The Next Phase of Be Fearless: The Book

Posted on September 20, 2018October 25, 2018 by Case Foundation

It’s an exciting day at the Case Foundation! Today Simon & Schuster announced the upcoming publication of Be Fearless: Five Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose, a book I’ve written to inform and inspire everyone who wants to a make a difference in their work, their community and in their lives. The book will be released January 8, 2019 and available for presale today.

It wasn’t long ago that we at the Case Foundation engaged a team of experts to determine the “secret sauce” that propelled those rare individuals, organizations, and movements to breakthrough and achieve extraordinary impact. What we discovered would become known as the Be Fearless principles—five principles that are consistently present when transformational breakthroughs take place—across sectors and across the world. With a mix of storytelling and strategy, practical tips and lessons, this book makes clear that fearlessness is not the lack of fear, but rather the strength and courage to overcome it.

When we first introduced the research, we engaged hundreds of partners to help us spread the word, including many of you, and we have remained committed to encouraging changemakers everywhere to Be Fearless in their endeavors to make the world a better place. Since the founding of the Case Foundation, I’ve had the privilege of engaging with thousands of individuals and organizations across the world who are making big bets, taking risks, applying lessons of failure, building unlikely partnerships, and letting urgency conquer fear. The people and stories I have witnessed have greatly inspired our work, and now I am excited to share some of them with the world. In addition, this book reaches back to other stories from leaders and changemakers over the last hundred years that demonstrate the power of the Be Fearless principles at work. This book even includes your stories! Through Finding Fearless, people across the world wrote in and shared their stories of fearlessness, both their own and the stories they admire. You’ll find some of their stories throughout the chapters. It is truly my hope that you’ll find inspiration as you learn about ordinary people who ended up doing extraordinary things.

Be Fearless is deeply personal for me too. In it, I share my own Be Fearless journey—highlighting those moments that have transformed my life and my work, including some of my own big bets, risks I took, and yes, my own failures.

We know many of you have worked hand-in-hand with us on Be Fearless before, and we hope that you will continue to embrace these principles and help spread the word to a larger audience—working alongside us to build a fearless movement of changemakers who will boldly work to change the world. If you’d like to work together with us in this mission, here’s how you can help:

Pre-order your copy of Be Fearless today for yourself or someone you know;
Identify ways to work Be Fearless into an upcoming event and reach out to BeFearlessBook@CaseFoundation.org so we can be of assistance with your planning;
Help us spread the word about the Be Fearless message. Sign up to receive emails on how you can become part of our Be Fearless community, with updates and resources to keep you inspired.

It is with immense gratitude to our partners and larger Be Fearless community, as well as all of those whose stories have inspired us, that we bring this book to life in 2019. When we set out to share the Be Fearless principles in 2012, we could not have imagined the incredible outpouring of support and engagement in this work. We are grateful that you have taken this journey with us so far, and are excited to take this next step.

Together, we can change the world.

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Be Fearless: Five Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose will hit shelves at a bookstore near you on January 8, 2019. In the meantime, learn more by visiting the book website, watching inspiring stories on our Be Fearless Facebook Show, or downloading resources on the Be Fearless Hub. All proceeds will be driven back into the Case Foundation’s core work: Investing in People and Ideas That Can Change the World.

A Clarion Call to #BeFearless

Posted on July 23, 2018October 25, 2018 by Case Foundation

As summer is in full swing, it’s easy to put graduation season behind us. But as students across the nation now prepare for the next step in their life journeys—many of them with a passion to turn their idealism into action to create a better world—they have a timeless treasure trove of advice heard across campuses and across the country from esteemed leaders whose wisdom could be summed up in two worlds: Be Fearless. Indeed, the messages in the commencement addresses in 2018 can be a clarion call to ANYONE who wants to make a difference in this world, no matter age or stage. Here are some highlights:

Tim Cook at Duke University

Apple CEO Tim Cook challenged Duke University graduates to Be Fearless saying:

