Why CGI?
President Clinton’s lifetime in public service demonstrated to him that governments alone could not adequately confront the world’s most pressing problems without the help of the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, and other global leaders.
After attending thousands of meetings over his career where pressing issues were discussed but no action was taken to solve them, President Clinton saw a need to establish a new kind of meeting with an emphasis on results.
The Clinton Foundation launched the Clinton Global Initiative in 2005 to bring together, by invitation only, heads of state, business executives, nonprofit and foundation directors, philanthropists, academics, and religious leaders to move beyond discussion and take action to address focus areas like education, energy & climate change, global health, and poverty alleviation.
Commitments to Action
All members who attend CGI are asked to define and pursue a new, specific, and measurable approach to a global challenge. Making a commitment is a responsibility of membership — CGI members determine the focus and scope of their commitment. Members who do not make a commitment will be unable to participate in CGI events until they do.
Beyond the Annual Meeting
Today, the Annual Meeting is just one facet of CGI. CGI International is replicating the Annual Meeting in other parts of the world, beginning in Hong Kong with CGI Asia. CGI University provides students and universities a unique forum to act on the issues that are important to young people. MyCommitment.org provides an online portal that anyone can use to make a commitment or find others who share their vision for change.
PROFILE
In 2007 the Skoll Foundation made a CGI commitment to fund the PBS Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Fund, which allows filmmakers and journalists to compete for funding as they select stories of social entrepreneurship to share with the world.
