He asked our imaginations to run wild.. and so I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and imagined the most important thing to me and why I am working with this organization. For me, its about the LOVE. Love for my children, of course, but also Loving and caring enough about every person in the world to work our tails off trying to give people at the ‘bottom of the pyramid” the opportunity to make more income with simple, affordable irrigation technology, so they can make their own choices and solve their own problems. The words Pride and Dignity ring true. Unleashing the power of smallholder farmer’s entrepreneurial spirit. Enabling these hard working farmer families to dream.

And so, to the meeting, I brought a little toy race car.. and read the poem below to everyone in the room, breathing deep in between every stanza. Enjoy.

What will I show my children?
Fast cars, or dried tears of happiness
on the face of a farmer who can
finally provide for his or her family?

What will I show my children?
That I maximized  shareholder profits, or
that I maximized smallholder profits?

What will I show my children?
A world that focuses on attacks and hate,
Or a world that provides
options and prosperity to
the developing world?

What will I show my children?
Expensive prep schools,
or that I helped millions
of girls go to school in
the developing world?

What will I show my children?
That we ignore the bottom of the pyramid..
where people are left out and can’t dream…

or that we – and them -

can be the change we want to see in the world?

-by Heidi Cuppari, written for her work with IDE – International Development Enterprises.

If you are interested in IDE’s work, please feel free to set up a meeting or teleconference with me.. I’d love to tell you more!

Here are links to Donate Online or Get Connected to follow IDE’s work.

As George Bernard Shaw once said, ”The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in adapting the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man [& woman].”

This quote inspired a group of brilliant young men who recently graduated from University of Colorado. From this, The Unreasonable Institute was born in Boulder, Colorado, dubbed here on HeidiCuppari.com for the first time as“SocEnt Valley.” (the new center for social & sustainable entrepreneurship & enterprise!).

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a few of these young, passionate social entrepreneurs.  I’m blown away by their innovation and drive. They have created an incredibly interesting model.  They have assembled an list of advisors, veterans and thought leaders in this industry as well, which includes my partner and President of w1sd0m, Greg Berry.

See below for notes and actions to take from Teju Ravilochan. I reposted them here because I believe in them and what they’re doing, and want to support them by spreading the word…

“The Background. We announced to the world that we were searching for young entrepreneurs with ventures that could effectively address social and environmental problems while financially sustainable and globally scalable to millions of people. The response was incredible! And now, after receiving 284 applications from 45 countries, we’ve developed an unusual way to involve the world in selecting the 25 entrepreneurs we’ll bring to the Unreasonable Institute while admitting them free of charge, testing their entrepreneurial ability, and covering our costs of operations. It’s an online platform called the Unreasonable Finalist Marketplace and you can learn everything you need to know about it from watching this 1-minute and 12 second YouTube video, to the tune of AC/DC’s Back in Black (if you’d like more background on the Unreasonable Institute, feel free to scroll down to the very bottom of this email and read the section entitled “The Background on the Unreasonable Institute.” Otherwise, read on…)

2 Simple Requests. Every entrepreneur on the marketplace must rally the support of hundreds of people from across the globe. This is your chance to have your say! If you can spare 10-20 minutes:

1. Head to our online Finalist Marketplace and vote with your dollars ($10, $50, however much you like within the current $250 max) for an entrepreneur you believe will change the course of history. The fate of our finalists, and of the lives they will affect, rests in your hands.
2. Tell 5 people you know about our marketplace. Whether or not you can contribute financially to any of the entrepreneurs on the marketplace, perhaps the single most important way to support our finalists without spending a dollar or more than 5 minutes of your time is to tell 5 people you know about the opportunity to back these young, high-impact entrepreneurs. I’ll even make it easy for you: You can copy and paste details below into the relevant channels.

1. • Send an Email: Send our YouTube video to 5 of your friends.
   • Copy and paste this message to your Twitter Account: These 33 entrepreneurs could change the world. You decide which 25 attend the Unreasonable Institute http://ow.ly/149cu
   • Copy and paste this message to your Facebook Account: These 33 entrepreneurs could change the world. You decide which 25 will receive the training, mentorship, and seed capital they need to launch at the Unreasonable Institute: http://ow.ly/149cu

Background on The Unreasonable Institute:

We select and bring together (attract & unite) 25 young social entrepreneurs (Unreasonable Fellows) from across the globe for a 10-week summer institute in Boulder, Colorado. During these 10 weeks, we incubate their ideas by providing them rigorous entrepreneurial skill training, legal advice, prototype consulting, web hosting and development services, and mentorship from 50 proven entrepreneurs and investors like the co-founder of Google.org and an entrepreneur who has lifted over 19 million people out of poverty. (Note from Heidi.. He’s talking about Paul Polak, Founder of IDE, the organization I’m raising funds for. See my projects page) After bringing their ideas from an idea stage to a prototype stage / investable stage (giving their ideas legs), we provide them access to at least $150,000 in seed capital and the chance to pitch to over 200 investors and enlightened philanthropists (finance) and support them with a global network to give their ideas wings.  Our goal is to incubate & finance 25 social ventures a year that will each effectively address a major global issue (e.g. poverty, environmental degradation, slavery), become financially self-sustaining within a year, scale beyond the country of origin within 3 years, and ultimately reach at least 1 million people.

