Endeavor: The Rise of Social Creatives

Endeavor
THE RISE OF SOCIAL CREATIVES

Charles Tsai

 iBooks Author

Social Creatives

Social Creatives designs innovative tools and programs to
empower today’s change agents. We provide ebooks,
workshops, innovation competitions and programs to help
individuals master the art of change.

Visit www.socialcreatives.org to ﬁnd out more.

i

 iBooks Author

Chapter 1

Introduction

Don’t ask what the world needs.  
Ask what makes you come alive
and go do it.

Because what the world needs is
people who have come alive.
- Howard Thurman 
American Theologian

 iBooks Author

Introduction

“How is the world different because you are here?”

-Bill Drayton, founder, Ashoka

This is not a question we get asked every day. Or ever. But
whether you are a teenager or a grandparent, you can sense its
importance. You might even feel it in your heart.

We all want to matter. We want our life to count for something.
We’d like to know we really are making a difference - to someone
or some place. But that primary drive - for meaning and
signiﬁcance - tends to get pushed aside.

In school, we are told to strive for good grades, to score well on
tests and get into better schools. And then, if we’re lucky, we will
get good jobs and successful careers.

Perhaps then we will matter. But is that really how it works?

3

 iBooks Author

You may have a nagging suspicion that all that may dictated by institutions. Political parties want us to
not be enough - or even satisfying. Most jobs you see vote for them. They say that’s how real change will
around you don’t seem all that exciting or fulfilling. come about. Just vote for the right party and elect the
right politicians every few years.
And you would be right. When people are asked if
they’re satisfied with their jobs, 60 percent say no. Charities want us to donate and maybe even volunteer.
Even if they are happy with what They say that’s the most efficient way to
they’re doing, the typical worker Even if you win the rat scale change.
these days changes jobs every 4.1 race, you’re still a rat. If only they were right.
years. That means every four years,
everything changes. ~ Unknown These days, all institutions -
educational, political, social - are
The truth is that for most of
finding it hard to keep up with the
us, jobs will give us
times - to meet the changing
paychecks but not purpose.
needs of our changing world.
If employment is not the
So as institutions get stuck,
answer, what about
individuals rise up.
citizenship?
The Rise of Individuals 
The Fall of Institutions 
All over the world, people like you
Just like work, our civic life
and me are standing up and
tends to be organized and
4

 iBooks Author

demanding more. Young and old, we’re challenging Gallery 1.1 Young Social Creatives

what is by introducing what could be. We’re breaking
old rules by inventing better ones. We take it upon
ourselves to figure out solutions but even when we
don’t “solve” problems, we are creating new
possibilities - for ourselves and for others.

That alone gives us a sense of purpose.

We, Social Creatives, share some defining
characteristics. We…

Innovate. We create new solutions or simply
Chris Temple, Zach Ingrasci and two friends use filmmaking and
put new ideas into play so that we can make experiential learning to help illuminate the challenge of global poverty.
things better.

Amplify. We lift the voices and elevate the How do we do all this? Through many different ways,
interests of those who need to be heard. We shine of course. But one common approach - and the focus
the spotlight on concerns that need to be of this ebook - is to initiate projects.
addressed.
Launching projects of all kinds, Social Creatives are
Multiply. We spread solutions and change so finding new answers to age old questions: How do I
that more people can benefit. live a life of passion and purpose? How do I contribute

5

 iBooks Author

to society? What are my true talents and gifts? In If you need more convincing, watch the bonus video in
short, how do I make a difference? each section.

Of course, some projects are better conceived and Together, they offer multiple pathways to change.
generate better results than others. The next ebook Which one is right for you?
will focus on how to launch successful projects and
Whichever one you pick, be aware of
why “projects” are a good way to
the fundamental shifts in thinking
think of change in the ﬁrst place.
that they all represent. Four in
For now, though, let’s simply look at particular are:
the wide variety of projects that
1) Institutions to Individuals 
Social Creatives engage in. Their
What drives change is the creativity
diversity is the main purpose of this
and passion of individuals. It has
ebook.
always been thus. We just notice it
How to Use this Book  more because they can operate more
I hope this brief ebook - and the 10 independently now of the institutions
project categories proﬁled - will that have become dominant.
broaden your thinking of how people can meaningfully
2) Organizations to Associations 
engage in change. Each project category showcases
We still need one another but we group ourselves
one TED Talk. Be sure to watch each one to appreciate
more organically, not through established
the true potential of each project type.

