About

Auren Kaplan is an author and social entrepreneur, converging his skills at the crossroads of authentic living and social good. Auren is founder of Evolve, a non-profit brand that stands for the end of poverty. He also serves as Social Media Strategist for the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He writes for the Huffington Post. Follow Auren on Twitter at @aurensays

I have long been passionate about the plight of the global poor. Back in 2007, I studied abroad in Chile and saw $1.50 a day poverty in Bolivia. It changed me, and I spent the next year writing an Honors thesis about how the politics of Latin America affect the economic successes of Latin American countries. But that wasn’t enough.

In May of 2009 I graduated from the University of Michigan with High Honors in Political Science and Spanish. After a year of work as a research assistant at the Center for Automotive Research, I took a road trip, one where I connected with person after person at the core, human level. I was awakened to a life of pure and authentic experience, constant adventure, and emotional truth. I knew after ending this road trip that my life had to be spent serving others. I ultimately wrote a full-length memoir about my experiences on this road trip, which is currently in the process of publication.

Upon returning home, an eventful trip to YouTube connected me to a charity: water video, where founder Scott Harrison implored for the world to care about the billion people on planet Earth that drink dirty water every day. I was touched deeply by this video, slightly disturbed by the scale of the problem, and awakened to a life of extreme poverty that I had only briefly met when traveling through South America.

My next video was a talk by Blake Mycoskie, telling his story of how he founded TOMS Shoes, and entered the ranks of the social entrepreneur. I was inspired, and for the first time I saw for myself a future entering into business for the purpose of helping the less fortunate.

I have since been on a journey to incorporate business practices into our interconnected human journey to end poverty in our time.

After moving to Los Angeles, in late 2009 I wrote a social entrepreneurship blog called the Social Entrepreneurship Exchange where I interviewed social entrepreneurs and wrote articles that served the space. I also tweeted regularly as @Socentex. After reading about a Hub in Sao Paulo, Brasil, I was awakened to this brand (The HUB) of co-working spaces for social entrepreneurs that existed around the globe. I was inspired, and deeply wanted to work in such a co-creative, collaborative environment in Los Angeles.

I emailed the leaders of The HUB global about their lack of a HUB in Los Angeles, and they connected me with the two very people who were founding The HUB LA. We immediately set a date for coffee, and while sipping mocha at Intelligentsia in Venice, we shared our values and dreams for a better world created through an activated social impact economy of social entrepreneurs and their enterprises.

We clicked, and I leveraged my work with the Socentex blog into a job with HUB LA as Director of Social Media.

While serving in this position, I tweeted, posted to Facebook, managed a blog, and networked with social entrepreneurs of all stripes. I managed partnerships for HUB LA, made high level introductions, and contributed to a partnership with StartingBloc.

On another day in Intelligentsia coffee shop in Venice, I approached a stunningly attractive blond girl and we struck up a conversation. She told me that her boyfriend was connected with an organization called StartingBloc, which was a program for young social entrepreneurs, and she encouraged me to learn more. I found the organization a perfect fit for the professional journey I was embarking on, and I attended a StartingBloc Institute of Social Innovation in Boston in February of 2010. While there, I connected with well over a hundred young changemakers aged 29 and under who were actively making moves in the social entrepreneurship space. I later served on the board of Startingbloc in Los Angeles, as we successfully endeavored to bring an Institute to LA.

After a brief stint serving as Ambassador to the organization Urban Social Entrepreneurs, I founded a Los Angeles-based publication – Championic – themed around authentic communication of all types – poetry, prose, fiction, nonfiction, and other authentic voices from the diverse Los Angeles community. At one point, 10 writers were contributing weekly to the publication. The publication folded after a lack of advertising revenues forced me to stop paying the writers. I learned much from this business failure.

In early 2011, I moved back to my home in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan and I rejoined the Center for Automotive Research, this time as a Social Media Director for the Automotive Communities Partnership, a network of communities with automotive plants that stays abreast of industry trends, insights, and works collaboratively as a region to secure future automotive industry investment.

Most recently, I have founded a social venture called Evolve.

Evolve is a brand that stands for the end of poverty.

Evolve partners with companies large and small to integrate a social mission into their company ethos, and create a more attractive brand for their customers. I am currently introducing Evolve to the electronic dance music (EDM) and yoga communities. I aim to raise awareness and funds around the issue of poverty through a positive message, noting that the education of girls and the investment in businesses that serve the poor in the areas of water, energy, health and education can dramatically improve the quality of life of the global poor (4 billion in population). Follow Evolve on Twitter and Facebook.

I intend to attend business school at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, studying how companies can find future growth opportunity by embracing disruptive clean technologies and incubating new technologies in Bottom of the Pyramid markets of 4 billion people who stand to gain considerably from their interconnection with capitalism as customers and employees. My ultimate goal is to find a sustainable way to lift humanity out of poverty, and it is my firm belief that business can proactively and profitably serve the needs of the poor, bringing them out of their poverty.

I also happen to love staying on people’s couches wherever I travel; last time I took a road trip across America. I’m a big fan of love, and people doing good things, and meditating, and Kriya Yoga, and being in the now.

Want to get in touch? Give me a call. 248-417-8514.

Peace, love, and freedom.

Namaste.

My Huffington Post Articles

Causecast Makes It Easy for Companies to Give Back February 2, 2012
Just as consumers have come to expect brands to support causes, employees now expect their companies to engage them in serious and meaningful ways around the causes they care about. […]
A Revolution of Attention January 30, 2012
The top billion of us, of which you are certainly one, have lived for too long in a silo -- a silo of attention. We have focused on quarterly earnings, and consumption, and material desire, at the expense of a forgotten population that is equal to us in that core human way. […]
An Evolved Take on Psychology, Brands and Poverty January 16, 2012
I want people to understand how they are exactly the same as the person in the slum. In that uniquely human way, they are no better and no worse than them -- they are the same. […]
The Defining Role of Business in Ending Poverty January 4, 2012
Business is the most powerful force on the planet, in terms of its capability to move resources, money, and people. When it comes to fighting poverty, businesses have a defining role to play in working to end it. […]
Your Power As a Citizen Consumer December 19, 2011
You are a citizen consumer. You participate in the economy every day with your purchases. And you most certainly have a voice. Companies are starting to fear you, and even more importantly, they are starting to take you more fully into account. […]
At Detroit Soup, A City Comes Alive December 12, 2011
This experiment in micro-funding was already interesting before they served the soup. Then we all lined up and before too long, my wooden-crafted bowl was filled with a spicy vegan squash stew. […]
Capitalism You Can Fall in Love With December 10, 2011
Capitalism is changing. It is evolving. And big companies are going to start to realize that when the cause is the brand, the consumer cannot get enough. That means two things: 1. More profits and 2. more good. […]
94% of Consumers Would Switch Brands to Support a Cause December 4, 2011
If you're like the vast majority of people out there, you are a citizen consumer - you just might not know it yet.... […]
How to Solve the World Water Crisis Today November 21, 2011
The LifeStraw is a life-saving technology that allows any individual to insert the straw into water, no matter how dirty, and an advanced filtration system ensures that the only liquid coming out the other end is clean, potable drinking water. […]
How Cause-Integrated Businesses are Working to End Poverty December 1, 2010
As the movements of social enterprise and cause-integrated business mature, a new funding model is proving that scaling innovations for poverty alleviation in the developing world can be both possible and profitable. […]

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My Huffington Post Articles