Be Fearless

A Fearless Approach to Ocean Conservation

Posted on by Case Foundation

Earlier this month, I found myself in a sea of sleepy-eyed millennials in a Georgetown University auditorium waiting for the first annual Sustainable Oceans Summit to begin.

The Sustainable Oceans Alliance (SOA), founded by Georgetown student and Case Foundation intern Daniela Fernandez, hosted the summit. SOA is one of the first student-led initiatives started in direct response to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s call to action at the State Department’s 2014 Our Ocean Conference. In his speech, Kerry laid out the crucial steps each of us must take to ensure the health and sustainability of our oceans.

The opening announcement quickly set the tone for the event – we were going to learn exactly how we, as individuals, could change the tide. After seven hours of remarkable speeches and panel discussions from world leaders in ocean conservation, environmental policy and earth and biological sciences, the 400 in-person and hundreds more webcast attendees were indeed invested in keeping our planet blue.

Speakers like the legendary Sylvia Earle from Mission Blue and Maria Damanaki of The Nature Conservancy eloquently illustrated the interplay between the health of our oceans and the health of humankind. “We must protect our oceans as if our life depends on it – because it does,” said Earle. “Eighty five percent of corals are already lost; eighty five percent of fish are endangered, threatened or already gone,” stated Damanaki. After a long pause to let those statistics sink in she went on, “But there is hope in this hopeless situation. Human activity is ocean’s biggest threat and biggest hope. We have the power to change the fate our planet’s lifeline.”

An important focus of the summit, and a reflection of Fernandez’s interest in identifying multi-sector solutions, was the role of three vital industries: science and technology; corporations; and local and national governments. The summit proposed that by exploring the interconnectedness of ocean health and human behavior and wellbeing, these three sectors could realize a range of opportunities for innovative collaboration. The summit provided a new platform for champions of ocean conservation to highlight these opportunities: better business practices, effective legislation and cutting edge technology. The speakers emphasized how multi-sector approaches catalyze solutions to issues such as the global fisheries crisis.

The summit attendees were asked to do more than listen, and 7,500 signatures later the audience and social media activists had successfully made their voices heard. Together, we petitioned the United Nations to include ocean sustainability as a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). SDGs are a comprehensive collection of actionable, social development goals designed to build upon the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). SDGs should holistically address social inequalities, issues of poverty and environmental concerns, and it is essential that responsible ocean management does not get left out.

Palauan Ambassador, Stuart Beck, will deliver this very petition directly to the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon prior to the September 2015 vote to confirm the SDGs. We made our mark; but if the speakers made anything clear, it was that our mission doesn’t stop here.

As the summit came to a close, I found myself in a new environment – in a sea of wide-eyed millennials in a Georgetown University auditorium. We knew that it was our responsibility to take action now. Our naturally innovative and motivated spirit must be directed toward ocean sustainability to ensure a healthy and stable environment, economy and global community for future generations to come.

 

 

Click here to watch the full Summit. 

What’s So Wrong with Nonprofits Playing by Market Rules?

Posted on by Case Foundation

Here’s the thing about markets – they have this uncanny way of being candid, sending demand signals that companies need to pay attention and adapt to in order to thrive, if not survive.

So why is it that the nonprofit sector is uncomfortable with embracing more market-based approaches to its work? This week’s feeding frenzy of articles criticizing the Council on Foundations for its experiment to host a $40,000 pitch competition to identify new organizations and approaches to drive social change is an example of this discomfort. In fact, the frenzy was so severe, that the Council decided to cancel the pitch competition and instead host a discussion on the merits and drawbacks of new approaches to grantmaking.

One of the pillars of our work at the Case Foundation is “revolutionizing philanthropy.” We believe that the practice of mobilizing private capital for public good is in need of a major reboot. In order to keep up with the pace and scope of major social challenges, the resources and tactics going into addressing these challenges and the organizations managing those resources need to be more efficient and effective. And as a sector, we need more catalytic, collaborative and creative solutions.

