Hildy's Story

Hildy Gottlieb is a futurist, a social scientist, and an asker of powerful questions. She is the co-founder of Creating the Future, a global nonprofit that teaches people how to create systems change via the questions they ask.

As a student of successful social movements, the questions that have driven Hildy’s work are these: What factors lead to successful social progress? Why do some change efforts succeed while others struggle? The answer she found was simple yet profound:

Successful movements for change all have the same set of questions at the heart of their work.

Hildy now shares those questions with audiences around the world. Through the Catalytic Thinking framework she developed, those questions have been infused into the mission of the nonprofit she founded, Creating the Future, where individuals and organizations are learning how to create systems change by changing the questions they ask.

Hildy is a TEDx speaker, as well as a contributor to Nonprofit Quarterly and the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR). Her SSIR article on Movements vs. Organizations was so popular that their editors chose that piece to open their ebook, Essentials of Social Innovation: Transforming Leadership. That same article inspired the folks spearheading the Community Centric Fundraising movement to design their efforts as a movement, rather than an organization.

Hildy has lectured at universities around the world, including the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, and at both the Haas School of Business and the Masters in Development Practice program at UC Berkeley.

All Hildy's work is rooted in a combination of research and practical experience, built upon her decades as a consultant, a social change researcher and theorist, and a serial social entrepreneur. Hildy helped develop (and then taught) the current Masters degree program in Community Leadership at Duquesne University (pron. Dew-cáyne). She and her partner, Dimitri Petropolis, also co-founded the world’s first Diaper Bank, sparking the diaper banking movement across North America, and garnering them a Points of Light Citation from President Bill Clinton.

Hildy’s best-selling books on the nuts and bolts of social change have all become industry standards and are used as texts in both undergraduate and graduate programs around the world.

When not working, Hildy can be found in the garden, at the movies, shooting photos, or traveling the world in search of a quiet cafe to write.

Read personal stories about the difference Hildy has made in people's lives here.

 

The Longer Story...
Hildy began her career as the legislative aide to Tucson City Council

Member Tom Volgy (pron. Vol-jee). After leaving politics, Hildy started and operated several successful for-profit ventures, including a commercial construction company, a plant nursery, and along with her partner, Dimitri Petropolis, a commercial real estate brokerage, management and business turnaround firm.

In 1993, Hildy and Dimitri chose to turn their business skills to making a difference in the world. Through their consulting firm Help 4 NonProfits & Tribes, the pair became known across North America for their work assisting community organizations with strategy, governance and resource development. By 1998, Hildy and Dimitri had grown frustrated with the lack of significant community improvement being created by “nonprofit” community benefit organizations around the world. Aiming their business turnaround skills at social change and leadership systems themselves, the result has been the world-changing work now being advanced both by Creating the Future, and through Hildy's consulting and speaking.