How To Be A Social Entrepreneur

HOW TO BE

A Social Entrepreneur

by Mohit Mukherjee

Edited & Designed by Ashley Hinson Dhakal

How To Be A Social Entrepreneur by Mohit Mukherjee

Director, Changemaker International Founder, Centre for Executive Education at the United Nations-mandated University for Peace

Edited & Designed by Ashley Hinson Dhakal www.ashleydhakal.com

Special Thanks to Stephen Ladek www.ladek.com For more resources, inspiration, and to connect with other social entrepreneurs, visit www.changemakerintl.com

All Content © 2015 No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means without prior written permission, except for brief excerpts in reviews or analysis. All images published under Creative Commons license, unless otherwise noted.

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Dedication One morning, feeling overwhelmed with all the tasks of the day, I asked my older daughter, Zelia, who’s seven, for her advice just before she was heading to summer camp. This is what she told me: “Baba (meaning ‘Dad’ in Bengali), start by doing the hardest thing that you have to do. Don’t stop till you’re finished. If you feel like taking a break, like getting a chocolate, don’t. Once you’re finished, you can do something fun. Then start the next thing. But don’t try to do too many things – just 3. Maybe 5. Ok, Baba?” Young people, I’m realizing, have an amazing wisdom and the more we can do as adults to help that blossom, the better the world will be. And by better, I mean a world where there is more social justice, environmental care, happiness and peace. My younger daughter, Soleil, is five. She expresses her love for people with spontaneous hugs. That morning I got an extra hug and kiss from her. This handbook is dedicated to Zelia and Soleil, who remind me daily of the incredible potential of every one of us. They have helped me realize that there’s nothing that I do that’s more challenging than helping unleash this potential – and certainly nothing as rewarding either. And to my wife, Eliana, whose support and love have been unconditional. 3

Start by doing the hardest thing that you have to do. Don’t stop till you’re finished.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction A Call to Action ................................................................................................6 1 What’s the Problem? Identifying the Issue ...............................................................................10 2 Let’s Strategize: Mission, Vision & Theory of Change .............................................................. 18 3 Legalities: For Profit, Non Profit, and Hybrid .......................................................................... 31 4 The Business Model: Sustaining the Organization ................................................................... 43 5 Market Leadership: Becoming a True Leader ...........................................................................54 6 Measuring Impact: Developing a Scoreboard ......................................................................... 66 7 The Team: Looking Beyond My Best Friends ........................................................................... 75 8 Growing the Venture: Why, How, and If .................................................................................. 84 9 Knowing Myself Better: It’s a Journey ..................................................................................... 94 Closing Thoughts Next Steps & Resources ................................................................... 109 4

Your Roadmap: This book is divided into 9 chapters, each with 4 basic elements An Introduction to a integral element of becoming a social entrepreneur... ...and an explanation of: ”Why is this Critical?...

...followed by a series of Questions to ask yourself ... ...and lastly, a hands-on exercise, where it’s Your Turn to show your stuff. Throughout, you’ll find Living Cases of real world social enterprises making a difference, and Voices of Social Entrepreneurs telling first hand, the challenges and triumphs of using business to change the world.

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INTRODUCTION

A Call to Action

In This Chapter: • Persistent Questions • Clarity of Purpose • Starting Now

INTRODUCTION

The world is changing very fast... ...just in case you hadn’t noticed. It may just have become the norm for you. There’s a good chance that you can’t remember what it was like before Facebook was around. Ten years ago, smartphones did not exist. Today, there are over 100,000 apps being developed daily. Ten years ago, college-level online courses were the exception – today, most U.S. universities have them. Ten years ago, a 19-year old was more likely to rent a movie than to download one. When was the last time you went to a CD store or a Blockbuster? Ever since the Berlin wall came down in 1989 and the internet entered the public domain, we’ve been living in a revolution. A technology-driven revolution that’s changed the way you share information with your friends, the way you get the news, the way you shop, the way you learn, the way you listen to music or movies, and no doubt the way you think. Welcome to the ‘Conceptual Age’. How are you doing?

Wait, don’t tell me...I 7

have an app for that!

So Why Me? x

Paris

x

Calcu

tta

x

x

Athens

Bombay

x

Geneva

x Tokyo

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x Singapore

Ever since I started my senior year of college at Stanford University in 1994, I have been thinking about the broad question,

“What impact do I want to make in my life?” This guidebook is my attempt to synthesize 20 years of reflections into a single handbook on ‘how to be a social entrepreneur.’ It includes lessons gleaned from eight jobs in five countries, countless conversations with individuals ranging from a Nobel Peace prize winner to my daughters, readings in positive psychology, and two decades of soul searching. This journey helped me understand my top three strengths – My love of learning, natural curiosity, and ability to synthesize and communicate big ideas to assist others in finding their path to personal success. The Handbook will take you through the steps necessary to help you connect with your passions and strengths. You will create a business plan that will enable you to channel these passions and strengths into your life’s work.

Social Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, as many people go on to pursue their passion without starting a new organization. You might be one of those people. However, I still think this handbook will be helpful to you as it will take you through many of the steps required to reflect deeply on your purpose. As you’ll see in the following chapters, following one’s purpose takes many forms. One social entrepreneur who started a bank with the aim of eradicating poverty said, “I’m very selfish. I became a social entrepreneur to maximize my own happiness. Because nothing gave me more happiness than helping someone get out of poverty.”

So this handbook could have also been titled, “How To Find Happiness” but then it would have needed to be much thicker as I firmly believe that there are many, many paths to ‘well-being,’ the term psychologists are now using for ‘happiness’. I think that being a social entrepreneur is just one path to personal well-being, but to me... It’s

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the best one!

CHAPTER ONE

What’s the Problem?

Identifying the Issue

In This Chapter: • Identifying the Issue • Brainstorming • The 4 Ws

INTRODUCTION

Why Identifying the Issue is Critical “Make the world more open and connected” – that may be Facebook’s vision, but when Mark Zuckerberg came up with the idea of the social network, he really just wanted to know if the women in his freshman dorm were single or not. I wouldn’t call Mark a social entrepreneur, but he certainly was motivated to make his idea work. Picking the ‘issue’ that is going to be the focus of your organization is critical. The issue needs to be ‘real’ for you. It could be as simple as the frustration you feel when so much food in your house gets wasted while people near you are living on food stamps. It could be as far away from you as Ecuador, where you travelled to on vacation, and noticed street children who did not have shoes, while at home you have four pairs that you don’t wear any longer. Even though you’re back home, thousands of miles from Ecuador, the idea of being able to help these kids haunts you.

Jeff Skoll Founder, Ebay “Not everyone can be Gandhi, but each of us has the power to make sure our own lives count – and it’s those millions of lives that will ultimately build a better world.” www.doonething.org/heroes/pages-s/ skoll-quotes.htm

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“ Whatever issue you

choose, you’ll become an expert on - whether you like it or not. ”

If it’s shoes for children in Ecuador, you’ll end up learning all about the diseases one can pick up as a result of infected cuts on the feet. You’ll research the political and social history of Ecuador, talk about the economics of shoe manufacturing at dinner and dream about shoes at night… Have you ever noticed that dogs and their owners look and act in similar ways? You will be shaped by the issue you pick. When I started an organization that hosts travelling courses, it changed the way I travel – I viewed every new place as a potential site for hosting a course. So, pick the issue carefully – it will become your life! You may think, “Oh this is just going to be a 2-year gig...,” but it will suck you in. If I had to do it over, I’d start a social enterprise educating people on the heath benefits of eating dark chocolate! You may be interested in the issue of ‘bullying at school.’ You’ll find yourself learning a lot about teen suicide and the warning signs. Soon, you’ll be attending conferences, networking and considering the feasibility of a call center operated by teens for teens… In other words, it’s a “slippery slope” - once you start the ride, there’s no going back. 12

Amani Institute

Living Cases

Amani Institute was built on the premise that today’s problems are cross-disciplinary and global leaders need intensive, focused education to solve such problems. At the same time, the traditional educational system is too expensive for many and still doesn’t provide the skills needed for jobs in international development. Amani Institute (‘Amani’ meaning Peace) is a training center that aims to reframe the concept of sociallyconscious education.

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Their curriculum combines field-based learning with specific skills training, and encourages a personal journey for the student, enabling an understanding of one’s passions and preparing the student for a career facing the world’s most pressing issues. The institute offers certificate programs in Social Innovation as well as other trainings that take place at the Institute’s headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and in Brazil. The institute believes that one should “Train intensely for your career of impact - the way a doctor or soldier or Olympic athlete would train.“

> Source: www.amaniinstitute.org/

The Issue: Traditional education is too expensive for many and still doesn’t provide the skills needed for jobs in international development.

Critical Questions

Here Are 10 Questions To Go Through After Engaging In The ‘Brainstorming’ Process. (You’ll Need Something To Write With As You Go Through This.)

OK, let’s get to it! What’s the issue you’re going to focus on in building your social enterprise? 1. What’s an issue area that you really care about a lot? ____________________________________ 2. Why is the issue meaningful to you? ______________________________________________________ 3. What’s ‘awesome’ about the issue? _______________________________________________________ 4. What’s something relating to this issue that could be much better? __________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. What’s the smallest change you could make that could have the biggest impact? __________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Who would benefit? _______________________________________________________________________ 7. Who might pay for the benefits/ or support the initiative? ________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 8. Is it a big idea? What could make it bigger? _______________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 9. What are your unique strengths and how do they connect to this issue? __________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 10. How energized and excited are you about the ride ahead and becoming an expert in this area? ________________________________________________________________________________ 14

YOUR TURN

Brainstorming Did you know that your brain is divided into two hemispheres? The left side of your brain is the side that thinks analytically - It prioritizes, helps decide what’s most feasible, rational, and logical. The right side of your brain is the one that’s in charge of creative thinking. Most of the work you do in school engages the left side of your brain. For this brainstorming process, I’m going to ask you to go into that creative, spontaneous, emotional, unconstrained right side of your head. Yes, see the switch below your ear...

