Stanford Social Innovation Review

Causefest

Inspired by a sharp rise in the number of Facebook-organized political protests and mass demonstrations this year in cities around the world, dozens of youth activists from the U.S. and abroad met today at Columbia University for Day 2 of the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit—a first-time gathering hosted by Howcast, Facebook, MTV, the U.S. Department of State, YouTube, Google, and Access 360 Media.

Selected panel discussions—featuring many of the young people who organized these various mass-scale marches and civic actions in recent months—are being streamed live here. “We noticed a rise of movements all using social networking to fight extremism, so we thought now would be the perfect time to aid and help build momentum for those using online platforms to catalyze social change,” said Summit co-organizer Jason Liebman, the CEO and cofounder of Howcast. “All of these groups arose independent of each other. It was time to come together.”

Organizers also are using the two-day event to form a new nonprofit to unite global activists and to create a field manual that can be distributed to others about how best to affect Web-driven social change. Updated drafts of the manual can be viewed here.

Among conference highlights so far:

• Oscar Morales, a young engineer and founder of One Million Voices Against FARC, a Facebook group, discussed his use of Facebook to organize what many have described as the largest demonstration in Colombia’s history. Morales told conferees his success has proven that social networking can be used to organize citizen campaigns against oppressive forces all over the world. The February 4 protest used word-of-mouth campaigns over Facebook to repudiate FARC guerrillas and turned out more than 1 million people on the streets of Colombia—as well as smaller groups in some 200 other cities across the world, from Berlin to Barcelona, London, Madrid, Toronto, Dubai, Miami, New York, and others. “The Feb. 4 protest was a big slap in the face to FARC, who saw that its ideals were no longer supported by the people, and many members of FARC then started abandoning the group,” Morales said. “...Digital platforms are a means to social liberties…We proved that the digitally connected few can connect the masses.”
• Juan David Lacouture, the founder of No Mas Chavez, a Venezuelan group that originated on Facebook to oppose Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s policies, said his movement “couldn’t have started anywhere but on the Internet.” The group, which has some 80,000 members on Facebook, staged a mass protest on April 11 that mobilized some 2,000 people to visit Venezuelan embassies in 25 cities around the world to call for an end to terrorism and corruption in that country. The protest also brought thousands of Venezuelans into the streets to call for change. “Facebook lets us stay in contact with friends, relatives, colleagues, and people from our past,” Lacouture told conferees, “and it also helps us to express ourselves and carry our messages to thousands and thousands of people.” When asked if extreme left-wing or right-wing groups should have the same access to Facebook to organize, Lacouture said: “I don’t believe anything should be banned online. If an idea is not strong enough and you expose it for what it is, then the idea can be its own biggest enemy. Oppression is sustained by those who would keep bad ideas in the dark.”
• Gemma Olway and Sharon Singh, both 26, organized The People’s March Against Knife Crime in London on September 20, which drew 6,000 to a protest rally and gained the attention of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, other politicians, and the media. The group, formed in July, started as a Facebook group. “We noticed a lot of anti-knife groups already on Facebook but we wanted to unite them to say that enough is enough,” Singh told a Summit panel.
• Elias Kuri, a cofounder of Iluminemos, organized an anti-violence march on August 30 that was joined by 2 million people in 88 cities across Mexico and in six other countries. Kuri said he organized the march at a time when many Mexicans were horrified by what was then the recent kidnapping and murder of 14-year-old Fernando Martí, the son of a businessman. “Does a march work to make change?” Kuri asked his fellow panelists. “We think yes because when people are angry they want to do something…The important thing was that we didn’t use traditional media to protest. We used the Internet, Facebook, emails, and people just went to the march. The authorities were sure we were going to fail. They didn’t believe the Internet could have so much power.”
• Dustin Moskovitz, cofounder of Facebook, said the 40-and-older crowd is the fastest-growing demographic using the social networking site, a plus for the spread of social activism in the United States and abroad. “We started four years ago as a youth social network and now we are fighting that stigma,” Moskovitz told conferees. “In other countries where Facebook is being used, the average age is 45 or 50 years. Our fastest-growing [age] demographics in the United States are 40-plus and we expect that to continue.” Moskovitz acknowledged that Facebook groups are still “somewhat limited” in their ability to communicate to very large audiences but said the company is working to expand that capability. He also said Facebook is working hard to discourage al Qaeda and other terrorist groups from using social networks to advance their ideologies. “We work with law enforcement in many countries and we are going to fight people who try to repress free speech all over the world,” Moskovitz said. “We already work to expel anyone using Facebook for hate and violence. You can’t organize an al Qaeda group on Facebook and expect us to keep it up for very long.” Moskovitz did acknowledge, however, that there is a “fine line between harassment and free speech” and told conferees the company is planning to hire more people to help it handle site monitoring.
• James K. Glassman, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the Bush Administration, commended Summit organizers for trying to create what he called “a giant global conversation about how individuals can oppose violence and extremism and stand up for universal values of tolerance, freedom, justice, and social change.” He said U.S. government officials have arrived at the notion that the Net is “the locus of civic society” and that governments which don’t use the Net to support pro-democracy movements at home and abroad face a greater risk of being ignored by the people they are trying to govern. “What we face today, these threats to liberty and security, cannot be overcome by governments, alone,” Glassman said. “Only popular opposition can turn the tide. The forces of oppression and terror have little support but they do intimidate and frighten people into inaction. The Internet is a tool that will help people to overcome.” Responding to a question, Glassman said he is confident that the incoming Obama administration will continue the State Department’s policies of “Web 2.0 diplomacy.” Said Glassman: “I would expect the new administration to take this new approach and expand it, and if they do expand it, I hope they also will provide the resources to do so.”

Check out the two videos released to conferees today—How to Smart Mob and How to Be an Effective Dissident. Watch this space for conference updates.

Marcia Stepanek is Founding Editor-in-Chief and President, News and Information, for Contribute Media, a New York-based magazine, Web site, and conference series about the new people and ideas of giving. She is the publisher of Cause Global, an acclaimed new blog about the use of digital media for social change. She also serves as moderator and producer of New Conversations for Change, Contribute’s forum series highlighting social entrepreneurs and new trends in philanthropy.

Posted by Kelsey Walker

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You’re Never Too Young to Change the World

Last night I gave a short talk to about 100 high school students in the LeadAmerica program. The experience was probably more inspiring for me than for the kids! I opened up my speech with a question: how many of you have ever volunteered for a charity or done community service? Almost every single hand shot up into the air. Then I asked a few of the kids to stand up and tell me about their volunteer experiences. One girl had been a junior leader for the City of Rockville. One boy had handed out food to the homeless, and he described the mission of the nonprofit he helped as succinctly as if he worked there.

I shared three stories with them: my background and why I work in the nonprofit field, the story of Adele Ann Taylor ,who at 13 years old, started a nonprofit to promote literacy. I also told the story of a young Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. when he was a teenager trying to decide whether he would study law, medicine, or theology and what a remarkable young man he was. Then to see his short rise to leadership as one of the most influential figures in the civil rights movement just 10 years later.

The point I tried to make is that you’re never too young to change the world. As a young person, we all have stirrings of great ideas to improve the communities where we live. The only difference that only certain people actually act on those ideas. At the end of my remarks, I asked the roomful of kids to do me a favor and think about something they really care about, to tell me their big crazy idea for creating the world as it should be. What I heard from those high schoolers was astonishing and inspiring:

• One girl wanted to save the Everglades in Florida
• One young man wanted to make college free for everyone that wants to go
• One young woman wanted to spread the love of God to everyone who hurts in the world
• One girl wanted to prevent cruelty to animals

We could have gone on all night long. But what I realized was that these young people were probably going to be our future nonprofit leaders. And as I listened to each one of them stand up and share their passion, I almost cried right there. If ever there was a time I doubted that the next generation would want to take up the torch of social change, these kids restored my faith right then and there.

I also realized that it’s up to you and me to make sure these motivated young people find a great place to work when they come to the nonprofit sector. We might be Gen x or Gen Y, still young ourselves, but we have to continue to pave the way for those that will inevitably come behind us.

Here’s a short video with clips from the talk set to my favorite John Legend song. Too bad I couldn’t show the kids, as they are all underage, and I didn’t have a waiver to film them. You’ll just have to take my word for it that they were pretty awesome.

Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, D.C. area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

Posted by Kelsey Walker

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Generation Y and the Perils of Milli Vanilli Leadership

I know y’all remember Milli Vanilli. They were a 80s/90s pop/R&B group made of up two hardbody models named Fab and Rob. If you’re a Gen Y baby like me, you might have had their posters on your wall just like I did, singing along to their many hit songs on the radio:  Girl You Know It’s True and Blame it on the Rain and Baby, Don’t Forget my Number. Milli Vanilli’s debut album skyrocketed to the top of the charts and earned a Grammy Award in 1990. However, their success turned to failure when their Grammy was revoked after it was revealed that they were lip-syncing all their songs.  The actual vocals on the record were not the voices of Fab and Rob. Turns out they were just mimicking the voices of other singers.

