Social ROI: A Social Entrepreneurship Blog

Corporate giving has traditionally involved writing a check and calling it a day. But at a time when demands for nonprofit services are on the rise, cash donations are on the decline. Meanwhile, a national call-to-service is spotlighting the power of volunteerism.

Enter the new corporate citizen: Instead of donating money to pay for work, companies can cut out the middle man — through pro-bono engagement and skills-based volunteerism. If corporate philanthropy is expanded to include the prized commodity of workplace talent, the relationship can reap considerably more value — and do far more good — for nonprofits and communities in need.

Deloitte Podcast

Highlights:

·         The Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey suggests many nonprofits and companies should think about pro bono as an actual currency. What exactly does that mean?

·         Given the current pressures on revenue in both the private and nonprofit sectors, how can organizations go about making the investments needed to take advantage of skilled volunteers?

·         How has Deloitte helped College Summit overcome organizational challenges through its pro-bono work?

·         It sounds deceptively simple: Nonprofits are asking for money to pay for work, when they could just be asking companies for the work itself. Why isn’t more of this happening?

Guests:

·         Dean Furbush, president, College Summit

·         Evan Hochberg, national director, Community Involvement, Deloitte Services LP

·         Humbelina Sanchez, director, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Great profile of charity: water in the New York Times– the personal story of the founder is interesting:

Five years ago, Mr. Harrison was a nightclub promoter in Manhattan who spent his nights surrounded by friends in a blur of alcohol, cocaine and marijuana. He lived in a luxurious apartment and drove a BMW — but then on a vacation in South America he underwent a spiritual crisis.

Mr. Harrison, now 33, found an aid organization that would accept him as a volunteer photographer — if he paid $500 a month to cover expenses. And so he did. The organization was Mercy Ships, a Christian aid group that performs surgeries in poor countries with volunteer doctors.

He went on to found charity: water, which is essentially a marketing organization:

Armed with nothing but a natural gift for promotion, and for wheedling donations from people, Mr. Harrison started his group, called charity: water — and it has been stunningly successful. In three years, he says, his group has raised $10 million (most of that last year alone) from 50,000 individual donors, providing clean water to nearly one million people in Africa and Asia.

The article deserves a read, so check it out here.

Margaret is a Coffee Connections farmer in Kenya.  She has been a coffee farmer for decades, but during last year’s harvest she only made 0.02USD per lb of coffee sold.  That same lb of coffee was sold for over 12.00 USD in western markets. Margaret can not afford to keep her daughter in school any longer, because her coffee sells for so little. 

Coffee Connections works to alleviate rural poverty through moving the coffee of impoverished farmers, such as Margaret, up the value chain. This program will increase her annual income by 7000% and give her a stake-hold in a farmer owned coffee company in the USA.  Please vote for Coffee Connections on www.ideablob.comto ensure the much needed start-up funding is obtained. To stay up to date with Coffee Connections, please click here.

I found this social enterprise quite intriguing: Cards From Africa

We are a Rwandan social enterprise you might be interested in blogging about, especially with the 15th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide coming up soon. Cards from Africa provides employment handcrafting greeting cards to young people in Rwanda who have been orphaned by the genocide and now serve as heads of households. With the strong wages they receive, these orphans are able to provide for their younger siblings and keep them in school, thus improving their future prospects. I have attached our press release to this email.

We are working to raise awareness of the aftermath of the genocide, as well as of the innovative strategies that are being used to rebuild the nation. We hope you would be interested in writing about us! Please let me know if you have any questions, or if we could be of further assistance.

From the press release:

Fifteen years after the Rwandan genocide left behind a generation without parents, Cards from Africa is commemorating the anniversary by celebrating the lives of orphaned young people transformed through a unique combination of work and mentorship.

“Every day used to be so difficult,” recounts Florance Uwingeneye, who lost both parents and a younger sister in the 1994 genocide. “All the things we had while our parents were alive disappeared. Since I joined Cards from Africa, my life has changed tremendously.”
Read the entire release here

GoodCompany Ventures, a team of social finance investors and start-up experts, today announced the launch of a business incubator targeting entrepreneurs with innovative solutions to unmet social needs. The program will provide facilities, mentoring and access to a network of capital sources to qualified entrepreneurs whose business models offer investors an attractive mix of financial return and social impact. The program will culminate in a venture fair where companies will pitch their ideas to investors.

Here’s a link to their website and a link to their press release.

The down economy is driving more MBAs down socially responsible businesstracks, according to the story “What Now for MBAs?” on BNET.com. Top-tier schools like Duke and Yale have responded by creating programs to prepare social entrepreneurs. The story lays out the best feeder schools for social entrepreneur positions, the most lucrative jobs and the major MBA recruiters.

You can see the story here: http://www.bnet.com/2436-13070_23-267286.html

Gretchen sends us this story about some work that students and a professor from Cornell University are doing with a small entrepreneur in Botswana who is trying to market natural food products to improve rural livelihoods:

Entrepreneur and self-described “ideas man” Frank Taylor moved from Cape Town, South Africa to Botswana seeking a challenge, trading game skins and leading archaeology, ethnology and botany exhibitions for a museum in South Africa. “I was living on the smell of an oil rag,” Taylor said. “A jack of all trades, master of none.”

