More than 400 people gathered to celebrate women whose lives demonstrate a commitment to social justice. While each honoree had a different story to share, they were all united by their belief that individuals and communities can—and must—work together to heal the world.

Please take a moment to watch the Lives of Commitment highlights below. These clips shed light on the leadership and movement building underway at Auburn Seminary.

To remain relevant in today’s evolving business landscape, a company must achieve business success and offer social value. This requires alignment of a company’s financial, human, and social capital with its mission and purpose. The Collective Capital model helps companies to leverage their existing resources and create the conditions for business growth and social impact.

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Auburn Theological Seminary’s 15th annual Lives of Commitment Breakfast will be held on May 6, 2011, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City. This year Auburn will honor and celebrate women across faiths whose bold leadership bridges religious divides, builds community, and pursues justice. Auburn’s Lives of Commitment Breakfast has honored 48 women over the last 15 years, women including Alice Walker, Ruth Messinger, Zainab Salbi and Jane Goodall, whose lives represent a powerful commitment to the common good.

This year’s honorees are below. Get to know them here:

Kayrita Anderson and Deborah Richardson | Women’s Funding Network | A Future Not A Past | Through their work at the Women’s Funding Network and in collaboration with member funds, Kayrita and Deborah have sparked a nation-wide campaign called A Future. Not a Past., to end sex trafficking, and to protect and inspire hope in girls who have survived commercial sexual exploitation.

Minerva Carcaño | The United Methodist Church | In 2004, Bishop Minerva Carcaño became the first Hispanic woman to be elected to the episcopacy of The United Methodist Church. Today, she is one of fifty bishops leading more than eight million members of her denomination. She currently serves as Bishop of the Phoenix Episcopal Area, Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church. She is the official spokesperson for the Council of Bishops on the issue of immigration.

Jensine Larsen | World Pulse | Inspired by her years of working as a freelance journalist covering indigenous movements and ethnic cleansing in South America and Southeast Asia, Jensine began publishing World Pulse magazine in 2004. As a young woman who thrived on discussing international affairs, she dreamed of unleashing the creative human potential of women across the globe through the power of media.

Gail T. Reimer | Jewish Women’s Archive | Gail Twersky Reimer is Founder and Executive Director of the Jewish Women’s Archive, a pioneering organization dedicated to uncovering, chronicling, and transmitting the rich legacy of Jewish women in North America. In the early 1990s, Reimer conceived and co-edited two pathbreaking anthologies of Jewish women’s writings-Reading Ruth: Women Reclaim a Sacred Story and Beginning Anew: A Woman’s Companion to the High Holy Days.

Chely Wright | LIKE ME | Chely Wright is the first openly gay female country music star. In 2010, Wright published her memoir Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer and released the critically-acclaimed album, Lifted off the Ground. She established the nonprofit organization Like Me, which provides scholarships, assistance, resources, and education to LGBT individuals, their families, and friends; and joined forces with GLSEN as spokesperson for their Safe Space Campaign.

Please take a moment to read more about these phenomenal women and their organizations by clicking on the links above. For additional information or to purchase a ticket to Auburn’s 15th annual Lives of Commitment Breakfast, please contact Production Collective at 646-786-1794 or locbreakfast@productioncollective.com

Since 2001, Face to Face has brought together hundreds of Christian, Jewish and Muslim teenagers from Northern Ireland, the Middle East, South Africa, and the U.S. to develop a new generation ready to lead in a multifaith global society.

Shell marketed the Oil Sands project as an effort to “secure a profitable and sustainable future,” disregarding the significant environmental hazards of the project, which include increased greenhouse gas emissions, watershed contamination, and wildlife endangerment. The environmental community was quick to berate Shell, and The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) filed an official complaint with Britain’s advertising regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). ASA upheld the complaint, affirming that Shell should not have used the word “sustainable” and ruled that the advertising strategy had breached rules on substantiation, truthfulness and environmental claims.
To add insult to injury, Shell has continued a pattern of duplicitous behavior through its participation in the US Climate Action Partnership, a business and advocacy group alliance that supports federal legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While seeking recognition for its participation in environmental sustainability efforts, Shell simultaneously abused its influence in the Partnership to help remove a key provision from the American Clean Energy Security Act of 2009, a provision that would have restricted Shell’s oil sands activity.
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It is to be expected that companies will seek press for sustainability-minded initiatives and acts of corporate social responsibility, especially for acts that exceed minimum compliance laws and regulations. In fact, the public goodwill that CSR generates is a key component of the business case that justifies corporate efforts to advance the public good. And yet, surely companies have an ethical obligation not to distort their own goodwill or to exploit the public’s trust when celebrating their commitments. Shell’s target audience in this advertising campaign, the everyday consumer, does not have enough information to verify the ‘do-gooder’ image that Shell has constructed and propagated. Shell has capitalized on a significant information asymmetry between itself and its consumers/investors.

