Your Mark On The World

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2sjR2Dm. In 2010, between 500 and 700 families were being turned away from the Ronald McDonald House in Salt Lake City every year because the home lacked the rooms to care for all of the families with sick children being treated at area hospitals. To fix that problem, a major expansion requiring a significant capital campaign would be required. That, in turn, would require new leadership. Enter Carrie Romano, who was recruited to serve as the CEO of the Ronald McDonald House Charities Intermountain Area largely because she had recently led a $20 million capital campaign for the local YWCA. If you are fortunate, you've never had occasion to stay at a Ronald McDonald House. Romano explains, " We provide a home-away-from-home to ease daily burdens and empower families of hospitalized children with meaningful experiences and quality time together." Read the full Fo

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2skfaXh. Tony Loyd is a podcaster who interviews social entrepreneurs. He has just been invited to host a weekly, drive-time radio show. He's also finishing up a book. To launch all of this, Tony is running a crowdfunding campaign on StartSomeGood.com. Tony lives by the mantra "miracles happen when you are in motion." He says, the radio show came about because he was out and about, was producing a podcast and another host of the radio show connected him to the producer. His book, Crazy Good Advice, features ten lessons from the 150 episodes of his show, extracting patterns and insights from the great social entrepreneurs he's interviewed. Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2skfaXh Need a crowdfunding speaker? Learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://crowdfundingspeaker.org.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2sk8WGN. Justin Huggard died last December. In April, the Deseret News ran a 4,000-word story about him. The remarkable thing was not that the News took four months to write his obituary, rather it was that they wrote anything at all. Justin was homeless. Addicted. Invisible. While he died on Main Street in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City; his passing was so anonymous that even those good-hearted activists who track the casualties of homelessness each year missed his death. At the annual vigil for the homeless who die in Salt Lake, the names of the year's victims are read, remembered and honored fleetingly. But not Justin. Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2sk8WGN. Need a corporate social responsibility speaker? Learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://corporatesocialresponsibilityspea

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2rRaVBR. Kelli Kelley is a reluctant social entrepreneur. She was 24 weeks pregnant--16 weeks before her due date--when a sharp pain in her abdomen signaled something was wrong. She called her mother and mother-in-law for guidance and they told her to call 911. It was a good thing she did. In the ambulance, they confirmed she was in labor and that they wouldn't be able to stop it. At the time, 24 weeks was the medical limit for delivering a baby that could survive. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2rRaVBR. Need a corporate social responsibility speaker? Learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://corporatesocialresponsibilityspeaker.com.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2qGZQ6O. Susannah Schaefer, CEO of the International nonprofit Smile Train, says, "It is a nonprofit, but it is a business." This attitude for leading the enterprise guides much of what it does. Consistent with the vision of the founder and Chairman, Charles B. Wang, the business started with a teach-a-man-to-fish model for providing free cleft-correcting surgeries to children in the developing world. That approach has led to impressive scale since the enterprise was launched in 1999. Last year, 120,000 children were treated by Smile Train trained surgeons. Schaefer is quick to point out that about 170,000 cleft births occur each year in the developing world, possibly leaving 50,000 new children every year without needed treatment. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2qGZQ6O. Need a corporate social responsibility speaker? L

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2qI6g0F. While working on her master's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at California Polytechnic State University, Tricia Compas-Markman, 32, helped to invent the Waterbag, a "water treatment plant in a backpack." Having distributed 20,000 units around the world following disasters, she is focusing now on scaling DayOne Response by at least one order of magnitude. Kellee Joost invested in the business and joined the board of directors after hearing Compas-Markman's pitch. There were two reasons she invested, she says. First, "DayOne Response set out to solve a big, hairy problem." Second, "the co-founders of DayOneResponse had a good balance of experience and background, but even more important for me was that they were fearless." The Waterbag works by filling the bag with fresh water from a river or stream, adding a chemical water purification pack

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2qzX91S. Erik Melang, 52, the CEO and co-founder of Distributive Solar, says now is the time for business owners to put solar panels on their facilities. He should know; in under one year since he launched the business, his team has 75 megawatts of solar projects in the pipeline. Erik recently made the case for investing in solar now in a post on Linkedin and joined me for a quick conversation (watch it at the top of this article) to talk about the reasons. He offers four primary reasons for considering solar now: 1. The investment tax credit on solar installations will begin to expire in 2020. Given the time required to evaluate, design and install solar, there isn't much cushion in the calendar to take advantage of the tax benefits. Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2qzX91S. Need a cor

