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CASE Awards 4th Annual
Leadership Award to Ami Dar, Founder and Executive Director of Action
Without Borders and Idealist.org
CASE Managing Director Beth Anderson presents the 2006 Leadership
in Social Entrepreneurship Award to Ami Dar, Founder and Executive
Director of Action Without Borders and Idealist.org. Ami Dar, founder and CEO of Action Without Borders and Idealist.org,
spoke to students and community members at Duke University's Fuqua
School of Business on April 5, 2006. Dar, who was there to receive
the Fourth Annual Leadership
in Social Entrepreneurship Award from the Center for the Advancement
of Social Entrepreneurship, shared the seeds of his passionate belief
in the power of the internet to unite people around the world in
the service of the common good. He explained how the extreme poverty
he witnessed while growing up in Peru and Mexico led him to question
at an early age why things were the way they were. The young Dar
resolved one day to “start a revolution” to change the
world.
At age 18, Dar was drafted into the Israeli army, where he served
as a paratrooper in the Lebanese war of 1982. While his unit was
posted at the Syrian border, he spent hours peering through his
binoculars observing Arab soldiers across the border. Dar soon realized
that these supposed “enemies” were, in fact, a lot like
him, and that they likely shared similar dreams of peace and prosperity.
He thought to himself, “there must be a way of reaching across
borders… of getting people together on both sides.”
Dar began to envision ways to aid global communication and bridge
the gap between people who share similar passions and ideals of
positive change in the world.
After military service, and subsequent work as a waiter, translator,
and marketing manager for a software company, Dar came to the U.S.
in 1992 to launch a subsidiary of Aladdin Knowledge. During these
years, his desire to make a difference in the way that people are
connected grew even stronger. Finally, in 1995, Dar founded Action
Without Borders with the initial aim of building a network of neighborhood
contact centers that would provide a one-stop shop for volunteer
opportunities and nonprofit services in communities around the world.
“We
can really ask questions that would have been impossible to
ask 5, 10, 20 years ago, and actually have the tools to provide
answers.”
-- Ami Dar.
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With the rise of the internet, Dar quickly recognized the potential
of the new technology to bring together people with shared goals.
“Someone has created something just for me,” Dar recalls
saying to himself. “I had been waiting for this sort of thing
for ten years!”
Dar noticed that there was no single directory that made all the
nonprofit resources available on the internet easily accessible
to the millions of people who were already online. Responding to
this need, Dar and his team set out to find every nonprofit website
and to arrange all of these resources by both topic and geographic
location. To help close the gap between technology-rich and technology-poor
organizations, Action Without Borders launched the website Idealist.org
in 1996 to allow any nonprofit or community organization—whether
it has a website or not—to have a presence on the web through
which to promote its mission and activities. Since then, Idealist.org
has become one of the most popular communities of nonprofit and
volunteering resources on the internet, with information provided
by over 53,000 organizations in 165 countries, and thousands of
users every day.
 Not content to rest on his organization’s achievements, Dar
noted some lingering dissatisfaction with the level of collaboration
in the social sector. “Everyday we have millions of opportunities
and possible partnerships of collaboration that people just don’t
know about.”
Nevertheless, Dar sees Idealist.org as part of the solution. Citing
the complexity of societal problems that do not respect international
borders (such as pollution, climate change, health epidemics, natural
disasters, terrorism, etc.), Dar pointed optimistically to the potential
social benefits of the communications revolution and the global
trend toward increased political freedom. According to Dar, the
tools of technology will provide a powerful mechanism for action
and change in the world as like-minded people come together in search
of concrete solutions. “We will see more creativity, more
excitement, and more collaborations, as well as greater risks…but
above all else many more opportunities for people to do something
good!”
Watch
the streaming video of Ami Dar at Fuqua. (Quicktime
7 required).
Fuqua on Board Recognizes Students
for Excellence, Achieves Record Participation
Fuqua
on Board (FOB) is a four-year old program that matches Fuqua
students with Durham area nonprofits to serve as nonvoting board
members during the course of an academic year. Participating students,
who do not receive credit for their service, also complete a consulting
project on an issue of strategic interest for each nonprofit.
Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) Associate
Director Matt Nash, manager of the FOB program, credits the program
with exposing students to the challenges and joys of leadership
and governance in the social sector. Explains Nash, "From their
seat in the boardroom, students grapple with complex issues and
help make strategic decisions that will have an impact upon countless
lives. I think that Fuqua can take pride in the efforts of these
students to put their business skills to work in the Durham community.”
