The views expressed here are those of the author.

This week, there won’t be a newsletter about social entrepreneurship but some impressions I want to share with you about a more interesting topic: The Humanitarian NGO experience I lived from January to April in Benin where I worked as a police officer. That way, it will be a good means for you to understand why these kinds of organizations know many controversies about their reliability. I will try to be as factual as possible providing you just some theoretical things instead of rough criticism. Before I begin, some information about the Humanitarian NGO I worked for, in order to give you an idea of how “my” NGO is running. It is a young NGO of 5 years old and among many of its peers; it aims at fighting poverty, giving to natives in needs elementary things like water, electricity, education and health. In order to be sustainable, this NGO proposes some missions to people who are willing to live a solidarity tourism experience against fees like a tour operator dedicated to, without asking for competences from individuals.

According to this presentation, here is the first bias I want to explain to you: To my mind, it is very important to have some competences and qualifications to do a humanitarian’s experience. Before I lived in Benin, I thought it was useless and always wondered why big NGOs needed people with a specific backgrounds and I was pleased to see that there were some organizations which think the humanitarian in the opposite way. After all, maybe it was just a matter of conviction and involvement. If indeed, you need to get such motivation, today I know that it is not good enough to be efficient. In order to get a real social impact, you have to keep in mind that you do not have to look for some rewarding or personal achievement but the help of natives from any poor countries. Retrospectively, it’s in fact a bit awkward to place people on different programs just because they want to live a new kind and responsible way to travel, above all when I learnt by the practice and my own curiosity that the volunteers I got in charge did not have particular expertise and was here more to combine business with pleasure. Thus, before involve yourself for a humanitarian’s experience, I advise you to think about what you can provide to the organization you will “work” for and what the real purpose of your volunteering consists of, as if you were applying for a job/internship application.

Furthermore, when you will get the means to be considered like a good and efficient volunteer, you have to pay attention to work for an organization with relevant objectives. I say that because in the one I where, there were not enough objectives for each programs and without any long term schedules. These two problems caused other troubles:

• The volunteers did not know exactly why they had to do in their education, environmental or health mission. They are completely lost to be crystal clear.

• There are many losses times because of turn over: people have to adapt themselves to a new culture, a new way to work, etc.

• The mission is not well done because of this turn over, reducing a real social impact.

Plus, if sometimes, the NGO can actually achieve something worthwhile, the objectives – if you get some – do not match the real needs. For sure, we can find some usefulness to construct new huts, provide courses for illiterate children/young-adult or work on reforestation but this focusing policy is not, according to me, the better means to grasp the greater good. It creates assistance more than real development. To my mind, we should think of a global program where natives would be completely integrated, encouraging them to regroup, showing them that they are capable of to do what we do, training them if needed instead of doing the work for them, making them believe that we are better than them whereas they have so many potential in they own country and many knowledge. They are just like a diamond waiting to be cut. As a result, if one day you think to build your own NGO try to think the objective the same way.

Third, do not forget to implement some management tools. Indeed, do not do what “my” NGO do, that is to say, believe that management will jeopardize the resolution of social matters. I say that because too many times, I faced some unfortunate complications with some of my last collaborators who alleged that it was not suitable to talk about economic and monitoring stuff because as a NGO we defend ethic instead of profit. If I am okay with this consideration, I hope that one day, they will understand that management and capitalism won’t make the natives vulnerable but enhance their cause. Besides, it is not for nothing that many School of business open some new specializations focusing on social entrepreneurship, social business or similar to offer new model for these kind of organizations. This understanding could also avoid two troubles:

• A trouble of recruitment because I notice that young and small NGO – for my case anyway – slides on the globalization wave because they have a HQ in a rich country but employ the permanent staff in the poor one at a very low cost as a multinational which would externalize its workforce.

• A trouble of transparency because, if the law would treat a Humanitarian’s NGO the same way of a classical firm, maybe the finance of such organizations would be more reliable and stay away from greenwashing stuff because unfortunately, I experimented that during my experience where the anger of volunteers was increasing when they understood that the fees they pay for was not reinvested rightly like “my” NGO confirmed them before they came.

As a result, it remains a long way before saving the world above all if we still rely on Humanitarian’s NGOs. Of course, this is my experience and there are plenty of examples, particularly in Asia or South America where the work is done and allows one’s country to develop. However, I am a bit skeptical because according to a member from the French Embassy staff in Benin, my impressions are not that isolated. Indeed, for him, Humanitarian’s NGOs are not legitimate any longer because in 15 years of work over there, he is not seeing any progress. Plus Japanese and Belgium’s Embassies are going to leave next year because despite all the investment provided to NGOs or similar, there is no result when Africa has accused the bottom fell out of the microfinance market in 2008. I don’t know if it is a specific and cultural matter which applies to West Africa or a model matter but despite this experience, I think the Y generation will find some innovation ways to strike poverty like www.makesense.org who really achieve something worthwhile and impacting. Then go go go new generation, keep fighting and think of which kind of world you want to live in.

Thank you for reading and sharing.

