Join us in a community meet-and-greet with the Managing Director of Zebras Unite Co-Op, the General Manager of the Zebras Unite non-profit arm, and Circle Leads from the ZU Dazzle District. Open to members of the public and the Zebra-curious, this is a great way to get to know us and ask questions. Click the button below to register for this event.

11 a.m. PST | 2 p.m. EST | 8 p.m. CEST

As systems thinkers and doers, we accept that our efforts to cultivate change and shift mindsets take a long time to bear fruit. How do we stay motivated and engaged when it feels like nothing is moving forward? What can we do to keep going? Even the most passionate advocates for the dreamers, doers, visionaries and makers in our communities run the risk of burning the candle on both ends.

In season 3 of Ecosystems for Change, Zebras Unite founding member Anika Horn at Social Venturers wants to shed light on the emotional and mental toll of our work as systems architects and conveners.

• What does it mean to take care of ourselves?

• What's getting in the way?

• How can we mitigate the effects of long stretches of incremental progress? When do we need to step away?

• What does a sustainable lifestyle mean for purpose-driven community champions?

Share your personal experiences and help phrase the big, hard questions around mental health and wellbeing for changemakers.

noon PST | 3 p.m. EST | 9 p.m. CEST

What strategies and practices have major business leaders implemented to pivot their companies in service of people, the community and environment?

In this fireside chat, Astrid Scholz will be talking with Audrey Selian and David Cooperrider about their recent book The Business of Building a Better World. The Leadership Revolution that Changes Everything. They will be joined by contributor Raj Sisodia.

Host:

Astrid Scholz: Managing Partner, Impact Design & Finance, Armillaria

Guests:

Audrey Selian (Co-Editor), PhD., serves as Director of Artha Impact (Rianta Capital Zurich), an impact investment initiative under the auspices of a dedicated advisory to the Singh Family Trust and has been an advisor and friend of Halloran Philanthropies for many years.  Audrey contributed to “The Pursuit of Human Wellbeing: The Untold Global History” (Springer) in 2017 and published various reports and white papers on systems change and impact platforms. She holds degrees from the Fletcher School at Tufts University (PhD, MALD), The London School of Economics (MSc) and Wellesley College (BA).

David L. Cooperrider (Co-Editor), Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor at Case Western Reserve University and holds the David L. Cooperrider Professorship in Appreciative Inquiry and is the Faculty Director of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at the Weatherhead School of Management.  David is also the honorary Chairman of Champlain College's David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry. David has authored 25 books and over 100 articles and book chapters. He serves an advisor to many companies and to organizations such as Apple, the US Navy, and the UN Global Compact with its 12,000 companies.

10 a.m. PST | 1 p.m. EST | 6 p.m. CEST

Commitments to "collaboration" aren't enough to solve our most immediate challenges. We need to go further, faster, together. Truly cooperative systems are designed for mutual benefit, and as such must permit us to work together outside of organisational and operational siloes.

Join Armillaria, Aniyia L. Williams, Stuart Fulton and Tara Chklovski for an intimate discussion with leading systems thinkers, designers, and activists on the subject, as we contemplate how best to design and implement society-scale interventions that reach across the siloes.

Third Thursday Happy Hour for Social Enterprise Leaders

Charge your inner battery to face challenges and stay aspirational. Meet colleagues in the social enterprise space.

What kind of Happy Hour experience is this?

Quick introductions during the first five minutes, then we downshift with a relaxation technique, one you may use and take with you anywhere. (New technique every month!)

Conversations give you space for reflection and listening.

You will experience proven methods to create your best future through questions and conversations that highlight your purpose, strengths, and actions.

What if your next conversation spiraled into a cycle of giving and receiving?

Happy Hour for Social Enterprise Leaders Take-Aways

• Experience a relaxation technique that you can use any time.

• Lighten up.

• Mingle with colleagues in the social impact space.

• Focus on purpose.

• Experience the ask / give.

Participants have shared these responses about their Happy Hour experience:

• "Space to process my ideas.” Refreshed, calm, relaxed, Gratitude... This has been amazing!"

