#plugintodevin - Your Mark on the World with Devin Thorpe

Author Doug White says in his new book, Wounded Charity, that the CBS and New York Times reports of malfeasance and wrongdoing at the Wounded Warrior Project were not accurate. Much of their reporting, Doug says, came from a Facebook group.

With a national scale of operation, there were disgruntled former employees who had created a Facebook group where they shared their experiences and perceptions of mismanagement. The story was rushed to press when the two highly-reputable organizations got wind that they were both working on it.

After exhaustive research, Doug concludes in his book that there was nothing fundamentally amiss at the Wounded Warrior Project.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Valerie Red-Horse Mohl, the executive director for Social Venture Circle, got her first job out of film school working on the team of notorious investment banker, Michael Milken who created the modern high-yield bond market and later spent 22 months in prison for securities fraud.

Val later applied her skills running her own investment banking firm, completing $3 billion in transactions, mostly serving the native American community.

Never forgetting her filmmaking studies, she has directed and produced films, including the PBS film Mankiller, a film about Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Val also teaches a course in race and ethnicity at Stanford and sites on the board of the Center for Race and Ethnicity. Her daughter plays on the beach volleyball team for Stanford.

Much of Val’s success and positive social impact relates to the skills and lessons she learned directly from Michael Milken in the 1980s, suggesting that finance and capitalism aren’t inherently good or bad but serve as tools that can be wielded for good and bad. Michael seems to have learned the lesson himself, having devoted much of his post-prison career to social impact.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Upaya Social Ventures is a nonprofit impact investing firm that answers the question, “How do you help people too poor for microloans?” The answer is both easy and challenging: jobs.

The presumption of microlending programs often seems to be that everyone can or should be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is a powerful economic driver, but most people lack the skills to thrive as entrepreneurs even in wealthy countries. It certainly can’t be fair to expect people in developing countries to be better at entrepreneurship with even fewer tools.

Kate Cochran, 51, CEO of Upaya, says she is “a fierce believer that global poverty is not inevitable and entrepreneurial energy and individual resolve are some of the sharpest tools available to us in that fight.”

The group of founders who launched Upaya recognized that by carefully selecting entrepreneurs to back Upaya could indirectly create jobs for those living in extreme poverty, allowing them to lift themselves out of it.

Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2B2gfFO.

Larry Sherwood, president and CEO of Interstate Renewable Energy Council reminds us that once solar panels are paid for, all the electricity that results is free. Wind energy, similarly, is virtually free after you buy the turbine. Neither requires fuel.

For decades, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council has been working to help states and municipalities implement rules and regulations that support renewable energy.

Larry, what is the problem you solve and how do you solve it?

Distributed energy resources such as solar, storage, and energy efficiency do not have the infrastructure and policies to enable a large number of installations.

IREC builds the foundation for rapid adoption of clean energy and energy efficiency to benefit people, the economy and the planet. IREC works to change state regulatory policies, publishes model rules and guidebooks, trains allied industry representatives, accredited clean energy training centers, and support consumer empowerment.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Steve Klass founded the nonprofit P3 Utah to help Utah businesses adopt triple-bottom-line practices to better respect people and the planet along with profits. The influence of P3 Utah continues to grow.

Interview with Steve Klass, the Executive Director of P3 Utah.

The following is the pre-interview with Steve Klass. Be sure to watch the recorded interview above.

For-profit/Nonprofit: 501(c)3 Nonprofit

Revenue model: Executive director's family followed by event registration and membership fees, followed by limited corporate sponsorship

Scale: One full time employee, four part time contractors and a half dozen university student internsNe

What is the problem you solve and how do you solve it?

Deficit of conscious business effort to generate more positive impacts and limited availability of simple powerful tools to allow businesses of any size to comprehensively manage social and environmental impacts. In Utah, we created a marketplace for sustainable triple bottom line business by making us the fourth US state to allow both benefit corporation and benefit LLC registration. We created a simple six cell matrix based toolkit to support managing, measuring and communicating social and environmental impacts to all stakeholders, including employees, investors, customers and general community in all six official UN languages.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Sandra Rey, 29, was participating in a student design competition with the theme “biology” and got to watching videos on YouTube of bioluminescent sea creatures when she thought there must be a way to replicate that natural technology. Five years later, her startup, called Glowee, is creating brilliant luminescent art installations for hotels and public spaces.