Fearlessness means taking the first step, even if you don’t know where it will take you. It means being driven by a higher purpose, rather than by applause. It means knowing that you reveal your character when you stand apart, more than when you stand with the crowd. If you step up, without fear of failure… if you talk and listen to each other, without fear of rejection… if you act with decency and kindness, even when no one is looking, even if it seems small or inconsequential, trust me, the rest will fall into place. More importantly, you’ll be able to tackle the big things when they come your way. It’s in those truly trying moments that the fearless inspire us. Fearless like the students of Parkland, Florida—who refuse to be silent about the epidemic of gun violence, and have rallied millions to their cause. Fearless like the women who say “me, too” and “time’s up”… women who cast light into dark places, and move us toward a more just and equal future. Fearless like those who fight for the rights of immigrants… who understand that our only hopeful future is one that embraces all who want to contribute. Duke graduates, be fearless.

Cook inspired the graduates to stand strong against challenges and stay fearless in their fight for justice, equality and a better world. He ended his speech with fearless words of wisdom from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: “The time is always right to do right.”

Abby Wambach at Barnard College

Soccer star and activist Amy Wambach gave a widely heralded speech to Barnard College graduates calling on them to make “make failure [their] fuel,” highlighting her own struggles and the struggles of many women coming up against the wage gap—and her vision of overcoming it.

It is well worth watching as Wambach used the Little Red Riding Hood story to weave in a metaphor for fearlessness, urging the women at Barnard to challenge expectations, to fight the “archaic ways of thinking about women, about people of color,” and to seek leadership positions so they could make a greater impact.

Chadwick Boseman at Howard University

When actor Chadwick Boseman spoke at his alma mater, Howard University this year, he spoke candidly about being typecast and asked to play into a racist stereotype for a TV role early in his career. He shared how he stood up to those who were trying to pigeonhole him—a decision that had an immediate impact on his career, yet paved the way for the iconic roles he’s known for today, like Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall and T’Challa. And this journey has given him some great insight about overcoming failure:

Sometimes you need to get knocked down to realize what your purpose is.

Boseman punctuated his speech with an important lesson of perseverance, saying:

Sometimes you need to feel the pain and sting of defeat to activate the real passion and purpose that God predestined inside of you.

Jacqueline Novogratz at New York University

Jacqueline Novogratz, the founder and CEO of Acumen, spoke at the New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service 2018 Commencement. She highlighted how in her quest to better the world and philanthropy in her own way, she faced many obstacles where she had to overcome her own fears to persevere.

Novogratz encouraged the graduates to have courage in their own lives. She said,

Remember that each time you practice courage, you gain courage. Think of it is as a muscle you build for when you most need it.

In addition, Novogratz pushed the graduates to become not just professional leaders, but moral leaders, “because we need leaders who care about the world, not just themselves.” In her closing words, she acknowledges the struggle she went through in her endeavors, and invited the graduates to follow. She said,

The work of change is not easy. But you know that already. If you are here, you didn’t sign up for easy.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah took the stage before the students of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Oprah focused on the importance of speaking out against hatred and deceit—a truly fearless task facing today’s journalists. She inspired the graduates to be fearless in their endeavors to spread truth, wisdom and justice through journalism, declaring

You will become the new editorial gatekeepers, an ambitious army of truth seekers, who will arm yourselves with the intelligence, the insight, and the facts necessary to strike down deceit.

Speaking to the soon-to-be-journalists, Oprah reminded the graduates of the power they had to give voice to those who otherwise would be without it, encouraging them to use the platforms they have been given to “give voice to people who desperately now need to tell their stories.”

Mindy Kaling

The actress and comedian spoke at Dartmouth’s 2018 Commencement, integrating her funny, lighthearted style with poignant lessons for the recent graduates and calls to be fearless.

She encouraged graduates to go out into the world with fearless confidence.

“You are entering a world which we have toppled like a Jenga tower, and we’re relying on you to rebuild it (…) I’m giving you permission to root for yourself. And while you’re at it, root for those around you too.”

And Kaling called on the graduates to see themselves as change agents:

Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do something, but especially not yourself. Go and conquer the world. Just remember this: Why not you? You made it this far.

In short, she reminded them to Be Fearless.

These leaders told different stories and brought different perspectives, yet they all spoke to the 2018 graduates about being fearless, standing up for what’s right and speaking out about what’s wrong—even when a lot is on the line. As students begin to prepare for the start of another school year and we all look to make a difference, I hope their stories inspire you as much as they inspired me to Be Fearless in pursuit of your audacious goals and ideas.

Stories from Finding Fearless: Conchy Bretos

Posted on May 22, 2018October 25, 2018 by Case Foundation

Last year, I announced that I was writing a book about the Be Fearless principles featuring remarkable stories of people and organizations that embodied the principles. Simultaneously, we launched Finding Fearless, putting out a call for stories of people who could be featured in the book or in our general Be Fearless work. We had been featuring profiles for many years but wanted to hear what inspires you—whether it’s from your own journey or that of another individual, nonprofit, corporation or startup—and how they put Be Fearless to work.

I was deeply touched by the amazing stories we received. We heard about unique inventions, great discoveries, heartwarming tales and how people all across the country had learned from their failures and overcome their fears to truly transform their lives and the lives of those around them. It was awe inspiring to see how people were investing their time and talent to tackle important problems to change the world.

One such fearless changemaker who came to us through Finding Fearless was Conchy Bretos and we are excited to share her story with you through our latest Be Fearless Show episode.

After arriving in the United States as one of the thousands of children from Cuba during Operation Peter Pan, Conchy ran and lost an election to the Miami-Dade County Commission. Yet she turned her story of adversity into an example of resilience. Learning from her failure, Conchy dedicated herself to creating affordable options for older adults in public housing environments. Starting in 1999 with just 20 residents in one property, she created an award-winning model for public housing assisted living communities that has now grown to 23 facilities in multiple states.

Her system allows residents to receive the care that they need, move freely and live on their own schedules. Through her work at Mia Senior Living, Conchy shows how she learned from setbacks and is a great example for all looking to make failure matter in a way that helps others.

We hope the Be Fearless episode lets you learn more about her story as she continues to pave the way for a healthier, caring and more sustainable future for older adults all over the nation—and that she inspires you to Be Fearless.

5 Quotes To Inspire You To #BeFearless

Posted on October 27, 2017October 25, 2018 by Case Foundation

Make big bets and make history. Experiment early and often. Make failure matter. Reach beyond your bubble. Let urgency conquer fear. These are the five Be Fearless principles that serve as the common thread for groundbreaking, problem-solving success. Nonprofits, philanthropy, individuals, startups and corporations have leveraged these principles to bring forward world changing inventions, to shift our mindsets of what’s possible and to solve persistent social problems.

Our CEO, Jean Case, explained what the principles mean in our initial Be Fearless episode on Facebook Watch. Storytelling is not only a way to bring to life the historical and contemporary Be Fearless champions who have changed the world, but also a way to lift up those undiscovered fearless changemakers that inspire you. Through our Finding Fearless campaign, we’ve heard from people around the world with examples of a wide variety of people and organizations putting the Be Fearless principles into action. The stories we receive will have a chance of being featured in Jean Case’s upcoming book or uplifted by the Case Foundation in our work and we continue to review stories posted on the site on a daily basis.

But stories don’t always need to be long to be impactful. We have seen a single quote inspire changemakers to move to action, to overcome their fears and take the steps needed to start them on the path of transformational change. To inspire you and to remind you of those inspired by #BeFearless, here are some of these quotes.

On making big bets

On experimenting

On failure

On reaching beyond your bubble

On urgency

We hope these words of wisdom from changemakers of all backgrounds and perspectives inspire you to take a fearless approach to your own work. And we hope they inspire you to share a story, whether it’s your own or a story you love. If you’re looking for even more Be Fearless inspiration, check out our show on Facebook Watch, head to our Be Fearless hub, and tweet at us using #FindingFearless.

Finding Inspiration in Past Be Fearless Spotlights

Posted on September 28, 2017October 25, 2018 by Case Foundation

Last week, our CEO Jean Case announced the exciting news that she will be writing a book about the Be Fearless principles we have been promoting since 2012. Her book will feature stories of fearless people and organizations—big and small, historical and modern—making big bets, experimenting, building unlikely alliances of changemakers, confronting and living through failure, and letting urgency conquer fear.