Harish Shinde and Peiman Milani, both students in the Daytime Class
of 2006, won this year’s first ever FOB Award of Excellence
for their work with Durham County’s Habitat for Humanity.
Milani cited that their “experience was most rewarding because
it enabled us to add value to a leading social enterprise that supported
our effort in the most welcoming way, and at the same time learn
a great deal about governance and nonprofit strategy.”
Miguel Rubiera, the executive director of Durham County Habitat
For Humanity, noted that the students “stayed focused
on the project, and at the end their findings and recommendations
were realistic and very valuable for Habitat. We started implementing
[their ideas] even before the final presentation was made. We are
ready for the next team!”
At the awards ceremony, Su Balasubramanian and Alan Williams, both
in the Class of 2006, were recognized with an honorable mention
for their outstanding work with Durham
Companions, a mentoring program for at-risk youth.
This year’s Fuqua on Board program achieved record high levels
of participation. More than 50 students interviewed for 36 positions.
A record 17 Durham nonprofits participated in this year’s
FOB program, including:
1. Alcohol/Drug Council of North Carolina
2. American Red Cross, Central NC Chapter
3. Calvary Ministries of the West End Community, Inc.
4. CASA (Charter Association for Student Achievement)
5. Durham Central Park
6. Durham Companions
7. Durham Literacy Center
8. First in Families NC
9. The Forest at Duke
10. Habitat for Humanity of Durham
11. NC REAL Enterprises, Inc.
12. One World Market
13. Rebuild Durham
14. SEEDS
15. Seesaw Studio
16. Urban Ministries of Durham
17. Volunteer Center of Durham
To learn more about Fuqua on Board visit www.caseatduke.org/students/fuquaonboard
2005 Fall Break Hurricane
Katrina Relief Effort
By Bryan Rakowski, Fuqua MBA, 2007
While many students used fall break as an opportunity to spend
a week on Wall Street or to see friends and family, there was a
group of 25 Fuquans who opted for a slightly different approach.
Making the 13-hour drive down to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, we
spent five days helping out with the clean-up efforts after Hurricane
Katrina. And although it had been weeks since the hurricane hit
the Gulf Coast, these people were still badly in need of help.
Bridges were still out. Electricity was still being restored. We
saw a boat on top of a building. In some places, the water level
had reached 8-9 feet. As we drove down the coastline in a particularly
hard hit neighborhood, one member of our team commented that it
looked like a scene from a movie or a CNN story of a third-world
country during a period of civil war. It was eerily quiet. Buildings
were abandoned and various items littered lawns and tree branches
as if placed there purposefully. I had never processed what millions
of gallons of water can do to carpeting, drywall and insulation,
let alone appliances, furniture and keepsakes.
Fuqua students help clean out a damaged home in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. In our assigned house, the water level had reached 4 feet. We were
instructed to remove and clean everything from the ceiling to the
floor to insure we eradicated all black mold. And by everything,
I mean everything. The pile of trash we removed from that house
took up a space on the curb approximately 20 feet long, 8 feet deep,
and 5 feet high. The dishes that were still in the dishwasher, every
kitchen cupboard, every hot water heater, every bathroom sink or
toilet…all removed. The linoleum flooring, the door frames,
every nail in every support beam…everything. All that was
left when we were done were the pipes, the frame, and the exterior
walls. The final day on the project was spent cleaning. After coating
every surface with a solution of water, bleach, and dishwashing
liquid two times (or more), we then scrubbed each of those surfaces
to kill the mold. A final mopping of the floors…and our job
was done.
While the sense of accomplishment felt great and the foreman of
our project was impressed with our speed and thoroughness, we all
soon realized how far that house was from being inhabitable again.
We had simply prepped the house for contractors to come back in
and rebuild. Electricians still had to rewire the entire house and
plumbers still had to get fresh water flowing. And that was just
one house…on one street…in one neighborhood. But you
know what?…There are hundreds of teams just like ours that
have been down there or are on their way.
Our accommodations were a “tent city” established on
the grounds of a Methodist church. The men stayed in a “big
top” with approximately 50 cots. The women stayed in army
tents that slept 10-12 people each. Showers were located in a moveable
trailer about 100 yards away. Aside from the one bathroom in the
church with running water, port-a-potties were the way to go. Compared
to other camps in the area, this was a 4-star hotel. Over 1,000
volunteers had been to this camp already, and 1,000 more were slated
to arrive before December. The efforts of the folks running this
camp have been and continue to be Herculean. I was moved and utterly
impressed by their dedication and devotion to the cause. It is their
work that allows for groups like us to come down and work on the
“front lines.”
