In honor of the 20th anniversary of our founding, the Case Foundation dedicated 2017 to “Getting in the Arena.” Inspired by Teddy Roosevelt’s call to civic participation in his 1910 “Man in the Arena” speech, we focused on bringing forward ideas, stories and events that highlighted people and ideas that can change the world and encouraged others to do so too. To kick off the year, Steve and I wrote about how, over the initial 20 years of work, we had challenged ourselves and others to get off the sidelines and “Get in the Arena” to address our most pressing challenges. We also recommitted to this ethos moving forward and called on others to share how they were Getting in the Arena. As the year wraps up, we are using the last 20 days of our 20th year to shine the light on 20 people, groups and ideas that inspired us this year.
We also wanted people to share how they were getting in the arena and created a venue to inspire attendees at SXSW in Austin. In addition to creating an environment where SXSW aficionados could learn about how they could make an impact in the Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing spaces, see how VR could be used for good and use a ribbon wall to pledge how they were going to Get In The Arena, the Case Foundation hosted a 360° OrcaVue video that attendees could hop into to “Get In the Arena.” We loved seeing people like Loic Le Meur and Leila Janah and Jeremiah Owyang share their excitement for jumping off the sidelines and getting in the arena—Steve and I joined in too.
In June, we helped bring together young leaders from across the country who want to turn their interest into action at MCON, the marquee event on Millennial cause engagement that we helped found. We partnered with NBCUniversal to host a #GetInTheArena lounge where Millennial attendees shared how they’re turning interest into action. We were so inspired by the hundreds of stories we recorded that we are sharing a few—including Angela Richardson of BUILD, Elizabeth Lindsey of Byte Back and Dan Thiede of CERTS—as part of this 20 day campaign.
While our 20th year may be coming to an end, our commitment to shining the spotlight on those who are changing the world continues. This fall, I announced that I’m writing a book about the Be Fearless principles the Case Foundation have been promoting since 2012. The 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. And to build on the legacy of work we’ve done on Be Fearless, we launched Finding Fearless where 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.
Finally, we launched the Be Fearless show on Facebook Watch, featuring profiles of fearless changemakers who embody the Be Fearless principles and are making a difference across the globe. As part of the end of the year celebration, we will highlight some of the many inspiring stories we created, like the story of Pristine Seas, the Special Olympics and the Okavango Delta. Get ready to see those pop back up on our social media channels and stay tuned for even more new episodes in the coming months.
Kicking off tomorrow, we’re excited to spend our last 20 days of 2017 shining the spotlight on the people, groups and ideas that truly embody what it means to #GetInTheArena on the most pressing issues. Follow along on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and tell us how you got in the arena in 2017 using #GetInTheArena.
Continuing our series of highlighting incredible changemakers who are Getting in the Arena for the causes they care about, we chatted with Dan Thiede, Communications Manager at the Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs), to talk about how he and CERTS Get in the Arena for clean energy in Minnesota.
We met Thiede this year at MCON—the Millennial Engagement Conference—where we were celebrating our 20th anniversary and rallying people to “Get in the Arena” around the causes that mattered most to them. At MCON, we partnered with Comcast NBCUniversal who brought along their Chat Box to help capture inspiring stories on video. We invited attendees to jump in the Chat Box and record their answers to the question “How are you using technology and innovation to #GetInTheArena and inspire change in your community?” The chat box was a big hit and we recorded lots of great video stories from attendees about how they are turning their interest into action! Dan was one of these stories.
As you can see, Thiede’s story stood out to us as he and his team at CERTs are working on citizen-centered solutions to clean energy and they are reaching beyond their bubble to work with changemakers across sectors. After seeing him in the Chat Box, we wanted to learn more about Thiede’s work with CERTs, how they’re solving local problems, how they build excitement around clean energy and how they’re using technology to do it. Read on to see what he had to say.
Can you tell us about Clean Energy Resource Teams and how the organization came together?
The Clean Energy Resource Teams—or CERTs—are a statewide partnership in Minnesota that connects individuals and their communities to the resources they need to identify and implement community-based clean energy projects. We have twenty people working across four organizations that spend most of their time doing outreach, education and technical assistance on energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy.
CERTs came together in 2003 when people across rural Minnesota began thinking about new opportunities in clean energy and how their communities could benefit. We split the state up into regions and had lots of conversations with everyone from city and utility staff to businesses and nonprofits, from policymakers and school teachers to farmers and engineers. Those early grassroots efforts resulted in regional energy plans, and in the time since we’ve been focused on helping Minnesotans learn, connect and act.
What inspired you to “Get in the Arena” to promote clean energy?
We’re inspired by the positive economic impacts that saving energy and producing clean energy have, the incredible job growth we’ve seen in the industry (now the fastest-growing part of Minnesota’s workforce) and the transformative effect that projects have on communities when people come together toward a common purpose, have some success and then go even further than we imagined.
How does Clean Energy Resource Teams use technology to advance your work?
CERTs provides all sorts of resources to Minnesotans in order to help people learn about technologies and models, understand their options and move forward with clean energy projects. Technology plays a huge role in the resources and tools we provide. Key examples include our interactive solar site assessment tool that uses LIDAR, solar resources and weather data to let people know if they have a good place for solar; our online directory of solar companies, community solar gardens and energy auditors; a mobile app that helps people pick out the perfect energy-efficient LED light bulbs; a solar video contest that encourages people to get creative in their efforts to educate Minnesotans about clean energy; and a robust energy benchmarking platform that allows public entities to track their energy usage and compare it to similar buildings.
What problem are you hoping to solve and what goals are you working towards?
CERTs believes that there are amazing clean energy opportunities out there, but that we have a long way to go to make sure that energy efficiency and renewable energy truly permeate every community in Minnesota. We’re working to tip the scale to make clean energy the norm and to ensure that everyone can benefit from these solutions.
How do you build excitement around clean energy and encourage Minnesotans to get off the sidelines and change their habits around energy use?
