Building the Digital Presence of a Climate Nonprofit

My perspective comes from a blending of twenty-five years overseeing advertising at companies like McDonalds, Nike and Pepsi, as well as being a Senior Fellow in the Marshall School of Business at USC, having served eight years on President Obama's White House Panel on Social Innovation and ten years on the boards of Greenpeace and Oceana.

However, my recommendation is based on having worked first hand with Connor for the past year at The Carbon Underground (TCU), of which I am President and Co-Founder. TCU was created in 2013 to help reverse climate change by restoring the planet's soil, and has worked with hundreds of food companies and governments around the world to create the move to regenerative agriculture from industrial practices.

Connor has worked for us as a paid intern, but he has shown such absolute dedication in both mission and execution that we elevated him to team member on the creation of our new program to engage and activate Gen Z and college campuses in our efforts. His addition, which has resulted in research, strategic planning, and the creation of marketing materials such as decks and videos, has been so professional that he has garnered the confidence of senior people to represent us to prospects and partners. I can attest to the rarity of this among interns.

Specific to his stated areas of interest for the fellowship, the Communications one is obvious and appropriate, and he is well qualified. But his additions of Policy and Climate/Environment are all part of his professional plan, something most recent graduates cannot articulate in such a clear and linear fashion. Connor wants to change things from the inside, which, again, is different from most students' dreams of shaking things up from the outside. He is dead-serious about how institutions work, from governments and policy to climate NGOs and science.

Finally, I would like to comment on his stated objective to run for office. I spent three years helping run campaigns for four senators, two governors, and one presidential candidate. In each of them there was that one young man or woman that we all knew was destined to rise in the world of politics, either as staff or as a future candidate.

Connor is cut from that cloth, and the Dunn Fellowship would deserve gratitude for the support you might offer him to take an important and critical step on that path.