5) Description of initiative: Peace is within. We need to all work out our own relationships with our own family members, friends, the people we come into contact with. My main focus is to help people realize for themselves that peace starts with us. I am primarily addressing coming up with non violent solutions to problems. The main two activities for world peace is 1) Educate the children and 2) Empower the women

6) Description of innovation: Our approach says to stop your whining and if you don't like the way something is being handled then do something about it. We are all capable of making a difference in this world. What makes our programs unique is that we do not need any money for any of our programs. Everyone is responsible for financing their own programs. Most programs cost virtually nothing as they are all run by volunteers . The people that are going to change the world are the retired people. These are the people that have the time and these are often the people that need passion in their lives.

7) Delivery model: As the Program Event Specialist for AARP, I feel I can make a huge difference. AARP currently has 36 million members and if I have anything to do with it, they will have 72 million within one year. As the Director of Global Development at We, The World I have made it my personal responsibility to build nonprofit organizations from the inside out. We send out a newsletter every two weeks to the 3,000 largest nonprofits in the country. These are the nonprofits listed on Charity Navigator. However there are 1.5 million nonprofits that we want to help.

8) Key operational partnerships: Rotary is a fantastic organization. I hope to soon be involved with Rotary International and the Rotary Foundation. My partner Rick Ulfik the Founder and Director of We, The World is very involved with world events and spends much of his time at the United Nations. We are currently looking at unique fundraising programs for Amnesty International, Habitat For Humanity, United Way, Make-A-Wish, I can go on and on.

9) Financial model: Our new web addresses www.RetiredPeopleChangeTheWorld.org, and www.BabyBoomersChangeTheWorld.org is getting alot of hits. Peple want to give back, they just don't want a meaningless job. That is why we first work with the Executive Director of a nonprofit, find out what their mission statement is, find out what kind of programs they would like to see within their organization, and then help the board members present a program to the Executive Director that they will be in charge of, something that they are passionate about, and have them direct their passion into coming up with their own program. Most of the time, when we talk to the Executive Director of a nonprofit first, we can help guide each board member into doing a program that the Executive Director wanted.

          • Costs as percentage of income: N/A

          • Financing: We are hoping to start millions of individual programs all done by volunteers and every volunteer finances his or her own program. The bottom line is it's the Global Thought. The Global Thought was distributed all over the world in 8 different languages from many world organizations. No one know for sure what country it originated, but everyone agrees it's a great idea. The Global Thought is kinda like tithing, but it's completely different. You take 10% of your money and you put it in your own account. It's as simple as opening up a new checking account. This is your "Make the world a better place" account and it's all of our duties to make it grow and give it away at the same time. If we all had our own "Do Good" account we would all start out equal.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: My goal everyday is one person at a time, baby steps forward, so I am always reaching my goal. I have placed many retired people into mentoring programs where they can see immediate gratification. If they were in a profession for 30 years, they should mentor a college graduate that wants to go into their field. However, giving back could be anything. If a lady is good in art and she merely teaches an art class to a few of her friends each week as a volunteer, that qualifies! In her own way she is helping to make the world a better place. We help people find passion in their lives. Many times it is as simple as asking them what they didn't have as a child growing up. We then help them develop that into possibly being in charge of their own program to help make a happier world.

          • Number of clients in past year: I used to advertise on Craigslist that I give free advice on work and relationships. This is my way of doing volunteer work. I would write these people back around 3am when I could concentrate, some nights I would be helping 10 - 12 people at one time. For me this was incredibly rewarding. I have been giving my wife advice for 30 years and 24 and 22 year old daughters advice all my life. It seems they have always poo-pooed my advice. It was always 3 girls against dad. However now, these mentees actually took my advice. Maybe because they never saw me as it was strickly over the internet, but it was incredibly rewarding. I am a huge fan of self improvement/self growth books and tapes. They would write me back thank me for recommending books and tapes.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: I feel strongly that it is the retired people that will change the world. Unfortunately in todays society retired people are looked at as a burden on society and can't keep up. However, the truth of the matter is that it is all the retired people in the world that are giving back now. Just ask what a retired person is doing. You will find that they are volunteering their time so that everyone else's lives can be better. If I have anything to do with it, and with the help of all the baby boomers that are coming into retirement age - This is going to change drastically. You know, the hippie generation always wanted to change the world and they will change the world. It is ALL about LOVE! If each of us individually had a loving heart, you would receive nothing but love back. We all have to learn to love one another unconditionally, with all of our foibels.

12) Origin of the initiative: The Science of Mind has been the biggest change in my life. I love it because it has absolutely nothing to do with religion. We accept all religions! We want people to incorporate the Science of Mind with their own religion. What I like about what I am doing is it has absolutely nothing to do with politics or religion. It has to do with making the world a better place. You want to change government, lets work on ourselves. If we were a loving society, the government would eventuially blend in. I am inspired by the possibility of having a Department of Peace someday. I love the concept of having a Secretary of Peace in the Cabinet coming up with nonviolent situations to problems. Eventually, I am hoping that Democrats and Republicans can agree on this.

Contact Information:
Arlan  Berglas
Director of Global Development
We, The World
(Non-Profit)
United States
Website: www.FundraisingForABetterWorld.org