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/2cmXUcQ. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ------------------------ The Pan-Mass Challenge 200 mile bike-a-thon in Massachussetts appears to be the biggest athletic-based nonprofit fundraiser in the world. Founded by Billy Starr in 1980, the just completed 2016 event will raise about $46 million for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. According to Starr, the PMC has an annual operating budget of about $4 million. Another $5 million of in-kind donations make it possible for 100 percent of donations to go to Dana-Farber. PMC funds the operating budget with event sponsorships and registrations so that 100 percent of funds donated can go directly to Dana-Farber for cancer research and treatment. Riders are required to pay a registration fee of up to $230 in addit

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2cf3wpx. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ------------------ To paraphrase the great philosopher Forest Gump, impact investing is like a box of chocolates; you never know what impact you’re going to get. One of the foremost experts on impact investing, Cathy Clark, Director of CASE i3 at Duke University, is working on that problem. She is focusing on labeling impact into categories that will be recognized by investors and issuers alike. Sasha Dichter, Chief Innovation Officer at Acumen, sits on the advisory board for CASE i3. Of Clark, he says, “She understands where the field is and where it is going, and her thinking and writing consistently push the field forward.” ------------------ Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2bK19I2. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ---------------- ---------------- Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2bK19I2. Need a crowdfunding speaker? Learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://devinthorpe.com.

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/2bK6qPM. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ------------------- Andrea Barnes has spent her entire career doing nonprofit fundraising. She now runs AB Funding, a consulting practice focused on helping nonprofits raise money. She’s worked the past year to prepare “The Giving Principles Global Nonprofit Telesummit | Investing in Human Solutions” September 12 – 30, 2016. The conference will bring together 15 nonprofit leaders to share insights into sustainable impact and the fundraising strategies that support them. “Our speakers represent proven, world-class organizations,” Andrea says. “They are thought leaders in support of social good. Their charities are tested and their results are proven. Each has a vital story to share.” Some of the them

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/2bCOCXu. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ------------------------- Solar Site Design, winner of the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2015 Sunshot Catalyst Award, will unveil its Solar Commercial Marketplace for its industrial solar power site planning software at Solar Power International in Las Vegas on September 12 through 15th, 2016. The trade show is the largest solar industry event of the year. Jason Loyet, President and Founder of Solar Site Design or SSD, says, “We are excited to introduce this enhancement to our platform that will revolutionize the cost of solar energy across the United States.” Jason adds, “Our mission is to drive down the cost of solar and keep all coal in the ground. We are excited to be a part of the solution for dr

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/2bCAfT9. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. --------------------- Eclat Impact is building the global platform for impact investing. In order to bring institutional scale to the impact marketplace, there needs to be a marketplace that operates within the international regulatory framework. Eclat Impact is working to be that platform. Brace Young, the recently appointed CEO of Eclat Impact, explains, “We are solving for the need for a financial institution with the standing to allow both institutions and individuals to have the confidence to make investments in both private debt and Equity with a focus not only on risk and return but impact as well.” Creating that confidence will require more than a flashy website, Brace notes. “We are buildin

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/2biqICE. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. -------------------- What if there were a way that you could give without giving? That is, what if you could make a donation to charity without actually giving any of your own money? Many people have tried to create meaningful ways to accomplish this, especially since the internet became a ubiquitous part of our lives. Loftii is one of the latest entrants into this field. Most people give to charity. In fact, most people give a lot. On average, about $3,000 per year per household. Many people would like to give even more. Loftii has created a way for you to give without giving by taking a slice of your online purchases from the merchants and giving that to charity. You pay nothing and your charity ge

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2bKCzd1. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ----------------- Devin Thorpe , CONTRIBUTOR I cover social entrepreneurship and impact investing. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Microsoft MSFT -0.24% reported doing over $1 billion of corporate giving, mostly in-kind, for fiscal year 2015. The software giant is making giving a more integral part of its strategy, as I explored here. One current initiative is a drive to encourage more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, a three-year, $75 million program called YouthSpark. [Full disclosure: I own an embarrassingly small number of shares in Microsoft.] Here’s the thing, Microsoft Philanthropies President, Mary Snapp (the first female lawyer at the company back

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2bGCbKb. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ---------------- Hundreds of millions of Americans who have been statutorily and practically prohibited from investing in startups are now allowed to do just that under two new regulations. The 2012 JOBS Act created new rules for Regulation A offerings and Regulation Crowdfunding. Neither requires investors t o meet a specific net worth or experience requirement. Common sense suggests it is time to ask the expert how to do “due diligence” on a startup investment. Todd Crosland, CEO and Founder of Seed Equity Ventures, offers some advice on conducting proper due diligence. He suggests exploring each of the following questions: Is there at least a minimum viable product or prototype with proof of concept? If p

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes artic le and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2bqdgcg. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ---------------------- Angela Parker, co-founder and President of Realized Worth, has built a profitable, $1 million revenue consulting practice helping companies like Mcdonalds, TD Bank, and even the UN with volunteering programs. She will share five guidelines for corporate volunteering below. The firm designs custom volunteer programs for its clients and then works with them to implement them successfully. Parker earned an MBA, but that may be where her typical corporate consulting background ends. She worked in a variety of social services efforts, including disaster relief, managing volunteers for nonprofits and helping at-risk kids, she says. While not the typical path for corporate work, it was perfect for

