Center for Global Initiatives

Working in the Pediatric Clinic, Halong Bay, Vietnam.

My newest book is actually three!   The New Humanitarians: Inspiration, Innovations and Blueprints for Visionaries wound up being three volumes!               Welcome to a trip around the world. You will travel to six continents, led by men and women of various ages and backgrounds. Be warned, you may go to some fairly desperate places, but they all have a seed of hope. You will not be traveling as a tourist, but rather as an activist with more than three dozen organizations—each one incredible. Each chapter is a story, a story of need, of response, and of accomplishment. They are all at once different, but yet the same as being an inspirational account demonstrating the power of the individual triumphant over the challenges of poverty, illness, conflict, or a litany of injustices. My friend, Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute, said of the project that it is a counter to the pervasive “pornography of the trivial” that infects much of what is in print these days. I suspect he is correct. Herein you will learn about individuals who have created organizations that: Break up human trafficking rings and teach citizens how to intervene in other injustices, Go to conflict areas and put themselves at risk to end the conflict, Help ensure elections are just, Go to active war zones to administer emergency medical care, Provide training and loans in order to empower people out of poverty, Create a new language and then put it to use in developing education and job training programs, Work to stop nuclear war and curb the development of weapons of mass destruction, Create an ingenious for-profit organization that supports the not-for-profit work, Solve a problem of medical supply shortages in the developing world while also alleviating medical waste problems in the developed world, Exporting social services training into self sustaining programs, Create project-based trainings in order to increase capacity for global projects, Treat immigrant and refugee survivors of torture in a culturally competent manner that is encompassing and wholistic, Help boys conscripted into being child soldiers adapt to a normal life, Create the first not-for-profit pharmaceutical company to help in the battle of neglected diseases, Advance education for girls where it is almost unheard of, Integrate urban environmental design with democracy, civic participation and social justice, Bring the philosophy of “it takes a village to raise a child” to formative elementary school years, blending cultural heritage, and inspiring students by mobilizing parents, teachers, and young adults, Connect experts from a range of fields to work together on problems such as curing and preventing infectious and epidemic diseases, analyzing the risks of science and technology breakthroughs, and designing enforceable global health and environmental policies, and many more…               While many of us are content in helping various causes by writing checks of support or perhaps even volunteering, the individuals profiled herein preferred to actually start their own organizations—to enact their passionate interests. So, therein was the idea that crystallized the concept for this New Humanitarians project. I wanted to find out what makes these New Humanitarians tick and how their brainchildren worked. Now, through this three volume set, readers can, too.   In developing the Center for Global Initiatives, I came to realize that while there are many successful, ground-breaking models that already exist world-wide, there really isn’t a blueprint or a how-to on the subject. While this is most likely due to the uniqueness of the organizations and their leadership examined herein, as well as their idiosyncratic approach to conducting their work, it is my hope that this book-set will nevertheless provide readers a unique behind-the-scenes glimpse of the organizations and offer incredibly valuable insights, present insider experiences, and give advice that few would ever have access to from one organization, let alone from more than forty of the best-of-the-best.               I have been fortunate to have had the rare and heady opportunity to have worked with some of the most innovative humanitarian organizations in the world, or to have collaborated with their incredibly talented founders/directors. Each chapter is prefaced with a short personal note on how I came to know the founder or work with each particular organization. In fact, it is my experiences with these incredible people that led to my idea for this book project—while there are many wonderful, long standing organizations that do important work serving thousands, I found that many of the organizations I was working with were newer and honestly, a bit more edgy. Many have more skin-in-the-game. These founders were on the ground and doing the work themselves, not remotely administrating from a comfortable office miles away.   While there are many successful, ground-breaking organizations doing incredible humanitarian work, there really isn’t a blueprint or a how-to book on the subject of developing such an organization. It is my hope that this book-set will provide readers a unique behind-the-scenes glimpse of these new humanitarian organizations and offer incredibly valuable insights, present insider experiences, and give advice that few would ever have access to from one organization, let alone from more than thirty of the best-of-the-best.             It’s due out August 2008, so please visit http://www.Praeger.com or Amazon.com and order yours soon!   Early praise: "Stout's stories of social innovators in The New Humanitarians are inspiring and instructive -- helpful to anyone who wants to participate in building a better world."   David Bornstein, author, How to Change The World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, and The Price of a Dream, and has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, New York Newsday, and other major publications.   . "Einstein taught us all that today’s problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. The convergence of a more socially conscious business community on one hand and a more entrepreneurially driven philanthropic community on the other is perhaps the greatest source of inspiration as we chart the course ahead in these interesting but yet challenging times. I have followed Dr Stout’s work for several years and his passion and knowledge of the new humanitarians is as inspiring as it is important. His book is an important guide for anyone that wants to understand the emerging rules of a more humane version of entrepreneurship."   Mats Leaderhausen Founding Director Be-Cause .  Only your support makes this happen. Please contact us to make a donation by clicking here.