Helping new nonprofits build a better world for all

Planting Seeds of Social Change

To bring to fruition the kinds of social change that we seek, we need to look for new leaders and groups with --

• clarity of vision,

• commitment to the well-being of all,

• faith that needed changes can be made, 

• the courage to act on that faith, and 

• the will to persist.

There are many, many individuals and groups that have started and build powerfully effective nonprofits over the years to bring about new awareness and constructive social change at the community, national, and global levels. To name just a few examples: 

• Candy Lightner and the other distraught mothers who founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Together, they are helping change America's consciousness about the acceptability of driving after drinking alcohol and helping to drastically reduce alcohol-related highway deaths and injuries. (Note: Between 1982-99, alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. decreased 38 per cent from over 25,000 per year to about 16,000, thus resulting in the saving of approximately 180,000 lives.)

• Millard Fuller, who along with his wife, Linda, founded Habitat for Humanity, International.  Since then, Habitat has built over 100,000 new homes for those who otherwise could not afford them.   Habitat also encourages personal and community responsibility for the maintenance and care of these new homes.  

• Marian Wright Edelman and her colleagues who organized and grew the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) to provide a voice for voiceless children and demand greater government accountability to the future.  Together, they have helped more that two million children get health insurance coverage that they otherwise would not have, in addition to numerous other accomplishments. 

• Mark Borinsky, Pete Shields, Michael Beard, Sarah Brady, Donna Dees-Thomases, and Tom Mauser, who launched efforts after the shootings of loved ones, and/or Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, President Reagan and Press Secretary Jim Brady, and Columbine High School to make the country more aware of the dangers of handguns and to reduce gun-related deaths and injuries.  Even so, between 1979 and 1998, gunfire killed nearly 84,000 children and teens in America — 36,000 more than the total number of American soldiers killed in battle in Vietnam. 

Now, there are many other social entrepreneurs and non-profit groups who are starting and building new social ventures.   They, too, are planting seeds to grow an ethos of personal and social responsibility, to help the American Dream come true for all, and to renew this country's commitment to each person's "inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

Some of these leaders and groups are reaching beyond our shores to encourage all the citizens and countries of the world to honor these values, and the spirit as well as the letter of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  See, for example, the work of Women for Women, International.

The mission of The SVCF is to find, nurture, and encourage a new generation of social entrepreneurs and non-profit groups with new visions and new approaches to realizing these goals.   For examples of some of these promising new leaders and groups, see Grantees & Prospects.

Our efforts to find and nurture those who are planting these seeds of social change must be founded on our own faith -- faith that, with adequate care and nurture, the seeds we plant together can germinate, take root, and grow.  We cannot simply look to others to bring about the kinds of change that we seek for our communities, our country, and our world.  We must take the first steps ourselves. See How You Can Help.

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