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2aN2Fvd. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. --------------------- Anne Kjaer Riechert, a young, Danish entrepreneur living in Germany saw the flood of refugees arriving in 2015 and did something about it. [Full disclosure: I have written about polio eradication for Rotarian Magazine.] Riechert, a past Rotary Peace Fellow, moved to Berlin in 2012 to set up the Berlin Peace Innovation Lab in collaboration with Stanford University. When she observed what ultimately became 1.1 million asylum seekers, mostly from Syria, she saw an opportunity. ”Currently, there are 43,000 open jobs in IT in Germany,” she says. John Hewko, general secretary of Rotary International, who spent much of his career in Europe, commenting on the refugee situation there, says, “If we don

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2aFOsjD. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ------------------------ Howard Leonhardt is the co-inventor of the TALENT stent acquired by Medtronic MDT +0.58% and used to treat over 200,000 patients. With boundless optimism, 20 patents issued and more pending, he has launched Leonhardt Ventures to form and incubate dozens of companies intended to collectively extend human life expectancy by 30 years. [While I have no business relationship with Leonhardt at present, he has invited me to join his advisory board.] Most of the technologies in the portfolio are at the intersection of electrical stimulation and stem cells. Jeremy Koff, an entrepreneur with a deep background in medical devices himself has signed on as an advisor to Leonhardt’s California Stock Exchan

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/2aCLAk2. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ----------------------- Emmy Award winner Shane DeRolf has launched an effort he calls the Big Word Club to help disadvantaged children catch up with their more affluent peers. Shane says, “A child’s vocabulary at age 5 is the single best predictor of his or her success in school and in life yet by the time they enter kindergarten, children from lower to middle socioeconomic families will know 400-700 fewer words than their wealthier classmates. This is called the ‘word gap’ and without effective intervention (i.e. improving their vocabularies at a young age), the word gap only gets wider as the child gets older.” The real problem, he says, comes later. “Left unchecked, the word gap evolves into the

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2aFrqHX. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ----------------------- Maria De La Croix may one day prove to be the biggest mistake Starbucks SBUX +0.83% ever made. You see, the blue-haired young woman applied for a job as a barista with the global leader in high-end coffee shops and was turned down, she says, because her hair was “too blue.” Lest anyone at Starbucks feel bad about the decision, no one could have guessed what would happen next. Suffice it to say, there is a mic drop coming. With the help of some friends, De La Croix built a solar powered coffee shop on a bicycle and completely reinvented the coffee shop business. She calls her company Wheelys Cafe. Her stores on wheels cost just $5,900, on which she makes a profit margin of 50 percent, she sa

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/2aCT3j8. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ---------------------- This changemaker raised in the former Czechoslovakia, Iva Dior, became an activist as a small child. Today, in the United States, the singer and activist continues to advocate for change, working primarily to educate children and families on good nutrition. She explains how she got her start. “I got to know families who were desperate to change their lifestyle, but didn’t know where to start. I took them shopping, shared a few recipes and realized there’s away to do this on a budget. It’s the moms and dads who needed to feel empowered to change their families’ eating habits.” Along the way, Iva has faced significant challenges. “Having been raised in communist Czechoslovakia,

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2aw0nNl. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. -------------------- -------------------- Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2aw0nNl. Need a speaker for an event, learn more about Devin Thorpe at http://devinthorpe.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/2aDE7o9. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ----------------------- Colleen Copple, a social entrepreneur from what was once a gang-threatened neighborhood in Salt Lake City, is threading the needle between people that fear the police and the cops who protect them. She has created a business mending communities to reduce violence of all kinds. Copple is the C0-Founder of Strategic Applications International or SAI as well as of Servant Forge, a nonprofit that provides similar services in Africa. The firm typically contracts with governmental agencies to facilitate community engagement and communications. In 2015, in SAI facilitated the production of the Obama administration’s response to community violence in Ferguson and elsewhere. Twenty-five years earlier

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/29WUDPy. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. --------------------- The world’s coral reefs are threatened by rising sea temperatures, destructive fishing, coastal development, invasive species, damage from marine recreation, storm damage and higher acidity. Melody Saunders Brenna is an entrepreneur with a plan to restore damaged reefs using nanotechnology. Melody notes that the reefs are critical for humans as 1 in 10 people rely on reefs for food. Furthermore, she estimates that $350+ billion annual income is at risk. Something needs to be done. She has launched Reef Life Restoration and Reef Life Foundation to help create new, living, thriving reefs. The literal foundation of the plan is “cast marine cell structures” that look and feel like

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/29FNza7 Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ----------------------- Bernard Loyd, an MIT-educated activist born on Chicago’s West Side and raised in Liberia, has returned to Chicago to lead the rebuilding of a historically black community. “Despite being the historic center of Black Chicago, a former cultural and commercial hub of Black America, and located only minutes from downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan, Bronzeville is one of the most economically-challenged communities in the United States and a food and jobs ‘desert,'” Bernard says. With that as motivation, Bernard and his company, Urban Juncture, is out doing something about the problems he sees. He says, “We are developing a culinary district celebrating unique Black cuisine from around the

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/29EbS4t. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. ------------------ Gordon Gund was blinded by retinitis pigmentosa in 1970 at the age of 31. He has spent the 45 years since working to defeat that disease, to prevent related blindness and even to restore sight to the blind. Over $700 million later, he now hopes that “within a generation we will be able to eradicate blindness caused by retinal disease!” In 2013, I first connected with Gordon for a Forbes piece that included a live interview we conducted then. It is hard to imagine how one copes with the complete loss of one’s vision. Gordon partnered with his wife. He says, “After coming to terms with how our lives would be altered by the disease, my wife and I committed ourselves to a comprehensiv