We first introduced you to Jessica Stern, co-founder and COO of Connect Our Kids, when the nonprofit was named winner of the inaugural Innovate for Good Challenge, launched in 2018 at Upswell LA and supported by Accenture and Independent Sector. Innovate for Good is intended to recognize organizations that are leveraging new technology to solve…
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Wouldn’t it be great to meet our six finalists for the 2019 NGen Leadership Award in person? Well you can. They’ll all be on hand at Upswell Chicago, November 13-15! These outstanding next-generation changemakers are all in the running for this prestigious award, presented each year to one emerging changemaker who has demonstrated transformative social…
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Allen Smart, who’ll present the Upswell workshop, “Connecting With Rural Communities,” is a longtime foundation leader and current national rural philanthropy spokesperson who writes, presents, and provokes under his consulting practice, PhilanthropywoRx. He’s an expert on rural communities and philanthropy. He’s got a great speaking voice, too, which he used quite effectively in his past…
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There are some assumptions about rural America and rural philanthropy that need to be addressed. Allen Smart will do just that during his Upswell workshop, “Connecting with Rural Communities.” He knows a thing or two about both, having spent a quarter of a century as a grantmaker with a focus on philanthropic strategy and rural…
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Kimberly Peeler-Allen is the Co-founder of Higher Heights, the only national organization devoted to helping Black women harness their political power and advance progressive policies. In the movement building and fundraising space…well, we could say Kimberly has been around the block a time or two, but that would be a gross understatement. Speaking from 20…
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Remember the 2018 midterm elections? Once all the ballots were counted, the results were touted as historic, and for good reason. In addition to the highest voter turnout rate for a midterm in a century, we saw a number of milestones for women in federal office. While we know there’s still a long road ahead…
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Imagine being in Manhattan, New York. Or Frankfort, Kentucky. Or Anchorage, Alaska. Or any town, really. In any thriving community, there’s an exciting and unexpected rhythm to public activity. You wander down the street and bump into an old friend. Duck into a quirky store and discover a new passion. Have a sudden moment of…
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/ By Robert Jones / It’s 9am on a Monday morning following the July 4 weekend. Not a great time to schedule a meeting, perhaps, but the room is filling up, anyway. Extra chairs are brought in to accommodate participants who thought they couldn’t make it but somehow found the time. These are some of…
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Selecting six finalists for the NGen Leadership Award is never a small feat. Whittling down the cream of the crop from this year’s 52 outstanding applicants was no exception. Each changemaker we considered had a track record of collaborating with others, strong ideas for a better world, and many examples of success in realizing those…
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Luis Gutierrez is founder and CEO of Latinos Progresando, a member of the Upswell Accelerator, and presenter of the Upswell workshop, “A Made-in-Chicago Model for Collaboration.” Find out how his positive outlook impacts his life, his work, and his advice for humanity. Q: If you could have dinner with any living person, who would that…
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