CERTs definitely likes to have fun, we’re solutions oriented, and we believe that action on clean energy is contagious. One of the key ways that we build excitement is through peer-to-peer events, campaigns and recognition. Examples include cities hosting tours for other cities, neighbors getting together to kick the tires on EV cars at the farmers market, students selling LED light bulbs for fundraisers, utilities getting together to talk about successful program models and farmers coming together for lunch to check out the latest in energy-efficient equipment. People see folks just like them taking action, reaping the benefits (and having a great time and they want to do it, too! In most cases there is also money to be made or money to be saved, and real improvements to quality of life without sacrificing comfort. When it all comes together it’s super exciting.
How does CERTs’ approach help others to Get in the Arena and be part of the clean energy solution?
The Clean Energy Resource Teams empower communities and their members to move forward with energy efficiency and clean energy work by meeting them where they’re at, understanding their unique situation, needs, assets, and concerns, and then ensuring that they have the information, connections, financing and other essentials to see clean energy projects through to their completion. We don’t stop there, either. After they finish a project we publish stories about them, help them celebrate their success, and make sure that they’re on their way to making even more progress toward meeting their energy goals. That’s also usually the point in the process where their peers start to take notice, ask questions and think about how they can move forward with projects, too. It’s contagious in the very best way!
Do you have any success stories that inspire you to keep doing this work?
We literally come across success stories every week that keep us going, and keep up a blog and send out a newsletter called MN Energy Stories packed with successes every couple of weeks. It’s a steady drip of inspiration for the work that we and so many others are doing every day to shape Minnesota’s clean energy future.
It’s particularly inspiring when we’re able to figure out a solution to a tricky problem that opens the floodgates for projects, which is definitely what happened in Minnesota with Property-Assessed Clean Energy—or PACE—financing. Lots of businesses, nonprofits, and other groups were having trouble financing energy efficiency and clean energy improvements, because traditional banks didn’t really understand them. We’ve been working to expand PACE availability in Minnesota, and now just a couple of years in there have been hundreds of projects and millions of dollars of financing, all through property tax assessments.
We’d like to thank Dan Thiede for sharing how he’s Getting in the Arena with us. To learn more about CERTs, check out their website. To learn more about our Get in the Arena efforts, and to see what other MCON attendees said about their #GetInTheArena moments, check out our Get in the Arena page.
Every year, MCON—the Millennial Engagement Conference—is a great chance for us to celebrate how Millennials are changing the world, and to talk to conference attendees about how they’re getting involved with the causes that matter most to them. Since this year’s MCON coincided with our 20th anniversary where we’re rallying people to “Get in the Arena” we partnered with Comcast NBCUniversal who brought along their Chat Box. We invited attendees to jump in and record their answers to the question “How are you using technology and innovation to #GetInTheArena and inspire change in your community?” We received nearly a hundred video stories from attendees about how they are turning their interest into action.
A #GetInTheArena moment that stood out to us came from Elizabeth Lindsey, Executive Director of Byte Back, who talked about how she and the organization teach DC area adults technology and help them find tech jobs. Her story stood out to us because of its mission similar to ours with Inclusive Entrepreneurship, where we work to promote the recognition and success of underrepresented entrepreneurs. Similarly, Byte Back propels underserved DC area residents to career success through adult education.
Just like the Case Foundation, Byte Back is celebrating their 20th anniversary. And they’re using the milestone to step up their commitment to tackling the digital divide and providing high quality technology training to adults in need. You can see her video where she discusses her work here:
We wanted to learn more about Lindsey’s vision for Byte Back, her #GetInTheArena inspiration and motivation, and how the organization is setting new goals for their 20th anniversary and beyond. Read on for more about Lindsey and Byte Back.
Can you tell us about Byte Back and your vision for the organization? Byte Back is a Washington, DC based nonprofit providing free technology education and career training to unemployed adults. We teach our students tech skills from the very beginner level—how to use a mouse, how to send an email—to advanced IT skills that prepare them for careers in IT and business services. I’ve been the Executive Director here for two years, and we’ve been serving people in DC for 20 years. Byte Back is one of the only organizations in the country where someone with limited access to technology can start with the basics and move up a training pathway to IT skills training and into living-wage careers that use technology. I know that communities beyond DC need us. This year we’re expanding into Maryland, and we’re excited to continue planning how we can expand our reach even farther.
What inspired you to “Get in the Arena” on this cause? I’m the first person in my family to go to college and grew up in a very financially unstable home. My life was completely transformed by having access to quality education, and I’m passionate about helping others access these same types of opportunities.
I know there are so many opportunities in today’s society for people without college degrees, people like my parents, to build careers that can help them to support their families and thrive. 31 million Americans have low tech skills. There are 5.5 million more women in poverty than in 2000. And only four percent of the tech workforce is made up of women of color. Imagine what poverty in this country would look like if people on the other side of the digital divide were given the opportunity to have living-wage careers in tech. There are diverse people who have enormous untapped potential, who can change their lives and our economy. I believe they deserve a chance—to learn for free, to have a living-wage career, to have the skills and access that equity demands.
How does Byte Back use technology to address the digital divide and seek solutions to poverty? Access to technology is extremely important. But I think that sometimes we overlook the importance of providing people with the training to use that technology. A laptop or access to broadband isn’t enough if a person doesn’t know how to access the internet on their device or connect the device to Wi-Fi. So, we teach people to use the technology that’s so ubiquitous now, and by doing so, we’re helping them lift themselves out of poverty. With tech skills, our students are able to create resumes in Word, fill out online job applications and compete for in-demand jobs in the new economy.
As the organization celebrates its 20th anniversary, what are some of the goals you and Byte Back are working towards? As of this summer, we’ve achieved a major 20-year anniversary goal—to move into a state-of-the-art consolidated headquarters. We spent our first 20 years in a converted row home, and we really outgrew that space. Our move is a huge step up for us. We have new technology, including new computers for students and staff and a new video production studio, and a space that really reflects the careers that our students are training for. For most students, these will be the best classrooms and technology they’ve used in their lives, and they really deserve it.
