1. Goodwill Foundation is a value-recovery organization, of discarded products and people. They are the largest employer in Bayview / Hunter’s Point.
   
   
2. “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” - Henry Ford, from Jen Medbury during Kickboard’s pitch


   
   
3. If you pitch, and a judge on the panel asks a question about something that was not covered in your talk, don’t say “oh that question comes up all the time” because you will sound like you weren’t prepared or are being slick. Integrate their feedback into your presentation. Or say, “oh that is a really good question.” And answer it.
   
   
4. Start w/ customer needs. (via Curtis @ Innosight, lessons from Clay Christensen for #4-7). Prototype by “jobs to be done.” Customers hire products/services to fulfill jobs. No one buys a drill for it’s own sake… you buy drill to make 1/4 cm hole. Jobs include social, emotional, and functional. Using example of iPhone, stay connected to wife and kids, feel cool, and make calls. Who are your stakeholders?
   
   
5. Next comes integrated business model. (ibid) What is customer value proposition? (tech platform) How can we capture value proposition? (earned income, crowd-funded) What resources are needed to capture value proposition? (brand, people)
   
   
6. Piloting and Testing follows. (ibid) What assumptions are embedded in this? (parents will love this app & pay for it). Prioritize assumptions according to risk. Design experiments to test assumptions cheaply and quickly. Fail fast & often.
   
   
7. Scaling model (ibid).
   
   
8. Each high school needs an active Center for Alumni Relations and Professional Networks. Especially under-served, low-income schools.
   
   
9. Let your users drive the design process.
   
   
10. Kalimah Priforce and Jason Young are education entrepreneurs I admire.
    
    
11. In the US, we have sick care, not health care. (Adam Dole, Mayo Clinic)
    
    
12. Alex Gilliam’s Public Workshop and Veronika Scott and her innovative design work on homelessness in Detroit rock.
    
    
13. If a college student has a tough time finding a job, imagine what it is like for a person who has been homeless for 20-years with a horrible record, addictions, and no support network? How do they get a job? (Scott)
    
    
14. Go from “I’m here to help you” to “I need your help” at homeless center with design. Eventually, if you are designing a product like a coat that will be used by someone sleeping on concrete in the cold, you better do the same. Offer drinks and food to your college-aged friends to join you in the experiment. (Scott)
    
    
15. Homeless people, like all people, want to provide for themselves, create something, not be reliant. Basic human motivations still apply. Build for an emotion (e.g., pride). (Scott)
    
    
16. In a break-out session on prototyping behaviors, one guy spilled water on the big white paper in the middle. Initial reaction was “uh oh.” But group jumped to action, took on roles, and solved problem. Our minor “disaster” brought people together quicker than anything else could have. Gilliam highlighted this well.
    
    
17. Put yourself out there.
    
    
18. Consider whether you should aim to achieve your goal slow or fast. Sometimes slow is better. If you walk into a bar in a Superman outfit with the goal of making friends, at first you will be laughed at. If you sit down, have a drink at the bar, and mind your own business, someone will eventually ask you about what you are doing. You will have the chance to change from “that crazy guy” to “that courageous guy” if you can establish a larger theme in common with the other patrons. In this case, the slow approach works.
    
    
19. Use Pathable 3-14 days before conferences to arrange meetings with people you want to meet. 0-2 days is last-minute. During the conference, everyone is too busy to check-it, and you are better off searching for the person or pinging them directly.
    
    
20. We must ask: what behaviors do we need to prototype to promote better networks?
    
    
21. Day 1 of SOCAP/conferences: feel like everyone knows everyone else (except you). Day 2: meet amazing people and feel like this is your community. Day 3: hone in on the people most directly tied to your work that you want to collaborate with after conference is over. Post-conference: be inspired… and work.

I lucked out with my current room. Mission Dolores. Great housemates. Spacious apartment. Beautiful room. Rooftop deck. Unbeatable price.

But before I found such a good deal, I scanned through hundreds of craigslist ads on rooms for rent. I probably sent about a hundred emails. In each email, I’d express my interest in the room, and tell a little about myself.

Most people didn’t respond (70%). Another 20% said the room had been filled, or they were looking for a female, or something of that sort. The last 10% followed-up, usually with a few questions and times for coming by.

I was in Mexico at the time on a Rotary scholarship, so it was particularly tough to find someone willing to go the extra mile to chat with me on the phone or via Skype. 