...please turn that on!

t ORLD’ a W E H T ‘BEST IN Who is ? EO. orming t called ID r s y n n i a a p r m e b comput esign co

d t hat it’s a g from the firs t t s e g g su in I’d like to signed everyth fog up. e d n’t They’ve goggles that do ing e follow . to h t e s e u v o a m ively ey h rnia, th em think creat ur o f li a C in r yo elps th offices elines fo lls – it h id a u g w In their e ir e the sam p on th ‘rules’ u hat you adopt tt ion: I sugges ing sess m r o t s brain eas own o bad id t write them d n e r a e – jus t! 1. Ther ge ideas + ideas as leas d ju ’t n 2. Do ity…30 ) r quant o f a group as o e G in id if ( 3. d il e one tim urage w 4. Enco rson speaks at pe 5. One rg fun! : IDEO.o t e u v o a H k c e 6. ore, ch > For m

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WHAT? You’ll need to capture and write down your ideas. Your goal is to come with a minimum of 30 ideas. The more the better. Do they all have to be great ideas? No. Do they have to be doable? No. (This is not the time to judge) So why go through this process?

The 4Ws of Brainstorming Jot down a few ideas as you go through the boxes on this page. Use additional paper to capture your thoughts.

WHY? You’re doing this because you first want to consider the world of possibilities in order to make the best choice on which ‘Problem’ you’re going to focus on. Sometimes, the idea that seemed ‘wild and crazy’ initially is the one that you’ll decide to move forward with!

WHERE? Is there a place that inspires you where you feel you’d be able to think creatively? Some of my best ideas come in the shower, or the coffee shop near my house. You need to identify a place where you could brainstorm for up to 45 minutes without being interrupted.

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WHO? Is there someone you’ll be collaborating with for the social enterprise you’d like to start? If yes, invite him/her/them into the brainstorming.

“Social Entrepreneurs make ideas as simple and understandable as possible so that thousands of local changemakers can step up to the plate and make it happen.”

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”

Swami Vivekananda

Bill Drayton, Founder of Ashoka

Additional Resources The additional resources below, and at the end of each chapter, have been independently developed and may help you in the process of establishing your social enterprise. 1. A guided process: 9 steps on How do Define the Problem: www.wikihow.com/Define-a-Problem 2. The Power of Defining the Problem (short HBR blog post with examples): http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/09/the_power_of_defining_the_prob.html 3. The UnLtd Toolkit: Project Concept & Design https://unltd.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ stage-2.pdf 17

CHAPTER TWO

Let’s Strategize! Theory Of Change

Mission

In This Chapter: • How Will it Work? • Involving Others • Gaining Credibility

Vision

INTRODUCTION

This chapter... ...will lead you through the process of developing a mission statement for your social enterprise. It will also help you articulate your vision – in other words, how will things look if you’re successful in implementing your mission. The last critical piece of this process is the ‘Theory of Change’ – it essentially helps answer the question, “Why and how will my approach to solving the problem that I’ve identified actually work?”

When you have a clear mission... you’ll be in a good position to present your Social Enterprise to a stranger. When you have a vision of what ‘success’ looks like... you’ll be able to inspire others to join you. And when you can explain your ‘Theory of Change’ to your mother or father... you’ll be in a great position to be able to raise money for your enterprise.

Note: If you’ve already decided who to involve on your venture, this is a great time to get them involved. Remember, whoever helps you develop the mission and vision is likely to be very committed to making it happen. It’s the “slippery slope effect!” Ok – let’s slide! 19

Why Critical?

Why is this Critical? Mission You will hear about successful social entrepreneurs who did not write a business plan – no written mission, vision, or theory of change. While sometimes the motivation to solve an important problem using a new approach is enough to get you out of bed in the morning, if you want to involve others in your enterprise, a written mission statement is critical. At the University for Peace in Costa Rica, the mission statement is painted on a wall, like a mural, with the logo of the United Nations and their slogan, “Our Hope for Peace”. Students love to get their picture taken in front of it. While everyone agrees that it’s way too long (60 words), it is dripping with inspiration. UPEACE Mission Statement: “...To provide humanity with an international ` institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations.”

60 words. Dripping with inspiration. 20

Vision With the vision, it’s not as critical to have it written down - it’s more important to be able to describe the vision in a way that people can see it rather than to simply read words from a page. The vision of what may be possible as a result of the social enterprise’s programs helps your team to keep going through tough times. For those of you who are runners, it’s about knowing how satisfied you’ll feel when you’ve finished your 10 km (6 mile) run. It’s what you need to motivate you to get from mile 3 to 4. Or, if you’re writing a 10-page term paper and are on page 2, it’s the vision of your graduation day that gives you the stamina to keep going. But beyond the internal motivation, the vision and mission give your organization credibility. It’s like having a business card. You don’t necessarily need one to be in business, but it conveys professionalism. It says...

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"Hey, not only am I a social entrepreneur, but I'm going to make it work in the long run."

So what about the ‘Theory of Change?’ Well, that’s the icing on the cake.

Theory of Change Your ‘Theory of Change’ is like the icing on the cake. For those of you who have a ‘sweet tooth’, you know that the icing separates the ‘good’ cakes from the ‘great’ ones. Many social enterprises that I’ve come across have an inspiring mission statement and compelling programs, but something is missing. Unfortunately, it’s usually the Theory of Change.

All right, so what is the ‘Theory of Change’? Simply put, the Theory of Change logically explains the link between the organization’s mission statement and its programs. The Theory of Change explains why the organization does what it does. 22

The Theory of Change is best illustrated through an example... You’ll recall that Grameen Bank’s mission is to enable the poor, especially the poorest, to create a world without poverty. When you look at ‘what’ Grameen does, its main program is providing small loans to poor people. Why does the organization do this? For someone familiar with microcredit, the answer may be self evident. But many may not see the connection. So, if asked the question, “Why do you give micro loans to poor people if you’re trying to create a world without poverty?”, Mohammed Yunus might answer:

...if...

“Well, my deep believe is that if a poor person has access to capital, then she will be able to set up a micro-enterprise, generate profits, pay back the loan, and move her family out of poverty.”

...then...

Notice the “…if….then….” logical link made in this answer above. A clearly articulated Theory of Change should be able to make this ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ link between the organization’s programs and the impact that it intends to have. Your Theory of Change may be obvious to you, but not to others. It explains why your programs will have the desired impact illustrated in your mission statement. It makes your strategy clear and shows professionalism. And most importantly, it can turn an otherwise ‘good’ organization into a ‘great’ one.

We’ll make sure not to forget it! 23

d.light is a social business based on providing safe and reliable solar light sources for the 1 in 3 people globally, that do not have access to reliable sources of electricity. The for-profit enterprise has an ambitious vision: “To transform the lives of at least 100 million people by 2020.”

“...to enable households without reliable electricity to Attain the Same Quality of Life as those with electricity”

The company was born out of a design class after the founder, Sam Goldman, witnessed first hand in Benin, the dangers of kerosene lamps. The lamps, if not handled carefully, can lead to serious burns, which is what happened to his neighbor’s son, and is also typical in many parts of the world. Not only are d.light’s solar lamps safer, but they provide better light in hospitals, for children studying at night, and provide light sources for those whose livelihoods depend upon working during late hours. Moreover, the use of solar lamps is dramatically reducing CO2 emissions in the more than 60 countries in which it operates. > Source: www.dlightdesign.com/

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Living Cases

d. light

“Our mission is to improve access to fresh, healthy food, and boost the lives of farmers and communities worldwide - ‘Fresh for All.’ ” ​ avita Shukla is the brains behind an ingenious K product called FreshPaper, a patented invention that enables fruits and vegetables to last longer - two to four times longer! Shukla invented FreshPaper while still in high school, and discovered that certain edible spices, incorporated into organic, compostable paper, helps to keep produce fresh. It was a visit to India that inspired the product - after falling ill, her grandmother gave her a tea with spices that inhibit bacterial and fungal growth. Not only is her enterprise tackling food spoilage and waste issues, but she is also donating one package of FreshPaper for every package bought to local food banks. Today FreshPaper can be found in 35 countries, and major retailers like Whole Foods.

“...to Improve Access to fresh healthy food” 25

> Source: http://www.fenugreen.com

Living Cases

Fenugreen's FreshPaper

Critical Questions

Do You Feel Ready To Craft The Mission, Vision, & Theory Of Change For Your Social Enterprise? Answer The Questions Below To Help With The Process.

Mission, Vision, & Theory of Change Mission 1. What is the inspiration for starting your organization? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What does your social enterprise do? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. How does your organization do what it does? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Who does your organization serve? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 26

Vision Close your eyes. Imagine that you wake up ten years from today – your organization has been wildly successful in achieving its mission. Now answer these questions: 1. What do things look like? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What’s changed so that your social enterprise is no longer needed and you can move on? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What allowed you to be successful? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 27

Theory of Change 1. What are the most important elements of your program(s)? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What assumptions led you to choose these particular program elements? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Are there other ways to achieve the desired outcomes? If so, why are you taking a different approach? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now it’s

Your Turn. Referring to your responses for the critical questions above, go through the following checklist on the next page.

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Your Turn

The Checklist My Mission Statement:

My Vision:

Is it inspirational?

I can start with “I/We envision a world where….”

Is it specific enough to help you answer: “What would you not do?”

If I close my eyes and imagine waking up ten years from today – this is how my organization has achieved its mission.

Will it help you to know if your organization has had a good year or not?

My Theory of Change: Explains why I do things the way I do. Could fit the statement: “If….then…..” to illustrate purpose. Explains the logic of your actions according to the impact that you seek.