The number of Byte Back graduates who are hired into living-wage jobs continues to increase. In our last fiscal year, which ended in June, 65 students were hired. On average, our graduates who are hired are making $28,000 more per year than they were before Byte Back courses. As we expand into Maryland this year, we’re teaching more advanced CompTIA A+ Certification courses, which means more graduates will have the training to succeed as IT help desk professionals. Our services are unique nationally, and communities across the country are asking for Byte Back services, so we know that our 20th year is the first in our geographical expansion, but not the last.
How do you rally people to get off the sidelines and support Byte Back through donations, volunteering, partnerships and hiring students? We have so many fabulous supporters who are so inspired by our mission and our students’ success. The DC tech community has been so supportive, and we’re such a natural tech for good cause for them. In March, we won a $360,000 WeWork Creator Award to scale, which has been so huge for us. We have the support to expand, and a lot of new supporters have found out about our work and are joining us as partners, volunteers, funders, donors, and student employers. We have a lot of new supporters, but we’re always looking for more to join us as partners, volunteers, funders, donors, and student employers. We have opportunities to get involved and Get in the Arena at byteback.org.
How do you and your team view technology as a pillar of civic engagement? The people reading this article right now online probably cannot fathom not knowing how to use the internet, or how to use an Excel spreadsheet, or email a city official. But the fact is there are still millions of people who are being left out of digital civic life. While online-run social justice movements have had amazing success, it’s a fact that many people are left out of participating and engaging and fighting because of their inability to use technology.
How have you had to challenge assumptions and take risks during your time at Byte Back? When I started at Byte Back as Executive Director, I inherited an organization that had grown exponentially in the past seven or eight years but didn’t necessarily have the systems and processes in place to keep up with this growth. I really had to question my assumption that programming and staff and systems were put in place for a reason – I had to start asking why we did things a certain way, why we conceptualized our organizational structure the way we did, why certain individuals were placed into their roles. It was challenging, but Byte Back embraced the change and need for us to grow and evolve, and we’ve significantly improved our operations and our organizational culture over the past two years.
Are there any student success stories that stand out and inspire you to continue getting in the arena for adult technology training? The first time I met Olivia Byrd, she came up to me and said, “Byte Back saved my life.” Four years ago, Olivia was living in her car. She didn’t have the skills and experience to build a career. And then Olivia came to Byte Back. Three months after finishing her training, Olivia was hired as an IT Help Desk Technician. She now has her own apartment. Olivia’s life has not only been changed, but she brings a new face and perspective to the tech world.
Thank you so much to Elizabeth Lindsey for sharing how she’s Getting in the Arena with us. To learn more and get involved with Byte Back, check out their website. And to learn more about our 20th anniversary celebration, check out our Get in the Arena page.
We are excited to announce with our partners, at Achieve, the release of Phase 2 of the 2017 Millennial Impact Report. With 3,000 respondents, this survey and research analysis constitutes one of the most robust data sets on Millennial interest in social issues and engagement with causes to date.
It’s hard to believe this is the Case Foundation’s 9th year of research on the Millennial generation, dating back to the Social Citizens report in 2008. Through interviews with over 100,000 Millennials, we have learned a lot about what motivates and how best to influence the Millennial generation of changemakers. But our work shows there is always something new to learn as the Millennial generation ages and our economic, political and social environments evolve.
In 2016, the Millennial Impact Report analyzed how Millennial cause engagement was effected by that year’s presidential election cycle. In 2017, we turned our attention to studying how the post-election environment influenced Millennial activism and cause engagement. Here are our top five key findings from the 2017 research:
1. Only 29 percent of Millennials believe the country is going in the right direction Now that we are post-election, we’re curious about the Millennial perspective on our current social and political climate, and it turns out their current outlook isn’t positive. In fact, 71 percent of Millennial respondents don’t believe the country is going in the right direction or aren’t sure, and only a little more than a quarter of Millennial respondents (27 percent) are satisfied with the president.
2. Millennials believe that voting matters While respondents expressed frustration with the current direction of the country, they haven’t lost their interest in making an impact. For years, nonprofits and organizers have worked to encourage younger voters to use their voice to influence change. Those efforts might be sinking in: 65 percent of Millennial respondents in the Millennial Impact Report stated they voted in the 2016 presidential election, compared to 55 percent of the general population (according to the Pew Research Center). When probed a bit further on the value they place on voting, the report finds:
66 percent believe voting will lead to the change they want to see;
71 percent said voting is a form of activism; and
A full 77 percent stated that voting is the duty of every citizen.
3. Millennials are taking more direct, less muted action It might be said that for the Millennial generation, 2016 was the “calm before the storm” for cause engagement. The Millennials in this survey are energized and ready to create change. They reported taking more than 13,000 individual actions for causes and social issues. Earlier this year we identified the Millennial generation as Everyday Changemakers as they’re fully integrating social issue engagement in multiple facets of their lives. This trend toward fully embracing causes has continued with greater clarity and intentionality in 2017, with respondents stating they’ve taken both more traditional activist behaviors and less traditional cause engagement behaviors to actively make a positive impact on the social issues that matter to them. Furthermore, the report surfaced a small cohort (21 percent) who identify as activists – a group that is rising as the most highly-engaged, active and willing to act on behalf of others.
4. Millennials’ top-interest social issues have changed post-election With this report, we took a deeper look at the social issues driving Millennials to take action and how issue interests may have changed following the 2016 Millennial Impact Report. In 2017, the top three issues for Millennials are civil rights/discrimination, employment (job creation) and healthcare reform. These interests have changed post-election; in 2016, the list was education, healthcare and the economy. It is also interesting to find that, depending on race and where they reside, Millennials prioritization of social issues varies.
5. Millennial engagement can power movements For organizations seeking to tap the power of Millennial activism, this report provides a blue print to understanding the social issues that Millennials care about, the actions they’re taking, how they identify as changemakers and the ways in which they believe they can have the most impact. This generation stands out as coalition builders who can power movements because of their natural comfort with multi-sector approaches like:
Using their voice in government as voters and through outreach to their representatives;
Expressing their preferences to patronize ethical brands;
Acting on their willingness to use social media to further a cause they care about; and,
Making donations of time and money to organizations they support.
