energy field, to cite just one example, system-wide macro solutions, like community solar panels, and individual micro products, like solar ovens, abound to save the planet. Should survival-status environmental concerns be urgently confronted before poverty is addressed? How long should the poor sacrifice? Design a win-win ecosystem embracing ecologically sustainable and economically growing communities.
Conversation Catalyst: John Swift, President, Swift Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: April Allderdice, Chief Executive Officer, Microenergy Credits; Robert Freling, Executive Director, Solar Electric Light Fund; Glenn Page, Chief Executive Officer, SustainaMetrix; Shaun Paul, Executive Director, EcoLogic Development Fund

 Day Four, Tuesday, 9:00 am

Conscience of a Capitalist - “When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, I am called a Communist.” (Archbishop Dom Helder Camara, Brazil). “America…simultaneously operated a market economy marked by both capitalism and slavery for more than two centuries.” (Lester Thurow, economist). “He that is of the opinion that money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.” (Benjamin Franklin, 18th Century American statesman). Formulate an ethical, robust marketplace for anti-poverty investments.
Conversation Catalysts: Patrick Gleeson, Chief Executive Officer, Meyer Family Enterprises; Bonny Meyer, Principal, Meyer Family Enterprises
Collaborating Contributors: Shari Berenbach, Chief Executive Officer, Calvert Social Investment Foundation (& 2010 Achievement Award Recipient); Pamela Davis, Chief Executive Officer, Nonprofits Insurance Alliance Group; Brigit Helms, Chief Executive Officer, Helmshart Inc.; Peter H. Johnson, Partner, Developing World Markets; Erin Mote, Manager, Resource Development, CHF International

One-by-One or Many-by-Many? - Growth and economies of scale, both to achieve cost efficiencies and to reach more of the poor, are drivers for nonprofit and for-profit social enterprises alike as well as numerous funders. For village-based and neighborhood community programs, who are the backbone of so many poverty efforts, is the call for scale self-defeating or financially liberating? “I am because WE are.” (African proverb). Define what is the WE between international NGOs and local community NGOs.
Conversation Catalyst: Mauricio Vivero, Executive Director, Seattle International Foundation
Collaborating Contributors: William M. Abrams, President, Trickle Up; Leah Barker, Chief Executive Officer, Choice Humanitarian; Peter Laugharn, Executive Director, Firelight Foundation; Brian Lehnen, Executive Director, Village Enterprise Fund

The Fishy Part of Scaling Up - Without larger solutions commensurate with the enormity of the poverty challenge, the poor will always be with us. Talk is cheap and often theoretical. The cross-cutting hurdle for providers and funders is tactical tools for growing organizational impact, scope and scale. Pragmatically as well as strategically, examine the challenges to scaling anti-poverty organizations.
Conversation Catalyst: Randall Kempner, Executive Director, Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs
Collaborating Contributors: William Bloomfield, Partner-in-Chief, Civic Strategies Partners; Jason Fairbourne, Chief Executive Officer, Fairbourne Consulting Group; Sean Kline, Executive Director, Reach Global; Timothy Prestero, Chief Executive Officer, Design that Matters

Show Us the Money! - As sure as death and taxes, the need to fundraise remains a constant of the nonprofit leader's life. The traditional model is a "each nonprofit for itself" scramble, leading to an inevitable sense of competition between agencies operating in the same space. Is there a different way? This session will explore creative new ideas for collaboration, especially in the key aspects of fundraising that each nonprofit struggles to do well by itself: building marketing capacity, raising awareness, and penetrating the "noise." Conclude with very practical steps to take to build an approach that "shows US the money."
Conversation Catalyst: Curtis Chang, Chief Executive Officer, Consulting Within Reach
Collaborating Contributors: This special interactive Challenge will engage all participating Delegates as co-contributors.

Global Collaboration = Ixtapa Impact - 53,000 workers in the Ixtapa area do not earn an income, forcing the area’s youth to head to "el norte" to find work and send money home. This trend has meant zero population growth over the last 20-30 years. Three local economic development projects will be reviewed: (1) Playa Viva is a luxury, environmentally-conscious resort; (2) a certified organic produce cooperative sells to a U.S. organic foods distributor; (3) Sociedad Cooperativa de Productores de Sal is an artisanal salt cooperative. I-DEV International, Playa Viva and the Opportunity Collaboration have prepared a review of investment opportunities for each social venture. The real time issues these local SME businesses face are characteristic of local economic development projects the world over. Invest your entrepreneurial ideas and resources locally.
Conversation Catalysts: David Leventhal, Chief Executive Officer, Playa Viva; Jason Spindler, Managing Director, I-DEV International; Social entrepreneurs from the Ixtapa community

Imagining Economic Justice - In a bucolic, relaxed setting among trusted colleagues and fellow change-makers, fresh ideas, values, relationships and resources flow more freely. What are the power sources, the leverage points, to change poverty? “What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.”(Aristotle). What are the powerful social innovations that merge democratic representation, community-building and inclusive economic systems? Are we against poverty or for economic growth? Re-imagine a world without poverty.
Conversation Catalyst: Karen Keating Ansara, Fund Advisor, Ansara Family Fund (Boston Foundation)
Collaborating Contributors: Diana de Castro, Director, Investor Relations, Terra Nova Regularizações Fundiárias; Milka Dinev, Project Director, Pathfinder International; Tom LePage, Senior Director, Chalmers Center for Economic Development, Covenant College; Nell Merlino, Chief Executive Officer, Count Me In