This ongoing Q&A series profiles a few of the speakers we're looking forward to seeing at this year's Net Impact Conference. Trista is president of the Minnesota Council on Foundations and will be speaking in our Finance & Investing track.
If you could spend 15 minutes with one impact hero past or present, who would it be and why?
Dorothy Height. She was a force behind the civil rights movement and had a special gift of influencing the influencers. I would love to ask her how she developed that gift.
What’s one surprising stat or emerging trend anyone looking to make an impact in your field should know?
The line between for-profit and nonprofit is blurring as social enterprise grows. I think this has great potential to help us solve some of society’s most persistent challenges by working across sectors.
What do you love about your work?
As an association of foundations, we are able to mobilize many organizations to come together to work on pressing issues. I love being a lever for community-wide systems change.
What's the single biggest challenge in your work?
The biggest challenge is focus. There is always more that you could be doing to make the world a better place, so having clarity of focus is critical for impact.
What's your best advice for someone who wants to create positive change through their career?
Take your career development seriously. Developing new skills and expanding your relationships is critical for having an impact in your social good career.
When have you found yourself breaking boundaries in your work? (Breaking boundaries is this year’s conference theme.)
I spend a lot of time at work thinking about where I need to go, but I don’t have a set idea of what tools we have to use to get there. Being flexible allows our organization to come up with new strategies and tactics that can supercharge our efforts.
How has being part of the Net Impact community or attending the conference in the past made a difference in your work?
I’m new to the Net Impact community, so I’ve been impressed by the diversity of job roles and perspectives that are present in the network. I’m looking forward to learning more.
What’s your best advice for first-time conference attendees?
Stretch out of your comfort zone and talk to people that you wouldn’t normally meet in your day-to-day work. They will have new perspectives that could be critical for the issues you are working on.
About Trista
Trista Harris is a philanthropic futurist and nationally known as a passionate advocate for new leaders in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. Trista’s work has been covered by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, CNN, the New York Times, and numerous social sector blogs. She is also the co-author of the book How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar. In her professional life, Trista is president of the Minnesota Council on Foundations, a vibrant community of grantmakers who award almost $1 billion annually. She will be speaking at A Fork in the Road: Two Approaches to Philanthropy at this year's conference.
