Each year, the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week bring thousands of cross-sector leaders from around the globe to New York City. Those leaders collectively take stock of our current state and continue the push toward solutions that protect our planet and people.

Bringing our physical presence to these proceedings is significant: During a high-stakes political moment, being together in person better allows us to share our knowledge, refocus our priorities, and reenergize ourselves for all of the important work that lies ahead. 

The NationSwell team was thrilled to host so many of you in New York City during Climate Week for conversations that were designed to inspire forward-thinking initiatives; facilitate solutions-sharing; help forge connections; and inspire our community of changemakers. 

In case you weren’t able to be with us, we’ve recapped highlights from a few of our gatherings below.

Opening Leadership Lunch

On Friday, September 20th, we sat down for lunch with a fantastic group of leaders for a moment of connection and a chance to pause and exhale ahead of a hectic week of events. Alongside our wonderful co-host, Vilas Dhar (president of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation), guests shared the wisdom they bring to their leadership in order to keep it sustainable. 

Some of the insights shared included: 

  • The importance of seeking alignment around shared goals, not uniformity
  • The need to view challenges as stepping stones to growth and progress while embracing “not yet”
  • The ability to embrace humility and recognize what you can and can not know
  • Honoring and encouraging those with deep expertise to translate their knowledge into layman’s terms that others can engage with 
  • The essential role that hope has to play in driving progress — and the necessity of resisting weaponized optimism

Ringing the Nasdaq Bell

On Monday, NationSwell was honored to help ring in Climate Week — literally — by attending the opening Nasdaq bell ceremony. NationSwell Chief Social Impact Officer Virginia Tenpenny kicked things off alongside Deloitte Chief Impact Officer Van Zorbas, Coupa Vice President of ESG Gina Tesla, and Tiffany & Co. Foundation president Annika Dubrall, helping to usher in an exciting week of progress, collaboration, and solutions-sharing.


Signature Dinners on Leadership

As Climate Week got underway in earnest, we were thrilled to host three consecutive Signature Dinners on Leadership. While our in-person dinners always mark an opportunity to share, grapple with tough questions, and ultimately elevate one another, Climate Week felt like an especially poignant time to gather to lift up the practices, methods, tools, and resources that help us to navigate the complexities of our ever-changing world. 

From the finesse of maximizing impact with limited resources to the power of cross-sector collaborations to the radicality of rethinking corporate philanthropy, the dinners were at once far-reaching and deeply impactful.

A sampling of some of the most relevant insights from those conversations appear below:

  • Asking the right questions can be a catalyst for big transformation — critically examining the criteria used to make investments, and explicitly asking why underserved communities are not included as a consideration, can lead to more inclusive and effective interventions
  • We need to reframe our perspective in order to see opportunities for kindness and community in what is often characterized as a “fractured” society
  • We must recognize the “paradox of human perception” — our consistent tendency to overestimate the time we have and possibilities that exist
  • By establishing a practice of “checking in,” we can help foster a culture of belonging,allowing individuals to feel seen and understood
  • Seasoned leaders are at the vanguard of not only beating the odds, but changing the odds — retooling our resources and embracing key challenges in order to drive systemic change

NationSwell Open House

On Wednesday, we welcomed our community to the NationSwell offices in the Flatiron District for an afternoon of connection, workshopping sessions, and professional development (featuring professional headshots  and a recruiter station with job opportunities).

Leaders from our community presented and led discussions on a handful of critical issues: youth workforce development, featuring Christina Sass, President & CEO, International Youth Foundation; DEI, featuring Andrea Abrams, Executive Director, Defending American Values Coalition (DVAC); Human-centered future, featuring Baratunde Thurston, comedian and cofounder of Cultivated Wit; and Mission-Driven Recruitment, featuring Tauna Dean, Owner of KWC.

Our Open House also featured a briefing on the forthcoming election and reminders about the ways leaders and organizations can promote a healthy democracy this fall using resources like Civics Inc. — a framework that helps businesses enhance civic participation, improve information accessibility, and address fundamental rights — and our newly-developed election scenario planning toolkit, designed to prepare leaders for various election-related challenges.


Council Salon on AI X Climate

As the Open House concluded, some of our team members (and Baratunde!) journeyed uptown for a NationSwell Council salon on How Can AI Support the Climate Transition. 

Facilitated by Errika Moore, Executive Director for the national STEM Funders Network, the panel discussion featured Jean Louis Warnholz, Dr. John Frey, and Baratunde Thurston, with each speaker addressing a specific piece of how companies, systems, and people can harness AI and new technologies to pursue bold climate solutions. 

Here are just a few of the insights that were surfaced:

  • AI can help us to identify and strengthen the locus of change within our communities
  • If we have all-knowing technology in-hand, now is the right moment to get clear on exactly which types of questions we want to be asking
  • Unlocking the potential of AI to drive climate solutions will require us to become strong advocates for the good we wish to see
  • Consumptive decision-making is one of the cornerstone challenges of climate change
  • Access to unlimited resources can be a hindrance to innovation — constraints are not shackles, but a condition for greatness


Election Scenario Planning Workshop

Our Climate Week programming concluded with a workshop on 2024 Election Scenario Planning for Impact Leaders. Co-hosted with the Civic Business Initiative, the event was designed to help confront and mitigate the anxieties we’ve heard so many members of our community express in the midst of a challenging and high-stakes election. 

Our view is that scenario planning can help to engage with and offset the risks to your organizations, free enterprise, and American democracy this fall, and we are grateful to the members who showed up to the workshop and engaged in such a graceful, intention, and clear-eyed way.

Our participants surfaced fantastic insights on how we might best prepare ourselves for the outcome of the 2024 election, including:

  • How to develop or update your decision-making frameworks for both internal and external responses to crises
  • How to brace ourselves for a high level of emotional stress and anxiety in the workplace
  • The importance of creating intentional spaces for employees to discuss challenging and charged issues
  • The easy win of resocializing internal policies around political engagement
  • The utility of collaborating with industry associations and business groups to nail messaging
  • How to be explicit and proactive about articulating your organization’s values as they relate to American democracy

… and so much more.

We are deeply grateful to all who came from places near and far, and carved time out of their busy schedules, to gather with us in New York. The team at NationSwell is charged up, clear-eyed about the work ahead, and eager to continue driving lasting change with our ecosystem of changemakers.