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“One of the newest figures to emerge on the world stage in recent years is the social entrepreneur. This is usually someone who burns with desire to make a positive social impact on the world, but believes that the best way of doing it is, as the saying goes, not by giving poor people a fish and feeding them for a day, but by teaching them to fish, in hopes of feeding them for a lifetime. I have come to know several social entrepreneurs in recent years, and most combine a business school brain with a social worker’s heart.”

- Thomas L. Friedman, in, “The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century”

“Fail often so you can succeed sooner.”

- Tom Kelley, Ideo partner

Additional Resources 1. Mission: A great web-based resource for you to get ideas and be inspired to develop your own mission statement: http://www.missionstatements.com/ 2. Vision: Crafting the perfect ‘elevator pitch’: http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2013/02/04/ the-perfect-elevator-pitch-to-land-a-job/ 3. Theory of Change: Read this very clearly written piece explaining this key concept: “Zeroing in on Impact,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2004: www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/ zeroing_in_on_impact

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In This Chapter:

CHAPTER THREE

Legalities

• Your Unique Brand • Early Decisions • False Limitations

Non-Profit

For-Profit Hybrid

INTRODUCTION

Muhammed Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, famously said: “I’m a businessman. I’m in the business of eradicating poverty”. Social Entrepreneurs refuse to get caught in the old black and white world of “Are you a greedy businessperson or a naïve nonprofit founder with a bleeding heart?”

So, how do you make the decision of which legal structure makes the most strategic sense for you and your organization? This chapter will guide you through the pros and cons of each option.

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Prior to social entrepreneurs, there were two big divisions amongst entrepreneurs. Business entrepreneurs started companies where it was assumed that their ultimate objective was to make money, grow the company, and if successful, build an empire. Donald Trump is a living caricature of this. On the other hand, if you were an idealistic young woman wanting to help build a better world, you started a non-profit organization that relied on donations, volunteers, and charitable contributions. Mother Teresa comes to mind when I think about this model.

So are you Donald Trump or Mother Teresa? My guess is you are neither! You will find success by building your own unique identity. 33

Why is this Critical? The decision of how you incorporate your social enterprise is one of the most important ‘ early decisions’ you’ll make. As you can see from the table on the next page, there are some real differences depending on which legal structure you choose. There are, of course, differences across countries, but this pro/con characterization is generally true for most countries. These go beyond how you are perceived by society. They relate to what you can do (or not) with your profits, which in turn may affect your ability to attract top talent. They relate to whether people are looking for a financial return on their investment in you (if you are a for-profit) or more of a social return on their investment (if you are a non-profit). While your legal structure is a critical decision, I want to share with you this quote from the co-founder of Kiva, Jessica Jackley:

“…people still have a lot of misperceptions about the limitations of being a 501(c)(3)... It’s a tax code, not a religion. We do think like a business wherever it makes sense, and we have tried hard not to get sucked into any sort of false limitations of being a nonprofit.”

Note: 501(c)(3) is the tax code in the U.S. that refers to non-profit organizations. 34

CHARACTERISTICS OF NON-PROFITS & FOR-PROFITS

cons

pros

non profit • Tax benefits • Access to individual donations, volunteers, foundation grants, pro bono professionals and other subsidized resources • Generally increased public trust

• Slower and more complicated process to launch • More government regulation and reporting requirements • Restrictions on profits (i.e. need to be reinvested and cannot be distributed to employees as bonuses) • Restrictions on revenue-generation activities that are not central to the organization’s mission

for profit • Relatively quick to start • Relatively easy procedure to incorporate • No restrictions on profits • Few government regulations

• No tax breaks • Can’t apply to most foundations for grants, raise money from individual donations, or easily tap into volunteer help • Risk of ‘mission drift’ if the focus turns only to profit • Perception towards for-profit social enterprises is still mixed

The section ‘Critical Questions’ later in this chapter will help you decide what’s best for your social enterprise. But first, a few profiles of successful social enterprises... 35

(non-profit)

KickStart

KickStart

• Quick • Sustainable • Cost-Effective

KickStart International, based in Nairobi, Kenya, has a mission to get millions of people out of poverty quickly, cost-effectively and sustainably. One of their most successful products to date has been the ‘MoneyMaker Pump’ - an ingenious device that has allowed famers in Africa to irrigate their fields using human energy as power. KickStart realized long ago that with affordable irrigation tools, poor smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa can go from not growing enough food to feed their families to starting a profitable business selling their surplus crops. The pumps range in price from $70 and $150, and while it may seem like a big investment for very poor farmers, the payoff is worth it. KickStart farmers increase their annual farming income through irrigation from $150 to $850 – or nearly 500%, and increase their overall household income by an average of 400% as they move from rain-fed subsistence farming to year-round commercial irrigated agriculture. Based on this model, you might guess that KickStart is a for-profit business. It’s in fact a non-profit. Here’s why selling the pumps makes sense: • Those who buy the tools are more likely to use them than those who are given them. • The greatest invention will have little impact if it does not get to the people who need it. This is especially true when inventing for the developing world. A private sector profit-making supply chain is the most cost-effective and selfsustaining way of delivering goods and services to the poor. • Aid programs that give things away offer temporary alleviation at best. At worst they create dependency and damage the local economy. Giveaways make sense in response to a humanitarian crisis, but they are not a long-term or sustainable solution to poverty. KickStart uses donor funds to design the pumps, establish the supply chains, demonstrate and promote the pumps, and educate farmers about the benefits and methods of irrigation. What a smart legal choice for an organization that wants to keep the prices of the pumps as low as possible for farmers! > Source: www.kickstart.org

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The company was started in the team’s own community kitchen employing the long-term unemployed. Today, the company is focused on growing impact by reducing food waste and raising awareness about food sustainability globally.The business model of Rubies in the Rubble could be replicated and scaled any place where there is a surplus of food, and food waste. Apparently their motto “Never let a good thing go to waste” is well received by the general public, as the jams and chutneys made by Rubbies in the Rubble are now sold across the UK in more than 200 retailers! > Sources: http://www.rubiesintherubble.com/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2012/09/27/food-excess-to-profit/

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(for-profit)

By using the extra supply of produce, and the fruits and vegetables that do not meet strict guidelines on size and shape, Rubies in the Rubble saves perfectly good and nutritious food from going to waste.

Rubies in the Rubble

Based in the UK, Rubies in the Rubble is a for-profit social enterprise that decided to do something about food waste. The company sources fruits and vegetables from surplus sourced from markets and farms to make delicious chutney and jams. Their mission is “To preserve, to serve and to save.” The organization is able to fund their operations entirely through the sales of their product, which allows them to be a for-profit, while still focusing on their mission.

• Resourceful • Creative • Scalable

Rubies in the Rubble

Pura Vida Pura Vida’s founders were driven by potential impact more than profit. However, as recent graduates from Harvard Business School, what they knew best was how to start and run for-profit ventures. So they began their journey with Pura Vida coffee - a company that offers incredible coffee and tea products while making sure that the sourcing of these ingredients respects the farmers and their land. Pura Vida’s growth as a successful business offers a great example of why a for-profit may also need the advantages of a non-profit. As it grew, more and more consumers of Pura Vida Coffee wanted to make a contribution to this social enterprise beyond drinking as many cups of coffee as they could possibly drink in one day. They wanted to be able to write that tax-deductible $100 check at Christmas, so the Create Good Foundation was established by Pura Vida as a nonprofit partner. Now, a portion of proceeds of sales and donations go towards supporting communities that grow coffee. Their slogan perhaps sums it up best: “It’s better to give than receive. Unless you can do both.” > Source: http://puravidacreategood.com/

Pura Vida 38

(hybrid)

• Innovative • Responsive • Ethical

8

Critical Questions

The Following Questions Will Help You Decide What Legal Structure Might Work Best For Your Social Enterprise.

1. Is your organization’s primary motivation to have a positive impact on society?

YES NO

Great, continue to question 2 (Note: This was a trick question!) Hmm... You’re not yet a social enterprise and need to go back to craft your mission to reflect the impact you want to make.

2. Will your revenue-generating activities align with your mission?

YES NO

That’s a good sign and either legal option might work. Consider starting two different organizations: a for-profit and a nonprofit (If you start a non-profit that is selling goods or services not related to the organization’s mission, you could get into trouble with your government).

3. Would it be difficult for the beneficiaries of your social enterprise to pay for your service or product?

YES NO

You’ll need to subsidize the costs of operations, which takes you in the direction of a non-profit. You have a strong case for a for-profit organization.

4. Will the sales of your service or product cover the costs of running your organization? (Remember to include salaries)

YES You have a case for the for-profit structure. NO You’ll need some subsidies, which are better found as a non-profit 39

5. Think about the groups or people who will benefit from your organization other than your direct customers (or beneficiaries). Would they be willing to pay for those benefits?

YES NO

If yes, consider the for-profit structure. If no, ask yourself if the sales of the product or service alone will cover your expenses?

6. Are you willing to give up some control over your social enterprise?

YES NO

Typically a non-profit is open to greater government regulations and the Board is in control of the organization In a privately owned for-profit, the founder is in charge.

7. Will you need a large amount of money to get started?

YES NO

If you anticipate needing quite a large sum of money to start-up or expand your social enterprise, the process of raising money is usually more efficient with private investors if you have a for-profit business model. Either model will work fine.

8. Do you feel more comfortable with a non-profit legal structure?

YES NO

Make sure that you understand the benefits of the for-profit model too, before you decide. Make sure you understand the potential benefits of that legal structure before you decide.

At the end of the day, however you answered the questions above, you may emotionally have a strong preference that you should also take into account. Even though social entrepreneurs are strategic, they recognize the power of emotional preferences. 40

Your Turn Ready to decide? You should now be ready to make a decision about the legal structure of your social enterprise. What is your preferred choice? Why is this the best choice for your organization?

41

“If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.”

