Beyond Capital: Philanthropy, Expertise, and Scaling Impact
Session Overview
Beyond Capital: Philanthropy, Expertise, and Scaling Impact
Two connected challenges in moving impact from intention to deployment.
First, the future of corporate philanthropy. Traditional corporate giving focuses on donations—writing checks to charities. Forward-thinking companies are contributing people, expertise, and capabilities alongside capital. Seconding employees to impact projects. Providing technical expertise—engineering, operations, supply chain, technology. Opening distribution networks and infrastructure to impact ventures. What creates genuine value versus what remains performative CSR? How do companies structure these relationships, and what's the ROI?
Second, scaling impact initiatives. Most impact projects never move beyond pilots. Moving to meaningful deployment requires ecosystem development, blended finance, and public-private partnerships. Where do impact projects achieve commercial viability and become self-sustaining? Where does subsidy remain necessary even at scale? What breaks when scaling—business model, talent, regulation, customer adoption?
Corporate leaders responsible for social impact, foundation executives, impact fund managers, entrepreneurs scaling ventures, and public sector partners discuss what's working and where capital meets capability.
Building Ecosystems and Scaling Impact Initiatives
Most impact projects never scale beyond pilots. Moving to meaningful deployment requires ecosystem development, blended finance, partnerships—and increasingly, technology to reach scale efficiently.
AI and digital platforms are changing what's possible. Automated decision-making, data analysis, and distribution systems allow impact projects to reach more people with fewer resources. But technology also creates new challenges—digital divides, data privacy, integration complexity.
Where do projects achieve commercial viability? Where does subsidy remain necessary even at scale? What breaks when scaling—business model, talent, regulation, customer adoption, or technology integration?
How do impact entrepreneurs use AI and tech without creating new barriers? Where does automation genuinely improve delivery versus where does it reduce human connection that matters?
Impact entrepreneurs, investors, foundation leaders, public sector partners, and technology providers discuss what's scaling, what's breaking, and how tech enables rather than complicates impact.
Host / Speakers
Bernhard Kowatsch — Director Global Accelerator and Ventures United Nations World Food Programme
Stephen Cornish — General Director of MSF Operational Center Geneva Doctors Without Borders
Dominic Hofstetter — Executive Director TransCap Initiative
Monica Sanders — Board Member, Society for Family Health, Rwanda Society for Family Health, Rwanda
T. Patrick Walsh — Co-founder & CEO Sun King
Ashish Kumar — Advisor Pensions for Purpose
Next Generation Philanthropy: The Value of Employee Volunteering
In this 45 minute session, Venture 2 Impact will facilitate a panel conversation with leaders from Morgan Stanley, Docusign, and Sage to explore one big question: What’s the real value of employee volunteering — for companies, for employees, and for the communities they serve?
Why This Conversation Matters
Employee volunteering has evolved far beyond a CSR checkbox. It’s now a meaningful way for people and organizations to connect purpose with performance.
We’ll look at this movement from three angles:
• For companies: Why leading brands invest in volunteering as part of their culture and ESG strategy.
• For employees: How giving time and skills to causes they care about drives engagement, creativity, and fulfillment.
• For nonprofits and communities: How they can tap into corporate talent and energy to scale impact.
Expect practical insights, real stories, and new ideas about how purpose can show up at work.
Host / Speakers
Fadi al Qassar — Co-Founder & Executive Director Venture 2 Impact
Madeline Hutchinson — Global Head of Tech Philanthropy Morgan Stanley
Andrea Bouch — Head of Social Impact Docusign
Rudo Mutambiranwa — Director, Sustainability & Foundation - EMEA Sage
Rethink Impact
Where capital and collaboration turn purpose into scalable outcomes.
Impact capital is shifting from passive philanthropy to active investment. This program examines how investors, family offices, corporates, and foundations are rethinking capital deployment—moving from traditional charitable giving to strategies that deliver both returns and measurable outcomes.
Topics include next-generation wealth holders moving from inheritance to active investment strategies, nature capital as an investable asset class spanning oceans, watersheds, and terrestrial ecosystems, corporates embedding impact into business models beyond performative CSR, foundations adapting from grant-making to program-related investments and catalytic capital, and scaling impact projects through blended finance and public-private partnerships.
Sessions bring together investors, family offices, foundation leaders, corporate strategists, impact entrepreneurs, and policymakers examining what's working, what's aspirational, and how capital moves from intention to deployment.