Small Business Philanthropy

By:Brent Weaver Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

Turning Giving into Growth

If there’s one good thing that’s resulted from the recent era of corporate irresponsibility we’ve endured, it’s this fact: people now are more likely than ever to buy goods or services from businesses that are associated with good causes. But while big companies spend a fortune on marketing that calls attention to their good deeds, smaller businesses – especially those that establish strong connections within their communities – don’t need a big marketing budget to get noticed. More often than not, if you’re strategic about your giving, the good deed will speak for itself.

When my business partner Steve and I started our web development firm, we were fresh out of college with big dreams and a small bank account. We started our company – HotPress Web – out of our apartment in the Uptown neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. Friends since high school, we had partnered on various forms of web-related businesses even when we lived in different states. It wasn’t until 2005 when we both finished college and joined forces in Denver that we got serious about growing a business that would be sustainable in the long-term. Our apartment was across the street from a venerable Denver restaurant – Strings – with a reputation for feeding the “who’s who” of Denver. For months as we scraped for business and dined on our lunch of Ramen noodles, we watched from our apartment window as well dressed men and women pulled up to the restaurant, handed their keys to the valet and disappeared through the door. We made a pact that when the right time came, we’d treat ourselves to a fancy meal at Strings.

As luck would have it, business began to pick up over the next several months. We established a solid client base of small businesses and non-profit organizations and declared this as our target market moving forward. One day after signing a fairly significant contract, we made the trek across the street to celebrate. The contracts kept coming in and over a period of several more months we got to know the Strings’ owner, Noel Cunningham, quite well. In fact, after being chided for stopping in to Strings only sporadically we began making weekly appearances for lunch or happy hour.

As HotPress Web continued to grow, Steve and I began to focus more on our long-term marketing plan and defining our values as an organization. From the beginning, we’d agreed that community involvement was important to us. Now that our success was beginning to afford us the time and resources to do some pro-bono work here and there, it was time to put our money where our mouths were.

In our chats with Noel at Strings, we learned about his charitable foundation – The Cunningham Foundation – that he operates with his wife, Tammy. They launched the Cunningham Foundation, which supports self-sufficiency programs for impoverished Ethiopians, after a visit to Africa several years ago. They were touched by both the poverty and amazing resilience they’d seen in the small village of Yetebon, Ethiopia. Noel spoke very passionately about his foundation,and you could tell how incredibly important its mission was to him. But when I went to the Cunningham Foundation’s website, I didn’t get that same sense of passion. At that point it clicked: this is somewhere we can make a difference.

Like any business strategy, philanthropic giving should be organized to maximize return, whether that’s experience gained, connections established, higher visibility in the community or increased sales.

As a fairly new start-up venture, we had nothing to lose and all of the above to gain. It was also a good strategic fit because the needs of the cause – a website overhaul that would help raise awareness and drive donations to the Cunningham Foundation – were directly related to our business. Furthermore, the cause itself – a non-profit organization – connected with our customer base, many of which who were non-profits themselves. In our eyes, this match made perfect sense.

So in 2007, we approached Noel about redesigning the Cunningham Foundation website as a pro-bono project. His immediate response, “What’s in this for you?” Not exactly the reaction we’d hoped for, but understandable considering we were a couple of 25-year-olds running our business out of the apartment across the street. In our minds, we’d already taken on this cause, so we remained persistent. Every chance we had, we’d talk to Noel about our clients and the types of things we were doing to help them increase donations or sales and how we could be doing the same types of things for his foundation. Eventually we broke him down, and he accepted our offer – with the caveat that we join the Cunningham Foundation on it's annual November trip to Ethiopia that year. Despite the risks of leaving our business for a 10-day trip to Africa, it was an offer we couldn’t refuse. After all, we’d convinced Noel to let us redesign the Cunningham Foundation website, and we couldn’t think of a better way to build content that would help tell the foundation’s story than by documenting the foundation’s work first-hand. Our job would be to document two of the Cunningham Foundation’s most successful projects, Quarters for Kids International and the Hope Bracelet Project.

The trip to Ethiopia changed us. As recent college graduates barely scraping by while trying to build our business, we’d made sacrifices – or so we thought. But the villagers of Yetebon, Ethiopia, helped us put things in perspective. They had so little. It dawned on us that even with our limited resources as a small company; we were capable of doing so much for them. From that moment on, we gained a true understanding of how the efforts of a few could impact so many and we knew that making the world a better place – however we did it – had to be part and parcel to who we were as a company. When we returned from Africa, we began the overhaul of the Cunningham Foundation’s website. We uploaded videos and photos highlighting the foundation’s funds at work providing food, clothing and education for children, and supporting the construction of dorms for orphans and new libraries. It not only brought the foundation’s story to life in an amazing way, but it captured that same passion that lit up Noel’s face when he talked about their work in Africa.

Naturally, through both the trip to Africa and our work redesigning the Cunningham Foundation’s website, we gained a deep understanding of each of the foundation’s projects. One of the most well known – The HOPE Bracelet Project – was gaining popularity among Noel’s Denver following which included just about anybody who’s ever eaten at his restaurant, because they are prominently displayed at the front of the house. A collaboration between the Cunningham Foundation and bead artists from around the world, this project has enabled students in Ethiopia to learn the art of jewelry and bead making. The foundation then sells the jewelry, donating 100 percent of the proceeds to benefit the area of Yetebon.

At the time, the bracelets could only be purchased at Strings. Demand was high and Noel often had customers buying two and three bracelets at a time for friends and relatives who’d admired the bracelets but lived in other cities. This presented another opportunity for Steve and I to lend our professional expertise; why not sell the bracelets on the foundation’s website? At first, Noel was apprehensive. He liked the idea of people coming into his restaurant to buy the bracelets. Understanding the impact e-commerce can have on product sales, we were able to convince Noel by pointing out the impact it could have on the villagers of Yetebon. If it had a negative effect on bracelet sales at Strings, we’d nix that part of the website. After launching the online store, the foundation sold 40 bracelets in four days. Inside Strings, bracelet sales continued to increase. To date, online sales have helped raise more than $15,000 for the community of Yetebon.

The trip to Africa and the website redesign project cemented our relationship with the Cunningham’s. As a result of our successful work on the foundation website, Noel hired us to build a new website for Strings. He referred us one after another to colleagues in the restaurant business and introduced us to the prominent business people who came through his door at Strings. Next thing we knew, a $30,000 pro-bono commitment had returned more than three times its value in revenue from new business. We’d taken a risk and put in some long hours of pro-bono work, but we instilled trust in a true partner who to this day continues to be one of our most effective brand ambassadors.

This, our first stint at being young business philanthropists, inspired and energized us. There’s no denying we aren’t motivated by the financial success it’s had on our business. But more importantly, we now understood how the collaborative efforts of just a few people can have a lasting and widespread impact on so many. That principle is ingrained in everything we do, both as individuals and professionals.

Today, we’re fortunate that HotPress Web continues to grow, and we attribute much of that growth to our decision to live our value of community involvement each and every day. As the company has grown, so has our commitment to causes that we not only care about, but also can help us grow as a company too. We continue to work with Noel and the Cunningham Foundation, and this year expanded our work by chairing the planning committee for the foundation’s first fundraiser, the Hope Ball. We also helped bring Lemonade Day, a citywide event focusing on fostering the spirit of entrepreneurism in young people, to Denver for the first time. We’re fortunate that as a small business we’ve been able to make a big difference, and hope to serve as proof to other entrepreneurs that capitalism for the common good is alive and well in business today.

Brent Weaver is co-founder and managing partner at HotPress Web. More information on the causes they support can be found at www.hotpressweb.com, www.cunninghamfoundation.org and www.lemonadeday.org.

Marketing To End Poverty

By:Cindy Kerr Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

A Social Enterprise Goes Against The Grain Marketing a Product to Poor Africans

Marketing encompasses any and every tactic that reaches customers, prospects and increases awareness. For non-profits, marketing includes every effort that communicates brand, cause, solutions and opportunities. The biggest obstacle I’ve encountered in working with non-profits is the way they tend to devalue the impact of a powerful brand. Branding, the image and perceptions people hold in their minds, is absolutely essential to attracting donors, keeping them engaged, communicating to individuals you help and most importantly, creating sustainable impacts that change lives.

It’s a fact that organizations and businesses with a strong brand and communications improve impact and sales. According to Business Week’s Top 100 Brand study, “The companies that gained the most in value focus ruthlessly on every detail of their brands, honing simple, cohesive identities that are consistent in every product, in every market around the world, and in every contact with consumers.“

This is true across the board, whether you are saving lives or selling products.

I was talking recently with a senior marketing executive at a Fortune 500 global brand. She is heavily involved in the company’s foundation and on several boards. We were trying to figure out why so many organizations consider marketing and communications “fluff.” It’s tough to get a non-profit to commit resources to smart marketing that yields results. It’s nearly impossible to raise donor funds for anything remotely considered marketing or “branding.” With today’s increasing problems, decreasing donors, little cash and limited resources, marketing staff, budget and activities have been slashed and dropped even further.

We don't understand why so few get it. Yes, some forms of marketing require resources and cash. There are many tactics like PR, grassroots, online marketing and word of mouth to pursue that don’t drain the coffers.

High yield marketing needs thoughtful planning and willingness to stand out and go against the grain. The few that do get it, see dramatic results in impacts, funding and changed lives. High yield marketing needs thoughtful planning and willingness to stand out and go against the grain. The few that do get it, see dramatic results in impacts, funding and changed lives.

KickStart International is a non-profit that sells a product so that poor farmers in Africa can make a profit and be lifted from poverty. They call themselves a social enterprise and do their best to run the organization like a business. Since 1991, the founders Martin Fisher and Nick Moon have been committed to changing the way the world fights poverty. A manual irrigation pump, branded, is sold in retail farm shops and through on-farm demonstrations.

In Africa, over 70% of the population relies on meager subsistence farming that yields a small harvest. They wait for the rain or use back-breaking buckets to harvest one corn crop a year. Farming is not usually considered a money-making business. Farmers often depend on odd jobs or they leave the farming to the wife and go to a city to get jobs that are scarce and low-paying.

Users of KickStart’s MoneyMaker irrigation pump start successful businesses. They grow multiple crops that make money year round. With a small plot likely less than two acres, they plan, plant, harvest and sell tomatoes, green beans, or kale. The cash they make goes to basic needs -- food, school fees, and medical services.

Sales and marketing is KickStart’s biggest obstacle and highest cost. Convincing the very poor who are risk averse to invest in a technology that is unfamiliar and expensive, is hard. They make do without electricity, running water, welfare, education, tools, cars, or help from the government. A MoneyMaker pump costs $50 - $100, a big investment for one making less than $500 per year.

Skeptics have questioned why they would go to so much effort to sell pumps instead of just giving them away. Years of experience proved that handouts don’t work. The poor person’s greatest need is a way to make money.

Over 80% of pumps bought are used to create businesses, jobs and income to lift a family out of poverty permanently. Less than 30% of pumps given away were used to create a business. Selling pumps creates three times more small businesses than giving them away.

KickStart compiled impact monitoring data that proved every pump sold lifts a family of five out of poverty. A family’s income increases up to 1000% in twelve months. Sales of pumps grew and they expanded into new countries. High profile U.S. donors became interested in this business model that offered a permanent, sustainable solution to ending poverty.

By 2006, funding had increased and awards like Fast Company’s Social Capitalist, Peter F Drucker Award for Non-Profit Innovation was granted. They were invited to high profile conferences like TED. Meanwhile, branding was inconsistent and few resources and little planning were dedicated to marketing.

Then pump sales started to slow down and drop. No global brand or standards were in place for the 600 dealers selling pumps. Each country had a different brand, advertising and product display. Photos were outdated and unprofessional and didn’t show how the product worked. Marketing dollars were being spent that were not resulting in sales or demand. A new pump wasn’t selling. Donor communications were outdated and had different messages.

With the encouragement from a business-minded board, Nick and Martin made a commitment to act on the need for marketing leadership to turn around the sales. I joined the team in Kenya as a volunteer and then a consultant. I’ve worked for top agencies on the biggest brands in the world and helped countless small businesses and non-profits. What happened the next two years was the most challenging, overwhelming and rewarding marketing assignment of my career.

It took a year of working day and night assessing, researchins, planning, testing, traveling, fighting parasites, visiting shops and learning farming. My mud caked boots revealed insights into the sales challenges and understanding of small-scale farmers across Kenya, Tanzania, Mali and Burkina Faso. The brand needed instant recognition and powerful visuals with an audience unfamiliar to the technology. We had to show how the pump and spray worked. It had to translate in four languages, use few words, cross different cultures, avoid tribal issues and of course be cost-effective.

Before launching the campaign there were major issues to be addressed. Change was needed in operations, sales, and distribution. We faced resistance from some who didn’t “get it.” The number of stores selling pumps had to be culled to only the best locations. Sales strategies were changed to include more on-farm demonstrations. Significant resources were committed to creating displays, advertising, brand standards, photography and sales training. Then, post-election violence in Kenya threw off plans and set the country into a tailspin.

In 2008, “Farming is my Business” marketing campaign launched. Displays, advertising, billboards and a promotion propelled sales efforts to change the negative perceptions about farming and show how a MoneyMaker pump is all one needs to be a successful businessman.

The commitment paid off.

By the end of 2008, KickStart had realized a six hundred percent increase in pump sales. People lifted out of poverty doubled in two years. Most important, over 428,000 people on our planet were lifted out of poverty permanently.

The results were unprecedented; the highest since they began in 1991. The Kenya program sold over 1,500 pumps in December 2008, their highest sales ever, especially when the country was raw from violence that displaced over 300,000 people. Consistent global branding was in place in the country programs. Donor communications showed powerful impacts with a clear message. The campaign won an International Communicator Award. The September 21, 2008 Time heralded KickStart International as one of the world’s Top 25 Responsibility Pioneers. “Eighteen years ago, KickStart's founders, former aid workers Martin Fisher and Nick Moon, were branded as heretics for selling irrigation pumps to poor Africans. But experience had shown them that business models work: people are more invested in the success of a tool they buy than in one they are given. So far, the aptly named MoneyMaker pumps have helped 85,000 families increase crop yields and lift themselves out of poverty.”

One morning I went with a colleague to interview John, a twenty-something farmer near Nairobi to learn about how buying a pump had changed his life. He decided to try farming after an unsuccessful attempt to make a living and get a job in the city. We crossed neighboring fields that were bone dry before getting to his plot. His corn was tall and verdant. The green beans and tomatoes were close to harvest. He calculated quickly in his head the profit from each plant, his costs, and what he would plant next. With a huge grin, he introduced the goats he’d bought for his parents and showed off the small concrete house he was building for his new wife. “I’m a businessman” he said. “Welcome to my office.” He got it.

