The Pollyanna Principles, by Hildy Gottlieb, is a book about bringing the connection paradigm to Community Benefit Organizations (CBOs). It’s awesome. Hildy is totally a freaky revolutionary, and she is changing the world in weird and wonderful ways. In fact, if you look over to the right sidebar, you’ll see that we’ve added her to our list of notable revolutionaries. Congrats, Hildy!

What’s a Community Benefit Organization?

Glad you asked! It’s what is currently called a non-profit organization. Hildy makes the good point that defining organizations by what they don’t do is focusing on a lack and missing the point. Much better to rephrase things positively and focus on the goal of these organizations: to benefit the community. This rephrasing will help CBOs stay focused on their goals instead of focusing on their lack of funds.

What is The Pollyanna Principles about?

It’s about shifting from victimhood to empowerment.

It’s about shifting from an attitude of “How can we make the current situation suck less?” to “How can we create a new and wonderful future?”

It’s about shifting from control to connection.

So what are these “Pollyanna Principles”?

The Ends:

#1: We accomplish what we hold ourselves accountable for.

#2: Each and every one of us is creating the future, every day, whether we do so consciously or not.

The Means:

#3: Everyone and everything is interconnected and interdependent, whether we acknowledge that or not.

#4: “Being the change we want to see” means walking the talk of our values.

#5: Strength builds upon our strengths, not our weaknesses.

#6: Individuals will go where systems lead them.

Is this book for me?

The Pollyanna Principles is a must-read for anyone who is moved by the principles of the Freak Revolution and wants to change the world by working in or with Community Benefit Organizations.

It’s not just a statement of principles; there are oodles of real-world examples and concrete suggestions for how to implement the principles. It’s basically an instruction manual: How to Revolutionize the World Through Community Benefit Organizations.

How about an inspiring and apropos quote from Buckminster Fuller?

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

-Buckminster Fuller

Yeah!