-

Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook

“I made a lot of mistakes starting up. If I could go back, I would do less Powerpoint, less Microsoft Excel, and less asking experts for permission and more just trying to get that website up, and trying to get people onto the site, and really try to get moving on the program activity that I believed in. Showing traction is a lot better than showing projections. Do anything to show a little bit of traction!”

- Premal Shah, President of Kiva

Additional Resources 1. How To Do Business Around The World: www.doingbusiness.org/ 2. In Search Of The Hybrid Ideal: SSIR, Summer of 2012 www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/in_search_of_the_hybrid_ideal 3. Choosing A Legal Form For Your Social Enterprise: http://socialenterprisefund.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/legal-structure.pdf 42

$

In This Chapter:

• The Business Model • Income Sources • The SE Spectrum

CHAPTER FOUR

The Business Model How are you Sustaining the Organization?

INTRODUCTION There’s a famous quote that I first heard from an Argentinian friend of mine that I’d like to share:

"Keep your head in the sky but your feet on the ground." The previous chapters focused more on the “…head in the sky” part. Now, with our feet firmly planted on the ground, having connected with our passions, it’s time for a reality check. This chapter will take you through the spectrum of ways in which you can generate the following 3 things to make your social enterprise sustainable:

Money

Time

& Resources 44

.

yo u

A Movement

‘Wikipedia’ is the first organization that came to mind that fits such a model.

On one end of the spectrum is what I would call ‘a movement’. This is when minimum financial resources support the enterprise, which is driven by the time and talent of the (typically) large number of volunteers.

An example of this would be ‘Tom’s Shoes’ a for-profit social enterprise that donates a pair of shoes for every pair of shoes a consumer buys.

Business Meets Impact

On the other end of the spectrum is a for-profit social enterprise where the business model is as straightforward and compelling as a consumer company like Nike, yet the main motivation is the social impact.

Whether your legal structure is for-profit, non-profit, or a hybrid, by the end of this chapter you will understand the economic engine of your organization. Still not seeing it? Think again – if your social enterprise adds value to society, you’ll be able to identify who will provide the support you need. 45

Why is this Critical? Social Entrepreneurs are sometimes perceived as being naïve – So completely driven by the MISSION that they don’t carefully think through the dollars and cents required to support their passion. While I certainly don’t agree with this characterization, I must admit that I’ve had many conversations with students at UPEACE about the fact that money does matter. Without it, the passion can dry up. Eating Ramen noodles (or rice and beans) for a year can get tiring. Just like you need to support yourself after what may be an initial period of ‘bootstrapping,’ your employees will need to be paid too. So, if you’ve not yet thought through your business model very carefully, you’re going to be out of business – it’s that simple. And here I’d like to recall Dr. Yunus’ famous quote:

“I’m a businessman. I’m in the business of eradicating poverty...

What’s your business? “

46

INFLUENCE OF LEGAL STRUCTURES

$

If you’re a FOR PROFIT ... you need to cover all your expenses via the sales of your product or service. If you can’t, you’ll be out of business soon.

If you’re a NON PROFIT ... you have more sources of income, but you will need to focus your limited time and effort on finding ways that work for you. For example, Stanford University is incredibly good at fundraising from its alumni – in 2012 it raised over $1 billion! The International Red Cross is very good at tracking their individual donors and getting them to donate in times of emergency.

$

47

Under The Mango Tree

Living Cases

Under The Mango Tree has multiple goals in fulfilling its mission to bring livelihoods to India.

48

First, they aim to provide an alternative livelihood option for farmers that supports the natural environment (without bees, there would be no pollination). Second, UTMT, provides direct access to the market for producers of honey - this was identified as one of the major barriers to success as there are often several middle men, which cuts down on the eventual profit for the farmer. Third, consumers are offered a single-origin honey that takes advantage of the diverse range of plants in India - each producing a slightly different taste. UTMT hopes that the honey will become the first with a fair trade certification in India. UTMT is a hybrid organization. As a for-profit, they source honey direct from farmers and take care of packaging and marketing, while their non-profit arm, “Bees for Poverty Reduction,” provides bee-keeping training and a minimum buy-back guarantee for farmers. > Source: http://utmt.in/

“Direct sourcing and distribution of honey as a for-profit, and bee-keeping training and minimum buy-back guarantee as a non-profit”

VOICES OF

Social Entrepreneurs Nick Martin, Founder, Tech Change

TechChange’s mission is to train leaders in how to leverage relevant technologies for sustainable social change. They do this by producing their own online courses using a unique learning platform that encourages highly interactive, collaborative and social learning on topics like “Technology for Monitoring and Evaluation” and “Mobile Phones for International Development”. TechChange also partners with organizations such as the UN Foundation, the World Bank, and USAID to create courses on a wide variety of topics such as diagnosing malaria in Nigeria and Uganda, HIV prevention for community health workers, and more. In the words of founder, Nick Martin: “We started out as a bunch of nonprofit folks who decided that we wanted to build a socially responsible enterprise with TechChange. In the early days, we did some consulting to sustain ourselves, but now our financial model is driven entirely by revenue from our open enrollment and custom online courses. Now as a registered B Corporation social enterprise, we are a team of software engineers, instructional designers, multimedia producers, animators, graphic designers, and education technologists that no longer have to deal with the unpredictability of relying on grant funding, and believe our current model, done right, can provide us greater flexibility and sustainability.” > More at www.techchange.org

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Global Citizen Year

The Global Citizen Year program model focuses on Entrepreneurial Leadership, Global Skills, and College and Career Readiness. The program model includes ten-months of intensive leadership training and full immersion in developing and emerging countries across the world. The total cost of the program is approximately $30,000. The organization knows that at this cost, a number of deserving students would not be able to take part in this experience. So you might ask how Global Citizen Year is able to function - in other words, “What is its Business Model?” The organization has done a great job in raising funds both from individual donors as well as foundations. This allows Global Citizen Year to offer financial aid to 80% of enrolling participants. So, much like a nonprofit university, this organization covers its annual budget via the tuition it charges (earned income) and the donations it receives (contributed income). The result is a growing program that recently received an Ashoka-Cordes Innovation Award among others, and partners with both Tufts University and The New School to make a bridge year a common expectation for incoming students. > Source: http://globalcitizenyear.org/

50

A Combination Business model enabling financial aid to 80% of students

Living Cases

Started by Abigail Falik, an Ashoka Fellow, Global Citizen Year is a social enterprise transforming the way young people transition into college and approach higher education and their careers. Global Citizen Year provides a combination of immersive learning and world-class training in areas directly relevant to the higher education environment. By partnering with universities to both endorse and develop transformative “bridge year” apprenticeships in developing countries, Global Citizen Year unlocks students’ potential as agents of change.

Critical Questions

$

Below Are 10 Critical Questions To Ask Yourself As You Think Through Your Social Enterprise’s Business Model:

How are people going to hear about your social enterprise? Do you have the funds to cover your startup costs before the money starts coming in? What is your time worth if you were to work in another environment? Will your social enterprise be able to eventually pay you what you need? If not, can it pay you enough so that you won’t need to quit to get a full-time job? Do you have someone on your team (whether as an advisor, part time or fulltime) who has a ‘good business head’? Note: This could be you.

Can you run your business model by three people of different backgrounds and listen to what that have to say? Make any changes to your model you feel necessary based on their feedback. Do you have someone on your team who is good at marketing? If not, try to have him/ her on your advisory board. Find the most similar product/service to yours that’s being offered. How much does it cost? How does your product/service cost compare? Would you buy your own product/service? Why? Why not? Does everyone you know, from your father’s best friend to your younger cousin know about your social enterprise? If not, tell them about it!

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Your Turn

Over to you! Fill out the business model worksheet below. If you have a team, work on it collaboratively. (Source: www.businessmodelgeneration.com)

The Business Model Planner Possible Earned Revenue Streams Product Sales What is the sales price of my product? How many can I expect to sell per month? Total Sales Usage Fee for a Services Do you have a ‘usage’ fee? How many expected users/month? Total Usage Fee

$15 40 $600

Subscription Fee: How much is the monthly subscription? How many expected users/month? Total Subscription Fee

$4 5 $20

Licensing Fee: Will you have a licensing fee for your intellectual property? How many expected licensees/month? Total Licensing Fee

$5 9 $45

Other revenue streams expected? (Advertising/leasing/renting) Estimated Amount GRAND TOTAL 52

$20 50 $1000

$100 $1,765

“Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.”

- Tony Hsieh Zappos CEO

“Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.”

- Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media founder and CEO

Additional Resources 1. Business Model Generation [Book]: www.businessmodelgeneration.com/book & The Business Model Canvas: www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas 2. MARS Social Enterprise Business Models: www.marsdd.com/articles/social-enterprise-business-models/ 3. “Guide for the Ambitious Social Entrepreneur” with Funding Resources: www.clearlyso.com/uploads/ clearlyso_guide_for_the_ambitious_social_entrpreneur.pdf 53

CHAPTER FIVE

Market Leadership Becoming a True Leader

In This Chapter: • Building a Tribe • The Power of Technology • The Business Plan

INTRODUCTION It would be a wonderful world indeed if the old adage “build it and they will come” was true. Unfortunately, in today’s information-soaked world, getting your social enterprise noticed will be a critical challenge. Here’s the good news: technology, and the tidal wave of information that comes with it, enables us to connect with the right people who care about our causes, products and services. The goal of this chapter is to introduce you to the concept of Market Leadership. We will side-step more traditional methods of marketing your social enterprise, such as advertising, and take a more holistic approach to help you and your enterprise become a true leader - a voice of authority that others will not only follow, but tell their friends and family about as well. By the end of this chapter you’ll be able to leverage the “social” aspects of your enterprise to start building a tribe of followers and curate the market(s) you participate in.