6

 iBooks Author

organizations, but by voluntary associations and
networks of like-minded individuals.

3) Jobs to Projects 
We fulfill our calling not by jobs that pay our bills but
by projects that we voluntarily take on. We may still
have jobs but they don’t define us.

4) Solutions to Contributions 
Although we care about solving problems, we care
even more that more of us find ways to contribute
our gifts and talents. The more people are engaged,
the more likely it is that we can solve and even
prevent problems in our world.

Keep these paradigm shifts in mind as you immerse
yourself in the following inspiring stories and as you
begin your own journey to answering the question:
“How is the world different because I am here?”

7

 iBooks Author

Chapter 2

Artistic

Art is not what you see but
what you make others see.
— Edgar Degas

 iBooks Author

Artistic Ask people around you to name something that brings them joy -
something they would do even if they were not paid - and you
can count on most of them to mention one of the creative arts.

Artistic pursuits - writing, drawing, painting, singing, dancing,
performing and making - have been core human endeavors for
most of our history. They please our senses and appeal to our
innate need for creativity and beauty.

Psychologists today would say the arts put us in “flow.” It’s when
we are so immersed in something that we forget everything else
around us. That feeling of unity and “oneness” can be immensely
satisfying.

Because most of us have some artistic skills and derive pleasure
from them, we naturally find ways to use those skills for positive
ends by initiating artistic projects.

Sarah Kay, for example, uses spoken word performance to
“entertain, educate and inspire” young people to find their own
creative voice. Watch her demonstrate the magic of poetry and
describe the change she creates through Project Voice.

9

 iBooks Author

SARAHKAY 
If I should have a daughter...

Spoken word performer uses poetry to
entertain, educate and inspire youth.

Click here.

 iBooks Author

Julia Bacha - One Story, One Film, Many Changes
I’m sure you’ve come across even more obvious ways
that artistic skills have been used for positive ends. Click here.
Filmmakers make short ﬁlms or even feature
length documentaries about climate change,
genocide, child soldiers and poverty.

Artists paint murals to raise awareness of urgent
issues.

Musicians write songs to raise funds for
earthquake and famine relief.
Film shines spotlight on story of nonviolence in the town of
Budrus. [Click picture to play.]
The primary question behind all their efforts is: How
can my artistic skills serve a cause I care about? Tips:

This question is not just for the “professionals.” Take a •Use your artistic skills to tell a fascinating
look on YouTube and Vimeo and you’ll see that the story. Don’t just make pretty things.
best work often comes from “passionate amateurs.”
•Even if you are doing what someone else has
So what artistic skills do you have? What interesting or
unique ways can you apply them to create positive
done - i.e., flash mob, lipdub - add your own
change around you? creative t wist so that your work stands
out.
11

 iBooks Author

The Art of Life Safari As A Way of Life
Dan Eldon was a young artist and activist who used photography
to call attention to the famine in Somalia in the 1990s. His
pictures helped mobilize the international community to
intervene and save thousands of people from starvation. Dan was
killed on assignment in 1993 when he was just 22 years old. His
family launched a foundation in his memory to support creative
activists who use media and the arts to create positive change.
Watch my CNN proﬁle of Dan’s mom and sister share
Dan Eldon’s life and work. Dan’s life story at TEDxTeen
www.creativevisions.org
Click here. Click here.

 iBooks Author

Chapter 3

Challenge

Be the change you wish
to see in the world.
- Mahatma Gandhi

 iBooks Author

Challenge What is social change, really? For the most part, it involves
getting people to take actions or change behavior in a way that
brings about better outcomes for society.

That may explain why it’s difﬁcult to “make a difference.” People
don’t like to change what they do or what they’re accustomed to.

In order to motivate positive behavior in others, Social Creatives
understand they have to “walk the talk” and “Be the Change.”

This is why many projects involve people issuing themselves a
daunting challenge: run a marathon, swim the English Channel,
survive on locally grown food, or live one year “off the grid.”

