Nonprofits & Charity:

“There are no profits without nonprofits.”

“Charity is about the redemption of the giver, not the liberation of the receiver.”

“Wasting food is a tragedy, but the real tragedy is that we’re wasting people.”

“If you chase money, you’ll run forever. If you chase results, money comes to you.”

“I looked at the homeless men and women I served that first night I volunteered and thought, we can shorten the line if we make them part of the solution.”

“Pity isn’t a plan.”

“We cannot afford to indenture another generation of poor people to charity.”

“Gone are the days of academic discussions, or studies, or the perceived safety of being a saint on the sidelines. We cannot afford to invest precious time in 10 year plans. A new era is upon us–and it begins today.”

“Beware the client caste system. When you put a child, or your cause first, that means somebody or another effort is gonna end up being last. There’s enough for all”

“Don’t create false priorities or give the public choices they don’t have to make.”

“A great nonprofit doesn’t try to fix the problem, it simply reveals the solutions that were there all along.”

“The nonprofit sector has an inferiority complex, that manifests itself all the time in the form of weak thinking, silo-centric organizing and submissive politics. In short…we should be roaring, yet we purr.”

“The nonprofit sector is burdened by the sexists origins of modern philanthropy, and the economic bondage of the grant system”

Hunger:

The future isn’t about how many pounds of food you move, but how you utilize every ounce to liberate, empower or uplift.

“Hunger is so not about food — hunger is a symptom. Hunger is about wage, it’s about being in prison, it is about poverty and discrimination.”

“Our job shouldn’t be just to feed the poor, but to get Americans to think, and to open a very different dialogue about how we approach hunger in America.”

“The last thing I want to be is a nutritional imperialist, trying to foist my ideas of healthy eating on others.”

“In the fight against hunger, we need less Sara Lee and more cerebellum.”

“I don’t so right/wrong or good/bad…I do smart/dumb. Hunger is dumb business for America”

“ALL of my models take things our society thinks aren’t pretty, or important—bruised fruit, bent veggies, felons, addicts, and older people—and we reveal their true beauty and value. In our kitchen, all food has power, and all people have potential.”

Making Change:

“Don’t occupy the street. Take over the town.”

“People often question why I travel so far, so often, to speak to small groups, for often little or no money. When I look at a group of open, eager, BOLD people, I know why. It isn’t about the size of the crowd, it’s the potential of the audience… and money isn’t what I’m after – it’s change!”

“Movements of the last century were built around the boycott; people saying ‘don’t buy that’. How do you open the masses’ eyes today? Not with anger and boycotts. I believe in the buy-cott, and using market forces to incentivize and reward behavior” It’s Capitalism 2.0″

“Social Enterprise is Economic Buddhism…the middle path between .com and .org”

“Luck is for amateurs”

“Consumption every day is a volunteer act. You volunteer every day to when you walk into a Burger King and buy a Whopper. The question becomes how can you…through this purchase, the act of volunteerism, or your job…have impact on your local community or the global economy.”

“When young people ask for a tip to making change, the first thing I tell them is this…”un-fucking-plug” and learn to hear and groove the beat of your city.”

“On graduation day, we tell young men and women to choose…do you want to make money, or do good deeds? Do you want to be a ‘dot’ com or a ‘dot’ org? I tell them, ‘Fuck the dot… the future is the hybrid.’”

Leadership

“You don’t get flowers by tossing seeds out the window hoping something grows. You get flowers by deliberately going out and tilling the field.”

“I practice relentless incrementalism. Small steps. Everyday. Never stop making it badder, better, bolder–EVER.”

“You’ll never change a community you don’t know, and you can’t begin to know a community until you hear, feel, taste and tramp through it.”

“Don’t be afraid to bust the mold. Sometimes, the first can follow, and the last can lead. Leadership isn’t about followers; it’s about empowering others to lead.”

“I talk trash and push envelopes.”

“People say to me…’Dude, you are ALWAYS on the road!’ And I say, ‘No, Baby…I’m always on a mission, and the mission takes me to the road.’”

“To me, life should be a “loose a shoe” kinda party”

“My name is Robert, and I’m a recovering hypocrite.”

— Robert Egger