Milli Vanilli’s downfall reminds me of what can happen when Gen Y nonprofit leaders try to copycat Baby Boomer leadership. It just doesn’t work. Let me tell you about this guy I know. He’s a young, energetic nonprofit leader in his field and in his extensive volunteer work as well. We are about the same age, but our leadership styles are so different. Not to say that my style of leadership is perfect, just that I get put off by the way he works. He acts like a Baby Boomer stuck in a Gen Y body, choosing to follow hierarchy versus letting the team decide. In meetings, he behaves like an older CEO of a large nonprofit who can’t be bothered with the opinions of people lower on the totem pole. On the Blake Mouton leadership grid, he is probably closer to the Authority-Compliance/Produce or Perish style.  He rarely showcases any personality or aspects of his personal life, as if afraid it would taint his image as a nonprofit professional on his way to executive leadership.  This is not to say that all Baby Boomer nonprofit leaders act like this. But for many young professionals who complain about their older bosses, this is one of the issues they often bring up. That the relationship is all about the tasks, and there’s not room for much dialogue or building a relationship of mutual respect with their boss.  So why, then, would we want to lip-sync that kind of leadership?

Better to be like Maya Enista, the Gen Y CEO of Mobilize.org. Maya is the kind of person you can relate to. Even though she is the head woman in charge of an entire organization, her down-to-earth personality still shines through as she talks about her passion for engaging young people in democracy and decision-making.  Her leadership style motivates others to join her cause and help in any way they can.

Or we might examine the collaborative leadership style of Ben Rattray, the Gen Y CEO of Change.org. Ben’s team player attitude makes it easy for him to find win/wins for Change.org’s many partners that allow them to reach so many people interested in social issues. Ben recognizes that he doesn’t know everything, so he regularly invites input from stakeholders, and respects their opinions. This allows his organization to test new ideas with the support of as many people as possible.

The key to successful next generation leadership is to be who you are, not what you think an “official” nonprofit leader looks like.  Loosen your tie and let your unique personality shine through. Stop acting like you were born in the 50s, because it’s obvious for all to see that you are young as hell. So make it work to your advantage, instead of trying to seem older than you are. Don’t make the same mistakes you complain about in your Baby boomer bosses. You can end up alienating your peers, and missing an opportunity to build lasting relationships.

Craft your own brand of leadership, and others will see you as an authentic person they can follow and trust. After all, it’s pretty easy to tell when somebody’s lip-syncing. Just ask Milli Vanilli.

Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, D.C. area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

Posted by Kelsey Walker

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We Are the Possible: Meet Lindsey McDougle

I’m profiling several young nonprofit leaders I admire not only for their professional work, but for the values they live out for themselves.

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.

-Maya Angelou

Lindsey McDougle is currently a doctoral student at the University of San Diego pursuing a degree in Leadership Studies with a specialization in Nonprofit and Philanthropic Studies. She is a doctoral research assistant at the Caster Family Center for Nonprofit Research at the University. Research wise, Lindsey is interested in race, class, and gender differences in public expectations of nonprofit organizations, as well as in leadership and social media.

I “met” Lindsey online after she started reading my blog. A few months later, I was delighted to see she had started her own blog sharing her expertise on leadership studies. Her writing and advocacy for higher education in philanthropy is part of what inspired me to pursue a PhD in that field myself. If you’re trying to navigate the nonprofit PhD scene, Lindsey’s knowledge will certainly prove useful to you as well.

Lindsey McDougle, Blogger at Leadership as a Field of Study, Doctoral Research Assistant at the Caster Family Center for Nonprofit Research
Age: 27
Lives in: San Diego, CA

How did you become interested in doing the work of social change?
My interest in social change has been pretty continuous since I started college. Although I have not always been interested in the area of nonprofit and philanthropic studies, I have always been interested in a variety of socially related issues.

As an undergraduate student, for instance, I was heavily interested in environmental justice and issues of equity with regard to environmental concerns. The minimal amount of environmental resources (and environmentally focused education programs) invested into rural areas and communities of color led me to pursue a degree in Human Dimensions in Natural Resources.  I continued this interest into graduate school, but I also became interested in corporate social responsibility and corporate philanthropy, and the role that corporations can play in helping to alleviate social disparities.

Why did you decide to pursue a PhD in Nonprofit and Philanthropic Studies?
I think that many people who study, or even work in, the nonprofit sector have a belief that there is something that they can do… something that they can contribute… to help make the world (if only in a small way) a better, more equitable place. And, I think that nonprofit organizations allow people a means of turning that belief into reality.

For me, then, I was really interested in studying how nonprofits-these organizations that often act as conduits for so much good-could effectively leverage their resources to achieve the greatest societal benefit.

Tell me about some of the nonprofit research you’ve done so far.
There are not very many academic centers that focus specifically on nonprofit research. So when I began the process of looking into Ph.D. programs, the University of San Diego (USD) immediately stood out to me.  I think that I have been extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to be involved in the Caster Family Center for Nonprofit Research at the University. Through the Center I have not only been able to lead major research projects, but I have also been able to develop practical consulting skills through several applied projects.

My most recent research project focused on public confidence in the San Diego County nonprofit sector (a project that was funded by the San Diego Foundation).  With my team of colleagues, we designed an in-depth survey instrument that assessed the level of confidence San Diegan’s had in a variety of nonprofit services, their confidence in different nonprofit sub-sectors, their perceptions of executive compensation in the sector, and their preferences for nonprofit services over the services provided by other sectors.

My dissertation research uses this same data set and I am focusing on how race, class, gender, and individual values may affect a person’s perceptions of, and preference for, nonprofit organizations in industries where nonprofit, for-profit, and government organizations coexist and compete for customers (e.g., education and health care industries).

What lessons have you learned from your consulting work in the nonprofit sector?
Every nonprofit organization is different. However, just like in the for-profit sector, leadership, strategy, and accountability are elements that all organizations, regardless of sectoral affiliation, must value. Nonprofit organizations often provide the services and goods to those most in need. Without effective leadership, deliberate strategy, and sound accountability nonprofits run the risk of not only damaging public image of the sector, but also of letting down those who most rely on, and need, their services.

You’ve been writing about nonprofit issues for a while now on your blog, Leadership as a Field of Study. How has blogging impacted your career?
I started blogging about 18 months ago.  A colleague of mine, Heather Carpenter (who was already an avid blogger) insisted that I share my “expertise” with others. At that time, however, I truly believed that I didn’t have much “expertise” to share.  I also didn’t know who would want to read about the things that I was interested in: leadership, nonprofits, and social change. But Heather really convinced me of the value in blogging… and so I began.

Since that time I have built a reputation as an expert in my field.  Prior to blogging I was a bit hesitant to stake my claim as an “expert,” but, indeed, I am! I know what I know, and I know my field.  I now contribute regularly to the Caster Center’s blog, and I have been extremely active in promoting the use of social media (all forms) throughout the University.

I often get e-mails and phone calls from people at other colleges and universities who are looking into either to designing, or enhancing, an academic leadership program. They use my blog as a resource and ask me to provide them with insight into what it might take (or should take) to establish a leadership program at their college or university.  Career wise, I think that Heather’s encouragement to begin blogging was probably one of the smartest things that I could have ever done.

I have to say that your blog was part of the inspiration that led me to take the leap in pursuing a PhD in leadership studies myself. What advice would you give to those who are considering this particular educational path?
I really get excited when I talk to people about pursing leadership as an academic field of study. Therefore, I am very happy to know that my blog was useful to you in deciding to pursue your doctorate. Leadership studies is a very interesting area of scholarly inquiry. It combines several traditional academic disciplines: from the social sciences, to the humanities, and even professional fields, to create this very (from my perspective) unique area of study focusing on a phenomenon which we all experience everyday-leadership.

That said I was pleased to hear that you had decided to pursue your Ph.D. in this area. At times I find that some young(er) people are hesitant to study leadership because they feel that they don’t have some required (as they view it) level of experience. However, studying leadership is not necessarily about experience-it’s about creativity and passion… and most importantly, it’s about research. So, to anyone considering this particular educational path, I would encourage them to simply do it.

How would you like to see your generation change the world?
Thoughtfully. Passionately. Confidently.

Many of us have the education, the resources, and the capability to do so many great things. It’s time to put dreams into action and go out and do it!

You can follow Lindsey on Twitter at @lindseymcdougle

Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, D.C. area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

Posted by Kelsey Walker

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We Are the Possible: Meet Samuel Isaac Richard

This is the final interview in my We Are the Possible blog anniversary series, so named after my favorite Maya Angelou poem, “A Brave and Startling Truth.” I’ve been profiling several young nonprofit leaders I admire not only for their professional work, but for the values they live out for themselves.

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.

Samuel Isaac Richard was raised in Phoenix, Arizona, by two public school teachers. Community service has always been a large part of his life, even before he knew what “community service” was.  His family was always involved in church inadvertently learning what it meant to care for thy neighbor. They traveled the country camping in National Parks during the summer unintentionally learning about responsibly caring for the earth and those dependent upon its resources, and as a Boy Scout he coincidentally learned the foundations of leadership, civic engagement, and group dynamics. Sam is engaged to be married in October of this year, and lives in Downtown Phoenix.

