The following is a 7 page paper analyzing The Born To Shine Project, an incredible and innovative non profit in Portland, Oregon.
www.theborntoshineproject.com
The Born to Shine Project
The Born to Shine Project is a exciting, innovative, and limitless new social venture that I am excited to be a part of. If it wasn’t clear in my presentation, I could talk about the project for days, so I am excited to go into more depth about it right now.
The Mission:
Most social ventures operate with a specific goal in mind. They address the one important issue. The Born to Shine Project is an all-encompassing entity, created to essentially: facilitate opportunities for social change. Its focus is empowerment of the today’s generation. Their mission statement is as follows:
The Born to Shine Project is a community focused, creatively led fundraising organization that generates provocative opportunities for the Young & Talented.
As I mentioned the mission statement is a very broad one. With an organization founded by young people, and a vague, non-directed mission statement, the potential for a lackadaisical and inefficient non-profit is clear. But that notion and that exact train of thought is what B2S is all about crushing. In this light, the vagueness of they’re mission statement lends itself to their unlimited bounds. The project ends nowhere. Any cause or charity is a potential target of they’re fundraising efforts, and what makes it so much more special is the demographic driving this vehicle for change. It aims to create new standards for fundraising efforts and creativity. The idea is a simple one. Everyday young people do great things. We are artists, we are athletes, we are entrepreneurs, and no matter who we are, we all love to have fun. Why can’t fundraising be fun? We know how to have fun, and we’ve all seen several different ways to raise money. Why can’t these cross paths? The Born to Shine Project is all about making those paths converge, and putting our creative, outgoing, youthful, and fun energy to work for those in need. An influential quote for the Born to Shine Project reads:
“There are no problems – only opportunities to be Creative.”
-Dorye Roetteger
This is a quote that likely resonates with socially concerned people and organizations all over the world. B2S is here to make it resonate with the young people, and to facilitate change by harnessing that excitement, and having fun with it. The Born to Shine Project is here to help the Young and Talented identified those opportunities and act on them through the use of several different strategies and programs.
What problem does the organization seek to solve?
Founder Vishal Khemlani answers this question with 2 words: Apathetic youth. That is the notion, or maybe even reality, that the current generation of young adults is materialistic, dependent, spoiled, and indifferent about things that do not affect them. In 2009, popular lifestyle is dominated more so then ever by money, things, and status. The Internet provides an entire new world, separate from the real one, that a person and wander in for hours and days, oblivious to the real world. Where college was once an exciting opportunity that one was lucky to have, it is now considered almost a given in many socioeconomic classes, and today, 1st year completion rates are significantly lower then 4 year graduation rates were in the 60’s. I think it’s a result of spoiled kids who are now young adults, who will be running the country in 20 years. Its hard to imagine the young person I just described being socially concerned, isn’t it? As I said, this is really a reality more than just a notion, but there are always exceptions to the rule, and The Born to Shine Project has set out to highlight, engage, and motivate those young and talented, born to shine, exceptions.
Another issue B2S hopes to invigorate is the use of stagnant, recycled, and dull fundraising techniques. I think stereotypically, and certainly from my 22-year-old point of view, fundraising and charity work in general is boring, and the people involved aren’t very exciting either. That statement is not meant to question or doubt their hard and effectiveness at all, but lets be realistic—it doesn’t look like much fun, and the people involved aren’t the same ones I’d spend a Saturday night with if I wanted to have a blast. The first time I ever got involved with Vishal, the event I was a part of raised $25,000, built 2 rural schools overseas, and was a blast the whole time. That is what being Born to Shine is all about.
The benefactors of the Born to Shine Project are as wide open as its mission statement itself, and could potentially be different for every single project. It could be anyone, or anything, in need of support. These benefactors are similar to every non-profit organization out there, but they are not the only ones who benefit. The Born to Shine Project puts the spotlight on the people doing great things, because they need recognition, especially young people involved. If B2S can create and promote provocative, creative, and socially adept young people, then our whole society benefits just as much as the people who they helped.
How does your organization address, manage or solve the problem?
The Born to Shine Project is a diverse, open minded, and ever changing organization. In addition to already developing and creating a few programs, once the project is better capitalized, it will also provide funding, networking, and implementation to worthy projects brought up by internal or external sources. In this way it hopes to provide a platform for the truly industrious Born to Shine, essentially facilitating the creation of other more specific social ventures.
At the moment, B2S has 4 areas of work, so I’ll touch on each of those:
Social Blueprints: SigStock:
The founders’ first project was what created the vision and motivated the formation of Born to Shine. It was a philanthropy project/event called SigStock, which contained 3 smaller events; SigShot (a 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament), SigRock (a concert), and SigBlock (a block party), as well as additional fundraising. Sponsors signed on by cutting checks to the cause, and then tickets sales, entry fees, and T-shirt sales at each event generated more income. Parents and community members also donated additional funds. Vishal started the project with roughly $300 of his own cash and the power of the greek system, and when the dust had settled, $25,000 was raised and has directly funded construction of 2 rural schools overseas. It was the largest and most successful philanthropy in Oregon State history. With this simple concept, huge success, and tremendous popularity, the Born to Shine Project is now working on creating a repeatable and scalable model for this exact event to be replicable at any university in the nation. With every Greek system engaging in a philanthropy project, initial demand is present. Combine that with success and, just as important, the FUN of this project, and its an easy sell. Realistically, I think this model has the potential to increase Greek philanthropy numbers ten-fold.