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Why is this Critical? Practicing Market Leadership, as a part of, or as a complete replacement, for more traditional marketing activities holds the promise of ensuring your social enterprise can successfully compete for the limited time and attention of today’s (and tomorrow’s) consumers. In short, rather than using marketing to convince others to use your service or buy your product, market leadership seeks to engage your community and offer them the opportunity to (as much as possible) play a part in your success.

I’m The Best! Trust Me!

Let’s Grow Together

Traditional Marketing “I’m bigger than everyone else”

56

VS.

Pick Me! Pick Me!

We Create “Shared Value”

Market Leaders Let Me Show You Why We’re the Best

Khan Academy Market Leader:

Living Cases

Khan Academy offers “a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.” It was born out of a simple need - Sal Khan’s cousin, many miles away, needed help in math. He tutored her virtually until others found out - soon, demand for his help skyrocketed. He recorded YouTube videos to meet the demand, and before long, his following grew to the point where he quit his regular job to make tutoring videos full-time.

57

Today, Khan Academy has expanded its programs to a range of subjects in multiple languages and has an entire program dedicated to getting Khan Academy into classrooms. Through their site, teachers can monitor student progress, enabling students to go at their own pace, whether at school or at home. Khan Academy is a registered non-profit organization and is committed to keeping its educational resource material free. Perhaps that’s why so many people are using it - more than 400 million lessons have been completed by students around the world! > Source: www.khanacademy.org

Source: www.khanacademy.org

Khan Academy offers free educational help skyrocketing the number of users and making the organization a true market leader.

VOICES OF

Social Entrepreneurs

Jeff Skoll Co-founder, Ebay Founder, Participant Media and The Skoll Foundation Participant Media believes that a good story told well can truly make a difference in how one sees the world. Whether it is a feature film, documentary or other form of media, the company exists to tell compelling, entertaining stories that also create awareness of the real issues that shape our lives. They seek to entertain audiences first, then to invite them to participate in making a difference. To facilitate this, Participant Media creates specific social action campaigns for each film and documentary designed to give a voice to issues that resonate in the films. “Participant is the only production company in town that has a double bottom line: social good plus financial returns. It’s too early to tell how our returns are going to look - though all signs are promising - but social good is what we’re really after.” - Jeff Skoll

> Source: www.participantmedia.com/company-history

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MARKET LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES

1

By definition, to be a leader in your market you must be a consistent and vocal member. Social tools - Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, G+ - provide amazing ways to connect, share and participate with others.

Make it a Two-Way Street

Marketing, in the traditional sense, is a one-way street - it seeks to communicate a message to an audience that will influence action. In contrast market leadership activities actively seek interaction with and feedback from the community they seek to serve. 59

2

Leverage Social Networks

Inspire a Following

Encourage your community to evangelize about your products or services: you’ve seen or heard about the lines outside Apple stores before a new product release. Market leadership creates and nurtures these tribes of people and, if done correctly, energizes them to become your most effective marketing force ever.

3

4

Simplify Allow yourself the opportunity to ‘curate’ your market space in a unique way. Surrounded by information, one of our most important tasks as market leaders is to sift through information, weed out the bad, highlight the good and curate, or organize, the best of the best so that our community has a clearly defined view of our market and how our product or service fits in.

Next, let’s look at some critical questions to consider about how to go about practicing market leadership...

Take a Holistic View Concentrate on defining your brand: the words you use, the images you associate with yourself, the place you work from, the culture you foster in your enterprise - all of these contribute to how people perceive and define your brand.

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5

Critical Questions

Here Are Some Questions To Consider When Thinking About Your Market Leadership Strategy:

Market Leaders

Unless you’ve created a truly unique and groundbreaking new technology or service, you’ll be entering a market with other players – some competitors, some collaborators, some supporters. • • • •

Who do you consider the current market leader in your space? Are you currently following them (blog, Twitter, Facebook, other)? Who are they following? How do they engage their audiences (you)?

Your Core Audience

There is likely a core group of people or companies that you believe your product/service is perfect for. This is your target audience. • Who are the people, groups or organizations that make up your target audience (the “ideal” users of your product or service)? • Where do these individuals and groups “hang out” online? For example – what blogs do they read? What experts do they follow? • What is their preferred way to communicate their needs to other companies and organizations in your market – do they tweet? Do they use technical support? What offline channels do they like to use? • How will you get your voice heard?

61

Tools & Techniques

As we mentioned earlier, there is massive competition for people’s attention. What tools and techniques will you use to stand out? • • • •

Are you an active user of social tools like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest? Do you have a blog that you maintain regularly? What associations are you a member of? How will choose to represent your brand, company, products and services?

Look & Feel

One of the keys to market leadership is participating in your market without consistently plugging your products and services. • What is the key word you want to have associated with your company? • What is the feeling you want to have associated with your company?

Your Turn

to create Now that you’ve considered the critical questions above, it’s this section in your social enterprise business plan.

62

Your Turn

Social Enterprise Business Plan

Who are the current market leaders? Describe who you think is your competition, and who you might partner with some day. Also, speak specifically about the individual “voices” that stand out and list the reasons why you think they are of importance.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Who do you consider your target audience? Use this section to create a picture of what you want (or believe) your ideal client, customer or user will be. Get as specific as possible - age, lifestyle, likes/dislikes, where they live, etc. You may even create a small story about how they would interact with your product or service in their day-to-day life.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

63

How will you get your voice heard? Use this section to decide what your platforms will be for communicating about your product. Will you blog? Tweet? Have a Facebook page? Will you go ‘analog’ with live door-to-door marketing? What type of schedule will you keep?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How will you choose to represent your brand, company, products and services? There are two outputs for this section: first, try to decide on a single word you would like associated with your product or service. It’s a difficult task, but try it! Second, write a paragraph about how you want your target audience to describe you to the rest of the world - get specific about language, style, and energy.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is your pitch? It may seem like a cliché, but having an elevator pitch for your company is incredibly important. Finish out this section of your SE plan by writing the 30- to 60-second pitch you will use to describe your product or service.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 64

“An idea is like a play. It needs a good producer and a good promoter even if it is a masterpiece. Otherwise the play may never open; or it may open but, for a lack of an audience, close after a week. Similarly, an idea will not move from the fringes to the mainstream simply because it is good; it must be skillfully marketed before it will actually shift people’s perceptions and behavior.”

- David Bornstein, author of “How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas”

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others’?’”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Additional Resources 1. Create Six Pitches For Your SE With Dan Pink’s Tools: www.danpink.com/pitch 2. Learn The Basics Of Curating Your Marketplace: www.bethkanter.org/content-curation-101/ 3. An Interview With Ed Dale (Online Marketing Guru) On Market Leadership: http://thelocalmethod.com/035/

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CHAPTER SIX

Measuring Impact Developing a Scoreboard

In This Chapter: • Effective Indicators • Activities vs. Impact • Your “Scoreboard”

INTRODUCTION “How’s it going?

“Great, thanks!”

As a social entrepreneur, you’ll need to look deeper into that question if someone asks you how your organization is doing.

This chapter will help you think about developing simple, but thorough indicators to measure the progress of your social enterprise. It’s fun to keep score but developing a compelling scoreboard for a social enterprise is not easy. In a traditional for-profit business (such as Nike), looking at the company’s profits and market share is all that’s needed to get a sense of how the company is doing. However, for a social enterprise, tracking financial performance is not enough. Because social impact is the goal, it is necessary to track performance in relation to the mission of the organization.

Your goal by the end of this chapter is to have a ‘scoreboard’ – somewhere you can have a quick look to get a sense if you’re doing ‘well’, ‘not so well’ or ‘great!’

Ready to play? 67

Why is this Critical? Let me tell you the story of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to illustrate the importance of measuring progress... The organization, whose mission is “to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends” decided to implement a clear scoreboard in order to put its thousands of employees, volunteers and board members on the same page. This scoreboard was called ‘Bucks and Acres’ – in other words they would closely keep their eye on two numbers – ‘bucks’ being slang for ‘money raised’ and ‘Acres’ referring to the total land under TNC’s supervision. Easy, right? This overly simplistic scoreboard backfired.

Scoreboard

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Bucks

ACres

90K

32

It promoted a culture where “more is better” and while the TNC thought it was doing the right thing, biodiversity extinction was taking place at very high rates. Eventually, the organization had to abandon the very simple but inadequate ‘Bucks and Acres’ scoreboard and move to one that had 9 different indicators that allowed them to track more closely how the TNC’s work was helping biodiversity on a global scale – they became more strategic in where they bought land, helping to create biological corridors and buying land were there were species at risk of extinction. To summarize, measuring impact is critical because if you don’t measure the right indicators, all your hard work may not lead to anything. Your organization could be growing (like TNC) but not achieving its objectives. Creating a simple scoreboard is good, as it allows you to quickly see how the enterprise is doing – but overly simplistic indicators may be just that – too easy and not accurate!

Grameen Bank Grameen Bank is an organization you’re familiar with. Earlier in this handbook, we discussed how Dr. Yunus, its founder, takes a ‘business-like’ approach to the issue of poverty alleviation. Let’s now focus on how the organization measures the impact of its micro-loans in the lives of the poor women. Poverty is a complex social concern and it’s not just about income. It’s also about health care, food, education, human rights, and more. So the way Grameen keeps score on whether its loans are actually helping borrowers move out of poverty, involves much more than just counting borrowers or knowing how much money they have loaned out – those would be ‘activitylevel indicators’ (see page 71 for more on activity vs. impact indicators).

