Held each year in February, the goal of the Gathering is to catalyze the development of new ideas, relationships, and resources so that social entrepreneurs and their counterparts can scale social innovation and transform public problem solving on a broad scale.

Through a combination of keynote addresses, panel discussions, and working sessions across three days, participants work together to strengthen their individual organizations and advance a shared agenda.

Since the first Gathering in 2005, participants have explored three areas that represent the most stubborn barriers to scaling social innovation:

• The difficulty of identifying, developing, and retaining exceptional talent
• A gap between social entrepreneurs and policymakers who allocate resources and drive change at the city, state, and federal levels; and
• An ineffective capital market for social innovation.