Month: May 2016

Why You Need to Apply for an MCON Scholarship Right Now

Posted on by Case Foundation

The following was originally posted on Achieve’s blog to share my experience as an MCON 2015 scholarship recipient. Applications are now open to attend MCON 2016. APPLY NOW

What is better than attending the premier millennial engagement conference of 2016? Attending it for free.

In April of last year, I read an article from Achieve President Derrick Feldmann about activating the millennial generation (born 1980-2000). At the time, bringing my generation into the fold was something I was very interested in, but had very little idea how to do. Derrick’s article stood out to me in the obvious depth of knowledge about the topic. Perhaps even more exciting, his article mentioned an upcoming conference called MCON devoted to this very topic.

At the time, I was working for a small, but growing nonprofit, so I was incredibly fortunate to receive an MCON scholarship because the conference is designed for people just like me—millennials that want to better understand what drives our generation to give and get involved, but wouldn’t otherwise have the resources to attend. I knew I needed to be in the room with these thought leaders, but I don’t think I was quite prepared for how much I’d learn and take away from the experience.

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When I walked into the Chicago Museum of Art last June, I was blown away by the buzz and energy that filled the room. Though I knew that engaging the next generation of cause leaders was important, it was incredible to see so many people in one place who were as excited as I was by the extraordinary potential for global change that the millennial generation holds.

As I checked-in and grabbed my conference badge and (awesome) swag bag, I could already hear nearby conversations of people explaining their different reasons for attending MCON. Some people, like me, were working for nonprofits and were there to learn how to engage millennials in their work. Some were starting social enterprises and wanted to be sure they knew how to best integrate the issues that millennials care about into their products and programs. Others still were from large corporations that wanted to better understand how to attract and retain millennial talent through corporate social responsibility. No matter the specific goals, it was clear that we all shared one thing in common: we cared, A LOT, about social good and changing the world, and we knew engaging millennials in our causes was key.

unspecified-2At the conference I heard from a wide variety of speakers—from foundations and nonprofits that were using innovative ways to reach millennials, to businesses that were going beyond cause-marketing and integrating a social mission into their long-term business strategy. I learned how the Knight Foundation is investing in public art projects as an urban revitalization technique—helping to deepen the sense of place and connections across demographics in cities—and how millennials, with their propensity to live in proximity to city centers, are key to this work.

Another session that stood out to me focused on how one nonprofit, Baltimore Corps, is utilizing the energy and talents of the next generation to strengthen Baltimore through fellowships aimed at scaling promising solutions to persistent problems.

It wasn’t just the speakers that made me really happy that I attended MCON. Networking with other attendees was invaluable. Discussion groups were a common theme, and many of the people I spoke with were struggling with the same issues that I was.

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When I got back to DC, I was able to use what I learned at MCON to develop a millennial engagement strategy for the nonprofit I worked at. I was better equipped to put together programming and communications to reach this vital audience. I was also motivated to join the newly formed Year Up Young Professionals Network, an effort by Year Up National Capital Region to engage millennials in their vital work. Attending MCON has made me a significantly better member of this network, able to provide input and insights from the conference to help shape and strengthen this new initiative. And I was even driven to become more deeply engaged than that, seizing an opportunity to come work for the Case Foundation, the lead sponsor of MCON and the Millennial Impact Report, when a job opening arose.

This year, I am so excited that MCON has come to my own backyard in DC. I often say that one of my favorite things about living in DC is how passionate everyone is about something. You may not always agree with the cause they care about, but just having a city full of people who give a damn is exhilarating. I can think of no better place to host such a vibrant conference, and I hope that you’ll join me at MCON 2016. If you, like me, care deeply about changing the world and growing your network with leaders, activists and entrepreneurs, then don’t miss the chance to be inspired at MCON. Scholarship applications are now open, so what are you waiting for?

Scholarships MCON 2016

What’s Trending—Using Your Business as a Force for Good

Posted on by Case Foundation

This blog post is co-bylined by Sheila Herrling, SVP, Social Innovation at the Case Foundation and Hardik Savalia, Senior Associate, Standards, at B Lab—a nonprofit organization dedicated to using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.

It’s undeniable; entrepreneurship is experiencing a culture shift. Everyday we hear more stories about the power of business to be a force for good. It’s no longer enough for an enterprise to earn a good profit. There’s a growing expectation that it will contribute to society and to a sustainable future. In his State of the Union Address, even President Obama articulated the need for businesses to get serious about improving their social and environmental impact. He stressed how businesses can do right by their workers, customers and communities, in addition to generating great profits.

Heeding the Call–Corporations committed to positive impact

Urgent social needs—access to energy, education, healthcare, clean water—don’t show signs of decline, making it clear that philanthropic and government resources alone won’t be sufficient to address them all. Communities around the world will need committed entrepreneurs and investors to help drive the next wave of great social change and environmental conservation.