I met Sam last year at the 2008 Nonprofit Congress after a speech I gave there. He came up to me with this ball of energy he seemed to be carrying around with him in his jacket pocket. We exchanged cards, and I started following his writing on his blog, Deserted After Dark. Sam is a deep thinker on community issues, who will surely be shaking up this nonprofit world soon and very soon. I’m excited to introduce him to all of you!

Age: 24
Lives in: Phoenix, Arizona

How did you end up doing the work of social change?
Sort of funny, but I’ve never really analyzed this question until now. Thinking back, though, I think it has a lot to do with Midwest Sentiment. I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and my parents brought the prairie attitude down to Phoenix with them. What do I mean by “Midwest Sentiment?”  Radio host Garrison Keillor puts it this way in his book, “Homegrown Democrat.”

“We don’t let people lie in the ditch and drive past and pretend not to see them dying. Here on the frozen tundra of Minnesota, if your neighbor’s car won’t start, you put on your parka and get the jumper cables out and deliver the Sacred Spark that starts their car. Everybody knows this. The logical extension of this spirit is social welfare.”

Why did you decide to pursue a degree in nonprofit leadership and management?
My college experience is… interesting. After graduating high school, I drove down to Tucson to pursue a degree in Architecture at the University of Arizona. I had (and still don’t, by the way) absolutely no artistic ability - but thought that my love and appreciation for good design would carry me. It didn’t. I floated through a couple more majors, but soon realized that I probably wasn’t ready for college. I headed back up to Phoenix and landed a job at Starbucks. Two years slinging coffee was enough for me, and I transitioned back into school - taking a couple of classes at a local community college while working part-time at an organization in the development office. I helped coordinate a golf tournament and researched donor prospects. I had volunteered with the organization before, but working “behind the scenes” was really eye opening - in a good way - for me. A woman at the organization was pursuing the American Humanics certificate and in the Nonprofit Leadership & Managment degree program at the time and talked to me a little about it.  As they say, the rest is history.

I’ll be done with my classes this December, and can’t wait to have the freedom to put my knowledge to work full-time.

What do you do in your job at Arizona State University?
My official title is “Student Ambassador for Recruitment” (StAR). I do all the regular recruiting stuff: provide information about the majors offered at the College of Public Programs, give campus tours to potential students, and connect them with all the right resources. But in all seriousness, I see what I do as college access. Our majors have public service at their core, but they don’t really roll off the tongue. Because of that, many potential students aren’t aware that they can have a full, four-year degree in Nonprofit Leadership & Management - and it’s my job to provide opportunities to learn more about those possibilities.

Tell me about your volunteer work with the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) of Phoenix and other organizations.
Being an American Humanics student, I value the camaraderie of like-minded folk. But AH stops after graduation (for the most part), and there really wasn’t much for early career professionals working in the sector here in Phoenix. So a couple of years ago, four Master’s of Nonprofit Studies (MNpS) students created a YNPN chapter here in Phoenix. They had a great year growing the programming and dreaming up plans for the future. At the beginning of this year I had the honor of being invited to served on the Board of Directors of YNPNphx and I’m loving it. We are having a great year so far, and we’re looking forward to big things happening in the near future.

I also serve of the Board of Trustees for the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits, which is a blast. I am the youngest voice on the board by at least 20 years, and it’s definitely been a learning experience for all involved!

You’ve been writing about nonprofit issues for a while now on your blog, Deserted After Dark. How has blogging impacted your career?
I think more than anything, writing about my thoughts and feelings concerning the sector has helped me frame my thoughts and feelings concerning the sector in a more coherent way. I am definitely an external processor, and writing provides an outlet to test my opinions in front a (mostly) friendly audience.

I’m still in school full-time, so I haven’t really seen much impact on my career from blogging, per se, but it has opened doors that wouldn’t have otherwise been available to me - so maybe blogging will lead to a great job someday soon. Anybody out there hiring?

On a side note, this semester has been a little taxing on my schedule - as the next question alludes to - so I haven’t written much lately. But look for a resurgence over the summer!

Congratulations on your recent engagement! Much of the research, however, says that our generation cares more about our careers than getting married. Could you share some insight to how Gen Y can balance both of those priorities?

Let me start by saying that my answer to this question might not be applicable to anybody else. I am one lucky dude that is quite obviously marrying above my pay grade on so many levels. That being said, though, I do have some thoughts…

For me, it’s hard to separate my passion for social justice and a stronger sector from my love for Kim. I know that sounds cheesy, but I say it because I don’t believe that the priorities have to be “balanced.”  Maybe some see romantic relationships and marriage as barriers to success in a career, but my relationship with Kim has done nothing but aided and abetted my addiction to social change - and that won’t change anytime soon.  She is my biggest fan and extremely supportive, but questions my crazy theories and challenges my assumptions. She is honest about my faults, but only because she believes that I can be better. And I’d like to think that I offer the same support and challenge for her. We work really well together, mainly because we understand that we’re in this together - whatever “this” happens to be at the moment.

I’m looking forward to our next chapter, and trust that our story will not be unique among those that value their partner as an accomplice in the pursuit of their dreams.

So you’re a rockstar blogger, full-time employee, nonprofit volunteer, editor at Downtown Phoenix Journal, and you just got engaged. How do you hold it all? Are there any daily rituals or spiritual practices that help you stay centered?
First off, thanks.  As for daily rituals, I don’t have many. I try to take at least 20 minutes a night to read something not related to school or work. I’m currently re-reading “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, which is a trip. It’s amazing how relevant things can be almost 80 years after they were written. I also love to unwind with something in my Hulu queue - I’m a big fan of “30 Rock,” “The Office,” “The Daily Show,” and “House.”

In addition to that, about twice a year I travel to a Catholic Abbey about three hours away from Phoenix nestled in the high desert mountains about 30 miles from the US-Mexico border. The sisters there operate a small retreat house, and it’s a great way to step back an take a look at a where I’ve been, where I am, and where I need to go spiritually, relationally, and professionally. I think it’ll be about time for a trip after finals are over in a few weeks….

How would you like to see our generation change the world?
What a great question. I would like to think that history will look back on our generation as the group of people who served as the tipping point to an holistically inclusive society. Many great people are doing wonderful things to see that come about (i.e. this blog), and I firmly believe that our generation as a whole can see that dream finally become reality.  I’m honored to be a part of such a group of people, and thankful for the opportunity to share a little of my story here.  Thanks!

You can follow Sam on Twitter @samuelisaac

Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, D.C. area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

Posted by Kelsey Walker

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Does Generation Y Really Want Change?

I was at the Council on Foundations pre-conference earlier this year where Mark Rosenman asked me if I thought that “next gen” meant radical change in the nonprofit sector. Lately, the term “next gen” has become the buzzword of choice used to describe the next wave of nonprofit leadership, specifically in describing generational changes in the sector.

I always thought “next gen” was a funny little term for Generation Y, connoting an image of a sea of young, fresh faces pumping our fists into the air, ready to take over the world. I wish we had had more time to discuss it, but I recall that my main comment to Mark was that I didn’t necessarily think that the next generation, namely Generation Y, represented drastic change. I was shocked at myself as soon as the words left my mouth. With all of my commentary on how nonprofits need Generation Y leadership, my sense was that although we have vast potential, the majority of us “next gen” folk are not using our skills, education, or power to change the status quo. Rather, much of our complaining rallying within the nonprofit sector has been around improving work conditions, and obtaining higher salaries.

While it’s clear that young people really want to work in the nonprofit sector, it’s still not entirely clear to me whether we really want to develop the kind of leadership that will effect real social change. Are we still interested in the pursuit of truth and justice? If not, then who moved our values?

Somebody said “To be young and not be revolutionary is a biological contradiction.”
Very well, then, we contradict ourselves. Just because we’re young, does not necessarily mean we really want things to change. As it turns out, we’re not talking about a revolution. At least not in the traditional sense if, by revolution, we are referring to one of its many definitions:

• a fundamental change in power or organizational structure,
• a sudden, complete or marked change in something,
• or even the Latin “revolutio,” to turn over

Most Generation Y nonprofit leaders are not thinking about changing anything. The “next gen” is pretty much still emulating the older generations, afraid to fail, trying not to rock the boat for fear we won’t ever get a chance to sit at the big kids table. We are trying to get the right education so we can learn how to do all the right things at the right time so we can get the right jobs so we can move up into the right positions so someone can bestow upon us the right kind of power that will allow us to finally make a difference and make things right in the world. Believe me, I know because I get tons of related questions through this and my other blog.  We forget that even in the 21st century, the fundamental aspects of creating change have not changed.
We forget that:

• The revolution will not be televised.
• The revolution is not a Cause on Facebook.
• The revolution will not be Twittered.
• The revolution will not be webinared or webcast and will not be available for download afterward.
• The revolution will not be funded.
• The revolution will not happen if we wait for permission.
• The revolution will not happen if we keep our mouths shut.
• The revolution is not (entirely) online and you cannot access it with your iPod or even on your shiny new Mac.

