Why Conquer for Good means hope

When the Will & Grail team decided to launch Conquer for Good earlier this year, the goal was simple.  Let’s get people together to hear and learn from stories of people driving social innovation and purpose-driven business initiatives that are making a positive impact on lives, communities and the world. We knew good things were happening, the stories just get lost in the chaos and the rat race of life.  

We are fortunate enough to work with, consult and advise lots of organizations and businesses who are working to balance purpose and profitability - working to do good and do well.  We see their efforts in all stages of development - from the inception of ideas and the struggle to get traction to growth and expansion to optimize their positive impact on a global scale.  

It is through this perspective that we identified three forces that can change the world - entrepreneurial innovation, enterprise scale and an egalitarian sense of good. We have also seen the blurring of lines with how the three sectors work and work together - for profit, nonprofit and government (including education). The evolution of our world bases on these factors and blurring of lines is leading us toward something incredibly powerful - a new mindset that looks for a balanced approach to money and meaning. The recognition that we can’t chase profit at all costs.  But also that we need to use capital and resources in the most efficient way possible to optimize impact in solving social challenges.

From the launch of our Conquer for Good event in March of 2017, we received incredible feedback from attendees, and from the Kansas City community who helped us spread the word. We’re planning Conquer for Good 2018 now and will release information shortly.  But that’s not enough - because there are too many stories to share and too much momentum to be lost if we don’t continue the conversation and collaboration between folks interesting in putting into action the conquer for good mindset  So we launched Connect in August, to provide a monthly gathering to listen and learn from folks advancing social and purpose-driven businesses and organizations.

To say the first three Connect events have been insightful and inspiring would be an understatement.  The three speakers all come from different paths.  The organizations they’re building and leading are focused on different ways to drive positive social change.  The stories showed different approaches and different needs to bring time, talent and treasure together in the form of a business model that is sustainable and scalable.

We’ll share in a future edition of Catalyst the collective insight that we can all gain from the stories told by Brent Lager of UncoverKC, Emily Moon of By Grace Designs, and Doug Cowan of Community Services League.  

What we can tell you is that all of them, to the core, are driven by passion for what they do, a deep faith that they are doing work that matters, and it’s all driven by love for people.  

We’ll be releasing soon, to accompany the video of their talks, an interview with each speaker. One question we ask is what the term conquer for good means to them.  Their answers point to why we started Conquer for Good - to talk about doing good in the hopes of putting the world on a better course for the future.  

As Brent Lager said, “Conquer for Good means hope. There is so much to lose hope over in the world that if we want to survive the pain and evil, we must overcome it with happiness and good.” Well said.

We invite you to learn more about Conquer for Good at www.conquerforgood.com - and please let us know if there are stories we should share or you have ideas to make the experience even more powerful.