Social Entrepreneurs Urge Trump To Abandon Muslim Ban

This post was originally published by the Skoll Foundation on Medium.

Dear President Trump,

As leaders who have spent our careers pioneering innovative solutions for many of our nation’s and the world’s most entrenched challenges, we write to respectfully express our unequivocal disagreement with the Executive Order issued on January 27, 2017, which banned individuals from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States. We believe it is a violation of America’s most closely — held values to block entry to a targeted minority, whether they be temporary visitors or immigrants or refugees. This is especially true for those who live on the edge of survival in war zones and refugee camps and have waited for years to call this great country their new home.

Groups like ours exist to help lift up the poorest and most marginalized with innovative solutions. In our opinion, this ban will make our work to foster peace, sustainability, opportunity and inclusiveness much harder. These actions have unfortunately intensified fear, bigotry, and division in communities across our nation and the world, giving our organizations still more challenges to overcome. They have also decreased trust of Americans as we travel because they convey that America is a country that no longer values diversity and operates from a place of prejudice.

We believe that immigrants and also visitors from these nations should be allowed into the US to help increase the efficacy of the work we do to build peace and prosperity both at home and around the world. Collectively we employ tens of thousands of people, and we have always found that the most powerful solutions for societal ills only emerge with the intimate involvement of those whom we work to serve. Diversity is the lifeblood of social, economic, and political progress, and policies that impede this value weakens our ability to innovate and implement social change.

We fear that this limits opportunity, inclusion, and our nation’s opportunity to engage with the world. We stand with the millions of people around the globe who have joined hands in resistance to efforts to sow fear and create false divisions along the lines of religion, ethnicity, country of origin, gender, or any other degree of difference.

You have expressed skepticism about the government’s abilities to solve problems alone, so we hope you will listen to the voices of those of us who lead organizations that are on the front lines of social change each and every day, using business best practices and often in partnership with government. We respectfully request, Mr. President, that you do not deny us the right of welcoming people, regardless of religion or nationality. We must continue to communicate the values of inclusiveness and opportunity for all that our nation has always worked hard to live and to model.

We invite leaders in the social entrepreneurship space to add their names to this letter in response to the ban on immigration in the US. Founders, Co-Founders, CEOs, Executive Directors, Presidents only please. Sign on to add your name here.

Your fellow Americans,

Chase Adam, Watsi

Jeff Albert, Aquaya Institute

Eleanor Allen, Water For People

Jacob Allen, pilotED Schools

Miriam Altman, Kinvolved

Seth Andrew, Democracy Builders

Mark Arnoldy, Possible

Hal Aronson, We Care Solar

Katy Ashe, Noora Health

Norman Atkins, Relay, GSE

Madison Ayer, Honey Care

Kanya Balakrishna, The Future Project

Andrew Balster, Archeworks

Carol Barash, Story2

Richard Barth, KIPP

Scott Beale, Atlas Corps

Tiffani Ashley Bell, The Human Utility

Alexandra Bernadotte, Beyond 12

Charles Best, DonorsChoose

Jenny Bowen, OneSky for All Children

Gabriel Brodbar, NYU Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship

Thomas Bukowski, Watsi

Susan Burns, Global Footprint Network

Gillian Caldwell, Global Witness

David Castro, I-LEAD, Inc.

Sasha Chanoff, RefugePoint

Jane Chen, Embrace Innovations

Gerald Chertavian, Year Up

Jared Chung, CareerVillage

Gary Cohen, Health Care Without Harm

Kathleen Colson, The BOMA Project

Margaret Crotty, Partnership with Children

Jeremy Courtney, Preemptive Love Coalition

Ami Dar, Idealist

Aimee Eubanks Davis, Braven

Eric Dawson, Peace First

Alex Dehgan, Conservation X Labs

Alisa Del Tufo, Threshold Collaborative

David Dewane, Impact Design Hub

Krista Donaldson, D-Rev: Design Revolution

Robin Richards Donohoe, Draper Richards LP

Cheryl Dorsey, Echoing Green

Michael Dougherty, Pencils of Promise

Bill Draper, Draper Richards LP

Mallika Dutt, Breakthrough

Jeff Dykstra, Partners in Food Solutions

Michael Eckhart, American Council On Renewable Energy

Nick Ehrmann, Blue Engine

Edith Elliott, Noora Health

Curt Ellis, FoodCorps

Abby Falik, Global Citizen Year

Rey Faustino, One Degree

Mike Feinberg, KIPP

Christina Fialho, ‎Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC)

Aria Finger, DoSomething

David Flink, Eye to Eye

Lennon Flowers, The Dinner Party

William Foote, Root Capital

Talia Frenkel, L.