While she admits, “We'll never replace the lights in your kitchen,” she hopes to create enough light and enough beauty to play a role in the world’s lighting mix to help reduce reliance on electric lighting.

When she first started producing light, she says she’d have to get her lights in a completely dark room for ten to 15 minutes before she could begin to see the light. She’s made dramatic progress since.

Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2OjJNq3.

Patricia Mertz was forced to cut short her two-and-a-half year term of service with the Peace Corps in Cote d’Ivoire. She talked about her desire to return and help so much over the next seven years that her niece finally promised to give her $10,000 from the prize money of a singing contest she entered.

She didn’t win the contest but the promise had catalyzed Patricia to take action, form a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and get work saving the lives of mothers and children in the West African country.

The following is a brief pre-interview that provides context for the recorded interview you may watch or listen to at the top of this article.

Patricia Mertz is a Founder and Executive Director for Ivory Coast Mothers and Children.

Crowdfunding page: caringcrowd.org/provide-children-west-africa-lifesaving-vaccines

What is the purpose of your crowdfunding campaign?

Vaccinate 300 children for tetanus, meningitis and typhoid.

What has been your experience using CaringCrowd?

We have raised money for the installation of about 80 sinks in the classrooms in 2 villages to promote proper hand washing, money to buy vaccines, medical supplies and equipment and aid for the orphans, the most vulnerable children.

The matching and also sharing with their employees and working with the capable experienced people at CaringCrowd.

How much have you raised on CaringCrowd? About $15,000

More about Ivory Coast Mothers and Children:

Twitter: @ivorycoastaid

Facebook: Facebook.com/IvoryCoastMothersAndChildren

Instagram: @ivorycoastaid

Website: www.ivorycoastaid.org

ICMC Ivory Coast Mothers and Children is a 501(c)3 organization that works in partnership with The Patricia Nau Clinic, a community-based maternal health clinic located in the village of Braffoueby, Cote d’Ivoire. Through funding and capacity building support, we are building healthier communities by advancing quality medical care for safe births and access to disease treatment and prevention, especially for mothers, newborns, and children under five

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Marc Blumenthal joins me to talk about Social Ventures Foundation’s work in launching V’ice in Haiti. V’ice is basically a snow cone with added nutrition. These sorts of products are popular in Haiti and V’ice is both superior and price competitive. It is intended to be sold by microfranchisees so the profits mostly stay in the community.

Interview with Marc Blumenthal, the Executive Director of Social Ventures Foundation.

The following is the pre-interview with Marc Blumenthal. Be sure to watch the recorded interview above.

For-profit/Nonprofit: 501(c)3 Nonprofit

Revenue model: Grants, revenues and Social Impact Investment

Scale: The Social Ventures Foundation is currently scaling V'ice in Haiti from its first Hub which is currently providing jobs for 8 Haitians in Management, MicroFranchising and manufacturing. An additional 20 MicroFranchisees will be added this Fall. Over 20,000 V’ice cones and V’bars (protein bars made from locally sourced corn flakes and peanuts) have been sold with additional projected sales of over 75,000 V’ice cones and V’bars this Fall. Both products are sold at affordable prices for the poor --10 gourds (10 cents) for V’ice and 5 Gourds (5 cents) for V’bars. Revenues reflect these prices.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Laurent Lamothe, 47, former Prime Minister of Haiti, says Haiti—and other low-income countries—can thrive by implementing new taxes on telecom and banking transactions.

Lamothe, who resigned as the PM in December of 2014 after serving two and a half years—longer than any PM since the Haiti earthquake in 2010—says micro levies on small transactions provide an opportunity for countries like Haiti to begin collecting revenues and investing them in infrastructure and projects that will help their people lift themselves from poverty.

Today, Lamothe operates LSL Worldwide Initiative, advising low- and moderate-income countries. He points to Singapore and Estonia as countries that have successfully accelerated their economies through digitization.

Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2neNlhX

Raising capital is almost never easy for entrepreneurs but data suggests it can be more difficult for some than others. Minorities and women are much less likely to receive VC investments. People living outside California, New York and Boston are also much less likely to receive venture capital.

Enter Beta Boom, with Managing Partner Kimmy Paluch, herself a minority, based in Salt Lake City and focused on investing in these underserved communities.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.