The speaker mentioned something about a "Fourth Instinct" during the opening ceremony of the 2009 CraigsList Nonprofit Boot Camp in Berkeley. The phrase caught my attention because she was speaking about the innate human desire to help—something I have been very familiar with for a long time. The speaker was Arianna Huffington, Editor-In-Chief of the Huffington Post. Although "Fourth Instinct" is also the title of her newest book, it definitely wasn't a plug for us to go out and buy. What she spoke of is the volunteer muscle that gets stronger with practice and excercise. With over 1,000 people sitting in the auditorium on the Berkeley campus, also listening to these same words, I became overwhelmed with sentiment for the group of motivated and talented individuals that I was sitting among. Huffington taught us that in this time of economic hardship—with all-time unemployment highs and profit lows—now is the time to appreciate what we can do for our communities. She reminded us that there are many people who are very talented and without jobs right now, and even though they might not consider it an ideal situation, it's the perfect opportunity to do good in the world and help other people get on their feet. The nonprofit world can help do this through facilitating the programs that are necessary to connect the currently unfortunate with the permanently unfortunate and bring both categories into a more stable stomping ground.

The BootCamp was centered around three workshops that were organized very thoughtfully into the basic categories of foundational work for new nonprofits, networking and taking big leaps for semi-established nonprofits, and then innovative approaches to societal problems and the issues of funding for major nonprofits that are already making a huge difference in the world. The camp offered one free one-on-one coaching session which proved to be very useful for my business partner Vanessa and I. In the coaching session we made the conscious decision to relinquish some of our parental control over SheJumps and allow for some positive growth through getting many different backgrounds of people involved—and on my part, not being afraid to call the CEO of REI up and tell him to get his women staff outside on some trips!

Although I was tired, by the end of the day I had garnered the knowledge and expertise of 10 different people who are incredible leaders, strategists, hard workers, and do-gooders. Of the three workshops I attended (Real Time Strategic Planning, Leadership, and Approaching a Foundation for the first time), I found the Leadership workshop to be the most hard-hitting example of self-motivated learning. They hit the nail on the head when they told us, you'll only be as good of a leader as you try to be. I guess a lot of people are under the impression that you are either born a leader or you are really good at faking it, but there is an entirely new industry out there to take people from being managers to being leaders. And that is something I definitely plan on tapping into!

I want to thank the Outdoor Industries Women's Coalition (OIWC) for supporting Vanessa Pierce and I to attend this conference. Not only was it highly informative, but it left me with a lasting impression that I am not alone in the world of philanthropy. I appreciate that hard work is rewarding and being immersed in the crowd at the bootcamp gave me something to work for—being a keynote speaker one day about women's outdoor programs!

Claire Smallwood, SheJumps Executive Director