Mike.Delponte

We're back in the San Francisco Bay Area and excited to grow our organization. Here are the three main goals of Conscious Lifestyle for the next year:

1. Rebuild our board of directors (have anyone in mind?)
2. Raise $100,000 for salaries (you can make a donation here.
3. Rebrand our organization (designers can contact mike@consciouslifestyle.org)

Welcome to everyone from the People to People summit at Stanford.

Conscious Lifestyle invests in young leaders committed to social responsibility to change institutions today and train the top social entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Chances are if you went to People to People, you're on your way to greatness, so make sure to apply for our support. We typically have two rounds of applications: February and August.

In the mean time, enjoy our posts about leading a social venture while in school.

On August 12 I'm giving a talk at Stanford about how each person has particular gifts that can be used to bring about positive social change. I love the TED Talks podcast because it proves this point so powerfully. In this TED Talk, James Nachtwey - perhaps the greatest war photographer of our time - discusses how "his intention is to record the truth, to document the struggles of humanity, and with this, to wake people up and stir them to action."

Salon.com says, "He's clearly one of those rare characters who focus singularly on their work with a missionary-like sense of purpose."

Watch this video for an inspiring story of commitment and unforgettable photos.

The folks at onefewer.com do not mess around. Check out the video below to hear how you can decide what to do with this obsolete gas guzzler. Can anyone say domino effect? Ok, that may be a stretch, but this is cool nonetheless. Here's the story from digg.

"There's no way around it: 13 MPG sucks. But what do you do with a Range Rover that's already on the road? Selling it just passes the burden on, so, should we blow it up? Drive it off a cliff? Convert it to a biodiesel or plug-in hybrid and give it to an organization that can use it to do something great? This guy will use the best idea he gets.."

Read the whole story on onefewer.com and make sure to share this with others. You can do so by clicking the green "share" icon below.

The following is a guest post by Patrick Lebedinski, an up-and-coming writer and social activist.

There are countless places where young people are working for social change. One spot in particular is near-and-dear to me because it's located in my hometown, Santee, CA. This past May, at West Hills High School, members of the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) organized a Day of Silence to spread a message – a demand even – that social equality must include people of all sexual orientations.  read more »

Conscious Lifestyle is proud to be partnering with Slow Food on Campus, the student engagement initiative by Slow Food USA. Slow Food is "a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world." Slow Food has over 85,000 members and a presence in 132 countries.  read more »

Daniel Zoughbie is an inspiring social entrepreneur. As a student at UC Berkeley he launched the
Global Micro-Clinic Project, which "seeks to empower people to prevent and manage diseases in economically depressed and conflict-ridden areas of our world."

Daniel has won a variety of awards for his humanitarian work, including the Marshall Scholarship. Mostly recently, he was selected as a BRICK Award winner and is currently up for the big prize of $100,000, which will be given at the Teen Choice Awards. Check out the video below and vote for Daniel today.

What is greywater?

Water that’s kinda dirty because it’s been used once, but clean enough to be used for something else.

Examples: Water from rinsing fruit that can be used to then water plants; or water from washing hands, laundry, or dishes that can be reused to flush the toilet.

Why I use greywater:

Last year I saw this Greentime video and began using greywater in my apartment. I was amazed by how easy it is to save lots of water.  read more »

At Conscious Lifestyle, social responsibility means realizing how our lives and institutions affect other humans, animals, and the environment; and then doing everything we can to benefit, or at least not harm, those entities. Social responsibility involves awareness, concern for others, and courage to do the right thing. I started Conscious Lifestyle as a way to replace apathy and extreme self-interest with social responsibility.  read more »

Last Christmas was Michelle Finholdt’s worst. Shortly before the 2007th anniversary of Christ’s birth, Minnesota’s Supreme Court ruled that Finholdt’s nonprofit agency was too much like a for-profit business, meaning that come April 15th, she would be expected to cough up $16,000 in property taxes for the first time since founding the Under the Rainbow Child Care Center in 1994. She probably prayed for a holiday miracle, but even St. Nick isn’t foolish enough to go flying around with that much cash on hand.

As the New York Times dutifully reported last week, nonprofits are becoming increasingly business-like across the country, and the questions are piling up like dorm room laundry. Are these agencies doing anything for the pubic good? For the ones who are not, should they really be given a considerable tax-exemption for doing so? And festering underneath the questions is growing pressure for some non-profits to start anteing up.  read more »