Echoing Green held five independent events at Skoll, from panels where our brilliant Fellows shared candid insights, to invitation-based roundtables, to a closing reception that gave Forum attendees the chance to informally connect and debrief the week. For the fourth consecutive time, our CEO Cheryl Dorsey co-emceed Skoll’s closing plenary session with Glasswing International co-founder Celina de Sola. Meanwhile, Fellows also took part in mainstage Skoll sessions. 

Echoing Green’s presence brought together key partners and leaders for important conversations about the current state and future of the social innovation field. Here are select moments and takeaways from our time in Oxford.  

Leaders Talk How to Build Lasting Impact, Evolve 

At the Oxford Union Society, we hosted two sidebar sessions on April 22.  

 In partnership with the McNulty Foundation, When the Ground Shifts: How Leaders are Building Lasting Impact, followed a “fishbowl-style” format. Echoing Green Fellows Nedgine Paul Deroly ‘14, co-founder and CEO of Anseye Pou Ayiti; Muzalema Mwanza ‘20, founder and CEO of Safe Motherhood Alliance; and Khaled Shaaban ‘22, founder of Subul Impact Outsourcing, led their peers in a timely dialogue about building stable organizations even in times as uncertain as these. 

A major theme of this session—which also reverberated in wider discourse at Skoll—was a weariness toward the talk of “resilience” that has become ubiquitous recently. Clear-eyed about how conditions in the philanthropic and social impact fields have shifted, leaders are keen to reorient and fortify their focus on creating durability and sustainability. 

At our second event of the day, How Social Innovators are Evolving for the Next Phase of the Field, Echoing Green’s Vice President of Thought Leadership Liza Mueller spoke with 2012 Fellow Esther Wang, co-founder of IDinsight, and 2024 Fellow Ifeoma Uddoh, founder and CEO of Shecluded, as well as Smitha Das, senior director of investments at World Education Services and a longtime Echoing Green supporter.  

The ensuing conversation ranged from innovative revenue structures nonprofits can explore to how effective adaptation requires leaders to stay vigilant of their operating environment and have strong enough judgment to know when to act and to what degree—a task that can be like walking a tightrope. 

 “There’s a difficulty in trying to pull out ‘is it a trend’ or is it a permanent thing that we have to accept and [which means that we cannot] be the organization that we were? That’s really hard to decipher. Should you basically turn your house upside down or [should you] weather [this moment]?” Esther said. 

Echoing Green Featured in Mainstage, Sidebar Events 

In addition to Echoing Green-hosted events, our community was present across the main Skoll programming and the myriad side events happening in Oxford. 

Board member and 2011 Fellow Raj Panjabi, founder of Last Mile Health (far left), and 2012 Fellow Piyush Tewari, founder of SaveLIFE Foundation (far right) participate in the panel, Trust as Global Health Infrastructure.

Cheryl Dorsey featured at two events sponsored by the Marmalade Festival, a series of free-to-attend sessions produced in association with Skoll. On the panel Built to Last: How the World’s Largest NGOs Actually Scale, she spoke alongside two other major nonprofit leaders—Zia Abbas of The Citizens Foundation and Geetha Murali of Room to Read—about the organizational governance and discipline necessary to lead institutions that don’t simply last, but grow and flourish. Cheryl additionally gave opening remarks at Who Decides What Works? Lessons from Refugee-Led Solutions, which—appropriate to Echoing Green’s own ethos—discussed how involving affected people and communities in social impact efforts makes for better outcomes. 

Celebrating Another Skoll World Forum Spent in Community 

Echoing Green ended another successful SWF with a well-attended reception, bringing together Fellows from across cohorts with various field partners and leaders. From panels to impromptu exchanges, this year’s Skoll World Forum especially demonstrated our community’s unique ability to draw out important, incisive conversation by assembling together the people that we do.