2011: The Year of Working Together

Written by on March 30, 2011 in Entrepreneurship - No comments


On Wednesday I sat down with Brad Brown, the executive director of Social Venture Partners Minnesota, to discuss EPCON 2011: The Engaged Philanthropy Conference, an annual event in Minneapolis focusing on social innovation. The theme this year is “Better Together,” one that I’ve been seeing a lot of lately in the social entrepreneurship space:

  • On Tuesday I posted about Dreams InDeed International founder David Haskell. He described his Theory of Change and push to build collaboration in addressing world problems.
  • Earlier today I sat in on a call with Ashoka leadership, including founder Bill Drayton, discussing the Ashoka Globalizer program — a scaling model bringing proven local solutions to social issues around the world.
  • Finally, the Skoll World Forum kicked off today with the nucleus of discussion revolving around “Large Scale Change – Ecosystems, Networks & Collaborative Action.”

Are we nearing a critical mass of open-minded changemakers willing to address worldly issues together? We might be. As Drayton puts it, social entrepreneurs are committed to the “good of all.” In the midst of the Middle East and Africa revolutions, Ashoka Arab World Fellows came together to address complicated social issues before, during and after Egypt’s 17-day protest — Ashoka has 40 Fellows in Egypt alone.

Much like the collaboration in Egypt, Brown hopes Social Venture Partners Minnesota, one of 26 local branches from an international citizen-empowering network from Toyko to Tucson, will be able to engage this movement of cooperation at EPCON 2011 in June, and at the Social Venture Partners International Conference (also in Minneapolis) in October. “We’re looking to bring together a wide variety of citizens, businesses and social ventures,” explains Brown. “Connective tissues between all sectors exist, we just have to put everyone in the same room.”

Ashoka also explores the connectivity between the citizen sector and corporations. Their Hybrid Value Chain approach leverages business-social relationships to address market failures.

Since the beginning of human existence communication was key to knowledge sharing, survival and growth. Now is no different. Start a partnership (or two) in your community and spark local-change innovation.

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Tristan

Tristan is a SocialEarth cofounder, freelance writer, community builder and solution journalist who covers creativity, social innovation and technology. He has worked with Ashoka and Best Buy promoting social entrepreneurship and responsibility.

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