The revolution is out there in your community doing the dirty, messy work of 2 million nonprofits, speaking out to oppose that which you are against and speaking up to advance what you are for. The revolution is taking responsibility for our schools and joining your daughter’s PTA, running for a seat on the board of your neighborhood association. The revolution requires the courageous leadership of you and me and everyone we know. We must be the change we wish to see.

Does Generation Y really want change? If the answer is yes, then we’re going to have to prove it.

Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, D.C. area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

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The Difference Between Knowledge and Wisdom

“Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.” - Sandra Carey

Generation Y thinks we know it all. We go off to college to get a good education, a fancy degree, and then think we know how to do everything right away. I often tell people that while I’m glad I pursued a Master’s degree, my coursework only taught me how to do things, it didn’t really teach me how to get things done. Going to school did not teach me how to communicate effectively with different types of people or how to build consensus around an issue. It didn’t teach me how to deal with ethical dilemmas in the workplace. it didn’t even teach me what to do when I screw up. I learned all that through trial and error, and from the wisdom of my peers and older colleagues.

There is a huge disconnect between the theory and the application of things, especially in doing nonprofit work. Young people need the education (which does not necessarily have to come from a university or college), but we also need the wisdom that comes from failing, and learning from our mistakes. I think there’s a big difference between knowledge and wisdom.

Wisdom can be described as a combination of both education (which leads to knowledge and expertise) and a leader’s individual experience. N. Korac-Kakabadse, A. Korac-Kakabadse & Kouzmin discussed this distinction well in their 2001 article, “Leadership Renewal: Towards the Philosophy of Wisdom”:

Practical wisdom is not the same as expertise in a technical specialization, but a kind of expertise that requires practice and experience. To study the character of practical wisdom fruitfully, people should have done some living, gained some maturity and assumed some responsibility as householders and members of civic communities.

Which is why I think many young nonprofit leaders should focus on building their leadership skills instead of going back to school. Formal education is not always the answer. Equally important is self-awareness, and the other “soft-skills” that come along with developing wisdom. As the authors point out (my bold emphasis):

Leaders need to have a healthy vision of self which can only be forged in a combination of knowledge and experience. There are no leaders without personality frailty or imperfection. A will to action marks the leader - a willingness to enter the field of human inter-action where one learns that pain gives rise to compassion; that correction is the author of wisdom; that daring sharpens decision; that courage ennobles the spirit; and that in seeds of doubt reside the flowers of faith.

We look up to so many mentors and leaders in the nonprofit field because we believe them to be wise. But it’s clear that wisdom is a deeper form of expertise that can only be developed by learning from life experiences.  Perhaps at some point, young people need to stop trying to know it all and just let ourselves live and learn.

Reference: Korac-Kakabadse, N., Korac-Kakabadse, A., & Kouzmin, A. (2001). Leadership renewal: Towards the philosophy of wisdom. International Review of Administrative Sciences

Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, D.C. area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

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How to Become a More Resilient Nonprofit Leader

The nonprofit sector is changing at such an alarming rate, even those of us that do the work of social change day in and day out cannot keep abreast of all of the economic, political, and environmental trends affecting our field. In the midst of layoffs, program cuts, and fundraising concerns, most of us would rather stick our heads in the sand rather than face the fact that there’s no more business as usual. Most of us freak out in the face of change, even going so far as to change careers when the going gets too tough. Especially when it comes to Generation Y, we have to wonder whether our youthful passion for change gets overshadowed by the sheer and utter difficulty of the work we thought we so desperately wanted to do. I know my peers, and I have to admit that there is some truth to Baby Boomers’ complaints that we don’t stay in jobs very long. Where is our resilience?

Merriam-Webster tells us that to be resilient means

a) capable of withstanding shock without permanent deformation or rupture or
b) tending to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.

In short, being resilient means that we have the ability to bounce back from crisis like an elastic rubber band. But how do we cultivate resilience when all day long we’re putting out one fire after another?

Learn From New Experiences

Maxine Dalton writes about the importance of developing strategies to learn how to adapt to changing circumstances. Our experiences with change can be either rewarding or unpleasant, but we can be intentional about how we react to them. Dalton suggests four key ways to prepare to deal with challenges and ultimately become more effective learners.

1. Take Action: Try learning how to do a new task through trial and error versus research or a how-to book or class
2. Think: Gather data about a new situation by reflecting on past experiences, imagining likely outcomes or scenarios of a possible decision
3. Feel: Develop personal strategies for managing with your fear or discomfort that results in experiencing something new or unfamiliar
4. Access Others: Seek advice or instruction from others who have been in a similar situation or use another person as a model or example for what you need to figure out
Develop a Spiritual Practice No matter if you meditate or practice an organized religion, the crux of your spiritual practice can serve to make you stronger if it helps you to focus on your core purpose in life. I love how Oprah defines spirituality for herself and how it comforts her in times of uncertainty:

When you begin to realize that you are more than your body, that your purpose is greater than your profession or your career—that every life, because you were born you have a right to be here and there is a calling on your life—it means you live your life without fear and you know that no matter what happens, no matter what happens, you are going to be all right. You are going to be all right. That’s what spirituality is for me.

Fail Upward Sometimes we think we have failed, when in fact all we’re doing is being true to ourselves. I remember when I heard the news that Darian Rodriguez had resigned as Executive Director of the Craigslist Foundation, I was sad. Until I heard that he was going to travel all around the world for six months. Talk about awesome. Most people don’t just up and go fly around the world, so undoubtedly that was something he had always wanted to do. Some might say that Darian gave up, that he failed because he left the organization - not so. There’s a big difference between failing and failing upward. When you fail upward, you give yourself permission to follow your joy, even if it means you’ll screw up every now and then. This month’s Oprah magazine quotes Robert Mack from his book, Happiness From the Inside Out: The Art and Science of Fulfillment:

All great champions, most of whom are optimists, have become great because of-not in spite of-great adversity. Michael Jordan, a perennial optimist, once said, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game’s winning shot…and missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.’ If ever there was a case for optimism, this is it.

Take a Vacation Paul Schmitz, CEO of Public Allies talks about the importance of taking a vacation, even in the midst of the hectic pace of nonprofit work. Paul believes that taking time off helps him to be a stronger nonprofit CEO:

I believe that the balance I try to strike makes me more effective. I have had some of my best insights and strategies emerge when I have been away from the office and unplugged from the day to day. And a good vacation brings me back energized and feeling excited to be back.

The inconvenient reality for nonprofit leaders is that there will be no going back to the “old days.” There will be no return to normality after the recession is over. We have to find ways to become better and stronger while we work with less resources and more demand. The good news is that we have done this before, as Barbara Kingslover puts it so beautifully in High Tide in Tucson:

Every one of us is called upon, probably many times, to start a new life. A frightening diagnosis, a marriage, a move, loss of a job. And onward full tilt we go, pitched and wrecked and absurdly resolute, driven in spite of everything to make good on a new shore. To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another - that is surely the basic instinct . . . Crying out: High tide! Time to move out into the glorious debris. Time to take this life for what it is.

We must strive to become as resilient as possible if we are going to be able to strengthen our organizations in times of uncertainty. Our communities need the kind of leaders that will stay the course of social change, even after being knocked down and out. Even when the rules of the game change right before our very eyes. Even when the going gets so tough we just feel like giving up and going to work for corporate America. How do YOU maintain your resilience and strength as a nonprofit leader?

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Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, D.C. area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

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How the Recession is Hurting Young Nonprofit Leaders

