A. Lauren Abele

I recently had the opportunity to write a post on Triple Pundit about the NYWSE Emerging Sustainability Leaders (ESL) program. Here’s an excerpt:

The best kept secret in the world of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is that CSR is an inside job. Many people who are heading up CSR departments (or are the CSR department) at their companies, were once regular employees who one day decided to start recycling at the office or organize volunteer days. What resulted was a snowball effect. Management saw the benefits of sustainability, clients became interested and engaged, the company re-branded and marketed its efforts, and these employees continued to develop more and more socially responsible initiatives. A new way of doing business had been born and a new social champion had arrived: the social intrapreneur.

For the full article go here.

And a shout out to the members of the NYWSE crew (specifically Shari Aaron, Ashby Andrews, Natalia Oberti Noguera, & Stephanie Niloff) who are hard at work getting this amazing program off the ground!

Last Thursday you could find me drooling in my seat at the all-day social enterprise conference phenomena known as The Feast . As Stacey Murphy of @bkfarmyards put it: “#Feastongood was pretty unforgettable. Only criticism is too many inspiring people to meet in too little time.” It was hard to meet someone who wasn’t incredibly interesting and taking their ideas of social innovation to the next level (I challenge you to try at The Feast 2010–tickets are already on sale.) I am still somewhat in a daze regarding all of the things that were discussed, opportunities to be seized, and the amazing people who were brought together.

There was, however, a recurring theme that I noticed in many of my conversations: franchising, financing, and technology.

But let me back up a bit…the night before I attended a panel discussion at The Foundation Center on donor management systems. As some of the organizations I am working with are revving up for full-on fund development, implementing an affordable donor management program seems like a good part of the plan. I was a little shocked when I arrived that probably 80% of the attendees were twice my age. I got up and asked a question regarding options for donor management systems that would work for organizations with staff who telecommute and lack a brick-and-mortar base of operations. The question was confused people–both in the audience and in the panel–but I got a helpful answer in the end. However, the answer suited my question by accident–these traditional programs aren’t being designed with 21st century social entrepreneurs in mind, they just may work out unintentionally. Continue reading

Monday evening I attended Net Impact NYC’s Womens Social Entrepreneurship Panel at The Feldenkrais Institute. The panel was moderated by Ann MacDougal, Chief Management Officer (New York) at Acumen Fund and featured:

Elizabeth Scharpf, Chief Instigating Officer at Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE)
Katie Orenstein, Founder and Director at The Op-Ed Project
Amini Kajunju, CEO/COO at the and Executive Committee member at Angel Africa

They are the big-wigs at their respective organizations and have each made great strides in addressing social issues, but these three women were also honest, funny, and down-to-earth about life as a woman social entrepreneur. Elizabeth Scharpf spoke about her “tipping point” that guided her down a different path. She had been working at an INGO in Mozambique, and had spoken with some young children about what they wanted to be when the grew up. One child answered: “I want to work for a big international development organization, because I want to be rich.” Hmmm. That wasn’t exactly the motivation for involvement in the social sector that she (or really anyone else for that matter) wanted to hear. What resulted was Elizabeth’s pursuit of an alternative path that led her to start SHE. Continue reading

One week, two great events… (Part 1 of 2)

Event 1: BRAC’s Friendraiser

Last Wednesday I headed over to BRAC’s Friendraiser at the Edwynn Houk Gallery. I was invited to the event by my friend Laina–who is always up to good. My hat goes off to the BRAC Host Committee, who organized the free event, as it was truly a great way to introduce new “friends” to the organization’s mission and activities. There were a bunch of things about the event’s structure itself that I really appreciated. Some Friendraising tips to consider for your organization’s next Friendraiser:

Price: The event was free. While fundraising and/or off-setting costs are definitely important and events can be a great opportunity for such a thing, free events are a great way to encourage new attendees. In NYC especially, everything seems to have a dollar sign attached to it.
Continue reading

The New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE) held their first ever Incubator Friendraiser last week. The private event was held at the Bowery Wine Company and was a fundraiser and silent auction for NYWSE’s Incubator Program for budding women social entrepreneurs. The 2009 Incubator Participants were:

• Early Earners – Online education destination for youth and families promoting positive financial habits

• Girl Guides USA – Outdoor program that develops girls’ environmentalism, leadership and teamwork

• Illume – Online mentoring and career resource for young women from illiterate families in India

• Out Against Abuse – Online resource to stop domestic violence in the South Asian community

• Public Stuff – Software to connect government and citizens to improve services and community life

• Start Your Engine – Exercise, nutrition, stress and time management program for low-income women

The event featured a keynote speech by Diana Ayton-Shenker, Founder & CEO of Fast Forward Fund (FFF), a youth-investing-in-youth social venture fund, who spoke the importance of investing in young social entrepreneurs who will become tomorrow’s leaders.

The venue was a-buzz with interesting conversations and was a great opportunity to meet other faces in the world of NYC social entrepreneurship. And, in addition to the great company, the Bowery Wine Company staff were fabulous!

I had the pleasure of helping organize the event and had the opportunity to work with some really fabulous women including Natalia Oberti Noguera (NYWSE Director) and Melissa Osborne (who is off to graduate school this fall! Congrats!).  If you are a woman interested in social entrepreneurship, I highly recommend checking out NYWSE–they have an ever growing community and lots of thoughtful resources for women social entrepreneurs.

If you are considering applying for next year’s Friendraiser, check the NYWSE website for the 2010 Program Applications.

