Posts categorized under Lessons Learned

07 September 2014 ~ 0 Comments

Why you shouldn’t start an orphanage (from a woman who did)

Three and a half years ago I wrote a piece on “Hero-worshipping in the social sector”, and I focused on the story of a twenty year old from Australia who had started an orphanage, inspiring others to want to do the same. At the time, the article created a lot of dialogue, and was heated […]

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17 July 2014 ~ 1 Comment

How to Make Hard Choices (and why a universal NGO ranking system is impossible)

I’m sure most of you have viewed your fair share of TED talks. This one is about “How to Make Hard Choices” – and it is certainly worth a view as we all make “hard choices” every day and this perspective might make those choices feel a lot more empowering. While watching it, I realized […]

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15 June 2014 ~ 0 Comments

Lost in Translation

I was lucky to be able to write a piece for this Summer 2014 SSIR journal with a former co-worker at PEPY/PEPY Tours, Karina Kloos.  Karina and I had worked together in 2009 to make Voluntourism101, and have collaborated since on projects and brainstorms around how to further the “social” in the social sector. Karina […]

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26 March 2014 ~ 0 Comments

Personal development and global development are entirely interlinked

I was part of a radio piece for ABC radio in Australia. Of course, as usual, they gave it a very “catchy” title – ” Is ‘voluntourism’ the new colonialism? I would have rather had something more along the lines of “how do we make volunteer service more humble” or something…. but such is life. […]

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06 March 2014 ~ 0 Comments

What part of your start-up are you married to?

I recently wrote a piece for Unreasonable.is about “getting married” to parts of your start-up… and hopefully getting married to the “right” thing!  Check it out if you are interested: http://unreasonable.is/opinion/what-part-of-your-start-up-are-you-married-to/

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15 February 2014 ~ 7 Comments

Thoughts from students

I am speaking at a few universities which happen to all fall around the same time, and I thought I would try something new. I posted this blog before heading off to the first talk, and at each talk I will mention to the students I speak to that this space is here for them […]

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21 June 2013 ~ 0 Comments

A Tale of Three Teachers

I just heard a fantastic story and I had to share. I’m in the Sierra Mountains, doing a training with Where There Be Dragons before heading to Cambodia to lead a development education course and the Director, Susie Rinehart, just shared this story with me that she said I could share with you. Susie showed […]

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