That’s why we’ve tested programs like the Make It Your Own Awards, the first campaign to open up a part of the grantmaking process to an online public vote. Or the America’s Giving Challenges (in 2007 and 2009), which mobilized over 150,000 donors to give $3.8M to over 14,000 causes, most of which were small and scrappy. That’s why we created the Be Fearless campaign – because we believe that in order to create more innovation in our approaches to social change, we must all take risks, embrace and learn from failure and make big bets. And that’s why we consistently provide catalytic funding to partners that are experimenting with new approaches and hoping to find breakthrough solutions and collaborations.

We’ve long championed the potential for prize and challenge programs – including initiatives like pitch competitions – to discover breakthrough innovations. We know that sometimes the people with the most innovative solutions to big problems will be found in unlikely places – just take the wedding dress designer who played a critical role in helping to dramatically improve the design of the Ebola Protective Suit worn by health care workers treating the disease, thanks to a challenge hosted by USAID’s Global Development Lab. The U.S. government has broadly embraced the use of prizes and challenges, which kicked off with the Summit on Innovation that we co-hosted with the White House in 2010, leading to the creation of Challenge.gov, which hosts hundreds of prize and challenge competitions across 50 federal agencies. And we were proud to join some of the philanthropic sector’s leading innovators – Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Joyce Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Kresge Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation – in publishing a 2014 report on the ways in which incentive prizes are transforming the innovation landscape.

We love to see new practices for crowdsourcing ideas, pooling resources, disrupting old ways of doing business, testing new approaches and massively publicizing – if not competing – new programs. Why? Because, quite frankly, despite a massive amount of good accomplished with billions of nonprofit dollars, the evidence base for impact remains unsatisfying. We’re not saying that we should swing the pendulum completely toward prizes, challenges and other experimental approaches – but deploying tactics that can help us discover new ideas from unlikely places is desperately needed.

We have a saying at the Case Foundation based on an old African proverb – if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. What if, instead of trashing the Council on Foundations for trying something new, we embraced it as a fearless attempt to disrupt the status quo with the hope of finding a better way? Sure, we might each have our tweaks on how to make it better (e.g., having a panel of judges, not the audience, vote on the winner). But as a tactic, it brings a fresh market-based approach and has the potential to expose innovative people and ideas to a broad community of funders, who just might decide it’s worth pooling their resources for greater and faster impact.

We look forward to the discussion on the merits of new grantmaking approaches at the Council’s conference, but we’ll wistfully be wondering what it would be like with the pitch competition in full swing, tapping into the “wisdom of the crowd” and fully embracing of the idea of democratizing philanthropy, making it easier for anyone to participate in the efforts to solve big, hairy problems.

Want to continue the conversation? Tweet us @CaseFoundation with the hashtag #CFBlog! 

The Be Fearless Journey: Share our Strength and the Levi Strauss Foundation

Posted on by Case Foundation

The need for making big bets is more important now than ever before. Now is the time to collaborate across sectors, develop meaningful initiatives with measurable outcomes and set bold targets. Yet the question remains—how can the social sector act fearlessly in order to maximize impact?

At the Case Foundation, we believe that the greatest progress is achieved when organizations are willing to make big bets, experiment often and fail forward. Share our Strength and the Levi Strauss Foundation epitomizes this bold spirit by embracing innovation at multiple intersections to realize the greatest change. They are also the focus of the Foundation’s SXSW Be Fearless Breakout on March 17, 2015. You are invited to join the Case Foundation with special guests: Tom Nelson, President of Share Our Strength; and Daniel Lee, Executive Director and Jason McBriarty, Director, Worldwide Community Affairs of the Levi Strauss Foundation for an exciting session designed to explore how organizations can take action to Be Fearless (RSVP required).

What Can You Expect?

