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Dan Pallotta        

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

Dan Pallotta is an entrepreneur, author, and humanitarian activist with a prominent track record in organizing charitable events. His initiatives include the Breast Cancer 3-Day walks, AIDS Rides bicycle journeys, and Out of the Darkness suicide prevention night walks. The first California AIDS Ride, which Pallotta conceived and organized, was a 600-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, raising over a million dollars in its inaugural year. In the following nine years, the event expanded across multiple US cities, accumulating a total of $108 million in donations.

As an author, Pallotta has contributed to the field of philanthropy with his works "Uncharitable – How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential" and "Charity Case: How the Nonprofit Community Can Stand Up for Itself and Really Change the World." These publications reflect Pallotta's commitment to enhancing the efficacy of non-profit organizations, a mission also embodied in his roles as president of Advertising for Humanity and president and founder of the Charity Defense Council, a national leadership movement dedicated to transforming the way the donating public thinks about charity and change.

Beyond his roles as an event organizer and author, Pallotta has shared his insights and experiences through numerous speeches, including presentations at the TED conference in 2013 and 2016. His contributions to humanitarian efforts have been recognized through awards such as 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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