We have been so inspired by so many individuals and organizations that have surfaced in our work to date. Remember the 20 fearless changemakers from our 2012 Finding Fearless campaign? They’re still out there disrupting! We’ve also shined a light on innovative organizations that inspire us through our Be Fearless case studies and spotlights. And, if you haven’t yet checked out our latest experiment – a new show on Facebook Watch where we talk to fearless innovators and organizations—we hope you will watch, follow us and give us feedback!

So as we look to find new stories of fearlessness, across industries and around the world, here’s some inspiration to fuel the search—some highlights from the stories we’ve heard, including a fearless narrative that came from our own CEO on the importance of failing forward.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Foundation Director, Karabi Acharya took to our blog to share how she and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are working toward a culture of health in the United States, a feat some think is out of reach. Acharya talks about how the organization is reaching beyond its bubble to look at international approaches to health issues.

Inner City Advisors and Fund Good Jobs
We talked to Inner City Advisors CEO, Sean Daniel Murphy about how the organization is boldly betting on small businesses that provide good jobs for local residents. Inner City Advisors and Fund Good Good Jobs are an example of betting on underrepresented entrepreneurs and “riskier” businesses that provide community benefit.

Kapor Center for Social Impact
The Kapor Center is working to promote diversity in the tech sector, which is no small challenge. The organization works all the way down the pipeline to close the gap at every step from schooling to long-term career success for women and people of color. We learned how Kapor Center acts with urgency and forms partnerships to promote tech inclusion.

Baltimore Corps
Baltimore Corps co-founder and CEO, Fagan Harris talked to us about how he and Baltimore Corps work to foster Baltimore’s potential as a city. Through Baltimore Corps’ fellowships, professionals get to work on a variety of problem solving initiatives in Baltimore. At the time we interviewed Harris, the organization was only two years old, a great case in experimenting early to pursue a vision.

Global Press Institute
The Global Press Institute makes big bets and lets urgency conquer fear by employing women reporters of all walks of life to cover a variety of news using their unique perspectives. The women report on overlooked issues and do so while overcoming many barriers facing female journalists around the world. We learned how the Institute makes everything work while navigating all of their unique challenges.

Open Road Alliance
Open Road Alliance is in the business of catastrophes. The organization gives a lifeline to organizations facing sudden crises through recoverable grants. We learned how the organization acts with urgency and redefines traditional philanthropy to support organizations in emergency situations.

Born This Way Foundation
Maya Enista, Executive Director of the Born This Way Foundation wrote about how the organization, founded by Lady Gaga and her mother, came together. Enista shared how the organization is working to build a kinder and braver world through national community-oriented programs. And the organization is reaching beyond its bubble, taking risks, being bold and failing forward to work toward a kinder world.

The Painful Acknowledgement of Coming up Short
Finally, we wanted to share one of our own pieces, coming from our CEO, where we decided to be transparent about how we were going to fail forward. Jean Case spoke candidly about a high-profile initiative the Case Foundation took on that fell short of its goals. And she talked about how we were going to turn that failure into productive steps forward.

We hope this has inspired YOU to help us on our next Finding Fearless project! If you or a person or organization you know of lives out the Be Fearless principles like the ones mentioned in these story highlights, we want to hear the story. Share it at FindingFearless.org.

Looking for Fearless

Posted on September 20, 2017October 25, 2018 by Case Foundation

This fall, I will be tackling a new endeavor: writing a book about the Be Fearless principles that will feature remarkable stories of fearless people and organizations that embody them. The book will be grounded in five principles that together represent keys to creating the “secret sauce” that can bring about transformational change. Being fearless means setting audacious goals, acting urgently and boldly. It means experimenting, taking risks, being willing to strike unlikely alliances and accepting the possibility of failure while still pressing forward.

Since launching our Be Fearless work at the Case Foundation, we’ve highlighted and written about many wonderful stories of fearlessness—those inspiring people and organizations that started with a big bet, took risks, built unlikely partnerships, remained undaunted in the face of failure and used urgency to help conquer fear. These stories run the gamut from those more familiar—from President Kennedy’s moonshot, to two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie’s pioneering work on radioactivity, to modern day Elon Musk—to lesser known contemporary tales of remarkable people and organizations who are doing remarkable things. Many of these are highlighted on the Be Fearless website and featured on social media through events like #FearlessFriday.

