Founder & Board President, Boston Children's Chorus
- One way to bring people from all ethnic and social-economic backgrounds together is through the arts (e.g. Boston Children's Chorus).
- An organization needs a good board to hold the visionary leader accountable.
- It is extremely important to gain the approval of existing players to allow you to come onto their social field.
- Invest in relationships -- it will be your social capital one day.
- Don't go out searching for work -- be ready to take on any challenge in which your skills will make a difference. You never know what great causes will come knocking on your door or resources you may amass from these opportunities.
- Most problems can be solved with the right people -- or else who needs you?
Dorothy Stoneman
Founder & President, YouthBuild USA
- Too many activists start dominating whether they should or not. Instead, immerse yourself in the community culture first and have the community correct your assumptions.
- Create a new generation of ethical leaders from underprivileged communities who know about the problems first hand (e.g. YouthBuild USA, where youth are trained to be leaders through both education and building houses for their communities).
- Don't always follow conventional wisdom, but do find really good mentors.
- Do not create adversaries who will eventually destroy you -- win them over with the good you are doing instead.
- Know yourself -- apply yourself where your passion and skills are.
- You have to commit the next 20 years to a project -- 5 years is not enough to build something.
Eric Schwartz
Founder & CEO, Citizen Schools
- Kids only spend a small fraction of their day in school, so out-of-school learning is extremely important (e.g. Citizen Schools, where kids are matched up with mentors in after-school apprenticeships). From personal experience, kids need lots of caring adults and 2nd chances.
- It's not always enough to just improve the status quo -- we may also need to change the entire paradigm.
- The brand of America means progress -- opportunities always grow, poverty always decreases. Unfortunately, this was always true until the last 30 years -- this is the fault of our education system. Before, one can just work hard and become middle class; now one needs a good education, which is not always available.
- To be a good social entrepreneur, you need to have telescopic vision, i.e. both the big picture and the nitty gritty details.
- It's better to prove something in living color before advocating it.
- There are 3 types of changes: political, social, and cultural; most organizations only manage to achieve 2 out of the 3.
- Journalists tear down things that are wrong, while social entrenpreneurs build good things.