For some, the challenge allows them to “model behavior” - show
that it can be done.

For others, the challenge demonstrates true commitment to a
cause. That was exactly Lewis Pugh’s intent when he challenged
himself to swim in the freezing waters at the North Pole. The risk
he took showed how urgent he felt the climate change crisis had
become. Watch him recount the harrowing ordeal in his TED talk.

Challenge projects are attractive for other reasons.
14

 iBooks Author

LEWISPUGH 
My swim across the North Pole

Symbolic swim calls attention to
melting ice caps.

Click here.

 iBooks Author

Neil Pasricha - The 3 A’s of Awesome
Because they involve risks (of failure), they grab
people’s attention. You want to know how things will
turn out. When they are successful - and even when
they’re not - they offer up good stories. The best ones
will have audiences at the edge of their seats.

So what impact can challenges have? Are they simply
to grab attention and entertain? Just like artistic
projects, challenges are mainly done to raise
Click here.
awareness and shift mindsets.
A challenge to blog about 1,000 awesome things leads to
If they are carefully planned and they connect people awesome results. [Click picture to play.]
to simple actions that can be taken (donate money),
then they can also lead to tangible results (funds
Tips:
raised).
•Take risks but design your challenge so that
Ask yourself: What positive action do I want other you have a reasonable chance of success.
people to take and how can I model that behavior
•Align your challenge to the cause so people
to a degree that seems difﬁcult or impossible? Or,
what difﬁcult action can I take that would see a clear connection.
demonstrate my deep commitment to a cause?
•Create a challenge that allows you to learn
- not just prove - something.
16

 iBooks Author

Chapter 4

Collaborative

If you want to go quickly, go alone.

If you want to go far, go together.
- African Proverb

 iBooks Author

Collaborative You’ve heard people talk about the Power of One. Indeed, most
of the stories in this ebook attest to that. But let’s not forget the
Power of Many, which is equally if not more inspiring.

Not only can groups of people do more, they also can be more
intelligent as a group than any individual in that group. This is
what’s called collective wisdom.

The best way to illustrate this is to have a roomful of people
guess how many jelly beans are in a jar. After each person writes
down a guess, you can add them up and take the average. You’ll
ﬁnd that almost every time, the average - which is their collective
guess - is more accurate than any of the individual guesses. It
works like magic!

There’s magic too when large numbers of people come together
to accomplish one single goal. It’s hard to ﬁnd a more beautiful
illustration of that than Eric Whitacre’s virtual choir, consisting of
more than 2,000 people around the world who sang together via
YouTube videos. Watch his account of how the choir came about
and listen to what they managed to pull off.

18

 iBooks Author

ERICWHITACRE 
A virtual choir of 2,000 voices

Composer leads an online choir of more
than 2,000 singers.
Click here.

 iBooks Author

Luis von Ahn - Massive-scale Online Collaboration
We saw collective action at work at Tahrir Square in
Egypt where protesters forced the ouster of their
corrupt president. And we saw it at work at Zucotti
Park where Occupy Wall Street protesters stood their
ground and inspired similar protests across the U.S.

But we also see it in flash mobs, fundraising drives,
mass clean up efforts, and Wikipedia. They arise out of
knowing that some things can’t be done by individuals
alone.
Click here.

In fact, the most inspiring endeavors begin when The internet allows for collaborative projects of not just thousands
but millions of people to digitize books and translate the web.
groups of people get together and ask themselves the
most powerful question in social change: What can Tips:
we create together?
•Learn to accept that this is not about what
Whatever communities you’re in - online or offline -
“I” want but what “we” want.
you’re bound to find like-minded people who share a
common desire to contribute. Create an opportunity to •Make it easy for people to contribute what
get together with them and then ask yourselves they’re good at.
honestly and openly, without pre-determining the
answer: “What can we create together?” •Validate each person’s contribution.

20

 iBooks Author

Chapter 5

Design

Good design is a lot like clear
thinking made visual.
— Edward Tufte

 iBooks Author

Design Human beings are often called “toolmakers.” More than any
other species, we invent and use tools to help us live. In turn,
those tools change who we are.

