Daniel Ben-Horin is an American

social entrepreneur Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of o ...

, known for founding the technology assistance nonprofit CompuMentor, now known as

TechSoup TechSoup, founded in 1987 as CompuMentor and later known as TechSoup Global, is a nonprofit international network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provides technical support and technological tools to other nonprofits. History ...

, in the late 1980s. He is also a former journalist who has written for publications such as ''

The Arizona Republic ''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...

'', ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', The NY Times, and ''

Mother Jones Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...

''. Ben-Horin's debut novel, Substantial Justice, was published in June 2020.

Early life and education

Ben-Horin was born to Jewish parents from Latvia and Ukraine, who both emigrated separately to British Mandatory Palestine and met on a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

in 1930. Ben-Horin's father was a Zionist activist and journalist. After the couple moved to Queens, New York in 1945, his mother earned an M.A. from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and became a probation officer for New York City. He graduated from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Career

Journalism and socialist views

After college, Ben-Horin lived in Phoenix, Arizona for six years, where he worked at ''

'' before becoming an editor of the ''

Phoenix New Times ''Phoenix New Times'' is a free digital and print media company based in Phoenix, Arizona. ''New Times'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue ...

''.''The Nation''
- Volume 216, page 238 In 1974, Ben-Horin moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. He has written for publications such as ''

'', ''

'' and ''

Redbook ''Redbook'' is an American women's magazine that is published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the " Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines. It ceased print publication as of January 2019 and now operates an article-comprise ...

.'' In 1977 he wrote the article "Television Without Tears", a socialist analysis of television and its role in popular culture and ideology, which was published in the journal ''Socialist Revolution''.

Nonprofit career

From 1981-84, Ben-Horin served as the Executive Director of

Media Alliance Media Alliance is an American media resource and advocacy center for media workers, non-profit organizations, and social justice activists. Through policy work and grassroots organizing, Media Alliance aims to ensure the unfettered flow of infor ...

, a nonprofit association of media workers in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. In 1985, Ben-Horin became active on the

Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, was launched in 1985. It is one of the oldest continuously operating virtual communities. By 1993 it had 7,000 members, a staff of 12, and gross annual income of $2 million. ...

(WELL), where he encountered technologists who wanted to share their knowledge with nonprofits, but had no outlet to do so. The following year, Ben-Horin approached WELL members with a printer problem and was overwhelmed by the assistance he received in resolving the issue. This led to him establishing CompuMentor in San Francisco in September 1986, with the objective of trying to "help nonprofit organizations use available technical tools to produce better work and to activate a truly skilled sector of the population--technically adept people--by getting them into the community to do what they do best--talk about technology and teaching." In April 2009, Ben-Horin received the "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network (NTEN), and two months later the

Ashoka Foundation Ashoka (formerly branded Ashoka: Innovators for the Public) is an American-based nonprofit organization that promotes social entrepreneurship by connecting and supporting individual social entrepreneurs. Their stated mission is "the creation of a ...

elected Ben-Horin as a Senior Fellow for his work. The ''

NonProfit Times ''The NonProfit Times'' (NPT) is a newspaper based in Morris Plains, New Jersey, covering the business management of non-profit organizations in the United States. The first issue was published in April 1987. The newspaper covers fundraising, ac ...

'' named Ben-Horin in its Top 50 most influential people in the nonprofit sector four years in a row from 2004 to 2007. Ben-Horin was the CEO of TechSoup until 2013, when he became Founder and Chief Instigator, with

Rebecca Masisak Rebecca Masisak (born 1957) is the CEO of TechSoup, a nonprofit organization that provides technical assistance to other nonprofits. She joined TechSoup (formerly CompuMentor) in 2001 and after various positions in management has served in the CEO ...

replacing him as CEO. As of 2017, TechSoup Global had a staff of 212 and an annual operating budget of $34 million.

Fiction

In 2013, Ben-Horin returned to his first love, writing fiction. His novel, Substantial Justice, was published in July 2020 by

Rare Bird Books Rare Bird Books is an American publishing house. It was founded by Tyson Cornell, the former director of publicity and marketing at Book Soup. Rare Bird has five imprints: California Coldblood, which is focused on sci-fi and similar genres; A Bar ...

. Substantial Justice received positive reviews.

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

called it a “remarkable first novel”.

References

External links

“Leading Large-Scale Change: Lessons from the Arab Spring”
Daniel Ben-Horin, The Compass Leadership Summit, October 25, 2011, Santa Barbara, California
“Networks of Resources, Networks of Ideas, Connecting the Dots”
Daniel Ben-Horin, Personal Democracy Forum 2011, June 7, 2011, New York, New York
"Conference Sektor 3.0"
Daniel Ben-Horin opening remarks at conference in Warsaw, Poland May 23–24, 2011
"Technology for Local Empowerment," Third Global Forum on Telecentres
Daniel Ben-Horin opening remarks at conference in Santiago, Chile, April 5, 2011
"Tech Philanthropy," KQED-FM Public Radio ''Forum''
Podcast interview with Daniel Ben-Horin, February 17, 2009
"Tactical Philanthropy Podcast: Daniel-Ben Horin"
Podcast interview by Sean Stannard-Stockton, ''Tactical Philanthropy'', May 25, 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Horin, Daniel American nonprofit executives Living people American political activists American people of Latvian-Jewish descent Year of birth missing (living people) American social entrepreneurs