Youth Leadership Communities: Which is right for you?

In general, there are too many things to choose from, and our youth leadership communities and global networks are no different.  They are often organized by industry, by geography, or even by ethnicity. With limited time and limited energy, how can you choose which is right for you?

Disclaimer: Obviously there are SO many youth communities out there, social impact and otherwise, and we are not able to encompass all of them. We tried to choose really global organizations, and ones that were not too industry specific. Personally, I am a part of a number of the these communities, and I also spoke to about 40+ friends from all over the world about their experiences.  These assessments of these communities are generalizations, as of course your experience with each one is vary greatly depending on geography and your specific personality.

From Karachi to Kinshasa, to Cusco and Kyoto, these are our top picks:

Global Shapers Community

What sets it apart: An initiative of the World Economic Forum, Global Shapers has 7000+ members in over 350+ cities. Hubs are very focused grassroots impact and doing projects in their communities.

Strengths:

• Extremely Global: There is a hub in almost every major and non-major city, so you know wherever you go, you have a friend.
• Focus on diversity and impact as two cornerstones, so hubs do actual projects with key results in their communities.
• A number of other associated communities such as Young Global Leaders and Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs that helps with mentorship and co-hosting events

Weaknesses:

• For each hub, governance and structure are very weak, so whether a hub is good or not is really dependent on the local leadership.
• A lot of strong shapers, but an equal number of weak shapers that are disengaged and just along for the ride or the title.
• Trying to communicate one message across thousands of people in 165 different countries is very difficult

Sandbox

What sets it apart: Sandbox is a mobile society of trailblazers using technology and conversation to create a world of our design. They are a very eclectic community of nomads, entrepreneurs, journalists, academics, politicians, and influencers.

Strengths:

• Focused on developing each other rather than saving the world, so members feel that is a really safe space to share emotions and have human-centered conversations.
• Sandboxers really prioritize attending the regional and global events, even if they are halfway around the world  
• Much smaller community than most of the other ones (1400 people globally), and average age is a bit older, so there is more maturity in discussions

Weaknesses:

• The selection process is exclusive, and a bit of network effect because lots of people may self-select out.
• Having recently undergone a pretty re-organization global governance has some issues, and it’s not as strong of a central force.

Kairos Society

What sets it apart: Kairos Society is a fellowship program that gathers together young minds and connects them with leaders who are grappling global issues.  Most fellows are established entrepreneurs looking to solve specific problems Kairos has established.

Strengths:

• Really focused on specific problems that can be solved via entrepreneurship (student debt, housing, etc)  
• Very selective, and focused on people who are very evidently doers.
• Believes in the value of growing its fellows as professionals AND good human beings
• Really formidable network, with some very high-level public and private sector people who join events

Weaknesses:

• Very American/Western world focused, as you can tell with many of the problems they focus on.
• A Bit of a Boys Club: Because the founders come affluent, ivy-league backgrounds, the fellows are not as diverse as other communities.
• Badly managed from the top down, so quality of regional communities really depends on the people on the ground. Europe is growing rapidly, but in Asia there’s nothing going on, to the point that Kairos has even started had a bad reputation.

One Young World

What sets it apart: One Young World hosts an annual Summit where the most valuable young talent from global and national companies, NGOs, universities and other forward-thinking organisations are joined by world leaders and mentors. After they leave the summit, they are considered One Young World Ambassadors.

Strengths:

• Ability to organize around topic of interest and work on projects that can bring change to it.
• Because the summit is the starting point, OYW is able to create a very strong global network from the beginning where each ambassador can grow with partners or other ambassadors on the specific issue.
• Very good network, and helps generate opportunities to work together.

Weaknesses:

• Weak local communities: Regional or city coordinators can self-organize but they rarely do.
• One large event a year, and ambassadors may come back for other years but not necessarily.

+Acumen

What sets it apart: +Acumen offers world-class online courses that empower nonprofit, social impact, and basically anyone who is interested to gain knowledge about how to change the world in a more practical way.  They also have offline hubs that can host events, learn collaboratively, and discuss the online courses.

Strengths:

• Provides a lot of online training and specific toolkits that helps with practical implementations of their values
• Online challenges and activities that bring the most active individuals in the hubs together-- takes away the reliance on strong local leaders

Weaknesses:

• Less global cohesiveness, some regional events, but all global events are online
• +Acumen first and foremost is an online learning platform, so they priority community and offline as much.

Forbes 30 under 30

What sets it apart:  You do have to be nominated and selected in order to be Forbes, but even if you’re not you can still join the 30u30 conferences and other events

Strengths:

• Because the selection process is so rigorous, Forbes 30 under 30 is very prestigious and has a very strong brand name.

Weaknesses

• Other than the summits, and informal networks for 30u30, there’s no actual mandate to do anything after you get named.

Nexus Global

What sets it apart: Nexus is a global community founded to bridge communities of wealth and social entrepreneurship. With over 3500 members from 70 countries, Nexus work to unite next-gen philanthropists and investors with social entrepreneurs and the social impact space.

Strengths:

• Great network to get funding
• Community has cutting-edge experts from all over the world
• Programming at global conference is comprehensive and has very interesting topics.
• discounts/chances to be on delegations to important events

Weaknesses:

• There’s no specific mandate other than to be connectors, so the community is not action focused and sometimes the mission is too broad.
• The global team team is not well structured and quality depends largely on team/location.
• While content at events are good, the structure is not, so networking can be weak and you have to put in a lot of effort to get what you want out of it.