Seth Godin is considered to be one of the best marketers in the world, with 10 books and the most popular marketing blog on the planet. He devoted a recent blog to non-profits. In “The Problem with Non” he postures the reason non-profits fail to move forward and be potent marketers is their resistance and fear of change.

He posits, “Where are the big charities, the urgent charities, the famous charities that face such timely needs and are in a hurry to make change? Very few of them have bothered to show up in a big way. The problem is the same …It's easy to buy more stamps and do more direct mail, it’s scary to use a new technique… When was the last time you had an interaction with a non-profit that blew you away?”

Thank you to the few who “get it.” They are willing to change risk and invest. Unfortunately, KickStart has had to cut back on marketing efforts due to decreased funding. Sales of MoneyMaker pumps have slipped in the last six months. As soon as funds are available, their marketing will again be “turned on.” Every day I am inspired to cultivate excellence and see a few more good organizations that are willing to change their ways and change more lives.

Cindy Kerr, founder of ckarma Marketing, has more than 20 years expertise in branding, strategy, advertising, cause marketing and campaigns that increase sales and awareness. ckarma Marketing is an outsourced marketing and communications firm that transforms non-profits and businesses committed to making a positive difference. Award winning strategy and creative campaigns raise awareness, engage donors and increase impacts. ckarma brings a deep understanding and passion for non-profits and social entrepreneurs in U.S. and Africa. Visit www.ckarma.com to learn more.

Ethiopia Reads

By:Janet Lee Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

Partnering for a Greater Good

"It takes a village to raise a child,” so claims the African proverb. Lest one become emotionally fatigued by this time-worn cliché, one needs only hear the story of University of Colorado student, Esubalew Johnston. As a young boy in a remote Ethiopian village, he was lured to the capital of Addis Ababa with the promise of an education and a better life. Instead of attending school, he was blinded by his overseers and forced to beg on the crowded, unforgiving streets. After a year or so of living under squalid conditions, he contracted tuberculosis and had to be hospitalized. An incongruous stroke of luck eventually led him to an international adoption and ultimately with great success to the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Or one could watch the spunky Wubetu in the PBS documentary, A Walk to Beautiful. As a child in northern Ethiopia, she was repeatedly married off, but ran away from three different husbands. Ultimately, she stayed with the fourth because she was pregnant. Because of her diminutive size and her youth, the labor was prolonged and difficult. After a week in labor, a not uncommon phenomenon in these rural areas of Ethiopia, the baby was stillborn. The protracted labor destroyed her bladder and caused a fistula, a small opening in the bladder that resulted in chronic incontinence. The accompanying stench of urine caused even her closest family members and friends to shun her. Three surgeries later at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital and with the help of a plug, her life returns to normalcy.

The common thread in these two lives is the lack of access to schools and to education in Ethiopia. Had education been available and encouraged, their paths would have taken a far different direction and personal heartache and tragedy might have been averted. It is stories such as these, far more common than one would imagine, that affirmed my commitment to Ethiopia Reads and renewed my admiration for the founder, Ato (Mr.) Yohannes Gebregeorgis.

Ato Yohannes, a political refugee turned U.S. citizen and children’s librarian returned to his native Ethiopia after nineteen years in the U.S. to form Ethiopia Reads, an organization that is establishing children’s libraries in Ethiopia. He soon learned that not only does it take a village to raise a child, but that it takes a global village to put together the resources needed to run the organization successfully. He enlisted the support of family and friends, American parents of adopted Ethiopian children, members of the Ethiopian Diaspora in the U.S., the Rotary club, and most importantly American school children who could not imagine a world without books or schools without libraries and raised money--a penny, a nickel, a dime at a time.

Although our paths may have crossed on September 12, 1974, the day Emperor Haile Sellasie was overthrown (Ato Yohannes and I were both on Churchill Blvd. in Addis Ababa on that same day; he a student revolutionary and I a neophyte Peace Corps Volunteer), we did not officially meet until May of 2007 and then for the briefest of time. As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who taught English under less than optimal conditions and as a veteran librarian, I understood the importance of literacy and reading in transforming the lives of children and the tremendous task at hand. Ethiopia also stole a piece of my heart; not a single day has gone by in the thirty plus years since I left that I have not thought of it or its people. I, too, joined the ranks of those committed to the betterment of Ethiopia.

November 10, 2008 brought Ato Yohannes to the Regis University campus in Denver, Colorado where I have worked as a librarian for the past 28 years. I had arranged for him to speak to a number of classes and conduct a brownbag discussion. But the highlight of the day was the Regis University radio interview conducted by Dr. Thomas Hooyman, a professor of medical ethics in the Rueckert-Hartman College of Health Professions and a scholar and social activist dedicated to education. These men delighted in each other and bubbled with excitement. Each regaled me later with stories about the interview questions and answers. Dr. Hooyman reportedly was ready to head to Ethiopia the very next day to join Ato Yohannes in building a literacy radio station together. Tragically a week later, Dr. Hooyman was killed in a motor vehicle accident and the entire campus reeled. When news reached Ato Yohannes, he committed to planting a children’s library in Ethiopia to honor his newfound friend and colleague.

After less than a year, money was raised and an appropriate site in Mekelle, in Tigray province, was chosen. Of the forty plus libraries that have been established under the auspices of Ethiopia Reads, many, like this one, are planted in memory of a loved one, a colleague, a friend. Although this is now Tom’s story and the story of the Dr. Thomas Hooyman Memorial Library and Media Center, it typifies the extreme need of the children of Ethiopia and how Ato Yohannes, a man of passion, a pied piper of children, has followed his calling and given up everything to serve the children of his native land.

Ato Yohannes examined many potential sites for the memorial library and upon hearing the story behind Fre Siwat (Fruit of the Martyrs) Elementary School, he knew that this site would be the most appropriate of all those visited to honor Dr. Hooyman. The students of Fre Siwat are the sons and daughters, nieces and nephews of the Tigray resistance fighters who were instrumental in the overthrow of Mengistu and the military government of Ethiopia in 1991. These children are the so called fruit of the martyrs for the resistance.

Once the site was chosen and the date of the dedication set, Ato Yohannes extended an invitation to family, friends, and colleagues to attend the dedication of this befitting memorial to Dr. Hooyman. Without hesitation, I accepted and our journey together began. Because of my library expertise, I was asked to come early to assist with training of library assistants and to set up the actual library itself.

Despite a slight mishap in Khartoum, Sudan, the twenty-four hour flight from Denver to Addis Ababa went relatively smoothly. After just three years, I was back in Addis Ababa, the “new flower”, the capital of Ethiopia. Each morning the call for prayers from the nearby mosque greeted me and started my day. Although I am not of that faith tradition, the prayers were a calm reassurance that a new day was beginning and that peoples of many faiths and traditions could live side by side. We were joined by Rachel Scott, a library assistant at the Seattle Public Library, and a Master of Library and Information Science student at the University of Washington. Rachel quickly adapted to the Ethiopian lifestyle and made great strides in learning both simple Amharic phrases and local customs.

I was in the last group of Peace Corps Volunteers assigned to Ethiopia in the mid 70s, during the initial reign of Mengestu and the Provisional Military Advisory Committee, commonly referred to as the Derge. The Peace Corps program was reintroduced in the mid-80s but pulled out again due to the war with Eritrea. Volunteers once again returned eighteen months ago and I contacted and recruited three of the six volunteers in the Mekelle area to help with the project at hand. “Once a Peace Corps always a Peace Corps” goes the saying and the four of us hit it off immediately. Shelly McCreery (Illinois), Danielle Hoekwater (Michigan), Nicholas Strnad (Ohio) were brought in for HIV-AIDS prevention and awareness but quickly jumped in and helped organize the book collection, set up the computers and other media equipment. Ato Yohannes had previously ordered shelving and furniture to be built to his strict specifications and they had been delivered. He and I went to a frame shop to have posters and maps framed, once again to his standards.

In the meantime, several EBCEF (Ethiopian Books for Children and Educational Foundation, the Ethiopian operations of Ethiopia Reads) staff members, Rachel and I were involved in training twenty librarians, including the librarian from Fre Siwat on the philosophy and mechanics of library organization, child development, and literacy. We quickly learned of the desperate ongoing need for library education and the sense of empowerment the trainees developed because of the training.

Despite electrical brownouts, the day of the dedication arrived. The students of Fre Siwat lined up in excitement several hours before the dedication of the Dr. Thomas Hooyman Memorial Library and Media Center. Under an intense sun, many wore their thread-bare uniforms, the only clothing most owned and what became their daily attire. Barbara Baker, Dr. Hooyman’s sister from Arizona, joined us in the dedication. Before an audience of the children, city officials, librarians and Peace Corps Volunteers, Ato Yohannes, Barbara and I spoke of our memories of Dr. Hooyman and encouraged the children to read, study hard and use the library often.

Both Barbara and I were presented with beautiful, traditional Ethiopian dresses and Ato Yohannes was presented with a replica of the Monument to the Martyrs that stands in the center of Mekelle. I was joined by the Assistant Mayor of Mekelle, Ato Haddish Zenebe, in cutting the ribbon and Barbara unveiled the plaque that bore Dr. Hooyman’s name. All were then invited to tour the state-of-the art library, complete with books, computers, a DVD player, games, and tape deck.

And then the most incredible thing happened. So impressed with the work of Ethiopia Reads, the city officials of Mekelle offered Ato Yohannes and EBCEF the use of a magnificent building, rent free, to establish a children and youth library. The Mekelle building donation is a new model of collaboration that EBCEF anticipates will be the standard for future collaboration between EBCEF and city governments. Not only has the city of Mekelle designated this building for the project, it has also offered four other locations in surrounding subcities of Mekelle for branch libraries. Several groups and individuals have already come forth with monetary commitments and proposals for fundraising for the project. This will serve as seed money for ongoing fundraising appeals. Anticipating a successful fundraising campaign, the opening and dedication of the library could be set for as early as September 2010.

Since donations continue to be received, a publishing project has been designated to honor Dr. Hooyman. A children’s book on the Tigrigna festival Ashenda, which occurred during the time of the dedication, will be written in both Tigrigna and English and distributed to the children during the next festival. Further contributions to this project may be sent to the Dr. Thomas Hooyman Memorial Fund, care of Ethiopia Reads, 55 Madison St., Suite 745, Denver, CO 80206.

I may be back in the U.S. but my head and heart are still in Ethiopia. I know that the Meskel flowers that follow the heavy rains in August are blooming and welcoming in the New Year. The children’s book now has a name, Tirhas Celebrates Ashenda: An Ethiopian Girls’ Festival and is becoming more and more of a reality. Someone needs to plan, develop and set up the collection in that magnificent building in Mekelle. I hear Ethiopia calling.

Janet Lee is the Technical Services Librarian at the Regis University Libraries at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. She is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Ethiopia 1974-76.

Conscious Capitalist Profile

By:Rebecca Saltman Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

Rick Tallman

When I was asked to think of people who demonstrate conscious capitalism, living their mission and who catalyze collaboration within their communities, one of the first names that came to mind was Rick Tallman. Rick is a veteran entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Renova Capital Group, and founder of the Tallman Group, a nationally-recognized consulting firm, working to improve the governance and management of American non-profit organizations. He established his reputation years ago as not only a successful entrepreneur but a dynamic agent for collaboration; leading four early-stage companies through hyper-growth and eventual public offering or acquisition, and six non-profit agencies through successful start-up or total reorganization. Rick serves on a number of corporate and non-profit boards, frequently lectures on the subject of social entrepreneurship, and if all of this weren’t enough, he was a Company Commander in the U.S. Army during the Persian Gulf War, holding both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. I don’t know about you but this all makes me feel like I am standing still in the very midst of an Iron Man Triathalon.

Earlier this year at the Responsible Economy Roundtable, Rick described a masterful collaboration that Renova Group is developing with Mi Casa, Main Street Power, ICAST and Morgan Stanley to get solar panels installed on the roof of the Mi Casa facility located in Denver, Colorado. Mi Casa’s mission is to advance the economic success of Latino families through three program areas; business, career, and youth and family development. From an outsider’s perspective such an undertaking may seem like a simple project. However, this collaboration allows for every single stakeholder to receive exceptional value and nails sustainability by continuing well into the future.

Here’s how everybody benefits from this effort:

• Mi Casa wins because they get a 30kW solar power system installed on their roof, a free energy audit, energy efficiency work on their facility, a much lower electric bill, education/job-training programs in solar, roofing and energy efficiency work for the participants in Mi Casa’s programs, and a brand new roof.
• Morgan Stanley wins because they make a reasonable return on their investment and are able to point to demonstrable, sustainable support within the local community.
• Main Street Power wins because they earn a small fee, receive an excellent marketing opportunity and strengthen their own triple own bottom line. Moreover, Main Street Power will give at least 50% of the man-hours of the project while training and hiring previously unemployed people from the community in partnership with Mi Casa.

Additionally, Main Street is implementing similar programs, together with non-profit partners, in low-income neighborhoods in California and New Jersey. Utilizing the Colorado plan allows the imminent return to be exponentially greater because it is both scalable and replicable.

Rick has also taken risks that most non-profits would never broach given their scale and vision. One of the most startling examples is his acclaimed success, several years ago, in eliminating all fundraising events from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado (BBBS).

Tallman was able to shift major corporate sponsors from outcome-specific “event sponsors” to “programmatic collaborators”, enforcing a broader vision on the part of those contributing funds. In the old model, sponsors would buy a table at fundraising dinners. The innovative BBBS of Colorado asked one of its key sponsors to put the $10,000 it would have invested in the dinner into adopting a School-Based Mentoring (SBM) site school instead.  The sponsor agreed, and was able to make a value-added contribution without increasing its financial commitment. This not only showed measurable impact but also developed a strong case for future collaborations.

Event planners and their vendor companies needn’t feel their bottom line threatened, however. Rick still sees the need for events whose agendas celebrate collaboration, cultivation, gratitude and recognition. He feels strongly about creating a fun way to value the contributions of all of the partners in improving the lives of those served by the organizations with which he works.

Rick will never be accused of thinking small or inside the box. Tallman pitched the T. Boone Pickens Foundation about a partnership to expand youth mentoring programs serving the U.S. military community. Under Tallman’s leadership, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) sought a national partnership with the T. Boone Pickens Foundation to profoundly improve the lives of military families in communities across the country, asking for $600,000 per year for five years. Dozens of the affiliates had already developed local military partnerships as a spontaneous response to the need in their communities. Yet the lack of a concerted national effort greatly limited their ability to bring programs to scale and more effectively support those that serve us every day. The proposal showed innovation, value and significant impact.