Keith Frome, College Summit | Peer Forward

Jim Fruchterman, Benetech

Khalil Fuller, Learn Fresh

Erin Ganju, Room to Read

Grace Garey, Watsi

Christie George, New Media Ventures

Bob Giannino, uAspire

Jay Coen Gilbert, B Lab

Gary Gottlieb, Partners In Health

Joe Greenstein, InnerSpace and Flixster

Brett Hagler, New Story

Mark Hanis, United to End Genocide

Kathryn Hanson, ALearn

Tim Hanstad, Landesa

Scott Harrison, charity: water

Elizabeth Hausler, Build Change

Toni Heineman, A Home Within

Becca Heller, International Refugee Assistance Project

Jay Herratti, TED and TEDx

Jeremy Hockenstein, Digital Divide Data

Sara Horowitz, Freelancers Union

Bart Houlahan, B Lab

Aaron Hurst, Imperative

Michael Jenkins, Forest Trends

Chris Jochnick, Landesa

Jordan Kassalow, VisionSpring

Andrew Kassoy, B Lab

Kimberly Keller, David and Anita Keller Foundation

Adam Kircher, SIRUM

Suzanne Mckechnie Klahr, BUILD

Wendy Kopp, Teach For All

Mari Kuraishi, GlobalGiving

Alexandria Lafci, New Story

Louise Langheier, Peer Health Exchange

Olivia Leland, Collaborative for Scaling Social Impact

Jane Leu, Upwardly Global and Smarter Good

Dave Levin, KIPP

Lindsay Levin, Leaders’ Quest

Kirsten Lodal, LIFT

Chastity Lord, Achievement First

Mindy Lubber, Ceres

David Lubell, Welcoming America

Nancy Lublin, Crisis Text Line

Christina Mansfield, ‎Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC)

Megan Marcus, FuelEd

Becky Margiotta, The Billions Institute

Aleta Margolis, Center for Inspired Teaching

Joseph Marshall, Alive & Free

Patrice Martin, IDEO.org

Vivek Maru, Namati

Emily McCann, Citizen Schools

Joe McCannon, The Billions Institute

Deborah Meier, Mission Hill School, Boston

Alexandra Meis, Kinvolved

Molly Melching, Tostan

Deborah Menkart, Teaching for Change

Mauricio Lim Miller, Family Independence Initiative

Jane Mitchell, The Reset Foundation

Ellen Moir, New Teacher Center

Andy Moon, SunFarmer

Scott Morgan, Education Pioneers

Alexis Morin, Students for Education Reform

Mario Morino, Morino Ventures, LLC

Sydney Morris, Educators for Excellence

Dana Mortenson, WorldSavvy

Jeff Nelson, OneGoal

Josh Nesbit, Medic Mobile

Marcus Noel, Heart of Man

Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen

Mike O’Brien, iMentor

Rebecca Onie, Health Leads

Sally Osberg, Skoll Foundation

Daniel Oscar, Center for Supportive Schools

Dave Peery, Peery Foundation

Brett Peiser, Uncommon Schools

Rocco Perla, Health Leads

Eliza Pesuit, Global Glimpse

Mark Plotkin, Amazon Conservation Team

Chris Plutte, Global Nomads Group

Jake Porway, DataKind

Ben Powell, Agora Partnerships

David Risher, Worldreader

Sherry Riva, Compass Working Capital

Diane Robinson, Global Nomads Group

Linda Rottenberg, Endeavor Global

David Saltzman

Arlene Samen, One Heart World-Wide

Aylon Samouha, Transcend

Amy Saxton, Summer Search

Jennifer Tisdel Schorsch, Water.org

Frank Schott, NetHope

Eric Schwarz, College of Social Innovation

Veronika Scott, The Empowerment Plan

Paula Z. Segal, 596 Acres

Premal Shah, Kiva

David Shapiro, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership

Billy Shore, Share Our Strength

Trabian Shorters, BMe

Jeff Skoll, The Jeff Skoll Group

Charles Slaughter, Living Goods

Nina Smith, GoodWeave International

George Srour, Building Tomorrow, Inc.

Laura Stachel, We Care Solar

Andrew Stern, The Global Development Incubator

Evan Stone, Educators for Excellence

Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, WITNESS

Greg Van Kirk, Social Entrepreneur Corps

Jill Vialet, Playworks

Dan Viederman, Verite

Mathis Wackernagel, Global Footprint Network

Aaron Walker, Camelback Ventures

George Wang, SIRUM

Scott Warren, Generation Citizen

Daniel Weisberg, The New Teacher Project

Jeff Wetzler, Transcend

Gary White, Water.org

Kiah Williams, SIRUM

David Wish, Little Kids Rock

John Wood, Room to Read

Jocelyn Wyatt, IDEO.org

We invite leaders in the social entrepreneurship space to add their names to this letter in response to the ban on immigration in the US. Founders, Co-Founders, CEOs, Executive Directors, Presidents only please. Sign on to add your name here.