Creating Your Own Community of Change

Hi everyone, As you know, my goal with The Changebase is to provide a platform for people to come together and Create, Promote, and Leverage Communities of Change. I want this site to be a knowledgebase of sorts, where anyone interested in social enterprise, nonprofits, philanthropy, environmental sustainability or CSR (and everything in between) can connect and collaborate.

One of the ways I envision this happening is by offering you the chance to speak directly to your peers and your colleagues about ways that you are creating the change you want to see in the world. As you can see from the Creating tab above, so far no one has taken me up on my offer to share their story - but I'm hopeful that this will change soon.

And so I ask: What are you doing to create your own community of change? How are your everyday actions making the world a healthier, happier, more sustainable place? If you have a story you'd like to share, I can guarantee that there's an audience waiting to hear what you've got to say.

At this point you may be saying, "What am I doing that could possibly be of interest?". Trust me: change comes in all shapes and sizes.

Some great examples could include:

• Starting your own social venture or nonprofit
• Volunteering at a school or health clinic abroad
• Fundraising for a cause you believe in
• Mentoring a young adult

These are all terrific, but I want to emphasize that creating change doesn't have to be drastic. In fact, you may be creating change in your community and not even realizing it. For example:

• Recycling at home and encouraging your family and friends to do the same
• Participating in a community service day with your coworkers
• Making environmentally conscious decisions about the products you buy and the companies you support
• Choosing to work for a company that treats its workforce fairly and ethically

Hopefully these suggestions have started getting you brainstorming about a story you'd like to share. As much as I can offer my own stories and opinions, I want The Changebase to be a place where people can learn from a diverse group of thinkers and creators of change. And that can only happen with your input! If you'd like to submit a short write-up on how you're creating your own community of change, please contact me; we can discuss details and go over any questions you might have.

Thanks for considering my offer to post your story, and as always, for visiting The Changebase.

-Ashley

The Changebase Now On The List of Change

I'm pleased to report that The Changebase has just been added to The List of Change, a terrific resource of bloggers who promote "making a difference through social change". My twitter friend @ChangeEvnglst brought this excellent site to my attention and I quickly got in touch to see whether The Changebase would make the cut. And it does! The badge below shows my current ranking; with time I hope to rise up higher in the standings. Which brings me to a quick sidenote: thanks so much to all of the folks who've started following The Changebase. It makes me so happy to know that people are enjoying it so far and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the site grows over time. As a reminder, you can always contact me with questions, ideas or suggestions. I'd love to hear from you!

Promoting Page Gets its First Update

Hi all, Just wanted to let you know that the first entry on the Promoting page has gone live: Basics of Social Entrepreneurship. As a reminder, the Promoting section of The Changebase is all about sharing with you some of my favorite people and organizations working to create communities of change. I hope you enjoy learning from this entry's resources as much as I have. And if you know of any websites or articles that I've missed, please let me know so I can add them to the list.

-Ashley

Call for Submissions

Are you a summer intern working in CSR, nonprofit management, or venture philanthropy? Do you work in fundraising, cause marketing or social enterprise? If you're working to create your own community of change at your workplace or school, The Changebase wants to help share your story. If you're interested, contact me and we can talk more about details: what you'd like to say, questions to cover, word limit, etc.

Remember, The Changebase is meant to be a resource for learning and sharing, and that can't happen without your input!

-Ashley

Welcome to The Changebase!

Hi everyone and thanks for stopping by The Changebase. As the tagline says, The Changebase is all about Creating, Promoting, and Leveraging Communities of Change. My vision for this blog is to create a first resource for passionate, motivated changemakers who want to learn and share. Whether it's corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability, social entrepreneurship, nonprofit management, or somewhere in between: everyone is welcome to read, comment, and exchange ideas about change.

As the site gets more developed, you'll most likely see some changes in content and format. For now, take a look at a couple of things:

• Take a moment to explore the links listed at the top of the page, especially the Creating, Promoting and Leveraging tabs. These sections will grow and build over time and will depend on your input and comments.
• Next, spend a little time reading over the Blogroll and Helpful Sites on the left margin. There are some really terrific bloggers and thinkers out there and this list can serve as a resource for your learning.
• Finally, on the right margin you'll see my recent comments on Twitter. If you haven't started tweeting yet, I highly recommend it--there's an incredible network of very smart, very talented people on it and I've learned a lot so far. If you like what you see, feel free to follow me here.

Again, thanks for taking some time to check out The Changebase. I encourage you to come back often as I'll be updating it frequently. And please don't hesitate to get in touch with suggestions, comments, and questions. Until then, happy reading!

-Ashley