At the Case Foundation, we recognize the importance of cross-sector collaboration to catalyze movements that can generate long-term systemic change. It is vital that we as a field recognize the inherent strengths of the Millennial generation as an asset to the philanthropic and social good sector in building a coalition of dedicated changemakers.
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.
Every year, MCON—the Millennial Engagement Conference—is a great chance for us to celebrate how Millennials are changing the world, and to talk to conference attendees about how they’re getting involved with the causes that matter most to them. This year, we partnered with Comcast NBCUniversal to bring attendees the #GetInTheArena Peacock lounge presented by Comcast NBCUniversal, where participants had a chance to jump into a chat box and record their answers to the question “How are you using technology and innovation to #GetInTheArena and inspire change in your community?” We captured nearly a hundred stories from attendees about how they are turning their interest into action.
One of those stories that inspired us came from Angela Richardson, Communications and Partnerships Manager at BUILD (Businesses United in Investing Lending and Development) Metro DC. Richardson shared how she works with the organization to help students from under resourced communities pursue entrepreneurship. Angela and BUILD are making a difference by providing communities with the resources and connections their residents need to succeed as students and entrepreneurs. Much like the Case Foundation’s Inclusive Entrepreneurship work, BUILD promotes social, financial and inspiration capital through their four year program for high school students. You can see her inspiring video here:
We wanted to learn more about Richardson’s vision for BUILD, her #GetInTheArena motivation and how she rallies supporters to get involved with the organization, so we caught up with her after MCON. Read on to see what she shared with us and how you can learn more about BUILD Metro DC.
Can you tell us about BUILD Metro DC and your vision for the organization?
BUILD Metro DC is an in-and-out of school incubator that introduces high school students to entrepreneurship. With BUILD’s guidance and support, DC students learn to create and run their own start-ups, learning the fundamentals of what it takes to have a successful business. Although our students are doing amazing work, their stories go untold. As the Communications and Partnerships Manager, my vision for BUILD is for every Washingtonian to know the powerful impact BUILD Metro DC has on each high school student we are serving.
What inspired you to “Get in the Arena” on this cause?
I started my career as a communications professional in the beauty and fashion industry. Although that world may seem glamorous and pretty, I wasn’t fulfilling my life’s work. My journey from a beauty and fashion publicist to a social change communicator has led me to tell the powerful untold stories of young people. Having the opportunity to capture the resilience and great potential of our students is what truly inspires me daily to stay in the arena.
How does BUILD foster entrepreneurship in underserved DC communities?
We believe that entrepreneurship is a mindset and because we believe it is a mindset, there are a number of skills that can be developed that we refer to as Spark Skills (Communication, Grit, Problem-Solving, Collaboration, Innovation, and Self-Management). In addition to the development of those skills, students have the opportunity to develop and grow their own business, generating revenue which ultimately teaches them financial wellness and sustainability. These skills have the potential to eradicate generational poverty, in turn putting resources in communities that would otherwise not have them.
What are some of the goals you and BUILD are working towards?
To fulfill our mission, we are working towards growing our student enrollment, ensuring that are student body is fully engaged in our program over time, and that we collectively drive the students BUILD works with towards postsecondary acceptance and college and career readiness.
How do you encourage your students to turn their interest into action?
We challenge them to identify their interests. We then have to encourage and affirm their interest through celebrating the diversity of them and strength of their ideas. Finally, we share with them resources to turn their interests into action.
How do you rally people to get off the sidelines and support BUILD through donations, volunteering and mentorship?
We highlight the power of our students. Donors, volunteers, and mentors join and support BUILD because they want to have a real impact on each of the students and to give them the tools they need to succeed. When we highlight our students, we are making it clear that everyone has an opportunity to play their part in guiding and supporting this next generation.
How does technology play a role in your and BUILD’s social change work?
As part of a pilot program, we partnered with Friendship Tech Prep Academy, utilizing technology as a tool for students to create tech-driven startup businesses. Through this pilot, we have opened the windows of opportunity for our students to learn coding, web design and graphic design, tools we believe every entrepreneur needs to advance his or her business. One of our student teams even created a pop-up device, Insta-Laptop, that turns any smartphone into a functional laptop. The team generated the idea after realizing that many of their peers did not have access to computers at home, but majority of them owned smartphones. This is the perfect example of how we are teaching our students to solve problems like the digital divide.
How do you and your team view entrepreneurship as a pillar of civic engagement?
To create the world that we want to see, we must be willing to think and act in ways that are naturally entrepreneurial. Civic engagement and entrepreneurship share a process for seeing what is, brainstorming improvements, making a plan, and convincing people that they should support the outcome. Helping BUILD students develop their entrepreneurial skills has a strong side effect of preparing them to be civically engaged. The skills of teamwork, grit, and innovation that make our students successful entrepreneurs are the same skills that make them community leaders today and tomorrow.
How have you had to challenge assumptions and take risks during your time at BUILD?
At BUILD, we work to challenge assumptions everyday about the identities of our students – where they are from and the implications that exist because of that. We work to celebrate their individual identities while coaching them to grow, providing them with support and access to resources in an effort to change the narratives that are created for them.
Are there any student entrepreneur success stories that stand out and inspire you to continue getting in the arena for underserved youth?
Two words: Lorrin Davis. Lorrin’s story has truly inspired not only me but our entire BUILD community. She is the perfect example of how gaining a BUILD Spark Skill like Grit can impact all areas of one’s life. She’s journeyed through the BUILD program, starting as young freshman entrepreneur to now a high school graduate on her way to George Washington University as recipient of the highly coveted Trachtenberg scholarship – a full ride valued at $300,000. Despite the many adversities and personal challenges Lorrin may have faced during her time in BUILD, her resilience and dedication to making her dreams come true drives me to the do the work I do daily. She inspires me to continue to tell stories of the many young people overcoming an enormity of challenges, in hopes of uplifting another young person in the process.
Angela, thank you for sharing how you’re Getting in the Arena with us. To learn more about BUILD Metro DC, visit their website. And to learn more about our 20th anniversary celebration, check out our Get in the Arena page.
