The Social Venture Capital Foundation, Inc. (SVCF)

Helping new nonprofits build a better world for all

SVCF

4200 Rosemary St.

Chevy Chase, MD

20815

jeff.svcf@att.net

Spiritual Consciousness and Social Change

"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

-- Albert Einstein

We probably cannot have the kinds of social change that we need until we see and understand the spiritual connection between all of us and all of nature --

between the drunk driver and the innocent pedestrian he kills,

between the richest person on the planet and the poorest,

between each member of an endangered species and the viability of the planet that we all inhabit, and

between the economy of Afghanistan and heroin users in the streets of the cities of the USA.

The core mission of The Social Venture Capital Foundation depends on this understanding, and the work we support will deepen that understanding.

Even the strongest advocates of "self-reliance" recognize that we are interdependent, that our seeming separateness is a kind of delusion.

"Every impressive story of great men and women who have ever lived is really made up of dozens of little stories of other men and women who helped to make them great. Each of can trace our self-reliance to someone in the past. Don't ever think we got here on our own. Nor only is it arrogant, it's dangerous and misleading to believe even for a moment that we don't need each other. . . . When Jesus said, 'Love one another," he gave us the foundation."

-- Richard DeVos, founder of Amway, Compassionate Capitalism: Helping People Help Themselves (1993), pp. 268-9

Perhaps learning to "love one another" begins with coming to understand one another and (to quote Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright and leader of the Czech revolution) developing greater awareness of "the spiritual dimension that connects all cultures and in fact all humanity." To Havel, a key challenge is to renew "respect for the nonmaterial order that is not only above us but also in us and among us, and which is the only possible and reliable source of man's respect for himself, for the order of nature, for the order of humanity, and thus for secular authority as well." (Havel, The Art of the Impossible: Politics as Morality in Practice, 1994, pp. 177-180)

Likewise, Jim Wallis tells us that we probably cannot succeed in addressing the critical political, social, legal, and economic issues we face "unless we act to assert our common humanity and equality as the children of God." As we come to share this vision and act upon it, however, we grow toward becoming the world we desire.

The Social Venture Capital Foundation seeks to plant seeds of social change that will help deepen our spiritual awareness. The planting of these seeds -- this work -- will help us grow toward a shared vision of our common humanity, our equality as the children of God, and the our personal and social responsibility to ourselves, to each other, and to the world in which we live.

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