This type of dishonest advertising is an abuse of corporate power. It also wastes money. With the millions of dollars companies spend on print and television ad campaigns to flaunt their CSR initiatives, corporate America could have employed many more profound, creative approaches to high-visibility, high-impact, socially-minded behavior.
Thank goodness for advocacy groups and regulatory agencies such as WWF and Britain’s ASA, who together are instilling accountability and producing consequences for deceptive CSR practices. And yet, what a shame that these external checks and balances are needed to keep companies in line. What a shame that companies do not have an internal moral compass that would guide them toward more authentic and productive uses of corporate power. What a missed opportunity for our world!
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NOTE: We commend Shell’s Foundation on the release of a report that details its efforts to achieve scale and sustainability in its philanthropic giving. While distinct from the behavior of the corporation it represents, a corporate foundation is a powerful mechanism for acts of corporate social responsibility. The Shell Foundation report, which is appropriately transparent about the Foundation’s successes and failures/limitations, is available at
http://www.shellfoundation.org/download/pdfs/FINAL+Shell+Foundation+(Full+Copy).pdf

SOURCES:
“Shell to pull ‘greenwash’ ad on Canadian oilsands projects.” Canwest Newsservice. August 13, 2008.
Gold, Russell. Environmental Groups to Contest Shell’s Oil Sands Projects. The Wall Street Journal. Business: April 7, 2009.
Vidal, John. Shell rapped by ASA for ‘greenwash’ advert. The Guardian. August 13, 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/13/corporatesocialresponsibility.fossilfuels
The World WildLife Fund. www.wwf.org

Production Collective is a social responsibility agency that plans events for to advance social change. They stress the importance of social responsibility, their commitment to social justice, and recognizing the full value of humanity. Sound too good to be true? I thought so. I was continuously surprised on how highly they value these core beliefs and how strongly they were woven into not only their personal lives but work as well.

At weekly meetings, the team consistently brought up their impact as a company, why they do the work they do, and the importance of trusting their process and being transparent. While other corporate meetings may stress deadlines and bottom lines, Production Collective not only keeps these items in check, but also refocuses the work back to the cause, the root of their being. Rather than taking on as many clients as possible and maximizing their profits, Production Collective spends the time getting to know their clients, their various causes, and building strong relationships within these partnerships. Of course, profit does matter. It is what allows a company to function and produce successful and meaningful work, but as founder Julia Davis shares, “if the work doesn’t feel good, it’s not worth the money”.

This unique mission and true dedication to social justice and advancing social change is what sets Production Collective apart from other companies. Founded by two women with a common goal, their intense desire and care for their clients has translated into a company that cannot only say they are successful, but holistic as well. Clients walk away with not only a beautiful and successful event, but also with a new relationship that most definitely continues on after a production.

So while at first I did feel unworthy to work with a company whose work exuded such sheer goodness and authority, I soon learned that their goals and cause was not out of my grasp. Social justice should be of concern to everyone, and we all can be a part of the movement of advancing social change. It has already been proven that it only takes two individuals with clear goals and strong minds to make an impact.

Researching the various clients and foundations that Production Collective works with enlightened me on some truly extraordinary work more often than not started by a single individual with a clear viewpoint and passion. For instance, Jensine Larsen founded World Pulse, a global network dedicated to bringing women a global voice. After working as a journalist in Burma and the Amazon, she was inspired to help empower women and give them a voice. What began as a passionate belief has morphed into a powerful company that helps to connect women from around the world and provide them with the tools and resources to give them a voice worldwide.

Money can be enticing, but a passionate belief is what will draw attention and put words into action. A true cause will speak for itself, and it only takes the commitment of one person who has the courage to take action and speak up to start a movement. It can be you, it can even be me. No belief is insignificant, no action too small. It all starts with the power of one.

Generation WE: The Movement Begins… from Generation We on Vimeo.

WE: The Movement Begins… from We on .
http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo.

Generation We are the children of the culture-shifting Baby Boomers – a group so vast and so influential, historians are still trying to make sense of the world they’ve made. Baby Boomers are children of the 60’s – a group with wide boundaries equally defined by both Clintons and Bushes. They came of age packing a wholesale rejection of traditional values. Now they deliver their offspring, the generation born between 1978 and 2000, and they have arrived with the same strength of conviction as their forebearers, perhaps an even more direct attitude towards change.

