Annual Conference

KEYNOTE: Building High-Impact Cross-Sector Partnerships

The Michigan Federation for Children and Families Sr. Management Conference Planning Committee is pleased to announce Robert Acton as this year's Sr. Management Conference Keynote! 

Robert Acton, JD is Principal and Founder of Cause Strategy Partners, LLC, a consulting social enterprise that provides strategic counsel and programmatic offerings to foundations, companies and social good organizations with a specialized focus on building both board and executive leadership.  Rob has extensive experience partnering with nonprofit boards of directors, chief executives and staff leaders; local, regional and national foundations; and Fortune 500 corporate social responsibility and HR/talent teams.  Cause Strategy Partners is a Certified B-Corp.

KEYNOTE: Building High-Impact Cross-Sector Partnerships

A “go-it-alone” mentality is all too common in the social good sector.  Nonprofits organizations aspire to make meaningful impact on pressing and pervasive social challenges, yet too often engage in the mission independent of others, void of collaborators, alone.  We know why it happens.  Creating and sustaining cross-sector partnerships isn’t easy.  Whether based in fears of motivation, scarcity, imbalance or misalignment, social progress is often hindered by an unwillingness to think bigger, extend our reach, and creatively explore bold partnerships that have the potential to result in promising solutions for our cause.

Our keynote speaker, Rob Acton, has spearheaded numerous high-impact cross-sector partnerships as both a nonprofit chief executive and – more recently – as a social entrepreneur.  As the founder of Cause Strategy Partners and BoardLead, Rob brings together Fortune 500 companies, private foundations, policy makers and nonprofit organizations in powerful collaboration resulting in measurable impact. 

During this session, we will explore several topics designed to inspire a new (or renewed) commitment to cross-sector partnerships and a helpful tool kit for bringing them to life.  Areas of exploration will include:

• the value to be garnered through cross-sector partnerships;
• key steps in developing such partnerships;
• creating corporate partnerships that are win-wins for all parties involved;
• engaging your board in partnership creation; and
• a candid assessment of what gets in our way.

Strategic collaboration with carefully-selected partners is arguably the most efficient path to increased impact and greater scale.  This interactive session is designed for chief executives and senior management team members who are ready to envision how high-impact partnerships can serve as an important strategic imperative for their organization’s future.