Share our Strength embraced a new sense of urgency to tackle hunger in the United States with the specific goal of eradicating childhood hunger in our country. Similarly, the Levi Strauss Foundation spearheaded the Pioneers in Justice initiative, which emphasized the long-term goal of measuring grant impact rather than just short-term grant administration. Each organization challenged itself to take risks, be bold and fail forward, leading them both achieve the transformative impact they set out to make. Leaders from both organizations will share their greatest lessons learned, action steps they took and insights from their experience in this exclusive break out session at SXSW.

Hungry for More? 

  • Check out their stories of action in the Be Fearless Action Guide, available now!
  • Looking for other sessions to check out at SXSW? Here’s our top 10 list of sessions to attend, including two other sessions hosted by the Case Foundation.

What Are You Waiting For? Start Your Be Fearless Journey Now

Posted on by Case Foundation

Ready to take the next step on your journey to being fearless? To help you on your way, the Case Foundation invites you to download the Be Fearless Action Guide—a set of special tools designed to help nonprofit and foundation leaders create more meaningful social change. It doesn’t matter if you are a program manager looking to change the way you evaluate projects, a board member who wants to help a nonprofit make a big bet or a grantee who wants to encourage a funder to experiment more often… the Action Guide is designed to be your roadmap.

Based on feedback from practitioners in the sector we have developed a unique framework that provides step-by-step actions and ideas for how you and your organization can take risks, be bold and fail forward. These are only the tip of the iceberg for ways to be fearless – use them to start a creative conversation about what is right for your organization. To complement the framework, we’ve assembled stories from five fearless organizations. Each case study highlights how the organization overcame challenges in a fearless way and ultimately fostered a transformative change. There are also discussion guide questions at the end of every case study that provide a take away for everyone—no matter what type of organization you represent.

The Be Fearless Action Guide includes:

  • The Be Fearless Framework
  • Global Health Corps Case Study
  • Jacobs Family Foundation Case Study
  • Levi Strauss Foundation Case Study
  • Salesforce Foundation Case Study (NEW)
  • Share Our Strength Case Study (NEW)

If you have already previewed some of the materials during our special sneak peek phase, be sure to check out the two NEW case studies released today spotlighting the Salesforce Foundation and Share Our Strength. Additional case studies featuring new challenges and solutions are currently in development and will be released this fall!

What are you waiting for? Check out the Action Guide today!

10 Can’t Miss Sessions at SXSW 2015

Posted on by Case Foundation

We are getting ready to head down to Austin, TX, for SXSW Interactive—a five-day festival that showcases a mix of digital creativity, emerging technology and unique networking events. From March 13 through 17, members of the Case Foundation team will be on-site learning about new trends in social good, philanthropy and technology from thought leaders in the sector… and leading three sessions on social good issues that we hope you will join us for:

We’re also excited to take part in the many sessions that promise to stretch our minds, inspire our creativity and just have fun. We’ve compiled a list of 10 events that we’re particularly excited about below. Have another can’t miss SXSW session we should know about? Tweet us the details using @CaseFoundation and #CFBlog so we can share it with our community.

Saturday, March 14

  • 12:30 pm: Running a Non-Profit Like a Startup! – Austin Convention Center, Room 9ABC
    Do you want to learn how operating like a startup can help nonprofits overcome challenges? Join a group of social entrepreneurs for a discussion about starting and scaling a nonprofit guided by practices until recently associated with startups.
  • 3:30 pm: City 2.0: Why Local Gov. Bets on Civic Innovation – Austin Convention Center, Room 10AB
    Civic innovation is taking root in municipalities across the country. But is it effective in tackling real urban problems? Join Leaders from Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco for insights into how these cities are betting on a new era of policy-making by using open data and leveraging the talents of their citizens.

