The Leap of Reason Ambassadors Community began as a result of Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity (2011).  From December 2012 to June 2013, a small Morino Institute team worked on developing a “presentation of presentations” to describe what we envisioned as the community’s purpose. Despite useful feedback from 14 thought leaders (later dubbed as “founding ambassadors”), the idea didn’t get any uptake. Taking a page from Leap, we course corrected and reached out to another 30+ individuals who came together to form the nucleus of a community dedicated to high performance and continuous improvement.

From its inception, the community has believed in bringing together the “doers and believers”—those leading the charge that mission and performance are inextricably linked. Today, the community is built around committed nonprofit leaders and funders, and augmented by advisors, consultants, policymakers, academics, business leaders, government leaders, intermediaries, and instigators. Their diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives—across sectors, knowledge domains, race, ethnicity, age, gender, and geography—help them serve as individual change agents and contribute to a stronger community. They learn from each other, produce collaborative works, support one another, and benefit from the community’s collective knowledge and experience.

In 2021, we hit the goal of having 300 committed, passionate ambassadors in the community. Through strategic growth, intentional engagement, collaborative development, and thoughtful communication with the broader field, the community is always working toward the ultimate end: greater social impact in the form of more high-performing nonprofits and funders, improved lives, and stronger communities.

Peek behind the scenes of the community’s founding and development in this Chronicle of Philanthropy article.

Learn more about the community’s history and accomplishments in this living document.