Invite me to speak.
I speak in rooms where funders, organizers, and leaders are working out how to put people at the center of the change they’re trying to make — from conference sessions to workshops to keynotes.
Signature talk
Closing the Distance
Social impact fails less from a lack of money or good intentions than from distance. Resources too often sit far from the people closest to the work. Narrative is the tool that closes that gap.
The talk walks through the three moves that close the distance between the problem and resources: experience becoming power, ownership becoming power, and access becoming power. Each move is grounded in a real story from the field.
Other topics I speak to
- Philanthropy and power: moving resources closer to the frontlines without losing rigor.
- Human flourishing as strategy: why care and joy belong at the center of impact work.
- Narrative and organizational change: the stories that move people, money, and decisions.
What audiences leave with
- A sharper way to see where their resources and their impact have drifted apart.
- A simple, repeatable model for closing that gap.
- Permission to put people — and their own humanity — back at the center of the work.
Formats
Keynote · Conference session · Workshop · Panel
I am always happy to tailor to smaller rooms.
Where I’ve spoken & taught
Grand Valley State University — Adjunct Faculty in the College of Education + Community Innovation
Grand Valley State University — Adjunct Faculty in the Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies
Council of Michigan Foundations Conference — Moving Beyond Listening: Shifting Grantmaking Practices to Center Proximate Voices
Council of Michigan Foundations Conference — Reflection Circles: A Restorative Practice to Build Trust
EDGE Funders Alliance Global Conference — Money, Family, Power: Redistribution as a Family Journey
Ricky Benavidez 