One Page Summary

The goal of University of Laif (UoL) is to make society, young and old, aware of what a sustainable lifestyle is and which positive outcomes are linked to this in the long term. We believe that these aspects complement all other acquired knowledge in life and could ensure a balanced system. 

But it has been a struggle communicating sustainability and NGOs have also found difficulties connecting with the internet generation. The internet generation tend to engage and give more when feeling inspired, thus demanding a social experience. Furthermore, they tend to ask the question: 'what's in it for us?' - indicating a demand for a win-win situation. These incentives could be tangible items such as merchandise, hereby tightening the relationship with the donors. 

To solve these problems and achieve our objective, we have formulated a strategy to find a balance between the above mentioned factors (personal experience and direct added value) that could increase the possibility of a long-term relationship with the internet generation. By means of a fair fashion item, donors would choose a SDG to support both financially and through their story in order to inspire others. By means of effective storytelling, a personal experience can be created and at the same time creating a win-win situation for the donor. As storytelling transcends all differences and communicating sustainability being put in a more sexy skin,  a community can be built with people from different sectors (profit, non-profit, governmental and knowledge institutions) and backgrounds. Building a community on  the social platform forms a basis from which citizens can be educated and relevant sustainable information can be spread both efficient and effectively. 

The campaign offers technology and social media leveraging, a holistic approach, sustained funding model and outside the box thinking in educating citizens, all in one.  Treating raising awareness challenges as silos is one of the main reasons why different solutions can't scale to masses. This as people tend to support causes that are close to their hearts, but fail to see the interconnectivity's between the different challenges. By charting the different goals simultaneously, societal mindset can be refined to the point that they become more aware that every action they undertake on a daily basis is interconnected. 

The Millennial impact project found, that Millennials tend to engage and give more when they feel inspired by an organisation. Storytelling helps to enhance this social experience. As sustainability demands people to step out of their comfort zone and break the status quo, it is important to build a community based on the presence approach. Whereby the focus goes to the cultivation of caring relationships. Everyone would have a safe platform to share what their vision of a better world or what they are doing in the present to help achieve those goals. Hereby, inspiring others to try and lead as well. 

The model has a high scale advantage. As the power of storytelling transcends all differences, bringing people together, a snowball effect is very obvious. As participants have free choice which SDG they support, a broad group of people with different passion, career path, ethnicity and vision can be reached. And the more participants, the faster the platform will develop. As everybody has a story, the concept can easily be implemented in other cities and/or countries around Europe.

The project can also lead to continuous actions. Firstly, the gender and ethnicity gap in academic achievement constitutes one of today’s key social problems. A study by Schippers, Scheepers & Peterson (2015) found that a goal-setting intervention implemented in students’ academic careers can significantly and substantially reduce gender and ethnic minority inequalities in achievement. Furthermore, communicated relevant information and gained inspiration on the platform can lead to action in ones own sector that could shape the value chain. By donating to a specific cause, donors also get a feeling of what steps the different projects/institutions are taking in order to achieve the SDGs, hereby inspiring them to engage in volunteer work or search for insights how they could further contribute to the wicked problem.