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2qXaUtD. Felicity Conrad only worked for Skadden, one of the world's most prominent law firms, for about two years but while she was there she had the opportunity to litigate a pro bono asylum case. She won. And in the bargain, she changed the lives of the family she represented--and her own. She left the firm to launch a site she says is "like Match.com for lawyers" and their pro bono clients. As a first year associate, Conrad says she was afraid to take on the asylum case. It was her first time in a court room. After winning the case, to celebrate, the family took her out to dinner at McDonalds. "The children--the whole family was there. You can see the fruits of your labor in a way that most lawyers never see," she said of the experience. A vegetarian, Conrad describes eating french fries and being thankful "I had said 'yes' to something outside my comfort zon

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2q8UYHC. Leslie Heyer, the founder and president of Cycle Technologies, reports that women using her CycleBeads to count the days since their menstrual cycle began have successfully delivered about 1.5 million babies and have avoided about 5 million unwanted pregnancies. Her latest product is an app that she hopes will help even more than the 6 million who have used her beads. Heyer, a Harvard-educated social entrepreneur, recently launched a new app called Dot that helps women understand when pregnancy is most--and least--likely to occur during the month, based principally on the date a woman starts her monthly cycle. Cycle Technologies, with revenues of $1 million annually from product sales and consulting, has been producing its CycleBeads for nearly a decade. The beads are distributed through partnerships with NGOs to women around the developing world. Read

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2qg9QPt. Renewable energy projects are the primary weapon in the war on climate change, but that shouldn't exempt these projects in the developing world from United Nations' standards on human rights, argues a new briefing report. As I explored the briefing, "Renewable Energy: Managing Investors' Risks and Responsibilities," with two of the co-authors, Andrea Armeni of Transform Finance and Meredith Benton (see my interview with them at the top of this article), I began to see clean energy projects through a new lens. Armeni points out that when a wind or solar project is built to provide power to an aluminum smelter there is no question that powering the smelter with clean energy is better than powering it with fossil fuels, but there may still be a negative impact on a local community--which may or may not benefit much from the project. Read the full Forbes a

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2qUdKPE. "We're starting in the wrong place," Mara Bolis, 45, senior advisor for market systems at Oxfam America, says of the approach most impact investors are using today. The problem she highlights is that investors are starting with an analysis of their own requirements, which are primarily financial rather than with a deep understanding of a problem they wish to solve. "Impact is a pretty diluted term at this point," she adds. "We're not doing the important upfront work to diagnose the problem." Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2qUdKPE. Need a corporate social responsibility speaker? Learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://corporatesocialresponsibilityspeaker.com.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2oZ1HD2. Salvador Briggman, author of Nonprofit Crowdfunding Explained, says he shares all you need to know to succeed with your nonprofit crowdfunding goals. Salvador says his goal was to share the insights that for-profit crowdfunders are using so that nonprofits could get those benefits, too. He's excited by the potential for crowdfunding to help nonprofits get the word out about their inspiring work. He notes that peer-to-peer fundraising is a better model for crowdfunding than a traditional, centralized approach. By empowering supporters to do the fundraising for your organization, you let them reach their friends directly and expand your reach infinitely. Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2oZ1HD2. Need a crowdfunding speaker? Learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://crowdfundingspeaker.org.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pzQLL9. Kathryn Pisco's world changed when with her husband she circumnavigated the globe, volunteering along the way. She realized, "Life was too short to fit back into what I was doing before." So, rather than go back to work in a regular job, she launched a social enterprise called Unearth the World to help volunteers travel and have real impact. She notes that there are three big problems in the voluntourism industry that she hoped to fix. Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pzQLL9. Need a corporate social responsibility speaker? Learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://corporatesocialresponsibilityspeaker.com.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pDpUMy. Time's 2014 Person of the Year was "The Ebola Fighters." Among the front line people profiled was the aptly described "tornado of energy" Katie Meyler, now 34 and the founder of the educational NGO More Than Me. Meyler, who says empathy is her superpower, founded the organization while visiting Liberia years before the Ebola epidemic swept the country. She was there doing volunteer work and came across an 11-year-old girl named Abigail who was prostituting herself for school fees. Meyler began paying her fees so Abigail could attend school. Abigail had some friends that needed help, too. Soon, the number of girls she was helping outstripped Meyler's meager resources so she began fundraising via social media to help more girls. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pDpUMy. Need a corporate social responsibility speak