• "Interesting, different and more dynamic than my typical zoom calls."

• “We had "solidarity of spirit" and the feeling of community that we aren’t alone in social impact work.”

Thursday March 17, 2022 at 5:00pm - 6:00pm PT   |  8pm - 9pm EST  |  1am - 2am CET

on Zoom, all time zones welcome

BYORefreshments, pen, paper, a desire to connect

Register https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqfu2qqzIjHde_itC7j-sxZuBRB1MgWJem

10 a.m. PST | 1 p.m. EST | 7 p.m. CEST

Join us for a Fireside Chat with futurist, author and Zebras Unite ally April Rinne. 

April Rinne is a “change navigator,” speaker, investor, and adventurer whose work and travels in more than 100 countries have given her a front-row seat to a world in flux. She is ranked one of the 50 leading female futurists in the world by Forbes and is a Harvard Law School graduate, a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, a Fulbright Scholar, and the author of Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change. April is a trusted advisor to well-known startups, companies, financial institutions, nonprofits, think tanks, and governments worldwide, ranging from Singapore to South Africa, Canada to Colombia, and Italy to India. Earlier in life she was a global development executive, an international microfinance lawyer, and a hiking guide. As a certified yoga teacher, she can often be found upside-down, doing handstands around the world.

7 p.m. PST | 10 p.m. EST

Small and growing businesses (SGBs) create roughly 80% of formal employment opportunities in emerging markets, and are an important lever for social and environmental impact. However, such SGBs face an estimated $940B financing gap known as “the missing middle”. 

This gap is especially acute for impact SGBs in Southeast Asia, where more than 70% of women-led SGBs lack access to capital and the available finance is skewed towards a few sectors that can absorb larger ticket sizes (e.g. microfinance and clean energy infrastructure).

In this panel we discuss the findings of a new report on this topic, and explore opportunities for addressing this critical financing gap in ways that are responsive to entrepreneurs’ needs.

Zebras Unite's lead of Capital, Dr. Astrid Scholz, will moderate a conversation with the report's authors: Dr. Jodi York, Ian Jones, and Shravan Shankar.

10 a.m. PST | 1 p.m. EST | 7 p.m. CEST

No (social) entrepreneur succeeds in a vacuum. It takes a village, or an ecosystem, to help a purpose-driven founder start, manage and grow a socially and/or environmentally responsible business. In this masterclass, you will

- Gain a deeper understanding of what it means to build and nurture entrepreneurial ecosystems,
- Identify your role and opportunities within your impact ecosystem
- Learn Social Venturers’ framework for becoming an effective entrepreneurial ecosystem builder 

Members of the Zebras Unite community benefit from 15% off the ticket price with zebrasunite.

7 a.m. PST | 10 a.m. EST | 4 p.m. CEST

In this lively session, global thought leader, facilitator and consultant Michelle Holliday will help us see how the Zebra movement is part of a larger shift in the human story, from an extractive, mechanistic worldview to a deeper alignment with life. With this understanding, we find guidance from “life’s universal design principles” as we shape our projects and organizations. 

Lana and Veronica, will join Michelle to explore this topic on Thrivability: A Framework for Regenerative Leadership where she will share a powerful, comprehensive framework that will help you get to not just profitability, productivity and sustainability, but “thrivability.” 

In the last 30 minutes, we will switch gears and we will get to know each other through an Online Networking with a SPIN.

This event is organized by Zebras Unite: Amsterdam Chapter, in collaboration with SPIN Ideas.

11 a.m. PST | 2 p.m. EST | 8 p.m. CEST

This event is a general presentation about the Trade Finance Vehicle that is currently supporting menstrual health enterprises in the Pacific (the TFV).  The TFV is an innovation in delivering impact-specific trade finance, which has operated successfully for one year. During its second year, the TFV is looking to scale up its operations.  The aim of this event is to raise awareness about the TFV, what it is, what it does, how it supports impact and the opportunity for scaling it. 

