Be Fearless

Fearless Focus: Barbara Van Dahlen

Posted on by Case Foundation

In our journey to Be Fearless and champion a fearless approach to tackling social challenges, the Case Foundation will spotlight leading changemakers across sectors that have embraced fearlessness. Our spotlights will provide personal accounts of why these changemakers adopted a fearless approach, how they overcame hurdles, and how taking risks, being bold, and failing forward led to quicker results and deeper impact.

This Fearless Focus is on Barbara Van Dahlen, Ph.D., Founder & President of Give an Hour™, a national nonprofit organization that provides free mental health care to our returning troops, their families, and their communities.  Barbara was recently named to the TIME 100 list for her efforts in creating and leading Give an Hour to help fill a critical need for mental health services for our nation’s military.  Admiral Mike Mullen shared more about Barbara’s fearless work with TIME:

“Through her organization, Give an Hour, she has mobilized thousands of mental-health professionals to volunteer countless hours of counseling for those in need, at a time when there is a critical shortfall in the military and throughout our country.

Barbara has tenaciously attacked the epidemic of posttraumatic stress disorder, helping break through the stigma that prevents many from seeking help. She has also created an opportunity for many who have not served in uniform to make a difference.

Barbara cares for people and is dedicated to making their lives better. She has served thousands nobly and has been an extraordinary example for all of us in her life and her giving.”

I am the president and founder of Give an Hour and a licensed clinical psychologist. I am also the mother of two girls who will inherit the world that I leave behind.

There are many social issues, both local and global, that require our attention. Some appear more urgent than others, but all result in suffering and should, therefore, concern us. In order to successfully address any one of these issues we must be determined, resourceful, and yes, we must be fearless. We must be willing to face rejection of our ideas-not once but repeatedly. We must be able to withstand uncertainty, doubt, and disappointment-for if the tasks were easy, others would have accomplished them long ago.  And we must tolerate the limitations of others and ourselves-for if any of us were perfect, social issues like the ones that burden our communities (poverty, illiteracy, homelessness, hunger) would be rare occurrences indeed.

My father taught me to be fearless. He was a World War II veteran. He served in the Navy in the Pacific. He fought in battles, he was injured, and he never talked about it. But he did talk about honor and integrity and service. He raised four children, for many years by himself. He taught by example, and he never took the easy way out. He followed his principles, and he encouraged his children to follow theirs even if they differed from his. He valued honesty and directness, and he always spoke up when he saw an injustice. I learned how to accept adversity – and how to appreciate my accomplishments – from my dad. I admired his compassion and selflessness, and I learned that if you find your passion and you focus on a mission that is greater than yourself, being fearless sort of comes with the territory.

Two years ago our organization faced a crossroads. No one on staff (other than my vice president, who has been my trusted partner from the beginning) knew about the crisis. We had expected to receive continued funding from a major sponsor, but a decision that had nothing to do with us changed their funding priorities. It was a very uncertain and difficult time. I worried about our staff members, their families, and our mission. Rather than allow our fear to paralyze us, we developed a plan to save our organization and its mission-even if it meant turning over the reins of GAH to another organization. Fortunately, the head of the foundation that had provided our funding, with whom I had a wonderful relationship, championed our cause and secured a chunk of funding to help us during the transition. No one was laid off, and no programs suffered. Within a few months we had several additional funding streams in place, and Give an Hour has continued to expand ever since.

Launching and growing a nonprofit organization in the current climate within our country is very difficult indeed. But it isn’t impossible. Funders want to support good programs. It is important that nonprofits provide a quality “product.” It is critical that we engage in best practices when we can find them-and create them when they don’t exist. If we are successful in accomplishing this, then foundations and corporations will support our critical efforts. In our case our funder was so pleased with what we had accomplished with their generous financial gift that he stepped up to ensure that we had the funding we needed to continue our mission.

