It is difficult to grasp the breadth and depth of knowledge in the Net Impact network without having attended one of their annual conferences. 

This year's North America Conference: The Sustainable Advantage, that brought over 2,400 people together in Philadelphia, delivered the goods again.

• Ashoka seeks to validate originality, scalability, and - interestingly - trust before awarding Fellows. In addition to their 3-yr angel investment program, they bring Fellows of similar interests and geographical focus together to accelerate change.
• MPESA, a mobile software service used to send money across borders and make purchases, is predicted to be as ubiquitous as Google by end of 2009.
• Foundations should not go looking for the next opportunity; let them come to you – it is impossible to predict what great innovation will come forward next and if you’re looking somewhere else, you’ll miss it.
• Roots Capital is working with companies like Starbucks and Whole Foods as investors in South Africa. These funds come out of the bottom line budgets for these companies, not their Foundations. This works because Root Capital educates small producers in financial management enabling them to grow and thus increasing availability of fair trade and organic produce for these companies to purchase.
• The consumer pays no markup for selecting a Product (RED) item, the donation to help with HIV/AIDS comes dircectly out of the company’s profit (not from grants).   As a result, Product (RED) does not compete for existing grant funding, leaving those funds available for NGO’s.
• Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group is a business unit, not philanthropic, with full bottom-line accountability for products and programs that enhance human potential.
• In technology, the greatest cost after the initial product purchase is energy consumption. IBM used virtualization to reduce 35 datacenters, globally, down to 7.
• NGO’s might also be called Citizen Sector Organizations. It’s a positive idea to avoid the “non-“ which seems negative.
• Incentives can encourage positive consumer behavior even for luxury retailers. For example, when a consumer donates clothing to a charity, reward them with a discount coupon to your high-end clothing retailer.
• The greatest failure in education may not be the education system but a failure of community. Students are dropping out because no one knows their name. 
• There has been a fundamental shift in the context for measuring value of social missions. Old Context: Business Case (you will be punished by the consumer if you do bad things) –> New Context: Business Value (create business value through opportunities for bottom line benefits: drive sales, enable entry into new markets, deepen brand loyalty). To be successful, shift away from Philanthropy to Social Innovation.   For Foundations, stop doing RFP’s and start doing RFR’s (Request for RESULTS). 
• 22 million kids, aged 6-14, play online games daily. We need to meet kids where they are and provide compelling interfaces for age-appropriate resources. Young children recognize there is an environmental issue, but don’t really understand the words or what they can do. The Big Green Help campaign includes a multi-player online game about carbon reduction, PSA’s, and action days – specifically for kids.
• Parents tend to think it is the government or corporate CEO’s job to fix the environment; kids tend to think it a personal responsibility. Kids who engage age-appropriate resources can become leaders within their families, influencing household decisions related to recycling, energy consumption, and product selection.

View event photos.

Restrained by a lack of cloning capabilities, I was able to attend less than 1% of all the panels, speakers, and workshops available to conference participants. Perhaps next year you will join me and, together, we will be able to cover even more!