Democratizing philanthropy. Isn’t that a simply wonderful concept? The notion that giving—of your time, talent or treasure—isn’t something just for an elite class of individuals, but for all individuals. That the idea of an “every person” giver and “every day changemaker” has the potential to accelerate social impact. At the Case Foundation, as we celebrate 20 years of changemaking, this very idea has been at the core of our approach. Our anniversary call to action to Get in The Arena is a call to everyone, everywhere to engage as a community of social change agents in any way you can.
From early experiments testing the power of technology to drive more financial donations to social causes, to creating alliances of private-public partners to drive talent and time donations to the nonprofit sector, we’ve been pushing against the status quo of what it means to be a “philanthropist” and how to maximize resources to improve the social condition.
So we were thrilled to see the Giving USA 2017 Report find that charitable donations from America’s individuals, estates, foundations and corporations increased to an estimated $390.05 billion in 2016. That represents a 3.5 percent increase in foundation giving from 2015, a 3.5 percent increase in corporate giving and a 3.9 percent increase in individual giving! And how about this fun fact as evidence that individual giving is democratizing philanthropy—more people give than vote.
Against that history and mission, it was such a pleasure to explore trends in “microgiving”—the opportunity for more individuals to give with small donations—with the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy for a piece on how, with time and technology, more people are turning into philanthropists.
Expanding on what I was able to share in that article, here are my thoughts on four trends that are driving that movement and catalyzing the democratization of philanthropy.
Trend #1: Going mobile and frictionless
In order to truly make giving ubiquitous, donating must be frictionless and easy for people. This quote from Aaron Strout at W20 Group sums it up for me: “The new “Holy Grail” for any business should be to make it as easy as possible for any customer to buy a product or service whenever and wherever they like, with as few clicks as possible. With the evolution of location-based technologies, mobile payment systems and a continual decrease in technology costs, this concept of true ‘frictionless commerce’ is quickly becoming a reality.” And the “business” of giving is no exception. In 2016, online giving increased by almost eight percent, and 17 percent of all online donations came through mobile. I see this trend only growing.
Why? In part because of who is driving online giving: Millennials. The Case Foundation sponsored Millennial Impact Report found that 84 percent of Millennials made donations in 2016. Blackbaud’s Next Generation of American Giving report also found that 62 percent of Millennials expressed interest in making donations on their phones. With Millennials surpassing Baby Boomers as America’s largest generation, their habits and preferences will inevitably drive the future of philanthropy.
We’re also seeing a surge of entrepreneurship and innovation in online platforms aimed at maximizing a seamless experience for users. Check out platforms like Goodworld, on a mission to make it easy to donate in the moment by using a hashtag on social media, or Spotfund or Google’s One Today, all aimed at easing in-the-moment donations when you’re thinking about moving your interest in a social causes to action. And last year’s exciting news from Facebook that users could choose from a list of over 750,000 charities to support by building their own fundraising pages or linking donate buttons to Facebook Live videos. All of these are part of a trend toward simplifying and democratizing philanthropy.
Trend #2: Creating “communities of giving” through crowdsourcing and crowdfunding
In general, people want to belong. To a club, a tribe, a social network, a church, a movement…something bigger than themselves. The beauty of microgiving is that all of the smaller individual donations become part of a larger social cause community driving collective impact.
And technology and tech platforms have made it easier to find your tribe, engage and see your impact. Who can forget the viral activation of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? Clever concept meets social media sharing capability meets information awareness and donation surge. And these “everyday philanthropists” became part of tribe that resulted in the discovery of a new ALS gene, NEK1, known to be among the most common genetic contributors of the disease, and impetus for a new target on drug development. Crowdfunding sites allow people to donate to social ventures year-round. GlobalGiving, Kickstarter, Kiva, Crowdrise and Indiegogo have all gained popularity in recent years, especially among Millennials. We’ve seen this trend play out through our partnership launching #Giving Tuesday, which hit a record donation sum last year of $168 million from 1.6 million donations around the world.
Trend #3: Conscious capitalism is taking hold
The notion of “conscious capitalism”—aligning your values with your spending, investing and business operations—is moving from niche to mainstream and putting individuals at the core of driving social change alongside profits. Consumers are paying attention to brands that put social impact at the core of their business operations. In fact, 66 percent of global consumers are willing to spend more on products if they’re from a sustainable brand. 73 percent of Millennials express the same preference. That buying behavior is driving profits alongside purpose at companies like Patagonia, Method and Warby Parker.
Similarly, as Impact Investing—investments into companies, organizations and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental impact alongside financial return—has taken hold with the high net worth investor community, large institutional investors and foundations, we are also seeing a trend toward making it more accessible for everyone. Check out Benefit Chicago, an initiative to put $100 million in nonprofit investments in the city to work with investors with as little as $20, or Calvert Community Investment Notes, similarly putting $20 investments to social good, while getting a bond-like return. These kinds of vehicles enable everyday people to be everyday impact investors.
Trend #4: It’s more than money
Money matters, but so does time and talent when it comes to driving social change. Finding ways to tap the extraordinary talent across the nation and “donate” it to social service has opened the aperture of philanthropy and allowed many more people to give. The Case Foundation’s early experiment in this arena—A Billion + Change—tapped into this potential to democratize giving.
Also, through the Case Foundation’s Millennial Impact Report, in partnership with Achieve, we’ve found that employers of the Millennial generation will need to embed talent-giving strategies into their employee retention efforts. Similar to financial donation platforms, technology is and will continue to accelerate and make more accessible this type of giving. Check out NationSwell and Service Year for inspiration.
What trends are you seeing? Share your thoughts on how people are turning their interest into action with us on social media using #GetInTheArena. It’s an exciting issue to follow for many reasons but, for me, because microgiving and small-dollar philanthropy create a global culture of giving. Our CEO, Jean Case, often reminds us that the Greek root definition of the word “philanthropy” is the love of humanity. Imagine a world where decisions—by individuals, investors, government and corporations—are made and measured by their human impact!