Living Cases

In order to get to the ‘Impact-level indicators’, Grameen visits the homes of the loan recipients and follows-up on the 10 indicators below: Grameen Impact Indicators (Note: 1 USD = Approx. 80 Tk.) 1. The family lives in a house worth at least Tk. 25,000 2. Family members drink purified water 3. All children in the family over six years of age are all going to school 4. Minimum weekly loan installment of the borrower is Tk. 200 or more 5. Family uses sanitary latrine 6. Family members have adequate clothing for everyday use 7. Family has sources of additional income 8. The borrower maintains an average annual balance of Tk. 5,000 9. Family experiences no difficulty in having three square meals a day 10. Family can take care of health concerns Now, not all organizations working in the area of micro-credit are able to replicate this process, but they are able to rely on Grameen’s data that shows it does work! Next you will read about the case of Kiva, an organization inspired by Grameen Bank and based on their evidence that micro-credit is effective. > Source: www.grameen.com/

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Grameen Bank’s unique indicators enable ContextAppropriate measures of impact.

Kiva I’d like introduce you to Kiva – a nonprofit social enterprise inspired by Dr. Muhammed Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank. Kiva has expanded at an incredible rate - the organization has reached individuals in 70 countries and loaned in excess of $400 million!

Living Cases

Kiva’s mission is “to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.” That’s it – short and simple, but significant. Their vision? “A world where all people – even in the most remote areas of the globe – hold the power to create opportunity for themselves and others.” See how it works? In a couple of sentences, you know what they do and what motivates them.

70

What you don’t know yet is why ‘lending’ is such an important part of poverty alleviation. Kiva’s theory of change? That “Microfinance is the idea that low-income individuals are capable of lifting themselves out of poverty if given access to financial services.” So how does Kiva keep score? Here are some indicators from a typical week on Kiva’s website: • • • •

Money Lent This Week: $2,080,575 Borrowers Funded This Week: 6,034 Loan Repayment Rate: 98.80% New Lenders Joined This Week: 3,465

Luckily for Kiva, Grameen Bank has already established that micro-lending contributes to alleviating poverty - so Kiva is able to just keep track of activity-level indicators! > Source: www.kiva.org

Kiva can focus on activitylevel indicators such as The Amount Borrowed Per Week and Repayment Rates because organizations like Grameen Bank have proven the microfinance model.

Critical Questions

Use The Questions In The Following Pages To Identify The ActivityLevel And Impact-Level Indicators For Your Social Enterprise.

The questions on the next page have been divided into two sections – the first set of questions will help you develop your ‘activity-level indicators’ and the second, your ‘impactlevel indicators’. Activity-level indicators demonstrate that your organization is doing the work

ple: m a x e r Fo

United Nations-Mandated University for Peace (UPEACE) Activity-level indicators Classes offered

# of students enrolled Diversity of faculty

it’s committed to do via its programs or products. Impactlevel indicators show that the organization is actually achieving the mission it set out to achieve. 71

Impact-level indicators What alumni are doing

# of alumni helping to build a better world

Activity Level Indicators: 1. What are the main programs or products of your social enterprise? 2. Fast-forward one year from the launch of your social enterprise - what are a few things that you’d be able to count to show that things are working well? 3. Now, imagine there’s another social enterprise doing similar work to your organization. What would you look at to get a sense of how big that organization is? 4. On a day-to-day basis, what are 3 things that you’ll observe to get a sense of how your social enterprise is performing? How will you capture that data? 5. How will you use the results for learning and reporting?

Impact-Level Indicators: 1. What motivated you to start your social enterprise in the first place? 2. Who benefits from your social enterprise and what benefits does your organization provide? 3. What would you want a recipient of your service or product to say to you five years from now if they knew that you were the founder? 4. Now imagine that you’re talking to an 8-year old child – How will you illustrate in a simple story the positive impact of your organization? 5. Google.org (Google’s social investment unit) calls you and says: “We’d like to invest in you. What are three good things that your organization is doing?” How would you reply? 72

Your Turn

The Scoreboard It’s now your turn to develop a system of monitoring and evaluation to be able to show that you’re having an impact on your target population. You’ve already learned about Activity and Impact Indicators. But for a wellrounded Scoreboard, it’s important to also consider what key objectives need to be achieved and to ask yourself: “What kind of social change am I trying to create?”

Simple Indicators For Your Scoreboard: Objectives Impact Indicators Activity Indicators What are the direct outputs of your activities or programs?

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What changes will occur in participants’ behavior, knowledge, or quality of life?

What are the key objectives that must be achieved to reach your goal?

The Ultimate Goal Describe the social change you are trying to create. (Relate this to your mission)

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.“

- George Bernard Shaw

“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.”

- Bill Drayton

Additional Resources 1. Demonstrating Value Online Workbook: www.demonstratingvalue.org/resources/demonstrating-value-workbook 2. Enterprising Non-Profits: Measuring Success: www.enterprisingnonprofits.ca/planning-your-social-enterprise/measuring-success 3. Measuring Social Impact – Stanford Business School: www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3t8XvSALek 74

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Team

In This Chapter: • Core Values • Signature Strengths • Personality Tests

Looking Beyond my Best Friends

INTRODUCTION Being a social entrepreneur does not need to be a lonely journey. All social entrepreneurs will need to eventually grow their organizations, especially if they started off alone. There are some distinct benefits of starting the journey in a collaborative way. However, there are also some potential downsides to not being a ‘one-person show’ as decision-making gets more complex when you add people your team. The choice of who to bring into your social enterprise, either as co-founders or in your management team, is critical to the success of your organization and to your personal well-being. This chapter will help you to look beyond your best friends when building a team. Building a strong team involves bringing together people with an alignment in values and complementary strengths. At the end of this chapter, you will be led through a strengthfinder assessment that will help you identify your ‘signature strengths’. 76

Why is this Critical? Building the right founding team is critical for many reasons. As your organization grows, success shifts from:

“What Can I Generate? ”

“How Effective Can We Be? ”

While you may have had the idea for starting your social enterprise, a shared vision is necessary for co-founders to invest their time and energy in something that is initially just an idea. Now, as you can imagine, getting along well with your founding team is very important to advancing your social enterprise. This is one reason that it makes sense to reach out to close friends. Also, your friends probably share some of your core values, which then makes it much more likely that they will be interested in the social mission of your organization. But here’s the catch – there’s also a good chance that your closest friends share similar strengths and experiences as you do, and therefore may not add as much value as someone with different skills and experiences.

Hmm... 77

As we advance in this chapter...

...the goal is to try to identify three to five people who you feel share some of your core values, and would be excited at the opportunity to contribute to your social enterprise, but who have complementary (rather than overlapping strengths) to your own – in other words, they would have different answers than you to the following questions:

5

Initial Questions To Get You Thinking: 1. Are you a ‘people person’ ? 2. Do you enjoy working with numbers? 3. Do you like to see the ‘big picture’ or the ‘step-by-step plan’? 4. What activities engage you so much that time seems to stop? 5. What do you see as your three ‘special skills’?

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GameChangers 500

Living Cases

“Why is it that we spotlight the Fortune 500, a list that benchmarks success based on revenue alone? What if we created a new list that showcased the growing movement of organizations maximizing their positive impact rather than just maximizing their profit?”

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These are the kinds of questions that Andrew Hewitt had been striving to answer. He had seen too many of his friends lose themselves in the ‘profit-at-all-costs’ mode of traditional corporations and he couldn’t be a bystander any longer. After a few years of working with college students, he had the breakthrough idea to create GameChangers 500 — a list that profiles the world’s top purpose-driven organizations. This list would help new graduates find meaningful careers and work for companies using business as a force for good. Andrew could not have executed on this vision without the support of an amazing team – from expert advisors to interns and a research team he hired to comb the globe, reviewing thousands of organizations. His team arrived at nine categories of best practices that these “gamechanger” businesses follow. The GameChangers 500 list (GC500) was announced at Harvard’s Igniting Innovation Summit in 2103 and offers an alternative to the traditional ‘profit-first’ organizations that have been recruiting top talent on college campuses for decades. > Source: www.gamechangers500.com

The amazing team behind GameChangers 500 scoured the globe reviewing thousands of organizations

Critical Questions

ONE

TWO

In This Section, You’ll Be Building On Previous Questions. The 3 ‘Personality’ Tests Will Help You Identify Your Personality Type And Natural Strengths.

Identifying your Natural Strengths (related to your innate talents): • What activities do you do naturally that others may struggle with? • What would your best friend say are your natural talents? • What type of work energizes you?

Assessments By taking the 3 assessments below, you will gain a deeper understanding of your personality type and strengths. • Brief Strengths Finder: See your top strengths, (Note: Register for free access) www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx • Myers Briggs: Based on 72 multiple choice questions, obtain your 4-letter type formula: www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp • Multiple Intelligence Assessment: 56 multiple choice questions, your top 3 intelligences: www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

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Your Developed Strengths:

THREE

These are strengths that have been developed through experience and/or education. These are not necessarily supported by your natural strengths. • • • • •

What skills have you gained through experience that most people do not have? On what topic could you easily write a few pages on? What subjects do you enjoy the most? What extra-curricular activities have you been involved with over several years? What would you say are your top three strengths?

Strengths Short List:

FOUR

Here is where you’ll create a short list of your strengths. Compare your ‘developed strengths’ list and your ‘natural strengths’. If the two support each other, add it to your short list. It you have some strong natural strengths that you’re very keen to develop, you can add it to your short list. Two questions that can be very helpful as you work through this section are the questions: 1. I feel strong when….________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ 2. I feel weak when…..* _______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ *Note: These are activities that drain you and that you should ideally not be spending much time on. > Source: Adapted from Strengths Magnifier, GameChangers500

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Your Turn Go through the critical questions outlined on pages 80-81 including the three recommended tests and fill in the table below. Next, have at least three potential team members complete the same short tests. Why should they take time to go through this? Tell them honestly that this process of self-discovery is very valuable and that it will help to build a better team. Assessment

Your Result

Partner 1

Partner 2

Partner 3

Brief Your Top Strengths: Strengths 1. Finder 2. 3.

