A 'Flip' Chat With...Jonah Halper, co-founder, NextGen:Charity

(This video was recorded as part of our 'Flip' chat series of conversations with thought leaders in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. You can check out other videos in the series here, including our previous chat with Kiva president Premal Shah.)

Inspired by TED, the conference series that serves as a megaphone for "ideas worth spreading," Jonah Halper started NextGen:Charity with Ari Teman as a way to promote innovation in the nonprofit sector. With support from nonprofit and media partners, including Fast Company, GuideStar, Charity Navigator, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Network for Good, Halper and Teman mounted their first conference last year and were delighted by the sold-out response. To be held in New York City in November, this year's conference will see Craig Newmark (Craigslist), Charles Best (DonorsChoose.org), Marc Ecko (Ecko Enterprises), Nancy Lublin (Do Something), Peter Diamandis (X Prize Foundation), and others present talks related to the theme "Educate + Inspire + Impact."

I met up with Halper in July at the Nexus: Global Youth Summit,
a four-day conference in New York City organized by Search for Common Ground, a D.C.-based group that works to transform the way the world deals with conflict. It was a lively gathering, and Halper was eager to talk about his young organization and the paradigm change his generation hopes to spark in the philanthropic sector.

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(Running time: 4 minutes, 37 seconds)

My few minutes with Halper got me thinking about the conference format and its potential to spark positive social change. Have you attended a TED conference or something like it? Were you inspired by the program? Did it motivate you to take action on an issue that you might not have engaged with otherwise? Is the proliferation of TED and TED-like conferences a positive development? Or are they starting to drown each other out? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below....

-- Emily Robbins