Generation We is diverse, due to the unprecedented numbers of immigrant families that came into the US in the past several decades. Generation We is educated, they embody the expectation that a College degree is a birthright. And most powerful about this new group of Americans is their keen self-awareness. They know who they are, they know where they stand. They get that they represent even greater numbers – 95 million strong – than the generations before them, and they know that “united we stand, divided we fall”.  Generation We has embraced what’s at stake, they are galvanized to make things right.

This is a generation that will define social responsibility for our age.   ”Generation We is innovation-minded. They’ve adopted the pioneering American spirit and embraced it in the form of a profound belief in innovation—technological, social, political. This belief is the hallmark of their generation. Millennials do not see a world of limits but one of possibilities in which anything can be accomplished with enough creativity and determination.”

It is a seismic shift, Generation We is you, is me, is WE!

Case Study:  Auburn Seminary.  A dynamic institution dedicated to educating and engaging people in conversations across lines of faith and religious tradition, Auburn is a model for hopeful leadership and thoughtful risk-taking, and is poised on the threshold of a new era in its history and leadership.

The nearly 200-year old “seminary without walls” has never played by the rules.  Founded to train early clergy on the American Frontier, it gained momentum through the Great Depression when it moved to New York City and became a catalyst for religious and inter-faith leadership.  For nearly 200 years, Auburn has offered programs to educate lay people and clergy to help break down borders both physical and spiritual, and to bring rational voices to a world fraught with conflict, pain and misunderstanding.  Throughout it’s history and still today, Auburn is an organization intent upon changing the game.

And at yet another critical moment in global and domestic history, Auburn Seminary announces new leadership.  Katharine Rhodes Henderson, formerly Executive Vice President of Auburn, is herself a change maker.  Her vision is rooted in possibility, she believes that with dialog and understanding, we may meet the challenges of the new age, head on.  With this spirit and intention, her team set out to celebrate Auburn and its new direction.  People, possiblity, dialog, change.

It was as part of a larger effort to establish the scope and intention of Auburn’s new leadership that they, together with Production Collective, brought on a transformation in mindset and possibility for the Inaugural moment.  Auburn came to the table with a modest budget and grand ideas, and rather than caving to restraint and resistance, the team landed in opportunity – by answering some key questions.  When feeding few was what the available funds seemed to predict, the Inauguration will feed many – very many.

The questions we asked:

What distinguishes us from other leadership institutions?

In Auburn’s case, it is diversity and tolerance, openness and multi-faith education.  It is meeting as many ears with rational messages, it is hearing the collective “ah ha“, across lines of faith, race, age and gender.

What are our key objectives, those that will extend our brand and positioning, our outreach and our impact, far beyond the event itself?

Auburn Seminary is committed to a firm programatic direction, one that includes corporate ethics, women’s leadership, theological education and the support of the public intellectual.  Auburn aspires to lift up the leader in all of us.

If OUTGROWTH is our intention, what must we include in this event or experience that will live on as a platform for new levels of longterm investment?

The Inauguration became far more than simply seating a new President – Auburn widened their scope to bring all that the organization was based upon together with what it will be going foward - embodying growth and opportunity as its guiding tenets, for the event as well as for the future of the institution.

The answers to these questions led Auburn from a position of scarcity to one of abundance.  It enabled enlightened leadership, programatic innovation and partnerships, and hope on the new frontiers – on both this day of celebratory events and as a springboard for further growth.

Auburn Seminary’s Inauguration of Katharine Rhodes Henderson

Program of Events, April 15th

How Women Will Change The World, 8:00-9:30,  First Presbyterian Church, NYC

Is Good Business Really Good Business: Corporate Character, Conduct and the Bottom Line, 11:30-1:00, Bloomberg LP, NYC

Intellectual Heavyweights in a Soundbite World, 2:00-3:30, WNYC, Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, NYC

The Inauguration of the Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson as the Sixth President of Auburn Seminary, Espace, NYC

and April 16th: The Seminary from Scratch, 8:30-10:00, Stewart Room at Auburn Seminary, NYC

The Auburn Inauguration is a unique and multi-faceted program, one that reflects incoming President Henderson’s ambitious and prescient initiatives.  It is a study of building out and up.

Additional Inaugural activity includes the launch of AuburnSeminary.org, a hub for connections with leadership resources, in-person and online programs and research and perspectives on religion and public life.