Your 4 - Letter Formula: Myers-Briggs ___________________

Your Top 3 Intelligences Multiple Intelligence 1. Assessment 2. 3. Now that you have had a chance to see how your potential partners’ strengths and intelligences map against your own, we encourage you to go back to the ‘right’ side of your brain and follow your intuition (informed by the results) – who would you like to join you?

Ready? Time to make “the ask!” 82

“The bank said it was a crazy idea to give money to poor people because they are not credit-worthy, insisting that all the money would be lost because the poor had no collateral, but I did not agree. After several months, I finally I found a solution: I offered myself as a guarantor. “I’ll sign the papers,” I said. “You give me the money and the risk is on me.”

“If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.”

- Jeff Bezos, CEO, Founder, Amazon

- Muhammed Yunus Founder of Grameen Bank

Additional Resources 1. The Four Cores Of Credibility (Excerpt From The Speed Of Trust) By Steven Covey, 2004: http://www.myspeedoftrust.com/How-The-Speed-of-Trust-works/book 2. How To Build A Great Team With Imperfect People By Jeff Haden, March 2012: http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/how-to-build-a-great-team-with-imperfect-people.html 3. TED Talk By Tom Wujec: “Build A Tower, Build A Team” & Accompanying “Marshmallow Challenge”: www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/tom_wujec_build_a_tower.html, http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html

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CHAPTER EIGHT

Growing the Venture

In This Chapter: • Planning Ahead • 5 Rs of Scaling • 3 Impact Models

Getting Serious about Social Impact

INTRODUCTION It may seem very early to be thinking about growing your social enterprise – after all, you’re just getting started. But for several reasons, it’s really not too early. Just as with a baby, one expects that eventually, he or she will outgrow the crib. Parents usually have a small bed ready before the little one is uncomfortable. Similarly, planning for your social enterprise’s growth is smart thinking. There are different models for expanding the impact of your enterprise. This chapter will cover three different approaches and show you the pros and cons of each. We’ll also go over some inspiring cases that illustrate different approaches. By the end of the chapter, you’ll be able to plan your own social enterprise’s strategy for scaling. NOTE: If you ever enter a social enterprise business plan contest or look for funding this is a very important consideration – judges and investors will look closely at your scaling model.

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Why is this Critical? “A stitch in time saves nine”.

9

You might have heard the expression, What this means is that if you repair a small tear you can prevent the need for repairing the larger tear. Planning for your enterprise’s eventual growth is a bit like that. If you do not think about it upfront, it may be much more work later.

Thinking about the potential impact of your idea from the beginning, allows you to have a bigger vision This should not only be more motivating to you but will also allow you to attract good people to join your organization. So, for example, if you are setting up an innovative day-care for low-income families in your community, you might only be able to attract local interest.

However, if at the core of your organization’s scaling strategy is the

idea of replicating your model in all communities that fit your three criteria for replication, your local pilot day-care is actually a globally relevant enterprise. For example, your criteria might be: (1) low income families, (2) a space offered by the community, and (3) a community member being the Executive Director. 86

Your ability to access funding and support will be greatly increased if you have thoroughly considered the scalability of your organization.

Ashoka has 5 criteria for selecting the social entrepreneurs they support. Ashoka is not unique in its criteria for selecting and supporting social entrepreneurs. A well-defined scaling plan is a critical piece of showing that you are serious about social impact.

The ethical fiber of the social entrepreneur

A highly innovative idea

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The social impact of the idea

The dedication and commitment to pursue their idea

The demonstrated creativity of the social entrepreneur

Girls Who Code Today, more than ever before, computer skills, especially programming, are at the forefront of job opportunities. Beyond basic computer literacy, knowing how to code gives an added edge in the competitive job market.

Living Cases

Traditionally, however, the field of computer programming has been dominated by males. Reshma Saujani is out to change that. To reduce this inequality, Girls Who Code aims to expose 1 million girls to computer science education by 2020. This means that more girls will fill jobs related to engineering, robotics, web design and app development. About Girls Who Code, she says: “This is more than just a program. It’s a movement.” Girls Who Code has expanded quickly - in just one year, it went from a single program in NYC to 8 programs in 5 cities. It was also able to partner with some great companies and organizations as sponsors and partners - groups like Twitter, Google, Intel and Ebay. With this support, Girls Who Code is sure to continue their impressive growth. > Source: www.girlswhocode.com

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From a single program in NYC to 8 programs in 5 cities - in one year!

THREE MAIN WAYS TO SCALE YOUR IMPACT 3. Diffusion: 1.Branching: In this model you would grow by opening new ‘branch’ sites. You hire the new employees and are completely responsible for the overall management and performance of your branch sites. This is much like what banks do in the commercial world.

Level of Control Resources Required 89

2. Affiliation: This is the ‘McDonald’s’ model of the social sector. Affiliates would share your brand and your ‘special sauce’ but they would be legally independent from your social enterprise, allowing them quite a lot of autonomy.

This is the ‘Open Source’ approach to spreading your innovation. You may write up a case study of what you did and how you did it and share that story for others to pick up. Or you could actively ‘share your story’ both informally and at conferences. Your goal would be to inspire others to replicate your model, but you would typically have no control over what they then do.

HIGH

MEDIUM

LOW

HIGH

MEDIUM

LOW

The 5R’s of Scaling

Readiness Receptivity Resources

Is the innovation ready to be spread?

YES NO

Will the innovation be well-received in target communities? YES NO What resources, financial or otherwise,are required to get the job done right?

_____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________

Risk Returns

What is the chance that the innovation will be implemented incorrectly?

_____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________

What is the bottom line?

_____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ > Source: Dees, Scaling Social Impact (2004)

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Critical Questions

Below You Will Be Asking Yourself Some Serious Questions About How You Intend To Scale Your Enterprise.

“Should a social entrepreneur always grow the enterprise?” Technically I would answer ‘No’ to this question, but I do feel that a social entrepreneur must think about how they can extend their positive impact. There are just different ways of doing it. Below are some critical questions that you should ask to determine your scaling strategy:

1. What is your innovation or your ‘special sauce’? 2. Does your approach need a high level of technical know-how? 3. How easy/difficult do you think it would be to replicate what you’re doing? 4. What would make you feel ‘successful’ in your social enterprise? 5. Would it be difficult for you to delegate tasks to others?* *If you answered ‘Yes’ to this question, remember, you can’t do it alone. Delegating tasks is necessary for growing an enterprise and also helps to strengthen your team.

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Your Turn After going through the Critical Questions on the previous page, you should now be ready to fill out the statements below: My organization’s core innovation (or ‘special sauce’) is: Our scaling approach would be BRANCHING, AFFILIATION, or DIFFUSION (choose one) because:

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“Begin with the end in mind.”

- Steven Covey

“... While entrepreneurs initiate, they also do something altogether different: they use money (often belonging to someone else) to build a profitable business that’s bigger than themselves. The goal of the entrepreneur is to build an entity, something that can grow and thrive once it’s moving. And that’s a fabulous prospect, one that requries plenty of guts and initiative.”

- Seth Godin, Poke the Box

Additional Resources 1. Duke Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship: www.caseatduke.org/knowledge/scalingsocialimpact/index.html 2. Who are you not to scale? Three Lessons from Peace First: www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2013/04/05/who-are-you-not-to-scale-3-lessons-from-peace-first/ 3. ‘A Call for Our Time: The Story of The Pachamama Alliance’ & how they are getting the word out: http://vimeo.com/17068946, www.pachamama.org/workshops/about 93

CHAPTER NINE

Knowing Myself Better In This Chapter: • Positive Psychology • Appreciative Inquiry • Personal Priorities

It's a Journey

INTRODUCTION Success can be anticlimactic. This chapter will get into the central question: “What makes you happy?” The answer to this question looks different for each person, but the good news is that positive psychologists present us with a very solid framework for understanding the five pillars of well-being which can be captured by the acronym: PERMA.

95

A

Achievement

M

Meaning

R Relationships

E

Engagement

Positive Emotions

P

This chapter will delve deeper into each of these pillars, and by the end, you will have more clarity around the following: • A short-list of your core values • An understanding of each of the pillars of PERMA. • A few priority areas for you outside of the organization that you’re building

Why is this Critical? As a social entrepreneur, there are many reasons that it’s critical to really think about the following question:

“What makes me happy?” Social entrepreneurship is as much about impacting others positively as it is about having a positive impact on oneself. In fact, if all your energy is directed outwards and you’re feeling completely drained, it’s not good for your organization.

The work needs to energize and

fulfill you too - otherwise you’ll quit.

What organization helps young people find success and happiness? Well, if happiness comes from helping others, which I believe it does, then Random Kid would have to be at the top of the list. Random Kid envisions a world where all kids love what they do - and where the world is a better place because of it. Imagine a place where you can browse real-world global issues and immediately get involved - either with a solution that is already developed, or by developing your own. And it gets better - you are the leader of the project, and Random Kid gives you all the tools you need to succeed, including seed funds, consultation and your own project website. Their mission: “By helping kids to become innovative and successful world problem-solvers, we are securing a better fate for our world now, and into the future.” > Source: www.randomkid.org

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THINKING ABOUT HAPPINESS There is a growing body of research with interesting findings about happiness. We are used to thinking about happiness as a state we arrive at when we’ve hit our goals and targets. For example, if you’re starting an organization to develop low-cost solar heaters, you may think...

“I’ll be happy when I have steady sales of $200,000/year, a team of 4 people, and when my community recognizes me as a promising changemaker in my town.” Fair enough. But actually, this kind of thinking is quite elusive. If and when you were to hit these goals, you’d redefine success. Now it might be, “I’ll be happy when i have...

“$350,000 in sales, 2 offices, and a front-page story in the city newspaper.”

This can be a never-ending game and could lead you to feeling completely drained. Overall, in order to sustain your passion and perseverance, you need to ‘enjoy the journey’ in order to be able to generate the kind of energy needed for your organization.

