Month: April 2013

Sean Greene joins the Case Foundation as Entrepreneur in Residence

Posted on by Case Foundation

Since our recent recession, I have been continually reminded that there is no amount of philanthropic or civic investment that can replace a robust economy and citizens hard at work. That’s why both personally, and through the Case Foundation, we have long supported entrepreneurial initiatives that both help people find and create jobs or harnesses skilled volunteers to increase community capacity. From our investments in A Billion + Change and Give an Hour, tapping professionals to meet critical needs; to our work with the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership, expanding economic and educational opportunity in the West Bank; and most recently our support of the Startup America Partnership to develop entrepreneurial ecosystems here in the U.S., we have become firm believers in investing in efforts that help people invest in themselves and enrich the communities around them.

As a foundation that is constantly looking ahead to new ways we can support entrepreneurial efforts, and for opportunities to weave entrepreneurial principles in everything that we do, we’re thrilled today to announce the addition of a new Senior Fellow who will help us do just that – Sean Greene, who was most recently with the Small Business Administration, overseeing its innovation efforts and funds, including the $19 billion SBIC program and the $2 billion SBIR program. Sean is also no stranger to entrepreneurship, as a former CEO and investor himself having had many business wins, most notably being the founder and CEO of Away.com, an online travel company that he sold to Orbitz. Sean’s deep understanding of the opportunities that lie at the intersections of business, government and philanthropy will accelerate and enrich the strategies being tested by us and our partners.

In addition to helping us evaluate and refine our efforts to revitalize communities through entrepreneurship, Sean will join Senior Fellow, Sonal Shah, to play a key role in our new efforts to identify new approaches to inspire, educate and mobilize capital in the impact investing space. As traditional sources of capital in the social sector become harder to obtain, but needs for social services and civic innovations soar, we have to find new solutions and new sources of both capital and talent. We’re excited about the potential for impact investments and impact entrepreneurs to help fill that gap in a significant way. And, Sean’s unique experience will undoubtedly help us identify the right paths – quicker and smarter.

You can read more about Sean and his new role in today’s press release, and we hope you’ll join us in welcoming this outstanding public servant and accomplished entrepreneurs to the Case Foundation team!

What’s been happening at our Fearless Forums?

Posted on by Case Foundation

This post was written by Michael Smith on behalf of the Case Foundation.

“You’ve got to act. You’ve got to be willing to fail. You’ve got to be willing to crash and burn.” – Steve Jobs, Apple

Ever since the launch of our Be Fearless campaign last year, we have been talking about experimentation, big bets, urgency, and yes – failure. The topic of failure in the social sector is filled with language to make it seem less intimidating. People talk about a “learning experience,” “work in progress,” or “opportunity.” It’s rare that the word failure will come up when discussing grant proposals or creating a new organization, as it carries with it unpleasant memories of frustration, struggle, and maybe even embarrassment. We want to change that. We want to embrace the fact that failure happens and allow people to talk about it openly and honestly. Anticipating failure, admitting it, and then moving forward with new knowledge comprise what philanthropic consultant Lucy Bernholz terms “failing forward.” It is only through direct conversations about failure that we can all truly learn from it, grow as a result of it and fail forward together.

As part of our Fearless Forum series, we have been collecting stories of failing forward across the country. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve hosted seven Fearless Forums, bringing together speakers and panelists to share their stories of fearlessness, innovation, and of course, failure. Speakers from Campbell Soup Foundation, DC nonprofit Mary’s Center, PBS, Conrad Foundation, GOOD/corps, Levi Strauss Foundation, our CEO Jean Case, and many more have spoken about their work to bring fearlessness to the social sector. It is inspiring and enlightening to hear social sector leaders willing to discuss their successes, failures, and dedication to disrupting stale and stagnant silos where tired social solutions have failed to succeed.

