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Dan Pallotta        

Founder & President of Advertising for Humanity and the Charity Defense Council; Author of "Uncharitable" and "Charity Case"

Dan Pallotta is a builder of movements. He invented the multi-day charitable event industry with the AIDSRides and Breast Cancer 3-Days. These events altered the landscape of options for the ordinary individual yearning to make an extraordinary difference.

His work brought the practice of four-figure philanthropy within the reach of average citizens who had never raised money for charity before in their lives. Over 182,000 people of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds participated in these inspiring, often grueling, long-distance events that raised $582 million in nine years - more money raised more quickly for these causes than any private event operation in history. Three million people donated to the events.

Pallotta is the author of Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential, the best-selling title in the history of Tufts University Press. The Stanford Social Innovation Review said that it "deserves to become the nonprofit sector's new manifesto," and it has contributed to a new conversation about economic freedom for the humanitarian sector. His newest book is Charity Case: How the Nonprofit Community Can Stand Up for Itself and Really Change the World, which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described as "an Apollo program for American philanthropy and the nonprofit sector."

In the last five years alone, Pallotta has given over 275 talks on philanthropy and innovation in 34 states and eight countries. He is a William J. Clinton Distinguished Lecturer, and has spoken twice at TED, and at and for Google, E-Bay, KPMG, UBS, Stanford, Wharton, Brown, Harvard Business School, Harvard’s Hauser Center for Nonprofits, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Council on Foundations, the Philanthropy Roundtable, the Gates Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, national and global conferences for United Way, Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Childrens Miracle Network, and many others.

Pallotta's iconic 2013 TED Talk has been viewed more than 3.8 million times It is one of the 100 most-viewed TED Talks of all time. It generated tremendous conversation, and is one of the twenty most-commented TED Talks of all time. It is one of the featured talks in the book, "TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking," by Chris Anderson, Head of TED.

Pallotta is the founder and President of the Charity Defense Council, a national leadership movement dedicated to transforming the way the donating public thinks about charity and change. He is also the Chief Humanity officer for Advertising for Humanity, a bold agency of ideas committed to strengthening the fundraising power of some of America's most innovative humanitarian organizations.

Pallotta is a recipient of the Liberty Hill Foundation Creative Vision award, the Triangle Humanitarian of the Year award, the Albany State University International Citizen of the Year award, and the Seven Fund’s Morality of Profit Essay Prize.

He has been written about in feature and cover stories in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, American Public Media’s Marketplace, the TED Radio Hour, the BBC's Business Matters, and on numerous NPR stations, among others.

Speech Topics


The Power of Purpose

Innovation is all the rage in the business literature these days - how to stimulate it, how to improve it. But why? Why create in the first place? In this powerful talk, Dan explains that great innovation comes from great purpose - from a desire to move humanity forward, no matter what the industry or sector.

Stop Thinking Outside of the Box

In this presentation based on his years of work in marketing, advertising, and paradigm busting, speaker Dan Pallotta offers a counterintuitive primer on creativity and innovation. You cannot possibly think outside the box unless you understand the nature of the box that bounds your current thinking. You must have real insight into it. You must figure out the box you're in. If you try to get out before you understand the box's parameters, you'll just stay stuck inside of it.

I'mpossible

In this presentation based on his book When Your Moment Comes, speaker Dan Pallotta delivers a life-changing talk about identifying your full self expression, taking responsibility for it, and making your dream projects come true. "I raised half a billion dollars for charity and you can do anything you commit yourself to as well," he says.

Charity Case

It's time for the humanitarian sector to stand up for itself. In this powerful talk based on his book Charity Case - which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called "an Apollo program for American philanthropy and the nonprofit sector" - speaker Dan Pallotta outlines the need for the nonprofit world to build a national leadership movement to defend itself, promote itself, and change the way the culture thinks about charity and how change gets made.

Uncharitable

The way we've been taught to think about charity and change is upside down. If we changed the way we think about charity, charity could change the world. In this presentation based on his book Uncharitable - the best-selling title in the history of Tufts University Press - speaker Dan Pallotta shares what The Stanford Social Innovation Review calls "the nonprofit sector's new manifesto."

Social Profit: The End of Corporate Responsibility, the Beginning of Corporate Social Opportunity

In his groundbreaking speech, keynote speaker Dan Pallotta explores a whole new social activism strategy for your company that will not only create significantly improved results for the causes that you support but will substantially increase your organization's revenue and profits in the process.

Old models of grant making, event sponsorship, and corporate responsibility are obsolete and often burdened with too many moral overtones. Pallotta believes that corporations have been thinking too small - and it's costing them. Want to fire up your employees? Get engaged in a revolutionary idea that's really making a difference. Want to make a huge difference? Start capitalizing on those huge ideas. Want big consumer loyalty? Start working on ideas that connect them to their own humanity and that come with big media. Want to do it without having it cost you more than it's worth? Use smart capital. Dan Pallotta has tested and proven it. This is a rare talk that can both change the world and make you money at the same time.

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