The collaboration and innovation paid off. On October 8, 2008 the T. Boone Pickens Foundation awarded Big Brothers Big Sisters a five-year $3 million grant that will provide professionally supported mentoring services to substantially more children of deployed military. With more than 700,000 American children having at least one parent actively serving within the U.S. military, the grant could not be more timely or necessary.

With the grant, Big Brothers Big Sisters will more than quadruple the number of children served of deployed military families. Professionally supported services provided by the nations nearly 400 Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies include screening, training, meticulous matching, ongoing match support, activities and outcome evaluation. The T. Boone Pickens Foundation grant will allow agencies that serve deployed military families to add support staff, enhance program awareness among local commanders and create targeted recruiting materials.

Doing a little research I came across a definition of conscious capitalists: conscious capitalists (or business people engaging in conscious capitalism), “put values first before profit.” It’s capitalism infused with “soul.” One of the things that I find most extraordinary about Rick is he is a shrewd business man and equally astute at creating social profit partnerships and collaborations. Rick truly models capitalism infused with soul!

Rebecca Saltman is a social entrepreneur and the President and Founder of an independent collaboration building firm designed to bridge business, government, non-profits and academia. Contact Rebecca at [email protected].

Learn more about Renova Capital Group at www.renovacapitalgroup.com.

Community Involvement

By: John Fish Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

"Starting a New Box"

A famous poet once said, “Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something.” These words resonate with me today, but there was a time when I didn’t truly understand their meaning and relevance to my role in the construction industry and business community.

When I founded Suffolk Construction over 27 years ago, I was ambitious, passionate and determined. I was also focused on leading my own organization and making it profitable. I quickly realized I had the tools and skills necessary to be successful in the business world and over time my company began to manage larger and more complex building construction projects. Suffolk Construction quickly expanded and all my dreams began to come true. The opportunities seemed endless.

Throughout all of these successes I never forgot where I came from, but I was also focused on my company’s bottom line. As my company and I raced forward at breakneck speed during stronger economic times, I did not always take the time to consider the people who might be left behind due to circumstances beyond their control. It wasn’t until later when I realized the importance of giving back and contributing to our surrounding communities.

Suffolk is extremely committed to philanthropy, and our charitable efforts have never been as organized and focused as they are today. Rather than “thinking outside the box” for new opportunities to raise money and organize fundraising events, our approach was different. Our company decided to “start a new box” and develop more innovative, creative opportunities to help people in need.

To maintain our focus on the causes that matter most to us, we established a 501c3 called the Red & Blue Foundation. Named after the bold red and blue colors in our distinct company logo, Red & Blue Foundation is the charitable arm of our organization focused on making a difference in local neighborhoods by positively impacting underprivileged and underserved children, particularly through educational programs. The unique programs we have unveiled as part of our Red & Blue Foundation have already had impressive results.

Camp Harbor View

A few summers ago, youth violence in Boston’s inner-cities was skyrocketing. Despite the city’s efforts to curb the violence through community programs and more police on the streets, the crime rate continued to rise. The City of Boston was no longer in a position to “look outside the box” for solutions to this problem, city officials, businesses and community groups needed to “start a new box” and find an innovative solution that would have a long-term impact on the city’s children. It was decided that the kids of Boston needed a place to spend their summers, away from the violent street corners of the city.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino turned to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, local philanthropists and Suffolk Construction to raise money and construct Camp Harbor View on an abandoned Boston Harbor island. The Camp would be used exclusively for underprivileged children living in Boston’s inner-city neighborhoods. It was an ambitious project to say the least - the Mayor asked that the Camp be completed in time for the summer, which was only a few months away.

Our Suffolk Construction project teams exceeded the schedule goal and completed construction of Camp Harbor View on an amazing 109-day schedule despite numerous challenges. One of the most significant hurdles was the location of the project itself, which was situated on Long Island in the middle of Boston Harbor. Due to limited access to the island by road, all construction materials and equipment had to be delivered to the project site by more than 60 barges navigating across Boston Harbor. The completed Camp Harbor View facility consists of a 14,100 square-foot main building, 1,712 square-foot beach house, 1,500 square-foot pavilion, two basketball courts, two tennis courts, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, three soccer fields and a pier used for sailing lessons.

The new facility is impressive, but the impact the camp is having on the kids of Boston cannot be measured. When I recently visited Camp Harbor View, a young girl personally thanked me for helping build the camp. She was bursting with energy but still seemed a little shy. After I prodded her a bit, she began to tell me her story. She said she loved playing with her friends at the camp but that her life hadn’t always been that happy. Before she was invited to Camp Harbor View, she often had to stay indoors during summer afternoons because of the violence outside her home. There were even nights when she heard gunshots outside her bedroom window.

When I heard this young child’s story, it quickly put all the negative economic news of the past year into perspective. Camp Harbor View was making an immediate impact on the kids of Boston and it was changing their lives for the better. Today, more than 700 underprivileged children from Boston’s inner-city neighborhoods attend Camp Harbor View each summer, and the number keeps growing as plans to expand the Camp continue.

The story behind Camp Harbor View was clearly not the construction of this amazing camp, but instead was the vision and innovative thinking that led to an incredible place that has made such an enormous difference in young people’s lives.

The Boston Scholar Athlete Program

Camp Harbor View was not the only time that Red & Blue Foundation and the City of Boston joined together for an important cause. For years, there have been well-publicized inadequacies in the athletic programs in the Boston Public Schools. Stories about the shortage of quality sporting equipment and consistently uncompetitive teams were heard all too frequently about the Boston Public School teams.

Many of us believed it was time to do something, but we decided that “thinking outside the box” and finding new ways to raise money for the Boston Public School athletic programs was not the answer. We decided it was time to “start a new box” and create a solution that would have the greatest and most immediate impact on the young people of Boston.

In response to the crisis in Boston’s public school athletic programs, Mayor Menino and I partnered again and announced the creation of The Boston Scholar Athlete Program. The program is a multimillion-dollar charitable foundation designed to support academic achievement through athletics and foster a platform that encourages participation from a consortium of professional sports teams, colleges, universities and corporations. The ultimate goal of the program is to enhance opportunities for Boston student athletes and develop individual student athlete growth through mentoring, tutoring, coaching and conditioning.

Red & Blue Foundation contributed $1 million to fund The Boston Scholar Athlete Program but we also play a critical role in its leadership and management. By partnering with colleges, universities, individuals and corporate sponsors, Red & Blue Foundation is now offering increased funding, tutoring programs, scholarship opportunities, equipment upgrades and training opportunities for students and coaches across the city.

Red & Blue Foundation is administering the program with the help of a Suffolk-hired Executive Athletic Director and Chief Academic Officer responsible for managing the athletic and academic program efforts, respectively. In addition to providing guidance to formulate a strategic long-term plan, our Red & Blue Foundation is raising money, organizing athletic and academic clinics, and instituting training seminars to improve coaching while encouraging increased participation in Boston’s public school athletic programs.

As part of the roll-out of the innovative Boston Scholar Athlete Program, Red & Blue Foundation has also recruited major colleges and universities in Boston to provide goods and services, including academic tutors. We have also engaged local non-profits for this important cause to see how we can most effectively combine our efforts to reach our common goal of providing enhanced athletics and academic opportunities to the children of Boston.

Again, “starting a new box” and approaching this community issue with an innovative, creative solution is making the biggest impact on the community. By assisting and encouraging academic achievement while expanding and enhancing opportunities on the playing field, our unique Boston Scholar Athlete Program model is drawing national attention and is already making significant progress within Boston’s public schools.

Red & Blue Foundation A National Presence

Our Red & Blue Foundation is a national initiative and is making a positive difference in communities across the country, particularly in the Southeast. The Red & Blue Foundation and Rex Kirby, Suffolk’s Southeast President, have been committed to partnering with Home Safe, a non-profit organization that provides services to neglected children in South Florida. The Foundation and Suffolk’s Southeast office have played a strong leadership role in fundraising for the organization and raising awareness of abused and neglected children in Florida.

The Red & Blue Foundation is also beginning to make inroads in the Mid-Atlantic and West Coast regions of the country. Suffolk’s Mid-Atlantic teams recently participated in the District of Columbia Building Industry Association (DCBIA) Community Improvement Day and the renovation of the Douglass Community Center, which provides sports leagues, youth development, therapeutic recreation, aquatic programming, outdoor adventure, camping and child care services. Suffolk’s West Coast teams consistently organize volunteers to assist local Habitat for Humanity projects in Orange County. The Red & Blue Foundation is in the process of developing even more charitable initiatives in these regions for the coming year.

With Crisis Comes Opportunity

Our current economic situation is creating an enormous opportunity for companies to become more involved in their communities. Today, companies are no longer playing by a different set of rules, but instead are playing an entirely new game altogether. “Thinking outside the box” is dead. Organizations are changing their entire mindsets and “starting new boxes” by reinventing and recreating themselves. They are also looking beyond their balance sheets and finances to make a positive impact on their local communities.

Business leaders are beginning to understand that giving back is not just about donating money. It’s about volunteering time, offering unique skills, sharing knowledge and discovering new, innovative ways to make a positive difference. Their leadership and passion for giving back is becoming contagious and is already creating a ripple effect that is having a dramatic impact on local communities.

Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” As business leaders continue to navigate through the difficult economic times, it is important that they “look around them” and remember the important role they can play in helping the less fortunate achieve their dreams.

John F. Fish is Chairman and CEO of Suffolk Construction Company, Inc., one of the largest privately-held building contractors in the country. Mr. Fish is also Chairman of the Board of the Red & Blue Foundation which was established to assist underprivileged and underserved children nationwide through education and community initiatives.

Being Of Service

By: Rebecca Saltman Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

It Ain’t Just a Cookbook

I am always searching for colleagues in collaboration. Such is the reason for my meeting (better described: stalking) of Jeff Klein, the author of Working for Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living. Several years ago, my colleague Porcia sent me an innocent email about an organization called FLOW (now called Conscious Capitalism, Inc.) a non-profit “dedicated to liberating the entrepreneurial spirit for good” co-founded by John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, and educational entrepreneur Michael Strong. I went to the website and I was immediately hooked. Who wouldn’t be happy about “creating sustainable peace, prosperity and happiness for all in our lifetime?” I then went about the business of tracking down the executive director of this extraordinary organization, who clearly took pity on me and started answering my incessant questions regarding the organization and collaboration.

I have gotten to know Jeff over the past few years and have come to recognize him as a true model of collaboration in action! When I heard his new book was due to hit the stands, I couldn’t grab a copy fast enough. I knew it would be a great opportunity for ICOSA readers to have stories of successful “conscious business” evincing collaboration in an accessible, real-world scenario. Jeff focuses on awareness, embodiment, connection and integration, using stories and exercises to show that drawing out the best in others synergistically increases creativity, productivity and sustainability.

Jeff loves breaking new ground when building projects from vision to reality; he finds natural rewards in collaborating with passionate and purposeful people committed to excellence. It was truly a pleasure to talk to Jeff about both the book and his experiences with collaboration.

At ICOSA we believe that collaboration is often the key to success. Describe how Working for Good uses collaboration as a key component for success. What did you learn about collaboration while writing the book?

Collaboration is essential for success in Working for Good. Businesses, projects, or any human endeavor exists and operates in interdependent systems. As the saying goes, “No man is an island.”

I purposefully developed and produced Working for Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living through collaboration. While I wrote the book myself, I began the process through a series of conversations with a dozen friends and colleagues, which reinforced and refined many of my ideas. Then I periodically visited with my friend, colleague and mentor Elad Levinson, whose wise insights and skillful guidance frequently facilitated flow for me. My friend and colleague Julie van Amerongen helped me to refine my language and to keep my sense of humor, both of which infused me with energy when I was wavering. My editor Kelly Notaras helped me to find my voice as a writer with her skillful and laser sharp editing.

The process of collaboration continues with Shelly Vickroy and others at Sounds True in the marketing of the book and with Julie in promotion around my appearances.

If we think about it, we collaborate all the time, to get most anything we do done. But most of our collaboration is not conscious. That is, we don’t think about the fact that we are collaborating. We could look at the creation of this interview as you doing one thing, then me doing one thing, and back and forth in that way – somewhat separate and, while related, disconnected. But by explicitly acknowledging that we were collaborating, the process was a purposeful co-creation. I didn’t feel like I had to carry the piece or process, nor did you. We carried it together and had a light, playful, and delightful experience. At least I did!

What was your motivation for building Cause Alliance Marketing (a business and a model explicitly based on collaboration)?

I have been interested in working to address pressing social and environmental issues for decades. Many years ago I realized that to address these issues would require coordinated campaigns engaging various organizations from multiple sectors in deep, ongoing collaboration. At the same time, as a marketer, I recognized that the issues needed marketing campaigns and companies, NGOs and other organizations needed to address their short-term, bottom line objectives and their long-term, strategic interests through their “investments” in social service.

Cause Alliance Marketing programs or alliances exist as interdependent marketing, social service and positioning platforms, leveraging the resources and capabilities of each member to serve themselves, the collective mission, and the other members, through a collaborative process.

I developed the Cause Alliance Marketing™ model about 8 years ago, and am now applying it with the Conscious Capitalism Alliance, the Working for Good Alliance and in work I am doing in other contexts. At the core of each alliance is a team of collaborators who serve as a board of directors and as the driving force for the alliance. In the CCA, we have an incredible team, including extraordinary CEOs – John Mackey, Cheryl Rosner, and Randy Eisenman, leading edge consultants – Rand Stagen and Timothy Henry, pioneering academics – Ed Freeman and Raj Sisodia, and my brilliant colleagues and collaborators in Conscious Capitalism, Inc, Philomena Blees and, co-founder of CCI (with John Mackey), Michael Strong. Founding corporate members include Whole Foods Market, Satori Capital, and O.N.E. World Enterprises, makers of O.N.E. Drinks. And we are about to launch our Leadership Community comprised of individual executive members (CEOs and Presidents).

Some variation of this structure forms the body of all of the alliances. At each level and for all members, there is a clear value exchange. Everyone brings something to the alliance and receives reciprocal benefit.

I have recently been reading about the MBA Oath. The first two sentences sound like concepts in Working for Good. What skills do MBA students and business leaders need to learn so they can meet the goals of their new oath? What are your thoughts about the oath and how that makes WFG a valuable and timely book for today's business graduates?

Note: The MBA Oath begins with these words: “As a manager, my purpose is to serve the greater good by bringing people and resources together to create value that no single individual can create alone. Therefore I will seek a course that enhances the value my enterprise can create for society over the long term.” (See www.mbaoath.org)

Great question Rebecca. As you will note, the MBA Oath is essentially an anthem of collaboration: “…to serve the greater good by bringing people and resources together to create value that no single individual can create alone.”