Earlier this month, we held a new style of Fearless Forum at the Council on Foundations conference in Chicago. We partnered with GOOD/Corps to host “Liquid Courage,” a happy hour “fail fest” with food, drinks, music, and an open floor for brief stories on failing forward. In an hour and a half, nearly one hundred COF conference attendees heard 15 stories of failing forward in philanthropy from their fearless colleagues — some pre-selected and some who volunteered on the spot. It was inspiring and humbling to hear personal stories of failure from Grant Garrison of GOOD/Corps, Rahsaan Harris from Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP), Chris Gates from Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), Daniel Lee from Levi Strauss Foundation, and many others. One of my favorite quotes came from Kristin Lindsey at the Global Fund for Children, who said, “Somebody has to say that every once in a while a grant goes bad.” It turns out that many of the stories were incredibly common, but seldom shared in public.

To see more quotes and tweets from Liquid Courage and Be Fearless at COF, check out our Storify.

Another highlight of the year so far was a session our CEO Jean Case held at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University as part of our colleague Ambassador Doug Holladay’s Leadership Residency “LIFE ENTREPRENEURS: Bringing Meaning and Contribution to Business and Politics.” Through stories, case studies, inspiration breaks with Warby Parker founder Neil Blumenthal and City Year co-founder Alan Khazei, a FearlessFactor quiz, and roundtable discussions, Jean guided the students through an interactive exploration and conversation on the role of fearlessness in business and social innovation. Discussion ranged from anxiety about pursuing non-traditional career paths such as startups or social-purpose business to knowing how to innovate in naturally (and sometimes necessary) risk-averse cultures like finance and government.

We were fortunate to have a full recording of the session made by Echo360 and available online through our YouTube channel. View Jean’s entire session, or take a few minutes to watch some quick one-minute highlights from the day.

Most recently, team members Allie and Jenna traveled to Minneapolis for the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC), where they both spoke about failure in their respective sessions. In a plenary panel moderated by Beth Kanter, Allie shared some of the Case Foundation’s fail forwards and encouraged funders to lead the charge in taking risks and making little and big bets on ideas and people that are doing fearless work to change the world. Read the Storify from that session here.

There is plenty more to come from Be Fearless and our Fearless Forums this year! Stay tuned for event announcements and a new page on casefoundation.org//befearless where you can keep up to date on Fearless Forums, and hopefully you can join us at one of them. And be sure to follow us on Twitter @casefoundation, and join the #befearless conversation every day.

In the meantime, please keep telling us about new fearless stories, fearless changemakers and examples of foundations and nonprofits putting a fearless approach in practice. Let’s Be Fearless, together!

What’s been happening at our Fearless Forums?

Posted on by Case Foundation

“You’ve got to act. You’ve got to be willing to fail. You’ve got to be willing to crash and burn.” – Steve Jobs, Apple

Ever since the launch of our Be Fearless campaign last year, we have been talking about experimentation, big bets, urgency, and yes – failure. The topic of failure in the social sector is filled with language to make it seem less intimidating. People talk about a “learning experience,” “work in progress,” or “opportunity.” It’s rare that the word failure will come up when discussing grant proposals or creating a new organization, as it carries with it unpleasant memories of frustration, struggle, and maybe even embarrassment. We want to change that. We want to embrace the fact that failure happens and allow people to talk about it openly and honestly. Anticipating failure, admitting it, and then moving forward with new knowledge comprise what philanthropic consultant Lucy Bernholz terms “failing forward.” It is only through direct conversations about failure that we can all truly learn from it, grow as a result of it and fail forward together.

As part of our Fearless Forum series, we have been collecting stories of failing forward across the country. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve hosted seven Fearless Forums, bringing together speakers and panelists to share their stories of fearlessness, innovation, and of course, failure. Speakers from Campbell Soup Foundation, DC nonprofit Mary’s Center, PBS, Conrad Foundation, GOOD/corps, Levi Strauss Foundation, our CEO Jean Case, and many more have spoken about their work to bring fearlessness to the social sector. It is inspiring and enlightening to hear social sector leaders willing to discuss their successes, failures, and dedication to disrupting stale and stagnant silos where tired social solutions have failed to succeed.

