After graduating from Bowdoin College in 2009 (“Moving Forward with the Common Good & Bowdoin“), I spent one more summer on Martha’s Vineyard and ended up in Aspen, Colorado cooking by night and skiing by day.  That’s when I heard about Mano en Mano | Hand in Hand, the non-profit organization that I’m now in charge of.  So I packed my bags once again and moved back to a state I had never even been to before I started at Bowdoin.  It’s almost like coming full circle!

As I set forth on my nonprofit praxis (the unification of theory and practice), I’d like to lay out my vision:

• Meeting Needs, not Creating Them. Nonprofits are founded because of genuine community needs and must strive to constantly reassess them and tailor programs and services to those needs, not the organization and its personnel.
• Community Change, not Community Service. Put simply, the goal of every nonprofit should be to run itself out of a job.  It’s not just about meeting needs, it’s about challenging the reasons why those needs exist in the first place.
• Business, not Charity. The nonprofit model of pure charity is inefficient and no longer effective.  It’s possible to change communities and generate income at the same time.  Take a look at some recent numbers from D.C. Central Kitchen: they generate 50% of their own revenue!  It’s also time to think of nonprofits themselves as businesses and a sector: right now, nonprofits hold $3 trillion in assets and employ 7% of the U.S. workforce (14 million people).  Check out the V3 Campaign for more info.

Now, this site isn’t all about changing the world.  Here you can find out more about me and even see a few pictures (from Flickr).  You can also access links to various press appearances, read my speech from Bowdoin’s Commencement of the Class of 2009, or find out more about my 2008 semester in Havana (travel notes).

Thanks for visiting and I look forward to hearing from you.