The Social Entrepreneurship has started today and the readings and speakers have been quite fascinating, intriguing and thought-provoking (although I need to take a critical view of the emphasis and structure of the course itself) . My first reaction (to everyone now involved in the Renewable Energy Enterprises Network, REEN) is that in terms of developing ourselves as a social enterprise that seeks to seed more of such, we really need to build our own knowledge base of what it actually means as inspired practitioners. So I would really encourage you to take time and effort to do some studies in the context of REEN and the broader socio-political-economic environment it is situated with a critical eye.
I have the list of very helpful readings from today's class with some highlights and keywords.
You can find the course materials through here http://seinterterm2011.weebly.
and I will try to keep my reflections on the readings and class on my blog (yes push me if I do not deliver since I think this is important and will post today's notes later).
Readings from today (in order of relevance and helpfulness of these materials)
"In Kenya, Huts Far Off the Grid Harness the Sun.” Elisabeth Rosenthal – 12-25-2010 – Front page NYT
This article basically outlined the business case and a nascent market for what REEN can provide in its full-fledge especially when it comes to off-grid solar systems. In the article it cited several cases and places where good busniess models seem to be up and running -- potential resources for us. And the rest of the stuff we already know so be proud.
| Everyone a Changemaker:SE's ultimate goal | |
Working with these social entrepreneurs, Ashoka builds
communities of innovators who work collectively to transform
society, and to design new ways for the social sector to become
more productive, entrepreneurial and globally integrated. There
are now over 1,750 Ashoka leading social entrepreneurs, and
Ashoka serves over 60 countries.
Key words: citizen sector, multiplying society's capacity, pattern-changing leading social entrepreneurs, results-based mission and operation, transforming the youth years, underlining skills for young enterprises: applied empathy, teamwork and leadership
| Building a Performance Measurement System | |
| File Size: | 1777 kb |
| File Type: | |
"Performance measurement provides vital information for advancing
social innovation: the process of developing, testing, and honing
new and potentially transformative approaches to existing social
issues. With the right performance metrics, data, and analysis in
hand, social innovators—nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and businesses that offer innovative, results-driven solutions tosocial problems—can make well-informed management decisions to drive continuous improvement and long-term social impact." This document is a step-by-step, practical guide to create or strengthen a customized performance measurement system for: ƒƒ Start-up or existing nonprofit organizations (including direct service, advocacy, associations/networks, and capacity-building organizations).
Results (magnitude) in various activities and metrics are crucial to measure the social and environmental impacts of REEN or other seedling organizations. Setting the standards prior to the execution of the projects seems to be important if we are to ensure the resource efficiency of our organization and the effectiveness of our work.
Class Notes Jan 11th, 2011:
Notes from social Entrepreneurship Interim class At Amherst
SE: “a social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change.” Wiki
A SE is not a risk taker in the sense that he or she plan, does research, and strategize
Takes Imagination, gives flexibility
“SEs are not content just to fish or teach how to fish. They will not cease until they have revolutionalized the whole fishing industry. " CEO Ashoko
Major themes in the SE concepts in this course:
ü Profitable: could be in several years, not relying solely on grant money
ü Sustainable:
ü Scalable: easy to duplicate and spreadable
ü Measurable:e.g. SE vs private venture: SE has to have a built-in social impact measurement system
*Be aware of unintended processes, contents or products for potential social disasters.
Guest speaker: Dean’s Beans' founder Dean Cycon
Global coffee supply chain:95% of people involved in the raw coffee bean production are marginalized indigenous people.
Cotton uses 50% of words pesticides supply, coffee plantation only the second
Language barriers of indigenous ppl prevent them from broader participation in the global
Kenya: failed case: advocate for bean plantation free of pesticides
because: donated by German and American aid agencies who require Kenyan government to buy these pesticides.
Q:How has your enterprise be able to contribute to the revolutionization of policy making and global supply chain practices? Given the failure in Kenya, what are the situations competing with traditional aid agencies?--> not all aid programs are bad, just need to be cautious of the tie-backs and strings attached to it.
Three pillars of Dean’s Beans' operation and other strategies:
Economics, ecology and People-centered development (meaning trade relationship built on development in the community, identify comunities' priority based on cash and equity available at Bean’s Dean. Some projects go on for 15 years)
Listening and observing
Facilitating program design and funding: gender violence, not a lack of funding, address fundamental challengesn in the community, not necessarily what outsiders see as important.
Case: Guatemala
Designing a women’s healthcare fund financed by the distribution and management of micro-loans. Promoting indigenous radio programs that provide crop and market information for coffee farmers.
Different from having intermediate micro-credit manager who sometimes sucks away a lot of money. We want micro-bank come in to teach women how to run the program. So women run their own banks. Interests payment channeled into a common pool, which took four years. Manageable size matters. Lasted 8 eight years but shrank back after uncontrollable size.
Peru:assisting coops of 300 families to enter the American market. Funding reforestation and women’s loan program.
Question: who monitors the funds? What happens when borrowers failed to reply?-- will continue the discussion with this guy via email.
How does a progressive funders keep its enterprises embedded mission as it progresses on and have a change of leadership, or when facing acquisition attempts by bigger corporations?
Growth is an outcome of business done well, not the ultimate goal
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