Help Nuru Celebrate 5 years and over 30,000 Changed Lives

Well, it has been far too long since I have written, but today I am writing to share some incredible news and asking for your help. This year, Nuru International is celebrating 5 years since we started fighting extreme poverty. Five years ago, Nuru was an idea. But now, we are able to look back and see over 30,000 lives that have been changed because of that idea. And now the idea is becoming a movement.

Because of people like you, there are literally thousands of families in Kenya, and soon Ethiopia, who are beginning to lift themselves out of extreme poverty. Thank you for your willingness to believe in this idea and help Nuru bring lasting change in the lives of many.

And now, I want to ask for you to help us celebrate these last five years and help us bring Nuru's programs to even more people in 2014. Two donors have stepped forward to match every donation we receive this month up to $75,000. Will you make a financial contribution to Nuru? Will you take a minute and share this video and post on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and whatever other social media you use? We want to invite even more people to join this movement to bring lasting change and end extreme poverty in our lifetime. We've got a challenging road ahead, but together, we can do this. Together, we can change lives. Together, we can be the generation that sees the end of extreme poverty!

Thanks for believing in this idea and contributing to it becoming a reality. It is inspiring to see what we have accomplished together during the last five years, but is even more invigorating to dream about what we will be able to do together in the future.

Thanks for being Nuru my friends!

Good Idea, Now What?

Today, I am pleased to share a review of a book recently published by my good friend Charles Lee. It’s called Good Idea, Now What? and it is one of the best books I have read on the subject of bringing ideas to implementation and execution. The first time I met Charles, he was sharing with individuals at West Virginia University and in the city of Morgantown, WV as part of a week of events called “Another World Is Possible.”  Charles spent an afternoon talking about how to take an idea from the starting block to implementation, and gave some fantastic examples. The same evening, he gave a presentation on the subject of slavery and human trafficking and gave people tangible steps to take toward eradicating modern day slavery and the trafficking of human beings. The next morning, while I was taking him to the Pittsburgh airport, he told me about a small conference he was hosting two weeks later for idea makers that was called Idea Camp. After talking it over with other members of our team at Nuru, I made it a point to go. Everything I’ve seen Charles produce or implement, has been done with thoughtful excellence and quality and with an end result of helping others to do better at doing good in the world.

As I picked up the book, I must admit,  I wondered if the world needed another book on getting things done or idea making. Books like ReWork, Making Ideas Happen, and The War of Art all seemed to hone in on the subject—what more could possibly be said?  Charles’ book is actually quite remarkable. It is a series of études within a book. He has put the book together so that individual chapters are short, and easy to draw out applications. He uses real world examples from both his own life and the experiences of other idea makers to drive home his points, and he talks about subjects that can be challenging for creatives and ideamakers to talk about, things like team chemistry, implementation, and maintaining a family life and boundaries for work.

With each new section, I was thoroughly impressed with both the quality of content, the brevity of words to communicate the content, and the practical next steps offered to individuals to take ideas to reality. I believe this book could be helpful for individuals involved in start-ups as well as for teams.  This book is perfect for creative folks who have a hard time staying grounded to push their ideas into implementation as well. The chapters are short enough that anyone can pick up and read and think through application points for individual concepts. For folks who chronically start books and cant finish, the book is set up to be read as a whole, or read as chapters in isolation.

If you know, have heard, or are in other ways familiar with Charles’ work, you know that this book is a must read. If not, and you have an entrepreneurial bent, you should give this book a read and add it to your short list of books that are motivating, informative, and practical for converting ideas into reality.  Buy it today,  and, if you have time to insert it into your calendar, you should make it a point to participate in a conference Charles’ consultancy created, called !deation in Chicago this May.

The Idea Camp

ICDC Behind the Scenes from The Idea Camp on Vimeo.


A few weeks ago, I had an awesome privilege of participating in a really cool idea that was created by my recently made friend, Charles Lee along with many, many others. The Idea, a FREE conference that would bring together some of the top minds in non-profits, churches, and social ventures to share ideas, to create, and to collaborate. The idea camp's tagline is "a collaborative movement of idea makers" and the conference experience is dissimilar to any conference in which I've ever participated. The theme for the idea camp conference in Washington DC I attended/participated in was "Compassion and Justice" and was hosted by a group called International Justice Mission

During the conference a group from Nuru International participated, and then Nicole Scott and myself "led" an idea session. The session was called Lessons from Silicon Valley: Innovation and Collaboration with "Competitors", and the discussion was centered around the idea of partnering with other organizations in one's area of focus to accomplish more and to do so in a better way. Click the link to find out more about the session, and some of the ideas that were generated during it.

That's one of the cool and different concepts around the idea camp. Rather than listening to a person talk for an hour and fifteen minutes, the facilitators share a brief introduction to the topic and then open the room up for questions and discussion from the entire group. This allows for people who are "attending" a session to participate, and to hear from each other. Not only that, but new ideas and collaborations form as people discuss an idea or concept in the session or beyond a session.

I understand that there is another Idea Camp forming in Portland Oregon on November 20-21st. The theme will be "Being Present with the City" If you want to find out more, check out the idea camp website.

I think there is a lot to be said about collaborating with other idea makers, dreaming big, and seeing ideas become implemented.