I’ve been thinking lately about how grateful I am that the recession has not really hit me personally in my pocket. I am blessed to a have a decent-paying, flexible nonprofit job with benefits that I work part-time. Along with other projects and teaching, my lifestyle has pretty much remained constant, a much different reality than the millions of young people that are struggling right now. If I did not have advanced education, my outlook would probably be a lot different right now, but that’s another post for another day. For now I wanted to share some trends that I am seeing in the nonprofit community that are proving harmful to the vibrant cadre of young workers we have in our employ. Any way you slice it, the economy has crippled many groups in many ways, but it’s still up to us to be sure we are making the kind of decisions that are good for both our organizations and our employees.
Low, Lower, Lowest Salaries
I was sad to see the findings from the most recent AFL-CIO report, “Young Workers: A Lost Decade,” which surveyed a cross-section of workers under 35 and showed that:
• More than half of young workers earn less than $30,000.
• More than one in three young workers say they are currently living at home with their parents.
• 31 percent of young workers do not have health insurance coverage.
• One-third of young workers cannot pay the bills and seven in 10 do not have enough saved to cover two months of living expenses.
While the findings from the AFL-CIO report were not exclusively geared toward young nonprofit workers, it’s easy to imagine that a significant portion of people in the sample had jobs in the nonprofit sector as it was a cross-section. We also know the prevalence in our field of hiring entry-level workers at the ever-so-common $30,000 a year joke of a salary. What we can now also surmise is that our young nonprofit leaders that fall into this income bracket are also less likely to have health coverage and may be forced to live with their parents because they may not be self-sufficient.
This very real economic reality can be illustrated in my own experience a few months ago. I was out for dinner with a colleague of mine - a fellow Gen Y nonprofit leader - and when it came time to pay the bill, her credit card was declined. She literally did not have enough money to pay for her portion of the meal. Is that the quality of life we want to pass on to the next generation of nonprofit leaders?
The Death of Leadership Development
Before the economy tanked, leadership development was a luxury typically reserved for employees at nonprofits that had huge budgets. But even if your organization was low on cash, there were still conferences you could attend or programs you could apply for that could fill in the gap. Now, those opportunities appear to be dwindling. I have seen fewer conferences being advertised this year, and the ones that have held conferences have had lower attendance. One of the most public was the Council of Nonprofits, which canceled its much-anticipated 2009 Nonprofit Congress earlier this year. Then there is the story about Jewish organization, Professional Leaders Project shutting down. The nonprofit had been “dedicated to increasing the recruitment and retention of outstanding leaders who will lead our Jewish community into the future.”
Due to all the budget cutting going on, pretty soon we won’t even be able to go to the library and read nonprofit books to enrich our leadership skills for free.
More Unpaid Internships
Sure, nonprofits are still recruiting interns - recent grads, high school students, people in between jobs. The problem is that I’m seeing more and more of these short-term positions being listed as unpaid. It wouldn’t be so bad if the nonprofits were offering the kind of experience that would help young people learn to lead. What I see happening with many of my colleagues is that we are hiring interns to do the extra work that has been placed upon us because we are expending more energy fundraising. Or we are using interns as a stopgap for administrative support because we can no longer afford to have a full-time administrative assistant. I will use an example from my own organization. We had an unpaid intern for the summer, and most days I observed her doing things like making copies and printing things. We never really gave her the chance to learn anything new, let alone practice leadership. We never even thought about it. We were too busy doing the “important work.”
There are so many opportunities for the younger generation of nonprofit workers to contribute to the success of organizations imperiled by the recession, but we’re clearly missing them. This is why if you are a young nonprofit professional, you must be prepared to be your own best advocate. No one is going to do it for you, especially in these difficult economic times.

Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, D.C. area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

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How to Be Yourself (or Why Being Young is Not a Liability)

I hate wearing suits. They make me feel like I’m 50 years old. Like I’m playing dress-up in my mother’s clothes. When I started doing a lot of public speaking last year, my mom and my aunt admonished me for getting up on stage in my typical office garb: trendy sweaters, pencil skirts, suede high-heeled boots, big hoop earrings. The last straw was when I gave a speech in front of hundreds of people at the 2008 Nonprofit Congress in DC and I was going to wear a cute argyle cardigan and plaid slacks from Express. I love mixing colors and patterns – for me, it’s part of what makes getting dressed fun! And when I dress my age, I tend to have more fun at work. I’m more relaxed when I feel like I’m expressing my true self and not trying to look like anyone else’s definition of me. But my mom and aunt were horrified. “Oh, no you don’t,” they said. “You’ve got to buy a suit.” I searched high and low for a two-piece suit that fit my small frame, finally snagging one in Talbot’s Petite for about a hundred bucks. It looked great on the hanger, but when I put it on, I just felt . . . like I was trying to be someone else. That was over a year ago and I’ve only worn the suit once more since then. But I do have this picture of me at the Nonprofit Congress with Samuel Isaac Richard (the young nonprofit powerhouse of Phoenix) that I posted on Facebook with this caption: “Yes, I’m wearing a suit. It was against my will.”
I thought about my hate-hate relationship with formal businesswear last week when I had dinner with a fellow young nonprofit leader about how her career was progressing. She shared with me an incident she had experienced during an annual performance review at her former job. She had asked her boss how she could improve, and he told her she was doing a great job, the only thing that bothered him was that she just looked so young, couldn’t she start wearing suits more often? From that point forward, she made sure she was dressed in blazers and slacks in every meeting, at every nonprofit event, at every conference. I remember meeting her for the first time and thinking she was much older than she actually turned out to be. She struggled with the same feeling of not being who she really was, as if she was merely imitating her older colleagues. Now, she’s working on getting out of that mindset and adding playful pieces to her wardrobe that express who she is as a person. “People are just going to have to accept the real me,” she said.

A lot of career advice columnists will tell you that “clothes make the person” or that “you should project a professional image at all times,” meaning that you have to walk around in pointy shoes or people won’t respect you. I tend to disagree. “Professional” doesn’t have to mean dressing up to look 20 years older than you really are. “Professional” doesn’t have to mean that you trade in your authenticity because you’re afraid people will think you’re “too young.” Case in point: I had lunch with one of my organization’s corporate funders yesterday at a trendy little Asian restaurant in DC. I did not wear my pointy shoes, but instead I was decked out in a chunky sweater from Tarjay with the collar turned up. I was feeling good, feeling great. We only spent about 10 minutes in the whole hour actually talking about fundraising and my organization’s programs. The rest of the time I spoke to her like I would any of my other colleagues – we talked about our respective career paths, our families, and personal backgrounds. We even talked about what we did over the weekend. I get the sense that the reason she likes meeting with me is my energy, authenticity, and passion for our cause. She also feels like she can trust us with their money because she knows me, who I am, and what I stand for. Sometimes I think older people actually feed off of that. They are proud of us for forging our own way in the sector. And while I know Generation Y can learn a lot from Baby Boomers, I do think that there are a lot of downsides to just blindly emulating what our older colleagues look like, sound like, lead like. Yet somehow it’s easy for us to forget that just being our bright, young, brilliant selves is an asset, not a liability in the nonprofit sector. Irene Agustin expresses this nicely in her recent blog post (my bold emphasis):

I know what it means to be the baby of the group. A few months ago I asked my supervisor why she hired me. I started with Crisis Nursery as their grant writer (after 10 months I was promoted to their Communications and Marketing Manager). I found out that the other candidate they were looking to hire had more grant writing experience than I did. I asked my supervisor, “why did you choose me?”
She told me that it really came down to my young, fresh perspective on nonprofit work. The other candidate was the same age as the four individuals who made up our Senior Management at that time. They are all over the age of 50 and preparing to retire. She honestly said that she didn’t want to hire someone just like them. She added, “little did I know what I was in for.”
I love the fact that I’m the youngest member in management at Crisis Nursery. I am also in a position to try new strategies and initiatives. Some of the ideas I propose require that our organization thing outside of the box and step out of their comfort zone. While it can a struggle to push my ideas through and at times they are flat out rejected, I think that our Senior Management and Board of Directors appreciates this new approach to looking at how Crisis Nursery operates.

What Irene, my funder and my friend remind us is that the best way to lead is to be yourself. And that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do it in a suit.

Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, D.C. area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

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America, Reimagined

PopTech, the vaunted thoughtfest that annually gathers some of the world’s leading social innovators in the coastal hamlet of Camden, Maine, just wrapped up its 2009 conference after mulling an uncharacteristically, un-global theme: America and the challenges it faces domestically in the early years of this new century.

Called America Reimagined, the conference featured more than 50 artists, writers, musicians, technologists, and social entrepreneurs—all of whom are creating or leading bold new civic, economic, technological and cultural initiatives in the United States. The sessions were designed to explore how major forces are reshaping the idea of America, its government’s contract with its citizens, its brand, and its role in the world. “The thing about the kinds of moments we are living in right now is that they are often filled with conflicting and confusing signals,” conference curator Andrew Zolli said in opening remarks.” Is it possible for us as a country, economically and technologically, politically and culturally, to reinvent ourselves?”

Radio host Kurt Andersen, the author of Reset, a book about America’s uncertain future, was the first to consider the question, describing the last 25 years of American life as years in which Americans have been “guilty of magical thinking.”

We took Peter Pan too seriously; we took Bob Dylan’s lyrics too seriously.  We committed to never growing up and we didn’t. I mean, when did adults start celebrating Halloween? When did people over 12 begin eating ice cream with mashed up cookie dough in it? When did adults start wearing blue jeans and sneakers all the time and watching cartoons? Most decades end after a decade, but the 1980s—until last year’s financial meltdown—just kept going, and kept going, and kept going.

The point: America has always moved back and forth between economic booms and busts and between the right and left politically. But this moment in time is different, Andersen says. “It’s a time when all of these cycles are shifting dramatically and simultaneously; when complacency is forced to end; when outdated structures are being inevitably and necessarily challenged, and when change is rapid and difficult to predict.”

But Andersen, like many of PopTech’s other speakers, was optimistic. Andersen said the current economic crisis “is actually a great opportunity for reinvention and for getting ourselves as individuals and as a nation back on track.” If reinvention is to occur, however, it will be catalyzed not by today’s present leaders as much as by the amateurs in society, young people and “new-thinking baby boomers” in the grassroots—people unafraid to take risks, think creatively, and see the world through the lens of possibility.

“This isn’t the end of the world,” Andersen said. “But the ‘80s are over. I’d like to think we’re just waking up.”

