What Would Three Billion Dollars Do?

Title: Chairman of the Board of AVINA

Organization: AVINA seeks a prosperous, democratic and sustainable Latin America.

The Idea: Empower local leaders to create community programs and develop local businesses.

The Explanation: "Start by investing in leadership, strong institutions, and effective networks. In our experience, dialog and synergy between leaders of business and civil society offer some of the greatest opportunities to create social value.

"No one institution or individual makes large scale impact by itself. You need alliances with other institutions at the international level, regional and local levels. You have to work across sectors, reach out and team up to build critical mass. Reaching out to governments around the world and exposing them not only to the problems but to the progress being made is very important. Although building common ground is a complex process, that is how real self-sustaining change begins."