Your Mark On The World

January 23, 2015 - Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1CRVci0. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Becky Morrison found a way to empower people in the developing world by founding Globetops to gather used laptops for those who need them. Becky explains her motivation for founding Globetops, “For years we have been presented images of people in the developing world who are poor and suffering. But there is another demographic that we don’t see - those who are passionate and powerful! People who may lack resources, but who have big visions for their lives and who are doing great work in their communities.” “If we can get ourselves out of the way, anything is possible,” she adds. “There is already enough stuff in the world. The problem is that it’s not in the right places. Everyone is talking about recycling nowadays, but I’m more interested in redist

January 23, 2015 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1zzCOg6. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. The Catholic Health Association has recently completed the reconstruction the St. Francis de Sales Hospital in Haiti, restoring and improving health services for the poor there. Sister Carol Keehan, President and CEO of the Catholic Health Association or CHA, explains, “Members of the Catholic Health Association donated more than $10.1 million to the reconstruction of St. Francis de Sales Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, destroy in the 2010 earthquake.” “St. Francis de Sales Hospital, founded in 1881, has been the principal health care provider for the poorest and most vulnerable people of the Haitian capital,” she adds. “The new hospital is a vitally important part of rebuilding the community of Port-au-Prince and ensuring that its people can receive the medic

January 23, 2015 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1JdMnmz. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Omidyar Network, founded by Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, and his wife Pam, is a driving force in the movement toward impact investing, using investments to drive social impact. Amy Klement, a partner at Omidyar Network or ON, explains the way she thinks about driving change, “Many ultra-high net worth individuals want to use the wealth they’ve acquired to make a social impact. Yet when creating a legacy, the power of markets often gets left out of their philanthropy.” She continues, “Our perspective at Omidyar Network is that wealth holders can and should bring their full range of experience and assets to address problems too big to be solved by grants alone. We are ultimately focused on the betterment of humankind. That’s why we focus on impact investing and

January 23, 2015 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1JdGmGg. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. GlobalGiving is one of the oldest crowdfunding sites on the web, having been launched half a decade ahead of industry giants Kickstarter and Indiegogo. GlobalGiving is a highly curated platform–an application process is used to screen fundraisers–that services only nonprofit organizations. CEO and co-founder, Mari Kuraishi, explains its vision, ”The whole reason the GlobalGiving community exists is not only to connect local world-changers to people around the world who have funding to support them, but also to provide access to information, ideas, and tools so that nonprofits can use their funding more effectively. We’re so glad that the GlobalGiving network is becoming so valuable for vital organizations that would otherwise not have access to corporate or foundat

January 15, 2015 - Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1u7owvP. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke has launched Women’s WorldWide Web or W4, a crowdfunding site to help women around the world do more sustainably. Lindsey explains, “W4 is a social-enterprise, crowdfunding platform dedicated to promoting girls’ and women’s empowerment around the world — in developing and developed countries.” “We foster women’s social entrepreneurship as a powerful force for good—morally, socially financially, and for the sake of the environment,” she adds. Lindsey sees hope and opportunity in the developing world. “Across the world, we’re seeing women social entrepreneurs driving change, improving lives, and even saving lives. These women are transforming communities and societies. They’re innovative, creative, and exceptionally resourceful, launching

January 15, 2015 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1u7gX8t. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Salt Lake County reports having deployed the first implementation of a pay-for-success financing at the county level in the country. Mayor Ben McAdams has been actively involved and is now looking for more ways to apply the nascent financing structure, sometimes called social impact bonds. McAdams says, “Salt Lake County used the Pay for Success model to send 600 additional low-income kids to preschool in 2013.” “The Pay for Success model creates a huge opportunity to put taxpayer dollars towards what actually works, rather than following an out-dated recipe that we once thought or hoped would work,” McAdams adds. McAdams explains his motivation, “Pay for Success is a new and different approach to traditional government programming geared towards addressing socia

January 9, 2015 - Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1u7sHYP. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Sean Hosman is a lawyer working to reform prisons by applying scientifically-based approaches to reduce recidivism. His goal, he says, is “turning lives around.” He notes that rehabilitation and support of our inmates, felons and addicts not only improves their lives, but it improves the lives of their families and our communities. Sean has created Assessments.com to work actively with adult and juvenile corrections agencies and private providers across the country to implement technology, systems and solutions that will turn lives around. Please consider whether a friend or colleague might benefit from this piece and, if so, share it.