Among other highlights so far:

• Alec Ross, a senior social media/technology adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, told conferees about the ion’s 21st Century Statecraft initiative, uses social media to help nations and leaders empower their citizens and each other. “If you think of the last eight years of American foreign policy, it was about overpowering others in the world,” Ross said. “[We want] to go beyond engaging government-to-government and to connect with people more directly.  If Paul Revere were alive today, he wouldn’t make a ride; he would have just tweeted and the lantern hangers would’ve retweeted.” Ross said he is launching a new social media initiative with Mexican drug-trafficking authorities that aims to engage citizens in their war on drugs.  He described that one of the biggest problems in this conflict is that people fear retaliation if they help out law enforcement.  “So I went [to Mexico]…and we met with NGOs and with Carlos Slim and we came up with a little system where people are able to email or text gang activity.” The system anonymizes their emails to prevent retaliation, and the government can use these tips to respond more quickly, and keep people informed about what’s happening in their anti-drug efforts. “This is just Chapter One of how we can use technology in statecraft.”
• James Fowler, the author of the recent book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, told conferees that humans—like birds and schools of fish—also tend to act in communities of purpose and suggested that online social networks will amplify these natural social tendencies. Humans have always lived in “webs of humanity,” Fowler said, and within these Webs, such physical traits as obesity and behaviors such as smoking tend to spread like viruses. In other words, there is a kind of swarm mentality in social networks, and those people closest to us can affect our behaviors more than we might like to admit. But there is an upside.  When individuals engage in positive behavior, this also can have a ripple effect on the actions of those of their social networks.  “I recently lost five pounds,” Fowler said, “to influence those I loves to do the same. Just think about it, by changing your own behavior, you truly can change the behavior of others.” Social media can help humans influence their communities and have a large positive impact on the world.
• Erica Williams, a 20-something Washington, D.C.-based activist working to help broaden the civic engagement of her peers, urged the older PopTech crowd to put away their stereotypes of her generation. “Call us what you will, the MTV generation, Millennials, the ‘us’ generation,” she said, “but we are not bored or disinterested; our world view is different.” At some 300 million strong, she added, today’s 18-27 year olds “have the opportunity to re-brand civic engagement” and reinvent politics. “My generation doesn’t like traditional politics,” she told conferees. “We are the most ethnically diverse generation that America has ever had. We are post-racial. We came up at a time with 9-11, fighting two wars and a gap between the haves and have-nots that we haven’t seen since the Gilded Age—and a “me” generation that was many of our parents. So we distrust ‘politics as usual.’ It hasn’t worked.”  In the absence of top-down reform, Williams said her generation will always work beyond traditional avenues to get things done, bypassing candidates who don’t deliver, and mobilizing young people directly. “We are re-branding what it means to be politically engaged,” she said.
• Malaysian singer/songwriter Zee Avi, discovered on Twitter, performed several songs she wrote, her fresh lyrics and full-sounding acoustic guitar underscoring the influence that American popular culture has had on the rest of the world. At one point during her performance, PopTech attendee and Personal Democracy Forum cofounder Micah Sifry, tweeted favorably: “Zee Avi, Malaysian singer, sounds like she’s from Northampton, Mass. Is world getting too small?”

Marcia Stepanek is Founding Editor-in-Chief and President, News and Information, for Contribute Media, a New York-based magazine, Web site, and conference series about the new people and ideas of giving. She is the publisher of Cause Global, an acclaimed new blog about the use of digital media for social change. She also serves as moderator and producer of New Conversations for Change, Contribute’s forum series highlighting social entrepreneurs and new trends in philanthropy.

Posted by Jason Chua

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Does Generation Y Discriminate Against Baby Boomers? Or Is It the Other Way Around?

I was at a nonprofit event yesterday where I spoke to Amy, one of my dear blog readers, who is an older (Baby Boomer?) nonprofit leader. She said that she loves my work and advocacy for next generation leadership, but she feels I promote ageism on my blog with my focus on the younger generation.
Do I?
I posed this question to my Twitter fam last night. These are some of the responses I received.

• @rosettathurman Considering the fact that many #nonprofits leave their miniony jobs to Gen Y I would say that the system is ageist
• @rosettathurman Boomers have to get used to a new voice & platforms just for us
• @rosettathurman it’s important to be respectful, but more important to push the envelope. You can do both. You do.
• @rosettathurman I, with u. The greatest creativity will come from the Gen Xrs & Gen Yrs who are being denied jobs by the current #leadership
• @rosettathurman I don’t think your focus on Gen Y promotes ageism. It’s important for bloggers to write from their own experience.
• @rosettathurman Agreement or compromise b/w generations not the aim, understanding & progress 2 the nonprofit’s goals are.

The gist of most of the responses I received was that it’s OK to focus on a particular age bracket on my blog, which may be a little ageist to some people. But ageism is age discrimination.  And I don’t think I discriminate against Baby Boomer leaders on my blog simply because I try to empower younger people to lead. But I do think there was an underlying issue in Amy’s feedback to me: both generations still have not figured out how to talk about what we need from each other to be the best leaders we can be.
Amy was railing against the idea that all Baby Boomer nonprofit leaders don’t want/embrace change and are not supportive of Gen Y leadership. I don’t aim to make broad generalities when I speak of current nonprofit leaders. But I do believe we find truth in sharing our real experiences. I have to admit that the many young leaders who have shared their stories here over the past two 1/2 years point out situations where older leaders have not been supportive of them and many times have “blocked” them from leading. I’m not saying all Baby Boomers do that, but it is a common enough experience for many Gen Y leaders in the nonprofit sector that we can say it should be addressed.
It may be that we discriminate against each other. Many Baby Boomer leaders look at Gen Y like we’re their kids, while many a Gen Y person may scoff at the fact that their boss doesn’t know how to turn on the copy machine. Many other issues compound the complexity of intergenerational relationships and make it difficult to share leadership, including:

The rise of the use of technology for nonprofit efficiency: Gen Y is overwhelmingly more comfortable and proficient as a generation, but that does not mean Baby Boomers aren’t or can’t be. What bothers many young leaders is that their youth is only valued when technology comes up and their CEO wants to know how to use Twitter. For everything else, they are relegated to supportive roles.

Transfer of nonprofit knowledge: Many Gen Y workers feel that they could lead better if only they had an older mentor who would show them the ropes and teach them what they learned along the way. The problem is that few young people are finding those opportunities. May be the fault of the older leader for not reaching out or the fault of the younger leader for not asking for help directly.

Increased competition for nonprofit jobs: Older leaders are now competing with recent grads who are their kids’ age for good nonprofit jobs. Due to the economy, many older workers are not leaving the workforce as expected at a certain age. So now Gen Y is now being put in the position of supervising employees who are their elders. This is causing resentment on both sides. But the recession is hurting young nonprofit leaders, too.

Distribution of power: Even though Gen Y has more education than previous generations as well as ease of using technology, it does not equal to leadership positions. We are still not looked at for top management jobs because we’re “too young” and “inexperienced.” So while Gen Y can “discriminate” against Baby Boomers all we want, it does not translate into younger people taking over nonprofit organizations, no matter how you slice it.

While I do focus on next generation leaders on my blog, I am not at all saying that older leaders should not be equally valued. The problem for me is that for far too long, leadership has been defined in terms of age (over 40), title (CEO) & years of experience (a ton). My blog defies that by saying “Yes, young people can lead, here’s how we can do it and here’s how we can keep doing it better.” What some of my Twitter followers pointed out is that Baby Boomers have been the leadership focus for a long time and it’s now Gen Y’s turn to receive support.
And if supporting my generation is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, D.C. area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

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Twitter Diplomacy

Ever since young activists around the world started using Twitter and Facebook last year to organize massively successful pro-democracy protests against their governments—unemployed engineer Oscar Morales’ 30-day Facebook campaign that turned out 14 million against FARC in Colombia was the first such mass-scale effort—the U.S. State Department has been sitting up, taking notice, and reaching out to join the party.

In the days after last fall’s presidential election, President Obama’s social media team began organizing a nonprofit coalition of these cause-wired, global youth activists, inviting the most powerful to Columbia University last December for a conference cosponsored by Facebook, Google, MTV, and Howcast Media. The conference ended with the birth of the nonprofit Alliance for Youth Movements, and last March, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced plans for a second AYM conference, which was held a few weeks ago in Mexico City and focused on sustaining and strengthening the youth coalition as a focal point for the State Department’s new 21st Century Statecraft initiative. The agency¹s goal is twofold: engage with existing youth leaders using social media to wield “citizen power” in conflict zones around the world, and help nurture new online pro-democracy groups where none currently exist. In effect, it’s the State Department’s effort to create its own nonprofit youth presence as a way of extending its work worldwide.

“You come from different cultures and countries and speak different languages,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a welcome video to the young activists attending the Mexico City event October 14-16, “but you all share a common commitment to engaging with the world, to using every tool at your disposal to bring people together to solve problems. And that makes you the kind of leaders we need as we work to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of the 21st century.”  Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, who also attended the event, told conferees that he’s not working for the government but believes in helping citizen activists to use the social media technology he conceived in new ways.