In this context, all of the skills of Working for Good – awareness, embodiment, connection, collaboration and integration – are useful, if not essential to fulfilling their oath, as each of the skills cultivate the ability to be aware, present, open, connected and collaborative.

Adding these “human” skills to the powerful analytical tools that MBA students learn will foster well-rounded, creative, inspired, innovative entrepreneurs, leaders and change agents who will make a profound impact in the marketplace and on society.

Employee, customer and other stakeholder engagement are increasingly becoming one of the most significant issues facing companies. Engagement requires connection, real relationships. And real relationships require trust and the skills to cultivate and sustain that trust.

Consumers increasingly demand that companies they buy from serve society beyond delivering quality products and services. To do so requires real collaboration between business, civil society, and government. And collaboration requires human skills, beyond analytical skills.

Describe some of the core strategies you employ to design and facilitate collaboration-based alliances.

* Engage with collaborators or clients who are passionate, dedicated, trustworthy and available to do the work of starting something new. * Identify and engage Alliance Members with shared values, vision, and purpose. * Deeply engage participants throughout all levels of Members’ organizations. * Look at the Alliance as an ecosystem of a diverse pool of Members with compatible needs and objectives, complementary resources and capabilities. * Understand and address goals and objectives of each Alliance Member, as appropriate. * Have clearly defined responsibility, accountability and authority. * Create value for all Members while advancing the shared mission. * Cultivate the skills of Working for Good with and between Members to create a conscious, entrepreneurial culture within the Alliance, with open communications, deep trust and effective collaboration. * Define clear, measurable outcomes, measure results and modify program activity to reflect feedback.

What are the keys to collaborating for the greater good?

Most anything we do, and certainly anything we do in business, social enterprise, or public service we do with others. Conscious, purposeful collaboration is a powerful force for unleashing creativity, passion and productive energy, all of which are core ingredients of success.

The keys to collaborating for the greater good are the same skills required to collaborate in any context, with perhaps a few principles and skills highlighted, given the scope of the intention.

Since we never really know the full affect of our actions or the consequences of our actions, nor do we necessarily know what the greater good is or what serves it, humility is essential. We need to recognize that each of us has limited view and understanding of the issues we are addressing. Collaboration is required to establish a greater, collective intelligence and capacity.

Awareness – of ourselves, our affects on others, and the affects of others on us – is the most essential skill for collaborating for the greater good. Awareness opens us to feedback from others and the environment that give us the opportunity to recognize effects, to adjust our perspective and course of action, to release collective creativity and discover synergies. Curiosity, deep listening to truly hear what others have to say and genuine interest in understanding their perspectives further opens us to possibilities.

Another key to collaborating for the greater good is to learn facilitation skills, even if you are not called upon to formally facilitate. Each of us can serve the process of collaboration as we embody the skills and roles of facilitator, leader and collaborator, as circumstances call us forth.

In my pursuit and practice of working for good over the past three decades, I’ve found that how we work is as, if not more, important than what we do. We can work in a green business, a social service organization, or some other endeavor focused on making the world a better place, but if we treat others and ourselves with disregard or disrespect in the process, we end up creating something far short of our intention. The process is the product. The process is about connecting and collaborating.

I wrote Working for Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living to increase awareness of this fact and to support others to cultivate the skills required to cultivate authentic collaboration for the greater good. To highlight this point, I will write another book, probably titled Working for Good: Together.

Rebecca Saltman is a social entrepreneur and the President and Founder of an independent collaboration building firm designed to bridge business, government, nonprofits and academia.

The Eye Health Institute

By: John Banker Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

Helping Rural Jamaicans See

Last fall, at the Grange Kendall Clinic in rural Hanover Jamaica, a young student received a pair of reading glasses. At only a few dollars, they would have been an insignificant expense to most Americans. For her parents the cost of the glasses and a visit to an eye care specialist would have been more than the cost of several days food for the whole family. As she left the clinic sporting her new glasses, she gave Dr. Cross, the founder of the Eye Health Institute (EHI), a big hug of thanks and gleefully headed back to her classroom where she could now see the blackboard. Meanwhile in the coastal town of Lucea, a team of EHI doctors and volunteers was wrapping up three days of cataract surgeries. One of the 20 patients, a weathered grandmother had just received her sight again after many years of progressive vision loss. As she and her family headed back to their mountain home, she turned to EHI surgeon Dr. Peter Andrews and said, “Thanks to you, I can read my Bible again.” That surgery, which was a modest donation from families in the U.S., would have cost more than her annual income and would have required her to travel to Kingston, over 100 miles away. This is only a glimpse of the mission that is performed by the Eye Health Institute.

The Eye Health Institute is a fledgling non-profit organization based in Boulder, Colorado. The EHI mission is to provide comprehensive, quality eye care to the financially disadvantaged and underserved children and families in the rural regions of Jamaica.

The Eye Health Institute was formed by Dr. Richard Cross after seeing the need for vision care on a medical mission to Jamaica. In 1996, the Congregational Church of Longmont invited him to join their eye care team on a mission. Being that Dr. Cross’s mother was Jamaican, he found a special need to help. The eye care team consisted of two optometrists and two opticians. They were overwhelmed by the large number of people waiting in line all day for the chance to improve their vision. While in Jamaica they examined over 100 people each day and regretted that many more had to be turned away. In comparison, at his private practice in Boulder, Richard sees 10 to 20 patients each day. Overwhelmed by the need, he returned the following year to help more people. During this second mission, a young woman in Broughton who had been legally blind for over ten years burst into tears when she was given glasses. She had not seen her mother’s face since she had been a small child. That experience and others inspired the doctors with the vision of a volunteer clinic to serve people in Jamaica’s rural areas.

With the help of numerous volunteers including doctors and less skilled helpers, EHI has returned to the island annually for more than ten years. Their vision was to connect with the people who had no access or money to see an eye care provider. More than 4,000 patients have been examined since that small beginning in 1996. The Eye Health Institute remains dedicated to helping Jamaicans maintain good vision and healthy eyes.

In support of EHI, the Jamaican Ministry of Health has provided clinic space in the Grange-Kendall medical facility in Hanover. By 2006, EHI had accumulated adequate used and reconditioned equipment to set up an examination lane at the clinic. Since then, Grange-Kendall has been the home base for bi-annual EHI Jamaican missions. But, like many other of the modern conveniences that are lacking in the area, transport to get the elderly and needy to the clinic is a challenge. During the November missions the EHI volunteer teams and skilled doctors supported by dedicated helpers, have set up mobile clinics at churches and schools. During the 2008 mission, the mobile teams examined nearly 1,000 children and adults during a very busy week. While the missions have focused on the Hanover and Westmoreland parishes of western Jamaica, the 2009 mission will include schools and churches in the Cornwall region in the northeast.

The need for optometric care in Jamaica is tremendous. According to an article in the Optometry and Vision Science magazine in 2000, only about 468,000 individuals of the 2.5 million people in Jamaica receive an eye examination every three years and approximately 1.25 million people have never received an eye examination. According to that article, over half of the population never sees an eye doctor during their lifetime. In 1996 alone, according to the Daily Gleaner, a Jamaican newspaper, there were 20,000 cases of blindness in Jamaica.

After careful review of the island’s resources, EHI found that there were only eight eye care professionals on the island and all were located in the larger cities. The Gleaner article noted that only about 700,000 Jamaicans live in close proximity to these metropolitan areas. This leaves 1,800,000 people living in the rural isolated areas, which generally have limited transport and have no local access to eye care services.

Additionally, an August 2001 article in the Gleaner cited the recent increase in cataracts on the island. Persons who are diabetic are at a higher risk of developing cataracts. According to the article, diabetes is now an epidemic in Jamaica affecting more than 3,000 people. It is predicted that at least 450,000 persons will be affected by the disease within a decade.

Can you imagine having only eight eye care professionals for over 2,500,000 people? Further, that these people are only a few hundred miles from the most generous, most wealthy nation in the world?

Fortunately, numerous patients lives have been greatly improved by the vision care and eyeglasses provided by EHI volunteers.

numerous patients lives have been greatly improved by the vision care and eyeglasses provided by EHI volunteers.

Women who had lost the ability to sew have been given the opportunity to return to work as seamstresses simply by receiving reading glasses. Church going patients were thrilled by the fact that they could once again do their daily Bible studies. A young boy, thought to be learning disabled and failing in school, was found to be highly near-sighted. Glasses allowed him to participate in classroom activities and resume learning alongside his fellow classmates. Helping young people like him to become educated productive adults is a critical part of the EHI vision. I am particularly keen on this point. I began wearing glasses at age 7 to correct severe nearsightedness and without the eye care help that was readily available to me, I would likely have never finished high school, much less have succeeded as an international entrepreneur.

EHI’s long term vision is to help provide a means by which the Jamaicans can help their fellow Jamaicans. The current missions are a starting point on a long road. EHI is working with the local governments and local organizations including Lions Clubs and Kiwanis Clubs to further this vision.

Much of what EHI is doing today can eventually be done locally with leadership, encouragement, financial support, and the focused technical support of eye care professionals.

Although it has grown from a small group of four volunteers in the late 1990’s to a team of over 30 volunteers in November 2008, EHI remains a very small organization. EHI’s total budget in 2009 was slightly over $50,000. EHI is primarily funded by a supporting team of friends and a small group of corporate donors. “Reggae on the Creek,” an annual benefit concert in Boulder, has increased public awareness of the need and the work of EHI. Its profits have provided funds to further the EHI mission.

Social awareness is certainly an important part of corporate culture and legacy today. Several local companies include EHI in their social awareness programs.

Paul Hester, owner of Rock Steady Landscaping of Boulder, has been an active volunteer and strong supporter of EHI throughout the decade. Paul and his family have poured unlimited energy toward the success of “Reggae on the Creek.” After coming to Boulder from his native Jamaica, Paul built a solid reputation as a landscaping manager for the Boulder Downtown Mall. He has built Rock Steady on this foundation. Today, he and his wife Mary spend most of their time giving back. EHI receives strong support from Rock Steady Landscaping and continues to be a major part of Paul’s world.

Dynamic Materials Corp. (DMC), a Boulder based manufacturing company, is another of EHI’s major corporate sponsors. DMC is a worldwide company with approximately 400 employees that specializes in the explosion metalworking industry. With a corporate office across the street from Dr. Cross’s private practice, many of the DMC corporate staff rely on him for eye care. Through this personal relationship, the DMC team has become an increasingly active supporter of EHI. In recent years DMC has been an annual Gold sponsor of the “Reggae on the Creek” event. Applying its skills and relations in international transport, DMC has taken responsibility to assure that the delicate EHI equipment is successfully moved to Jamaica. DMC employees have handled the packaging and shipping logistics while DMC has covered the costs.

DMC volunteers have also worked with the surgery teams and the eye-care screening teams in the schools and churches. Jose Olivas, DMC’s Sales Director, worked with the cataract surgery team in 2008. He had undergone cataract surgery a year earlier and was fully aware of the benefits. His daily skills are selling metal, not doing surgeries, but the doctor needed workers too and Jose was a great worker. Jose said it was an unbelievable opportunity to give back.

As noted by DMC President and CEO, Yvon Cariou, “Corporate social responsibility is an ingrained part of the DMC culture. DMC facilities in France, Germany, Sweden, and Pennsylvania actively contribute and provide volunteer support to local charities.”

Many other corporate sponsors have helped to build EHI over the years. Major sponsors of the 2009 "Reggae on the Creek" event include a number of smaller local companies: Insight Lasik, Boulder Vision Associates, Webster Appraisal Services, Rock N’ Robbins, Way to Grow, and Grimes Real Estate Services, to mention a few. But not all are small and local. JAS Forwarding Worldwide, an international transport and logistics company, is a significant corporate sponsor.

Through the efforts of volunteers, corporate sponsors, the generosity of the Boulder community and many friends across the country, EHI continues to provide the eye care desperately needed in rural Jamaica.

The 2009 “Reggae on the Creek” event was held on August 28 at the Millennium Harvest House in Boulder. To learn more about the EHI project and missions while having fun, visit www.eyehealthinstitute.org.

John Banker is an EHI Board Member and Vice President of Customers and Technology at DMC in Boulder, Colorado.

Slums Find Dignity In Sanitation

By: Emily Haggstrom Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

Social Entrepreneur David Kuria Thinks Beyond the Toilet to Improve Sanitation and Help Citizens Re-Claim Their Self-Worth

Globally, sanitation issues affect 2.6 billion people on a daily basis. Of this number, more than 6,ooo die every day from water related diseases, with the majority being children under the age of five.

more than 6,000 die every day from water related diseases, with the majority being children under the age of five

In one such area, roughly three quarters the size of New York City’s Central Park, lives a population of roughly 1 million people exposed to these unsanitary and unhealthy conditions. It is the slum of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the second largest slum in Africa and one of the largest in the world. Because of the way these settlements (slums) came into existence, receiving government aid and assistance is out of the question, leaving the citizens of Kibera to survive in some of the most squalid, inadequate and dangerous conditions on earth.

Kibera is a city that has been placed under an international microscope for its dehumanizing conditions. It is not only known for the nearly half million people infected with HIV/AIDS out of a total of 2.2 million people infected in all of Kenya; but as a breeding ground for lethal water borne diseases that affect the entire population of Kibera. To further exacerbate the problem, the average Kibera shack measures just 33 square feet and often contains large families who live on top of each other. There is no proper way to use or dispose of human waste either because the infrastructure is non-existent. Public facilities are few and far between with only 600 toilets for the entire community, of which many do not work properly or have been abandoned. Due to these conditions waste is not disposed of properly. Latrines are over-filled and drainage is incorrectly diverted to city streams and open sewers that are already full of human excrement. This leaves residents to search for private places to go in an effort to relieve themselves. However, with so many people in such a small area it is hard to find a secluded and/or safe place to go.

Women and children experience some of the roughest conditions and often resort to flying toilets; which are plastic bags or small vessels to use and hold defecation. These flying toilets are often thrown out of windows, into the streets, road-sides, and into community trash ravines; often finding their way into rivers and streams that run through the city. With no trash service or collection, these bags are left to fester and open, spilling their contents out where ever they land, creating a cesspool of deadly micro-organisms that children play in and citizens walk through. However, with uncleanly conditions and high prices to access the facilities (on a per use or per month basis) it has become a luxury beyond the average person’s means and has caused limited investment into these structures. As a result, it is not just women and children, but men that are left to the alternative solution of flying toilets. This has created a spiral effect intensifying the problem and adding to the increasing accounts of illness and deaths.

