A diary of an experiment in social entrepreneurship

Small World

I cry when I see beautiful things. Like babies. And fireflies at night. And classrooms where once were henhouses.

But tears haven’t fallen recently from these eyes. Until yesterday and then again, this morning.

I’ve been so busy that I’ve been unable to really reflect on the miracle that’s unfolding around me. Then two things happened, and finally, it sunk in. The world is changing. And I (actually, we) have a front row seat.

Yesterday, I was on the phone with 10 event organizers I’ve never met in person who are planning parties that will spread gratitude across the globe, and raise funds to invest in the vision of one extraordinary woman in Tanzania. Planners from Istanbul, Israel, Washington DC and more shared their thoughts on how to celebrate gratitude and cultivate local support for a woman, and children, they’d never met. Over 40 events are now planned – and each one will change the world with the power of gratitude.

Then this morning, I got this note from a parent in Tanzania. Mr. Patrokil shared so much kindness, then wrote:

What I want to say here, please would you help me how to sign up to tweeter as I would like to vote on the 24th – 26th Nov.as well as help my friends to open the account with tweetsgiving so that we can join together. Few days remaining now.

Just instructions, then I help to the other.

The world is getting smaller. We’re all participating in the same conversation. Voices seldom heard are getting louder. And I am so excited to see what happens on November 24th when our shared gratitude is unleashed around the world. I hope you’ll join us – and people from Arusha to Istanbul to Honolulu – by:

  • Attending or Planning an event in your city.
  • Helping us spread gratitude across the web.
  • Hosting a gratitude house party for people you love.

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    In the meantime, the the world will be coming together in another way too. Mama Lucy and will be meeting me in the Netherlands at the European Summit for Global Transformation – and will then be joining us for the TweetsGiving celebration in New York City. (Will you be there?) She’s never visited the US or Europe before, and I’m so excited I can hardly stand it.

    Feeling unbelievably grateful to the Summit’s organizer, Rebecca Self, my friend Jen Lemen who raised funds for Mama Lucy’s plane ticket, and a universe that conspired to make sure her visa came through…

    Posted: November 19th, 2009 under The Foundry.
    Comments: 1

    Comments

    Comment from John Haydon
    Time: November 22, 2009, 1:58 pm

    Stacey,

    I was just thinking about fireflies yesterday (as a visual image to communicate Twitter’s geotagging feature…)

    Anyhow, I too was struck by the sincerity of Mr. Patrokil’s email.

    The current paradigm in the non-profit world is that giver and receiver exist separately – rarely do these two groups unify in the fight for a cause. I’ve never seen a fundraising event for homelessness where homeless people are joining in as equal participants to raise money or spread awareness. Yet, here we have parents and children working together with everyone in tweetsgiving.

    I see three benefits to knocking down these existing walls:

    1) More powerful stories
    2) A deeper understand of the human element
    3) A greater commitment from “both sides”

    Tweetsgiving 2009 will go down in history, Stacey! And it all started with a chicken farmer in Tanzania, and a woman in the US who lost her brother.

    John

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