We live in a time when the world demands we build innovative, new approaches. And we know there are stories of fearlessness playing out across America and around the world every day. We know that there are many individuals who have lived the principles of Be Fearless through time, but whose stories may not be known. Their stories run the gamut: from business owners to nonprofits leaders, from those trying to make a difference in their communities to those launching a startup. These are the people and organizations who have brought us unique inventions, great discoveries and impacted the lives of others, and they have done so fearlessly.

And that’s where you come in.

We want to learn about these stories so we can highlight their successes, the challenges they overcame and their Be Fearless thinking to both raise the profile of their stories and to provide compelling role models for those who will follow in their footsteps. No matter the focus, no matter the scale, no matter when or where they lived, if you have a compelling story about an individual or an organization that you think embodies the five Be Fearless principles, we want to hear it.

To make it easy to submit the story you want us to know about, we’ve created a simple template that you can find at FindingFearless.org. There, you can post short descriptions of what inspires you—whether it’s from your own journey or that of another individual, nonprofit, corporation or startup—and how they put Be Fearless to work. We have a team of researchers prepared to dig deeper, should we select the story to be highlighted in my book or to lift up through the Case Foundation.

I have no doubt that our Be Fearless work at the Case Foundation and the stories I will highlight in my book will be made better through the contributions of others. I invite you to join us on this exciting Finding Fearless journey.

How ‘Tech for Good’ is Disrupting the Foster Care System

Posted on June 3, 2015October 31, 2018 by Case Foundation

At the Opportunity Nation Summit earlier this year, I caught up with Foster Skills founder, Marquis Cabrera. He is a tech entrepreneur who recognized the ongoing problems in the foster care system and set out to create a solution. He was also one of the Finding Fearless grant winners in 2012!

Though well intentioned, foster care continues to fail too many young people. The statistics paint a dismal future for a large portion of the 400,000 children and teens in foster care in the U.S. Of the current foster care population, 20,000 “age out,” meaning they are neither reunited with their families nor permanently placed in new homes. Additionally, 40 percent of former foster youth repeat one or more grades; between only 2 and 9 percent of former foster youth attain a bachelor’s degree; the average reading level of 17 and 18 year olds in foster care is only the 7th grade; it is estimated that between 11 and 37 percent experience homelessness after age 18 and 25 percent of foster youth are incarcerated within 2 years of “aging out.” According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report, minorities represent a disproportionate percentage of the foster population in our country, compounding some of the issues this demographic has historically struggled with – academic under-achievement, unemployment and incarceration.

Why do these poor outcomes persist and what can be done?

Marquis has pinpointed the lack of real-time innovations, responsive, human-centered technology and community voice as the root causes of the consistently poor outcomes for foster youth, saying, “Government needs innovators to become more citizen-service-centric.”

Marquis and the Foster Skills team want to respond to this need by transforming the child welfare system in the U.S. They intend to fill the innovation gaps that allow foster youth to flounder socially and economically. They’re part of a new breed of nonprofit – social entrepreneurs that, like many emerging startups, wants to ramp up their use of technology to create faster solutions. However, Foster Skills wasn’t always a tech-oriented organization, and we’re excited to share the story of how their approach has evolved over time to better address the needs of the foster youth community.

The evolution of Foster Skills

Foster Skills began as a mentoring program to help foster youth get into college. However, they soon discovered that unaddressed funding gaps were still keeping college out of reach for many in the foster care system. In response, Foster Skills introduced Got Skills?, a work force development and job placement program that includes partnerships with State Street, Northeastern University and Boston Children’s Hospital, to provide foster youth with opportunities for meaningful employment.

As a fearless change-maker, Foster Skills champions rapid experimentation, creative partnerships and learning from failure. Accordingly, they were unsatisfied and impatient with their rate of impact. They wanted to do more to break down the remaining barriers to foster youth success, and they wanted to do it quickly. So they “reinvented Foster Skills,” because, as Marquis explained, “we are innovators and did not feel a traditional service-focused organization would create the change we wanted to see in the world. We wanted to have a more tangible impact that we could see now, not just 20 years down the road.”