If you’re familiar with the annual Millennial Engagement Conference, you’ll know that MCON draws a diverse and inspirational lineup of changemakers. Speakers, attendees and sponsors alike convene around a singular mission—to better understand, activate and showcase the power of the millennial generation to drive social impact. And MCON 2017 was no exception, as everyone in attendance and on stage continued to inspire!
I was particularly happy to sit down briefly with fellow MCON sponsor Blackbaud for a Facebook Live interview to talk about the Case Foundation’s nearly 10 years of work and research on Millennial engagement. However, the real action took place on stage where the entire community could engage directly. There were many great moments throughout the 2-day conference, but let me highlight the top six “power themes” I saw on display at MCON 2017:
The Power of Networking: Building off of last year’s positive feedback, MCON 2017 included an opening night party—no agenda, no speakers, a pure focus on networking and building connections. This year, participants gathered at National Geographic (thank you, NatGeo!), surrounded by the work and photography of an institution that for more than 100 years has inspired adventurers and scientists to preserve our planet. Social capital—the networks of people we know—is a critical component of any social movement. Get out there and build it, share it and advance the issues you care about!
The Power of Showcasing Movement Practitioners: The Igniting Good Town Hall, hosted by #GivingTuesday, took place just before the official start of MCON. The town hall allowed participants to hear from practitioners and learn about their tactics for building, sustaining and unleashing coalitions of Millennials and others to tackle some of our biggest social issues. The session included diverse groups like the Movember Foundation whose movement has contributed to more than 1200 projects for prostate and testicular cancer and mental health and suicide prevention, and Amnesty International’s 7 million-person global coalition campaigning for a world where human rights are enjoyed by everyone. The town hall provided inspiration, through the sharing of practical information, on the potential to affect social change by building strong coalitions and communities around a common cause. Movement building isn’t easy—it always involves behavior change and disrupting the status quo—so learning from history and those in the trenches now was a powerful feature of MCON 2017.
Photo courtesy of MCON.
The Power of Storytelling: At the Case Foundation, we are huge believers in the power of what we call “inspirational capital,” showcasing through stories, blogs, film, photos and infographics the images and narratives that convey the real history and ultimate end state of the social causes we are advancing. The imperative of storytelling to build community and catalyze social movements was front and center in the exclusive screening of Crown Heights. An awardee at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, the film tells the true story of Colin Warner, an 18-year-old Brooklyn man wrongfully convicted of a 1980 murder and sentenced to life in prison, and his childhood friend who fights for more than 20 years to reverse the verdict. Nnamdi Asomugha, who stars as the friend to Colin Warner in the film also spoke about the film and its context.
Photo courtesy of MCON.
The Power of Your Platform: Actress Allison Williams of the HBO show, Girls and most recently the film Get Out, closed out MCON with a powerful discussion about the social issues that she is working to address through the use of her public platform enabled by her celebrity status and increasingly influential voice in Hollywood. She has recognized that as an actress her voice can reach millions, and wants to use her proverbial microphone to push for greater action to drive movements for education, and most recently, chronic racism in the criminal justice system and the negative impact on minorities that enter that system. Bravo Allison!
Photo courtesy of MCON.
The Power of Personal Engagement: As a sponsor of MCON, the Case Foundation, in partnership with Comcast NBCUniversal created the Peacock Lounge to encourage attendees to share their stories of inspiring change in their communities through the use of innovation and technology. And what we heard was definitely inspiring, from a NASA scientist seeking to be more fearless, to an immigrant translating her past struggle into opportunities for young people currently living in countries in crisis, to a cancer survivor building networks for other survivors to more easily make the transition back after treatment, and many more.
In the lounge, we gave participants a platform to turn their energy and their interest into action, by inviting them to make a pledge at the ribbon wall, to declare their commitment with a Word Art Portrait, and to share their unique story of taking action in the NBCUniversal Chat Box. And the response was overwhelming. We were thrilled to see that in-person engagement come through online as well, as people shared their videos and their portraits on twitter, facebook and Instagram using #GetInTheArena and #NBCUStoriesThatInspire. We look forward to continuing to share those stories in the coming months, so stay tuned for more great content on our website and at NBCUniversal.
The Power of Data and Research: Finally, MCON would not be complete without the vital research on millennial cause engagement conducted by Achieve and sponsored by The Case Foundation. When you’re in the business of catalyzing social movements, data and research is a key component of both designing your programming and measuring its effect. This year’s Millennial Impact Report will examine how changing social issues are affecting millenials’ interest and engagement in cause involvement, and how millennials activate with specific social issues based on demographic characteristics. Phase 1 of a three-phase research report was released at MCON 2017. This qualititative research phase with a small cohort of millennials is already revealing that today’s evolving political and social climate is changing the cause behavior of millennials. We’re already excited about the potential for Phase 2, which will be released in September.
Huge thanks and congratulations to Achieve and all the sponsorship partners for another successful year of MCON. The Case Foundation has supported Achieve to bring MCON to the world since 2011, and we’re thrilled to see the content and reach continue to grow and improve every year. For a generation of changemakers, millennials can truly find their tribe at MCON where the speakers, the discussions, the sponsors and their fellow attendees all help to inspire them to get in the arena and translate their interests into action to create change in the world.
Keep sharing your stories of using innovation and technology to inspire change in your community with #GetInTheArena and #NBCUStoriesThatInspire.
Through the first 20 years of the Case Foundation, we’ve covered a lot of ground and been to a lot of places. Along the way, we have found that innovations come from people and places that might surprise you. While news reports focus on the power of Silicon Valley or financial centers like New York and London, we have found numerous great ideas and passionate innovators in places policymakers, funders and trend watchers have often overlooked.
