http://www.ssireview.org/articles/ Strategies, Tools, and Ideas for Nonprofits, Foundations, and Socially Responsible Businesses en nicholas_jenna@gsb.stanford.edu Copyright 2010 2010-02-24T07:00:54+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/all_entrepreneurship_is_social/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/all_entrepreneurship_is_social/ Over the past decade or so, the term social entrepreneur has become a fashionable way of describing individuals and organizations that, in their attempts at large-scale change, blur the traditional boundaries between the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Given the ceaseless appearance of innovations and new institutional forms, we should welcome a new term that allows us to think systematically about a still-emergent field. One danger, however, is that the use of the modifier social will diminish the contributions of regular entrepreneurs—that is, people who create new companies and then grow them to scale. In the course of doing business as usual, these regular entrepreneurs create thousands of jobs, improve the quality of goods and services available to consumers, and ultimately raise standards of living. Indeed, the intertwined histories of business and health in the United States suggests that all entrepreneurship is social entrepreneurship. The pantheon of model social entrepreneurs should thus include names such as railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt, meatpacking magnate Gustavus Swift, and software tycoon Bill Gates. THE STEW OF POVERTY People tend to think that advancements in health care, for example, are the achievements of either government or the social sector. More recently, they note how the work… Social Entrepreneurship 2010-03-17T15:35:33+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/whats_next_leap_forward_for_social_enterprises/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/whats_next_leap_forward_for_social_enterprises/ Rubicon Bakery is deservedly famous for its 12-layer chocolate cakes and other rich confections that generate some $2 million annually in sales. Each sale helps underwrite job training and other programs for poor and disenfranchised people. This social enterprise works wonders for the 4,000 people in the San Francisco area that Rubicon Programs reaches annually with its bakery and landscaping businesses, along with its housing, mental health, legal aid, and other social services. But for those who are down and out in most other communities, chances are slim of finding the same kind of help. After 23 years at the helm of Rubicon Programs, Rick Aubry has decided it’s time to take “the next big leap forward,” and design social enterprises that can succeed on a national scale. “Most social enterprises have remained local or at best regional,” he says. Goodwill Industries and the Salvation Army are rare exceptions, both using a thrift shop model that’s more than a century old. Figuring out what those national solutions might look like is the task facing Rubicon National Social Innovations. The best fit for scaling, Aubry predicts, will be a sustainable idea that fills a widely occurring need. Similar to for-profit franchises,… Social Entrepreneurship 2010-02-24T06:00:54+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/strength_through_flexibility/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/strength_through_flexibility/ In June 1992, the five founders of what became the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) met at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center on Lake Como, Italy. Each woman was a minister of education in her home country (Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, the Seychelles, and Zimbabwe). And each lamented that only half of Africa’s school-age girls enrolled in school. FAWE’s founders understood the obstacles that girls met on the way to the schoolhouse. Many parents simply couldn’t afford school tuition and fees. Others preferred to keep their daughters at home to perform household chores and to take care of younger siblings. Girls who did make it to school encountered such indignities as bathrooms shared with boys, discrimination from teachers, and sexual harassment from both teachers and students. For the few girls who did make it through elementary school, pregnancies often cut short their middle and high school educations. But FAWE’s founders also knew that the rewards were great for girls who did manage to secure an education. Educated girls were—and are—less likely to suffer from violence and harassment. They live longer and contract HIV/AIDS less. They have fewer and healthier children. And they make greater contributions to their country’s economic… Education, Social Entrepreneurship, Government 2010-01-20T22:35:59+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/last_look_dive_right_in/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/last_look_dive_right_in/ A prosthetic leg keeps a towel clean and dry in a Prague locker room. The leg usually supports the weight of a school-aged child. But today the prosthesis waits on land while the child joins his friends in the swimming pool, thanks to the Civic Association for Study, Rehabilitation, and Sports Without Barriers, a nongovernmental organization that runs activities for people living with disabilities in the Czech Republic. Jan Nevrkla, chairman of the Czech Association for the Disabled, founded the organization to teach handicapped children swimming and other sports. Nevrkla got the idea for the organization after he taught his best friend, a car wreck survivor and recent leg amputee, how to swim. Observing that athletics not only strengthened his friend’s body, but also restored his spirit, Nevrkla decided to assist other people in the same way. With early funding from Johnson & Johnson, the New Brunswick, N.J.-based health-care products multinational, Nevrkla’s Sports Without Barriers now helps some 500 handicapped children get back into the game. Partnering with the International Center of Photography, Johnson & Johnson recently sent five photographers to document the company’s charitable projects around the world. Portland, Ore.-based Toni Greaves photographed Sports Without Barriers, as well as… Social Entrepreneurship 2009-11-19T06:00:00+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_entrepreneurial_union/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_entrepreneurial_union/ When the Internet company that Karen Kelly worked for was sold and her job disappeared, she set out to become a freelance writer in New York City. Married to a musician and raising a young son, she struggled to find affordable health care. Across the country in Pasadena, Calif., Colleen Nelson had a different problem. As a media consultant, she had steady work with MGM Film Studios. But, working from home, she felt isolated. Both women eventually found their way to the Freelancers Union, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based nonprofit that provides self-employed workers with health insurance, retirement plans, community events, and political representation. Unlike most employee benefits in the United States, which are tied to particular companies, the Freelancers Union’s offerings can travel with independent workers from job to job and from project to project. Through the Freelancers Union, Kelly purchased health insurance for herself and her family. She also met an accountant at a tax workshop, and improved her Web site “2,000 percent” after attending a union-sponsored