Bottom-Up Changemaker
Welcome. The sign on my door reads:
“Let’s go bottom-up.”
What does that mean?
It’s about using your
privilege and resources
to support those
with fewer opportunities.
It’s about showing up
where the need is greatest
to help build a fairer world.
On my 60th birthday, I became a bottom-up changemaker.
Toward the end of my career as a successful marketing consultant on Wall Street, I could not shake a yearning to move on, to give back, to add a “return phase” to my life. I wanted to go outside our “gated country,” and essentially share the American dream.
The idea came to me whole: Go to Africa, find a village and start a microlending program.
The country I chose was Ghana. One of my contacts forged the way to a village called Pokuase by talking to the chief who arranged a place for me to stay.
In the second week of getting to know the community, an elder woman stopped me in the middle of the dirt road: “White people never come back. They make promises. We never see them again.”
She was right. Back home my second guessing began – I nearly didn’t go back. The work ahead seemed impossible. But her words stayed with me. I sold my second car for seed capital to fund the program. Over the next decade, WomensTrust became a reality and I returned 27 times.
Going bottom-up means starting at the ground level with a partnership model.
You provide access to the essentials they lack: money, encouragement, recognition. They bring their dreams, drive and discipline. Together you create systems which lead to consistency and trust. Partnering with a shared can-do spirit leads to unstoppable momentum.
Bottom-up change is the way of the future.