The urgency for change is real and necessary. However, the government of Kenya does not recognize Kibera as a legal settlement and therefore will not support any programs proposed within Kibera city limits. Additionally, because the issue of sanitation is so taboo, in not only the African culture, but in cultures all over the world, finding people to sit down and discuss the problem or create a sustainable use project in regards to public health is not likely. In lieu of its lack of social acceptance, government officials are also unlikely to address the issue of sanitation therefore reducing any support through political initiatives focused on water treatment or environmental health. This problem has spilled over into the public school systems too. Kenya has been rated by the Ministry of Education Science and Technology as “dangerous,” with over 100 school children using a single pit-latrine. Once more, this affects young girls who are using the same restroom as the boys. As a result of the lack of hygiene and ridicule from peers, these girls often miss at least a week of school a month and many do not ever return. Consequently, because of the lack of higher education, this situation creates an adverse long term effect on the socio-economic outcome for many families in Kibera and the city as a whole because girls cannot adequately contribute to their family structure. As a result, they will reduce their chances of receiving a college education, the possibility to make it out of Kibera, or simply to have some sort of financial stability.

Everyday however, there are people that do succeed; in the face of adversity and a meager subsistence. There are people who persist and break through the stereotyped destiny of a Kiberan dweller. One such slum dweller named David Kuria, grew up in Kibera amongst these conditions and at the age of 13 had rented his first apartment, started his own business, learned to expand in his area of trade and was managing his own money all b efore turning 15. With his accumulated wealth, Mr. Kuria continued on with his education receiving a degree in Architecture from the Jomo Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. After his graduation, Mr. Kuria went on to be a leading member of his community, representing the very town that prepared him for his life’s journey in the field of sanitation - the one aspect of life Mr. Kuria had personally experienced and knew intimately. Unlike foreign aid workers whose projects had been built and failed, Mr. Kuria knew what would work and what was best for the people of Kibera.

Now as the Chief Executive Officer of Ecotact, a company focused on the environment and its effects on social behavior, Mr. Kuria began working on an idea that would be the new model for clean dignified latrine facilities in Kenyan slums.

It is from this mantra that the IkoToilet model became reality. It was Mr. Kuria’s hope that these sanitary toilet facilities would unite the community and give them a place to be proud of, a place in which they felt dignified and a place they could afford. It would be a community venture where leaders could generate community support around the sanitation issue. He invited the local community to become involved and share their ideas too. It was from these workshops that new designs and ideas came about. Once members of the community realized the toilets would be neighbor run, the IkoToilet idea generated community ownership and something community members could take pride in.

The benefit of these facilities was apparent. Community leaders donated land and community members donated their time and what limited resources they had. It was then in 2003 that the first three test facilities were built in Kibera with the blessing of the communities who had been involved in the design, planning and construction process. These new IkoToilets were a source of satisfaction, a place of gathering, and a place to be proud of. Included in the toilet facilities, were water vending points where communities, could set a fair market value on the water distributed within the doors of the facility. For the first time, this allowed families who couldn’t afford water previously, to use the facilities and have a safe clean place to go. However, building these facilities proved costly and community members already had so little that the availability of donated supplies would soon diminish.

It wasn’t until 2007 when Mr. Kuria was selected as an Ashoka Fellow, a group of international social entrepreneurs dedicated to addressing social problems, that he began thinking on a larger scale for the IkoToilet project. Under Mr. Kuria’s guidance, the community again came together to create a design that could be sustainable, useful and generate capital for the community. IkoToilet became more than just a toilet - it became a mecca for the community. The new facilities would feature advertising for businesses, meeting rooms, fresh water, shoe shines, newsstands, telephones, showers with hot water, clean toilets, and best of all - it would create employment opportunities for slum dwellers. Mr. Kuria even tackled the issue of maintenance by formulating an idea about what to do with the secreted waste. Replicating a model being used in Mexico, he would recycle both the urine and the feces. Feces would be collected in a "digestor" to be reused as gas, providing light and hot water for the facility and the urine would be collected underneath the facility and used as a fertilizer on local farms to add nutrients to the arid African soil. This would reduce the amount of water needed for cleaning and further driving down costs to use the facilities.

With these ideas the toilets could be self-sustained but first they had to be built. It was then that Mr. Kuria started using his new network and new ideas to garner support within the financial sector of Kenya looking for loans to build these new IkoToilet facilities. But again, with the taboo surrounding sanitation, he continuously was stalled in his efforts. He branched out to private donors, grants and donations. With new allies and the money to move forward Mr. Kuria planned on over a hundred new IkoToilets to be built within the slums of Kenya. He pitched local businesses to give back to the communities in which they served by providing funds to advertise or support the building of a new facility. With increasing financial support of the IkoToilet and more evidence of community use, private investors started coming forward.

Mr. Kuria saw an advantage in IkoToilet’s sustainability and built a new financial model for short term franchising contracts with these investors. In addition to private investors, a local Nairobi bank offered to create loans that spanned multiple projects. With so many more sources of funding, Mr. Kuria expanded the IkoToilets into the public school system to alleviate the cost of health related issues, missing class and privacy issues facing the school children. Shortly after, a new urban model for the IkoToilet was devised, creating three unique designs for specific demographic areas. IkoToilet became the model for dignified, health conscious sanitation and placed Mr. Kuria in the global spotlight for his ingenuity.

By December of 2007 Mr. Kuria was awarded the Ashoka Fellow of the Year. It would be the first time the international award had recognized anyone in Sub-Saharan Africa. His efforts were now being publicized all over the world. Schools, clubs, NGO’s and non-profits were starting to take note of Mr. Kuria and offering their services. In collaborative efforts, these organizations started donating not only their money but their time. The Rotary Club of Denver Southeast in Colorado in partnership with the Rotary Langata, raised between $300,000 and $400,000 dollars as a water grant to be used towards the initiative. By September 2009, 40 IkoToilets were completed and said to be serving over 500,000 people daily.

In conjunction with his continued efforts Mr. Kuria was awarded winner of Africa’s Regional Social Entrepreneur 2009 and also was recognized in the Clinton Global Initiative 2009.

With continued success and support, Mr. Kuria is planning to build thousands of new facilities that span slums, urban centers and schools alike throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. In an email to his supporters Mr. Kuria said, “We are committed to scaling this up, and we strongly belief (sic), with your support, we will be able to make direct impacts to millions of our urban poor in Kenya and the region.” Mr. Kuria has shown the world that a dream to bring his people dignity and clean sanitation, coupled with global collaboration and social responsibility can change the perception of a community and slowly transform a global sanitation epidemic.

Emily Haggstrom has a B.A. in Journalism and Media from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a member of the Level One Society in Denver, Colorado and sits in on various charity committees. In an effort to impact her local community she also volunteers for Whiz Kids Tutoring, Inc. as well as Denver Health Medical Center.

If You Tell Them They Might Buy

By: Beth Parish and Christina McCale Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

What the Millennials are Buying and What Conscious Consumerism Means to Them

Generation Y, also known as the Millennials, is not a group of young people that are defined by specific dates, but generally are seen as following the Generation X group, born anywhere between 1982 and 2002 and estimated to rival the Baby Boomers in size and buying power. According to an article from Emory University, Gen Y are less violent, less alienated and less selfish than the prior two generations, the Baby Boomers and Gen X. The intriguing question is how do these traits impact shopping and consumption?

Andrea Hershatter, a senior lecturer in organization and management and the associate dean and director of the BBA program at Emory's Business School, Goizueta, and Molly Epstein, an assistant professor in the practice of management communication at Emory University have surveyed more than 800 students at Emory and four other institutions and have found that the Millennials are brimming with self-confidence and have a deep seated interest in doing good.

Millennials are brimming with self-confidence and have a deep seated interest in doing good.

According to Hershatter, Millennials have already shown an unusual tendency toward good works. In the past few years, there has been "an unprecedented rate of high school volunteerism, unbelievable achievement in terms of individuals and clubs gathering together to make things happen," she says. "Collectively, they have already proven to be both socially conscious and very action-oriented with measurable results."

Measurable results indeed. These socially conscious Millennials from 22 high schools and universities were able to help the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a grassroots community organization of mostly Latino, Haitian and Mayan Indian farmworkers, to get Taco Bell to pay more for the tomatoes used in making tacos. According to the Student Farmworker Alliance, these students boycotted Taco Bell for unfair purchasing practices and changed the policies at their academic institutions.

Given the actions of Millennials across the country in the Taco Bell boycott, we wanted to see if the Millennials translated this consciousness into how they made purchasing decisions. To answer the question, what do Millennials think about when they purchase products, we interviewed 20 seniors in a Consumer Behavior class at Regis University in Denver. These students shop regularly for food and staples to fill their apartments and dorm rooms and spend their own money to meet their needs. While these 20 students living in Denver do not represent every Millennial, some interesting trends did evolve from the group discussion.

While price, quantity, convenience and quality were considerations for our students in nearly every purchase, the level of importance for each factor changed depending on the item being purchased. For example, when making beer purchases, if the students were making the purchase, price and quantity were the first considerations; if someone else was buying, then the quality of the beverage was the main consideration with Colorado MicroBrews being top on the list of preferred beverages. For these students there was little initial knowledge of any socially conscious or environmentally friendly activities being done by different beer manufacturers locally, nationally or internationally. When shopping for ice cream, everyone agreed that quality was the foremost consideration. This group of Millennials was not swayed by a less than great tasting treat. The national and local premium brands were most often mentioned with little knowledge or regard for the brands or companies selling the ice cream, beyond the flavors offered and taste delivered. Again, the product itself was the priority for the consumers.

For lunch, dinner or late night snacking, getting enough food for the right price was a major consideration; many were also concerned with the health of their meal choice. As with the other purchases the social or environmental reputation of the purveyor of the fine food was not known or researched.

When shopping for their staples, these students were most interested in convenience. Again the students did not know much about the  grocery or mass merchandise stores where the purchases were made.

Practicality seemed to be the watchword for this group of Millennials, but that was not the end of the discussion as other factors certainly influenced their decision making. As Dyana Gutierrez a senior at Regis University put it, “Green marketing and social responsibility do not influence my spending habits that much. I buy more often than not based on convenience and price, and sadly the greener the product usually the more expensive it is.” Natalie Adrian a student in the same class agrees, “…I feel that price, quality and convenience are more important especially when the 'green' products are almost always more expensive than the regular product and a lot of the times they’re not much better than the 'non-green' products.”

When we talked about some of the great things companies were doing, the students were very intrigued and admitted if they knew about the good works of a company, and if all else were equal (i.e. quality and price), they would be swayed towards that brand. The students liked hearing about the sustainability focus of New Belgium Brewing they were also intrigued by the fact that the brownies used in making Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream were made by the formerly homeless. Even with raised awareness, many of the students were cynical, as Adrian put it, “I think most companies out there don’t actually care about saving the environment, they care about making a profit.” Gutierrez echoes her classmate’s sentiments,“… companies saw the green trend as a way to make money not a way to try and make a difference. One example I remember is these T-shirts they sold at JC Penney that had all these green sayings on them when the material wasn't even recycled cotton or anything.”

The students were also realistic and talked a lot about the profit making goals of the larger corporations, Brendan Hesse said, “I think it's definitely the primary goal with a business to make the most money, however, while doing that it should be an important influence on businesses to look at the best way to be preservative of our planet's health….”

Our students admitted that they had not heard a lot about the good works of companies they did business with. More often than not they had only heard the bad stories: who polluted, who paid poorly, who did not treat their employees and suppliers well, and who were not great citizens. According to an article in Business Week “… Gen Yers respond to humor, irony, and the (apparently) unvarnished truth.''

Our students certainly echoed the Business Week article loud and clear. Companies must tell the truth about their “green” and social outreach efforts.

How to Make an Impact With the Gen Y Consumer

Our (unsolicited) advice to companies trying to reach the Millennials, is tell the truth. Be sure your initiatives are strategically tied to your organization’s mission and that the firm is committed to doing the right thing for the long haul. As one senior at Regis said “…big corporations don't really care, they are just jumping on the bandwagon to make themselves look good.” Zachary Blakely, a member of the same class at Regis, could not agree more, “I do believe there are a few small businesses out there that do care about our planet, but any ofthese enormous corporations could care less. They are simply just trying to save face and making sure they do just enough not to be attacked in this environmental McCarthyism that our business culture has adopted.”

these enormous corporations could care less. They are simply just trying to save face and making sure they do just enough not to be attacked in this environmental McCarthyism that our business culture has adopted

A second piece of advice for businesses large and small, is to determine what is relevant to the target consumer. While not all Millenials are the same, and the words of this group should not be taken as the views of every member of Generation Y, letting the consumer know about relevant good works can be motivating. Our students were intrigued by sustainability and social impact and wanted to know more about products that had reduced impact on the environment and positively impacted a social need. As another senior in the class highlighted, “I think that it is a good thing for a company to tell their customers or potential customers about the good ethical decisions the company is making.”

Businesses must also remember that some of our students were also suspicious and did not want to be “green washed”. As Stephen Reyda a senior at Regis put it, “Many companies attempt to green wash in order to make the company look better.” Brendan Hesse put it this way, “I think the mission and impact of socially responsible and environmentally-friendly companies is inherently good for all.  For the company, it reflects well on them, the environment obviously benefits from environmentally friendly business actions and socially-responsible acts such as charity are of course generous. … I am a supporter of greener decisions and being socially responsible but I also am a financially struggling college student.”

Companies must also remember that great works, sustainable products and positive social impact will not make up for a poor or over-priced product. The consumer also will not be inconvenienced or go out of his or her way to purchase greener, more socially conscious products. Joseph Ariniello captured the classes sentiments when he said, “I think I would be "greener" if price wasn't such a big factor right now.”

The last key to motivating students is to reach them where they are; traditional public relations and advertising probably won’t work with this group of young adults. The importance of social media tools, the internet, social networking and alternative promotional mechanisms is magnified when trying to target Millennial consumers and inform them about a firm’s green efforts and positive social impact. Such knowledge of how firms are changing the world could motivate the Millennial consumer towards new brands making an effort to have a positive impact on society and the environment. According to Scott Monty, Head of Social Media at Ford Motor Company, marketers need to,“ … provide value and be contextually relevant to why they're there in the first place. Don't interrupt them (the Gen Y consumer) with your ads and expect results.” On his blog, Mr. Monty also recommends, “Give people updates about your products, perhaps information that they can't get elsewhere, or make it the first put you place the updates. Give them an offer that can only be gotten from the social network.”

Product quality, price and quantity continue to be prime motivators for our Gen Y consumer, but if these consumers knew more about the great works of the companies they were buying products from, our college students could be convinced to change their purchasing patterns. Just be sure to tell the truth and live up to your promises. As Regis University senior John Putt stated “I feel like turning (a) profit becomes a little less substantial if you can't sleep at night.”

Thank you to the Fall 2009 Regis College BA 425 Consumer Behavior Students who helped contribute to this article with their opinions and thought provoking statements.

