2025 Global Philanthropy
Leadership Summit:
Embracing Risk
The Summit
The 2025 Global Philanthropy Leadership Summit brings together senior leaders and decision-makers across the global philanthropy landscape, as well as key stakeholders from a range of sectors, to explore the theme: "Embracing Risk."
In an era marked by growing complexity, uncertainty and unprecedented challenges, philanthropy has a critical role to play in shaping positive, lasting change. This summit will focus on how taking bold, strategic risks can drive innovation, unlock new pathways to impact, and transform the way we think about giving, investing, and tackling the world’s most urgent issues.
The theme "Embracing Risk" invites participants to re-imagine and re-conceptualize how we define and approach risk in philanthropy. It will challenge us to think beyond traditional risk-aversion and cultivate a culture that encourages bold decision-making for lasting, transformative impact. Through a series of dynamic sessions, we will explore how philanthropy can embrace risk across various sectors, championing and creating a vision for a positive alternative narrative to current ‘polycrisis.’
Context
The global community is increasingly confronting the convergence of deep and entangled challenges emerging with equal levels of urgency. In a complex and uncertain world, where global crises such as climate change, social inequality and political instability demand urgent action, the way philanthropy responds and reacts to these dynamics is critical and has the potential for outsized impact.
At GPF, we’ve developed a framework for understanding this transformative moment, built around three core paradigms. These aren’t just funding areas or thematic topics, but tectonic plates that will reshape the future: Frontier Technology, The Future of Governance and Society, and Climate Change. These will serve as a consistent thread throughout GPF's programming and will evolve alongside the global landscape.
Within that context, the Global Philanthropy Leadership Summit will explore how embracing risk can be a powerful tool for navigating this complexity, fostering partnerships across sectors and borders, and ultimately driving systemic, sustainable impact. The summit will focus on how the philanthropic sector can take bold steps, experiment with new ideas, and challenge the status quo to fulfill its potential as an agent of social change in this moment.
Primary Goals and Objectives:
Facilitate Knowledge-Sharing: Create a space for participants to exchange innovative ideas, learn from real-world examples and gain actionable insights from thought leaders across sectors.
Provide Practical Tools and Insights: Equip leaders with concrete strategies, frameworks and practical tools to embrace risk in their philanthropic investments and practices.
Foster Cross-Sector and Cross-Border Collaboration: Encourage and facilitate partnerships between philanthropy, private sector, public sector and civil society to drive collective action on global challenges.
Create a Safe Space for Challenging the Status Quo: Inspire participants to rethink traditional approaches to philanthropy, encouraging bold, risk-taking leadership to unlock transformative solutions.
Empower Leaders to Act Boldly:
Bridge Divides in Philanthropy: Bring together the full capital stack of philanthropy—foundations, impact investors, social enterprises, and corporate giving—to break down silos and foster collaboration across funding sources for ecosystems strategies.
Emphasize Diverse Perspectives: Prioritize diversity by amplifying underrepresented voices, particularly from the Global South, to ensure that global solutions are equitable and context-specific.
Connect and Continuously Engage: Extend the conversation beyond the summit by integrating insights, collaborations, and discussions into GPF’s year-round programming and digital platform, ensuring continuous ideation, knowledge sharing, and engagement.
Outcomes for Participants:
Actionable Ideas and Recommendations: Concrete strategies, frameworks for embracing risk and creating impactful change.
New Partnerships and Collaborations: Leave the summit with more connections, opportunities for collaboration especially cross-sector and cross-border that you would have otherwise not received if you hadn’t attended the summit.
Increased Capacity for Risk-Taking: A mindset shift towards more bold, adaptive leadership in their philanthropic work.
The Details
Offering optional field trips and additional workshops on Wednesday before the official conference starts.
Conference will start at 4P Wed. March 12 and Thursday 9A-5P plus dinner Friday 9A-5P
Hotel information:
Conference ticket prices and language on diversity/ reach out if the ticket is not accessible etc.
Tickets:
Early Bird: $1,950
Open until January 6, 2025 at 11:59PM PT
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Regular: $2,450
Open from January 7, 2025 date until conference or sell out date
For the first time we are offering special country delegate tickets and in our continued commitment to accessibility, please reach out for more information on these opportunities.
This year for the first time along with your conference ticket you will receive a 1 year complimentary membership to our digital platform. Membership level of digital community.
Brief Covid-19 Policy
Accessibility
Cancellation and Waitlist Policy