Rebels With a Cause:
The Rebels With a Cause program intends to highlight specific individuals who stand out from the crowd, and use their clout to; endorse B2S, raise money for charity, or otherwise express social awareness and concern. The Rebels program will put a spotlight and do a bio on each months selected Rebels, feature them on the website, and other content. One example is a Hip Hop artist in Portland, Beejan, who fully supports and endorses the project. He is creating a theme song for the program that will be featured on the site, and he also performed at the recent Dance Against Hunger event. Another example is a working record producer based in Tempe, Arizona, who will be producing the mentioned theme song, as well original music for the site, and an upcoming promotional video.
EPIC Apparel:
EPIC Apparel is a trendy and hip clothing and design imprint that is in the works right now. The for-profit entity will feature clothing designed by talented students within the Apparel Design program at Oregon State. Selected designs will be chosen, mass manufactured, marketed and sold by EPIC Apparel and the Born To Shine Project. Profits generated will go directly to the designer’s charity of choice– after a small stipend is distributed to the designer him/herself for their work. This process highlights the young and talented artist, gives them recognition (similar to an authors book being published, or a musician signing a record deal) and credibility, all while attacking a social problem in an innovative new way.
Traditional fundraising events, with a twist:
Traditional in a sense that money is raised, untraditional in every other way. Recently, the Dance Against Hunger event showcase several young and talented dance teams from all genres. The event was a huge success, with more than 400 in attendance, and proved to be a great time for all. Even for me, the DJ, who was given MC duties for the entire evening on the spot! B2S has already thrown multiple functions at bars and clubs, centering a wild, fun, Saturday night that any young person can enjoy, on raising money for a cause. In the midst this spring is a semi-formal, exclusive, invite-only, party at a private location, with an open bar, and live DJ. A huge outdoor fundraiser concert featuring a nationally known hip-hop artist is also in the works. Both events will prove to be awesome, memorable, and a lot of fun. Who knew they would raise money for a great organization like the Born to Shine Project too?
Community partnerships:
To date, community partnerships have been event based and not long term. This has proved fruitful for all parties involved. Power does come in numbers, and when the success is based around individual events as it has been so far, this is especially true. Partnering with other Greek organizations is key in the SigStock model. The networking power of the Greek system was put to use to promote and sell tickets to the events, insuring good attendance. This event also received sponsorships from local business. This proved to be a great double edged sword for the each event. By paying to be a sponsor of the event, companies like Qdoba, Dominos, Skoal, Tony’s Hookah, and Pinnacle were then aloud to come set up tents at the event, offering free or discounted food, etc, to the students. Those proceeds also went to support the cause.
As mentioned briefly above, B2S has also joined forces with several nightspots like Tailgaters in Corvallis and RustoBar in Portland. The bar gets increased business from the promotional power of the fundraiser, and the fundraiser gets a cut of the bar sales for the night. It’s a win-win.
On the Dance Against Hunger event, the Born to Shine Project partnered with OSU Feelgood on the event, combining networking, promotional, and organizational forces to create the success evening.
The EPIC project seeks close ties with apparel design programs at Oregon State and beyond to create yet another mutually beneficial relationship.
One of current goals of the project is to get a Portland Trailblazer involved. Each Blazer is required to affiliate with, donate to, or help out at a charity organization. With such a young and talented Portland team, endorsement from a Blazer would be a perfect match. With an already vast network of supporters in Corvallis and Portland, it is only a matter of time before one of next months Rebels With a Cause also happens to be on the hardwood in the Rose Garden every night.
Some similar organizations:
As far as organizations doing the same thing, I am not aware of any. That’s not to say they don’t exist, I just don’t know what I to Goggle to find such a thing! There are however, several large and successful organizations that are influential or have similar traits and ideas behind what they are doing. Product Red, The Right Brain Initiative, and Ashoka are a few that I’d like to take a look at.
Product Red:
This project is one that addresses possible the largest problem facing our world today: AIDS. Product Reds cause is not related to Born to Shine’s, nor is its business model, but its ideology is. It is known as creative capitalism, a term that was coined by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. It describes a new form of capitalism that generates profits as well as helps to solve our world’s inequities. Product Red is an alliance of 9 brands including Apple, Microsoft, American Express, Converse, and more. They are 9 dominant and massively successful brands. Each brand chose a consumer product already in they’re product line, and available in stores. They made the product red in color: a red iPod Nano, a red credit card. That product is exactly the same as the one sitting next to it that’s not red, but if you buy the red product. If you buy the (Red) iPod Nano, profits from the product will go straight help the AIDS problem in Africa. This is the same sort of principal that ICON, and likely future projects of B2S will operate on. To date, 2.5 million people have been affected by funds from Product Red, the equivalent of 600,000 people having a year supply of the lifesaving antiretroviral drugs.
The Right Brain Initiative:
The Right Brain Initiative has a simple goal, and that is to keep art programs in public schools. Their program is based around the development of youth, because it is the young who will run the world when we are old. They point out that the arts and development of the right-brain enhances every part of the more regimented left-brain and is vital to development young minds. Additionally, today, workers in the creative sector generate $1.7 trillion per year. The initiatives innovation and similarities to the Born to Shine Project are the stock it places in young people. There are dozens of organizations out there who work to keep art programs around, but Right Brain Initiatives driving force and motivation is what makes it special.
Ashoka:
This one is a stretch, but I’ll try to make it clear. Ashoka is similar to a venture capitalist firm operating in the non-profit sector. They fund social projects that they deem have deep impact, are sustainable, and worthy. In the future when Born to Shine itself is more well capitalized, it plans to take a similar role for industrious young social entrepreneurs. Since it is a future program for B2S, not a lot of energy has gone into at this point, but it will operate its function will be similar to the whole programs goal: to facilitate opportunities to be creative, and make a difference.
Business Model:
The Born to Shine Project itself is a brand new 501c3 non-profit organization. All money raised through its work is donated directly to outside charities or, to the project itself. That being said, The Born to Shine Project is a sort of umbrella organization with potential for other ventures within it, like EPIC Apparel. As I mentioned before, EPIC will be operated as a for-profit social venture, which generates revenue for the artists, charities of they’re choice, and itself. While it will be a profiting business, all of these profits will be injected back into the machine to help generate further change.
As I write this, all fundraising efforts the project has been a part of have gone straight through to the secondary charities, and so initial funding of the organization has been minimal, and covered by the founders’ own pockets. This has been fine because up to this point costs have been very minimal, and variable costs associated with individual events have been recouped with the funds raised. An exciting new time is coming though, as direct fundraising for the Born To Shine Project will be starting. This capital is what will allow the project to start aggressively working towards its bigger visions, like EPIC, that will need those startup funds to be productive.
Who may feel threatened?
It’s hard to identify any direct competitors of The Born To Shine Project for the same reason that it’s hard to find similar organizations. With such a broad and flexible reach, any individual project that B2S may attack could have new issues. For example, EPIC sharing shelf space in retail stores with a similarly marketed and trendy brands like Obey, or LRG. By throwing charity events that are also common in the for-profit arena B2S might leave a bad taste in the mouths of such competitors. When I mention that, I’m thinking of things like parties, fundraiser concerts, 3 on 3 basketball tournaments, etc. The Boys and Girls Club of Corvallis used to do a massive 3 on 3 tournament every summer, and a B2S tournament would come into direct competition for a certain demographic of the players involved. Situations like these could arise in any arena that a Born to Shine venture goes into.
I also think that conventional charity organizations may feel threatened and even offended by the Born to Shine Projects rejection and disdain of traditional, boring, fundraising models. Their swagger is certainly a proud and confident one, and hopefully it will not be seen as haughty and imperious to more traditional non-profits. The goal of the project is to give credit and recognition to the new, young, and innovative social martyrs and their tactics, not to discredit the efforts and great work of the more conventional organizations we’re all familiar with. As long as that it is clear that the project wishes to be supplemental to existing charities, not to make them obsolete, then all will be content.
What is innovative about the organization?
Everything is innovative about The Born To Shine Project, I think that’s pretty clear from what has been mentioned up to this point. The innovation is derived from the diversity and the angle of attack on our stated problem: apathetic youth. The project is also run by young people, for young people, which is all but common in the non profit world. The most innovative program in my opinion is the SigStock blueprint. Not only are they creating a scalable, replicable social venture, there are tapping a whole new market with it, the Greeks. This is perfect because every single Greek organization in the country is required to engage in philanthropy projects. I would go so far as saying its almost like a franchised restaurant. The group will be given a detailed instruction manual, marketing materials, resources, and more, with all the glitches, problems, etc, already worked through.
Born To Shine is, to me, the definition of social entrepreneurship, no matter what definition you choose. They are taking principles, ideas, and even exact systems from profiting companies in the apparel, event/concert, and promotional world and putting them to work for change.
Based on what I know, and what I expect in the future, The Born to Shine Project is a pretty incredible organization. I never thought I would be able to get excited about charitable work, but I am. My work for the organization already far exceeds our required 25 hours and I am looking forward to adding even more in the future. I hope to fully complete the website over spring break, though that will always be a work in progress. I am also working with Vishal on a few events at OSU during spring term, as well as on internal projects, like the Rebels With A Cause program. As much as I love cats and dogs, I am glad that I was able to find a unique organization, and give it my skills and capabilities, instead of just my time. I am Born to Shine!
WHAT TO DO NOW?