Three U.S. cities are great examples of the excitement and innovation that we have found:
Pittsburgh: In Pittsburgh, we found a unique combination of incubators, accelerators, universities, tech companies and investors, driving this former steel town to experience a resurgence in the form of a technology boom. While many still think of Pittsburgh as the Steel City, the engineer and technology ecosystem that has sprung up in the aftermath of the collapse of the steel industry in the 1980s is one of the reasons that Ford pledged in February to invest $1 billion over five years in a Pittsburgh-based company specializing in artificial intelligence and autonomous car engineering. This community of innovators, incubators and educators is creating a wide range of interesting projects. Pittsburgh innovators we met ranged from Courtney Williamson, founder of AbiliLife, a biomedical company that engineer’s devices for Parkinson’s patients to Vaish Krishnamurthy of CleanRobotics, whose Trash bot uses artificial intelligence to sort recyclables from waste, to Matthew Stanton and Hahna Alexander, cofounders of SolePower*, a technology that uses a foot-powered energy generating insole that can be used to charge portable devices—something of particular interest to the U.S. Army. Even the accelerators in Pittsburgh like AlphaLab Gear bring a unique vision that reflects the best of the region where they are located, supporting hundreds of innovators, expanding understanding of the excellence of the companies in the area and attracting significant outside capital to the region.
Durham: On our recent visit to Durham, we found a renaissance is occurring in the city. Yes, there are tech stories to tout, but the real story is of citizens, companies, institutions and Duke University coming together to invest, expand and reclaim downtown Durham for growth while ensuring that all that defines this community as a thriving, American town includes those who have stayed and those that played a role in making Durham, well…Durham.
At American Underground hundreds of entrepreneurs—from single person startups to ventures like Fidelity Labs, Fidelity’s R&D and innovation catalyst unit—sit side-by-side, creating new companies and pursuing new business ideas in a space where they can also receive the training, accelerator classes and support from Google for Entrepreneurs that rising startups need to take their great ideas to the next level. And we saw the American Tobacco Campus, where local business leaders had transformed the abandoned corporate headquarters of the company that marketed “Lucky Strikes” into a multifaceted center that housed restaurants, businesses and cultural hubs—like the local NPR affiliate and the YMCA—that are helping fuel the dynamic ecosystem that downtown Durham has become.
Detroit: Detroit’s rebirth can only be described as epic. Left for dead by most after the 2008 economic crisis, visionaries like Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert and entrepreneur Tom Kartsotis have helped not only build strong companies, but create thousands of jobs for out-of-work Detroit citizens, giving them an opportunity to prosper as part of the modern economy. Gilbert, who moved Quicken Loans and all of its employees to Detroit, has invested heavily in Detroit real estate, helped dozens of startups, and now employs an estimated 12,500 people. (daveseminara.com) The portraits of those who have found jobs at the companies that have started in Detroit since the Great Recession or started businesses that are fueled by this resurgence highlight how new skills and a new way of thinking about work is being created in the shadows of the once great automobile industry. Detroit’s renaissance is also thanks to the visionary collaboration between the private sector and leading philanthropies, including our colleagues at the Kresge, Ford and Kellogg Foundations. Their work in bringing all sectors of the society to the table is a key to the broad based impact the economic and social revitalization has has had. Detroit has a long way to go, but the new ideas and optimism coming from this city sets a great model for others to follow.
While the names of the local startups and visionaries are often the first thing that one remembers from these trips, one of the great advantages these cities have is community and all the diversity of actors that brings with it. It is as if they have chosen to turn their backs on the “go it alone” mentality and see a competitive advantage in getting as many sectors of their society as engaged as possible. In Pittsburgh, the role of Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, as well the role of Deloitte, Accenture and Barclays in innovation initiatives cannot be left out of a proper telling of the rebirth in Pittsburgh. While touring the American Underground facility in Durham with Doug Speight, the CODE2040 Entrepreneur in Residence and guru behind many Durham startups including Cathedral Leasing, he mentioned that women lead 29 percent of the projects housed in American Underground’s Durham sites and 28 percent are minority led. This was evident as we walked the hallways, and it makes American Underground one of the most diverse incubators in America, reflecting the fabric of the Durham experience. And the breadth of the players involved in rebuilding Detroit—from automobile companies to community organizers and political leaders, to philanthropists and entrepreneurs—highlights both the scale of the task and how they are committed to ensure as many as possible share in the benefits of rebuilding as possible.
This spirit is not limited to the United States. Great ideas and innovation, informed by the unique perspective that different lifestyles and backgrounds bring, are found worldwide.
While touring Africa, we met numerous entrepreneurs who were crafting new innovations informed directly from their personal experiences. In Nairobi, we visited a sanitation company, Sanergy. Sanergy’s vision is bold and robust: attack a massive hygiene and sanitation problem across communities by not only providing toilets to underserved areas, but by building a comprehensive entrepreneurship-driven model that creates jobs in underserved communities. Converting the waste into organic fertilizer, insect-based animal feed, and renewable energy, Sanergy’s model is emblematic of new approaches we saw throughout Africa.
In Iceland, I met Thor Sigfusson, the leader of the Iceland Ocean Cluster. This startup accelerator in Reykjavik houses 80 startups that are building businesses to use 100% of the fish—from salmon skin clothing to cosmetic products made of fish bones to nutrition and medical supplements from organs of the fish. The idea is that if more fisherman could capture value from 100 percent of the fish, they would need less fish take to make a living, leading to more sustainable fishing practices for the whole country. And given that Iceland takes 80 million cod out of their waters, their impact could be significant.
And as co-chair of the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership (UPP), a public/private partnership launched after the Annapolis peace talks, I saw firsthand the progress that can be made when communities are given a chance and the tools to innovate. UPP promoted economic and educational opportunities for the Palestinian people in order to facilitate progress toward a two-state solution, wherein Israel and Palestine can live side by side, in peace, security and prosperity. Linking support of young entrepreneurs by world-class tech companies like Google and Cisco, and launching the first-ever Venture Capital fund in the West Bank, represented hope and promise for new economic activity, particularly in the impressive IT sector in the region. This, coupled with affordable loan programs for small businesses, the building of new youth centers, helping to foster tourism, and leading business delegations, contributed to increase economic activity and helped demonstrate that the West Bank is open for business and that great ideas and innovations come from all places, including the West Bank.
These are just a few of the hundreds of examples of innovators and entrepreneurs who are Getting In the Arena in communities worldwide. We have found innovation in all sectors coming from all corners of the world. As we look forward to the next 20 years of work, we believe that the next great ideas will come from these overlooked people and places and, frankly, this makes us more excited than ever to see what they create and to identify what we can do to support their efforts to get the attention, and investment, they deserve.