Put simply, Foster Skills reinvented themselves as the “Quirky of child welfare.” They recently re-launched as a co-creation platform that invites the general public – including foster youth, foster parents, social workers and child welfare professionals – to contribute out of the box solutions and relevant ideas for the chance to win a prize. The Foster Skills team reviews, rapidly prototypes and markets the ideas with the most potential to tackle a “pain point,” as revenue generating subsidiaries. This new business model will allow them to continuously engage with their community and evolve in response to its needs.

A Foster Skills solution

The new crowd-sourcing platform led to the creation of ratemyfosterhome.com, a mobile application that collects real-time data updates on foster home conditions from the foster parents, foster youth and social workers. It is an easy to use, accessible tool for reporting any number of issues that might arise in a foster home situation – behavioral, emotional, communication breakdowns, etc. Each person involved in the foster care relationship can access it to improve reporting and response rates. Ratemyhome.com is one of many tools being developed, aimed at addressing the innovation gaps and barriers to success that drive Marquis and Foster Skills’ work. The real-time reporting collects and lifts up the voices of those engaged in the foster care environment; it delivers accessible, innovative technology applications to streamline a government service; and it promotes rapid, human-centered, responsive design.

We at the Case Foundation, like the team at Foster Skills, recognize that government offices have fewer opportunities than private organizations to incorporate experimentation and test innovative approaches. We are thrilled that more entrepreneurial organizations, like Foster Skills, are deploying their tech abilities to develop tools like ratemyfosterhome.com and are reaching outside their bubble to work with local governments to spread innovative solutions to a greater number of states, cities and neighborhoods. We hope their tools and partnerships continue to empower the foster community, creating more environments in which these 400,000 young people have a stronger start, so they too can thrive.

If you have an idea to improve the child welfare system that you would like to share with the Foster Skills team submit it here!

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For more updates on the other Finding Fearless winners check out the blog post by Senior Director, Social Innovation, Sarah Koch, “Looking Back on Finding Fearless: Where are They Now?”.

For more on the opportunity for more innovation in government, see the Case Foundation’s CEO, Jean Case’s Forbes article, “Why Pay for Success Matters,” in which she discusses innovative, outcomes based, government funding models.

Looking Back on Finding Fearless: Where Are They Now

Posted on October 3, 2014October 31, 2018 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!

Portland Junior Scientists Voted Finding Fearless Fan Favorite

Posted on December 5, 2012November 1, 2018 by Case Foundation

Congratulations to Meghana Rao and the Portland Junior Scientists team! More than 10,000 votes were cast during the Finding Fearless Fan Favorite Voting and after carefully reviewing all of the ballots submitted we are pleased to officially report that the public overwhelmingly selected Portland Junior Scientists to win both Fan Favorite awards. Led by Meghana Rao, Portland Junior Scientists was voted the winner of an additional $10,000 bonus grant AND the REI adventure experience at Bryce Canyon National Park!

We launched Finding Fearless in September to recognize, reward, and inspire fearless changemakers. We received nearly 1,200 nominations with stories of fearless efforts happening around the country. Our Fearless Academy of nearly 100 judges reviewed the nominations and we selected the Top 20 winners. These winners all receive grants from the Case Foundation and the Goldhirsh Foundation ranging between $1,500 and $10,000, $25,000 in Microsoft software donations, an REI gift card, and a Microsoft Prize Pack, altogether totaling nearly $670,000. Additionally, all 20 winners had a chance to win more money and prizes in Fan Favorite Voting and impressively mobilized their communities. We were excited to watch the overwhelming interest in these fearless people and projects. And while Meghana managed to come out on top, all 20 projects have gained new supporters and advocates that will champion their work in the months and years ahead.

More about our Fan Favorite Winner

When Meghana Rao was 16, school funding cuts and a deep passion for science motivated Meghana to create Portland Junior Scientists. Portland Junior Scientists is a student-run volunteer organization connecting high school students with underprivileged and at-risk kids to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics with hands-on experimentation and discussion. Meghana’s main goal is to inspire students in underfunded schools lacking a deep science and math curriculum to pursue careers in science. We are excited to work with Portland Junior Scientists to continue to advocate for the importance of science education!

