http://www.FamousinYourField.com Taylor Conroy built a school in three hours (and he wants you to do it, too.) The text message was 67 words long, artfully crafted to sound casual and spontaneous. Three hours later, Taylor Conroy had built a school in Kenya. Conroy, a 30 year old “philanthropreneur” from Vancouver, British Columbia, is on a mission to change fundraising by combining business savvy with behavioral science. Oh, and he also wants to change the world. Subscribe to ASPIRE magazine (available on the iPad) at: http://bit.ly/ASPIREMAGAZINE

1. 3hrs
THEGOODS
Taylor Conroy
built a school in
The text message was
67 words long, art-
and he wants you
fully crafted to sound
casual and spontane-
to do it too.
ous. Three hours later,
Taylor Conroy had
built a school in Kenya.
Conroy, a 30 year old
“philanthropreneur”
from Vancouver, Brit-
ish Columbia, is on a
mission to change fun-
draising by combining
business savvy with
behavioral science. Oh,
and he also wants to
That feeling of
change the world. contribution, that
feeling of changing the
world forever was
something I became ad-
dicted to immediately.
I wanted to get all my
friends involved
50 ASPIRE AUGUST2012

2. THEGOODS
Changing
the world
with pocket
change.
51 ASPIRE AUGUST2012

3. THEGOODS
3.33$ X
X A DAY
33 3
FRIENDS
=
A school for thousands of kids.
MONTHS
T
Changing the world with echnology is a major to why,” Conroy wrote in a post
factor in Pocket Change on his website, DestroyNormal.
pocket change
Heroes’ fundraising com. “It sucked. I hated tak-
model. The platform ing a chunk of my paycheck off
Pocket Change Heroes, before it even got to me, but it
combines personalized
the fundraising platform didn’t take long until I loved giv-
video messages with e-tools
Conroy launched in 2011, like Facebook badges to do ing that money away. I felt like I
gives individuals a simple the “heavy lifting” for the fun- was contributing, like I was do-
three-step system to raise draiser. ing my part, like I was bettering
$10,000 through three The secret to making money the world.”
hours of work. Partner- It’s not as if Taylor Conroy was Firefighter to real estate bro-
ing with Free the Chil- a newcomer to supporting ker to philanthropreneur
dren, a global charity that charities. He’s been donating His financial picture changed
has built more than 650 10% of his income for nearly a dramatically when, during a
schools and school rooms decade, a practice he started three year stint as a profession-
in Asia, Africa and Latin when he was 21 years old, liv- al firefighter (Canada’s young-
America, Pocket Change ing paycheck to paycheck in est, by the way) Conroy jumped
Heroes raises money a rented basement suite and into the real estate game. He
by bringing “groups of $15,000 in debt. spent $800 on a real estate
friends together in a won- “I started to give because every course. Then, ignoring the con-
derful way based on col- book I picked up about mon- ventional industry wisdom that
laboration, contribution, ey, that talked about making said it takes three to five years
and fun.” money, said to do it, and gave to build a successful practice,
some pretty great reasons as he made it into the top 1% of
52 ASPIRE AUGUST2012

4. THEGOODS
realtors in Canada in his first Two weeks after he returned to ness sense, my entrepreneurial
full year. Canada, Conroy got the news mind, my creativity, and eve-
He continued to set and reach that his nest egg would be used rything else I had learned over
big goals such as earning to build the first library ever in a the last 28 years of my life to
$500,000 in commissions in region of Kenya and would edu- better the world in as big a way
2006. In 2008, he had his big- cate thousands of children. as possible. I vowed then and
gest year ever in real estate “Hop on the giving train, it’s a there to devote my life to the
and found himself in an unu- sweet, sweet ride” world for all of 2012.”
sual situation for a success- That did it. Taylor Conroy was What followed was a series of
ful 26-year-old: he had a huge hooked on giving. experiments to uncover the
nest egg earmarked for char- factors that not only spurred
ity and no idea where to give He wanted to preach it to people to donate to a cause,
everyone he knew. “That
C
it. but to feel joyous about it. Con-
onroy teamed with a feeling of contribution, roy challenged his blog readers
local charitable leader that feeling of changing to submit ideas to turn $1000
to make a trip to Afri- the world forever was into $5000, his friends to turn
ca to see some of the something I became ad- $100 into $500 and elementary
projects being built by dicted to immediately. students to turn $100 to $500.
Free the Children. Traveling I wanted to get all my
through Uganda and Kenya, friends involved.” Why makes people give
Taylor says, opened his eyes From this and other research,
to the severity of the world’s “I had been involved in chari- Taylor came up with a magic
need. As he was standing ties before, volunteered here combination of five motivators.
near the border of the Congo, and there, and donated funds, Traditional appeals for charita-
in Uganda, seeing hundreds but I wanted to get much more ble donations, he says, don’t
of children orphaned by AIDs, involved. I wanted to not just work anymore. People have
he knew he was transformed dedicate a bit of time or money, grown immune to the manipu-
forever. I wanted to dedicate my busi- lation of “poverty porn”, those
53 ASPIRE AUGUST2012