To learn more about the Inauguration Events and Auburn Seminary, visit www.auburnsem.org or email inauguration@auburnsem.org

March 8, 2010 was the 100th International Women’s Day. Efforts are afoot to ease the dire plight of women worldwide, particularly where unthinkable need is laid bare. But here in our Country, where even our national female icons, our role models, are villainized, cartoon-ized, there is so much to be done. To wit: Nancy Pelosi had to literally muscle her way through gender slaps and integrity swipes to establish a national healthcare program in the wealthiest nation on Earth. Hillary Clinton negotiates with leaders of the world, delivering tough messages in measured terms – are we the only ones who don’t hear the word “bitch” in this context as all that negative? And the determination to appoint Sonya Sotomayor as our first minority Supreme Court judge was held up while she defended, in weeks of hearings, allegations of racism in her 2001 comment that went like this: “Well, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” We have a mountain to climb, every day, every moment, right here in the wealthiest nation on Earth.

Abby S. Ferber, co-founder of the Matrix Center for the Advancement of Social Equity and Inclusion offers an interesting exercise, one she often uses to put a woman’s disadvantaged mountain climb in perspective:
“There is an educational activity I have participated in, sometimes called the “Race for the American Dream.” Participants start out standing along a horizontal line in the middle of the room, all facing the front. We are then asked to take a step forward or backwards after each item in a series of prompts is read. Participants respond to a long list of statements such as:

“If every US president and vice president has been of your race (or gender)”, take a step forward…

“If people of your race (or gender) were ever systematically denied entry to colleges, law schools or medical schools because of their race/gender”, take a step backward….

Furber says: “No matter how many times I have seen this activity carried out, the results are the same. You guessed it, the white men end up right at the front of the room, sometimes with their noses up against the wall. I always remember when one person asked us to stop (the exercise) and take a look at what we could see from where we were standing. What do those at the front of the room see? They see others just like themselves standing alongside them. It is those standing furthest back in the room who have the most expansive field of vision. This is what Sotomayor’s comment is getting at: those guys at the front of the room have had their vision narrowed for so long they just can’t see the whole picture. When you start out with strikes against you, forced to confront both race and gender inequality, prejudice, and very real, ongoing discrimination, you have a much larger view of how things operate.”

Feminism has changed, and today it embraces the spectrum of race, creed, socio-economics, and sexual orientation. No longer is this the movement of the Suffragette, for whom the inequity of being denied the vote applied to educated white women. Even the second wave of Feminism, that of our Mothers, the daughters of the 60’s, has become outdated. Even for them, it was largely an entitled agenda, alienating women of color and poverty, and not even touching prejudice and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation despite the natural affinity of the cause.

Our role models today – Pelosi, Clinton, Sotomayor – have climbed egregious mountains, and they tell a varied story. Maybe white, maybe not. Maybe gay, maybe straight, they are muscling through, and it is their wave we’re on. In their shadow we are beginning to hear a swell of voices, speaking the language of achievement, and unrest. These are the voices we need to elevate. It is time to ride the Third Wave.

Third Wave Foundation is the only national, feminist foundation that is dedicated to supporting the voices and ambitions of young women and transgender youth. These are the next generation of activists, determined to take feminism to a new, and inclusive, level. Building awareness, leadership skills and perspective on the rights and rewards of women is at the heart of Third Wave’s story.

Third Wave Foundation is gaining momentum and energy in our community as the new generation of Feminists take the helm and drive toward equality and inclusiveness. Third Wave is galvanizing the spirit of the movement through education and networking, sharing support and encouragement for the journey to come.

On April 30 2010, Third Wave Foundation will lift up some shining examples of leadership of young feminists at a celebration in New York City. It will be a chance to hear the inspiring new voices of Feminism. Come to the party, join the wave!

Information about Third Wave Foundation’s annual leadership celebration is forthcoming. Production Collective will share this with you as soon as it is made available.

The event kicked off with a wonderful performance of “Remember to Honor the Women,” by Women of the Calabash.  We heard from Lynn Sherr and Maria Hinojosa, emcees for the evening, visionary sisters Helen LaKelly and Swanee Hunt. We heard from the nine co-hosts of the evening’s celebration, trailblazer Gloria Steinem and so many other incredible women.   After an inspiring reception in the Brooklyn Museum’s Rubin Pavillion, the Women Moving Millions donors were invited to take their seat at the table of historical women.  The room’s design, largely inspired by Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party” and designed in collaboration Anne Mendel, curator of the dinner table, was an intimate space for guests to connect with each other about the formative moments that enabled their participation in this bold initiative. We can say it was a dinner party unlike any other, never to be forgotten by all who were there!  You can check out the extensive press coverage of the Women Moving Millions initiative here.