Guest post by Peter Drury, director of development of A Child's Right.

Here’s what happened over lunch today: Catalyze, Epiphany, Lead!

Catalyze
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel warmed up Monday's luncheon crowd by addressing leadership that convenes and catalyzes government, business and philanthropy to work together to change our communities – rather than to ponder platitudes, to take our time, or to sabotage community success due to our collective log jams or impasses.

Epiphany
Intellectual sparks really started flying when Sojourn Theatre performed – indeed, ex-formed – an interpretive presentation of the very words and ideas floating around this conference. Listening in both hallways and meeting rooms, Sojourn picked up the pulse of our dialogue, then gave our words back to us through a clear and compelling artistic statement.

Although difficult to point to evidence-based outcomes (beyond robust laughter and a collective silence appearing to indicate gravitas) it seemed darn clear that the Sojourn performance did more than hold up a mirror. They handed us our mirrors and expected us to reflect on their meaning, as well as their challenge.

Lead!
Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector, then spoke to the role of government in the USA’s social compact – as well as the implications and imperatives this bears for strategically minded organizations and philanthropists. Specifically, to re-write it!

Aviv invoked Vaclav Havel, who once posited “Building a democracy is like walking toward the horizon…” Noting that the USA has been on this path for 200+ years (but hasn’t made it there yet), Aviv encouraged nonprofits and philanthropists to claim our proper role of engaging, and supporting, this journey toward the horizon. This means, in large part, challenging government to perform in a far more excellent way.

“From global foundations, to local nonprofits, we must let government know that we will not accept stalemate in the issues most critical to a just and humane world,” Aviv implored. “Our sector must pursue the vision of the country we want to create. We cannot wait. For every day passed is a loss for democracy.”

Aviv continued, “We in the independent sector operate where neither government nor business can or do.” To leverage this role well, we must:

1. Launch a national dialogue that explores the kind of society we want and the attendant role of government;
2. To Rewrite the social compact to reflect our highest aspirations as a democratic nation and amore just world;
3. To spark a movement to get people talking about key issues of our times; and
4. To mobilize people to vote and participate more readily in the democratic process.

As a provocative close, Aviv challenged us all to do everything possible, until together “we can make hope and history rhyme!”

The luncheon concluded with a dynamic, interactive conversation that brought forth reflections from the crowd. As has been true throughout this conference, many voices were lifted up in effective and powerful ways. Nobody’s time was wasted, but everybody’s sights were lifted.