Devin D. Thorpe thinks he is the luckiest person alive. After being “let go” from the best job he’d ever had—as the Chief Financial Officer of the multinational food and beverage company MonaVie—he and his wife ended up living in China for a year where he wrote Your Mark On The World and embarked on the career he’d always wanted yet hadn’t dared dream.
Now, as an author, a popular guest speaker and Forbes contributor, Devin is devoted full time to championing social good. His current life isn’t much like his past.
As an entrepreneur, Devin ran—at separate times—a boutique investment banking firm and a small mortgage company. He served as the Treasurer for the multinational vitamin manufacturer USANA Health Sciences years before becoming CFO for MonaVie. Over his career he led or advised on the successful completion of $500 million in transactions.
Devin squeezed in two brief stints in government, including two years working for Jake Garn on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee Staff and another year working for an independent state agency called USTAR, where he helped foster technology entrepreneurship during Governor Jon Huntsman’s administration.
Devin is proud to have graduated from the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, which recognized him as a Distinguished Alum in 2006. He also earned an MBA at Cornell University where he ran the student newspaper, Cornell Business.
Today, Devin channels the idealism of his youth with the loving support of his wife, Gail. Their son Dayton is a PhD candidate in Physics at UC Berkeley (and Devin rarely misses an opportunity to mention that).
On March 22, 2013, the Community Foundation of Utah will hold its first Love UT Give UT 24 hours of giving—a massively coordinated one-day crowdfunding campaign. If the people of Utah rally around the effort, well more than $1 million could be raised to support Utah’s nonprofits.
About 400 nonprofit organizations have registered to participate in the event, so Utahns will have their choice of causes, from AAA Fair Credit to the Utah Zoological Society.
Yesterday, I wrote in my Forbes blog about Minnesota’s record setting giving day last November when they raised over $16 million in a single day. Minnesota is a much larger state and had ten times the number of participating non-profits, but their experience suggests that Utah should expect to raise much more than $1 million next Friday.
Today, you can visit the site: loveutgiveut.org. On the site, you can browse the nonprofits that have registered and identify those that interest you most.
Generous donors have already arranged $200,000 in matching grants so your money can go even further.
Together, Utahns, we can make a difference—a truly remarkable difference—right here in our own community on March 22, 2013.
Today Your Mark On The World announces the winners of the Hand Up for Social Good Awards for the best small social entrepreneurs based on their mission and impact.
The winner, who will receive $1,000 from Your Mark On The World, The Yonkofa Project, has been profiled in my Forbes blog.
The runner up for the Hand Up for Social Good Award which comes with a $500 prize from an anonymous philanthropist goes to The Senase Project.
For this post, I interviewed The Senase Project founder Christopher Toone. I’ll share that interview with you directly and unedited as Chris tells his story much better than I could.
After tabulating thousands of votes, we have our winners. The Hand Up for Social Good Award winners will be announced next week.
At this point, even the winners do not know they’ve won. I’m working on profiles for the first and second place winners. The first place winner will receive $1,000 and will be profiled in my Forbes column next week and the second place winner will receive $500 and will be profiled here at yourmarkontheworld.com.
You will be inspired by both stories, I can tell you that much. You won’t want to miss out on hearing about these remarkable people and the good they are doing in the world. You’ll feel empowered to change the world, too!
On Friday, we had our second crowdfunding workshop. For the workshops, we use Google+ Hangouts that allow for everyone in the group to see and hear the others and to participate fully in the discussion.
These fully interactive sessions are informative for everyone as we get access to the insights and experience of every member of the workshop, not just the benefit of my study and experience.
If you would like to participate in a future workshop, register here.
Voting for our “Hand Up for Social Good” Award will end on Thursday at midnight (MST). Thousands of people have voted, which demonstrates how much people care about seeing the world become a better place.
Remember, the finalist will receive a $1,000 prize and the second place organization will receive $500 (from a generous philanthropist).
All of the finalists are doing great things and making the world a much better place. I’m grateful to them for their work and to all of their supporters who make it possible.
If you haven’t voted yet, please take a moment to review the list of finalists at Forbes.com and cast your vote.
This morning, we held the first Crowdfunding Workshop for Social Entrepreneurs. It was a great success, with participation from as far away as Zambia!
The live, private video chat format provided for excellent interaction and an opportunity for the workshop to be genuinely consultative.
We’ve scheduled five more workshops. We’ll run the series at no charge this time, but when we repeat the series there will be a modest fee for participation.
If you’d like to join us for the next one—even if you missed the first session—be sure to register here to receive the information on how to participate.
The next session will be Friday, March 1, 2013 at noon EST.
Have you ever wanted to learn how to do an effective crowdfunding campaign for your social cause, nonprofit or new social venture? Others have already raised tens of thousands of dollars or more for their projects; you can, too!
More than 90 percent of crowdfunding campaigns raise less than $5,000. To learn how to raise five or ten times that amount, join me for my free training workshops.
Register below for any or all of the small group, fully interactive sessions to help you optimize your crowdfunding campaign.
A generous philanthropist friend has offered to provide an additional $500 prize to the second place winner of the Hand Up for Social Good Award conditioned only on our getting another 500 votes!
Our benefactor has asked to remain anonymous. I couldn’t be more excited to announce this because the finalists are all so great! Now we can recognize and reward two winners.
To vote, please review the profiles (and websites) for the finalists by reading this post in Forbes. After choosing your favorite, you can vote here.
