Philanthropy Leadership Summit 2025 – draft program released!

Amid much anticipation and registrations filling fast, Philanthropy Australia is excited to announce the first round of program highlights for its Leadership Summit 2025. They include keynote speaker, the international author and ‘polycrisis’ expert Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon, business and philanthropy leader Carol Schwartz AO, Australian social commentator Dr Rebecca Huntley, highly regarded MCs from the Australian sector, stimulating lightning talks and much more. 

View the draft program of Philanthropy Australia’s Leadership Summit 2025 here.

Join MCs Georgina Byron AM, CEO of the Snow Foundation, and Michelle Steele, Chief First Nations Officer at the Paul Ramsay Foundation, at this critical juncture to interrogate what kind of leadership is needed for the unprecedented challenges facing civil society.  

Taking a headlong dive into defining and interrogating those challenges – what’s becoming known by scholars and practitioners as the ‘polycrisis’ – to kick off the program will be leading global affairs academic Professor Homer-Dixon.  

Unpacking the ‘polycrisis’ 

Thomas, who is Executive Director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University in British Columbia, Canada, will address the Summit via video link. The best-selling author of Commanding Hope will unpack how climate disruption, geopolitical instability and democratic fragility intersect. He’ll explore what kind of leadership we need – and leaders we need to be to adapt and respond.  

Times of such disruption and moving “so far and so fast outside our species’ previous experience” is an opportunity for a dramatic reset, he said in a media article earlier this year. “This really is a critical moment in human history and things can be done.”  

The Summit will see a number of leading figures from Australian civil society join the debate, including Dr Rebecca Huntley. Rebecca is one of our foremost researchers on social trends and a Fellow of the Research Society of Australia. She will share new insights into what Australians want – and need – from leadership today, based on her research into societal expectations.  Carol Schwartz AO, a national leader in business and philanthropy and champion of women’s leadership, will also draw on her own experiences to reflect on the qualities needed to lead with purpose in these uncertain times.

A Deeper Dive into Real-World Leadership  

A real highlight of the event will be a series of interactive breakout sessions in response to feedback to the 2023 Summit. Members told us that they would like more opportunities to contribute, discuss and share ideas with each other and we have listened!  

Hosted by sector leaders and supported by key partners, these sessions offer you a chance to take a deeper dive into the real stories, hard-won lessons and creative strategies behind leadership in action. The sessions will dig into different aspects of the polycrisis, from leadership in the age of economic inequality, to the leadership we need to safeguard democracy, and the power of community-led leadership and collective action. We invite you to be part of these conversations through ample opportunities for audience participation. 

Challenging roundtable discussions for funders 

The second day of the main Summit will bring funders together for a series of roundtables. They promise an opportunity to share reflections on their learnings and key leadership priorities and challenges for the sector. 

The roundtables will offer an intimate environment to engage in challenging discussions about effective leadership, how it will inform future philanthropic practice and how we can hold ourselves to account. 

An orator not to be missed 

Prior to the main Summit kicking off, don’t forget that an intimate dinner is planned on Tuesday 5 August at the National Press Club with a keynote address by the Hon Julia Gillard AC. An orator not to be missed, the former prime minister’s address will be followed by a fireside chat with Dr Michelle Ryan, Director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership.  

The Summit promises to be a highly stimulating and intellectually expansive few days. You’ll leave feeling more informed and equipped than ever on how your leadership can help to reshape the future.  

View the draft program here. And stay tuned as news of more speakers and sessions will be shared in the coming days and weeks!