Luckily, more than 1,600 companies including Patagonia and Warby Parker have taken the lead in this growing movement, by completing an extensive certification process to become B Corps. Yet, we believe that if we’re going to make real progress on social and environmental issues, we have to empower all companies, no matter the industry, location or size, with the tools to benchmark, measure and compare their positive impact on workers, communities and the environment. After all, how can any business start to improve their impact, without first knowing where they stand?

Through our partnership, we at B Lab and the Case Foundation have created the B Impact Assessment to do just this, and it’s already being used by more than 40,000 businesses in 80 countries. We’ve also recently released an enhanced, more user-friendly version of the Assessment to make it easier for any team member—ranging from CEO, to intern, to manager—to start this exercise confidentially for their business.

Ready to see it for yourself? Check out the new assessment!

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The Assessment takes users on a step-by-step journey through a variety of best practices that have already been adopted by leading companies. For example, what percent of the company’s workers receive a living wage? The tool provides examples from companies like Ben & Jerry’s on how they’ve successfully implemented a living wage program for all of their employees.

We believe there’s no single way to build a better business and the initial baseline assessment is the first step on a pathway to improvement. After completing the first, quick assessment, which on average takes about 30 minutes, we encourage companies to come back and use the built-in tools to set goals, create an action plan and start implementing those best practices to realize better social outcomes.

B Impact Report

Join the Movement–Use your business to drive social change.

The B Corps community and the Case Foundation, together are proud that more than 1,600 companies have fully committed to do their part as certified B Crops—redefining success for business—and that another 40,000 companies have shown an interest in doing better. We’re excited to invite all businesses to join this movement, and measure your ability to build stronger communities, create environmentally sustainable operations or cultivate empowering employment opportunities. We invite you to use business as a force for good.

Join our upcoming webinar, Increasing Your Impact & Improving Your Score on the B Impact Assessment, to learn more about how business can measure and improve their impact.

Be Fearless Spotlight: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Posted on by Case Foundation

This Spotlight is a part of a special blog series by the Case Foundation featuring Be Fearless stories from the field. Follow along with us as we meet people and learn about organizations that are taking risks, being bold and failing forward in their efforts to create transformative change in the social sector. This Spotlight is authored by Karabi Acharya (@KarabiGlobal), Director of Global Ideas for U.S. Solutions at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Being fearless means imagining the “impossible.” Martin Luther King, Jr. asked us to imagine the impossible when he asked for a world where his children would be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. Harriet Tubman, the slavery abolitionist, spoke about how her capacity to imagine the impossible guided her in her fight, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” And Anne Kronenberg—Harvey Milk’s campaign manager—has said of the gay rights leader, “He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us.” Imagining a different world is the first step toward building a different world.

My colleagues at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and I ask ourselves every day to imagine something that some may believe is out of reach: a Culture of Health in this country. In a Culture of Health, being as healthy as you can be is part of everything we do as a society. In a Culture of Health, we define being healthy as more than not being sick. And, in a Culture of Health, we support practices and policies that address the excessive influence that income, education, ethnicity and even a zip code has on Americans’ health and wellbeing. We don’t think we can do it alone—so we’re asking others to join us—and we are not adhering to a rigid blueprint to guide us. Instead, we are allowing ourselves to be open to emerging strategies that we discover along our path to ensuring everyone is able to live the healthiest life possible.

It’s a shift for us. We’re moving away from the traditional 18-month strategic planning process and toward the belief that the strategies to achieve our vision will emerge as we proceed—fearlessly. This new, fearless direction—reflected in the Case Foundation’s Be Fearless principles—is a decision to not just reach beyond our bubble, but to burst it wide open. As one of the largest foundations in the U.S. and the largest dedicated to domestic health, we’re often encouraged to speak up and lead. But we’re putting ourselves in rooms with people and organizations that have no idea who we are and building unlikely partnerships, where our only purpose is to listen and learn.

My work at RWJF is to lead a team of colleagues to identify and learn from countries around the globe that have already achieved or are making notable progress toward building a Culture of Health. We’re looking at countries that have stopped defining health as simply not being sick—and the policies and practices reflect this knowledge. We’re looking at higher-income countries like Denmark, where primary care physicians actively coordinate the care of their patients, and a sophisticated electronic health record (EHR) system contributes to this effective coordination, as well as better outcomes and improved quality. We’re looking at countries like Wales where data and collaboration are serving as effective deterrents to violence. We’re looking at the Netherlands to see what they are doing in response to the link between climate change and health equity. We’re looking at Singapore, where they are better positioned to contend with an aging population than we are by acknowledging it, experiencing the consequences and making efforts to mitigate them. And we’re looking at middle- and lower-income countries as well. We’re looking at Cuba, for example, where the emphasis on prevention and primary care, community-level clinics and a low physician-patient ratio leads to outcomes that rival most high-income countries, including our own.

We understand that innovation happens at intersections, and we aren’t going it alone. We’re learning from the successes and failures of others, and finding the best and most innovative solutions.

But it’s much more than looking for powerful models or best practices that we can bring to the U.S. Actively learning from other countries unleashes our collective imagination. It provides us—and our partners—with the inspiration we need to make our way along the difficult and long path toward the kind of world in which we want to live. We can better imagine what a Culture of Health will look like by seeing it in practice.

