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Let’s talk about grants. In so many ways, they’re a wonderful thing, providing funding to organizations and businesses that are changing the world for the better, and who need financial support to create that change. Unfortunately, they can be really difficult to get, and often require a great deal of work. The good news is, applying for grants is well worth it.

From August 2 – 6, 2018 the Center for Social Impact Strategy hosted the Impact+ House: our first ever Impact House for CSIS alumni and their teams. We hosted 16 people at Galusha Hill Farm Lodge in central Vermont, with 6 teams representing a range of social impact areas.

This blog post is brought to us by CSIS alumna Laura Francois, Executive Program in Social Impact Strategy 2018.

In May 2018 CSIS offered a credit-bearing program for current Penn students (in collaboration with SP2’s Masters in Nonprofit Leadership program): Penn Impact Lab (PIL). Students convened in Grand Canyon National Park to learn tools for social innovation and volunteer with the National Park Service.

Running a venture has been tough, but I’ve learned from four key areas in which I have failed − and emerged much stronger. Here are the four transformative lessons I’ve gained from failing, from the first approach to its better adaptation.

In March 2018, National Arts Strategies convened 94 arts and culture leaders for the first in-person meeting of the 2018 Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy (EPACS), developed in partnership with CSIS. Students represented 26 states and US territories, and 7 countries, traveling from as far abroad as Australia and Brazil.

Whether you missed the 2017 Alumni Summit or just hope to reminisce, here’s an overview of the event in photos.

In the final week leading up to the convening, nearly 100 students completed requirements for the Executive Program in Social Impact Strategy, the culmination of 8 months of new tools deepening the impact of their work. Thursday brought leaders from Indonesia, Kenya, Germany, and the greater Philadelphia community back to campus to synthesize their learning.

To shed some light on what “social impact” means to people coming from different perspectives, we asked thought leaders and experts we know to share their thoughts on the subject. Here’s what they had to say.

Growing up in Mexico City, the reality that surrounded a young Irma Uribe Santibáñez showed evidence of inequality wherever she looked. “Mexico is a very unequal society and it was very clear to me since I was a kid”, Irma, the founder and CEO of ateconqueso says. “And I never liked it.”