With National Guard and ICE activity and the resulting cascade of protests monopolizing people’s news feeds, planners now must contend with an increasingly fearful atmosphere in certain cities where they are holding their meetings.
Some of them have chosen to postpone or change locations, while others are forced to move ahead because of contractual demands — despite objections from attendees.
But Elena Gerstmann, executive director of the international association INFORMS, who co-founded SocialOffset along with Beth Surmont, head of strategy & Design at 360 Live Media, says that as the landscape has grown more tumultuous, some organizations are rethinking their events altogether.
“Amid political uncertainty, potential federal budget cuts, heightened scrutiny around event locations, and many other trials and tribulations, planners are focused first on the basic viability of holding events at all,” she said. “As a result, location-based boycotts are taking a backseat to more pragmatic questions.”
SocialOffset was created as a socially conscious alternative to event and destination boycotts for associations and their convention attendees, though its founders could never have anticipated the politically charged environment of the past year.
The 501c3 nonprofit organization enables a charitable donation to offset tax dollars spent in a destination with values that may differ from those of attendees.
Vetted Charities
Nonetheless, SocialOffset recently fulfilled its promise to publish a free guide that event organizers and attendees can use to identify local nonprofits that align with their values. The guide lists vetted local charities in 17 convention hubs: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Birmingham, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville, New Orleans, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Seattle, and Tampa.
The charities focus on four umbrella issues: racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive freedom, and basic human needs. The new list runs the gamut, from food banks to conservation organizations to charities that support trans youth. For now, SocialOffset plans to keep the list at this size, said Gerstmann. “That way, we can focus on strengthening our toolkit for event planners and making the experience as easy and useful as possible.”
The American Counseling Association tapped into Social Offset for its 2025 Conference & Expo in Orlando, which attracted 3,000 mental health counselors. After association members expressed their displeasure about state legislation targeting minoritized communities, the organizers chose to offer them the option to offset their attendance with donations to two local charities focused on helping marginalized youth, My Brother’s Keeper, which focuses on racial justice, and Zebra Youth, focusing on LGBTQ+ and equality.
Other association events that included offsets as part of their 2025 events were the ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition in Los Angeles, ANESTHESIOLOGY 2025 in San Antonio, and the AMP 2025 Annual Meeting & Expo in Boston. Since its inception, Social Offset has completed more than 85 campaigns, with more than $60,000 raised for more than 140 local charities.
