48 participants representing 17 countries converged upon Colorado State University on July 7th, 2010 to kick off the fourth annual International Development Design Summit (IDDS). IDDS aims to produce innovative, scalable technologies and enterprises to meet the very real needs of the 2.6 billion people earning less than $2-a-day. For this year’s Summit, the focus [...]
This is a partner column in conjunction with Ashoka’s Change InSight blog. Every week I’m covering the top news, highlights, events and opportunities in the realm of social entrepreneurship. Everyday changemakers are addressing the hard questions of local, national and global quandaries. This weekly article accentuates those individuals and organizations creating systematic and lasting change [...]
“People in poverty are championing the way out of poverty,” declared Daphne Nederhorst, Ashoka Fellow and founder of Sawa Global, an organization highlighting local changemakers in their home communities. Four Sawa Global employees, including Nederhorst, recently flew to Haiti from their home base in Vancouver, British Columbia. Once on the ground, they didn’t bark orders [...]
This is a partner column in conjunction with Ashoka’s Change InSight blog. Every week I’m covering the top news, highlights, events and opportunities in the realm of social entrepreneurship. Everyday changemakers are addressing the hard questions of local, national and global quandaries. This weekly article accentuates those individuals and organizations creating systematic and lasting change [...]
By Crystal C. Yan Last week, I attended the Microfinance USA 2010 Conference as one of more than 200 student conference attendees. I sat in on “Student-Led Microfinance Clubs”, a panel of individuals working to empower students to be a part of the microfinance movement. The panel was comprised of university faculty, university students, and [...]
Social Venture Partners Minnesota is proud to announce the four finalists for the Social Entrepreneur’s Cup awards. The Social Entrepreneur’s Cup is a competition to find and recognize Minnesota’s most innovative and effective social entrepreneurs and the organizations they lead. The four finalists compete cash awards and services as part of the Engaged Philanthropy Conference [...]
Education Not all volunteer opportunities are created equal. Instead of sending volunteers overseas to paint classrooms or hand out food – projects with ephemeral impact, Jane Reitsma makes sure the impact lasts. Jane’s vision is to help secondary students learn and make a difference through international community development. It is the crux of her mission [...]
This is a partner column in conjunction with Ashoka’s Change InSight blog. Every week I’m covering the top news, highlights, events and opportunities in the realm of social entrepreneurship. 2010 Social Enterprise Summit and World Forum in San Francisco Follow my coverage from each day of the Summit: * Day 1 — Social Engagement Through [...]
We’ve all had the “What is social entrepreneurship?” discussion. The topic was even the recent focus of Stanford Social Innovation Review’s cover article. Yet the definitions we apply to social enterprise continue to vary widely based on a range of considerations. Is a social enterprise necessarily for-profit or non-profit? How much profit is acceptable for [...]
The following is a shared post with the Social Enterprise Alliance blog. Following the previous night’s performance of soothing and rustic tones of Wake For Dead, The Grateful Dead cover band with a Celtic twist, Day 3 at the 2010 Social Enterprise Summit started out with some Aussie flavor. I attended the Stories from Australian [...]
The following is a shared post with the Social Enterprise Alliance blog. Government and social enterprise The 2010 Social Enterprise Summit opened its second day with a plenary panel delving into the government and social enterprise collaboration. Social Enterprise Alliance public policy board member Jim Schorr started the event questioning the state of the union [...]
The following is a shared post with the Social Enterprise Alliance blog. The 2010 Social Enterprise Summit and World Forum (#SocEnt10) kicked off Wednesday with a rallying call to Generation Y. As I weaved my way through the hoopla of the Summit showcase and reception I found many organizations that focus a large amount of [...]
Social Entrepreneurship Knitting is often associated with grandmas, not social enterprise. However, Cambodian Knits founder and social entrepreneur Monika Nowaczyk makes the connection. At six years old Monika fled Communist Poland to live a better life in Canada. As a child she didn’t fully understand the situation she was in, but looking back realizes how [...]
