The nonprofit sector is growing worldwide. Simultaneously, nonprofits’ need for professional capacity in HR, strategy, marketing, technology and other fields is also growing. In the US, this need is increasingly satisfied by pro bono professionals who provide their skills and knowledge every day.
More than $15 billion in pro bono services are already delivered annually. In other countries, the power of pro bono is spreading. For example, the pro bono intermediary, Service Grant Tokyo, is facilitating projects in both Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, while The Pro Bono Lab in France is spearheading the French pro bono marketplace. Huizeren in China is still small in scale, but very ambitious to establish a pro bono movement as well.
Taproot is helping to build a global pro bono network that will provide the infrastructure to facilitate pro bono services all over the world. So far, the network includes a total of 20 intermediaries. 10 of these intermediaries intermediaries have already confirmed their participation in the first ever Global Pro Bono Summit in New York City, organized by Taproot in cooperation with the BMW Foundation. The summit is designed to strengthen existing pro bono service efforts, create shared capacity and seed new efforts in countries around the world. As a platform for mutual exchange and learning, the summit will also help to understand cultural differences and drive innovation.
