Kevin F. Adler
Empower communities from within.
The US News & World Report College Compass is free for those who register before 9/16 (provided by Google). This is a nice opportunity for high school students to gain access to a powerful tool.
BetterGrads’ co-founder Erhardt Graeff wrote a helpful blog post this morning offering a few tips on how to use the US News college guide effectively: http://bettergrads.org/blog/2011/09/13/u-s-news-releases-2012-college-rankings/.
Pictorial evidence that not everyone went to sleep during my presentation to the Rotary Club of Pleasanton North last Friday. I’ll upload the slides later.
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?
Two days of meetings with amazing people and groups began on Thursday morning in Oakland with Farhana Huq, Founder and President of C.E.O. Women and an Ashoka Fellow. We had planned to meet the week prior, but Farhana received some unexpected visitors via canoe. I understood.
My favorite aspect of C.E.O. Women is their focus on giving immigrants the tools and training they need to “further their own economic empowerment.” This focus requires empowering people, not cynically assuming their incapacity and offering “hand-outs.” This focus requires a fundamental belief in the potential of an under-served group to achieve greatness if connected to fundamental education and network resources (human capital and social capital). I could not agree more.
Four quick takeaways from my bagel and tea with Farhana:
- Partner with like-minded organizations in the early stages of growing a venture, especially when trying to establish a proof of concept.
- Entrepreneurs want to change the world. That’s great. But start by changing one community. Or better yet, try to make a meaningful difference in the life of one person or for one group. Then its time to learn, iterate, and build from there.
- Be acutely aware of the pros and cons of various funding options (VCs, angels, foundations, grants, small donations).
- Consult on the side if you can.
When working on a project, sometimes the essential elements of who you are and what you do can get lost amid the noise. Farhana summarized what we do that in as succinct and straightforward a manner as I have heard from anyone: bring the college alumni network model to high schools to engage disadvantaged youth.
Tim and I caught up via soup and salad at the Stable Cafe. A skilled organizer, Tim has built a number of amazing projects (like this and that and this, too), and is a nice guy to boot. We discussed AF, BetterGrads, and old boys clubs.
My key takeaway on Awesome Foundation was that the foundation-part is hardly that. AF is an idea, an inspiration, not a bureaucratic morass: 10 people give $100 each month to award $1000 to awesome projects and ideas in their locale.
Whereas large grant-making foundations have significant overhead that limits their ability to make such small grants, the AF is a loose assemblage of people and chapters around the world, each operating with its own specific focus. The Institute on Higher Awesome Studies will provide a link between the foundational world and those small but significant projects who have received a bit of endorsement from an AF-chapter, and are now ready to take it to the next level. With the recent large grant from the Knight Foundation, an active constituency of Awesome Trustees around the world (I get Google Group emails 3-4 times a day), and Tim’s seductively simple vision, I expect the community around Awesome-ness and the number of chapters to grow significantly within the next 12 months.
That, of course, would be awes… cool.
In the world of BetterGrads, Tim emphasized the importance of beginning with a student-focused design for the website.
At one time, alumni used high school alumni networks to reconnect and organize class reunions. No longer, thanks to a small little website that rhymes with “acebook.” Alumni don’t need to reconnect via alumni networks or classmates.com (still exists!), since they have never lost touch. Students have the largest incentive for their alumni networks to function: with professional inquiries, college-related questions, or invitations to alumni to give back to the school via a certain club, sport team, or event. Students’ direct and personal appeals are the best chance to bring alumni into the system and give them incentive to participate. We can learn what students want by asking: “what would you like to have the alumni do?”
Therefore, we need to determine what students would find useful in an alumni network.
Tim Hwang. You can tell it’s really him in the photo because he strikes the same pose in the photo on his personal site. I met Tim through Erhardt Graeff, BetterGrads’ co-Founder and a Founding Trustee of the Awesome Foundation, which is Tim’s brainchild. I was a Founding Trustee for the San Francisco chapter. Awes… neat.
