Challenge: In addition to my full-time job, I volunteer for not-for-profit social enterprise  called JAIPUR FOOT. The biggest challenge such noble initiatives face is to consistently inspire  people to contribute their hard-earned money for a social cause and in people they don’t  personally know. Unfortunately, the common belief is that philanthropy is a responsibility of  very rich people only.       Selection: I opted for “Storytelling” (course reference https://www.coursera.org/learn/uva- darden-design-thinking-innovation/lecture/PAXCd/storytelling-tool) as a tool to move  people towards this social cause. Given the challenge I mentioned above, it was important  that our audience understand the actual situation of a person in need and impact their small  contribution can have. Storytelling has the power create a connect between people and  their environment. In addition to creating a sense of empathy, we wanted to tell them that  solutions exist.       Application: To begin with, we shared the meaning of organization’s name, JAIPUR FOOT. The  name draws inspiration from India's struggle for independence. We emphasized that a  similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India.    It’s no secret that our society loves underdog stories. While our borrowers didn’t technically  became rich suddenly, the quality of their lives improved dramatically. We therefore shared  multiple short stories on how our rural borrowers used the funds and how it elevated the  lives for entire family. In some cases, they were able to fund education of their kids using  the income that got created as a by-product - which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.    Additionally, to get people involved with minimum barrier, we decided to keep the loan  amount as low as INR 100, which less than USD 2. This way, we let people experience the  joy of lighting up another’s candle – which also made them realize that you don’t’ have to  very rich to create a positive change in someone else’s life.      Insight: The generated funds are used by them to start a business, grow their craft, light up  their homes of bring water to their farms. The fact that all the borrowers were repaying the  loan in the past gave confidence to a lot of audience members. They realized that their small  contribution can create a never ending cycle of shared happiness.    I also realized that when you tell a story with passion and in an authentic way, the audience  resonate with that feeling. Of course, it’s not easy. If your story for a social-cause isn’t real  and doesn’t involve deep understanding of how human emotions work and psychology –  you’ll struggle to move your audience.       Approach: In terms of what we could have done differently – I definitely plan to choose  video interviews of the borrowers to establish a more emotional connection. This also came  as a feedback from some of the audience members during both online and offline reach  outs.