Sunday, March 15

  • 11 am: How to Make it Rain: Impact Investors Tell All – Austin City Hall
    This panel will explore ways impact investors, social entrepreneurs and traditional investment vehicles can collaborate to help create a strong impact eco-system.
  • 5 pm: Millennials: The Unstoppable Force – Austin Convention Center, Room 10AB
    During this session, participants will hear from Millennial elected officials who are putting aside partisan labels and working to change the future together

Monday, March 16

  • 11 am: How Potato Salad Killed/Saved Crowdfunding – Austin Convention Center, Next Stage
    Join our SVP of Communications, Allyson Burns, for a conversation with Gary Wolfheil of Crowdrise and some of crowdfunding’s biggest names including Zack Brown, the Potato Salad Guy and Ryan Grepper, creator of the Coolest Cooler, for an in-depth conversation about the future of crowdfunding for nonprofits, for profits and individuals.
  • 12 pm: Impact Investing Rumble Hosted by the Case Foundation – Trinity Hall
    Join the Case Foundation for a memorable Impact Investing point/counterpoint debate exploring whether or not impact investing really is the next big thing when it comes to creating change in the social sector.
  • 3 pm: Elevate: How Businesses & Entrepreneurs are Taking Social Good to the Next Level – Trinity Hall
    Come hear how three leading companies built corporate philanthropy into their culture. This panel will provide insights into the benefits of fostering a culture of corporate citizenship for both internal and external stakeholders, how to engage all employees and how to build programs that can make the world a better place.

Tuesday, March 17

  • 10 am: Look at Me: On Ego, Hype, and Social Entrepreneurship – Trinity Hall
    United Kingdom based veteran social entrepreneur and impact investor, Liam Black, cuts through the hype of social entrepreneur industry to talk honestly about what really motivates and drives entrepreneurs who want to change the world.
  • 11:30 am: Be Fearless Breakout Session Hosted by the Case Foundation – Trinity Hall
    Are you and your organization ready to make big bets that will change the world? Join the Case Foundation for working group to explore ways that you can integrate strategies and tactics to create impact and meaningful social change. Click here to sign up.
  • 2:00 pm: Data Visualization for Social Good – Trinity Hall
    During this hands-on session, participants will work with open data from the City of Austin to create prototypes that visually represent public data and invite exploration and explanation.

Not headed to SXSW this year? Follow along with the Case Foundation team members on Twitter with @CaseFoundation. We also invite you to share your own recommendations, updates or thoughts on Twitter by using the hashtag #CFBlog!

Looking Back on Finding Fearless: Where Are They Now

Posted on by Case Foundation

Two years ago this week, the Case Foundation launched its Finding Fearless challenge to identify changemakers across the United States that embodied our Be Fearless principles. Finding Fearless provided a tangible and real world chance to witness risk taking, experimentation and big bets embodied by local nonprofit leaders. Two years later, we would like to share with you where these leaders are and what they have accomplished.

In September of 2012, the Case Foundation partnered with Microsoft, REI and the Goldhirsh Foundation to find and fund fearless changemakers. We knew that there were leaders on the ground who were employing experimental approaches to tackle the world’s most challenging problems. Over the course of the campaign, we heard from a diverse group of large and small organizations and individuals that had taken a fearless, innovative approach to their charitable work. The twenty Finding Fearless winners were focused on a variety of issues, ranging from food scarcity to recidivism to education.

We are incredibly proud of their progress and achievements and are thrilled to see several of them gaining broader recognition. Swipes for the Homeless was recognized by President Obama as a “national leader in social innovation” and a Champion of Change for boldly advocating across university campuses to give students the opportunity to donate their unused meal points to food pantries serving homeless populations. Additionally, Madhura Bhat, who co-founded Health for America, an organization that runs a competitive fellowship program to teach next generation leaders to deploy entrepreneurial thinking in addressing health issues in America, was awarded the 2013 SXSW Dewey Winburne Community Service award. Marquis Cabrera, founder and CEO of Foster Skills, has been honored as the Massachusetts Innovator of the Year (Boston Globe) and Massachusetts Young Nonprofit Professional of the Year (MNN).

