The World Economic Forum Global Shapers SF Hub — and What It Means for Bay Area Nonprofits

How a WEF-affiliated network of young leaders in San Francisco connects with the nonprofit organizations doing the city's most important work.

The World Economic Forum's Global Shapers Community connects young leaders under 30 across 400+ cities worldwide — people working at the intersection of business, technology, policy, and social impact. The San Francisco Hub is one of the most active in the network, drawing from a city that has unusual concentrations of technical talent, entrepreneurial energy, and genuine commitment to civic impact.

Givelink's co-founder Panos Kokmotos is a Global Shaper at the SF Hub. This connection is not incidental to Givelink's work — it's part of how we think about who we're building the platform for and who we want to connect with our nonprofit partners.

What Global Shapers do

Global Shapers in San Francisco work on projects spanning climate, education, economic access, and civic technology. They bring professional skills — engineering, product design, finance, communications — into conversations about social impact that those skills don't usually enter.

For nonprofit organizations, the Global Shapers network represents a specific opportunity: access to early-career professionals with high skills and genuine mission commitment who are looking for ways to contribute beyond writing a check. Pro bono design work, product consultations, data analysis, communications support — Shapers bring capabilities that small nonprofits frequently need and rarely have budget to hire.

Why this matters for Givelink's nonprofit partners

The Global Shapers SF Hub is not a traditional volunteer pool. It's a professional network of people who are simultaneously building careers and building the world they want to live in. The quality of engagement is different from a one-time volunteer day.

For Givelink nonprofits, the most valuable forms of Shaper engagement tend to be:

Skills-based projects: A Shaper who is a product designer can spend 10 hours improving a nonprofit's donation page. That's $3,000+ of design work that most small nonprofits can't afford to commission.

Network connections: Shapers are connected to the Bay Area's tech and impact ecosystem. An introduction from a Shaper to a corporate CSR manager, a foundation program officer, or a potential major donor has weight.

Visibility: Global Shapers projects that engage with verified nonprofits produce a form of credibility that small organizations find hard to build independently — association with a globally recognized civic network.

The connection to Givelink

Because Panos is part of this community, Givelink has a natural channel for connecting our nonprofit partners with Shapers who are motivated to support the kind of verified, proof-based giving that Givelink represents.

If you're a Givelink nonprofit partner interested in connecting with the Global Shapers SF community — whether for skills-based support, speaking at a Shapers event, or simply being known to a network of young civic leaders — reach out to us.

The network exists. The motivation is real. We're happy to be the bridge.

Learn more about the Global Shapers Community — and contact us at contact@givelink.app to explore a connection.

Stay Human.

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Panos Kokmotos is Co-Founder and COO of Givelink and a Global Shaper at the WEF SF Hub.