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Scott Curran

CEOBeyond Advisers

Chicago, IL

Member Since May 2024

Skills

Nonprofits
Program Development
Leadership

About

Scott Curran is a corporate attorney, social impact lawyer, and adviser to the boards and C-suites of global brands in philanthropy, the private sector, law, and cross-sector social impact initiatives. He teaches a law school course called “Lawyers as Social Innovators” that Crain’s Chicago Business called “one of the coolest courses for law students.” He holds the nation’s first Master’s Degree in Public Service from the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. He is an enthusiastic champion of the role of the law and lawyers in civil society, public service, and social impact. Scott is the CEO of Beyond Advisers, a social impact consulting firm that specializes in simplifying the hardest parts of doing good well and scaling the social impact work of world-leading innovators. Beyond serves cross-sector clients spanning philanthropy, the private sector, and social enterprise. Current and former clients include the Clinton Global Initiative, the UN Foundation Clean Cooking Alliance, The Starbucks Foundation, the Tent Partnership for Refugees, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, MIT Media Lab, Emerson Collective, Sean Penn’s CORE, and the Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation, among others. Prior to founding Beyond Advisers, Scott served as General Counsel of the Clinton Foundation where he supported 4,000 colleagues in over 40 countries and 35 US states working on more than a dozen initiatives spanning global health, climate change, early childhood education, international development, disaster relief and preparedness, and social enterprise. Scott is the co-Founder of Molis Coaching, a professional peer education program that has reimagined how continuing education is delivered, produces unprecedented engagement, and delivers unparalleled business results. In its first six years, Molis Coaching served over 6,000 professionals and produced over $100m of value creation throughout its target markets. Scott co-leads Molis Ventures, the vertical of Molis Coaching that explores expansion of the Molis Method to other professionals and industries. Scott serves on the Social Innovation Leadership Council, the Board of Directors for Two Bit Circus Foundation; the Advisory Board of the Walt Disney Birthplace; on the Chicago Leadership Council of the U.S. Soccer Foundation, and the Alumni Board of the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Scott and his wife, Amy, manage the Curran Family Impact Fund which makes impact investments and provides philanthropic support for causes including education, the arts, and animal rescue.

Published content

15 Ways Business Leaders Can Create a Culture of Employee Empowerment

expert panel

These steps can help create the kind of culture that employees will love to brag about. For a business leader, to empower your employees is to give them the tools, resources, support and courage they need to do their jobs well. While constant monitoring and micro-managing may have been a popular management style in years past, today’s leaders are looking for ways to weave empowerment into the very core of their company’s culture, ensuring every employee is able to contribute their best work. However, creating such a culture may require a significant shift from what currently exists in your organization. To build more collaboration, encouragement and positivity into your work culture, consider the following advice from the business leaders of Rolling Stone Culture Council.

11 Tips for Using Philanthropic Stories to Enhance Business Growth

expert panel

The key is to focus on your cause and not your business. Whether it’s donating to a cause, giving their time and resources to those in need or partnering with a nonprofit organization, there are many ways for businesses to get involved in philanthropy. But while the main motivation behind doing good in their community may not have anything to do with scaling their business, telling stories of impact and philanthropy can be a great strategy for boosting business growth.  The trick lies in how to tell these stories thoughtfully and sensitively in a way that will resonate with consumers across the board. As business leaders and master storytellers themselves, the members of Rolling Stone Culture Council have a few tips for getting it right. Below, they offer up their best advice for telling compelling stories of impact that will lead to enhanced growth.

12 Proven Processes for Identifying and Executing Business Goals

expert panel

Here's how to strategically create and follow through on your most important business goals. No matter what industry you're in, business success starts with identifying short- and long-term goals. However, it can be tricky to figure out exactly how to set and achieve those objectives. To help, Rolling Stone Culture Council business leaders share their goal-setting strategies and why these methods are effective. Follow their recommendations to help you refine your approach to achieving your business goals.

expert panel

The best way to negotiate is to ensure both parties win. Whether you’re attempting to settle on a price with an important client or trying to reach an agreement with a potential business partner, negotiation plays an important role in business. However, it isn't a skill that comes naturally to everyone, and some may struggle to find a balance between achieving what they want and ensuring the other party does too. Mastering the art of negotiation takes practice, but keeping the following tips in mind can help you improve your skills faster and achieve the best outcomes. Below, the business leaders of  Rolling Stone Culture Council draw on their years of experience closing deals to share their best advice on becoming a master negotiator, no matter your industry.

Ad Spend: Six Ways to Ensure You're Making Every Dollar Count

expert panel

Make getting a return on your investment easier with these simple steps. Advertising, in one form or another, is necessary to get right if you want to properly market your product or service and get the word out to potential customers. However, because of factors such as the complexity of the customer’s journey and the creative strategy that goes into advertising, determining and ensuring a high return on your investment can be a difficult task.  In this way, when you’re unsure whether the time and effort you put into your advertising strategy will yield the desired result, you have to be careful to make every dollar count. This ensures you don’t incur more costs than are absolutely necessary. So how can businesses be more mindful about their ad budgets? The business experts of Rolling Stone Culture Council recommend the following six steps. Here, they outline their top tips for making your ad dollars count and ensuring a high return when it can often be challenging to do so.

Nine Ways Managers Can Motivate and Inspire Their Teams With Their Words

expert panel

Expressing gratitude is just one way a leader can show they care. One of the many jobs of an effective leader is to inspire and motivate their teams to put forth their best effort and do good work. However, inspiring and motivating are made much more difficult when you aren’t sure exactly what to say. What words will lead your team to solve problems? Find their creativity? Nurture relationships with clients?  According to the business leaders of Rolling Stone Culture Council, it’s not necessarily about the exact words you say so much as their meaning and your genuine feelings behind them. From acknowledging employee contributions to offering more autonomy, your words and their intent can have a powerful impact on your employees and the way they work. Try out the following nine suggestions and see what you can inspire your team to do.

Company details

Beyond Advisers

Company bio

Simplifying Social Impact for the World's Leading Innovators. At Beyond, we help visionary leaders design, build, and scale the transformative social impact work. We work with global nonprofits, family offices, social enterprises, Fortune 500 businesses, and A-list artists, entertainers, and athletes. Every individual, organization, product, and service has impact. How intentional leaders are about their impact is increasingly important to their stakeholders and the wider world in which we live, work, and play. Today’s social impact leaders need proven, simplified guidance to design, build, and grow their social impact work. We work with founders, boards, executives, and program teams who lead this work and equip them with proven advice, guidance, and tools derived from unprecedented experience at scale. Our work helps clients scale their board, operations, programs and partnerships using proven best practices that provide a foundation upon which cultures of creativity and innovation are built. By engaging deeply with our clients, we equip leaders with a unique, practical, and proven approach to designing, building, and growing their organizations, operations, and program work for maximum impact. An intentional focus on streamlined, simplified, and scalable approaches that support nimble execution guides everything from good governance, compliance, legal, and operations to dynamic program and partnership development, from real-time needs to long-term objectives. Through the Beyond Advisers Impact Investment Fund, we make strategic investments in promising social enterprises. Reach out via contact@beyondadvsiers.com to share information about your impact investment opportunity.

Area of focus

Nonprofit Management
Social Innovation
Program Development

Company size

2 - 10