Dan's Challenge

Dan’s Challenge

Update: 12/15/2008

Thanks to everyone who made Dan's Challenge a success.  We raised more than $10,000 for the Be Bold program!

Help me to raise $10,000 for Be Bold!  Echoing Green is helping to ignite, inspire, and support the next generation of social change leaders through the phenomenal work of Be Bold. Donations will be matched up to $5,000. Please join me in supporting this great initiative.

Biography:

Daniel (Dan) Weiss has worked for over thirty years in the fields of communications and publishing, producing books, magazines, and multi-media for children and adults, with a focus on education. A graduate of NYU’s School of the Arts in Film and Television, Dan began his career in educational television, making short animated films for Sesame Street, documentaries for the government and public service organizations, and political commercials. In the early seventies, he transitioned into book publishing, working at Golden Press, Scholastic, and Simon and Schuster, prior to forming his own company, Dan Associates, Inc. (DWAI), in 1980. DWAI was the producer of numerous bestsellers, including the SWEET VALLEY HIGH series of books, merchandise and television entertainment; adult how-to books, fiction and magazines. Dan sold DWAI in 2000 to AlloyOnline, a teen marketing company. In 2001, Dan initiated and closed the transaction wherein SparkNotes.com, a start-up online publisher, was acquired by Barnes & Noble, Inc. The company, presently known as Spark Publishing, LLC, is a wholly owned subsidiary with over 550 titles in print after four years, and a website that has grown to become the largest educational site on the Internet. Dan was most recently Publisher of Quamut, a unit of Barnes & Noble.

How have you worked with Echoing Green?

I started three years ago by assisting with the creation of Be Bold, Echoing Green’s first book focusing on how to create a career with impact. Through that work, I was invited to join the Board of Directors.  I’ve been serving on the board for the past two years and am also working on the 2nd phase of the Be Bold program.  

There are three elements that originally attracted me to Echoing Green and continue to keep me excited about our work. These are the social activism, the entrepreneurial focus, and the exciting business-like culture. I hadn’t encountered this business focus before in the social sector and it was amazing to see. I like to think of the Echoing Green community as a group of spreadsheet do-gooders – people who use business models to resolve social issues.

What was your moment of obligation?

At some point in my work with Echoing Green, I realized that there was an amazing opportunity for me to help get the word out about the organization and its work. This was a really unique organization that I hadn’t heard of and no one else I knew either. There also wasn’t much talk at that time about social entrepreneurs as a concept. It was very much a “Eureka!” moment for me.  

What is your social change passion?

I just want to see social action entrepreneurs succeed. I’m happy to be able to use my years of business experience to help raise awareness about the field and encourage smart, young people to prosper.