Jonathan Greenblatt (LA '92), special assistant to President Barack Obama and director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation in the United States Domestic Policy Council, delivered the Lyon & Bendheim Alumni Lecture at 51 Winthrop St. last night.
Greenblatt spoke of his early experiences as an activist, which included protesting in his hometown of Bridgeport, Conn. for Soviet Jews' rights and joining Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign as a graduating senior at Tufts. He chose to spend his first months out of college working as a waiter at a Harvard Square cafe while campaigning for Clinton in his spare time, much to the shock of his parents.
"In that moment, I had the benefit of nearly four years of discovery and enrichment," he said.
Greenblatt recognized the tremendous impact his alma mater had had on his career in entrepreneurship and encouraged current Tufts students to make the most of their undergraduate experience.
"I wanted to change the world, and it was my liberal arts education that taught me how big a place the world is," he said. "Those seeds are being planted right now and you don't even know it. But take the time to till those seeds, to cultivate that plant, because they could take you places you don't even know."
Greenblatt outlined what he believed would be common characteristics amongst social entrepreneurs. He said that people in the field commonly display a strong sense of determination and resourcefulness towards achieving a positive impact in their environment.
"They are change agents, people who are committed to change throughout their lives," he said. "This is typically part of their DNA. They are out to change what they think is a broken equilibrium. They are thinking big from the get-go."
Greenblatt acknowledged several accomplished entrepreneurs from Tufts, telling current students that they are part of a lineage of social entrepreneurship. He then spoke about his own experience in co-launching the charitable water bottle company, Ethos Water.
Greenblatt said that the statistics regarding the global water crisis - and the facts that over a billion people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water and 2.6 billion lack adequate sanitation - greatly disturbed him. He became inspired to do his part to resolve this issue and decided to develop a brand of bottled water to generate funds for water, sanitation and hygiene education programs.
From the start, it was a challenging venture, and Greenblatt initially struggled to effectively market and distribute his water bottle brand. He described this startup period, during which he sold Ethos Water exclusively from his home in Los Angeles, as one of profound uncertainty.
"Everyone loves a success story," he said. "But before those success stories, there are a lot of tough nights, hard conversations, debates about what we were going to do next."
Greenblatt and his colleague Peter Thum eventually managed to get local stores to carry the brand. Greenblatt said their greatest breakthrough was the moment when the Starbucks Coffee Company purchased Ethos Water in 2005 and agreed to donate five cents for every bottle sold to water-themed charities, as well as a minimum of $10 million over its first five years of sales. He said that this represented the company's best chance of turning consumers into activists and bettering the company's chances of making a collective impact towards resolving the global water crisis.
Greenblatt addressed his other efforts involving social entrepreneurship, including many which he handles on a regular basis at his position in the White House. He spoke of ways in which individuals can devote themselves to the "social innovation agenda." Volunteering for nonprofit organizations, including AmeriCorps, was one method which he praised specifically.
"The nonprofit field in this country is the most vibrant in the world, and it is the safety net that provides so much to so many," Greenblatt said. "If you want to change the world, this is one way in which you can do just that."
Greenblatt said he will collaborate with his White House team to help financially support nonprofit organizations and develop venture economies. He is currently working to implement the Jumpstart Our Businesses Startups Act, also known as the JOBS Act, which he said would unlock the ability for individuals to put their money to use on entrepreneurial projects.
"Our goal here is to create institutional capital, capable intermediaries, new financial instruments and better information," he said. "If we get that to work, we will get the impact economy that we all want to see."
Greenblatt concluded his speech by citing two quotations by Civil Rights Movement figureheads Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
"Life's most important question is, 'What are you doing for others?" and 'Every little deed matters - we all have the power to change the world,'" Greenblatt said. "That is what I want to leave you with today. How will you change the world and how will you plant the seeds of doing so?"