January 9, 2015 - Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1DDohyx. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Rob Holzer is a kind of a big deal. As the CEO of and Founder of Matter Unlimited, Rob helps organizations rebrand themselves with greater social impact at the heart of the new image. “Plotting a long-term plan for reorienting a company around social purpose can seem daunting, particularly for large established companies, but is quite possible if approached strategically as long-term change management and brand evolution rather than through a lens of a traditional advertising or marketing campaign,” he says. Making the case for making the change, Rob says, “Creating a plan for social responsibility does more than help the communities in which you operate; it becomes a snowball effect within the entire organization. It begins to improve the quality of

January 9, 2015 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1Kqz2ZG. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. “Nigeria is paving the way for a polio-free Africa,” according to John Vertefeuille, team lead for Nigeria at the Centers for Disease Control. With the World Health Organization reporting no cases of polio in Nigeria since July 24, 2014 and the last in Africa reported in August, Vertefeuille’s enthusiasm is well-founded. The infrastructure that supports polio immunizations was used early in the West African Ebola epidemic to stop its spread in Nigeria, Vertefeueille notes. “The recent Ebola outbreak in Nigeria was successfully interrupted in part because the polio eradication response infrastructure was used; in particular, members of the Nigeria Polio Emergency Operations Center were deployed to coordinate the multi-agency Ebola response.” Vertefeueille adds caut

January 9, 2015 - Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1DDFYhl. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. The Volunteers of America, Utah new Homeless Youth Resource Center is beginning to take shape. With just $1 million in funding lacking for the $6 million center, homeless youth in Utah can take heart. The new center will provide youth not only with a safe place to visit during the day, but for the first time it will provide a place to spend the night for up to 30 homeless youth. Zach Bale, Chief Development Officer for VOA-Utah, says, “Investing now in youth who are on the street can prevent years of trauma, and homelessness that often continues into adulthood. At Volunteers of America, Utah, we’re looking to help youth find a better life, and our Homeless Youth Resource Center is the way to do it.” Zach puts services in context, noting, “Meeting yout

January 9, 2015 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1DDc0tT. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. John Goldstein of Imprint Capital is one of the rare breed of impact investors who has logged some real miles on this path and has some lessons to share as a result. “In impact investing, people often find themselves stuck at the drawing board – asking broad, sweeping questions as a prelude to determining what to do. In our experience, the drawing board is a great place to ask questions, but a lousy place to answer them. The right question is not whether to do it (or any of the related sub-questions), but what to do and how to do it well,” he says. He goes on to say, “People perpetually want to make sweeping generalizations about impact investing – does it have good returns or lousy returns? Lots of impact or no impact? In my experience the answer to most of these

January 9, 2015 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1DDknWr. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. The battle to eradicate polio from planet is at once entirely global and at the same time a very individual process–every single child must be immunized. Between those two extremes are regional battles to control outbreaks and prevent children from being paralyzed. On October 29, 2013, the first case of polio was reported in Syria after an absence of 14 years. The conflict in Syria was devastating to public health, reducing routine immunizations from 99 percent to 52 percent. By the end of April of 2014, 36 children in Syria and two in Iraq were paralyzed, but the outbreak appears to have been controlled due to massive efforts on the ground. Please consider whether a friend or colleague might benefit from this piece and, if so, share it.

January 9, 2015 - Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1486cM4. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Celebrity Dentist Bill Dorfman is a real philanthropist at heart. His LEAP Foundation helps middle-school students from around the world prepare to for successful careers. By bringing students from diverse backgrounds onto the UCLA campus and providing them with motivational content from top speakers. He’s also worked to support Smiles for Life, Tomorrow Trust and the Los Angeles Battered Women’s Shelter and Safe Passages. Please consider whether a friend or colleague might benefit from this piece and, if so, share it.