There are others to whom we owe big thanks. If it wasn’t
for the generosity of the Fuqua Deans, we might not have been able
to make this trip. Their donation allowed the team to rent three
15-passenger vans and buy any supplies we needed for the week. Hats
off also go to FYs Matt King and Jason Ward and SY Hila Dar. Matt
arranged all of the transportation. Jason and Hila led the effort
to solicit supply donations from our local Lowe’s and Home
Depot. Finally, a round of applause for the rest of the folks that
went down to Mississippi. Despite the gravity of the situation,
we all still managed to have some fun, and I think all of us would
agree that the trip was well worth it.
SIC
Students Organize First Annual MBA Footprints Conference
By Suneet Bhatt, Fuqua MBA, 2006 
On April 5th 2006, over 200 people attended the first MBA Footprints
Conference, entitled "Professionals Forging Social Impact."
The conference was planned and hosted by Fuqua's Social
Impact Club. The purpose of the event was to highlight opportunities
for individuals to achieve social impact within their daily lives,
recognizing that making a difference is not something that is reserved
only for the non-profit and public sectors.
The conference kicked-off with a spirited debate over the role
of business in society pitting Paul Driessen (Senior Policy Advisor
to the Congress of Racial Equality and Center for the Defense of
Free Enterprise) and Fred Smith (President and Founder, Competitive
Enterprise Institute) against Mary O'Malley (Vice President, Community
Resources and Local Initiatives,
Prudential Financial) and Darell Hammond (Founder and CEO, KaBOOM!).
The debate was followed by panels ranging from a case study on Federal
Express' engagement with Environmental Defense to a dialogue on
Cause Marketing efforts, featuring Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty.
A full agenda can be viewed at the conference
website.
In anticipation of next year's event (already scheduled for Wednesday,
April 7th, 2007), and based on some of the feedback we received
from attendees, we are changing the title of the conference from
"MBA Footprints" to "Footprints." This reflects
a commitment to expand the message of the conference across all
disciplines, not only those that are business-related.
The conference was made possible through a Diversity Innovation
Grant provided by Eli Lilly.
CASE Welcomes Program
Coordinator Beth Eiserloh
CASE is pleased to announce the hiring of Beth Eiserloh as the
new Program Coordinator.
Beth brings to the position significant work and volunteer experience
in the social sector. Most recently, Beth spent five and a half
years as a production coordinator at the Guthrie Theater, a leader
in American theater with both a national and international reputation.
In addition, she provided freelance event planning and production
support for a variety of other Minneapolis-St. Paul area arts and
media organizations, and worked with educational and outreach programs
for youth in alternative high schools and YWCA art programs. Prior
to her work in the performing arts, Beth was a marketing and recruitment
assistant at the GMAC-RFC Homecomings Financial branch in Bloomington,
MN. Beth attended Bethel College in St. Paul, MN, where she graduated
with a B.A. in media communications, with a minor in theater arts.
Beth is also a voracious reader and enjoys painting and watching
foreign and independent film in her free time. She has recently
relocated to Raleigh from Minneapolis with her boyfriend Wyeth.
CASE Thanks Alumna
in Residence Kate Bostock
CASE would like to extend a sincere thanks to Kate Bostock, who
has served as our Alumna in Residence during the academic year.
Kate, a "Double Dukie", is a 2002 graduate of the Fuqua
Business School and also received her B.S. in History from Duke
in 1994. Kate has extensive experience working in the media industry
as both a Television Producer for the show Inside Edition as well
as the Business Development Associate for AppleVision, a small media
firm based in New York City that produces and sells hotel channel
information networks. Kate is extremely passionate about Social
Entrepreneurship and she fondly recalls her experience taking CASE
Faculty Director Greg Dees' class as a student at Fuqua.
As the Alumna in Residence, Kate has been an invaluable asset to
the CASE team. She has been involved with much of what CASE does,
helping out with everything from alumni outreach to event planning
to assistance with courses and strategic planning. Kate also writes
for FuquaNet each month.
Kate enjoys skiing and hiking in her free time as well as her new
hobby of gardening. She moved back to Durham last summer with husband
and first year Fuqua student Jesse Shefferman and they are excitedly
expecting a baby due next Fall.
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