About the Points of Light Conference
The Points of Light Conference is the signature gathering for leaders working across volunteering, civic engagement, and social impact. The conference is designed around a simple but powerful idea: when more people are equipped and inspired to serve, communities grow stronger.
The conference creates space for leaders across sectors—and the globe, with recent attendees from across the US and 33 countries—to exchange ideas, build skills, strengthen partnerships, and explore how volunteering can meet urgent needs while building long-term resilience.
Who Should Attend
This conference is designed for people advancing social impact from many different vantage points:
- Nonprofit and NGO leaders
- CSR, corporate citizenship, and employee engagement leaders
- National service and government leaders
- Educators, youth leadership practitioners, and civic innovators
- Volunteer engagement professionals and community changemakers
- Youth and young adults who are taking action through volunteering, civic engagement, and community leadership.
- Faith-based organizations
Why Attend
The conference is built to send attendees back to their work better equipped, better connected, and re-energized for what comes next.
- Walk away with practical tools and strategies to help you navigate the realities today’s organizations face
- Learn alongside peers tackling similar challenges across sectors
- Explore new ideas for volunteer engagement, community partnerships, and organizational growth
- Reconnect to purpose through shared learning and cross-sector conversation
- Build relationships that extend well beyond the event
Learning Pathways
Conference programming is designed around learning pathways that inspire action and equip attendees to harness the power of volunteering to strengthen communities, deepen purpose, and develop resilience.
- Creating Transformational Volunteer Programs
- Empowering Community-Centered Volunteerism
- Youth-Led Social Action: From Foundations to Systems Change
- Unlocking Revolutionary Employee Engagement
- Reigniting National Service
- Fueling Organizational Growth
Together, these pathways reflect the issues leaders are working through now—from volunteer recruitment and retention to youth voice, cross-sector collaboration, nonprofit leadership, workplace engagement, and stronger community-centered practice. Attendees walk away with tangible tools, replicable models, and actionable strategies that can be used right away.
Agenda Overview
Attendees can expect a multi-day experience that blends inspiration, skill-building, and connection.
- Main stage sessions and keynote moments
- 70+ workshops
- Learning labs and hands-on skill-building sessions
- Structured networking and peer conversations
- Sessions focused on current challenges and emerging opportunities in social impact
- Opportunities to turn ideas into action
Sponsors & Partners
For more than thirty years, Points of Light has convened the people and institutions building a more engaged, more generous society. The Points of Light Conference is where that work accelerates, and our sponsors make it possible. Their partnership widens the doors, strengthens the programming, and ensures that leaders from every sector, every geography, and every stage of their journey can be part of what happens here. Sponsors are not simply supporting an event. They are investing in the infrastructure of civic leadership, aligning their brand with a movement that has shaped how millions of people serve, and joining a community of changemakers committed to a future defined by action.
Save the Dates for Future Conferences
June 28–July 1, 2027
2027 Points of Light Conference
Long Beach, CA
June 13–June 16, 2028
2028 Points of Light Conference
Minneapolis, MN
Be the First to Know
Sign up to receive the latest conference details, agenda updates and registration information delivered straight to your inbox.
