Tag Archives: howard dean

Midterm Election Agita

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Ok. I’m sitting here having forced myself to watch the midterm election coverage. (and yes, I voted this morning and volunteered for GOTV in 2008). I wanted to watch Andrew Romanoff cover Colorado, not only because I think he’s brilliant and talented and inspiring, but also because he has recently joined IDE to spread awareness in Colorado and beyond for IDE and our market-based approach to ending poverty in the lives of rural poor families in the developing world. He believes our work is incredibly important and wants to put himself and everything he has behind us. I’m sad that he lost his bid for a US Senate Seat, but the 1 Billion people who live on less than $1 / day won when he decided to focus on giving them a chance.

Now, if you met me only 2 years ago, you’d think of me as obsessed with politics and activism and ranting about all of the things that are wrong with the world.  If you met me 7 years ago, you’d have seen me tirelessly working on Howard Dean‘s campaign for President in New York State.  In either case, you’re probably surprised to see that I had to force myself to watch election coverage this evening.

So, why the change? Simple: Optimism.

I choose to live my life surrounded by people working together to solve global problems.

It doesn’t matter if you are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green Party, or any other affiliation out there.  If you are part of a family, or have a family, you can probably connect with this sentiment:

You want to be able to make your own choices and solve your own problems. You want the opportunity to lift yourself up if you are struggling, to educate yourself and your children, and to live in a safe home. You want to be able to purchase life-saving medicines. You want to eat three meals a day.

You want someone, somewhere, to see your potential. That you are worthy of an investment and you are not a recipient of charity.

In my experience since I’ve been in the field of social enterprise, I’ve not met ONE person who doesn’t nod when they hear this. Who doesn’t connect with that need and that burning desire.

Folks, THIS is the place where we can all start from, to begin creating massive global change.  I invite you to post your comments, ideas, thoughts and passions. We have a lot of work to do to unleash human potential together.

And THIS place is where we can meet, beyond all ideas of right vs. left, and as Rumi said “meet beyond all ideas of right and wrong.”

How the recession is HELPING people..

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Hello and welcome to my blog on optimism.. I”ll be posting good news and interesting tidbits I find from around the world. One of my favorite magazines is Ode Magazine, and I check their website a few times a week to see what wonderful news I can find.

Today I logged on and saw a story by an acquaintance of mine, Charles Best, who started DonorsChoose.org.  I met him  back in 2004 when he had just started this wonderful organization. I was working at Acumen Fund at the time, and he was seeking advice based on my experience on the Howard Dean for president campaign. As most people know, the Dean For America campaign really democratized political fundraising.

He felt his organization was democratizing charitable giving, and he wanted to build a similar community around his organization. We sat down and got into it. He was young at the time, around 26 or so, and very earnest, honest, passionate and driven. He struck me as the future of social entrepreneurship mixed with a really smart way to fund projects.  Donorschoose allows teachers around the country to post school projects which need funding, and then as a donor you can choose exactly which projects you want to fund. You can see the progress of the project as well and see pictures of the class you are helping. It’s awesome!

So, without further ado I will repost a bit of his article and link to it for your Optimistic reading pleasure!

The goodness of crowds

When large numbers of people give a little, they accomplish a lot. By Charles Best

The global economic recession is an opportunity to fuel social change. While financial instinct says philanthropy will suffer in times of economic distress, there’s evidence that the challenges we face are no match for collective action. I don’t think the road ahead is smooth. But we can’t underestimate the power of “ordinary” individuals in this age of connectedness.

Picture a nest of honeybees, where each insect makes a small but vital contribution. The result is greater than the sum of its parts. A large colony will produce far more honey than two colonies half the size of the larger one. As the colony grows, its efficiency increases.

People can achieve similar triumphs. One of the most promising models is “crowdsourcing,” through which an organization generates content, or gets work performed, by tapping the knowledge and creativity of members of the public. As with a nest of honeybees, each participant contributes a small piece of a greater whole. Zagat’s database of amateur restaurant reviews and YouTube’s user-submitted videos are examples. The more contributors, the better the results.

To continue reading, click here!