We even divide human history by the new technologies that
emerge: trains, planes, automobiles, televisions, the internet, etc.
Their power has inspired many of us to invent and improve the
technology around us.

Sometimes we make entirely new tools to help us get things
done. Other times, we simply try to make technology more
“appropriate” - better suited for speciﬁc users and conditions.

That means we do need to re-invent the wheel - over and over
again - because no single technology can be useful to everyone
everywhere at all times.

When 14-year-old William Kamkwamba read about wind turbines
in a book, he knew they could never been made in his village.
Not unless he redesigned them from the ground up and built
them with local materials. He did just that and managed to bring
power to his village for the very ﬁrst time. [Watch this TED Talk.]

22

 iBooks Author

WILLIAMKAMKWAMBA 
How I harnessed the wind

A 14-year-old school dropout builds a windmill to power his
home in rural Malawi Click here.

 iBooks Author

Arvind Gupta - Turning trash into toys for learning
Change agents everywhere invent, adapt and design
new products and services to meet various needs.
They start with the desire to make something better.

Sometimes, the things they make don’t catch on or
don’t appeal to enough people. And there are times
when new designs actually make things worse.

But occasionally, they come up with breakthroughs
that forever change how we do things.
Click here.
That happens when design goes beyond just making
One kid’s trash is another kid’s educational toys, thanks to the
something beautiful or fashionable. As Tim Brown inventive mind of Arvind Gupta. [Click picture to play.]
explains in his TED Talk, “design thinking” starts with
real human needs, uses prototypes to reﬁne ideas, and Tips:
invites input from everyone involved.
•Explore various designs rather than lock
Look at your own life and see if there’s something you into one design, as great as it may seem.
do that has frustrated you because you think there
should be a better way. Ask yourself, How can I •Design with your users rather than for
redesign objects and environments around me so them.
that it’s easier for me (and others like me) to get
•Serve real needs. Simplify life.
something done?
24

 iBooks Author

Chapter 6

Do-It-
Yourself

It takes half your life before
you discover life is a do-it-
yourself project.
- Napoleon Hill

 iBooks Author

Do-It-Yourself Education today is all about the mind. It teaches our brains how
to think and reason but it neglects our hands (and our heart). We
ﬁnish school not knowing how to make or grow things. Whatever
we need, we buy. Even cooking - making the food we need to
survive - has become a spectator sport.

So what’s the problem? All the convenience society provides has
made us ignorant of what goes into our stuff. We know nothing
about the environmental and human cost of their production.

We become increasingly dependent rather than resilient. We rely
more and more on experts to do things for us.

Mahatma Gandhi, India’s independence leader, argued that true
political and economic freedom requires local production. And if
you take that away, you also take away what it means to be
human. He spun his own cotton and made his own clothes to
prove that point.

Artist Britta Riley takes a similar approach to food. In this TED
talk, she shares the story of how she started an indoor farming
project that helps urban dwellers engage in food production.

26

 iBooks Author

BRITTARILEY 
A garden in my apartment

Artist shows how you can grow your
own food even in a small apartment.

Click here.

 iBooks Author

Marcin Jakubowski - Open-source hardware
Britta is just one of millions of people around the world
who have joined the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) revolution. It
includes people who make their own homes, their own
food, their own music. They make gadgets,
equipment, and clothing.

Instead of relying on professionals, they try to do
things themselves.

Sometimes, it’s about doing things in a better way.
Click here.
Other times, it’s about learning skills and making
things uniquely our own. There’s a world of difference Open-source project allows anyone to build their on farm
machines from scratch. [Click picture to play.]
between a song you write and a song you buy, even if
what you buy is objectively “better.” Tips:
If it seems daunting, don’t despair. Do-It-Yourself • Make use of things you tend to throw
doesn’t mean do it by yourself. You can always count
away.
on other DIYers to help you out.
• Involve others. Make it a team effort.
So ask yourself: What things do you value the most
and instead of buying them, can you begin to learn • Learn from others. Teach others.
how to make them yourself and then help others do
the same?
28

 iBooks Author

Chapter 7

Educational

Education is not the ﬁlling of a
pail, but the lighting of a ﬁre.
- William Butler Yeats

 iBooks Author

Educational You’ve heard it said before: Knowledge is Power. That’s
especially true in today’s Information Age.