Another fearless young philanthropist has received special recognition for her efforts in Wisconsin. Jordyn Schara, founded WI P2D2, a prescription pill and drug collection program whose mission is to lessen the time and financial burden on police departments, related to the proper disposal of confiscated pills and drugs. The program provides police departments with 24/7 secure drop-box locations where the pills can be stored in between the Drug Enforcement Agency’s bi-annual collection events, when the pills can be safely destroyed. Jordyn was recently chosen by Teen Vogue to attend the Clinton Global Initiative University at Arizona State University.

We continue to be impressed and inspired by these twenty community leaders and wanted to take this opportunity to share some of their successes and stories from the field.

Reach Beyond your Bubble

We were excited by the groups our national sweep discovered that were being creative in their project designs and bold in their partnership decisions. For example, ArtSpring, a Florida organization that provides incarcerated women with positive artistic outlets for personal expression, has been successfully preparing participants for re-introduction to life outside of the corrections system. ArtSpring has been looking beyond their smaller prison community and have built an effective, mutually beneficial partnership with Florida Atlantic University. Through this creative partnership, students enrolled in the Rhetoric of Incarceration course and are able to study the unique perspectives on freedom and individual rights within incarcerated women’s writing. According to Leslie Neal and Nicole Bible of ArtSpring, the learning between inmates and students has pushed participants “intellectually and academically, and allowed the [inmates] to feel heard, respected and valued.” Art Spring has a phenomenal track record of nearly 0% recidivism among participant women.

Let Urgency Conquer Fear

The Campaign for Southern Equality, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting full LGBT equality with a focus in the South, is letting urgency conquer fear through their WE DO Campaign. Throughout Southern states where gay marriage is not legally recognized, the campaign made a big splash and earned greater national attention for their cause. Through peaceful protest, a cohort of gay and lesbian couples, and their supporters, went on an emotional journey from county courthouse to county courthouse where they were repeatedly denied access to marriage licenses. While the laws remain unchanged in their home states, the participants drew huge media attention and pushed conversation around a difficult and divisive subject to the forefront of public debate in their home states. They successfully drew public attention to a legal barrier this community is fighting to change immediately.

Make Big Bets

The New American Leaders Project (NALP) is working in African, Arab, Asian, Caribbean and Latino communities to recruit and train both new and experienced public servants as they take the next steps in civic participation. NALP uses public outreach, training programs and large convenings to generate a fraternal atmosphere of support for their diverse cohort of values based community leaders. They continue to make big bets on their members through the “Ready to Lead” program that provides community leaders in American immigrant populations with the tools and training to effectively campaign for local, state and national office. NALP is determined to empower leaders in minority communities through civic participation, in an effort to create a more inclusive government, better prepared to advocate for the increasingly diverse American population, generating a more robust democracy. They have successfully trained more than 250 leaders, thirteen of whom have already been elected to office.

Make Failure Matter

A natural component of taking risks is failure. And each of the winners faced challenges of varying severity. A few of the winners shared those obstacles with our team, and their means for learning from and overcoming them. Clark Fork Coalition discovered that without community cooperation, the most well-intentioned plans could be met with distrust and opposition. The Coalition encourages sustainable land and water management in Missoula, MT. They manage a ranch for use as an educational tool and as an example of successful land stewardship. They found, however, that to communicate their goals effectively to other landowners and ranchers, they would first need to build a foundation of trust within the community. The Coalition was able to develop a strategy of community integration through outreach projects as simple as hosting barbecues. This allowed them to build relationships within the ranching community, with the hope of facilitating future land management interventions in the future.

Experiment Early and Often

Another obstacle for small nonprofits is technological limitations. For a number of the winners, digital technology as a medium for media outreach, user tracking and information sharing and gathering, posed some significant challenges. For organizations with limited access to necessary equipment or with volunteers who may not have the proper skills to deliver needed tech solutions, it may be necessary to scale back operations, in the short term.