Heremoana

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Learn about Social entrepreneurship: from other social entrepreneurs:

If previously in my last posts, I explained you that the internet will likely help social
entrepreneurship to develop, it’s not that easy for social entrepreneurs to get through the difficulties to be sustainable and have a real impact. Indeed, that’s not because you get a website that you will change the world and the reason is simple: drowned in the river of this million of social entrepreneurs fighting for social matters how many of them will actually achieve something worthwhile?

To solve this main challenge, a good social entrepreneur should learn from other ones and taking advantage from their mistakes and model their successes. That’s the idea bringing by Peter McAteer, a social entrepreneur who recounts how his social business Dreamaid has become successful.

In 4 lessons, here is how you can be a flourishing internet start up as a social entrepreneur:

- First, put a push on your marketing strategy by joining social media networks (linkedIn, facebook, etc.) and creating blogs instead of investing too much money.
The results will be the same but cheaper!

-

Secondly, find overseas partners: you have to exchange with your peers and be the one they will use as a provider. The main question is focusing on the idea of why you are the best and why they should “actually use your service”

-

Third, be profitable ASAP in order to be sustainable and having a real impact

-

Finally, be optimistic and practical: you need to have a very flexible model and readjust it each time people will criticize (in the good way of course) your social business and input all the innovation you could find around you.

For sure it’s probably not THE solution to succeed, nevertheless, why not trying these  recommendations because as many optimistic ones say: “who dares wins!”

What the social entrepreneurship field is up to: 4-7 July 2011 in Denmark, a research conference on social enterprise.

On next 4-7 July 2011, the 3rd Research Conference on Social Enterprise in Roskilde – Denmark will be launched, with a specific focus on Social innovation through civil society. It’s one of these rare occasions where stakeholders’ views are taking into account in the social entrepreneurship debate and construction. The conference welcomes mainly Phd students looking for supports in workshops where they will be able to share ideas about:
1) Social entrepreneurship’s model
2) Strengths of interdisciplinary strategy
3) Stakeholders’ involvement
4) Innovation (social network more specifically)
5) Resources and funding

Organized by the European research of Network (EMES), this conference also aims at explaining why social entrepreneurship is more broaden in westerns countries than those in development but above to find concretes ways to spread the world.

To have more information about the EMES’s conference and register, please find more details on this link: http://www.socialeconomy.eu.org/spip.php?article1541

Social entrepreneurship’s case study: Goodwill industries a nonprofit organization which was a social entrepreneur in advance.

From the beginning, social entrepreneurship’s fellows pretended to be THE innovative solution to fight social matters, explaining that social business model or similar will change the world, questioning the legitimacy of nonprofit organizations. Nevertheless it seems that we all became amnesic of what they provided to us in the grasping and understanding of how solving social challenges while trying to be sustainable.

That’s exactly what Nell Edginton – president of Social Velocity – tries to explain, showing us by the example of the Goodwill industries that we are not as innovative as we can think.

Indeed, Goodwill industries focuses its efforts on outplacement providing jobs and training jobs for those in needs. If you can believe that it’s another damn thing like a job center, you will be very surprised. So far, and for 109 years now, Goodwill industries was a very pioneer of social entrepreneur’s strategies because it follows that four-lines plan:

1) Solutions focused

2) Broader system change

3) Financially sustainable

4) Scalable model

No, you are not dreaming, that’s exactly a social business model but one century before the concept was thought. Also, you can judge on your own that the social impact is real by reading what Goodwill accomplished in the year 2009 in this report, like, for the key-figures : 2 million people benefit from the nonprofit organization, 121.000 people withcriminal backgrounds were out placed thanks to Goodwill and it is one of the USA’s Top Five Most Valuable Brands.

Then, go on spreading social entrepreneurship but don’t forget to be open-minded on what next AND ABOVE ALL what we can learn from the past – where we can find more innovative solutions – for our expansion.

Social entrepreneurship’s criticism: Are Philanthropy and idea’s inflation jeopardizing social entrepreneurship?

David Abernethy, a Stanford Professor of Political Science and Jed Emerson, who invented the concept of blended value investing, gave currently their views about the future of social entrepreneurship. Contrary to what people can believe, both of these researchers do not ask for more writing things about social entrepreneurship but recommend paradoxically of being more active. Indeed, according to them, think-tank, conferences, etc., to define and find the meaning of social entrepreneurship should be a loss of time and giving their ways: “There is no fixed definition of a social entrepreneur and who cares anyway? It’s time to stop talking about social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship is a means, and we are focused too much on it.”

If on the one hand, I can agree more with them that we need to focus our efforts on pro action, I think in the other hand that these efforts still have to be accompanied by information and theoretical part; practice could not be effective without solid basis. Plus, as I mentioned it before, the social entrepreneurship’s trend is typically represented in western countries while those who should benefit from are poor ones, which are not well aware of what the social entrepreneurship concept is.

As a consequence, that’s our duty to provide them in every possible ways, like Socialter for instance, the key of comprehension to implement ethical model in their own business. To conclude, philanthropy and idea’s inflation are not putting social entrepreneurship in jeopardy; on the contrary, they are supporting our action and give credibility of all the work done. Rome was not built in a day, time is our friend!