Meghana’s “get out the vote” efforts landed Portland Junior Scientists in first place for both the $10,000 bonus grant from the Case Foundation and the REI Adventure Trip. Meghana and three friends will receive a trip of a lifetime through REI Adventures valued at $5,000. They will get to visit Bryce Canyon National Park through an exclusive camping experience that celebrates having fun outdoors REI-style with the best gear, great food, and incredible guides. REI Adventure’s Signature Camping trip to Bryce Canyon is certain to provide an amazing experience and a lifetime of memories.

We are truly inspired by Meghana and all of our Finding Fearless winners! From youth programs to civic engagement and health, Finding Fearless changemakers are championing new ideas across the country. Check out our infographic with more details on our Finding Fearless participants and stay tuned in the next few months as we continue to lift up all of our winners. We will be following their progress, sharing their stories, and reporting back on lessons from the Finding Fearless program itself. In the meantime, meet the rest of the winners, read their stories, get inspired, and keep supporting their work at FindingFearless.org.

Finding Fearless – We’re just getting started

Posted on November 16, 2012November 1, 2018 by Case Foundation

Today we are proud to announce the winners of Finding Fearless, our campaign to recognize, reward and inspire fearless changemakers nationwide, and a pillar of our Be Fearless initiative. We’re equally excited to kick off “Fan Favorite” voting, giving the public the chance to decide which winners should receive even more grant money and, thanks to our partners, some fantastic prizes.

The winners of Finding Fearless are taking risks, being bold and letting urgency conquer fear. The issues they are tackling – from the environment to education to healthcare – are as diverse as their backgrounds, their models are disrupting the status quo and their style is fearless. We are delighted to have the opportunity to shine a light on these undiscovered leaders, some who are rapidly scaling their concepts and others who are just about to take off – we’re thrilled to shine a spotlight on all of them and champion their transformative efforts.

After an exhaustive nomination and review process, our Fearless Academy [a diverse, cross-sector group of nearly 100 social innovators] helped us pick the winners from nearly 1200 nominations. Those that came out on top submitted more detailed applications to help us separate good ideas from solid plans, underwent a vetting process, and at last, we selected the twenty winners who will each receive a $10,000 grant, $25,000 of Microsoft software, a $100 REI gift card and an opportunity to compete in Fan Favorite voting!

So, what’s this Fan Favorite voting all about? Here at the Case Foundation we’ve been excited about democratizing philanthropy for many years. We sometimes refer to it as crowdsourcing or citizen-centered philanthropy – but no matter what it’s called, the goal is to seek new ideas and innovative solutions by tapping the crowds and sharing the responsibility and joy of giving. The approach recognizes that we can often get better results when many pitch in as opposed to leaving decisions and action to the few. We first tried this approach in 2007 with our Make It Your Own Awards, and again during our America’s Giving Challenges. We’ve initiated countless fan engagement campaigns like our Back to School contests, and now we’re trying it again as we work to spread the word about the need for a more fearless approach to creating change and as we lift up unsung fearless changemakers in communities big and small.

From 3 p.m. ET on Friday, November 16 until 2:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, November 28 we invite you to visit findingfearless.org to learn about our fearless changemakers, to be inspired by their stories and to vote for which of them you think should earn an additional $10,000 grant from the Case Foundation or an Adventure Trip to Bryce Canyon courtesy of our partners at REI. In addition to these awards, we will give a $500 Network For Good card to the top vote getter each day and Microsoft will select a “YouthSpark” winner – one of our young fearless changemakers – to win the new Microsoft Surface Tablet. And, there’s even something for you – each voter will be entered into a sweepstakes to win a Microsoft Surface tablet right off the assembly line.

Now, go check out the winners of Finding Fearless, vote for your favorites, tell your friends to vote for theirs, and stay tuned for what’s next! In the meantime, we offer our sincere thanks to everyone who has been part of Finding Fearless—the applicants, the Fearless Academy, the Be Fearless Alliance, our partners at Microsoft, REI and the Goldhirsh Foundation and the many thousands that have joined us to the Be Fearless pledge. We’re grateful for your support and excited to Be Fearless together.

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