Web design seminar, she says. Meanwhile, Nelson began collaborating with likeminded union members in Los Angeles. “The Freelancers Union provides a sense of stability knowing that there is a place to go to… Social Entrepreneurship 2009-09-22T15:41:00+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/funding_the_future_in_china/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/funding_the_future_in_china/ Growing up in a small farming village in rural Jiangxi Province, Liao Zhicheng dreamed of becoming China’s “outstanding entrepreneur” so he could “change the fate of the poor family,” he writes on a Web site. His rags-to-riches hopes started to come true when he enrolled at the Finance and Economic Vocational College of Jiangxi and earned top academic honors, including a national scholarship to supplement family support. His father encouraged him to use the extra funds “to eat a little better.” But when his father fell ill, the family budget got even tighter. Liao, 21, realized he needed to borrow 6,000 yuan (about $875) to make ends meet. A small loan would mean the difference between staying in school and going back to the village. Pondering how far he might go with a little help, he remembered a Chinese saying: “Give me a drip, I’ll return you the wellspring.” Liao’s saga—and his earnest promises to study hard, make prompt repayments, and bring honor to his ancestors—has convinced 18 Chinese lenders to pool their money and invest in his future. Their goodwill comes with terms: 8 percent annual interest and regular payments spread over 13 months, all tracked on a Web… Education, Social Entrepreneurship 2009-08-18T23:00:54+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_house_that_brac_built/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_house_that_brac_built/ Neither those who knew the debonair young Fazle Abed nor Abed himself would have imagined how the course of his life would change forever with the deadly cyclone that hit Bangladesh in 1970. Killing as many as 500,000, the event was profound in its impact, devastating the lives of more than 3 million people, leading ultimately to the bloody liberation of Bangladesh, and launching one Shell Oil executive on an entirely new career path. In Freedom from Want, Ian Smillie chronicles the life and times of the newly formed nation of Bangladesh, its largely impoverished people, and an organization that would come to master both the art and science of development. Told as a laudatory case history, the book proceeds predictably. Smillie begins by tracing Abed’s privileged upbringing and early career, digressing to document the Abed family’s Bengali roots and the British imperialism that would lead ultimately to independence for Bangladesh, but quickly establishes a narrative pattern: Issue by issue, we learn how brac experiments with education, health care, and income generation; figures out how to integrate and scale up effective programs and enterprises; and drives to ensure lasting benefit to those served. This is a well-told account of an… Economic Development, Social Entrepreneurship 2009-08-18T23:00:40+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/a_fine_green_niche/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/a_fine_green_niche/ Growing up in Guangzhou, China, in the 1950s and 1960s, Maria Yee dreamed of being a physicist. At the same time, her father, a professor of architecture, inspired in her a lifelong interest in design. But when China’s Cultural Revolution scattered Maria’s family across prisons, mines, and farms and sent her to labor in a rock quarry, neither physics nor design seemed to be in her future. She eventually wound up working in a machinery factory while studying mechanical engineering at night school. Years later, however, Yee immigrated to California. There, she combined her knowledge of engineering with her early interest in design to establish Maria Yee Inc. (MYI), an ecologically friendly luxury furniture company based in Santa Cruz, Calif., that uses traditional Chinese joinery techniques in unique home furnishings. Since its founding in 1988, MYI has become a $30 million-a-year business that distributes its goods through retailers such as Crate & Barrel, Room & Board, and Best Buy’s Magnolia Home Theater. The company also owns its two factories in China—a rarity in the furniture world and a source of competitive advantage for the company. MYI has also earned a reputation as a leader in green furniture manufacturing. The company… Environment, Social Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility 2009-08-18T23:00:04+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/staying_vibrant_and_curious/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/staying_vibrant_and_curious/ I remember meeting John Gardner as if it were yesterday. It was 1989 and I was an MBA student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. I was sitting in a preview session of upcoming classes when a tall, graceful, elderly man in a gray suit and a fedora stood up to speak. His figure was lithe and his step was easy. He carried a sense of gravitas that made it impossible not to listen to what he had to say. “Why do civilizations rise and fall?” he asked. “Why do some people stop growing at age 30, just going from work to the couch and television, when others stay vibrant, curious, almost childlike, into their 80s and 90s?” I was hooked. I knew I needed to know this man, for it was clear to me even then that he would play an important role in my life. The grace and humility with which John spoke that day belied his powerful career. He’d been secretary of health, education, and welfare under President Lyndon Johnson, and president of the Carnegie Foundation. He’d written numerous books. And most thrilling from my perspective, he was an extraordinary social— and serial—entrepreneur, having founded Common… Social Entrepreneurship, Book Reviews 2009-08-18T23:00:01+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/social_entrepreneurship_revisited/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/social_entrepreneurship_revisited/ Social entrepreneurship is one of the most alluring terms on the problem-solving landscape today, and is in use even in the new Obama administration. The President is quite familiar with the term and has embraced a first-of-its-kind investment fund for social entrepreneurship. The question is not whether social entrepreneurship is a term in good currency, but what it actually means. This question motivated my three-year search for social entrepreneurship, which was funded by the Skoll and Ewing Marion Kauff man foundations. Ashoka founder and CEO Bill Drayton first used the term “social entrepreneurship” in the early 1980s, and it continues to inspire images of audacious social change—the kind that sweeps away the old approaches to solving intractable social problems such as disease, hunger, and poverty. Like business entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship involves a wave of creative destruction that remakes society. Although we will always need traditional social services— even more during times of great economic turmoil—social entrepreneurship focuses on changing the underlying dynamics that create the demand for services in the first place. Instead of treating society’s distress, social entrepreneurship holds hope for eliminating the distress altogether. Although people generally agree on this broad definition of social entrepreneurship, confusion reigns over… Social Entrepreneurship 2009-07-07T15:46:00+00:00