One of those people who did respond was Angel. She seemed pretty nice in her quick response, though it was clear she was “overwhelmed” by the many responses to her ad - most people reported at least 70 responses to their ads! - and was looking for a way to narrow down the applicant pool. She asked me about Rotary, and why I had mentioned it:

Can you tell me what exactly the fact of the Rotary scholarship should tell me?  That you’re really smart or conservative or what?  angel 

I think her question reflects a common perception of Rotary, unfortunately. I decided to respond with a few words on my own experience with Rotary. My response is below; I hope it offers readers an insight into the Rotary I know: one of the largest and most important service organizations in the world.

I’ve cut out some of the niceties and house-related comments on both ends, FYI.

Hi Angel,

The below picture is what many people probably think of when they think of Rotary:

As one of the oldest service organizations in the world, Rotary started in a more conservative era, even though it’s motto and work - “Service Above Self” and focus on eliminating polio, poverty, and empowering communities locally and globally - was well ahead of its time.

Today, after meeting hundreds of Rotarians from around the world throughout the US and Mexico, I can attest that Rotary is more like this:

There are 1.2 million members worldwide, with 33,000 clubs dispersed in large cities (Mexico City has at least 7) and small towns (Huajuapan has one).

The scholarship I received is the oldest scholarship offered by the Rotary Foundation. Each year, Rotary invests $16.2 million to send 700 scholars from around the world into other communities to learn languages and cultures, help out and learn from local service projects, and give presentations about their experiences and home communities as a goodwill exchange between countries.

With well-over 1 million Oaxacans in the US and the vast majority in California (statewide, 1 our of every 4 field laborers is from Oaxaca), I decided to serve in Mexico’s second poorest state to better understand the people and cultures of my own community. If you are unfamiliar with the vibrancy of Oaxacan cultures, food, people (70% indigenous), and natural resources, I’d encourage you to visit soon. I’d be happy to connect you to the wonderful Rotarians I know there.

My experiences with Rotary in Mexico include the following:

1. Teaching business classes to women artisans in a small pueblo;
2. Volunteering for a Rotary-backed organization that offers worms to pepinadores (people who make their living by scavenging through trash at waste sites) to compost organic waste materials into fertile soil that can be resold or used to grow plants.
3. Helping out with the first-ever international project festival in Oaxaca, which brought together 100 clubs from southern Mexico and connected them to resources in the US and internationally to help them continue their work with burn victims, children with cleft-lip palettes, clean water projects, clean wood-burning stove projects, women’s health and sexuality clinics, orphanages, and health and nutrition.

Previously, through my participation in Rotary-sponsored events since I was 14, I have gone to New Orleans for a week to gut houses and serve at a volunteer center after Hurricane Katrina, teaching kids the perils of drunk driving through Every 15 Minutes, and helped fund an education nonprofit. Neither my parents nor grandparents were Rotarians: in fact, the scholarship I received is only available for people who would be first-in-their-family to be Rotarian. The organization has done a lot of good in the world.

Regardless of the house situation, I’d invite you to join me at a SF club meeting soon.

Day 1 of Learning HTML

Intro, Get Started, Basics, Elements = done.

Go get ‘em, tiger. Thank you, W3 Schools!

<h1>Day 1 of Learning HTML</h1>
<p>Intro, Get Started, Basics, Elements = <strong> done.</strong></p>
<br />
<p><a href=”http://www.kevinfadler.com”> Go get ‘em, tiger.</a> Thank you, <a href=”http://www.w3schools.com”>W3 Schools! </a></p>

On Friday, I had a phone call with Andy Kaplan, CFO of DonorsChoose. We connected to discuss innovative business models to sustain web-focused social ventures like his organization and BetterGrads.

I was put in touch with DonorsChoose via a mutual connection. I greatly admire their leadership in the world of citizen philanthropy. Their numbers speak volumes: through their fundraising platform since 2000, they have empowered 539,807 supporters to make 1,171,755 contributions totaling $86,064,735 to fund 210,351 projects and help 5,115,194 students.

Andy and I connected to discuss innovative business models to sustain web-focused social ventures. I was fascinated to learn about the bootstrapped, do-what-it-takes-to-make-it-happen start to DC.

Andy relayed one story of how the DC team would send teachers disposable cameras to take pictures of their students and the funded projects. The teachers would mail the cameras back. Upon receipt, the DC team would walk across the street to the local camera store, develop the pictures, and upload them on their website. Everything is digital now, but I like to think that Andy still receives the occasional disposable camera, filled with smiling students and their funded projects. What a business it would be now to be that camera store across from DonorsChoose!

As a seasoned CFO, Andy offered many bits of wisdom. One simple piece of advice for nonprofits: what do you think a large company will be more likely to fund - $1M for programs with 20% overheads, or $200K for overheads only?