Beth Parish is Program Manager for the John J. Sullivan Endowed Chair for Free Enterprise at Regis University. For more information on multi-sector partnerships that use Free Enterprise to address Social Needs please contact Beth at [email protected].

Dr. Christina McCale is an Instructor of Marketing in the Division of Business at Regis University. Her areas of research and teaching include Marketing Management, Services Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Values Centered Marketing and the incorporation of experiential educational activities to prep undergraduates for their careers. Dr. McCale can be reached at [email protected].

Downing Street Garage

By: Jody Berger Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

Small Businesses Can Make a Difference

The business started simply enough. A friend of Doug Kirchdorfer’s had taken her car to mechanics all over town, only to be let down and left with a less-than-reliable vehicle. She asked Kirchdorfer to take a look. He fixed the car in his own garage and she told friends. They told their friends and soon, Kirchdorfer had a full-time, full-service car repair business in a rented space.

Two decades later, Doug and Rebecca Kirchdorfer own a thriving business that keeps thousands of Denver drivers on the road. At the same time, the Downing Street Garage looks after the planet, contributes to the community and generates a healthy profit. In other words, it’s a triple bottom line business and the Kirchdorfers have found that each leg of this tripod supports and enhances the others. “The more we grow our revenues, the more resources we can commit to environmental stewardship and corporate social responsibility,” Rebecca said.

In an industry not well known for saving the planet or the neighborhood, the Downing Street Garage has built a growing business by doing both those things.

“We have found out that by doing the right thing, we can attract a customer whose value system equals ours and that customer is willing to pay for it,” Doug said. by doing the right thing, we can attract a customer whose value system equals ours

The environmental stewardship started simply. “We didn’t want to do anything that you could get in trouble for,” Doug said. “I knew you couldn’t dump motor oil but I didn’t know about anti-freeze.”

Doug called the Department of Wastewater to ask. Officials there said it was okay to dump anti-freeze and sent a letter confirming the position. Still, knowing there were heavy metal deposits used in anti-freeze, Doug wondered about the environmental impacts. He knew companies offered to recycle the colored fluid and looked into it.

At the time he was paying $10 gallon for new anti-freeze which he mixed with equal parts water for a $5 gallon final price. If he recycled the fluid, a recycled gallon would cost $3 making the choice an easy one. Recycling was better for the planet and better for the bottom line.

From there, one thing led to another. At a trade association seminar, Doug heard a presentation about recycling oil filters. At the time, the city told him it was okay to drain them and send them to the landfill. But, in the seminar with 30 or so other garage owners, Doug learned of a company that would collect them and recycle the filters for a fee.

“I decided to pass the fee on to customers as a ‘waste removal fee’, and I have never gotten one question about it,” Doug said. “Not to this day, not one question.”

For the Kirchdorfers, keeping oil filters out of the landfill was the right thing to do and when their customers didn’t mind paying for it, the garage-owning couple was encouraged to look for more opportunities to get their business in line with their personal environmental values. Now the Downing Street Garage, a six-bay shop in central Denver, recycles everything it can: anti-freeze, batteries, brake fluid, cardboard, fluorescent lights, Freon, motor oil, newspapers, office paper, scrap metal and transmission fluid.

On some materials, they team with outside recycling companies who come by to pick up the pieces. On others, like motor oil, the Kirchdorfers take care of it themselves.

In 1998, when the Kirchdorfers bought the building they’re in now, they also bought a waste oil furnace to heat the place in the winters. The furnace itself cost no more than a regular furnace and the cost of used motor oil is cheaper than buying natural gas from the local utility. Still, the UL-listed furnace is not exactly cost-neutral. Maintenance on it eats hours of Doug’s time and energy.

“Is the cost worth the benefit?” Doug asked. “You look at it and you know there is an immeasurable benefit to doing the right thing.”

Sometimes that benefit is measurable, or at least wall-mountable. For its environmental stewardship, the Downing Street Garage earned the 2008 Silver Level Designation from Colorado’s Environmental Leadership Program. Customers notice.

“An oil change at our shop, with taxes and fees, costs $52 and someone else might be charging $19.95 but they’re throwing the filter in the dumpster,” Doug explained, “but you know I’m not going to throw it down the drain. And that’s how I make a living doing what I’m doing.”

Every customer has a certain value prospect that’s worth it to spend money on. The example Doug uses is department store jackets. A jacket at Macy’s may be $300 and another at Target could be $100. Customers who value the design or quality or other details about the Macy’s jacket will plunk down the extra $200. And it’s the same in auto repair.

Enough car owners in Denver value Downing Street’s green consciousness and the numerous International Better Business Bureau’s Ethics awards to propel Downing Street Garage to year-after-year-after-year double-digit growth.

And that double-digit growth paves the way for the third leg of the tripod: corporate social responsibility.

The Kirchdorfers liked the mission and method of Habitat for Humanity. They didn’t necessarily want to just write a check but they wanted to offer their unique skills to the non-profit. They called the organization and offered to repair Habitat’s vehicles as an in-kind donation.

The leaders of Habitat agreed. So the Kirchdorchers pulled another business colleague into the deal. “We established an account for Habitat for Humanity with our parts supplier, Havana NAPA,” Rebecca explained. “Now, Habitat gets the parts at wholesale and the labor at no charge.”

The collaboration helps the non-profit and satisfies the Kirchdorfer’s desire to help all while bringing new bodies into the shop. When Downing Street Garage decided to produce 30-second television ads, they asked the site manager from Habitat if he would appear in one. Standing before a Habitat-owned vehicle with the non-profit’s logo on the door, Randy Parker sings the praises of the Downing Street Garage.

Any customer’s whose ‘value prospect’ includes rebuilding communities will now be more likely to enter the garage.

“That’s why partnerships with organizations in the community are so important,” Rebecca said. “Not just donations but actually partnerships where an organization recognizes that the more they help us the more we can help them.”

“The more financially stable we become, the more we can devote our time and attention to environmental stewardship and corporate responsibility.”

Because of the business growth, the Kirchdorfers dedicate many hours a week to helping their community. They’ve developed detailed questionnaires to determine if a non-profit shares their values and, equally important, if the Downing Street Garage and the non-profit can forward each other’s mission.

So far the list of perfect matches includes Brent’s Place… for our kids with cancer, Colorado Public Radio, the Young Americans Center for Financial Education and many others. Undoubtedly, the list will continue to grow.

“How you participate in your world, in your community, it makes a difference,” Rebecca said. Undoubtedly, here too, Downing Street Garage will continue to make a difference.

To learn more about the Downing Street Garage, go to www.DowningStreetGarage.com.

Jody Berger is a writer and communications consultant living in Denver. She can be reached at [email protected].

Conscious Capitalism And The Worlds Poor

By: Bob Sample Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

Grassroots Collaboration Has Built the Microfinance Movement to End Poverty Through Capitalism

Capitalism and the Microfinance Movement

In 25 years, microcredit business loans have been extended to over 100 million people and the microfinance movement has become a key part of most development strategies. How did this happen? In the late 1970s and early 1980s, visionary consultants and activists in different parts of the world developed strategies for empowering the poor that differed considerably from the social reformers of the time, typified by Paulo Freire and others who called for social justice, land reform, and “liberation theology.”

Instead, the visionaries who designed and built the microcredit field looked at access to credit for business as the basic instrument of empowerment of the poor.

The visionaries who designed and built the microcredit field looked at access to credit for business as the basic instrument of empowerment of the poor.

Business credit, not charity, was provided to the poor, interest was charged and repayment was expected. While not ignoring the ills of societies, microcredit lenders did not work directly on them. Over the years, as the microfinance movement has grown, borrowers have worked together to improve the political, social and economic conditions in their villages and their societies, but that was not the initial strategy.

Interestingly, microcredit pioneers chose a model of grassroots capitalism very close to that originally envisaged by Adam Smith, the 18th century moral philosopher who is widely credited with creating the philosophical basis for capitalism.

Adam Smith held that a healthy economy would result from thousands of individuals operating small and large businesses in their own self interest for the benefit of their families and their communities. They would make, buy and sell goods and services in response to prices set by the “invisible hand” of the market. He warned especially about bigness that might lead to monopoly.

Microcredit is a perfect example of Adam Smith’s grassroots capitalist model. Tiny loans, averaging from $30 to $100 dollars, allow impoverished people, mostly women, to start or expand tiny businesses, to compete in the marketplace, and to work their way out of poverty through their own efforts and self-interest. Once the methodology of microcredit had been developed by the visionaries in the field, it remained for a citizen group called RESULTS to work in collaboration with two of the major microcredit leaders to build the microfinance movement.

Collaboration Key to Building the Microfinance Movement

ICOSA_vol1-6_FINAL.indd At the core of the microfinance movement, there were three collaborating organizations: RESULTS, the coordinator, Grameen Bank of Bangladesh and the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA) of Latin America. Both of these major microcredit organizations, Grameen and FINCA, are headed by founders who became two of the most prominent spokespersons for the movement worldwide.

These three core organizations collaborated not only with each other, but they also worked constantly with practitioner organizations and individuals in the field and with citizen activists in the developed countries to enlist the legislative support of key members of Congress in the U.S. and in many legislatures around the world. Through events, media and legislative pressure, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other international agencies were nudged to become involved. Funders were enlisted, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (through Congress), the government aid agencies of other developed countries, and numerous foundations and socially conscious investment groups. Add to this list hundreds of social service and aid organizations throughout the world. Finally, the press participated fully in the development of the movement. Activists and practitioners worked hard to create and nurture relationships with writers, editors, and media personalities globally. As a result, thousands of editorials, op-eds, news stories and special radio and TV segments were created and distributed about microcredit successes, borrowers, and institutions.

The Microcredit Summit: Launching a Movement

A movement, as defined by Webster’s New World Dictionary, is a “series of organized activities by people working concertedly toward some goal”. The microfinance field became a movement at the Microcredit Summit held in February of 1997 in Washington, D.C.

The Summit was designed and organized by three visionary men: Sam Daley-Harris of RESULTS, Professor Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank and Dr. John Hatch of FINCA. John Hatch had originally proposed the goal of reaching all 200 million of the world’s poorest families by 2005. Professor Yunus suggested that 100 million was more feasible in 10 years, and that goal was adopted. Sam Daley-Harris suggested that a citizen-generated Summit should be organized to give the goal exposure and to gain wide acceptance and participation from the microcredit field and from funders, political backers and organizational allies. The three leaders met after a conference in Rome in 1995 and worked out the concept, the broad vision for the Summit and the movement.

When the Summit was held almost two years after the meeting in Rome, it was a spectacular success. Over 2,900 Presidents, diplomats, agency heads, politicians, foundation heads, advocates, practitioners of microcredit and borrowers attended from all over the world.

The first act of the Summit was to adopt the goal of “reaching 100 million of the world’s poorest families, especially the women of those families, with credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the year 2005.” The lofty goal and the declaration and plan of action to achieve it were enthusiastically endorsed by all of the attendees at the Summit. And a movement was born!

After the Summit, organizers called for the creation of a Microcredit Summit Campaign to support the movement through annual regional Summits and a system of annual reporting to keep track of movement toward the 100 million goal. The Campaign was established as a project of RESULTS and Sam Daley-Harris became its director. RESULTS, Grameen, and FINCA at the Core of the Microfinance Movement

The microcredit field has been built by thousands of microcredit organizations and their supporters, but the microfinance movement was built during the early years by just three collaborating organizations: RESULTS, the Grameen Bank and FINCA. The three organizations are described below. But first, here is a story that illustrates the depth of popular misconceptions about where governments get their money and where a large part of the early money for the microcredit field came from.

In 1995, the author made a presentation to a group of microcredit borrowers in Conakry, New Guinea. They had received microloans from a company called PRIDE that was funded by the U. S. Agency for International Development. I asked the borrowers if they knew where they got their money. They said that the USAID had provided it to their microcredit company. “Where did USAID get it,” I asked? They said they didn’t know. They were astonished when I told them that a small group of citizens in the U.S. had obtained the money from Congress and had made sure that it went to USAID to fund microloans for people like them. The borrowers were amazed.

Like most people, the borrowers never thought about where a government gets its money. In the case of microcredit, the U.S. government provided a substantial part of the early seed money for the field and it “got its money” for this purpose from the lobbying activities of a small citizen organization called RESULTS.

What is this little-known organization, named appropriately “RESULTS”, that has had such a big impact on the microfinance movement? It is an international grassroots citizen’s advocacy organization with an office in Washington, D.C., chapters of volunteer activists in over 100 cities in the U.S., and affiliate organizations in six other countries. Its purpose is to create the political will to end hunger and severe poverty and to empower individuals to have breakthroughs in exercising their personal and political power. RESULTS was founded by Sam Daley-Harris, a former music teacher from Florida. The organization has hundreds of volunteer activists in the United States and six other countries who focus on a few key hunger and poverty issues each year. RESULTS volunteers have been actively working on microfinance issues for over 20 years.

In 1987, RESULTS worked with Congress to pass the “Self-Sufficiency for the Poor Act of 1987”, which required the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to get involved in microcredit for the poorest and to provide $50 million to support that involvement. Over the next 17 years, RESULTS spearheaded many bills in Congress to provide money and policy guidance to the field, especially the requirements to focus on the poorest (living below $1 per day) and to measure the poverty levels of borrowers while tracking their progress out of poverty. Additionally, RESULTS worked to have Congress increase the funding support for the field to $200 million per year. While this is a small amount in the U.S. foreign aid budget, it has been the largest single source of funding for the growing microcredit field.

As stated earlier, a small coalition of RESULTS and two microcredit organizations joined to build the microfinance movement over the years. The first microcredit organization in the coalition was the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. It was the first well-known microcredit organization to achieve major growth and substantial scale. The bank was founded in 1976 by Professor Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace prize for his work in 2005. Professor Yunus is an American-trained economist, who invented the peer-lending model of microcredit. In this model, groups of five women received individual business loans, were supported to help each other succeed in their businesses and "jointly guaranteed all five loans in the group." All business loans were originally one year in length. The groups met weekly at a center, composed of 5-7 groups, to make loan payments and to support each other’s business success. This group, center structure and the famous “Sixteen Decisions”, fostered self-esteem and a culture of mutual accountability that resulted in high loan repayment rates, high savings rates and low levels of business failure.

By 1983, Professor Yunus was able to get legislation passed that converted the Grameen project into the Grameen Bank, a for-profit lending institution permitted to operate only in the rural areas of Bangladesh. At that time, Grameen had nearly 100,000 borrowers in five districts and 1,000 employees. It was setting new standards for scale, outreach, and impact in what would become known as the “microfinance sector”. Currently (2009), the Grameen Bank is serving over seven million borrowers in over 80,000 villages in Bangladesh and millions more are being served by Grameen replications all over the world.