43 years later, Taylor still lives in Botswana and recently started a natural food products company called WildFoods that he says is the only company in southern Africa to produce dried snacks made from native foods that are grown in the wild including nuts, fruits and melons on a commercial scale.

With a staff of 11 that has no formal training in marketing or management and no financing but plenty of passion and business acumen, Taylor aims to market these products to the country’s burgeoning tourism industry to improve the livelihoods of rural communities in Botswana.

For the next week, three students and an applied economics and management professor from Cornell University will be working with Taylor on developing marketing strategies to increase distribution of the company’s products among tourists in Botswana. Cornell’s Emerging Markets program has been organizing such trips for students who are interested in hands on business development experience in Africa for the past few years.

By the end of the trip, the students will have developed a situation analysis and strategic review of the company; a profile that the company can use to market itself to potential buyers; and recommendations about potential marketing strategies and ways to streamline inventory control, costing and bookkeeping. In the coming months, the students will also write a case study about the business to submit for publication.

WildFoods, which was established in 2007, produces jam and snacks made from an indigenous fruit called marula, chocolate covered marula nut clusters, and dried wild cucumber and melon slices, made from fruits that have yet to be extensively exploited commercially and otherwise often go to rot or are eaten by animals.

The products are currently distributed in some supermarkets and craft stores and on two airlines in Botswana and South Africa. Taylor would like to focus on increasing distribution in the tourism industry and has seen interest from lodges in game reserves in Botswana and South Africa.

Taylor buys the raw materials from local rural people, principally women. “We can really have a big economic impact on these small subsistence farmers,” Taylor said. “The more products we can offer, the more people we can employ, the greater economic impact we can have.”

Taylor said he purchases all the fruit a community has harvested even if it is more than he needs. “We cannot refuse to buy because we see what happens when we do that,” Taylor said. “People make all sorts of promises and then never follow through. That’s the worst thing you can do.”

WildFoods is currently in dialogue with a local community development organization that wants to improve local livelihoods through the harvesting of natural products but lacks the technical expertise and facilities to process products, which is where Taylor’s business comes in.

Taylor said the company’s main challenges include a lack of financing and a lack of technical expertise to improve and expand its range of products. Although WildFoods has yet to make a profit, Taylor said he would like to eventually be able to have all workers share in the profits and to be able to set a maximum deferential between the lowest paid and the highest paid workers. “I want to see the workers getting a better deal,” he said.

One of WildFoods’ products, Marula Stix, recently won the 2008 Africa Natural Product Award from PhytoTrade Africa, Africa’s only trade association dedicated to the development of a sustainable natural products industry. The award is given to a business in southern Africa that is committed to ethical and sustainable products that use natural ingredients.

“Frank Taylor has long been a driving force behind the commercialization of natural products in southern Africa,” PhytoTrade’s CEO said in a press release. “He has led by example through his commitment to environmental sustainability and community development.”

Taylor arrived in Botswana 43 years ago with what would be the equivalent of US$25 today in his pocket. He initially worked for a trading company and later started a tanning and taxidermy operation in northern Botswana. In 1975, he moved to Gabane, about 10 kilometers outside the capital city of Gaborone, and started Pelegano Village Industries, a non-governmental community development organizations that he still directs. He also established Veld Products Research, an organization that researches and develops uses for non-timber forest products to benefit local communities.

Muhammad Yunus:

It’s extreme greed. You misled people into getting involved. It’s irresponsible capitalism.

The article then highlights the most interesting part:

The most interesting part of the event was when Yunus talked to Michael Bishop, who’s co-written an entire book called “Philanthrocapitalism” based on the idea that the profit motive is a really good thing when it comes to philanthropy. He kept on trying to get Yunus to agree to this thesis, and Yunus steadfastly resisted.

Link

VisionSpring, an Acumen Fund portfolio company, uses a wholesale distribution and franchising model to administer vision tests and sell low-cost reading glasses to India’s poor who are suffering from reduced vision. They do this by recruiting local Vision Entrepreneurs who are trained to operate a mini franchise, and travel from village to village to conduct check eyesight and sell glasses. One pair, with case and cleaning cloth, costs from $2 to $4.

Check out their new blog at Business in a Bag.

Global Social Venture Finals are today. Check out www.socialvc.net for details.

Here’s the page if you want to see the teams in the finals

Bio Power Technology- Prasetiya Mulya Business School, Indonesia

BioVolt- MIT Sloan School of Management

Build Your Own Village- Gordon Institute of Business Science, South Africa

Defen Safety Syringe- National Chengchi University, Taiwan

Fair Planet Brasil- ESSEC Business School, France

Greenlight Organic- University of California, Davis

Husk Power Systems- Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia

Market for Change- Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

MicroEnergy Credit Corporation- Columbia Business School

Wine with a Passion- Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University