A series of overlapping crises hit — COVID-19, racial injustice, climate change, economic disruption — exposing the fragility and deficiencies in our current systems. For everyone, 2020 was a deeply challenging and jarring year. Leaders had a lot on their plate. They struggled to make sense of the cascading series of crises, and grapple with the implications for their organizations and stakeholders.

To problem-solvers, it has also represented a “portal moment” — a time of profound opportunity to re-imagine and re-build a more equitable, inclusive and high-functioning nation and planet.

To harness this moment of possibility, leaders from the C-Suite to the grassroots needed a place where they could come together to process, explore, engage and act with a diverse group of fellow leaders. They needed time and space — in a highly curated and supported environment — to process the moment, surface paradigm-shifting insights and solutions, and to explore how they might collaborate to drive progress.

In 2020, we launched #BuildItBackBetter, an initiative designed to empower cross-sector leaders and organizations to be their best when the world needed them most, offering them a highly curated space to explore and amplify the paradigm-changing solutions needed to foster a more equitable, inclusive and high-functioning nation and planet.

In 2021, we aim to go even deeper on these issues, and also tackle new issue areas with the same comprehensive, cross-sector approach. That’s why NationSwell is proud to announce the launch of Collaboratives, a new initiative to build cross-sector coalitions of leaders and experts to advance specific priorities, and enable ongoing collaboration, learning and cooperation that breaks down silos and puts equity at the heart of solution-building.

Collaboratives will bring together leaders from the tree tops and the grass roots to ensure each topic can be tackled from diverse and informed sets of perspectives. We’ll cover a range of topics including Building Public Trust in A.I., Adding Age to the Equity Equation, Centering Unheard Voices in the Climate Movement, Future of Work, and more. Each Collaborative will involve public events, working groups, and a unique multimedia content series —  all working towards tangible progress on the issues of focus, such as cross-sector statements of commitment, aligned recommendations for leaders and public officials, and shared industry standards. 

We are proud to work and partner with AARP, AARP Foundation, Autodesk Foundation, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, and Workday to make NationSwell Collaboratives a reality, to amplify our impact, to further our shared goals, and most importantly, to make good on our promise to the people of our nation and our world that we would build a better, stronger, and more resilient society than the one we had before COVID-19. 

To learn more about Collaboratives, please reach out and follow us on social media.