Yet, in much of the developing world, many children don’t even
go to primary school. Here in the United States where all young
people are expected to ﬁnish Grade 12, at least one in four
students do not graduate. Some schools even have dropout
rates of over 40 percent.

Across the U.S., schools are underfunded, teachers are
underpaid and governments are going broke. Furthermore,
schools are under such pressure to teach to standardized tests
that students are not getting the education they need to thrive in
a rapidly changing world.

Suddenly, education has become everyone’s business.

Look around and it’s easy to see opportunities to improve,
spread, supplement and update formal education. That’s how
Salmah Khan began giving math lessons on YouTube and
launched what is arguably the most popular online school in the
world - the Khan Academy.

30

 iBooks Author

SALMANKHAN 
Use video to reinvent education

Khan Academy turns education on its
head with online videos.

Click here.

 iBooks Author

Masarat Daud - Eight-day Academy
The core subjects - reading, writing and ‘rithmetic - are
not the only topics that deserve attention.

We need to learn much that isn’t even taught in
schools - sustainability, empathy, kindness, emotional
literacy, urban farming, cooking, crafts, leadership,
mentorship, entrepreneurship, civic responsibility,
philanthropy, community development, etc. The list
goes on.
Click here.
How will any of this get taught? Only through
educational projects that each of us start up... for Re-imagines education for all by creating 8-day academies that
provide targeted learning. [Click picture to play.]
ourselves and for each other. We can no longer just sit
back and wait for the right knowledge to come to us. Tips:

We can all ask ourselves: What do we know that we • The best learning is experiential (see next
can teach others? Or we can ask: What do I want to chapter).
learn and how can I start a project that will teach
me and others that valuable knowledge? • Start with a meaningful question that
others are also trying to figure out.
Curiosity, not expertise, is what enables learning. Don’t
be afraid that you may not know enough.

32

 iBooks Author

Chapter 8

Entrepreneurial

Successful people are always
looking for opportunities to help
others. Unsuccessful people are
asking, “What’s in it for me?”
– Brian Tracy

 iBooks Author

Entrepreneurial Social Creatives seek to provide value to others through their
projects, whatever type they are. The value can be social,
economic, educational, environmental, etc.

When the value you provide is something that others will pay for,
it’s a lot easier for you to fund it and keep it going.

This is why many change agents favor the “market-based”
approach: they create a product or service that both provides as
well as captures value.

They money you earn goes back to fund the product or service
you sell and maybe even generate some proﬁt.

When that happens, the project allows you to make a living
doing something you love to do rather than work for some
company that you don’t really believe in.

That’s the case with two university students, Alejandro Velez and
Nikhil Arora, who decided to see if growing mushrooms with
recycled coffee grounds can work and whether it might be
proﬁtable. Watch them recount the humorous beginnings of their
burgeoning mushroom farming business.

34

 iBooks Author

ALEJANDROVELEZ 
& NIKHILARORA 
Urban mushroom farming

Two college cllassmates turn mushroom farming into Click here.
a business.

 iBooks Author

For many, entrepreneurship is not a choice but a Leila Janah - The Microwork Revolution

necessity. It may be the only way to keep food on the
table. Or it may be the only way to fund whatever
change you want to create.

In recent decades, change agents have been using
entrepreneurship to fund activities that normally would
be paid for by charities and governments. It provides
for a more sustainable model.

Whatever the reason, charging people for the goods or Click here.
services you provide has an added side beneﬁt: it Samasource outsources digital jobs to workers in developing
gives you a “listening device” that tells you whether countries, giving them work, not aid. [Click picture to play.]

what you have is something people truly value...
Tips:
enough that they would pay for it. Their hard-earned
dollars are more honest than survey forms. • Your product or service should solve a real
To generate ideas for entrepreneurial projects, ask
problem that people have.
yourself: What are people willing to pay for and how
• Test your product or service as quickly as
can I deliver that good or service in a way that
possible. See whether and how people buy
creates more social or environmental impact that
and use it and improve quickly.
what we see now?