Because.. its snowy almost every place else in the US this time of year and you need SUN?  Or because you can stroll on South Beach and see lots of thongs and muscled bodies?

Well, those reasons are always fun, (believe me, I’ll probably be doing a bit of that too.. why not??!!) but if you want to connect with world leaders in social venture capital and social enterprise.. AND attend the most important Haiti conference at the same time, Miami’s hot and the place to be.

The Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise Conference, Miami-2010 Advisory Board is led by top professionals from Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise organizations around the world.

Alvaro Rodriguez Arregui - Ignia
Jonathan C. Lewis, MicroCredit Enterprises
Daniella Levine – Human Services Coalition
Kelly Michel – Vox Capital
Rodrigo Villar – New Ventures Mexico
Percy Venegas – Solar Business Technology
Eric Leenson – Progressive Asset Management and Instituto Ethos
Raul Pomares – Guggenheim Partners

About the Haiti Conference:

I was recently retained to help Touchpoint Trust Group find 75 Triple Bottom Line (TBL) deals to review by January 22. That means, these companies have put PEOPLE and PLANET on the same level of importance of PROFIT. I’m speaking to incredible human beings about their work EVERY DAY, and I can’t wipe the smile off my face.

The Innovative Lilith I4C Campaign is a partnership with Sarah McLaughlin and the Lilith Fair, and TouchPoint! Trust Group. The goal is to select 4-6 ’social enterprises’ or ‘people, planet, profit’ businesses to receive an investment and major promotion around the Lilith Fair, in June.  The selected companies will actually go ON TOUR with the Lilith Fair and the huge audience will learn about their business, and how they are changing lives.

Great story about this project here.

A little background on how I got here..

When I visited my friend Chandra Reddy Metzler during her Fullbright appointment in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2000, I was first introduced to micro-finance, micro-health and NGOs. I was incredibly inspired by the model, and it made an impression for the future when I would get introduced to the work of Acumen Fund.

I was head of fundraising at Acumen Fund in 2004 and 2005 and was more immersed than ever in the idea of ’social enterprise’ and ’social entrepreneurship’. I had dreamed about business models which generated social change before, but to see this group of MBAs, who could have been making a fortune in banking, putting their heads together to solve the world’s social problems.

I had a very successful time at Acumen Fund, and have been interested in the ‘Triple Bottom Line”  (TBL) space since then. To that end, in addition to this project, I recently joined the core team of w1sd0m, a network that connects entrepreneurs, investors and advisors in this industry.

You can do something too!

Please connect with the I4C Campaign on Twitter, and Facebook, and spread the word!!

I’ve heard all kinds of stories about the new moon, the blue moon, and the lunar eclipse, and how powerful the night of new years eve would be this year.

Apparently whether you believe these things or not, what you thought of on New Years Eve is a big part of what your life will become in the next 2 years. You will be able to manifest the plans you set forth on New Years Eve.

So, I was at a great New Year’s party at my very good friend’s home with about 60 other people celebrating the coming year together.  I stepped outside to look at the moon, alone, at one point in the night, very late. I took a deep breath and put out what I wanted to manifest in the next 2 years.

Now, on January 4, the first work day of the year, It’s already happening. I mean HAPPENING. I am on the biggest rollercoaster ride I’ve ever been on. (I LOVE rollercoasters and screaming my head off!)

First, I found out one of the businesses I’m doing is about to implode and fall apart. Then, I found a new one to plug my existing partners into which is a much better opportunity and more legitimate in every way. Baggage, negative thing gone. New, valid and big opportunity presents itself.

Then, I find out that an idea in the Social Entrepreneurship space that I presented to a friend and colleague 3 weeks ago has taken off and we are going to have major backing for our project, and kick it off TOMORROW.

And on top of that, I have meetings tomorrow with two major social enterprises / Triple Bottom Line organizations based in Colorado. IDE and I4C.  They are going to lead to big projects in this area, which is where I’m being pulled in a BIG WAY in the last couple weeks of the year, and now 2010 is kicking in HARD to show me the way..

So folks it looks like this blog is going to have quite a few updates and announcements coming… and coming… and coming!

Stay tuned!