Pro bono service is entering a new era. In November, Taproot is convening cross-sector leaders to decide what comes next.
AI is rapidly changing how nonprofits operate, just as demand for their work keeps rising. Skilled professionals are searching for purpose and practical growth. And leading companies are rethinking how their talent can create value.
Each of these shifts opens a door. They create enormous possibility, but only if the people shaping these systems build together.
That’s the idea behind IGNITE. Most conferences are built for listening and learning. IGNITE is built around what needs to exist after the event ends. Insight and inspiration matter, but the field’s challenges call for decisions, design, and ownership.
Who’s in the room
At IGNITE, every seat is chosen with intent. The room is mixed by design, with nonprofit, companies, government, philanthropic, tech and field leaders at every table.
Each brings a different piece of the answer. Nonprofits bring the deepest knowledge of their missions and communities, and a clear view of what it takes to grow. Pro bono consultants bring firsthand knowledge of what makes an engagement succeed. Companies contribute talent and the ability to embed service into workforce strategy. Philanthropies bring investment and shape how capacity is funded. Technologists bring emerging capabilities and a responsibility to make them accessible. And government and civic partners bring the policy and public reach to scale what works. Field builders help connect individual efforts into something built to last.
You’ll hear from leaders at Anthropic, Amazon, IBM, LinkedIn, McKinsey, Wells Fargo, Independent Sector, TechSoup, Echoing Green, RAISE US, Stand Together, and the State of Maryland.
These groups rarely have the opportunity to work on the same problem, at the same tables, with a shared mandate. At IGNITE, they will.
Three Big Bets anchor the work
Taproot’s Three Big Bets represent our perspective on where the field must go. Participants will question, shape, and evolve them together:
- The AI Leap: How can AI expand what pro bono service makes possible while increasing the importance of human judgment, trust, and context? And what will it take to bring it to every nonprofit, not just the most connected?
- The Talent Engine: How can pro bono service become a standard part of workforce development, from on-ramps for early-career professionals to mid-career transitions and new ways for seasoned experts to share what they know?
- New Models for Catalytic Change: What partnerships, funding approaches, and infrastructure could take effective pro bono service models to meaningful scale?
Tying the Big Bets is one unifying goal: to multiply what pro bono service can do, and how far it reaches, until every nonprofit can count on it—10X, not 10%.
After each Big Bet takes the stage, every table will write down its boldest ideas. Participants choose the bet they most want to solve, and small groups turn the strongest ideas into plans. Before anyone leaves, every participant names a commitment.
By the end of the day, the room will have built big ideas, each with a plan behind it and people ready to move it. Together, they form a cross-sector blueprint for what pro bono service becomes next.
On the second day, IGNITE: Corporate Action Forum picks up where the Summit leaves off the day before. Corporate social impact and L&D leaders choose areas to lead in and leave with concrete actions to take inside their own companies over the next 12 months.
Designing what comes next
For 25 years, Taproot has proven that pro bono service works. That experience has shown us what a well-designed sector can accomplish and where the current system falls short. IGNITE’s closing session isn’t the end of the work. It’s where the work starts. After the event, Taproot will share the blueprint developed so the whole field can build on it.
The future of pro bono service will be shaped by the leaders willing to question familiar models, contribute what they know, and take responsibility for moving the strongest ideas forward.
Follow along and see what comes out of the room. Learn more at ignite.taprootfoundation.org.