This is a Zebras Unite community wide Event - come and meet the broader community!

9 a.m. PST | 12 p.m. EST | 5 p.m. GMT | 6 p.m. CEST

“We’re paid less. We go in and out of the workforce. We live longer. We have fewer dollars but more years [of retirement] to pay for.” –Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz

Women tend to suffer from longer employment gaps, fewer economic opportunities, a larger domestic load and lower earning potential. One way to tackle this is through equipping women with the knowledge and resources to become financially independent whether it's through landing clients, earning income through the digital economy, up-skilling, investing and/or saving. 

In this 60-minute event, Zebras Unite Founding Member Sheeza Shah (UpEffect) will take her Re-envision Business podcast to a live platform and lead a conversation with Uneesa Zaman (Rizq Comms) to discuss the current economic landscape and the steps needed to move financial literacy from concept to reality for women around the world. 

How do you show up as a leader for social enterprise?

We have more stakeholders, social, and environmental governance at stake, to solve problems for our better future through business. The triple bottom line moves us toward sustainable systems and models.

Join us for a special kind of happy hour: interactive and topical. This month, let's explore your answers to this question: How do you show up as a leader for social enterprise?

Connect with colleagues to explore what makes great leadership that makes a difference.

Happy Hour for Social Enterprise Leaders

* Supercharge your business plan with great leadership

* Charge your inner battery to face challenges and stay aspirational

* Balance impact with business outcomes

Third Thursday February 17, 2022 at 5pm - 6:00pm PT

on Zoom, all time zones welcome.

BYORefreshments, pen and paper

RSVP: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwvdeCtrj8vH92E7OIhkIwX19CcDn2i4E-a

Save the Dates: Third Thursdays 5pm PT

About your facilitator: Sheila Siden

Over 30 years in social enterprise leadership - for-profit and nonprofit - I see that leadership radiates from each individual. We are each influencing in some capacity, often depending on our stress level. I help social enterprise leaders destress, create leader culture, and connect with one another so they can be sustainable while they fulfill environmental and social governance (ESG). My executive coaching programs provide busy, successful social enterprise leaders space and structure to focus on making intentions stick when so many options come up, creating and executing on their social enterprise business plan. Connect at https:resourcestrategies.me

9 a.m. PST | 12 p.m. EST | 6 p.m. CEST

It's time that we re-engineer our economic, social, and cultural systems for justice. In this event, the 3rd in our popular Design Principle series, Armillaria will explore what it means to be 'Equitable'.

Equitable systems rectify historic injustices, create opportunities for all, ensure that all value created is appropriately compensated, and provide stakeholders with participatory governance.

Join Armillaria as they tackle this Design Principle with these incredible speakers:

Vanessa Roanhorse: Vanessa runs an indigenous women-led think tank, Roanhorse Consulting (RCLLC). RCLLC co-designs wealth and power building efforts that directly invest in our leaders, support meaningful data collection informed by indigenous research approaches, and helps build thoughtful community-led projects that enforce values that put people at the center.

Sheeza Shah: Frustrated by disparities in social wealth distribution and funders prioritising conventional products over impactful solutions, Sheeza co-founded UpEffect to equip social entrepreneurs with tools to turn their ideas into ventures. UpEffect’s unique crowdfunding support model has driven its 95-percent campaign success rate, helping founders build sustainable enterprises and raise capital directly from socially conscious customers

Shravan Shankar: Shravan works on mainstreaming the climate tech and circular impact solutions in South and Southeast Asia. He is a co-founder of AtWorks, an impact entrepreneurship ecosystem builder that has worked with over 300 startups, that was recognised as a circular economy solution for India by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. He is currently building Climake, a growth platform for early stage climate tech startups in India to access markets and innovative financing options.

Host:
Astrid Scholz: Managing Partner, Impact Design & Finance, Armillaria

3 a.m. PST | 6 a.m. EST | noon CEST

February is the best month of the year. Why, you ask? By the time the second month of the year rolls around, you've officially ditched the “start of the year buzz” and are ready to work hard to reach your goals.