5. Personal connection.
heart-wrenching images of dy-
ing children in filthy conditions. Donors are motivated to REALSTORIES.
It’s not that people are unwill-
ing to give, Conroy explains. It’s
give when asked by some- REALADVICE.
that the old way of charity, mak-
one with whom they have a
strong relationship. Often,
REALSUCCESS.
ing privileged Westerners feel
guilty about their relative good
the cause is irrelevant. It’s
fortune yields small gains in the the person who’s doing the
enormous challenge of chang- asking.
ing the world. The sheer num-
ber appeals from various caus- Recognition.
es leads to “cause fatigue.” All of us, from elementary
So what does work? Invok- school students to adults
ing positive emotions in peo- crave recognition. Recog-
ple, says Conroy. “People here nition for charitable giving
in the west already know that
also has an important psy-
they have it good, they know
they have more, and you know
chological benefit: it corre-
what… they want to do their lates a strong positive emo-
part. It is just a matter of equip- tion, the personal delight
ping them with the tools to do from giving with the recog-
it.” nition.
Here are the key ingredients in
the Giving Cocktail: Armed with the five motivators,
Conroy crafted his text message
Group mentality. asking 15 friends to donate $3.33
Think of it as positive per day for three months days.
peer pressure. When your He raised $5,000 and Pocket
Change Heroes was born.
friends are involved, you
want to participate, too. Scaling Pocket Change Heroes
Launched a year ago, the Pock-
Tangible outcome. et Change Heroes platform has
Buying a goat, digging a been tested and refined with in-
well, building a school – dividuals, known as Campaign
each offers a clear visual Captains. During that time, Cap-
representation of the good tains have raised between $900
sparked by your donation. and $30,000 each, funding 20
school houses in Nepal, India, Si-
erra Leone, and Kenya.
Micro-giving.
Now, Taylor Conroy is getting se-
Asking people to pledge rious. He’s scaled the PCH plat-
$300 creates a psychologi- form for charities and NGOs, giv-
cal feeling of sacrifice… ing them the tools to raise funds
breaking giving down into for their cause or operating ex-
small amounts, say, $3.33 penses. Conroy estimates that an
per day for three months NGO with a database of 30,000
simply “feels” like less supporters has the potential to
money to part with. raise $10,000,000.
Conroy has been busy over the
54 ASPIRE AUGUST2012

6. THEGOODS
last year, spreading the Pocket Change
Heroes message. He was a keynote speak-
er at the 2012 Social Enterprise Confer-
ence, sponsored by Harvard Business
School (Celebrity sighting: Conroy shared
the stage with model-turned-social-en-
trepreneur Lauren Bush Lauren, daughter
of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and
daughter-in-law of designer Ralph Lauren.)
In 2011, he gave a popular TEDx Talk shar-
ing the story behind Pocket Change He-
roes. He closed the talk with Margaret Want to help us build a school with
Mead’s famous quote, a philosophy that your pocket change?
he’s living every day: Click here to join TEAM ASPIRE.
“Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed, it is the only CHECKOUT THE AUDIO INTERVIEW
thing that ever has.”
Lori Nash Byron is the founder of Famous
INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED
in Your Field, where professionals and solo
entrepreneurs build powerful brands and
position themselves as experts through
speaking, publishing and publicity.
55 ASPIRE AUGUST2012