From Social Edge:
What motivates you to change the world?An innate sense of fairness? The values passed from an inspiring parent or teacher? Maybe a personal faith or a devotion to living out the tenets found in religious scriptures?
Some of the world’s most-admired and influential social innovators were moved to action – against steep odds and at grave personal danger – in response to their deep-seated faith.
Mohandas Gandhi drew inspiration from his Hindu faith to confront colonialism with non-violent protest. When faced with doubts and disappointments, he turned to the Bhagavad Gita for strength and solace.
William Wilberforce gathered from his Christian faith the relentless energy and moral indignation to dismantle slavery in England. His sense of justice was grounded in his reading of the Bible.
Faith permeates an individual’s worldview and works at the personal level, but it also moves powerfully within the collective. Throughout history, communities of people who share a common faith have banded together for social good. Muslims established the first facilities dedicated to caring for the mentally ill. Jesuits built world-class universities around the globe.
Today, conversations among the cognoscenti in social change tend to focus on replication, sustainability, impact, growth, and any number of buzzwords — but left largely untouched are the spiritual dimensions of personal motivation and community transformation. For our faith tradition of Christianity, we started Praxis to step into that void.
Praxis is a mentorship-driven accelerator program for social entrepreneurs compelled by their Christian faith to make a difference in the world. Like our friends at Echoing Green, the Unreasonable Institute and the Skoll Foundation, we bring talent and capital around organizations founded by proven leaders, providing them with the knowledge and network they need to develop world-class organizations. Our wrinkle: We are creating an environment where followers of Jesus are encouraged to explore the intersection of their personal faith and their public efforts to serve society.
We also recognize an incredible opportunity for our faith community. The church as a whole is a shockingly underutilized resource for social change. Talk about scale and reach: You’ll find megachurches that meet in basketball stadiums in American cities, and you’ll find one-room, mud-walled churches in the smallest, most remote hamlets in Africa.
With roughly two billion members, the Christian church has an enormous pool of volunteers and donors. Imagine what good could be achieved if the church were to serve their neighbors by opening health clinics, providing clean water, or eliminating illiteracy? We hope to play a role in unleashing the resources of the church to make the world a better place for everyone.
Tell us what you think:
- What role does spirituality play in your work on social change?
- How does your faith community support social entrepreneurship?
- Have you collaborated with a community of faith to carry out your program or raise awareness for a cause or boost sales of your social product?
- How can social entrepreneurs engage the church, synagogue, mosque, temple, etc?
Share your experience with Josh Kwan, board chair of Praxis and the director of international giving at the David Weekley Family Foundation, and Dave Blanchard, president of Praxis and a former principal designer at IDEO.
