It's a whole new world when it comes to "giving back"
The theme was making a living while making the world a better place, and the guest list at Tuesday's community conversation on "giving back" and "social entrepreneurship" was fascinating.
Megan Kashner of the Taproot Foundation wanted to introduce volunteers with professional skills to non-profits who needed those skills. Yolanda Harris was helping faith-based communities in Roseland expand to make social changes. Orville Ocasio had built floral business Urban Meadows around helping people with mental illnesses. Matt McCall of New World Ventures has a day job in venture capitalism and a passion for social entrepreneurism. Social entrepreneur Lisa Nigro (yes, she created Inspiration Cafe, but it doesn't define her) wanted to read more newspaper stories about people turning good ideas into realities.
I'll paraphrase co-host Melissa Harris, our Chicago Confidential columnist:
We invited people we knew or had heard of, who either needed money for a good cause or gave money to good causes, who needed professional consulting or could provide it -- people who were looking for good ideas and people who had them.
There were 18 guests in all and a dozen or so reporters and editors from the Chicago Tribune. Pens and business cards flew.
In a chat afterward with Julie Hasel from The Cara Program and Brittany Martin of United Way-Metropolitan Chicago, a few themes seemed clear:
-- There is a changing appreciation in the 21st century for how one can give back to society. It can be money, but it can also be time and expertise.
-- The tools of innovation applied in every other aspect of our lives are coming into play here, too.
-- And people also want to give back earlier in their lives -- at the beginnings of their careers, say, in addition to after reaching financial milestones later in life. Heck, business schools are adding classes about "social entrepreneurship" like crazy. And they're filling up.
-- Even philanthropy may be changing -- givers are moving from investing in the reputation of a well-known cause or program and toward fresh, good ideas.
Does that jive with what you're noticing?
