NEXUS Global

NEXUS is a global network of young wealth-holders and the social entrepreneurs, investors and advisers they work with. It began in July 2011 with a summit at United Nations headquarters in New York and has since run more than 45 summits on six continents, reaching over 6,000 members in more than 70 countries. Membership works differently from most networks: there are no annual dues and no published wealth threshold, but you cannot simply sign up. You apply for, or are invited to, a multi-day summit; if the organising committee accepts you and you attend, you become a member for three years. Applications open three or four months before each summit and NEXUS describes the process as highly selective, weighing member referrals, background and diversity, and enforcing ratios so wealth-holders never make up the whole room. The organisation says explicitly that you do not have to be wealthy to join. The flagship Global Summit in New York, co-hosted with the UN Office for Partnerships, seats 500 to 700 people, and regional summits run in Australia, Latin America, Europe, the MENA region and Asia.

How it works

Membership is earned by attending a summit. Applicants apply or are invited, the organising committee screens against referrals, background, diversity and the chapter's target composition ratios, and acceptance plus attendance confers three years of membership. There is no annual fee, but members pay to attend every summit they go to and cover their own travel and accommodation; limited subsidies exist for social entrepreneurs. Between summits, members take part in country and city chapters, member-led working groups organised by issue, salons, delegations and retreats.

Typical member

NEXUS deliberately mixes wealth-holders with the people they might fund. Its Australian chapter publishes the target ratio: roughly 50 per cent wealth holders including next-generation philanthropists, inheritors and impact investors; 30 per cent social change makers; 15 per cent corporate funders, impact investors and philanthropic advisers; and 5 per cent young leaders in public service. Most participants are between 15 and 40, with up to 10 per cent of places reserved for mentors and allies over 40.

The membership economics here are unusual and easy to misread. NEXUS charges no annual dues, which makes it look open, but the real gate is the summit: places are scarce — the largest Global Summit seats 700 against a 6,000-strong membership — and even existing members are not guaranteed a seat. The three-year membership clock means lapsing is the default unless you keep attending. The composition ratios are the most interesting design choice: by capping wealth-holders at about half the room, NEXUS avoids becoming a pure inheritor network and keeps the people being funded present. The organisation's own line that you do not have to be wealthy to join is true in the sense that no threshold is published, but the ratios also mean the non-wealthy places are limited. Note that fees are not uniform: the Australian chapter runs a separate funder-only Impact Society tier at A$1,700 a year plus a A$500 joining fee, capped at 20 people, which the global organisation does not publish an equivalent of. Summit prices themselves are never published in advance.

Editorial analysis by Peer Group Guide editors. It is separated from the record above and follows the editorial policy.