“I want to make a change with ideas. My daily goal is to challenge myself and come up with ten fresh ideas, then each week I also challenge myself to send out these ideas to people who might be able to make them happen.”
This bold, creative and disciplined changemaker is Sam Marwood. Last year, Sam resigned from his long-term Victorian Government job in environmental policy, to start his dream of setting up social enterprises. Sam is motivated to make money for good; “I want to change the way business is done.”
His social enterprises Cultivate Farms and Edge Pledge, are now building momentum to make significant change for agriculture in regional Australia, and for wildlife on the brink of extinction. Judging by recent media coverage from Start Up Daily and other national outlets such as Weekly Times; people are sitting up and taking notice of his ideas.
Cultivate Farms is a social enterprise; matching young farming families with investors to own and operate a farm together. Sam grew up on a dairy farm, and understands the frustration of so many who want to farm, but can’t afford to own a farm. “There’s a big movement of people wanting to buy local, and wanting to buy healthy, fresh food from farmers’ markets. And we thought, why not take it to the next step, why not buy a farm and connect with the farm even more?” Sam said.
“I know people like to do things that are fun, and I know that all the news of what we are doing to our environment is overwhelming and depressing.” Again, drawing on his experience and the power of ideas, Sam came up with Edge Pledge. Edge Pledge is a not-for-profit organisation which raises money to fund great environmental projects. Sam explains, “We are doing this by developing a fun, interactive web app that helps you pick challenges for yourself and your friends.”
Edge Pledge will change the way people experience fundraising. It takes all the best things about challenge-based fundraising, and combines it with social media interaction.
“Ideas are the currency of life. Not money.” Sam quotes James Altucher, an entrepreneur who has greatly influenced Sam’s commitment to generating ideas daily to make a change.
Keep up with the development of Sam’s work on Edge Pledge and Cultivate Farms