Fearless Focus: Doug Holladay

Posted on by Case Foundation

In our journey to Be Fearless and champion a fearless approach to tackling social challenges, the Case Foundation team will spotlight leading changemakers across sectors that have embraced fearlessness. Our spotlights will provide personal accounts of why these changemakers adopted a fearless approach, how they overcame hurdles, and how taking risks, being bold, and failing forward led to quicker results and deeper impact.

We spoke with Doug Holladay, CEO of Buxton Initiative & PathNorth, former Special Ambassador to South Africa, Goldman Sachs executive officer, and advisor to Presidents and military brass alike. Doug’s strong belief in change and the opportunities we can gain from taking risks have shaped his stellar life of service and led him to co-found a movement to bring leaders of different faiths together for honest and constructive conversation in the weeks immediately following 9/11, and continues today.

 

You can watch Doug’s answers to our questions in the video above, or share each segment individually:
What do you think it means to Be Fearless in approaching social challenges?
Tell us about a time when you and your organization were Fearless.
What did you learn & what advice would you give other organizations facing a similar decision point?
What inspired your organization to Be Fearless?

Learn more about Doug Holladay here. Read more about Be Fearless campaign. Know someone that we should spotlight for Fearless Focus? Let us know here in the comments or tell us on twitter @casefoundation using #befearless.

My Fearless moment: Saying “Yes” to a Startup

Posted on by Case Foundation

This post was written by Chris Fowler on behalf of the Case Foundation:

I’ve worked with or at the Case Foundation for more than five years now. And for the past six months, I’ve had the honor of being the Foundation’s Director of Marketing and Partnerships. During that time, we’ve strengthened our partnership with Startup America, continued our support of non-profits taking an entrepreneurial approach to their work, and made a commitment to Be Fearless. Roll all those things together and you’ve got a pretty compelling narrative.

Startups + entrepreneurship + Be Fearless.

I’ll admit it. I’ve caught the bug. And that’s why in early April, I will join a former colleague at a DC-based, digital and mobile design startup.

To be frank, I have some fear about becoming an entrepreneur. Fear that I’ve missed my window for such a thing at the ripe age of 34. But maybe that’s not quite right. The Founder Institute has research that shows the average age of a founder is 34.4 years. And the Wall Street Journal puts me in the majority of entrepreneurs-the 86% of whom are 39 or younger. Maybe instead of being fearful, I should accept that this is all happening just in time.

I’ve learned an important lesson going through this process: When faced with this-or any-fear, you can find the strength and courage to work through it. Those things that help you break through may not always come from the same place. They may come from your personal experiences and research, or from external sources like supportive friends, family or mentors. But it’s important to find “it”, to Be Fearless and make things happen.

So, while I have all the natural fears and anxiety about starting something new, I am more excited about our potential, and for the opportunity to build and grow a business with a great colleague and collaborator.

I’m ready for this.

I’ve committed to Be Fearless.

Fearless Focus: Scott Case

Posted on by Case Foundation

In our journey to Be Fearless and champion a fearless approach to tackling social challenges, the Case Foundation team will spotlight leading changemakers across sectors that have embraced fearlessness. Our spotlights will provide personal accounts of why these changemakers adopted a fearless approach, how they overcame hurdles, and how taking risks, being bold, and failing forward led to quicker results and deeper impact.

We begin our Fearless Focus series with Scott Case, CEO of Startup America Partnership, and former CEO of Malaria No More and co-founder of Priceline. From setting big goals to end malaria deaths by 2015 and adding a dose of humor to a serious health issue, to taking inspiration from the entrepreneurs Startup America supports, Scott Case prides himself on not letting fear stand in the way.


You can watch Scott’s answers to our questions in the video above, or share each segment individually:
What do you think it means to Be Fearless in approaching social challenges?
Tell us about a time when you and your organization were Fearless.
What did you learn & what advice would you give other organizations facing a similar decision point?
What inspired your organization to Be Fearless?