However, one of the winners, So They Can Know (STCK), faced a technological obstacle and was neither discouraged nor did they back down from their mission. They provide an online platform that allows individuals who have tested positive with a sexually transmitted infection to anonymously inform past partners of their potential exposure and direct them to testing facilities. They have successfully launched their online application through which visitors can send anonymous emails to partners. The STCK team understands that most young people communicate by text message, not email, so to effectively reach more potentially at risk individuals they will need to get the anonymous text messaging option up and running through their website. STCK continues to work on increasing their employees’ tech knowledge and have turned their focus on capacity building to bring in the proper skills to realize the potential of their bold experimentation.

The Case Foundation continues to be impressed and inspired by the organizations that participated in the Finding Fearless grant challenge. For everyone that has participated in the campaign, we are happy to provide you with this update on where our Fearless winners are now. We may not have been able to highlight the achievements, awards and challenges of every winning organization, however we hope you will take time to explore each of these fascinating and fearless organizations to see their impact and what they have learned!

 

Reimagining our cities: the Techonomic future

Posted on by Case Foundation

There are few settings more appropriate than Detroit for a conference focused on the intersection of technology and the economy – and its effect on the way we live in cities in the US and around the world. Detroit has, of course, seen its share of challenges over the past few decades, but as the city comes out of bankruptcy, there is a palpable energy amongst individuals across the business, nonprofit and public sectors who are all playing a key role in reimagining Detroit’s future – a future in which data, new technology and innovative new approaches will be critical.

It is because of that energy that we were excited to return to Detroit for the third annual Techonomy Detroit conference, which brings together a group of influencers and thought leaders from across sectors to “better understand how to move the U.S., and the world, into an urbanized, technologized, inclusive future.”

We were proud that our CEO Jean Case was invited to participate in a fascinating discussion alongside Rip Rapson, CEO of the Kresge Foundation, about the ever-changing role of foundations in cities; moderated by Nolan Finley of the Detroit News. The Kresge Foundation is known for its leading role in several initiatives focused on building for Detroit’s post-bankruptcy future, as part of its $25.5M Re-Imagining Detroit portfolio. When the foundation decided to take the risk and new direction of stepping in where government could not, Rapson shared that not everyone was sold on the idea: “what push back didn’t I get?” he joked.

Channeling our Be Fearless campaign, Jean reflected on the need for foundations to take risks and shared more about our role in creating catalytic initiatives and cross-sector partnerships that we hope will build the foundation for innovating when it comes to solving our big social challenges. (You can watch the full video of the session here).

The day also featured sessions with a range of thinkers and doers all playing a role in rethinking the way we get around, how we pay for goods and services, what and how we share (information and physical assets), how we improve the connections between government and the citizens they serve, and how we unlock value from the wealth of data available to us.

It’s probably not surprising that the last point was a constant throughout all of the sessions. Local governments are leveraging data to improve civic services; data is a key driver for sharing economy companies to appropriately allocate resources and assets; and citizens can tap into data to evaluate the performance of public officials/services and companies.

But not everyone is so bullish on data. In a passionate and provocative talk, TechCrunch’s Andrew Keen, author of the book “The Internet is Not the Answer,” shared his view on the dangers of sharing so much information and data for free. He warned about the intentions of companies who are collecting our data, reminding the audience that these organizations are ultimately in the for-profit business, a point that was countered in an engaging discussion between Detroit CIO Beth Niblock and Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and CEO of Square. Jack shared more about his current endeavors at Square, which is focused on providing crucial access to capital for merchants, and noted his company’s vested interest in helping small businesses – crucial to growing and maintaining a strong economy – as a social impact that is baked into their business model.

When asked what keeps him coming back to Detroit, Dorsey said it was “the energy, the soul, the fight” he sees in the city. That beautifully sums up our excitement about the future of cities like Detroit – a future that will be driven by technology, transparency and an “all oars in the water” approach that brings citizens, business, government, academia and philanthropy together.

Curious to see more? A recording of the full Techonomy Detroit conference can be found here.

