About FutureLab: An Online Challenge for the Nonprofit Community to Chart a Vibrant 2020
The goal of the FutureLab is to help the nonprofit and philanthropic community sector build a better 2020. By providing a forum to share big ideas and identify common goals, it will strengthen the sector at large and increase our individual and collective impact.Joining the online challenge will enable you to share and get feedback on your ideas, as well as contribute to the sector's collective thinking.
This conversation is designed to be valuable to all organizations. Leaders from across the sector will share and find insights that can inform planning and decision making in all types of organizations.
Your contributions — and those of people from across our community — are invaluable to this effort.
Click here for more information, including Frequently Asked Questions.
About the Envisioning Our Future Initiative
This Online Challenge is part of the Envisioning Our Future initiative.The enormous demands of today make it easy for nonprofit and foundation leaders to focus on the immediate needs of the communities we serve. However, ambitious goals and a dynamic environment require that we think long-term.
Envisioning Our Future aims to engage the sector in an open and provocative conversation that will help us all shape a more desirable 2020 for our organizations and the communities we serve. This initiative focuses on strengthening the nonprofit community at large, rather than on individual causes or missions.
What actions can we take now — individually and collectively — to significantly increase the impact of the nonprofit community in the future?
The goals of Envisioning Our Future include:
- Identifying and developing high-impact ideas and insights that have the potential to transform the charitable community in the next 10 years.
- Generating and sharing publicly those insights and strategies so that organizations can contribute to and draw on collective wisdom to inform their own decision-making.
- Building networks and strengthening relationships by breaking down existing barriers and facilitating new connections around common goals.
The StrategyLab brought together 76 diverse leaders from nonprofits, foundations, and our stakeholders. Their insights and ideas culminated in nine important conversations that fall into two major categories. One focuses on inclusion: who is engaged in the work of the nonprofit community and the need to better use the richness and diversity of the sector to ensure that all our leaders and organizations are fully integrated and able to leverage their contributions. The second concentrates on how the sector does its work, which includes the best ways to use technology for social change, to work collaboratively across sectors, and to use outcomes measurement to drive impact. The group also recognized the need to speed the transition to a new 21st century economic model that balances all consequences of economic actions and results in a more equitable and sustainable system.
Together, these ideas have the potential to transform our ability to serve our communities. They represent the starting point for the FutureLab Online Challenge – initial conversation topics and background information for the Online Challenge are drawn from the StrategyLab discussions.
FutureLab sessions at the Independent Sector Annual Conference in November will be another opportunity to discuss these issues in person, and to prioritize and further develop the most transformative ideas.
In early 2010, the best ideas and insights from this process will be summarized and made available to the nonprofit and philanthropic community so that leaders can draw upon our collective thinking to inform and adapt their own work and help to build a better 2020.
About Independent Sector
Independent Sector is the leadership forum for charities, foundations, and corporate giving programs committed to advancing the common good in America and around the world. Our nonpartisan coalition of approximately 600 organizations leads, strengthens, and mobilizes the charitable community in order to fulfill our vision of a just and inclusive society and a healthy democracy of active citizens, effective institutions, and vibrant communities.Independent Sector serves as the premier meeting ground for the leaders of America's charitable and philanthropic sector. Since our founding in 1980, we have sponsored groundbreaking research, fought for public policies that support a dynamic, independent sector, and created unparalleled resources so staff, boards, and volunteers can improve their organizations and better serve their communities.
Discover the principles behind our work through our vision, mission, and values statements, and learn more at our website www.independentsector.org.
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