The HOPE Global Forum 2020 team, led by Kevin Boucher, our Chief Advocacy Officer at Operation HOPE, did an absolutely fantastic job standing up and producing a first class, and first ever eForum for 2020.
The Numbers eclipsed even our best years producing and holding our highly regarded in person meetings. And the team converted the strategy from in-person to 100% digital in just 6 months time!
The Forum by the Numbers.
The HOPE Global Forums | Annual Meeting 2020 was comprised of more than 50 provocative and inspirational sessions. In addition to the 5,000 registered delegates who engaged on the Global Forums Member Platform, the program achieved over 600,000 views across Facebook and YouTube. This resulted in over 2,000 individuals and organizations seeking to make a HOPE in Action Commitment, where one person, combined with the actions of others, can change the world for the better.
The theme of this year’s conference, American on Reset: Healing a Nation, Opportunity for All, served as a launching point to go beyond the headlines and create a space for honest conversations that tackled the many challenges facing our nation and the world: outlining a vision for an equitable economic recovery; expanding African-American participation in financial services, business creation and homeownership; how the free enterprise system and its leaders can, and should, drive economic empowerment; and how wellbeing is instrumental in accomplishing all of the above.
We were honored to host some of the world’s most extraordinary leaders, many of whom announced significant commitments to our work advancing opportunity for all. This included the largest commitment in Operation HOPE’s history – $127 million from Shopify towards our initiative to launch 1 Million Black Businesses (1MBB) by 2030.
Other commitments included:
- Experian N.A. CEO Craig Boundy announced a 2-year partnership to grow and support our credit and money management empowerment efforts, particularly amongst underserved populations.
- PayPal CEO Dan Schulman announced a substantial commitment towards Operation HOPE’s work supporting black-owned small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- iHeart Media committed $2 million in on-air and digital media resources through 2021 to amplify and drive the creation of black-owned business through 1MBB.
- Aprio announced 50 hours a month over ten years to support aspiring entrepreneurs participating in the 1 Million Black Business initiative.
- Poligage CEO Christine Davies announced a commitment of 1,000 hours of time from their roster of policy and government experts to help HOPE coaches and clients understand issues impacting small businesses.
- First Horizon Bank is dedicating 500 hours of financial consultation services to new black-owned small businesses.
To revisit anything you may have missed over the five days of programming, we encourage you to view all of our Annual Meeting sessions at the HOPE Global Forums website.