During this month’s Online Networking with a SPIN event, we will focus on human-centric marketing. Veronica Guguian will share her tips to help you build and scale a human-centric business and brand, that focuses on creating an emotional connection with your consumers that is respectful, helpful, authentic, meaningful, and most importantly: personal.

Join Spin Ideas' Online Networking with a SPIN on February 3rd. 

What is the Online Networking with a SPIN event?

Every first Thursday of the month Spin Ideas hosts the Online Networking with a SPIN, an event where we network and connect. You will have the chance to meet new and old friends from all over the world.
In case you are brand new to our ONS events, here is what you can look forward to:

• Our one-of-a-kind SPIN: You can ask us to invite a person you cannot reach via the usual channels. Our team will gladly reach out to them and do our best to convince them to join the event and connect with you.

• One hour of networking.

• No speaker, no online course, just good and meaningful networking to help you meet new potential business partners, clients, and all-around exciting people.

• Our topics and tips are interesting and fun and rotate monthly. We bring in one of our Spinner Experts to share useful tips on the designated theme.

We have joined forces with Zebras Unite Amsterdam Chapter to bring together even more interesting people and learn about new business methods and trends.

(4 p.m. PST | 7 p.m. EST | 11 a.m. AEDT)

What if we designed our organizations in a way that created workplaces with more soul and purpose? What if we viewed organizations as living systems full of potential waiting to be released?

Our friends at nRhythm embrace this new, evolutionary approach. You’re invited to a LIVE engaging and insightful exploration of Regenerative Organizations and the power of a living systems approach to organizational design and management. RSVP for the free 1-hour Introduction to Regenerative Organizations:

(9a.m. PST | noon EST | 6 p.m. CEST)

What if we designed our organizations in a way that created workplaces with more soul and purpose? What if we viewed organizations as living systems full of potential waiting to be released?

Our friends at nRhythm embrace this new, evolutionary approach. You’re invited to a LIVE engaging and insightful exploration of Regenerative Organizations and the power of a living systems approach to organizational design and management. RSVP for the free 1-hour Introduction to Regenerative Organizations:

5 p.m. PST | 8 p.m. EST

Join Zebras Unite co-op members Annalisa Jackson and Sheila Siden for a special kind of happy hour - connect with colleagues, celebrate your strengths, and prepare to lead with your best learnings in the new year!

Celebrate and Renew:
* Look ahead: facing challenges and staying aspirational
* Charge your inner battery
* Build up your personal foundation for resilience

Your Facilitators:

Annalisa Jackson
Annalisa designs and facilitates programs that cultivate support for social transformation leaders with a focus on wellbeing, embodiment and community building. Drawing on her leadership background in reconciliation efforts domestically and globally, Annalisa is focused on the wellbeing of social transformation leaders. She is trained in trauma-informed yoga, creative movement, and embodied coaching.

Sheila Siden
Sheila's mission in 2022 is to help 1,000 change agents destress, create sustainable leadership, and connect with one another. Combining 30 years as a leader in forprofit and nonprofit social enterprise together with her experiences recovering from burnout, Sheila is an executive coach and facilitator who creates opportunities for leaders to destress so they can cultivate their inner capacity to change the world.

11 a.m. PST | 2 p.m. EST | 8 p.m. CEST

How is your organization showing up for racial justice? If you’re ready to center authentic, human connection in your workplace culture this year, attend Hella & Empathable: Building an Empathetic and Inclusive Organizational Culture. 

Presented by Hella Social Impact and Playground for Empathy, this free, 90-minute virtual workshop will deepen your understanding of inclusion and empathy. 

2 a.m. PST | 5 a.m. EST | 11 a.m. CEST

Let's get together for a co-creation workshop to organize our Sweden community and see how we can make the Swedish corporate landscape more inclusive and more sustainable.

Key topics are:

- Environment

- Inclusion, diversity and well-being

- Leadership and corporate culture

- Collaboration and sharing

- Financing impact businesses

During this session you will have the opportunity to introduce yourself to the community and co-create with us the projects of the Sweden Zebras.

