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. How do you explain something that your listener doesn’t understand? Put it in their own terms. Relate to their wants, needs and desires — what they know. Tell them a story. What I’m most looking forward to at the Social Enterprise Summit are [...]
Scarcity can be a very nasty thing. People war over scarce resources: oil, water, investment capital. For social entrepreneurs and impact investors, the war is not life-or-death, but it often does have a profound effect on one’s livelihood. When people think there is not enough to go around, self-interest kicks in, as does short-term thinking. [...]
Here’s something short and sweet to cure you of your workaholic blues during the recession. These four Ghanian postal workers use the sounds of their machinery to demonstrate how to make work not feel like work. So what exactly are you listening to? The two men seated at the table slap a letter rhythmically several [...]
It seems like once a year, the famous left-wing comedian John Stewart of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, gets angry enough to light a fire under one of his counterparts and the whole (liberal) world is overcome with shivers of awe and delight. Last year, it was Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money that received [...]
Now we have a problem. On January 12th, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the tiny island nation of Haiti. Just a month and a half later, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake ripped through the South American country of Chile. Death tolls in Haiti have now climbed well over 150,000 while Chile has reached at least [...]
Halle Tecco is the Founder and Executive Director of Yoga Bear, a non-profit providing more opportunities of health and wellness to cancer patients through the practice of yoga. Halle has worked as a Product Manager at various consumer-internet startups, including Enternships.com and Kiva.org. She also serves as an advisor to GreatNonprofits.org. A successful social entrepreneur [...]
Social reality game designer, Jane McGonigal, has been proving to the world for awhile now that video games don’t have to be a waste of time and on March 3rd, with the debut of her latest work, EVOKE, she’s going to do it again. EVOKE is like SIMS on steriods. You think it’s difficult raising [...]
Back in December, I came across Mr. Alex Cone, the marketing manager for MANA Nutrition, on twitter. He was tweeting about this organization that will tackle severe acute malnutrition with an innovative social business model producing ready-to-use-therapeutic-food (RUTF). After speaking with Cone about the process of being a start-up organization, I proposed a project to [...]
Harvard business graduate, Mark McGlade, is the entrepreneur sitting behind the helm of the latest social enterprise platform called Zoosa. Still in its beta phase, McGlade’s idea is to put an extra twist on the popularity of “Corporate Social Responsibility” and make it personal. Zoosa’s mission is to act as a venue that highlights socially [...]
Dear Pessimist, I know it’s not okay to push my ideas on other people. I know not everyone thinks the same, but lately, it’s been hard holding my tongue. Every once in awhile I run into you – in the street, at a party or in the gym and I’m amazed you’re still holding on. [...]
When I watch the shiny, intent faces of my Basque students as they stumble awkwardly over their English vocabulary in thick accents, it’s impossible to fathom that any of them could become a serious danger to society. Granted, they have to barricade the ground floor of windows to prevent the weekend prowlers from making a [...]
45% of people in the United States like their jobs. That’s the depressing conclusion of a recent Conference Board survey on job satisfaction. Of course, the percentage would surely be much higher if the Conference Board was only measuring employees of non-profits or social enterprises, right? There, the sense of purpose and mission drives people [...]
