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The heart of the story. Mari Kuraishi at BIF 7

Joan Didion once famously wrote in The White Album, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”

The story is the heart and soul and the ultimate art of BIF. (Business Innovation Factory Collaborative Summit)

When Mari Kuraishi, Co-Founder and President, of GlobalGiving Foundation, walked onto the BIF stage, she opened with refreshingly honest description of her challenge.  She was used to talking about the charitable foundation she co-founded to world-wide audiences on shows like CNN. 

But she was less comfortable about telling a personal story about herself. But she did. 

And the BIF audience was the richer for it.

 Kuraishi began by telling a story about a school trip she took in 1982 to see the Berlin Wall in a still-divided Germany.  She was able to catch a glimpse of the East German world behind the barbed wire. What resonated with her was that the East Germans didn’t look back.

“We are hard wired to notice animate objects .I had to figure out how that system created people that ignored their own biology.”

After graduating from Harvard with a degree in history, Kuraishi was concerned that she would have to return to her native Japan and become an OL. “Do you know what an OL is?” she asked the audience. It means office lady.  She added that “returning to Japan meant serving tea to executives.”

She was fortunate to get an opportunity to work at the World Bank. Where she managed and created some of the Bank's most innovative projects including the first ever Innovation and Development Marketplaces.

According to Caroline Shannon of The Glass Hammer, “Kuraishi’s craving for a solution is exactly how the GlobalGiving Foundation became her brainchild. The foundation stemmed from her experience with the World Bank where she paired up in 1998 with economist Dennis Whittle (now CEO of GlobalGiving) to fight poverty for the company’s Development Marketplace.”

The seed of the founders collective vision was the realization that in the social capital market, smaller initiatives were not being supported by major funders.

GlobalGiving is a charity fundraising web site that gives social entrepreneurs and non-profits from anywhere in the world a chance to raise the money that they need to improve their communities. Since 2002, GlobalGiving has raised $51,170,568 from 217,794 donors who have supported 4,532 projects.

“People with projects that require funding and grants post their proposals on the site, giving potential donors the chance to browse opportunities and choose ones they would like to fund. GlobalGiving does not provide individuals with support. The site acts as a go-between for those who are looking for funding—whether it is health care, environment or education matters—and those who are willing to provide it.”

It is a story that Kuraishi tells well.  But on the BIF stage, her story resonated on a different level. She reflected on the catalyst of her desire to make a difference in the world -- those faceless people behind he Berlin wall.  And her efforts are now helping boys on the streets of Nairobi and providing health care for women in Northern Pakistan.

Kuraishi ends her story with some hard-earned philosophy, “The good life is a series of repeated decisions over a lifetime. I always ask myself, how can I help set up an environment…a set of tools to help others create a life well lived and a community well lived.”

As so often happens at BIF, the good life for others begins with a compelling story by an individual who’s found a purpose.

Thank you Mari.

http://www.globalgiving.org/

 

Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 08:44AM by Registered CommenterCreativity Central | Comments1 Comment | References42 References

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Reader Comments (1)

Hi Marty,

I have a quick question for you. Could you email me?

Thanks,

Carrie Taaca
Higher Level Group

September 28, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterCarrie Taaca

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