// For Prospective Delegates
Delegate opportunities to tell their story. Come prepared to showcase your organization, mission and current passion. More >>
// Delegate Outcomes
None of us can afford to waste our time. To better understand the Opportunity Collaboration’s “secret sauce” and to determine if it is a good fit for your work and mission, read selected Delegate stories and outcomes catalogued by an independent evaluation firm. More >>
// All-Inclusive Registration Fee
Delegate tuition and registration fee covers all on-site expenses. Registration fee discounts are available for early registration. More >>
// Travel & Arrival Information
Flight, arrival, passport, visa and customs information. All Delegates are strongly advised to read this important information. More >>
// Leadership Village Accommodations
The Collaboration makes all arrangements for hotel accommodations. There is no readily available off-site housing. The 37 acre leadership campus is a guarded enclave with 298 modern rooms and full meal service. More >>
// Traveling Companions
Within the limits of the structured program and respecting the event’s ambience of reflective dialogue, the Opportunity Collaboration is family friendly. More >>
// Cordes Fellowships
Cordes Fellowships are provided to open doors, minds and networks for exceptional social entrepreneurs and nonprofit executives engaged in poverty alleviation and economic justice enterprises. More >>
The impetus for the first Opportunity Collaboration was to create a forum for seasoned leaders and activists in the global poverty alleviation movement to collaborate and pool resources across sectors. The poor live and suffer under multi-disciplinary burdens, so multi-disciplinary solutions are required.The animating premise of the Opportunity Collaboration – now noted for its “no plenary, no panels, no powerpoint” rule – was simple: We partner with colleagues whom we trust, whose values we share and when common objectives translate into ego-free zones. At the Opportunity Collaboration the mission is more important than who gets the credit for achieving it.
The design of the Opportunity Collaboration successfully fosters and promotes leadership, trust, and the straightforward exploration of tangible projects, partnerships, co-planning and funding. The Opportunity Collaboration is about the nitty-gritty of getting to work, but doing so with a strategic focus, so we can work more efficiently and more impactfully.
The Opportunity Collaboration is a platform predicated on the powerful idea that out of fragmentation can come collaboration, from diversity can come unity, and from cross-fertilization can come innovation. The power of collaboration does not presume a single outcome. Rather, it draws its power from the conviction that people of good will forge their own solutions, directions and alliances and uncover new ways to combine and leverage resources.
Collaboration is not just a matter of playing nicely with others. It is an essential structural reform fundamental to ending dysfunctional and myopic organizational hubris. Institutional silos (such as entrepreneurs vs. nonprofits, governments vs. foundations, funders vs. grantees) block creative solutions and pragmatic problem-solving.
To determine whether the event was a success or failure and to improve it in the years ahead, the following evaluative elements were considered:
• A few hosted Delegates were tasked as “secret shoppers” and assigned to collect Opportunity Collaboration Delegate commentary on an unsolicited, random and confidential basis throughout the retreat. Comments made by Delegates were anonymously collated and provided to management in post-event summaries.
• On the final day of Opportunity Collaboration, a two-hour “feedback session” elicited constructive, and mostly congratulatory, comments. The unedited Delegate Feedback is posted.
• The day after the Opportunity Collaboration, the annual Social Venture Network (SVN) conference provided an informal, but powerful, “listening post” for additional feedback. Roughly 20 Delegates were also in attendance at SVN and, directly and indirectly, “the buzz” was exceptionally positive.
• Within 60 days after the Opportunity Collaboration (by the end of 2009), 20% of the 2010 Opportunity Collaboration had been subscribed, a clear indicator of marketplace enthusiasm --- a trend that continues to this day.
Despite the abundance of positive feedback from participants, we know the Opportunity Collaboration is not for everyone. The experience is designed for people who are decision-makers in their organizations, ready to take action for the common good, and who are open and willing to co-create solutions with others who are similarly committed. The Opportunity Collaboration sets the table, but what the individual Delegates bring to it makes the meal. The flexible, creative, and reflective nature of the 2009 event promoted important outcomes for Delegates who were able to take full advantage of the environment.
We are committed to providing a continuing forum for community-building and collective problem-solving, and we want to learn more about the value of the event for advancing the goal of alleviating poverty. To better understand the Opportunity Collaboration’s “secret sauce” --- why the event led to tangible changes for many Delegates --- the respected evaluation firm, See Change, Inc., was commissioned to conduct an independent review.
None of us can afford to waste our time. To better understand the Opportunity Collaboration’s “secret sauce” and to determine if it is a good fit for your work and mission, we recommend reviewing the following Delegate outcomes and stories which See Change catalogued. For a discussion of Delegate characteristics which promote a fruitful on-site experience, see Finding the Epicenter of Social Impact: Relationships, Ideas and Action Originating at the Opportunity Collaboration by the See Change CEO Melanie Moore Kubo.
• Hathay Bunano, Bangladesh - A Social Enterprise: Gaining the Confidence to Scale. Chief Executive Officer Samantha Morshed’ story of how new mentoring relationships and the opportunity to reflect led her to key decisions about scaling her social enterprise in Bangladesh.
• Made in Liberia, Liberia - An Emerging Social Enterprise: From Lunch to Levi’s. Chief Executive Officer Chid Liberty’s story of a tectonic shift in his apparel enterprise’s access to mainstream markets.
• Meyer Family Enterprises, United States - A Family Enterprise: Leading for Social Impact. Principal Bonny Meyer and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Gleeson’s joint story of turning a desire to more strategically invest for social impact into a set of concrete practices, guided by a national expert in the field.
• Sarona Asset Management Fund, Canada - A Social Impact Fund: Securing New Investors. President Gerhard Pries’s story of enlisting new capital for a new investment fund.
• Shorebank, United States – Jan Piercy & ShoreBank: Momentum Out of Stillness. Executive Vice President Jan Piercy’s story of acquiring new accounts, while also recharging her own sense of purpose.
In addition, browse the unedited Delegate Feedback and commentary, come prepared to share best practices, illuminate partnership opportunities and serve on the agenda about a current passion or innovative idea (For Prospective Delegates), and review Delegate Criteria and Communication Tips for guidelines for a productive, dynamic working retreat experience.
We hope this information helps you make an informed decision about joining the Opportunity Collaboration community. Thank you.