Commencement Address to the Graduates of the Lilly School of Philanthropy

Posted on by Case Foundation

Below is a transcript of Jean Case’s remarks to graduates at the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy commencement ceremony, delivered May 11, 2014.

Thank you, all. And thank you, Dean Tempel, for this great honor you’ve conferred on me today.

On this happy and hopeful occasion, it is truly my delight to be here with you at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis… the school with the most letters in its name… and the most talented women and men of letters to its name.

To the graduates, friends, family, fathers I say congratulations. And – especially today, of all days – to my fellow moms: I can’t think of a better – or more fitting – Mother’s Day gift than you are receiving today. Congratulations to you and Happy Mother’s Day!

So, graduates, if I were sitting in your seat right now I’d be thinking: what is she going to say today that will really matter anyway? Well, it might surprise you to learn that the subject I want to talk you about today is simply the subject of “Normal.” Really.

What do I mean by that? Well to start with, I’m kind of uniquely qualified to talk about this topic since I was born in a small college town in the state right next door – in a place called, Normal, Illinois. But I left Normal in 1971 at the age of 11, and some who know me joke that I’ve been trying to get back to “Normal” ever since.

But seriously, knowing as well as I do that I’m standing in the nation’s center of excellence in philanthropy here at Indiana University… an institution we at the Case Foundation look to for data, for analysis, and leadership… it is clear to me that by choosing to study here you have already set your sights abnormally and exceptionally high.

So … what I want to talk to you about today is setting those sights on redefining “Normal” for the 21st Century and just maybe for all time.

Your area of study, focus, and hopefully passion – that of philanthropy – simply could not be more important. Why? Because the traditional models are broken. The old way of doing things no longer works. To address today’s daunting challenges that dog our communities and our planet, we need to retool, rethink and reinvent.

It’s time for us to be bold… to act with urgency… and to resist the tendency to let caution be our guide.

In short, as we go about addressing the world’s most daunting challenges, it’s time for us to Be Fearless.

To that end, I want to pass on to you five principles – hallmarks of the most effective social movements and transformative breakthroughs of our time.

At the Case Foundation, we try to incorporate them into everything we do… at every level of our organization.

To us, these five principles define what it means to be fearless and effective social innovators.

So no matter what you do next or where you land – whether you join a foundation, work in the government or nonprofit sectors, or perhaps passionately pursue change through a business or entrepreneurial effort – I firmly believe these principles can apply to drive impact and lead us closer to a new and more effective “Normal.”

Principle #1: Let urgency conquer fear.

If you’re anything like me, you feel deeply what Martin Luther King, Jr., called “the fierce urgency of now.”

And you – better than anyone – understand exactly what Bono meant when he said, “That’s not a cause. That’s an emergency.”

I challenge you to consider your own big idea, and become the activist committed to urgently setting it in motion.

You never know when these moments might come. Consider Nigeria today: a very, very dangerous place. A place where the rule of law is all-too-absent and literally thousands of citizens have been brutalized and killed. To speak up or speak out is to risk your life. Yet there was something about the abduction of a few hundred school girls by extremists that caused Nigerians – most of them women – to let urgency conquer fear and take to the streets in protest and to appeal for help in finding the girls and stopping the madness. Now governments around the world have responded, a Twitter campaign with the hashtag “#BringBackOurGirls” has gone viral across nations. The issue of slavery and human trafficking is being talked about in the halls of Congress, in homes and in schools, and the world is waking up. In writing about what is happening in Nigeria, a piece in the Economist ran with a subhead: “Patience is not a virtue.” And CNN quoted a parent who simply said: “We cannot let this be the new normal.”

There is nothing stopping you from assuming that same urgent mindset right now on things you care about. It is the crucial first step every great social innovator ever took.

So don’t overthink. Don’t overanalyze. Do… and start doing right now as you leave this place.

Principle #2: Make big bets and make history.

When I talked about defining your own “big” idea, I meant it.

