Dan Pallotta

Dan Pallotta is a builder of movements. He invented the multi-day charitable event industry with the AIDSRides and Breast Cancer 3-Days. These events altered the landscape of options for the ordinary individual yearning to make an extraordinary difference.

His work brought the practice of four-figure philanthropy within the reach of average citizens who had never raised money for charity before in their lives. Over 182,000 people of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds participated in these inspiring, often grueling, long-distance events that raised $582 million in nine years - more money raised more quickly for these causes than any private event operation in history. Three million people donated to the events.

Pallotta is the author of Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential, the best-selling title in the history of Tufts University Press. The Stanford Social Innovation Review said that it "deserves to become the nonprofit sector's new manifesto," and it has contributed to a new conversation about economic freedom for the humanitarian sector. His newest book is Charity Case: How the Nonprofit Community Can Stand Up for Itself and Really Change the World, which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described as "an Apollo program for American philanthropy and the nonprofit sector."

In the last five years alone, Pallotta has given over 275 talks on philanthropy and innovation in 34 states and eight countries. He is a William J. Clinton Distinguished Lecturer, and has spoken twice at TED, and at and for Google, E-Bay, KPMG, UBS, Stanford, Wharton, Brown, Harvard Business School, Harvard’s Hauser Center for Nonprofits, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Council on Foundations, the Philanthropy Roundtable, the Gates Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, national and global conferences for United Way, Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Childrens Miracle Network, and many others.

Pallotta's iconic 2013 TED Talk has been viewed more than 3.8 million times It is one of the 100 most-viewed TED Talks of all time. It generated tremendous conversation, and is one of the twenty most-commented TED Talks of all time. It is one of the featured talks in the book, "TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking," by Chris Anderson, Head of TED.

Pallotta is the founder and President of the Charity Defense Council, a national leadership movement dedicated to transforming the way the donating public thinks about charity and change. He is also the Chief Humanity officer for Advertising for Humanity, a bold agency of ideas committed to strengthening the fundraising power of some of America's most innovative humanitarian organizations.

Pallotta is a recipient of the Liberty Hill Foundation Creative Vision award, the Triangle Humanitarian of the Year award, the Albany State University International Citizen of the Year award, and the Seven Fund’s Morality of Profit Essay Prize.

He has been written about in feature and cover stories in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, American Public Media’s Marketplace, the TED Radio Hour, the BBC's Business Matters, and on numerous NPR stations, among others.