36

 iBooks Author

Chapter 9

Experiential

“Life is not measured by the breaths
we take, but by the moments that
take our breath away.”
- Unknown

 iBooks Author

Experiential Making a difference often means producing change that can be
measured, counted and documented. But how do you count the
happiness of a child, the generosity of a mentor or the gratitude
of a person you help.

Life is lived in moments and sometimes, it’s the ﬂeeting moments
and the ﬂeeting emotions that we want to enhance.

What good is getting a diploma if we don’t enjoy the learning?
How great is a community if the houses are beautiful but the
people don’t talk to one another?

It’s sometimes said, “There is no way to peace. Peace is the
way.” The journey is the destination.

This is the sentiment behind projects involving random acts of
kindness and “paying it forward.” The experience is its own
reward.

It explains why people like like Charlie Todd creates public
spectacles, such as the annual no-pants subway ride, so that
people have a great story to tell from what would otherwise have
been a mundane experience.

38

 iBooks Author

CHARLIETODD  Click here.
The shared experience of absurdity

Comedian creates public spectacle to
spread chaos and joy.

 iBooks Author

A.J. Jacobs - My year of living biblically
Often the point of experiential projects is not to create
a meaningful experience for others but for ourselves. Click here.
You can use unusual experiences to help you grow,
learn something ﬁrst hand and even develop empathy
- i.e., walk in someone else’s shoes.

Writer A.J. Jacobs spends a year trying to follow every
rule in the Bible as literally as possible whereas
documentarian Morgan Spurlock spends 30 days
eating nothing but food from McDonald’s. Both were
trying to provide insights to issues most people care
How yearlong experiment in following every rule in the Bible yields
about, such as religion and health. insights on faith. [Click picture to play.]

And the man who invented sanitary napkins for poor Tips:
women decides to wear one himself so that he can
empathize with the women he’s trying to help.
• Use experiential projects to remind people
what truly matters.
You can ask yourself: What positive experiences
would you like to create for others so that their life • Use experiential learning to bring an issue
now can be enriched? How can you use closer to home.
experiential learning to advance the understanding
of an important issue?

40

 iBooks Author

Chapter 10

Research

Research is what I'm doing
when I don't know what I'm
doing.
- Wernher von Braun

 iBooks Author

Research When we think back to the research projects we did in school,
they may seem pretty insignificant - a mere academic exercise.
But in the real world, well-designed research can lead to
significant impact.

They tell us what’s wrong and how problems come about. They
tell us what solutions work or don’t work. Research is about
getting answers that don’t reveal themselves in the back of a
book. Without answers, it would be difficult for anyone to effect
real change.

You’d think that a lot of important questions have already been
answered. We just need to know where to look (after we’ve
exhausted Wikipedia). But you’d be wrong.

Things are changing so fast around us that it’s difficult to get a
clear picture on the most basic things in life, such as our food.

That was the case with Robyn O’Brien when her daughter had an
allergic reaction to a typical breakfast and she set out to discover
what’s in our food we feed today’s children. Her research project,
now a book, has made her a “real food” evangelist.

42

 iBooks Author

ROBYNO’BRIEN 
The Unhealthy Truth

Researching what made her daughter
sick led this mom to become a “real
food” evangelist.

Click here.

 iBooks Author

Dan Buettner - How to live to be 100+
Research doesn’t always have to dwell on problems -
on what’s wrong. They can also help explain what’s Click here.
right.

That was Jerry Sternin’s approach when he tried to
address malnutrition in rural children in Vietnam.
Rather than focus on the 65% of the children who
were malnourished, he tried to understand what the
healthy children were doing.

Their uncommon practices and behaviors were then
shared with the rest of the population, which then led Research into the world’s Blue Zones yields to clues to the secret
of longevity. [Click picture to play.]
to an 85 percent decrease in malnutrition.
Tips:
Often, the solutions are already out there. We just need
to see it. • Be clear on the one question you’re trying to
So the questions we have to ask ourselves: What answer and why it’s interesting or
important question do I want to answer and how meaningful to you.
can I try to answer it? How can I help ﬁnd existing
solutions to a problem I care about and help other
• Use storytelling to engage others in your
people see that as well? research.

