Paul Schmitz builds the collective leadership of organizations and communities to achieve greater social impact through his roles as Senior Advisor at The Collective Impact Forum and CEO of Leading Inside Out. He is also the author of Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up, and the former CEO of Public Allies, where he helped more than 5,000 diverse young adults begin careers working for community and social change. Paul is a faculty member of The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, was a social innovation advisor to the Obama White House, and has been named three separate years to The Nonprofit Times list of the 50 most influential nonprofit leaders in America. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife and five children. Paul is the author of Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up (Jossey Bass, 2011). The book is based on lessons learned from 21 years leading Public Allies, an innovative leadership development program that helped more than 5,000 passionate and diverse young leaders across the country begin careers working for community and social change. Paul is a faculty member of The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, and a board member of The Corps Network, the NYU Leadership Initiative, Playworks, and The United Way of Greater Milwaukee. Paul previously served on the board of Independent Sector, the association of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders, and was the co-chair of Voices for National Service, which led advocacy for AmeriCorps and other national service programs. Paul co-chaired the 2008 Obama Presidential campaign’s Civic Engagement Policy Group, was a member of The Obama-Biden Transition Team, and was appointed by President Obama to The White House Council for Community Solutions. Paul is an honors graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In 2014, Paul was appointed the first Innovator in Residence at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Innovation. He has also been recognized by The Rockefeller Foundation as a Next Generation Leadership Fellow, by the Nonprofit Times three separate years as one of the 50 most influential nonprofit leaders in America, and by Fast Company Magazine with their Social Capitalist Award for innovation. He lives in Milwaukee with his wife and five children.
From the Blog
- April 23, 2020
Scenario Thinking for an Unpredictable Year: Status Quo is Not an Option
During the past month, many of us have had our lives and livelihoods completely upended. We have been forced to respond to emergencies in our work and for some…
- March 30, 2020
Change Management During the Pandemic: Thoughts for Collective Impact and Nonprofits
We are living in an unprecedented, unpredictable, and scary time. It is hard for all of us. After several conversations with colleagues and much reflection on …
- August 29, 2018
Making Meetings Work
One of the five core tenets or conditions of collective impact is “Continuous Communication,” which usually means meetings, lots of meetings. And let’s face it…
- March 26, 2017
New Toolkit for Community Engagement
Almost every collective impact effort I have visited has struggled with community engagement at some level. During the past few years, I have learned a great d…
- December 14, 2015
Vu Le is Right* About Equity and Collective Impact
* Well, mostly right. I’m writing this while flying from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco. The person in front of me reclined all the way right after takeoff …
- September 2, 2015
Applying An Equity Mirror to Collective Impact
There has been increasing buzz about “equity” and “racial equity” in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors and among cross-sector collective impact efforts. …