Creating Change

Any problem as big as poverty in America must be attacked from multiple vantage points.  We’re attacking it scientifically, in the media, and on the ground.

SCIENTIFICALLY

Let’s start with one example: Stanford University, a legitimate university with brainpower, but in need of resources. Their Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality had a vision to be more than an ivory tower research facility – they wanted to be about solutions.  In order to assist the Center with a partnership, Elfenworks first applied  our Seven Guidelines[1] to this important business decision. 

1. David Grusky, the director of the Center, had a vision to be about solutions.  We knew up front that his met ours. 
2. There was no other center like his, and  he wanted to have a category-killer website. He had no website resource, we had no academic solutions partner. He had a small financial support base. As one of the first institutional supporters, we helped attract others. Our financial help funded Center operations, research, visiting scholars, and established Pathways magazine. 
3.  Within Elfenworks there are high level, experienced computer programmers, David Grusky is an academic.  It was a match made in heaven in regards to creating the “Category – killer website” the team needed for the project. 
4. We worked in partnership. They taught us how research scientists approach the problem.   We taught them the technology and business models for viability. 
5. We continue the dialogue to keep the research grounded in reality. It’s not just statistics, it’s information about real people in real need. We constantly ask, “Who is using the information we generate?”  “How is it truly helping?
6. Sharing the credit has always been true for both sides of the partnership.   
7. Elfenworks made an even greater commitment to the Center at Stanford by funding a further alliance between Stanford and Harvard University, known as the Collaboration for Poverty Research. Their partnership continues to build upon the foundation of poverty research.  And in Fall 2011, Elfenworks agreed to further support Pathways magazine for future years. This  partnership is really working. The website is being quoted by popular press, and Pathways magazine is read by key policy makers, impacting their thinking and – we believe – policy. 

We have other academic partners as well. Most recently, we are working with Golden Gate University, to empower the Elfenworks Center for Employment Justice at the School of Law, and build their website.  

IN THE MEDIA

The power of academic research and media recognition is critical to our mission.   So we decided to take our mission even further into mass media. Let’s look at our partnership with  Campus Moviefest – the world’s largest student film and music festival. They represent the “army of the future” in the media.  Once again we looked at the Seven Pillars to determine if a meaningful partnership was right and if financial backing would make a difference. In all areas, the answers pointed to creating film and music awards for social justice issues with the existing campus organization.  Social justice awards in these categories did not exist and we shared media expertise.  This initiative focuses a new generation on social justice, as well as financially rewarding them for creating media and music that takes this important message to a larger audience. The results have exceeded our wildest dreams! Student films in our category just in the 2010-2011 school year alone, received over 1.4 million hits as of June, 2011.  The music category had 50,000 listens on the Campus Moviefest website, plus many other hits on websites that Campus Moviefest does not track.

ON THE GROUND

We are clear that real people in need don’t hang out on the web or in movie theaters -  they often live on the streets.   So Elfenworks looked to existing organizations for additional partnerships who are the “boots on the ground” with innovative solutions.  Each year, based on the seven guidelines, we select innovative hands-on non-profit organizations and honor them with the In Harmony with Hope^sm award. Their stories and their fight for change are heroic. 

These and other Elfenworks projects can be found on our Projects page.

BOTTOM LINE: YOU CAN USE THIS METHOD

The bottom line is this: You need to decide how and where you’re putting your time, treasure and talent to attack a big problem, and from our experience at Elfenworks, the Seven Pillar criteria ring absolutely true.  The Seven Pillars can be used to affect any number of huge issues in the world, whether health, environment or any other issue you embrace. You can use your imagination to think of all the other situations where these guidelines could help put the resources you have in exactly the right place. And we’ve noticed that the more attention that we pay up front, the more smoothly the project will run. Below is a worksheet that we hope you will find useful (please note: reprinting or publishing is strictly forbidden without advance permission).

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