Earlier this month, we held a new style of Fearless Forum at the Council on Foundations conference in Chicago. We partnered with GOOD/Corps to host “Liquid Courage,” a happy hour “fail fest” with food, drinks, music, and an open floor for brief stories on failing forward. In an hour and a half, nearly one hundred COF conference attendees heard 15 stories of failing forward in philanthropy from their fearless colleagues — some pre-selected and some who volunteered on the spot. It was inspiring and humbling to hear personal stories of failure from Grant Garrison of GOOD/Corps, Rahsaan Harris from Emerging Practicioners in Philanthropy (EPIP), Chris Gates from Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), Daniel Lee from Levi Strauss Foundation, and many others. One of my favorite quotes came from Kristin Lindsey at the Global Fund for Children, who said, “Somebody has to say that every once in a while a grant goes bad.” It turns out that many of the stories were incredibly common, but seldom shared in public.

To see more quotes and tweets from Liquid Courage and Be Fearless at COF, check out our Storify.

Another highlight of the year so far was a session our CEO Jean Case held at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University as part of our colleague Ambassador Doug Holladay’s Leadership Residency “LIFE ENTREPRENEURS: Bringing Meaning and Contribution to Business and Politics.” Through stories, case studies, inspiration breaks with Warby Parker founder Neil Blumenthal and City Year co-founder Alan Khazei, a FearlessFactor quiz, and roundtable discussions, Jean guided the students through an interactive exploration and conversation on the role of fearlessness in business and social innovation. Discussion ranged from anxiety about pursuing non-traditional career paths such as startups or social-purpose business to knowing how to innovate in naturally (and sometimes necessary) risk-averse cultures like finance and government.

We were fortunate to have a full recording of the session made by Echo360 and available online through our YouTube channel. View Jean’s entire session, or take a few minutes to watch some quick one-minute highlights from the day.

Most recently, team members Allie and Jenna traveled to Minneapolis for the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC), where they both spoke about failure in their respective sessions. In a plenary panel moderated by Beth Kanter, Allie shared some of the Case Foundation’s fail forwards and encouraged funders to lead the charge in taking risks and making little and big bets on ideas and people that are doing fearless work to change the world. Read the Storify from that session here.

There is plenty more to come from Be Fearless and our Fearless Forums this year! Stay tuned for event announcements and a new page on befearless.casefoundation.org/ where you can keep up to date on Fearless Forums, and hopefully you can join us at one of them. And be sure to follow us on Twitter @casefoundation, and join the #befearless conversation every day.

In the meantime, please keep telling us about new fearless stories, fearless changemakers and examples of foundations and nonprofits putting a fearless approach in practice. Let’s Be Fearless, together!

Your Input Needed: Survey on Failure, Risk, and Innovation in the Social Sector

Posted on by Case Foundation

This post was written by Kate McElligott and Sara Telzer on behalf of the Case Foundation. 

American University’s Social Enterprise program assists students in acquiring the knowledge, skills, and mindset necessary to launch a new social entrepreneurial venture or play a key leadership role in an existing one. The Case Foundation has partnered with AU to help gather critical data on the landscape of fearlessness in the social sector.

The social sector is changing at a rapid rate, and it is time for leaders to initiate bold and audacious solutions to some of our world’s most intractable problems. In response to this need, the Case Foundation launched its Be Fearless campaign to encourage the social sector to rethink traditional models, act with urgency, make failure matter, and take bigger risks. The Foundation asked us to develop a survey that will help reveal key trends on innovation, experimentation and risk-taking to better understand the state of the social sector today.

We welcome you to join us in our research to gather opinions from nonprofits and foundations on the challenges and opportunities they face in their work by taking a 15 minute survey.

Your participation is critical to providing a balanced perspective. We’re excited to get your input, and we ask that you complete the survey by Tuesday, April 30.

The intended participants of this survey include executives and staff working at foundations and nonprofit organizations. We hope you will add your voice and take the survey before Tuesday, April 30.

By completing this survey, you will also be entered into a drawing for a chance to win one of five $100 Network for Good gift cards.
American University’s Social Enterprise Program will analyze and publish the results in late summer, and we want to make sure your voice is heard. Please click here to take the 15 minute survey before Tuesday, April 30.

Thank you,

Kate McElligott and Sara Telzer
Masters Candidates, American University’s Social Enterprise Program

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