AYM coordinator and State Department policy planning staff member Jared Cohen says the AYM initiative—aided last month by business cosponsors including Google, PepsiCo, Causecast.org, Facebook, MySpace, Univision Interactive Media, WordPress.com, YouTube, and others— is just getting started. “When we launched AYM last December,” Cohen said, “it was during the transition between the Obama and Bush presidencies. Now you have AYM continuing on with a President who was elected largely because of technology and a Secretary of State who appreciates the potential of technology to organize. AYM has become an illustrative example of 21st century statecraft, with the U.S. government acting as a convener, a facilitator, and a conceptual partner. We believe that AYM captures what civil society looks like in the 21st century. It’s no longer people sitting in office buildings working a bureaucracy. It’s people who emerge as leaders from the bottom up because they have access to these technologies and a government that wants to help them to be successful.”

Among the more than 40 youth leaders attending AYM 2009 were:

• Natalia Morari, 25, who used Twitter, email and text messages to help organize some 15,000 Moldovans to rally in the streets after the Communist Party in that country rigged a victory in Moldova’s April 6, 2009 national election. “When the results were announced the day after the election, with the Communist Party as the winners, so many of my friends said they wanted to leave Modolva; the country was in mourning,” she told AYM conferees. “A few of us met up at a café to talk about what we might be able to do and we decided to do a flash mob that night [in Chisinau, Moldova’s capital city].” Morari’s team used SMS to send the following message to their friends and family members, which got passed on: “If you believe your vote was stolen, if you did not vote for the Communists, come to the center of the city.” The protest succeeded over the course of the next few days and the protesters eventually succeeded in upsetting the Communist Party’s majority in parliament. Morari now leads ThinkMoldova, a platform to help young people in that country to have a voice in Moldova’s future.
• Veronica Nur Valdez and Felice Gorondo, ages 25 and 26, respectively, who are promoting the use of the Mobile Internet among Cuban youth. The two are cofounders of Raices de Esperanza [Roots of Hope], a U.S-based organization that works to empower Cuban young people, to organize for social change using social media. One initiative is called Cell Phones for Cuba, which collects used cellphones from the U.S. and donates them to Cuba. The group also is teaching youth how to evade Cuba’s Internet firewall and circumvent censorship. It also is supporting efforts by youth empowerment activists to write blogs that will reach people outside the country. “Technology has, without a doubt, helped us to reach a much broader span of people,” Gorondo says. “When we started, we were simply making phone calls to people that we knew, and relying on them to spread the word. Now, through social networks, we can spread the word through many different outlets.”
• Shubham Kanodia, a 14-year-old student in Mumbai, who launched and manages a Facebook group of more than 25,000 people to commemorate those who died in last November’s Mumbai terrorist attacks. The teenager launched his Facebook group on the day after the first attacks began, upon seeing that most of his Facebook friends were safe but were openly condemning the violence. He created his group to help the victims and the group continues as a rallying point for anti-violence initiatives in Mumbai.
• Janessa Goldbeck, director of membership at the nonprofit Genocide Intervention Network, who is using social networking to build the group’s student membership. Its GI-NET initiative, a social network launched last year, has been used to expand the organization’s reach to more than 40,000 people, including 1,000 chapters at high schools, colleges, and universities across the United States and in 25 other countries. The group began during protests against genocide in Darfur but has since expanded to create a student network that “seeks to unite students around the world in a permanent, anti-genocide constituency,” Goldbeck says.
• Deborah Loh, a Malaysian journalist who last year founded The Nut Graph, a news and analysis Web site that is playing a critical role in her country’s pro-democracy movement by covering pro-democracy demonstrations outside the government’s official purview. The site gave coverage to leaders of Malaysia’s grassroots Democratic Action Party, who on May 7 of this year used Twitter, SMS, and email to organize a national campaign and sit-in to protest the removal of pro-democracy members from the regional government assembly of Perak, Malaysia’s second-largest state. The Twitter campaign led to arrests of people who attended rallies in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, but the protesters were later released. The sitting government remains in power but commentators say its credibility has been compromised, in part due to media coverage.
• Elias Kuri, a cofounder of Iluminemos Mexico, who organized an anti-violence march on August 30 of last year that was joined by 2 million people in 88 cities across Mexico and in six other countries. Kuri said he organized the march at a time when many Mexicans were horrified by what was then the recent kidnapping and murder of 14-year-old Fernando Martí, the son of a businessman. “Does a march work to make change?” Kuri asked his fellow panelists. “We think yes because when people are angry they want to do something…The important thing was that we didn’t use traditional media to protest. We used the Internet, Facebook, emails, and people just went to the march. The authorities were sure we were going to fail. They didn’t believe the Internet could have so much power.”

The AYM conference, timed to roughly coincide to 20th anniversary celebrations globally of the fall of the Berlin Wall, triggered speculation in Mexico City and the blogosphere over how much difference the Cold War might have been were social media in use back then. At the conference, New York Times Mexico City reporter Elizabeth Malkin asked Moldovan Twitter activist Natalia Morari whether she thought Twitter would have helped to empower anti-Communist protesters — or, perhaps, been used instead by Communist dictators as an added tool of oppression. Modovan activist Morari responded: “It probably wouldn’t have taken everyone so long to fight back.” She cited The Berlin Twitter Wall, the city of Berlin’s new Web site that asks people around the world to digitally commemorate the fall of the Wall.  Since posting the site, hundreds of people have posted Tweets – hashtag #fotw—about pro-democracy and anti-democracy actions around the world. [Chinese authorities blocked the Web site just days after its launch October 20, but not before some 2,000 Chinese had used the digital wall to protest China’s censorship of free speech].

The Obama Administration’s statecraft initiative also has been introduced at other high-profile forums in recent weeks. Clinton’s Social Media Advisor, Alex Ross, told the recent PopTech conference on social innovation that he is launching a new social media initiative with Mexico-based NGOs and Mexican drug-trafficking authorities that aims to engage citizens in their war on drugs. “If you think of the last eight years of American foreign policy, it was about overpowering others in the world,” Ross told PopTech conferees. “[We want] to go beyond engaging government-to-government and to connect with people more directly.”
Ross then added: “…If Paul Revere were alive today, he wouldn’t make a ride; he would have just Tweeted and the lantern-hangers would’ve re-Tweeted.”

Marcia Stepanek is Founding Editor-in-Chief and President, News and Information, for Contribute Media, a New York-based magazine, Web site, and conference series about the new people and ideas of giving. She is the publisher of Cause Global, an acclaimed new blog about the use of digital media for social change. She also serves as moderator and producer of New Conversations for Change, Contribute’s forum series highlighting social entrepreneurs and new trends in philanthropy.

Posted by Jason Chua

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TED Prizewinner and Chef Jamie Oliver: Food Revolutionary?

It’s TED Week, when the granddaddy of social change fests meets again in California to air the latest, best and brightest ideas to help the world. This year, organizers formally awarded a young British social entrepreneur — a chef —  their prestigious TED Prize, an honor conferred annually to someone with a dream and the organizational chops to change the world, at least a bit of it.

Meeting in Long Beach, conferees gave the $100,000 prize to Jamie Oliver, a 34-year-old British chef, who told TED-goers Wednesday he will use the money to start a movement [and a social change organization] devoted to fighting childhood obesity. It’s a problem, he says, that will — for the first time in history —  give today’s children a shorter lifes-pans than their parents.

Oliver, the son of pub owners in Calvering, Essex, England, and a high school dropout who parlayed his entrepreneurial skills into a best-selling cookbook and TV show in Britain, said last night that he wished “for a complete overhaul” of the American food system, saying processed food and industrialized agriculture are giving Americans poor choices of what to eat, decreasing life spans and causing health care costs to surge out of control. “This is a global catastrophe,” he said. “It is sweeping the world —  China, India, everywhere. And in America, obesity costs Americans $150 billion per year. In 10 years, it’s set to double, and let’s be honest, guys. You can’t afford it.”

In a highly-engaging, hit speech that has been the buzz of the conference this year, Oliver said obesity doesn’t just hurt the people who are overweight, but the families and social communities around them. And the food industry, he says —  from restaurants to agribusiness —  “needs to be stopped.” Portion sizes are massive, he says, and food labeling “is a disgrace,” he said. “The industry wants to self-police themselves but how can somebody say it’s low fat when it’s filled with sugar?”

“My wish is to have a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, to inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity,” Oliver told conferees in this speech. “…England is right behind you, America. We need a revolution.”

Oliver, named to the prize weeks ago but giving his first official speeches an interviews as a prizewinner this week, says he will use his winnings to:

• Establish a good-nutrition foundation with funding, office space and facilities;
• Find partners to create a traveling food theater troupe to teach kids about better eating;
• Sign up education experts, graphic designers and writers to help him produce teaching materials that kids will use to help them eat healthier;
• Hire Web designers to create a Web site and social media campaigns to build an international movement to fight global food giants for healthier food;
• Invite corporate partners to invest in food preparation education for their customers and to help champion his movement, and
• Start an “honest food labeling” program

Oliver, who begins a program for ABC television in March called Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, first caught the eye of TED conference organizers with his “Feed Me Better” campaign in the U.K. in 2005 to improve school lunches, during which he presented a petition with more than 270,000 signatures to the prime minister’s residence calling for healthier diets for children and young adults. As a result, the British government also pledged to address the issue.

