The Bellagio Center/

The Bellagio Center Convening Program

For more than 100 years, The Rockefeller Foundation has brought people together around the globe to try to solve the world’s most challenging problems and promote the well-being of humanity. Convenings are an important part of how the Foundation realizes its mission by leveraging our reputation, knowledge, and relationships. The centerpiece of this is The Bellagio Center, where we annually host approximately 1,000 people through 60 convenings and 150 month-long residencies.

Convenings at the Bellagio Center have a storied history of bringing together leaders from around the world to advance ideas and catalyze new action to drive positive and far-reaching social change. The Bellagio Center has launched the Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiatives (GAVI), the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), among many other transformative initiatives.

As part of this, we seek to increase the diversity of our programming at The Bellagio Center and are interested in supporting convening organizers who are based outside of the U.S., who are citizens of low and middle-income countries and/or who represent low and middle-income countries.

Application Deadline

Applications for ’23 are currently closed. Please look for announcements about future application rounds, in early ’23.

Application Themes

  • Open Call Convenings

    The Open Call is for all convening organizers, working in any discipline or area of study. Applications can be based on any topic but must demonstrate a clear potential to result in impact following the convening.

  • Gender Equality Convenings

    The Gender Equality theme is targeted towards convenings which seek to advance gender equality and women’s leadership through initiatives, policymaking, public advocacy and more.

  • Governance and Responsible Use of AI Convenings

    The Governance and Responsible Use of AI theme is targeted towards convenings which seek to advance the good governance and responsible use of artificial intelligence through their work.

  • Building Green Economies Convenings

    The Building Green Economies theme is targeted towards convenings that seek to advance low-carbon futures through climate adaptation or mitigation interventions alongside economic and human development concerns.

  • Revitalizing Civil Society in the Asia Region

    The Rockefeller Foundation sees an opportunity to help connect, support, and empower leaders and organizations across Asia in their efforts to solve for these critical challenges. Our hope is to create a platform for networking, capacity-building, and funding within the Asia region–with a focus on helping existing actors operationalize–that also distills and shares lessons of global relevance.

Successful Convenings:

  • Demonstrate a clear potential to result in impact following the convening
  • Hinge on a clear, specific, and compelling purpose
  • Engage stakeholders necessary for success during and after the convening
  • Have an element of timeliness
  • Focus on participant experience
  • More information here


How We Support:

  • Convening design resources, to help maximize the experience and impact of your convening
  • Modest travel support for eligible participants
  • Travel planning and booking services
  • A dedicated convening lead on-site, as well as amenities such as lodging, food, AV etc.
  • More information here

  • For small ideas, you can go to any retreat, but to think expansive, fearless ideas and then design something innovative and courageous to put them into practice, there is no place like Bellagio.
    Seth Berkley
    CEO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
  • men and women standing around with a woman putting her arm around another woman.
  • a woman and man sitting in chairs talking.
  • man and woman standing across from one another talking to each other.
  • Man raising his hand and holding a microphone.
  • two women sitting and writing.
  • two men sitting in chairs talking.
  • men and women sitting around a table talking to each other.
  • men and women sitting in chairs.

  • Facilities and Accommodations

    The Bellagio Center operates two separate buildings for convenings, the Frati and the Sfondrata. Each convening will be assigned one of the buildings based on the number of participants. Please note that the number of bedrooms represents the total number of participants we can accommodate per convening in each respective building. To read more, click here.

Recent Updates

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group shot of woman leaders.
Press Releases

BELLAGIO, ITALY | June 28, 2022 – The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) and The Rockefeller Foundation co-convened global women leaders on June 20-23, 2022 at the Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Bellagio, Italy for the Global Women Leaders Summit to address the urgent need for action to advance gender equity. The rights […]

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