The second microcredit organization in the coalition with RESULTS was the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA). FINCA was younger than the other members of the core coalition. It did not become a major organization in the field until 1990. However, the founder, Dr. John Hatch, was a major player in the efforts to generate interest and public attention for the field as early as 1983. Indeed, without any knowledge of the Grameen Bank in far off Bangladesh, John Hatch invented another type of “solidarity group” model which he called “Village Banking”. In his yet-to-be- released book about FINCA, John tells the story of his “epiphany” one day in 1983 on a flight to La Paz, Bolivia, where he got the idea for the village banking model almost intact. In this model, the loan officer goes to a village, explains the concept and asks the village elders to choose 50 impoverished women who could use a $50 loan to start or expand a business. A contract is signed with the village elders, 50 loans are issued for four-month terms to very poor women and the women jointly guarantee all of the loans. Four months later, the loan officer returns, collects the payments of principal and interest and issues new loans for the original amounts plus any savings that the women set aside.

FINCA’s big break came in 1989, when USAID awarded the organization a $9 million grant to expand its El Salvador operations. Between 1990 and 1993, FINCA opened over 1,000 village banks in the urban and peri-urban areas of El Salvador, making it one of the largest programs in Latin America with, by far, the largest commitment of microfinance funds by USAID up to that time. At the present time, FINCA serves over 50,000 borrowers in 1,800 village banks in 14 countries throughout the world.

Where is the Microfinance Movement Going?

When the microcredit field began in the 1970s, there were only a few hundred borrowers and fewer than 10 microcredit organizations. Now in 2009, the field has surpassed 100 million borrowers and there are somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 organizations that provide some form of microcredit.

At the Microcredit Summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia in November 2006, a grand celebration was held to acknowledge the impending completion of the goal to reach 100 million borrowers. The goal had been set at the Microcredit Summit in 1997 and was originally targeted for 2005. In 2006, it was clear that the goal would be met in 2007 (we now know that it was) and the Microcredit Summit in Halifax provided an appropriate venue for celebrating that achievement. The field also celebrated the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Grameen Bank and to its illustrious leader, Professor Muhammad Yunus. Finally, the Halifax Summit saw the rollout of two new goals for the movement, namely: reaching 175 million of the world’s poorest with microcredit by 2015 (an increase of 75 million over the current number). And more importantly, the second goal will bring 100 million of the very poor out of absolute poverty and above the $1 per day threshold. With five members on average per family, this is about 500 million people and is roughly half of the people living in absolute poverty on the planet. This is essentially Millennium Development's #1 Goal, which calls for cutting absolute poverty in half by 2015. So the microfinance movement is single-handedly taking responsibility for the attainment of this goal.

To achieve the goal of bringing 100 million families above the $1 per day poverty line, the movement must work to design, adopt, and deploy poverty measurement tools that are field-friendly, reasonably simple to use, and reliable. As these tools become more accepted and widely used, ways must be found to assist the microcredit institutions to bear the cost of implementation and to create the time to test their incoming borrowers, track their progress above the $1 per day poverty line and follow up on their progress after leaving the program. This is a big commitment and a complex challenge for the field and for individual microcredit companies. But it is essential if the goal of cutting absolute poverty in half is to be reached.

Another major issue in the field and a major challenge to the movement is to keep the majority of microcredit organizations serving the very poor, at least in part of their operations, while also encouraging and assisting those programs to become financially self-sustaining and free from dependence on donations and other non-market-driven sources of finance.

In the years ahead, these and other equally weighty issues will be discussed and analyzed, and solutions and good practices will be identified. RESULTS and its Microcredit Summit Campaign, will continue to play a leadership and coordinative role, along with its longtime ally, the Grameen Bank and newer allies such as the Grameen Foundation, Freedom from Hunger and Opportunity International. These organizations and many others will continue working to build and strengthen the microfinance movement and to empower the thousands of institutions in the microcredit field to meet the challenges ahead.

Truly, grassroots capitalism and grassroots citizen activism at their finest in the microfinance movement, appear on track to move half of the world’s poorest families out of absolute poverty by 2015!

Bob Sample is Colorado State Coordinator of RESULTS and a member of the national board. He may be reached at [email protected].

Children's International Summer Villages

By: Candace Ruiz and Cristin Tarr Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

Raising Conscious Citizens from Youth to Adults

For over 50 years Children’s International Summer Villages (CISV), has transformed the word “conscientious leaders” into a lifestyle. As a non-profit organization, CISV is a world community of dedicated volunteers creating opportunities for all ages to experience the excitement and enrichment of cultural diversity, experiential learning and global friendships. Through educational programs, CISV is founded on the belief that peaceful collaboration is possible through friendship – and that the real difference can be made by starting with children.

CISV aims to prepare individuals to become active and contributing members of a peaceful global society and it stimulates the life–long development of amicable relationships, effective communication skills, cooperative abilities and global leadership development towards a world that is both just, fair and contributing.

CISV was founded in 1951, by a child psychologist, Dr. Doris Allen. Following WWII, during a time of turbulent unrest, Dr. Allen believed the only way to world peace was through our children. Doris Allen said “Children should know others through friendships rather than an abstract place on the map”. Since that time, CISV has offered over 6,000 international programs in over 100 countries with 250,000 participants through out the world. CISV offers 8 distinct programs and all encourage and promote personal, cultural, intercultural and international learning (see chart below). Participants can develop the outlook, skills and knowledge to live, play and work with others; irrespective of their cultural and economic backgrounds. CISV's programs use the experiential education model, giving children the opportunity to learn from direct experience and take this knowledge back home to their classroom, neighborhood, business, city, state and world.

Describing CISV and its founder, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the U.S. said, “Doris Allen had a simply beautiful and beautifully simple idea 50 years ago when she launched CISV. In their summer villages, the children grew to understand, even celebrate, their differences, to appreciate their common humanity, and to pull together for the good of all of the people. They returned from their CISV adventures equipped to be youthful advocates in the cause of world peace and global citizenship.”

Global Citizenship

The Village is CISV’s flagship program. The Village is a unique four week international camp where two eleven year-old boys and two girls, and an adult leader called a delegation, come together from 12 different nations. Here they live, eat, play and learn from one another. Delegates to this multilingual and multicultural experience participate in a mix of educational, leadership, cultural and sporting activities which emphasize cooperative global and intercultural living.

During these four weeks, the international youth participants at The Village create a bond through experiential activities that unite friendships, promote cultural understanding and build long-term relationships. Throughout the world, the daily structure of each Village is basically the same. A typical day may include, two eleven-year old girls from Israel and Lebanon playing in the swimming pool not thinking about wars of the the past. Another might be two boys, one from China one from Brazil, building a “peace” structure together while not speaking a common language. Or a girl and a boy looking at a map, showing each other their homes, as far away as the Faroe Islands to the Ivory Coast. The world is no longer a strange place, but rather each country or continent now represents a new friend.

Once the CISV youth return from their Village experience they are expected to give back to their community through the CISV Junior Branch a local youth-run program. Junior Branches, throughout the world host forums on social thinking and sponsor CISV mini-camps, bringing together culturally diverse youth from their own cities and run a shorter version of the CISV Village. Children learn quickly that skin color and socioeconomic background don’t matter when you are playing games and making friends. Upon his return from a Village in Brazil, Charlie Henry organized cultural awareness and inclusionary activities at a local Muslim school during the Iraq War. Charlie Henry (now 17) and Junior Branch President of the Rocky Mountain Denver Chapter said “…the best way to become a great leader is to become a great citizen. I live my life like that every day.”

By encouraging respect for cultural differences and the development of self-awareness, CISV empowers each participant to incorporate these values into their everyday lives as they become business leaders and strive for a more peaceful and collaborative world. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General welcomed and greeted them at a peace Symposium in Korea. He said, “By bringing young people together in a spirit of tolerance and understanding, CISV helps lay the foundation for a peaceful tomorrow.”

Community Leaders

CISV is also committed to offering programs locally. The local program is called Mosaic, a project based program that aims at supporting local chapters of CISV to cooperate with local partners, volunteers, governments and businesses in a way that is particularly meaningful for that community. Mosaic empowers individuals to reach out, involve others and be an agent of change.

Faces of Jacksonville

In Jacksonville, Florida the Mosaic chapter holds a multicultural two week camp for youth each summer called Faces of Jacksonville. Through collaboration with  more than 20 non-profits and youth participants from a wide range of cultural, religious and economic backgrounds all gather together for diversity training, inclusionary practices, developing leadership skills and cooperative play. Vickie Breedlove, Director of the Faces project says, “The camp is a way for our youth to build global leadership skills right here in Florida. Two weeks of activities allows relationships to flourish that wouldn’t normally happen. As the camp progresses the children unite and become more conscious about diversity, inclusion and the people of our own community.”

Quito Painted in Green

In 2008 the Quito, Ecuador chapter began a local project to create an attitude of responsibility and action toward the environment through understanding of environmental problems. The goal was to educate youth and give them skills to help empower them to educate their own community. “The levels of pollution in certain parts of the city are shocking and, since adults have become passive towards this situation, we thought this task should be led by kids,” said Jaime Ubidia, CISV Ecuador. Through efforts from CISV volunteers and the Junior Branch, the project was named Quito Painted in Green. The Mayor of Quito embraced the project and offered a park to begin the project. Through collaboration with local schools, non-profits and businesses in the area an educational program for youth was developed. They began activities like “Environmental Week” and “Bicycle Day” where youth and adults learned how to care better for their surroundings. This extended beyond the CISV volunteers but was embraced by the entire community including many businesses. It proved that grassroots youth leadership can make a difference.

Continuing Socially Responsible Practices

In keeping with CISV’s goals, the International People Project (IPP) was created to encourage long-term sustainable commitment to social responsibility. The program is for all ages 19 and older and offers business professionals a learning outlet while actively contributing to the community. In partnership with local institutions, delegates participate in hands-on work involving a specific theme or project, such as nature conservation or immigration. They also research the issues in their own countries and lead educational activities on the subject. Additional training and seminars may be provided by the partner organization or other experts in the field.

Next summer, CISV Denver, in collaboration with Business Service Corps (BSC), a corporate social responsibility outsourcing company, will host an IPP for global business leaders and local Denver business executives. BSC coordinates and implements employee volunteer service projects and offers quantifiable reporting mechanisms for project outcomes. The hands-on service project will empower and reward participants through an emotional connection to the recipients and a successful outcome. Twenty-five professionals from countries such as China, Spain, Philippines, Great Britain, Netherlands, Sweden, Luxembourg and Brazil will meet in Denver to tackle a very meaningful project in the region; the branding of the Denver Indian Resource Center and Native American multi-generational programming. Part of the conclusion of the project is to determine how to make the project sustainable for an on-going business relationship. This strategy creates a trail of conscious business leaders that can adopt and live the mission of social respect and responsibility in addition to maximizing profits at their own companies. The participants will learn that even in a capitalistic environment we are all better when we work together.

Ultimately, as corporations begin to change their corporate goals from only economic profits to a dedication to people, planet and profits, CISV has positioned itself to cultivate leaders that are conscious of the world around them. Over the last 50 years, CISV has grown from a simple idea to building a sustainable workforce committed to global citizenship, community leaders and a lifelong journey of creating socially responsible practices. As Dr. Doris Allen said when she conceived of CISV in 1951, “Begin with the children, they are the future to grow a more conscious peaceful world.”

CISV

For more about CISV visit www.cisv.org. There are 22 chapters in the United States and over 200 chapters in 60 countries around the world.

CISV International People’s Project in Denver

For more information about CISV IPP or Mosaic projects please contact Cristin Tarr at [email protected].

Business Service Corps

Business Service Corps delivers collaborative solutions with real outcomes that strengthen and expand economic, environmental and social development through leveraging resources of the private, public and non-profit sectors locally and globally. For more information about Business Service Corps. Contact Candace Ruiz at [email protected].

A Mission To Connect The World

By: Rebecca Arno Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Collaborator Profile

One billion children live in poverty. Half of the world’s population subsists on less than $2.50 per day. The numbers are paralyzing. What can anyone do to make a difference?

Fortunately for families on five continents, one visionary couple didn’t let these and the rest of the overwhelming statistics about global poverty keep them from taking action. Instead, they decided to put the resources they had, experience in the cable industry, knowledge of connectivity and relationships with an international network of business leaders to work to make a difference. The result is Connect the World.

Just over a year old, Connect the World is a small organization in terms of infrastructure, with two paid staff members, a volunteer board of directors and virtual offices. Yet at a time in the non-profit life cycle when most organizations would be building staff and testing out a program or two, Connect the World has projects underway literally all over the world.

The mission is this: work with individuals and families throughout the world to build sustainable communities.

So, what are the elements of a sustainable community on any continent? As Connect the World sees it, the keys are housing, connectivity, energy and education. Through a partnership with Habitat for Humanity and the development of ultra-low-cost systems for broadband connection and clean energy, Connect the World is opening the doors of opportunity to families around the globe.

The visionaries behind Connect the World are cable-industry leaders and philanthropists Bonnie Gray-Matourek and Peter Matourek. “We’re not wealthy, but we’ve always done whatever we could to help people,” Bonnie explains. The couple has aided high school kids in going to college and sponsored families who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina. With Connect the World, they decided to take their charitable work to a new level, putting the power of the industry they know so well to work for families below the poverty line.

The concept came to them as they were going through the process of adopting their daughter from an orphanage in Kazakhstan. “During our time in Central Asia, we saw that it was more and more evident that the basics were not being provided for people,” Bonnie remembers. “We met children who were the second or third generation to grow up in the orphanage. We started to speculate about ways to help break this cycle.”

Bonnie and Peter both work in leadership roles for a major worldwide cable company in Europe. They know the cable industry, understand the incredible power of connectivity, and have seen it transform economies. They thought that, somehow, they should put this power to work in communities like the one where their daughter was born. Without basic connectivity, many local economies simply can’t develop to the point where talented people will stay in the community and build for the future.

It soon became apparent that a key missing element to the equation was the energy necessary to power the broadband systems that Connect the World sought to put in place. In many third-world countries, energy provision consists of the burning of wood, coal, or kerosene, all of which have horrendous environmental and health consequences. However, home energy needs in third world countries are generally much lower than in the U.S. where air conditioners, freezers, and other appliances suck up huge amounts of power. Therefore, current solar and wind technology that can provide small amounts of energy at a very affordable cost are perfect for deployment in the third world.

With these concepts in place, Connect the World quickly made contact with people who were already working in the communities they wanted to target: Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity International is a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to the cause of eliminating poverty housing. Since its founding in 1976, Habitat has built and renovated more than 300,000 homes worldwide, providing simple, decent and affordable shelter for more than 1.5 million people in 90 countries.