Learn more about Scott Case here. Read more about Be Fearless Campaign. Know someone that we should spotlight for Fearless Focus? Let us know here in the comments or tell us on twitter @casefoundation using #befearless.

The World Needs Us to Be Fearless

Posted on by Case Foundation

When we look at the state of the world today, we see a mixed picture. Rapid innovation in an increasingly connected society is transforming the way we work, play, and live. But we also see global economic woes, civic unrest, and political stalemates. As a result, social issues that challenge communities both domestically and globally are becoming more urgent and interconnected.

Meanwhile, those of us charged with finding or funding solutions to chronic social challenges — philanthropy, government, nonprofits — seem to be moving too slowly and often operating with the same set of tools, concepts, and cautions of the generations before us. If we’re going to keep up with the rapid pace of change and the daunting volume and complexities of these challenges, we must rethink traditional models. The old way of doing things is simply no longer effective in this new world. It’s time for all of us to take risks on new ideas, approaches, and initiatives. It’s time for us to be bold, to act with urgency, and to resist the tendency to let caution be our guide. It’s time for us to Be Fearless.

The Case Foundation turns 15 this year, and as we approach that milestone we’ve been taking a hard look at our own evolution and the world around us. Looking back over all the efforts we’ve undertaken through the years, we found that we were most successful when we were fearless — when we have explored and experimented — and the least successful when fear or caution somehow became a dominant driver of decision making. Interestingly, we observe a similar pattern with many of our partners and colleagues in the sector. But what exactly does it mean to Be Fearless?

Because the very idea of Fearlessness can bring out fears, it’s important to state up front what it isn’t: we’re not talking about reckless abandon here. We’re talking about sincere, diligent efforts to innovate — to find new ways to try to solve old problems. In short, to adopt a set of “Fearless Principles” that can create a roadmap for attempting to disrupt old, ineffective efforts with new approaches that might represent measurable progress. Here are some initial thoughts:

Dream big: The easy road in any undertaking is to set comfortable, realistic goals. But if we’re truly going to Be Fearless — and find breakthrough opportunities to change the world, we must set audacious goals. Many of the most significant and breakthrough efforts throughout history were made possible simply because someone decided to dream big. President Kennedy’s call to go to the moon, Thomas Edison’s passionate pursuit of electricity that could light and guide our world, our forefathers’ audacious vision for a free and independent United States — these are all examples of big dreams and audacious goals in their time that have changed our world forever. In more recent examples within the social change sector, we can point to global efforts to eradicate malaria deaths by 2015.

Specifically, the UN Special Envoy for Malaria, Ray Chambers, who brought together a coalition of great organizations like Malaria No More (which he co-founded), Roll Back Malaria, and the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets, and of course the Gates Foundation, to work toward this incredibly ambitious goal. Their fearless efforts have already shown great strides — malaria prevention tactics have led to a fall in malaria deaths of more than 33 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2000.

Experiment (& take risks!): Things are moving so quickly today and the playing field is changing constantly. As such, our experiments have to keep up. While it’s important to look at the long term and longitudinal, society can’t wait (and technologies won’t wait) for a 30-year study and quadruple double blind test group. We have to experiment constantly even if we don’t have the perfect set of circumstances — when we’re finished with one experiment we need to be thinking about the next. And, when we think a certain intervention is working we have to be looking down the road to see what new tools or new dynamics will challenge our assumptions or provide an even better solution. It’s this type of thinking that has kept companies like Apple and Southwest ahead of the game while less nimble and often bigger players have fallen behind.