Oliver’s new TV show will follow Oliver as he visits Huntington, W. Va, as of December deemed the “unhealthiest town” in America for its high rate of food-related illnesses and deaths per capita. The show, created in reality-show style, will set out to chronicle Oliver’s efforts to educate the local population and create a movement to turn things around.

What do you think. Can one social entrepreneur build a social movement big enough to change the way a nation, much less a global population, eats? 
Let us hear from you.

Marcia Stepanek is Founding Editor-in-Chief and President, News and Information, for Contribute Media, a New York-based magazine, Web site, and conference series about the new people and ideas of giving. She is the publisher of Cause Global, an acclaimed new blog about the use of digital media for social change. She also serves as moderator and producer of New Conversations for Change, Contribute’s forum series highlighting social entrepreneurs and new trends in philanthropy.

Posted by Samantha Penabad

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The Normative Problem with the Term ‘Next Generation’ Leaders

Earlier this year, I profiled four “now generation” leaders to watch because they are, and will be, doing amazing things for social change in the next year.  But the main reason I wanted to coin the term ‘now generation’ is because I think the ‘next generation’ moniker gives young people (and everyone else) the sense that we have to wait for some undetermined time before we can lead. We have to wait until someone hands us the baton. We have to sit on the sidelines until someone passes us the ball. And until then, we’ve got to sit quietly with the other kids and try to catch the crumbs of wisdom and power that fall from the big kid’s table. We’ve got to wait until we get “next.”

If that’s what we mean by ‘next generation’ leaders, I sure don’t want to be one. To be clear, I don’t see anything wrong with the term in and of itself, but rather how it may be being used to reinforce the current distribution of power in the nonprofit sector.

The Normative Problem

In some ways, I see the term ‘next generation’ being used to further the normative problem we have in nonprofits. Harvard professor and scholar Ron Heifetz talks about how “normative issues” in leadership can make it difficult for new leaders to emerge. Basically, the term ‘normative’ means relating to an ideal model or standard for something, i.e. the “norm.” Heifetz says that we have a normative problem when a community believes collectively that leaders have certain characteristics like age, experience, pedigree, etc. And when a community believes that leaders come packaged in a particular way, they are more likely to wait for those types of leaders to come, instead of allowing different kinds of leaders to emerge. By saying ‘next generation’ leaders, I think we may be implying that young people are up “next” when we reach a certain age or level of experience, which is, in effect “the norm” for current leadership.

‘Next Generation’ Leaders are Not That Young

Most characterizations of the ‘next generation’ assume that these leaders are much younger than current leaders. Hence, the waiting “until we get old enough” connotation. But the reality is that young nonprofit leaders who are typically referenced as the ‘next generation’ are not as young as people think. We’re not all college kids anymore. This year, the oldest of Generation Y will be 30 years old. We’re no longer the “baby” in the workplace, we’re managers and directors and CEOs of great organizations. In short, the young professionals I’ve been talking about on this blog for three years have quickly become the ‘now generation.’ But I’m not sure the term ‘next generation’ takes that into account.

Who Decides When ‘Next Generation’ Leaders Become ‘Now Generation’ Leaders?

Having a cadre of bright young leaders in the nonprofit sector is great, but typecasting us as the ‘next generation’can also indicate that we need someone from up on high to deem us “ready” to lead when our time comes. Using the term can make it seem as if young people will lead after all the Baby Boomers are gone, however we all know that’s not gonna happen anytime soon. Baby Boomers are staying in their jobs longer as a result of the economic downturn, and many are taking on “encore careers” as nonprofit leaders. So it’s up to us, the young nonprofit leaders, to redefine who gets to say when we’re ready to lead. It can’t be our bosses, our mentors, or some older and wiser colleague. It is we who must decide for ourselves whether and when we will lead. I’ve heard too many stories of young people who come into the nonprofit sector, do their jobs well, and wait to be promoted or included or at the very least, heard. What I’ve realized in hearing these stories is that if young people wait for approval from their organizations to lead, if we wait for someone to deem us worthy of leadership opportunities, it will never happen. We have to make our own opportunities. Malcolm X once said (my brackets), “Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man [or woman], you take it.” I want to see us take it.

So the new question I think we need to ask ourselves is not what we will do as ‘next generation’ nonprofit leaders, but what we are already doing to lead right now today. How do you answer that question for yourself? Do you consider yourself to be a ‘next generation’ leader?

Rosetta Thurman is a writer, speaker, professor and consultant working and living in the Washington, D.C. area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofits, leadership and social change at rosettathurman.com

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Subtle Nudges for Greater Good

Many psychologists, writers and other students of human nature have reached the same conclusion: people are usually too distracted, tired, scared, or just plain lazy to act on their best intentions. But few of these observers suggest how us humans might overcome our less noble tendencies.

Scientists at a recent Stanford Center for Social Innovation conference, however, presented a bevy of tactics for transforming even the most bumbling schlemiel into a model citizen. Called “Small Steps, Big Leaps: The Science of Getting People to do the Right Thing,” the event showcased how to use gentle nudges, subtle tweaks, and quiet prompts to summon better behavior. 

One of the most overlooked strategies for getting people to be generous, for instance, is actually to ask them, related Frank Flynn of Stanford Graduate School of Business. Flynn discussed his experiments showing that one barrier to “the ask” is that people grossly underestimate how often their requests for help will be honored. And if at first you do not succeed, then ask, ask again, he recommended, presenting findings that people who say “no” to an initial ask are more likely to say “yes” to a subsequent one.

You need not even tell people how much to give, noted Leif Nelson of the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. His findings show that people sometimes donate more when they get to set the amount.

And you need not feel guilty about asking people to help, because you may actually be doing them a favor, suggested Mike Norton of Harvard Business School. His studies reveal that giving people the chance to help others can improve everything from their mood to their dodge-ball game.

Even better than asking people to take the high road is making the high road the easiest one to take, argued Eric Johnson of the Columbia School of Business. When policies and practices turn good behavior into the default option, people tend to act more ethically—or, as Johnson put it, “There’s something very special about doing nothing.” For example, in countries where people have to take the trouble to opt out of organ donation—a post-death benevolence that many societies value—vastly more people donate their organs than do in countries like the United States, where people have to go out of their way to opt in to organ donation. Likewise, people save more money when their employers automatically enroll them in retirement savings programs and use less energy when florescent bulbs are the only light in town. (For more about defaults, see “Helping the Poor Save More” in the winter 2010 Stanford Social Innovation Review.)

If you must trouble yourself with framing a message, several researchers revealed how simple shifts in wording can spell the difference between vice and virtue. Just mentioning money can throw people off their altruism game, showed Kathleen Vohs of the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. Her experiments demonstrate that even minor references to cash make people stingier and less sensitive to suffering—even their own. For fundraisers whose job is to ask people for money, Vohs’ findings could inspire dismay. But she has an antidote: First ask people to donate their time, and then ask them to donate their money.

Noah Goldstein of UCLA’s Anderson School of Management similarly showed the power of getting words right. Public service announcements and other social good campaigns often communicate that everybody pollutes, steals, carouses, or otherwise behaves badly—but you shouldn’t. (“Only YOU can prevent forest fires!” exhorts Smokey Bear.) Yet humans are herd animals; and so despite our claims to uniqueness and independence, we tend to follow the crowd. As a result, campaigns that imply that the crowd is up to no good often backfire: A sign in Arizona’s Petrified Forest reporting that visitors purloin some 14 tons of wood per year, for example, doesn’t deter such theft—it encourages theft.

A better way, said Goldstein, is to convey that most people are doing the right thing—and you should, too. Accordingly, a sign saying that most guests conserved water by reusing their towels (rather than having them laundered) inspires far more towel reuse than does a sign lamenting how many guests waste water. 

Pictures and stories that put a human face on an issue can also steer people towards right action, related Adam Grant of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Radiologists read X-rays more accurately when they see a picture of the bones’ owners, Grant showed, and lifeguards work harder after hearing stories about heroic water rescues.

Putting people in the driver’s seat of their own narratives also works wonders, reported Steve Cole of HopeLab, a Redwood City, Calif.-based company that makes health-promoting products for children with chronic diseases. In HopeLab’s first-person shooter video game, Re-Mission, for example, kids recovering from cancer travel through the human body and, with the help of medicines, blast would-be cancer cells out of their paths. The game is clinically proven to help kids take their post-chemotherapy maintenance drugs—a crucial, yet difficult step in their recovery.

Nonprofits too must control their own narratives, warned Jennifer Aaker of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She presented data showing that nonprofits suffer from the stereotype of being warm and caring, but not very competent. To boost donations and public confidence, nonprofits need to advertise their business acumen.

But perhaps they should do so softly, for the resounding message throughout the conference was this: You need not scream and push when a
whisper and a nudge will do. That’s advice that even the most distracted, tired, scared and even lazy social innovator can get behind.

Alana Conner, PhD is the senior editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. A social science writer, editor, and consultant whose specialty is cultural psychology, Alana received her doctorate in social psychology from Stanford University and her postdoctoral certificate in psychology and medicine from the University of California, San Francisco. In addition to her blog, Alana has written for a number of venues including The New York Times Magazine and Static.

Posted by Samantha Penabad

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