*Disclosure: Jean and Steve Case are investors in SolePower.
Throughout our 20th year, we will be focusing not only on those heeding our call to the “Get In The Arena” in 2017, but also on how important we have found this principle in all the work the Case Foundation has led throughout its history. And no initiative is more emblematic of this than our work to close the digital divide.
But to bring this lesson to life, we have to go back more than 20 years…
It was the 1990’s. Late one afternoon I sat in my office at America Online and waited while my assistant transferred the call. It was another teacher on the line and I knew why she was calling. I had been receiving a growing number of calls and letters from parents and teachers around the country who mostly shared the same tale: they were deeply concerned about the growing digital divide among neighborhoods and classrooms that left some children advantaged, while others were being left behind. Teachers would point out that some kids in class were using the Internet extensively to prepare papers or augment their classroom learning, often turning in professional-looking reports and homework that had been crafted with best-in-class technology in their homes, while others students were still struggling with the literal “old school” preparation—handwriting, limited resource material to reference, no fancy charts or pictures for their reports. “It’s not fair,” the teacher would plead. “Can’t AOL do something to help these students and families that don’t have access?”
The world has changed a lot since then and, even if you are old enough to remember that period, it is hard to remember what life was like in the 1990’s as the Internet began to explode on the scene. We had introduced America Online to world in late 1989 and then in 1992, it became legal to connect to the Internet—then better known as the World Wide Web—which had previously been accessible only to those in government or academia. We had seen firsthand the divide this teacher was so concerned about and we shared that concern. We set out to engage in a number of initiatives at AOL, including “Net Day” in 1995, designed to wire our nation’s schools to expand access.
But it wasn’t until after I left AOL and co-founded The Case Foundation with my husband, Steve Case, that we finally arrived at what we believed was a big idea—to break down the barriers to access by bringing internet access to key underserved communities.
Not surprisingly, one of the Case Foundation’s first major initiatives was PowerUp, an alliance formed alongside many in the tech industry to create and equip 1000 after school technology centers in low income urban neighborhoods, rural communities and even Indian Reservations. The effort really targeted those we knew had been left out of the tech boom. The Case Foundation provided an initial grant of $10 million to establish PowerUp with half of the grant covering all staff and administrative costs for the program and the other $5 million in the form of direct grants to the community and school based organizations that were the key to the effort’s success. In the end, PowerUp—working not only with the Case Foundation but also with AOL, Cisco Systems, HP, the Waitt Family Foundation and partners like the Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCA, National Urban League and America’s Promise—equipped 957 technology centers covering all 50 states. The collaboration among these many different groups ensured that PowerUp was able to pull the right tools together to meet the unique needs of each community and that each partner—from the community organization to the tech giant—played to their strengths.
And the effort touched millions of lives. 75 percent of the students involved did not have a computer at home, 82 percent of the children who participated were youth-of-color. In the end, this collaborative helped break down the barriers of access and created safe learning spaces where many of the centers reported the children were not only succeeding, but were also bringing their parents in so they could also learn the computer skills they needed to compete and succeed.
Our work at PowerUp showed we could make a real impact. And we are very proud of the extraordinary inroads that have been made since we kicked off this effort in 1999 as it shows the power of what citizens, institutions and companies can do when they make a big bet, use entrepreneurial approaches and collaborate together to achieve a goal.
But today’s more significant divide can be seen in developing countries. Just last year, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), estimated that 53 percent of the world’s population—3.9 billion people—were not using the Internet, with almost 75 percent of the people of Africa not online. The ITU’s 2016 report goes on to state: “In Asia and the Pacific and the Arab States, the percentage of the population that is not using the Internet is very similar: 58.1 and 58.4 percent, respectively.” In our ever more interconnected world, these statistics show over half the world’s population is unable to take advantage of the information and opportunities we consider commonplace.
And, while this data is concerning, I am heartened by all the new players who are now applying many of the strategies we deployed in the United States to close the digital divide in the developing world. As I mentioned in my examination of the importance of the entrepreneurial spirit, the role the private sector is playing to increase accessibility in frontier markets is impressive.
A great example of this can be seen in the work that Vint Cerf described at SXSW earlier this month. Cerf played a key role in developing the early internet while at the Department of Defense, but he is now the chief internet evangelist at Google and co-founder of the People Centered Internet. He uses his leadership role to engage corporations and public entities to collaborate more effectively to bring connectivity to more people. For example, Cerf is pushing the World Bank to make Internet development a key part of their global infrastructure development efforts. This would not only increase investment in internet infrastructure in underserved regions, but also ensure that when a World Bank funded infrastructure or agriculture project is built, fiber optic cabling and internet accessibility are incorporated in the plan. When combined with his role at Google, where they are experimenting with innovative ways to deliver connectivity such as floating specialized balloons at 60,000 feet to deliver wireless Internet in areas where infrastructure development is less feasible, Cerf has turned from being an inventor of the World Wide Web to a convener of multiple companies, institutions and technologies to expand access to those who have been overlooked.
And there are examples all over the world of unlikely pairings coming together to bridge the digital divide, from non-profits, the government and companies like Cisco working together in Mexico, to the Indian government’s commitment to increase mobile usage nationwide to the work being done in multiple countries across the continent of Africa. Also just as exciting are new innovators that are using new models to overcome traditional barriers, like Jana, a mobile advertising company that provides free Internet access and apps in return for viewers watching advertisements. They now have over 1,000 apps and serve millions of users in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
We have come a long way in the last 20 years. And the lessons we learned in shrinking the digital divide in the United States can provide useful insights to those tackling these challenges in developing regions like Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. To move the needle, we will need a diverse group of actors to Get In The Arena and for industry, government, NGOs, Philanthropy and citizens to collaborate in ways that may initially make some uncomfortable. We have already seen signs that this is happening and will continue to call for even more players to #GetInTheArena and help play a role in addressing the final frontiers of the digital divide.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