If humanity is to meet intractable challenges like homelessness, illiteracy and climate change, incremental efforts won’t do the trick. Your goal must be absolute audaciousness. It was President Kennedy who said, “We go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard,” at a time when our nation was utterly unprepared to do so. Less than decade later, we landed men on the moon and returned them safely to earth. Today at Google they are highly focused on what they call “moonshots” – audacious ideas that can benefit at least a billion people. What is your “moonshot” and how will you keep it in your crosshairs as you go forth?

Principle #3: Reach beyond your bubble and take risks.

Today, you are leaving the world where there is a business school over there… social sciences over there… and philanthropy here. A world where people are separated by their interests and passions. Tomorrow, these divisions can evaporate.

Innovation often happens at the intersections between organizations… between committed people who bring differing backgrounds, skillsets and their own unique perspectives.

So consider every opportunity to learn from and grow alongside people who come from other industries… other backgrounds… other geographies. Ask yourself, who is not at this table and whose voice isn’t being heard or which ideas are not being considered as you tackle big problems.

Consider how powerful it could be for you to collaborate with an MBA grad to start a social enterprise to make sure every person in the world has access to clean water… or a public policy grad to make sure no one has to sleep on the street in your community again.

The truth is, you don’t need to join a foundation to do the work of changing the world.

You can be a changemaker in a corporate environment. Help steer their products and services. Or help start a new business that brings benefit to the world’s poorest populations.

You can advise an investment fund. Help analysts find companies or bonds that bring a social benefit… while growing their portfolios.

It will be up to you to take the concepts and methods you learned here… to bring your skills and experience to bear… and see philanthropy through every lens and make sure every sector is part of the solution.

Principle #4: Take risks. Experiment early and often.

In Silicon Valley, the common practice is to create a “minimum viable product.” The idea being, don’t wait for perfect. Get started, put stuff out there, see what works, refine it, measure what happens or how people respond, change it and learn along the way how to bring excellence.

If we agree old models are broken, then we need to innovate. And if we are going to innovate, we must take risk, try new things. Don’t be afraid to go first. Don’t wait for the perfect solution you wish you had.

Believe me: it can get messy along the way. And that’s exactly the way it should be.

Principle #5: Make failure matter.

A born-and-bred Midwesterner, Minister Robert Schuller raised the question: “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”

You’ve already accomplished so much and have so much to be proud of. So it falls on me to encourage you to start failing on the road forward.

It was Thomas Edison who said, “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 things that don’t work.”

Simply put, if you are innovating, you are taking risks. If you are taking risks, you will experience failure. Failure teaches. Learn from it. If it happens, fail fast, fail forward and use the experience to get closer to what WILL work.

At the Case Foundation, we expect to have a few failures in the things we set out to do – not because we like to – and we don’t — but because it is proof that our goals have met the minimum required levels of audaciousness. If we simply sail through everything without bumps, mistakes or failures along the way, we think we aren’t trying hard enough to bring transformative change.

So when I say “be fearless,” I also mean feel free to fail. Because failure means you’re getting somewhere.

So in closing, I just want to say, there is no GPS to your future. But if I could reprogram Siri for you, I’d have you hold the home key and have her remind you of the five Be Fearless principles: let urgency conquer fear … set audacious goals… reach beyond your bubble … experiment and take risks… and if you fail, fail forward.

These are the hallmarks of the transformative breakthroughs that have benefited society.

These are the principles you can combine with the concepts and methods you have learned here.

I firmly believe they will help you converse and collaborate, and create a new and better “Normal” in the world – one that benefits humanity and dignifies all people.

Put them in your tool box. And then, put them to work.

Because there’s simply no time to spare. Where some see a cause, you here at the nation’s first School of Philanthropy see an emergency.

So be the first responder. Bring your biggest ideas. And above all – be fearless.

If the progress you make tomorrow can match the promise you have today, I firmly believe that your generation will become the next Greatest Generation.

Thank you. Congratulations Class of 2014. And now go change the world!

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