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Roadtrip Nation

Living Cases

Every person who has discovered their true path in life is not only happy with themselves, that person is happy with the world, and as such, contributes in a meaningful way. That’s the philosophy behind Roadtrip Nation - to cut out the voices of others that put pressure to find a “reasonable” profession, and to find one’s path independently - with the guidance of those who have paved the way.

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Each season of Roadtrip Nation’s television show takes young people searching for their path in life, and follows them on a journey across the country to interview leaders in different fields. Roadtrip Nation (.org) is figuring out how to get their manifesto into schools. They developed a series of interventions, some of which involve looking through interview archives and writing reflections and others that are based on online courses through their website - all to keep encouraging young people to find their own passion and escape “the noise” of trying to figure out what to do in life. > Source: http://roadtripnation.com and .org

“To Guide Young People to find their own path in life by interviewing leaders in different fields.”

Educate!

The focus of their leadership and entrepreneurial education is sustainable development, and their method is hands-on activities where youth develop their own business models. Also engrained in Educate!’s model is access to a powerful network and mentorship. Educate! believes that school needs to be relevant and prepare students for real life: “The goal of education should be to prepare students for life, rather than prepare them for a test” In a survey done with Educate! graduates, it was found that students who completed the program went on to pursue tertiary education, showing that Educate! fostered life-long learning. The study also found a 160% increase in monthly salary for graduates of the program, from $9/ month to $23/month. > Source: www.experienceeducate.org/

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“The goal of education should be to prepare students for life, rather than prepare them for a test”

Living Cases

Based in Uganda, and focusing on young people ages 16-20, Educate! has a mission of “Transforming African education systems to develop young leaders and entrepreneurs.” The organization is concentrating on getting their educational method into school systems.

VOICES OF

Social Entrepreneurs For-profit leader: Toby Sherman Director of Food Service, Greyston Foundation Greyston, a bakery based in New York, believes in self-sufficiency for the poverty-stricken neighborhoods in which it operates. Their “pathmaking” philosophy is exemplified in their slogan: “We don’t hire people to bake brownies, we bake brownies to hire people.” Every year they help approximately 2,500 on their path to self-sufficiency, and bake 4 million pounds of brownies for clients like Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. “If your expectation is that people are going to support your business because of who you are and what you do as an organization, those people may come to you once. Thereafter, most people buy based on what they need as consumers; they will evaluate your product on price, quality, and service—not pity.” > Sources: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/2921.html www.greyston.com

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Appreciative Inquiry

Why do you think it's important to remain positive? We live in an extremely fast-changing world – and change produces stress. We can choose to focus on the negatives of change or adopt a proactive mindset. There is a lot of research from the field of positive psychology showing the benefits of having an appreciative mindset – from allowing us to be more creative and learn better to being able to recover more quickly from setbacks. A very practical application of this is captured in an approach called ’Appreciative Inquiry’ (AI). Let me run you through some of the main assumptions behind AI.

Positive Principle Focusing on the positive causes it to grow and brings out the best in people and organizations.

Constructionist Principle A belief that the words we use don’t just describe our world they actually create the world we live in.

Simultaneity Principle The idea that inquiry and change happen simultaneously – the act of asking questions begins the change process.

The Poetic Principle Individuals and organizations are in a state of constant change vs. changing from a particular state to another state.

Anticipatory Principle Images of the future affect the way we behave in the present. 101

Source: David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva

Critical Questions

Based On These 5 Principles, Here Are Some Critical Questions To Ask Yourself. And Remember, Our Questions Create New Worlds …

Questions For You: 1. How would you describe yourself in one paragraph? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What are three things you’d like to see more of in your life? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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3. What are the smallest changes you could make that could have the biggest impact on your happiness? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What’s your story? Can you write down in one paragraph what inspired you to start your social enterprise? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Where do you visualize yourself three years from now? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 103

Your Turn Now that you’ve had a chance to answer the questions above, here are three activities that will help you identify things that are important for you to know about yourself: 1. For each of the five letters in PERMA in the chart below, write down one thing that’s very important to you and state how you plan to keep track of that activity 2. Do the ‘Core Values’ activity on the next page 3. Try the Empathy Activity on page 106-107

PERMA P - Positive Emotions E - Engagement R - Relationships M - Meaning A - Achievement

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One activity that you commit to doing

Evaluating Progress How are you keeping track?

Core Values Activity 5 Steps:

This activity will help you identify your core values. Pay attention to your inner dialogue as you make choices. 1. Review the values list below. Add any values that are important to you (but are not listed) in the spaces provided. 2. Now, put a star next to all of the values that are important to you, including any you may have added. This will become your personal set of values.

Status

Family

Truth

Power

Justice Friendship

Honesty

Peace

Integrity

Fame Wealth

Love Wisdom

Joy Commitment

Success Influence

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Recognition

Steps 3 - 5 (next page)

Steps 3 - 5 3. Now narrow the list to five circling more important ones. 4. Now narrow the list to three. 5. And finally, choose your top two core values.

This activity comes from The Center for Ethical Leadership. They explain ethical

Conclusion: Working with your Core Values You have just discovered, or re-connected with your core values. How are you integrating your core values into your social enterprise? Why two? Because you can remember two. Also, in a situation where you need to make difficult decisions, knowing your two core values can be very important as such decisions often put certain values against others.

E.g. “Shall I stay late to finish this important project and cancel the quality time I had planned with my wife?” (Commitment vs. Family). I encourage you to share this activity with your team.

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leadership as: knowing your core values and having the courage to act on them on behalf of the common good.

Empathy Activity An important part of human flourishing is through strengthening relationships and building trust with other people. People we care about often tell us about a victory, a triumph, and other good things that happen to them. How we respond matters – it can either build the relationship or undermine it. There are four basic ways of responding, only one of which builds relationships:

1. Active Constructive: Expresses authentic interest. You help the other person to savor the experience. As a result, the person feels validated and understood.

2. Passive Constructive: You want to be supportive but you are quiet, providing understated

support. You might be distracted—watching TV or checking your phone. The conversation eventually fizzles out. As a result the other person might feel unimportant, misunderstood, embarrassed, and guilty.

3. Active Destructive: You are overtly negative. You bring the conversation to a halt. As a

result the other person might feel ashamed, embarrassed, guilty or angry.

4. Passive Destructive: You ignore the event and the conversation never even starts. As a

result, the other person might feel confused, guilty or disappointed.

Guess what? Only ‘Active Constructive’ responding leads to stronger relationships! 107

Try It! Listen carefully each time someone you care about tells you about a good experience. Go out of your way to respond actively and constructively. Ask the person to relive the event - spend time responding and eliciting details. > Source: Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being by Martin Seligman

Bill Drayton on Empathy: “Changemakers have four fundamental traits that cannot be understated: empathy, teamwork, leadership, and change-making. We are reaching the transition point very quickly, and parts of the world that do not master these traits will be left in terrible shape. Any teenager who masters these skills and changes their world is bringing 20-25 teenagers with them,” What’s more, “any teenager that changes her or his world in some way is a changemaker for life.” 108

Closing Thoughts I’m writing this in one of the most tranquil places I’ve encountered in my travels – it’s a little Bed and Breakfast located a few kilometers up the hill from the University for Peace, in Costa Rica. One evening, sitting out on the patio of the hotel, I was feeling anxiety contemplating the question “What’s next?” I looked up from my notepad - the sun was setting. The view of the lush green tropical valley was even more spectacular than usual. My feeling of overwhelm was replaced with deep tranquility. I felt a message that I have experienced several times in my life – that, ultimately, happiness is not so much about what’s happening outside of me. It’s about what I make of my environment. Having started and grown an educational organization, I feel the confidence to create purposeful work wherever I am next. So, here are some closing thoughts: You can’t always control your external environment, but you are ultimately in charge of the decisions you make. So, what’s the impact you want to make with your precious time?

- Mohit 109

It’s an open road ahead with endless possibilities. I hope this Guidebook has helped as a signpost for the amazing journey to come.

Resources

In addition to the resources listed at the end of each chapter, here is a list of the groups mentioned in the text throughout the book for easy reference

doonething.org amaniinstitute.org ideo.org upeace.org grameenfoundation.org dlightdesign.com fenugreen.com kiva.org kickstart.org rubiesintherubble.com puravidacreategood.com toms.com

girlswhocode.com utmt.in

randomkid.org

techchange.org

roadtripnation.com

globalcitizenyear.org

experienceeducate.org

khanacademy.org

greyston.com

nature.org

davidcooperrider.com

google.org

ethicalleadership.org

gamechangers500.com ashoka.org sethgodin.typepad.com participantmedia.com/company-history businessmodelgeneration.com

Top 10 'Next Steps' 1. Echoing Green / A pioneering organization in the field of social entrepreneurship http://www.echoinggreen.org/work-on-purpose/resources 2. Ashoka Youth Venture / International community of young changemakers https://www.youthventure.org 3. Changemaker International / A hub for youth interested in becoming social entrepreneurs http://www.changemakerintl.com 4. Funding Sources / A list of foundations funding youth action http://www.freechild.org/funds4progress.htm 5. Catapult / An incubator for the world’s most promising young social entrepreneurs http://www.catapultideas.com/index.html 6. AshokaU / Global network of students, faculty & administrators collaborating to solve real world problems http://ashokau.org 7. UPEACE Centre for Executive Education / (founded by Mohit) In-person & online social innovation courses www.centre.upeace.org 8. Alliance of Youth Civilizations / Supports youth entrepreneurs for social change http://unaocyouth.org 9. Stanford Social Innovation Review / A leading journal covering social entrepreneurship http://www.ssireview.org/topics/category/social_entrepreneurship 10. Skoll Foundation / Foundation supporting social entrepreneurs around the world for the last 15 years http://www.skollfoundation.org

Innovate Get Creative Grow an Idea Make a Business Plan Sustain Yourself Scale an Enterprise Change the World