(11 a.m. PDT | 2 p.m. EST | 8 p.m. CEST)

In a world full of uncertainty, Zebra founders and sustainable marketing managers are quickly realising that their assumption based decisions are not working. Reaching and connecting with your clients, building a strong brand, and most importantly, generating a systemic approach to self sustained revenue generation, are things that multiple zebra founders have expressed struggle with.

Within the first episode of the “growth marketing breakdown series”, ethical growth strategists & the founders of Zebra Growth will be giving you a clearer picture of what growth marketing is and how it can be reimagined to enable impact-driven, conscious and revenue generating growth. They will go through the myths of growth marketing, where its origins come from, and what the hype is all about… And don’t worry, Zebra Growth strongly advocates ethical, conscious and self-sustaining growth - seeing this framework and approach as one of many tools that can be used for good or evil, just like business. By connecting your lean growth engine with your purpose, Zebra Growth flips this approach upside down to enable Zebra founders to concentrate on what matters the most: making the world a better place for all.  

Let's reset and refresh to end 2021 on a high note and welcome 2022 with open arms.

Thursday December 16, 2021 at 5pm-6pm PST  |  8pm-9pm EST  |  2am-3am CET
on Zoom, all time zones welcome
BYORefreshments, holiday spirit, pen and paper

Join us for a special kind of happy hour - connect with colleagues, celebrate your strengths, and prepare to lead with your best learnings in the new year.

Celebrate and Renew:
* Discover at least one new personal success hack
* Charge your inner battery
* Build up your personal foundation for resilience

Your Facilitators:

Annalisa Jackson
Annalisa designs and facilitates programs that cultivate support for social transformation leaders with a focus on wellbeing, embodiment and community building. Drawing on her leadership background in reconciliation efforts domestically and globally, Annalisa is focused on the wellbeing of social transformation leaders. She is trained in trauma-informed yoga, creative movement, and embodied coaching.
Connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annalisajackson/

Sheila Siden
Sheila's mission in 2022 is to help 1,000 change agents destress, create sustainable leadership, and connect with one another. Combining 30 years as a leader in forprofit and nonprofit social enterprise together with her experiences recovering from burnout, Sheila is an executive coach and facilitator who creates opportunities for leaders to destress so they can cultivate their inner capacity to change the world.
Connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheilasiden/

9am PST  |  12pm EST  |  6pm CET

We invite you to come get the lowdown on membership and ask all your questions about the Zebras Unite Co-op - including how to join up! This is our last enrollment window for the year, which will also enable you to join the AGM in February 2022. To save your spot for this session, click on the Register button below.

8am PST  |  11am EST  |  5pm CET

We invite you to come get the lowdown on membership and ask all your questions about the Zebras Unite Co-op - including how to join up! This is our last enrollment window for the year, which will also enable you to join the AGM in February 2022. To save your spot for this session, click on the Register button below.

3pm PST | 6pm EST | midnight CET

We invite you to come get the lowdown on membership and ask all your questions about the Zebras Unite Co-op - including how to join up! This is our last enrollment window for the year, which will also enable you to join the AGM in February 2022. To save your spot for this session, click on the Register button below.

8pm PST | 11pm EST | 5am CET

We invite you to come get the lowdown on membership and ask all your questions about the Zebras Unite Co-op - including how to join up! This is our last enrollment window for the year, which will also enable you to join the AGM in February 2022. To save your spot for this session, click on the Register button below.

10am PST | 1pm EST | 7pm CET

We invite you to come get the lowdown on membership and ask all your questions about the Zebras Unite Co-op - including how to join up! This is our last enrollment window for the year, which will also enable you to join the AGM in February 2022. To save your spot for this session, click on the Register button below.

5pm PST | 8pm EST | 2am CET

We invite you to come get the lowdown on membership and ask all your questions about the Zebras Unite Co-op - including how to join up! This is our last enrollment window for the year, which will also enable you to join the AGM in February 2022. To save your spot for this session, click on the Register button below.