“We thought if we could expand on Habitat’s work by providing clean energy options and access to the global information system, this could help put their families on track to a better future,” says Bonnie. Through a unique partnership, Connect the World is bringing very low-cost solutions for solar and wind technology and data connection to five current and proposed Habitat projects.

Heather Alner, Manager of Corporate Engagement for Habitat for Humanity International says that the organization is constantly looking at ways to improve its programs and the benefits it can provide to its homeowners.

The partnership with Connect the World will support the provision of a safe, decent and affordable home to 8,365 adults and children in the five identified locations.

“Connect the World is helping us branch into a relatively new area of service provision - alternative energy and digital connection, creating a 3-tier program for every homeowner within the partnership,” Heather explains. “The partnership with Connect the World and Habitat for Humanity will be sustainable, locally and culturally appropriate and developmentally sound in every way. We are very excited about this partnership and its potential to exponentially add to and improve our homebuilding programs.”

The partners are working with local governments, manufacturers and aid agencies to bring together the resources to surmount the barrier of initial investment in these infrastructures. According to Bonnie, “There’s no reason that all parts of the supply chain can’t come together on this. The premise we’re testing is that if we each give a bit, then we can get the resources to families at a level they can afford.”

A key to the Connect the World philosophy, as with the Habitat for Humanity philosophy, is that people need to have a personal investment in the assets they own. Connect the World offers renewable energy and broadband resources at a level that people can afford, and then provides training and education to help people maintain the resources in their communities, putting in place the seeds of a local economy.

“We’re even finding that we can sell energy back to utility companies in some cases,” explains Jim Anderson, a former cable industry executive who is serving as Connect the World’s Executive Director. “We’ve also created a partner entity, e:Telesis Energy and Data, a low-profit, limited-liability corporation (also termed an L3C) that can hold assets and sell or lease them within communities as needed.”

Based in Denver, Colorado, Jim works with Chief Operating Officer Jim Digby in New Jersey, Bonnie and Peter in Amsterdam, the Habitat staff in Slovakia, and an international board of directors. Connect the World’s projects are in Macedonia, Tajikistan, Chile, Malawi, and even in the area of the Mississippi gulf coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina. “Each site is completely different, of course,” Jim explains, “but we look for common denominators, such as a local government that is stable and interested in partnering with us, community leadership, accessibility for development and commitment from families who want to be part of the project.”

In Tajikistan, Connect the World and Habitat are working in partnership with local Khujand University, building 330 homes where earthquakes and rapid urbanization have caused a severe housing shortage. Across the world in South America, the involvement of the Chilean government, Connect the World and Habitat are facilitating the construction of 600 homes plus a solar farm in the Caldera area where earthquakes have caused a severe housing shortage. Macedonia, which faces the highest rate of homelessness in Europe, will receive 90 multi-family units fitted with a combination of solar and solar thermal energy sources. In Africa, Connect the World had considered starting in Madagascar, but the stability in the government was a challenge. So they shifted to Malawi, one of the poorest countries on the continent, where they are building 500 homes and four water kiosks to serve the whole community.

The Pascagoula, Mississippi area in the U.S. may be Connect the World’s most challenging project, because energy demand and the costs associated with it are so high. But Bonnie and Peter were insistent on launching a project there. “It’s appalling that in the wealthiest country in the world, four years after the hurricane thousands of families are still without adequate housing,” says Bonnie. Habitat and Connect the World are partnering on 50 homes with passive solar energy systems.

Heather from Habitat for Humanity conveys her organization’s excitement about the future of the project. “I think both sides see the four-year partnership we are currently implementing as something of a pilot program. Based on the success of this initial partnership, I can see the program not only expanding within the current countries we are working in, but to more countries and areas throughout the world. When the concept proves itself we would ultimately one day like to see every Habitat homeowner to have access to the internet and get affordable and reliable renewable energy.”

Bonnie has an even bigger vision. “If we can take these ideas and develop them in a modular, scalable way, it could be that these products and solutions can be adaptable for the mass market. Why should renewable energy and connectivity be restricted to just a few types of homeowners?”

In the meantime, Connect the World is just over a year into development and according to the organization’s founders, about a year away from finding out if their projects really do provide the juice to jumpstart local economies. In the meantime, thousands of people on five continents are working hard to make the vision a reality. For more information, visit www.connecttheworldus.org.

Rebecca Arno is Vice President of Communications for The Denver Foundation. www.denverfoundation.org.

Capitalism: A Love Story

By: Jeff Klein Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Opinion

The Missing Chapter

True to form, in his new documentary Capitalism: A Love Story, director Michael Moore amplifies the lies, abuses, and manipulations underlying the recent and ongoing financial crisis. In some ways appropriately, Moore points accusatory fingers at Wall Street titans and their well-placed allies in government. In the context of ICOSA, we can recognize and perhaps celebrate the role of connection and collaboration in facilitating the bail out of the finance, auto, and other related industries.

But there is a chapter missing from Michael Moore’s story, which reveals a very different conclusion and inspires optimism and engagement, rather than pessimism and despair. This new chapter in the story of capitalism reflects a distinctly different kind of connection and collaboration.

While some capitalists work on Wall Street, and some of those Wall Street capitalists focus on money and their personal wealth at the exclusion of nearly every other thing, many other capitalists build and run companies that focus on creating value for more than just themselves. Furthermore, many of the capitalists on Wall Street invest in companies for reasons beyond their own self-interest.

The missing chapter of the Love Story reveals a growing cadre of entrepreneurs, executives and investors dedicated to practicing Conscious Capitalism, dedicated to creating conscious companies, which are purpose-driven and deliver great value to all of their stakeholders, including their customers, employees, investors, vendors and the communities where they do business.

At its core, capitalism is about voluntary association and collaboration, which is one of the reasons capitalism works, why it won the battle with socialism in the 20th Century, and why it continues to persist and flourish, in spite of its flaws and manipulations by some of its practitioners. At its core, in a market-based economy, no one forces us to decide what to buy or where to buy it, where to work and under what conditions, or where to invest and on what terms. For the marketplace to work, participants need to be connected through language, culture, proximity or technology and to collaborate to facilitate transactions and value exchange. Without connection and collaboration, there is no marketplace or capitalism. While to some extent the financial markets function in their own realm, their foundation rests on the companies, commodities and other things that we value or that create value. No customers, no business. No business, no stock market.

While capitalism is about much more than Wall Street, the ecosystem of capitalism requires capital. Just as we require food and drink to survive, grow and flourish, businesses need capital to fuel their growth and development, and often the rate of capital required outstrips a business’s ability to generate through its revenues. A start up, like an infant, requires nourishment from the outside to feed its launch into life.

Thus investors are one important stakeholder in the ecosystem of a business, but not the only one. Conscious investors recognize that for their capital to have the greatest effect and to yield the best return, best including their considerations other than financial, such as healthy companies, communities and environments, among other things, the business needs to deliver value to the other stakeholders and they need to collaborate with management to ensure a healthy stakeholder system.

The marketplace is increasingly saying “yes!” to environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, peace and opportunity for all, and business is responding. Consumers, employees, investors and others expect businesses to participate in addressing social issues, and they look to business as a source of inspiration, meaning and purpose as well as a platform for personal growth and societal evolution.

So, how does the marketplace reward conscious companies? In their ground-breaking book, Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose (Wharton School Publishing: 2007) authors Jag Seth, Raj Sisodia and David Wolfe assess long-term and short-term stock performance of 30 companies who practice versions of conscious capitalism. The companies substantially outperform the S & P 500. The 100 Best Places to Work similarly outperform the market.

By having a clear, meaningful purpose, creating value for all stakeholders, explicitly and purposefully fostering collaboration within and between its stakeholder groups, companies and their leaders cultivate vigorous ecosystems with great energy and information flow. In the process, conscious capitalists will create healthy, sustainable, purpose-driven companies based on strong, resilient relationships with engaged stakeholders. As a result of an increasing number of conscious companies, we will advance the evolution of the marketplace as a tool to facilitate human interaction and development and a more Conscious Capitalism will emerge.

While Michael Moore wants the Love Story to end, there are new suitors entering the story and their offerings are not only appealing, they are delicious, nutritious, and sustainable. If capitalism is dead or dying, it is only to be reborn. From the compost of Greed-based Capitalism (which has never been the only face of capitalism), Conscious Capitalism is sprouting. Let’s all play a role – as consumers, employees, entrepreneurs, leaders, investors, communities, citizens – in celebrating and tending its growth and development.

Jeff Klein is CEO of Cause Alliance Marketing, President of the Conscious Capitalism Alliance, and author of Working for Good; Making a Difference While Making a Living.

The Power Of Ideas

By: Gayle Dendinger Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Inspirations

Two Cups of Coffee and a Starbucks Napkin

Sometimes inspiration comes in unexpected ways. For example, publishing ICOSA has been a great learning process. It has enabled us to contact some of the brightest and most interesting leaders in all fields of endeavor. Often, I am inspired by the research and great works of authors, teachers, connectors, and collaborators. With each magazine, I hope that we are inspiring people by sharing the stories of those that are making a real change. Great Guru’s That Inspire

ICOSA strives to share success stories, connect people and to explore and add credence to the concept of Connection and Collaboration. For inspiration I have referred to some of my favorite theorists - Michael Porter (Clusters), Warren Bennis (Great Groups), and Buckminster Fuller (Icosahedrons). These great leaders started with an idea, a seed of inspiration, and built on it with the help of others, to leave the world a little bit better place to live.

Dave Pollard, author of the article Great Leaders Are Led by Ideas asserts that great ideas are profound and frame-shaking. They quickly topple long held beliefs and transform our worldviews, our values and oftentimes our actions.

Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, examined the power of personal beliefs and the role they play in personal success. In the book, Hill notes that it is not how hard you work, but how smart you work and how good your ideas are. Hill also understood the power of groups in further developing his theory of the “Mastermind.” The Mastermind principle emphasizes that, "By integrating different ideas, coordinating the knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony, a third invisible intangible force is created, which may be likened to a third mind."

The Third Mind (Two Cups of Coffee and a Starbucks Napkin)

All great accomplishments start with a good idea and a whole lot of passion. Recently, a third mind was created by Jennifer Cook, Communications and Cultural Affairs Officer at the Consulate General of Canada in Denver and ICOSA editor, Jan Mazotti. Six months ago, armed only with two cups of coffee and a Starbucks napkin, they concocted a big hairy idea, help rebuild Kabul and Kandahar, Afghanistan.

This multi-nation collaborative began with the understanding that the Canadian Forces were on the ground in Kandahar primarily to stabilize and rebuild the region. Canada, as one of the top bilateral donors in Afghanistan, had six clear development and governance priorities that this project tried to address, including basic services and humanitarian aid, similar to the goals of the U.S. public reconstruction teams in Kabul.

So, over coffee, Jennifer and Jan explored the possibility of gathering and moving a plane-load of supplies to assist in the rebuilding efforts there. They set out to find the right collaborators and made the connections to them. They strategized about who they knew. How Jennifer, as a government liaison, served one core purpose, while Jan, as a community volunteer and business person, served another purpose. They reached out to non-profits, businesses, governments, militaries, and media to understand the issues and what could be done to help.

Collectively, they organized dozens of willing and motivated participants who graciously donated their products and services. These modern day heroes included the National Ski Areas Association, the U.S. Olympic Committee, MorningStar Development, Chapin Living Waters, Hope Seeds, Project C.U.R.E., the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes, the U.S. Department of Defense Humanitarian Assistance Program, USAF 45th Sustainment Brigade, ISAF HQ USAF Chapel Branch, 7th TTSB, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division Special Troops Battalion, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, Consulate General of Canada in Denver, NORAD, CIDA, JAKKS Pacific, Land Air Express, Canadian Forces, Gretchen Peters, John Moore, Brent Weaver, Lindsay Kough, Mark Alpert, and CAP Worldwide.

Gretchen Peters, author of “The Seeds of Terror” and a former ABC News correspondent (in Pakistan and Afghanistan for more than a decade), gave them perspective into the realities of “being on the ground.” She helped them understand the dynamics of the Taliban and al Qaeda and how their work could potentially put innocent people, both from the military and regular citizens, in harm’s way. Furthermore, these two women were ready to get on a plane and go to Afghanistan for the distribution. That’s when Gretchen looked at Jan and said, “If you HAVE to come home, don’t go.” They had to rethink the good idea.

“Working with this amazing group of people and organizations has been so satisfying,” said Mazotti. “We are all resolute in our desire to touch the lives of the people of Afghanistan while helping our troops maintain and defend the country. It is not about whether you agree or disagree with the war. It is about extending goodwill to another human being who has lost so much and who doesn’t want to be in the center of conflict either.”

In my mind, this effort demonstrates that when people are united through experiences and a clear strategy, even in an active war theatre halfway around the world, and fraught with danger but also with opportunity, willing individuals and organizations can do just about anything.

This was a tremendous example of resolve, persistence and tenacity that Jan and Jennifer never let up on. They ran into obstacles all along the way, from NGOs willing to distribute, to Customs paperwork issues in a war torn land, but were able to push through and get the job done. T.S. Eliot said it best, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

How many magazine editors can drive a fork lift, coordinate the logistics of all of the donors and write a magazine all at the same time? The pivotal component was the ability to secure an aircraft. Jan put out feelers in every direction from our friends at Project C.U.R.E. to Lindsay Kough a Denver-based banker and former military man, to Cheryl Jensen, a global philanthropist, who connected us to the Denton Program, the organization who will fly the goods to Kabul.

The result, over 100,000 people touched by the effort. Connections And Collaboration Really Works

Connection and Collaboration is worth more than money and the results can be priceless. By working together, these two women pulled disparate groups together, tapped into the expertise of numerous leaders and will hopefully make the world a better place for tens of thousands of people. This effort will have the effect of creating positive and hopefully sustainable change. When I asked the Ambassador of Canada in Afghanistan Ken Lewis if he thought that these efforts could actually make a difference he said, “Absolutely.”

The reality is that to permanently change such a complex situation is at best a long shot. But, if you don’t try, there is no chance. And while this group of doers cannot change the world, they will change the world for many people. As B.J. Palmer said, “We never know how far reaching something we do today will affect the lives of thousands of people tomorrow.” Do Something

We are now far enough into the process that we can put principles into action, create, and live our own stories. By providing a platform for sharing and most importantly executing ideas, we can realize these ideas with the help of collaborative partners.

Many people have good ideas but seldom do they execute them. This group of collaborators had a great idea that challenged long held beliefs about the region. Then, they coordinated a smart, connected group of organizations and people to execute the plan. This was a great collaborative idea, facilitated by a Mastermind Group that went to extraordinary lengths to produce world class results.

I believe it changed their worldviews. I know it has changed mine.