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2qbVLCT. If your business evaluated solar power as a way to reduce costs more than a year ago and rejected it, it is time to look again, says Jason Loyet, CEO of Solar Site Design. Solar Site Design has a national network of independent contractors who work as solar originators. The company also has a network of client contractors who pay for the opportunity to bid on the projects the originators find. This competitive marketplace is helping to accelerate projects and reduce the cost of solar installations. The result, Jason says, is installed costs of solar power that are years ahead of recent expectations at under $2.00 per watt. That means that in most parts of the country, a business can install solar and save enough to on utility bills to justify the expense. Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://b

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pjLG9W. Feel Rich, started with the question, "What if we create a brand that makes health sexy?" Feel Rich, a "culturally relevant" health and wellness brand for the multicultural, urban community, is a led by Shawn Ullman and Quincy D. Jones, III, son of the multi-Grammy-award-winning artist. Ullman has worked for Jones for years, helping to produce documentary films. Jones has left his father's shadow but not his legacy and has produced several gold, platinum and multi-platinum albums. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pjLG9W. Need a corporate social responsibility speaker? Learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://corporatesocialresponsibilityspeaker.com.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pezZ4p. With the "dot com crash" in 2000, largely by regulatory design, small company IPOs all but disappeared from the American economic landscape. A scarcely noticed part or title of the 2012 JOBS Act sought to address that directly by reinvigorating Regulation A, raising the cap from $5 million to $50 million and creating a path for a Reg A offering to be an effective IPO (initial public offering). The new rule is commonly called Reg A+. In early 2016, Elio Motors went public using Regulation A. The rules weren't effective until mid 2015 and the market is just beginning to mature. Rod Turner is the founder and CEO of Manhattan Street Capital, one of the players in this nascent marketplace. Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pezZ4p. Need a crowdfunding speaker? Learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://crow

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pHMMdq. While some businesses seem to make profit both coming and going, RecylceForce seems to have impact both coming and going. Launched in 2006, the social enterprise employs people who are transitioning out of prison to help recycle electronics and other materials. The nonprofit is having an environmental impact on the one hand and helping disadvantaged people gain job skills and experience on the other. The organization generates most of its revenue from the recycling business, but also receives some philanthropic support and government grants. The revenue from recycling makes the nonprofit more stable and sustainable than some that depend entirely on charitable donations. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pHMMdq. Need a corporate social responsibility speaker? Learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://corporatesocial

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2oLeRAB. The country's fascination with tiny homes has led to a nascent movement using shipping containers for low-income housing. With some tiny homes and apartments having fewer than 200 square feet, the 40-foot shipping container and its approximately 320 square feet could feel relatively spacious. Wanona Satcher, the CEO and founder of ReJuve Corp based in Atlanta, is launching a new initiative to create "Plug-In Pods" using shipping containers. She hopes to create a flexible model for l0w-income housing that addresses need of a range of people, from millennial minimalists to seniors who may want or need to live backyard-close to family caregivers. Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2oLeRAB. Need a crowdfunding speaker? Learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://crowdfundingspeaker.org.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2oZnGtg. Sarina Prabasi, born in Nepal, and her husband, Elias Gurmu, born in Ethiopia, launched Buunni Coffee, selling fair-trade Ethiopian coffee in New York City. The enterprise, their social entrepreneurship and indeed their relationship, grew out of Prabasi's work in international development. Today, she serves as the CEO of WaterAid America, a position she assumed in 2014. With an annual budget of $7.1 million, the NGO is a leader in the "WASH" or water, sanitation and hygiene community. She's spent a total of 20 years working in the field. Watch my interview with Prabasi at the top of this article. Prabasi reports that the organization was originally focused on clean water and has helped 24.9 million gain access to clean water. Another 24 million people have gained access to toilets and sanitation. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview her