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Auren Kaplan
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Auren Kaplan is an author and social entrepreneur who converges his skills at the crossroads of authentic living and social good. He is founder of Evolve, a non-profit brand that stands for the end of poverty, based on a foundational belief in our core interconnectedness as one global village, 7 billion strong. Auren additionally is a social media strategist who currently serves at the Center for Automotive Research. Auren's passion lies in using the power of business to lift billions of people out of poverty. He believes that future growth for corporations lies in tapping the heretofore untouched markets of the Bottom of the Pyramid (roughly 4 billion people). To that end, he expects to attend business school in 2013. Auren has formerly served as Director of Social Media for The HUB LA, and as Cause Integration blog manager for Causecast. Auren is also an advocate for Kriya Yoga.

Blog Entries by Auren Kaplan

Changing the Culture of Capitalism

Posted February 16, 2012 | 02/16/12 12:12 PM ET

As capitalism continues to evolve, what strikes me is that the changes we see have less to do with the fundamental building blocks of capitalism, and more to do with the culture of capitalism. Capitalism isn't going away. Indeed, it is the most powerful mechanism on the planet for moving...

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Causecast Makes It Easy for Companies to Give Back

2 Comments | Posted February 2, 2012 | 02/02/12 10:17 AM ET

Gone are the days when employees passively donate to charities with no interaction from their companies. Gone even are the days when companies mindlessly match funds for employee donations. Just as consumers have come to expect brands to support causes, employees now expect their companies to engage them in serious...

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A Revolution of Attention

2 Comments | Posted January 30, 2012 | 01/30/12 03:44 PM ET

A great percentage of the world is plagued by severe poverty and inequality. More than three billion human beings subsist on less than $3 per day. Clearly, the human economic system we have thus far created is not working. Perhaps a billion or so people can claim to...

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An Evolved Take on Psychology, Brands and Poverty

10 Comments | Posted January 16, 2012 | 01/16/12 09:21 AM ET

I'm not an educator. But I do want to teach you one thing in this article, and that is the function of your reticular activation system. It is a mouthful, I know, but you can boil it down to the much simpler R.A.S. for the purpose of an...

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The Defining Role of Business in Ending Poverty

7 Comments | Posted January 4, 2012 | 01/04/12 09:05 AM ET

Congratulations! The very fact that you are reading this article means that you are one of the luckiest billion people on the planet. Why? Simply put, you were born into a state of relative wealth, where even at the bottom of the American income distribution you are still wildly more...

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Your Power As a Citizen Consumer

4 Comments | Posted December 19, 2011 | 12/19/11 03:22 PM ET

I recently highlighted a remarkable fact, that 94 percent of you would switch brands to support a cause, if the products were of equal quality. That blog post has received a lot of feedback, and I think it's testament to the power of a simple idea whose time...

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At Detroit Soup, A City Comes Alive

Posted December 12, 2011 | 12/12/11 06:33 PM ET

Last night I had the privilege to attend Detroit Soup, a "collaborative situation" that micro-funds good community works while providing tasty delights and mingling with good, chill people -- Detroiters. I came expecting to have a good time. I've heard of events like this -- people bring $5...

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Capitalism You Can Fall in Love With

Posted December 10, 2011 | 12/10/11 02:09 PM ET

Capitalism has changed as we know it, for good. Make that, for the good. You see, the big shift has occurred at multiple levels, with CSR departments getting serious and with consumers clamoring for change -- not like in 2008, when we voted for change -- but in 2011 and...

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94% of Consumers Would Switch Brands to Support a Cause

Posted December 4, 2011 | 12/04/11 10:30 AM ET

If you're like the vast majority of people out there, you are a citizen consumer - you just might not know it yet.

Citizen consumers are empowered individuals who take control of their buying. In purchasing local, shopping organic, or buying products related to causes, citizen consumers...

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How to Solve the World Water Crisis Today

Posted November 21, 2011 | 11/21/11 04:35 PM ET

In the world of social change, comprised of social entrepreneurs, innovative nonprofits, and traditional NGOs, much has been said about the problem of designing solutions at scale. So many initiatives find growth and reach millions of people, and yet the world remains plagued by problems that affect billions. 2.6 billion...

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How Cause-Integrated Businesses are Working to End Poverty

Posted December 1, 2010 | 12/01/10 05:10 PM ET

Want to end poverty? There is a lot of work to be accomplished. According to GiveWell.org, over 2.5 billion people live on just $2 per day -- more than one-third of all humanity. The vast majority of the population of the African continent is included in those statistics....

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Celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week By Starting a Cause-Integrated Company

Posted November 18, 2010 | 11/18/10 02:31 PM ET

Global Entrepreneurship Week began on Monday, and individuals interested in entrepreneurship are gathering in more than 90 countries worldwide to celebrate the cause of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are drivers of the American economy. Their innovations deliver new technologies that transform businesses, the flow of information, and the way human beings...

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Benevolent Capitalism is Changing The World

Posted November 12, 2010 | 11/12/10 02:31 PM ET

Earlier this year, I was fortunate to be invited to speak at the Holocaust Remembrance Project awards banquet. The Holocaust Remembrance Project is a nation-wide essay contest encouraging students to discuss how they are moving forward the ideals of tolerance, shared community, and respect for personal differences in light...

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2011: Year of the Citizen Consumer

Posted November 5, 2010 | 11/05/10 04:04 PM ET

Two studies released in recent weeks have confirmed what many marketing and brand professionals have been observing and intuiting for months: consumers want to do good in the world through their purchases. Mitchell Markson, Global Chief Creative Officer of Edelman, who released the goodpurpose study, wrote a fantastic HuffPost...

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In Speech And In Deed, Hillary Clinton Endorses Social Entrepreneurship

Posted November 1, 2010 | 11/01/10 02:35 AM ET

Imagine a world where shares are traded in TOMS Shoes, where your broker recommends a stock empowering women in third-world Rwanda, or where you purchase a bond in Teach For America that earns you a financial return while you support the education of America's...

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