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Rejuvenating Ourselves & Making a Real Difference: A Safe Haven for Funders


  • Hyatt Regency Sarasota 1000 Boulevard of the Arts Sarasota, FL, 34236 United States (map)

Many of our communities are simply stuck, or not making the progress we need. We hear repeatedly among philanthropic leaders: What’s the path forward? 

On January 16-17, join a select number of fellow travelers who, like you, are working in tough complex spaces and seeking to make a real difference in their communities and society. You will leave feeling refreshed, regrounded, and re-energized.

  • Learn about and explore a new path forward for working differently with communities. We’ll examine what it really takes for communities to transform themselves and how we can actively support those efforts in ways that go beyond financial capital. 

  • Come ready to take challenges head-on and have real conversations. This safe haven is designed expressly for philanthropic leaders. Hear from other funders. Explore what it really takes to create meaningful, sustainable change.

  • Open up. This event is a rare opportunity to process the challenges you’re personally facing. When you’re grappling with a lot, how do you make choices? How do you stay centered and hopeful? 

Who Should Come

Funders (including Presidents and CEOs of funding organizations, vice presidents for programs, impact or strategy, board members, and other key high-level leaders) wrestling with any or all of the following issues:

  • You are doing good work, but want to know how deepen and accelerate it

  • You are not seeing the results you want because of changing conditions in society and increasing resistance

  • You are thinking about the direction of your work

  • Your organization or community are simply stuck—you need to find a way to jump start things

  • You are trying to find alignment with yourself, your board and/or your staff team

Come on your own or increase the event’s impact by bringing a small team made up of other leaders from your organization, board, or community. Experiencing the event together will give you new ways to work together and help you move in a shared direction in your community.

WHEN AND Where

Beautiful, warm, welcoming Sarasota, FL. The event will begin at 2:30 pm Thursday and end midday on Friday, so you have the opportunity to stay in town for the long weekend. This space is being convened by The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation with generous support from The Patterson Foundation.

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota. Make your reservation here or call (941) 953-1234 and reference “The Harwood Institute” by 12/16/2024 to get group rate.

What to Expect from the agenda

This is not another conference. We place a premium on deep, real conversation, which we will generate together through large and small group discussion. The event will be led by Rich Harwood.

Key topics will include:

  • Why we do this work as funders

  • Our role as funders and the challenges we face in 2025

  • How change really unfolds in a community and how we can spark it

  • What it means to be truly catalytic

  • How we need to show up if we want to create real impact

  • How some funders have applied the Harwood approach and what they have learned

Fees

Thanks to generous support from The Patterson Foundation, there is no registration fee for this meeting. We will only collect a small fee of $199 to cover the cost of food and beverages.

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December 12

2024 Harwood Summit