January 9, 2015 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1DDwd2I. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Jill O’Donnell-Tormey is the CEO and director of scientific affairs for the Cancer Research Institute, which focuses its research budget on promising cancer immunotherapy research. In recent years, new drugs like Yervoy, Opdivo and Keytruda have some people talking about “curing” cancer–and it isn’t just the patients. “As a scientist, I have been reluctant in the past to use the word “cure” when it comes to cancer, but the durable remissions we are now seeing in some previously untreatable patients gives me and many others great hope that we will, in fact, one day eliminate cancer deaths and effectively cure this disease,” O’Donnell-Tormey says. “The immune system plays an important role in cancer development and control, and we’re learning through scientific r

December 30, 2014 - Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1B0d8YN. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Sunny Washington has her work cut out for her and she knows it. "The United States needs more than a million more students graduating with STEM degrees" to meet the projected needs, she explains. "The United States is ranked 24th in math and 21st in science education worldwide." She notes that “74 percent of girls are interested in science, yet less than 15 percent of girls go on to pursue science careers.” Sunny leads Ardusat, an education technology company that allows students to conduct experiments in space using small satellites. The mission of Ardusat is to get more kids interested in STEM fields. Please consider whether a friend or colleague might benefit from this piece and, if so, share it.

December 30, 2014 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1vn8oFS. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. “Paul Newman wanted to make the world a better place, and we carry on his legacy to do that ,” says Robert Forrester, President and CEO of Newman’s Own Foundation and Chairman and CEO of Newman’s Own, Inc. “Great tasting foods and a charitable mission are always relevant; they’re at the core of what we do.” Forrester explains that the foundation owns Newman’s Own, Inc., meaning that 100 percent of distributed profits go to charity. In fact, he reports, that over $400 million has been donated to organizations around the world. “We recently announced a $10.5 million commitment to nutrition, providing grants to over 36 organizations that focus on fresh food access and nutrition education,” Forrester adds. “Part of this commitment includes the establishment of the fi

December 30, 2014 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1vncYUI. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Dara Kaplan and her team have recently launched Girlfluence, an “influencer marketing and branding agency” focused on helping women reach and influence other women. The agency was created with a focus on giving back and supporting nonprofit organizations, beginning with a DC-based nonprofit called Spirit Club that serves adults with developmental challenges. Much of the firm’s work focuses on building brands for women on YouTube. The agency notes that a presence on YouTube is creating fame that rivals Hollywood today. Please consider whether a friend or colleague might benefit from this piece and, if so, share it.

December 29, 2014 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1vnjfzF. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Joe Schmidt has had a lot of success in his life as an entrepreneur. At this stage of his career, he could be doing just about anything he wants, including nothing. That’s what makes Schmidt’s new venture so interesting. Schmidt has launched a nonprofit crowdfunding platform called ENDcrowd for the express purpose of ending human trafficking around the world. As the founder of the successful internet business Canvas on Demand, Schmidt may be just the guy to catalyze the world to end slavery. Schmidt says, “The prominence and magnitude of the problem is astounding: An estimated 35.8 million people are the powerless victims of human trafficking,” citing the Global Slavery Index for 2014. “Human trafficking is estimated to be a $150 billion a year industry and is t

December 11, 2014 - Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1Glcip4. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. As the Christmas season is upon us, WalletHub recently conducted an analysis of rates of charity by state around the United States. Spokesperson Jill Gonzalez, says, “With 30 percent of annual giving taking place in December and the U.S. co-leading the world with Myanmar in charitable contributions this year, the leading personal finance social network WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2014’s Most & Least Charitable States.” She made the following key observations from the report: The percentage of donated income is four times higher in Utah than in New Hampshire. The median contribution to charity is three times higher in Utah than in Rhode Island. The number of charities per capita is five times higher in Vermont than in Nevada. Accordi

December 11, 2014 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1sdbyBD. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. A new report on impact investing from the Impact Investing Policy Collaborative (usually abbreviated IIPC) provides a varied look at the policies and practices that are guiding the rapidly developing industry. Tonusree Basu, Associate Director, InSight Pacific Community Ventures, who is one of the report authors, explained that “the Impact Investing Policy Collaborative (IIPC) is a global network focused on impact investing policy, founded 5 years ago, as a partnership between a Bay Area based non-profit and impact investor – Pacific Community Ventures – and the Initiative for Responsible Investment at Harvard University.” Rosemary Addis, Founder and Executive Chair of Impact Investing Australia, another of the report’s authors commented on the growth of impact i