An Invitation to Be Fearless

There are a few ways we hope the Be Fearless community can join us and help us to continue to imagine the possibilities. First, if there’s someone with whom we should be speaking, please let us know. Secondly, if you have stories of ideas or approaches that have come from abroad and taken root, we want to hear them. We believe strongly in the value of a global perspective and want to strengthen this argument by collecting and sharing examples. Thirdly, if there are events that we should be attending in the U.S. or overseas that would expose us to the kinds of ideas we’ve described here or the people we want to meet, please share your recommendations. For all of these, please email us at globalideas@rwjf.org.

Finally, we recently launched our first call for ideas, which is open through May 31, 2016. We are looking for projects, programs and models from other countries that promote a Culture of Health with a commitment to equity. We’re looking for applicants who represent organizations from a wide range of fields and disciplines—both within and outside the health sector. We will support grants from $50,000 up to $250,000 (USD), for up to 18 months. If you have an idea you’d like to share, we encourage you to check out our website for more information.

Feeling inspired? If you’re ready to begin your own Be Fearless journey start by downloading our free Be Fearless Action Guide and Case Studies.

Uniting for Hope One Fearless Step at a Time

Posted on by Case Foundation

Race for Hope Raises $2 Million for Brain Cancer Research and Honors Vice President Joe Biden

This past Sunday, 10,000 individuals from across the globe gathered for one purpose—to make a big bet to find and fund a cure for brain cancer. Together they raised $2 million to benefit Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2) and the National Brain Tumor Society (NBTS) at the historic Race for Hope – DC. For nearly 20 years, Race for Hope has rallied individuals and organizations together to fearlessly raise more than $27 million for brain tumor research and honor those affected by the disease.

The need to do so is more urgent than ever before, as there are almost 700,000 people living with a primary brain tumor diagnosis in the U.S., and within the next year, more than 210,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with a primary or metastatic brain tumor.

This year, Vice President Joe Biden was in attendance with his family at the event where they received the Triumph of Spirit Award in memory of his son Beau Biden, who passed away from brain cancer in 2015. The award honors their dedication and commitment to advocating for the National Cancer Moonshot initiative to end cancer as we know it. He shared with attendees that the brain cancer research field is changing exponentially and the U.S. is investing billions of dollars in cancer research to find a cure. He encouraged all attendees to, “Keep running [and] keep the faith. There is hope. It’s not a false hope.”

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Vice President Jo Biden and Nitin Ramachandran (young brain cancer survivor).

At the beginning of the race, a Survivor Tribute featuring more than 350 fearless brain tumor survivors—such as 13 year old brain cancer champion Nitin Ramachandran, photographed here with Vice President Biden—who marched together towards the starting line as a symbol of hope and strength in their battle against brain tumors. Among the participants was: Deanna Glass-Macenka, a neurosurgical oncology nurse who is in her ninth year of running the Race for Hope and is the team captain for The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s team; Julie Frank who was diagnosed with brain cancer in March of 2008 while in graduate school at George Washington University; and Beth Ann Telford, Ironwoman and brain cancer champion has raised nearly $1,000,000 for ABC2. Next up for Telford is the 2017 World Marathon Challenge, in which she will run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days to benefit ABC2. Attendees also paid tribute to those we have lost to brain cancer, including Dana Daczkowski who was the younger sister ofABC2’s own Nike Beddow, both co-founders of the Race for Hope, and Pamela Sue, the daughter of Race For Hope co-founders Lionel and Sandy Chaiken.

David Cook, previous American Idol® winner and Honorary Chair of the Race for Hope – DC, brought his Team for A Cure back this year and raised more than $92,000. David and his team participate in memory of his brother Adam who passed away due to brain cancer. As an ABC2 Ambassador, David is champion for the cause throughout the year.

Race For Hope 2016 Case Foundation Team
In Honor of Dan Case, the Case Foundation, Revolution and PathNorth join together at the 19th annual Race for Hope, including (pictured here): Cassaundra Maximin, Seth Kwiecien, Doug Holladay, Shelby Murrin, Sheila Herrling and family, Melanie Horsford, Kim Vu, Bob Woody, Beth Sims, Julia Power, Julie Cohen, Jessica Zetzman, Brian Sasscer, Aman Fiseha and Chris Hughes.

 

This year the Case Foundation team gathered to walk in honor of Dan Case, brother of Steve Case. In 2001, Dan was diagnosed with brain cancer. Discouraged by a lack of information and limited treatment options, Dan, his wife, Stacey, and Steve and Jean Case, co-founded ABC2. The organization (which is a grantee of the Case Foundation) is driving cutting-edge research and treatments for brain tumors and has awarded more than 100 grants totaling $20 million in brain tumor research.

To learn more aboutABC2 and how you can help in the search for a cure for brain cancer, visit abc2.org.

Header photo (from left to right): Max Wallace, ABC2; Roberta Liss, Cushman & Wakefield; Jeff Kolodin, NBTS; Johnathan Weinberg, ABC2 ; David Arons, NBTS.

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