Acknowledge the ups and downs: “So, what do we do next?” According to reports, that is the brave response Bill Gates offered in 2010 upon learning that the Gates Foundation’s $700 million polio effort had fallen short of stopping the disease from spreading throughout Africa. And when things aren’t humming along as planned, rather than try to sweep it under the rug, “What do we do next?” is exactly the right question to ask. We have certainly experienced failure, and completely sympathized with Bill Gates’ question when our work on the PlayPumps initiative didn’t turn out as we’d hoped. Because we took swift action to modify our approach and shared our lessons with the world, we not only increased our opportunity for impact, but know that countless others will learn from our experience. Look at any great business today and chances are their road to success included low moments that required fresh, new thinking and important course corrections. For many of us — whether it’s in our personal or professional lives — coming up short or failing big can stop us dead in our tracks, often times preventing us from ever putting our necks on the line again or avoiding a certain topic or task all together. A Fearless mindset owns those missteps and uses them as rungs on a ladder to propel you to your next victory.

Sometimes, it feels like philanthropic and social good efforts are held to a different standard. Since we are dealing with people and not products, all too often there is less tolerance for mistakes, which leads many organizations to become risk-averse. And when mistakes are made, the tendency is to hide them like “that” distant cousin we all have that no one talks about — thus depriving the sector of important lessons learned. In reality, the very nature of innovation requires that we try new things and take risks — because no matter the outcome, we can learn from our experiences and strive to do even better in the future.

Don’t fear failure: Countless business leaders, iconic entrepreneurs, and historical changemakers have shared their stories of failure that ultimately paved the way to success — Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, Oprah Winfrey was fired from her job as a TV reporter, Henry Ford started five failed businesses before creating his famous American car company, and Nelson Mandela served 26 years in a prison cell before emerging to become the leader of a free South Africa. Entrepreneurs actually wear failure as a badge of honor, commonly touting the companies they started and folded before finding the right spark. While no one ever hopes for failure, and with much on the line, it’s natural to be afraid to fail — but the important part is that we “fail forward” as philanthropic consultant Lucy Bernholz terms it.

Mix It Up: When it comes to social change, we often think of the same organizations and types of people moving the needle forward — and partnerships across sectors are too few and far between. But what about stepping outside of the lines, playing a little mix and match, and seeing what might happen? When the opportunity arose in late 2010 to partner with the Kauffman Foundation to help lead a cross-sector effort supporting job creation through entrepreneurship, we jumped at the chance — even though the Case Foundation hadn’t traditionally been involved in economic development issues. But we believed in the initiative’s tremendous potential, and past efforts gave us confidence in creating a coalition across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and thus the Startup America Partnership was born. And now, a year later, the effort has raised more than a billion dollars in resources from the private sector, launched nearly 20 statewide partnerships, and raised the conversation about the importance of entrepreneurs in healing our nation’s economy and joblessness. Time and time again cross-sector partnerships that buck tradition have proven this African proverb to be true … “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Since we introduced the concept of being fearless in our organization, it has been amazing for us to realize how many decisions we all make in a given day out of fear … how much to spend, which path to take, which person to hire, what offers to accept, what words to say. We also realized that Being Fearless is not easy.

In 2012 and beyond, inspired by the challenges we face and the opportunities we are afforded, we’re officially declaring our intention to Be Fearless in all that we do … in our approach to philanthropy, social change, and social good — and we hope you’ll join us in this journey.

In the next few months, you’ll hear a lot more from us on this subject … we’ll highlight fearless leaders and everyday heroes alike, we’ll explore the elements of fearlessness and how they can be applied across the sectors, we’ll search for fearless individuals around the country and fund ongoing acts of fearlessness, we’ll spark a conversation across the social good community about how we can embrace a fearless mindset, and most importantly we’ll wear fearless-colored glasses to make sure everything we do to invest and people and ideas that can change the world is done without fear.

For now, we need your help to jump start this conversation by sharing with us examples of people you know that have been fearless and why, fearless social good initiatives, fearless leaders, fearless organizations, or your personal stories of fearlessness. So, let’s get started. Will you Be Fearless with us?

Please share your thoughts on what it means to Be Fearless — whether in the comments below, using #BeFearless on Twitter, or on our Facebook page … we want to hear from YOU!

Black Friday … Cyber Monday … here comes #GivingTuesday!

