Out Of Small Comes Big

A few weeks ago, I was in Miami to speak (along with my friends at Community Wealth Ventures) at a social enterprise conference hosted by the Center on Nonprofit Effectiveness. Although the weather was unseasonably cloudy (as luck would have it only for the two days that I was there!) the mood among the 100+ nonprofit executives in the room was surprisingly sunny.

Sure, there was the seemingly universal angst among sector insiders about impending funding cuts combined with the ever-increasingly demand for services ... difficult jobs looking even more imposing in the months and years ahead. But I also detected a ray of hope that got brighter as I presented a no-holds-barred overview of the perils and promise of social enterprise and sustainable entrepreneurship in the social sector. Many for the first time learned about the global movement and how it is injecting more innovation into mission-based social programs while providing more diversified, unrestricted funding streams to nonprofits. Some had already dipped their toe in the water and were encouraged enough to learn more. But throughout the group was a gritty resilience and determination to adapt to the many changes currently buffeting the social sector and to "raise the bar" of performance and professionalism by borrowing from the most relevant practices of the private sector.

I don't know if my impression of the receptivity to social entrepreneurship in Miami is a leading indicator of a shift among nonprofits more broadly or just a sunny time on an otherwise cloudy day. But I do know that out of small things, big things can come. And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see future "stars" in social innovation coming out of South Florida. I just hope I get invited back when the real sun is shining as brightly as the audience.

The Freedom Toaster

I found this really cool project in South Africa and I was reminded of a song my father used to sing:

You take a piece of bread.
You put in a slot.
You push the lever down
And the wires get hot.
You get toast. Yeah! Toast!

Except you put a blank CD into this slot and a few minutes later it spits out a toasty copy of your choice of Open Source software. In a country with few financial resources, fewer technological ones and a poor telecommunications infrastructure, this toaster seems like a interesting solution to getting technology into the hands of the people.

More Than Just A Game

First, let me set the tone early -- GO STEELERS!

I haven't watched a single profile, highlight, or pre-game analysis for the two week's leading up to tomorrow's Super Bowl XL (and, yes, it will be X-tra large). One part of me wants to save up all my anxiety and nervous energy for the big game. But another part of me seems genetically predisposed to ignore the hype, the pomp, the pageantry that passes for football coverage now-a-days. You see, Pittsburgh is part of my very core -- all of my grandparents and parents were natives. One grandfather worked in a steel mill. The other was a shot-and-a-beer joint bartender "dawn-tawn". And I doubt very much that any of them would have spent a whole lot of time listening to the cliche-laden analysis from that passes for sports coverage today. It's enough to make you choke on your "Arn" City Beer.

In today's New York Times, Holly Brubach, a former style editor for the Times' Magazine and a Pittsburgh native captures the spirit of the city and it's unique connection to the team that personifies it in an opinion piece called Gridiron City. It made me think back to when I was in elementary school, living closer to Philly than The 'Burgh, and bearing the brunt of outfitting myself in a Steelers jacket, gloves, and hat every winter. Even though my loyalty was easier to bear since the Steelers were the Team of the '70's ("Oh yeah, how well did the Eagles do this year?"), I would have done it even if winning didn't become a habit. In my family, no matter where you lived, living and dying with the Steelers was just something you did ... proudly.

The day after the AFC Championship Game, one of my friends asked if I was excited that the Steelers were in the Super Bowl and my immediate response was that the city needs it. It needs a championship, a reason to get its chin up, look around with a less jaundiced and critical eye, and realize that we still live in one of the world's great mid-sized cities. Oh sure, other cities (or even us natives) can point to the facts and figures that would point to a city still in transition, struggling to put to rest past industrial glories and to find a future that fits. But it's a place that has what no other place in the world can claim and, while I can't quite describe it, I know that it is good and I know that it has something to do with a bunch of guys who will be strappin' it on tomorrow night.