44

 iBooks Author

Chapter 11

Service

The best way to ﬁnd yourself is to
lose yourself in the service of
others.
- Mahatma Gandhi

 iBooks Author

Service Finally, Social Creatives initiate service projects where the
primary motivation is to create change by helping others. The
need is clear. What matters is that people step up and do what
they can.

We see this whenever fundraising campaigns, donation drives
and volunteer efforts are organized.

But even in this category, creativity can be instrumental. It
matters how you fundraise, how you donate and how you
volunteer.

A prime example is the Awesome Foundation, a new model of
giving pioneered by ten young professionals in Boston. Instead
of just writing checks to a charity or a foundation, they started a
foundation themselves.

They chose to participate in the decision-making process of
what projects to fund in their community and inspire their peers
to do the same wherever they are. As Christina Xu explains, this
alternate form of philanthropy allows them to be more engaged
and more innovative than they otherwise would have been.

46

 iBooks Author

CHRISTINAXU 
Importance of Being Awesome

The story of how 10 friends created a
foundation that now has dozens of
chapters worldwide.

Click here.

 iBooks Author

Dave Eggers - Once Upon A School
Young people demonstrate to us every day the power
of creativity in service. They understand that literacy Click here.
programs are not just about the ABCs. They’re about
spreading the joy of reading. So it’s not enough to
hand out books. It’s vital that volunteers make
storybooks come alive by acting them out.

Look in any high school and you’ll see that fundraising
campaigns take on unique twists. Their creativity often
surpasses the typical fundraising appeals you get from
most charities. Dave Eggers popularizes one-on-one tutoring through a creative
after school program. [Click picture to play.]
What these Social Creatives understand is that we
need to motivate, not just inform. We need Tips:
engagement, which doesn’t happen when we are
• Build relationships bet ween people who give
treated like cash machines.
and those who receive.
So how can you create innovative service projects?
Ask yourself: How can we serve a cause in our own • Use “game thinking” to make your project
unique way? How can we appeal to people’s need more engaging.
for engagement or even excitement rather than
their sense of duty?
• Bring out the joy in service.

48

 iBooks Author

Chapter 12

Next

Do what you can with what
you have where you are.
- Theodore Roosevelt

 iBooks Author

If any of the TED Talks has inspired you to come up Sign up today at www.socialcreatives.org to receive
with project ideas of your own, then this ebook has the workbook when it’s released.
done its job. Go forth and do them.
To share feedback and comments and to tell us about
Or if you need more step-by-step guidance, then wait your project, please send an email to
for the companion ebook - Endeavor: The Workbook. charles@socialcreatives.org

The workbook will include: I look forward to hearing from each and every one of
you and even help out where I can.
• Dozens more inspiring stories and videos of
social change projects

• Step-by-step guide on how to design projects Charles Tsai 
that lead to impact Vancouver, Canada

• Resources and tools to support each project
type and how to leverage online platforms

• Activity guides that help you learn (and teach)
core skills of changemaking

• Tutorials on how to communicate your project -
your endeavor - to others

• and much more

50

 iBooks Author

About the Author

Charles Tsai is a journalist, writer, speaker and consultant for social
entrepreneurs. A former reporter and producer for CNN, Charles ventured
into the social sector to help youth design and implement their own solutions
for global change. He has educated and mentored hundreds of young
changemakers through Ashoka, the world's largest network of social
entrepreneurs. In 2009, he helped Ashoka launch its ﬁrst four global
campaigns to support youth-led social ventures around the world.

Charles also started his own foundation, SOCIAL Creatives, to produce
educational tools and programs that help individuals master the art of
change. He's the creator of the Creative Activist Toolkit, which has been
downloaded more than 90,000 times and is featured on the website of the
World Bank's Development Marketplace. Charles also writes and reports on

Charles Tsai  social innovation for Hufﬁngton Post.

charles@socialcreatives.org  As a journalist, Charles received numerous awards and an Emmy nomination
www.socialcreatives.org for his work. He received a B.A. in English Literature and Rhetoric from the
University of California at Berkeley and an M.A. in Journalism from Columbia
University.

© 2012 Charles Tsai

All rights reserved.

li

 iBooks Author

Endeavor: The Rise of Social Creatives

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Dernier

Dernier (20)

En vedette

En vedette (20)

Endeavor: The Rise of Social Creatives