A much re-tweeted blog post, Twitter for Social Entrepreneurship: The Top 100 Tweeps to Follow, by Social Edge (a program of the Skoll Foundation), gives a very thorough who’s who of people tweeting about social entrepreneurship. If you can’t commit to following all 100 (I am not prepared, yet), pick a couple–it’s a good combination of social entrepreneur-types, philanthropy-types, and social media prodigies.

As a relatively recent convert to the Twitter phenomena–I am now quite the devotee. I think of it as my own personal newspaper, with headlines of recommended articles about topics I am interested in.

If you don’t already know, social entrepreneurship is definitely a jargon-y, buzzword whose definition is sometimes hard to pin down. A quick Google search for “social entrepreneurship” puts Wikipedia (of course!) at the top of the list. Wikipedia defines social entrepreneurship as “the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change.”

After perusing through a couple of the top Google search hits for definitions of social entrepreneurship, four main elements began to appear. While there is no hard and fast definition, social entrepreneurs tend to be described as individuals who are  (1) innovative problem solvers, (2) very committed to their work, (3) addressing large scale issues, and (4) contrasted with business entrepreneurs.

• Social entrepreneurs are innovative problem solvers

Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps. –ASHOKA

The job of a social entrepreneur is to recognize when a part of society is stuck and to provide new ways to get it unstuck. He or she finds what is not working and solves the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution and persuading entire societies to take new leaps.–PBS: The New Heroes

Social entrepreneurs pioneer innovative and systemic approaches for meeting the needs of the marginalized, the disadvantaged and the disenfranchised – populations that lack the financial means or political clout to achieve lasting benefit on their own.–Skoll Foundation

Social entrepreneurs drive social innovation and transformation in various fields including education, health, environment and enterprise development. –Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

• Social Entrepreneurs are committed to their work

Social entrepreneurs often seem to be possessed by their ideas, committing their lives to changing the direction of their field. They are both visionaries and ultimate realists, concerned with the practical implementation of their vision above all else.–ASHOKA

Identifying and solving large-scale social problems requires a committed person with a vision and determination to persist in the face of daunting odds.–PBS: The New Heroes

[Social entrepreneurs] recognize the extraordinary potential in the billions of poor people who inhabit the planet, and they are absolutely committed to helping them use their talents and abilities to achieve their potential.–Skoll Foundation

• Social entrepreneurs address large scale issues

[S]ocial entrepreneurs are solution-minded pragmatists who are not afraid to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems.–Skoll Foundation

Identifying and solving large-scale social problems requires a committed person with a vision and determination to persist in the face of daunting odds.–PBS: The New Heroes

[A social entrepreneur] achieves large scale, systemic and sustainable social change through a new invention, a different approach, a more rigorous application of known technologies or strategies, or a combination of these.–Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

• Social entrepreneurs are contrasted with businesses entrepreneurs

Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society. –Wikipedia, “social entrepreneurship”

Unlike traditional business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs primarily seek to generate “social value” rather than profits. And unlike the majority of non-profit organizations, their work is targeted not only towards immediate, small-scale effects, but sweeping, long-term change.–PBS: The New Heroes

Distinct from a business entrepreneur who sees value in the creation of new markets, the social entrepreneur aims for value in the form of transformational change that will benefit disadvantaged communities and ultimately society at large.–Skoll Foundation

They pursue poverty alleviation goals with entrepreneurial zeal, business methods and the courage to innovate and overcome traditional practices. A social entrepreneur, similar to a business entrepreneur, builds strong and sustainable organizations, which are either set up as not-for-profits or companies.–Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

And a quick commentary:

It’s easy to envision social entrepreneurs as innovators, but I think it is very interesting that so many organizations have also chosen to define social entrepreneurs as “very committed” –not that I do not think social entreprenuers are committed to the causes they support, but rather that commitment has become part of the definition. There is the implication that social entrepreneurship involves blood, sweat, and tears and involves a holistic value system that guides a social entrepreneurs life’s work.  For social entrepreneurs, work isn’t just a job–it’s a way of life.

The third characteristic–that social entrepreneurs address large scale issues–I also think perhaps narrows social entrepreneurship unfairly. I am sure that many of the larger organizations working in social entrepreneurship focus on large issues such as global climate change, world hunger, poverty, and education–but I imagine that the most successful social ventures operate at the grassroots level, addressing the specific elements of an issue and applying targeted solutions. The ability to yield greater impact and effectiveness is likely linked to the scale of the project….and I would assume that the closer you are to the ground, and the smaller the scale of your project, the more effective and successful it will be. Maybe it’s just semantics…or maybe it is just a different way of framing the issue.

Lastly, I want to address the tendency to describe social entrepreneurs as being distinct from business entrepreneurs. I understand, and totally agree with, the distinctions made between social and business entrepreneurs. But! I would add a bit of caution to the severity of that line. While some organizations contrast social entrepreneurs with business entrepreneurs, others compare them and emphasize as well as celebrate the use of business principles and private sector strategies by social entrepreneurs. As things continue to shift and the social sector continues to grow, I think that line will become more undefined. For example, while public policy graduate programs exist all around the country (See Public Policy School?), many business schools now offer social entrepreneurship and nonprofit specialties, conferences, and fellowships.

Check out: U.S. News & World Report’s MBA Nonprofit Specialty rankings, Harvard University’s Social Enterprise Initiative, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business’ Center for Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship, and Net Impact —just to name a few.