Posted on by Case Foundation

This post was written by Henry Timms on behalf of the Case Foundation:

“Yes—these feel completely right!”

That was my first reaction to the Case Foundation’s five Be Fearless principles. My next was, “I need to double down on all five…”

I suspect many people have had a similar response. Certainly when we have made progress with the #GivingTuesday movement, it has often come from taking Be Fearless steps. Make Big Bets; Reach Beyond Your Bubble; Let Urgency Conquer Fear—these have proved themselves ideas to live by.

Following Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday is a campaign to add a national day of giving to the calendar. This campaign came to life here at 92nd Street Y, in close partnership with our friends at the UN Foundation. And from a standing start, we have now been joined by over 1,000 organizations in all fifty states.

So on Tuesday, November 27, charities, companies, institutions and individuals will come together to encourage people to “commit an act of giving.” Whether that means participating in a food drive, making a special donation or volunteering your time, #GivingTuesday is a day to celebrate our country’s great tradition of giving, and to support the cause that matters most to you.

All kinds of plans are in the works. A group of pilots have come together to provide funding to enable people with disabilities to learn to fly. A newsroom of writers in Salt Lake City are drafting letters of encouragement to people in recovery. Families all over the country are planning book drives and family gifts to encourage the next generation of philanthropists.

Major organizations are making big bets on #GivingTuesday. Microsoft and Global Giving have partnered on a $100,000 matching campaign to support global youth. On #GivingTuesday, JC Penney will be giving up to $100,000 to the Salvation Army in an innovative button campaign (as well as having a live John Legend performance and free hot chocolate for New Yorkers!). Unilever will run its first-ever company-wide food drive for Feeding America, in 30 locations across the US.

It’s especially rewarding to see the innovative partnership that has been created between three #GivingTuesday founding partners, the Case Foundation, CrowdRise, and SixDegrees.org. On #GivingTuesday, the Case Foundation is providing $25,000 in matching donations, and SixDegrees.org is adding in additional $10,000—so if you use Crowdrise to contribute to any cause or nonprofit on #GivingTuesday on this page on CrowdRise, your contribution will be matched up to $35,000.

As we enter the holiday season, let me encourage you to add a new date to your diary. Join us on Tuesday, November 27—the first #GivingTuesday. And help make it a date that will live on the American calendar every year.

No matter what you give, no matter which cause you support, take the time to get together with people everywhere to participate in one of our country’s proudest traditions. And make sure you tweet and post about what you are giving.

In Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we have two days that are good for the economy. Help launch a new day that’s good for the soul.

Henry Timms is the Deputy Executive Director of Strategy, Content and Innovation at the 92 Street Y in New York City.

The painful acknowledgment of coming up short

Posted on by Case Foundation

“So, what do we do next?” According to reports, that is the response Bill Gates offered upon learning that the Gates Foundation‘s $700 million polio effort had fallen short of stopping the disease from spreading throughout Africa. Indeed, instead of putting a once-and-for-all stop to the disease, an outbreak had struck and was spreading through some of the very countries targeted for eradication. At the moment I read his response, I felt his pain. Imagine putting up such a significant sum from the goodness of your heart, committing your time, the talent of people you admire and respect and putting yourself out there in a really big way to meet a really big challenge and then … learning it didn’t exactly work the way you’d planned for and the way you passionately hoped it would.

When I say I get this, I really get this. On a dramatically smaller scale, at the Case Foundation we’ve had to face our own hard moments when reality has set in and you realize that the big opportunity you were chasing is looking more like a really big challenge that is hard to overcome. Things don’t materialize as envisioned, and you fall short of your mark. It’s easy to feel discouraged or even embarrassed. You can’t help but worry about what people will think, or the price you might pay in the court of public opinion.

