Our Advisors Judge a Student Competition, Unpack an NGO Scorecard, Moderate in Minneapolis and Foster Conversation as Counter-culture

This month’s update on some of the work of The CPR Hub’s Advisory Board showcases the many ways leaders can practice and cultivate the “Third Side” in a variety of settings – from judging the 2026 ESG Design Challenge Finals, to demystifying InfluenceMap’s methodology, serving as conference guide at the Pollyanna National Conference in Minneapolis, hosting  a  sensemaking discussion around trends in business and social impact, and explaining “conversation as the new counter-culture" on college campuses.  

Advisor Melissa Zaksek, Managing Director of the Erb Institute, has been working with Amy Gobel and Russ Forthuber of The Alliance for Responsible Capitalism, Ross Business + Impact and Comerica Bank to host the 2026 ESG Design Challenge. This year, 42 graduate student teams competed to offer guidance to a mid-size bank facing challenges with ESG, climate risk and public policy. On February 7, Joe Pigg (bank policy expert and Advisor), Jerry Davis (Faculty Director, Ross Business + Impact),  Tom Lyon (Michigan Ross faculty and Faculty Advisor to Third Side Strategies), Elizabeth Doty (Executive Director of Third Side Strategies), Charlene Zietsma (Faculty Director, The Erb Institute), Scott Beckerman, Matt Elliot, Chad Spitler, Annalisa Barrett, Lauren Bigelow, Marcos Mancini, Luisa Brasil and other distinguished experts will hear presentations from the 10 finalist teams.  

Read more about the Challenge: https://www.arc-esg-challenge.org/ 

Erik Wohlgemuth’s colleague at Future500, Brendon Steele recently posted Demystifyng InfluenceMap. In this thoughtful piece, Brendon outlines InfluenceMap’s methodology, helping companies understand how one prominent NGO views their climate-related lobbying via publicly-available data. In our view, this illustrates a “third side strategy” because it deepens understanding and creates the opportunity for more constructive debates, updating the public record and/or reviewing engagement levels, relationships and policy positions.  

Read more at Future500: https://www.future500.org/blog/https/wwwfuture500org/blog/demystifying-influencemap 

Jason Craige Harris, CEO of Perception Strategies, will be serving as the Conference Guide for the Pollyanna National Conference in Minneapolis on January 20-22, 2026. Reflecting on the conference, he shares on LinkedIn, “I feel so grateful to be spending a week in Minneapolis later this month—gathering with people from across the country for the first Pollyanna national conference, devoted to building kinder and stronger communities. To return to a place marked by both deep pain and profound resilience, and to do so in community, feels like an act of hope—and a refusal to surrender to despair.” 

Read more at Pollyanna: https://pollyanna-us.org/national-conference/ 

Jen Stark, Advisor and corporate social impact expert, will co-host a conversation on January 27 for BSR member companies on Key Trends Shaping Business Inclusion and Social Impact Efforts in 2026, with Sally Susman (retired Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Pfizer),  Vu Le (Author of Reimagining Nonprofits and Philanthropy: Unlocking the Full Potential of a Vital and Complex Sector), Jarrid Green (Director of Human Rights and Inclusive Business at BSR). The focus on sensemaking in an environment of polarization, diverging expectations across jurisdictions, and shifting legal requirements can be helpful to companies wanting to adopt a “third side” strategy.   

Read more at BSR: https://www.bsr.org/en/events/key-trends-shaping-business-inclusion-and-social-impact-efforts-in-2026 

Manu Meel, CEO of BridgeUSA, is quoted in a piece by Eboo Patel saying, “Conversation is the new counter-culture.” Patel’s full article, “Colleges Have Forgotten How to Argue,” published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, makes the case for civil discourse and pluralism as critical capacities for higher education and civil society as a whole. It spotlights groups such as BridgeUSA, with chapters on 108 college campuses, where student-moderated discussions are  actively building capacity for dialogue across divides in a “youth movement for better politics.” 

Read the full article in Eboo Patel’s post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/eboo-patel-6729382_colleges-have-forgotten-how-to-argue-activity-7416537333581139968-cqRy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAABIZUoBcN1_xzqqNmaZix5KSsTxiQ_aib8