We experienced this recently, as we had to re-think our involvement in the PlayPumps initiative, which brings clean drinking water to rural African villages. When we were first introduced to the technology, we believed both the technology and the business model for its deployment had enormous potential and jumped in with both feet to help create PlayPumps International-U.S. as a US-based fundraising and marketing organization to support the initiative. As we’ve noted in the past, we’re proud of the successes the initiative has had – PlayPumps are now bringing play opportunities and improved access to safe water in hundreds of communities and schools in Africa. In addition, these efforts have helped spark a number of new play-related technologies now being offered by various organizations and the initiative has highlighted the important role that social entrepreneurship can play in global development. However, we also acknowledge that the organization has fallen short of the aggressive goals that were developed at the outset, and all involved have learned many lessons.

As I noted last fall, we learned that doing work on the ground in Africa is hard and humbling work, even more so than anticipated. We learned that PlayPumps perform best in certain community settings, such as at large primary schools, but they are not necessarily the right solution for other communities. And more broadly, we learned that however creative PlayPumps might be, they really are just one element in a larger portfolio of possible solutions that can be tailored to meet the safe water needs of specific rural communities. In addition, while there have been successes in implementing the PlayPumps technology, and we believe in the entrepreneurial approach of the PlayPumps model, a combination of factors made execution of the original model we envisioned when creating PlayPumps International-U.S. a significant challenge.

Of course, there really is only one appropriate response when things aren’t humming along as planned, and it is the same response Bill Gates offered, “So, what do we do next?” Because just like in business ventures, personal undertakings and public sector initiatives, things often go wrong. The unexpected happens. Reality doesn’t always play out like the business plan calls for. Look at any great business today and chances are their road to success was fraught with potholes – low moments that required fresh, new thinking and important course corrections. As a nation, I think we’ve learned that progress comes through trial and error, and much of what we enjoy today is because somebody somewhere was willing to blaze new ground.

In the case of PlayPumps, there were essentially three options. One was to stay the course, ignore the emerging realities, and stubbornly continue on a path that the growing evidence was suggesting was unwise. A second would be to pull the plug on the effort, and conclude that the time and capital was better invested elsewhere. And the third was to take a step back and regroup, and undertake efforts to go forward in a new and more effective way. For PlayPumps International-U.S., the third path was the right one. The belief that clean water was one of the great issues of our time hadn’t changed – but there were likely better ways to advance the initiative. In May 2009, the board of PlayPumps International-U.S. brought in a new CEO to identify a new path forward. Under his leadership, in October of last year, the organization announced a grant of funds and technology to Water For People, which now offers PlayPumps as part of a larger portfolio of solutions from which rural African communities can choose. At the same time, we announced an investment by the Case Foundation in Water For People to help the organization accelerate and expand its efforts in Africa. For nearly 20 years, Water For People has pioneered innovative approaches to safe water supply, empowering communities and utilizing local entrepreneurs for sustainable operations and maintenance, and we truly believe that their approach represents a step forward for the PlayPumps technology.

It sometimes feels like philanthropic efforts are held to a different standard than in the private or public sectors. All too often there is less tolerance for mistakes, which leads many organizations to become risk-adverse. And when mistakes are made, the tendency is to sweep them under the carpet – thus depriving the sector of important lessons learned. But in reality, the very nature of innovation requires that we try new things and take risks. Sometimes they will work, other times they won’t – but in all cases, we should learn from our experiences and strive to do even better in the future. Of course we would have liked PlayPumps to have achieved the reach and impact to date that we originally envisioned – it’s much more fun to talk about successes than disappointments. The bottom line is that hundreds of African communities now have greater access to clean water and the revised efforts working with Water for People will further improve its availability. Together with other sector efforts and replication of the concept, we do believe African communities will be better served and the interventions more sustainable because of the important course corrections we’ve put in place. Might we have to revisit the strategy again and adapt along the way? Maybe. Turns out innovating is hard work anywhere and anytime. In the developing world even more so. But if the philanthropic sector is transparent about mistakes and lessons along the way, and adapts as the situation calls for, hopefully we’ll all end up a little wiser and a little closer to solutions that can more effectively address the daunting challenges of our day.

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