Thank you for reading and sharing,

Truly yours,

Heremoana J

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Who we are: 4 business students interested in the field of social entrepreneurship

Our project in a few words: we are collaborating with Brazilian non-profit organization Saùde Criança in order to open a consultancy branch within the organization and help them spread their action throughout Brazil.  Saùde Criança helps individuals who have just been released from hospital to get access to appropriate care and drugs, thus a) freeing up hospital beds and b) breaking the vicious cycle between poverty and illness.

How you can help us: Visit http://www.students-in-action.com/
We need to cover our costs. Via this website we receive donations in exchange for pixels, or in other words advertising space. On this space you can post a link, a logo, or even just a message of support. This will create traffic on your webpage. If you don’t have a webpage and just want to contribute to our project for the sake of helping us out, that works too! There is no minimum contribution, every little helps!

Gabriella

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In the year 2000, many stakeholders in the corporate world joined their effort to think the economy differently. They were very precursor because they anticipated the current responsible trend of the stock market before the 2008’s crisis. As a result, NGOs, investor managers, microfinance’s actors or businesses school organized each year a forum to strike poverty in order to get in 2015 a framework to act locally and concretely. Thus, Convergences 2015 was born and made a three part plan:

1. Think-thank : think, debate and produce ideas

2. Plead : promote these ideas to the world leaders and citizens

3. Act: create some frameworks to put these ideas into practice.

As 2015 approaches, the 2011’s edition of the forum aims at the maximization of its impact, especially by creating a sustainable network, producing reports/studies and using the media to spread innovation.

On next 3-4-5 May 2011, at Hotel de Ville of Paris, experts will debate on social business, social entrepreneurship, microfinance or international cooperation to provide a social and sustainable economy.

If you want to would like to register please find all details on:

http://www.convergences2015.org/

What the social entrepreneurship field is up to:

Two-Day Social Business Lab in Singapore on 16-17 March 2011.

On next 16-18 March 2011, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and The Grameen Creative Lab, will organized a workshop to boost social business in the corporate world at Hon Sui Sen Auditorium, Singapore. It will be a moment where social business’s stakeholders can think in a common way how to share the value; making money but making it profits some social matters.

The workshop will be divided in two moments:

• A public lecture on counterculture in the Economic world which target is anyone who wants to learn more about social business

• A boot camp, a kind of barcamp, where people could experience how their organization will win to be a social business.

It’s a very proactive approach where the participants will learn concrete solutions to put more social in their business and if you would like to register please find all details on:

http://www.nusgclinitiative.sg/

Social entrepreneurship’s case study:

Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge.

Social entrepreneurship deals with a lot of social matters: this week, I choose to talk about an educational one with Kiran Bir Sethi, an Indian’s native teaching kids to take charge. She founded the Riverside School in Ahmedabad which “is the amalgamation of an approach to learning that is embedded in common sense.”

The purpose is simple: provide an education of quality by teaching and making them learned social, politic and responsible matters of their own country but in a proactive approach. It’s a commitment for the next generation, summarized by the motto “I can.” It’s also a new sharing way to educate parents and lead other young people who are surrounded by topics they know and where they can act to solve them.

Useless to tell why Ted Talk is putting Kiran Bir Sethi on a pedestal but more than that, you could appreciate her work watching her video on the link below:

http://www.ted.com/talks/kiran_bir_sethi_teaches_kids_to_take_charge.html

Social entrepreneurship’s criticism:

Hard time for ethics in Business.

Mohammad Yunus – Nobel-winning and father of the social business and microfinance – has just been fired from his own Grameen bank, bank for the poor by the Bangladesh’s High court because he would not respect his own corporate governance policy of retirement according to the Economic Times. That’s a very strange decision because If Professor Yunus has to retire because of age, then why shouldn’t politicians retire because of age?

The members of the Grameen Bank are really moved and hope that these troubles would not jeopardize the stability of the group if we consider the statement written on their home page. Whereas the Yunus’ Petition is rejected according to The Dayly Star, supporters in Bangladesh keep going to wrestle and form this week a human chain to peacefully protest.

US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton still expresses her support for the Nobel-winning, making this case an international one. Such support visible all around the world if we consider the growing community fighting this injustice on social network. Besides, if you want more newsfeeds on this topic or join the movement, go on the community Facebook and act now to fight this unfairness.

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If social entrepreneurship was a person, it would probably be an adolescent looking for who it is and what it wants to be. Indeed, social entrepreneurship still has troubles to define itself on its own and too many actors (NGOs, asset managers or social entrepreneurs) ask for its paternity.

Fortunately for Social Entrepreneurship, social network and social media are two great friends supporting the field and that’s what E-180 – an organization for impact which melts social entrepreneurship, social media and education – do by listing its “Top 25 social entrepreneurship websites” that you can find on the link bellow :

http://e-180.com/2009/02/our-top-25-social-entrepreneurship-websites/

This database spots any point of views in the field but the support of social network will be the best way to empower our movement, like the last hack of Marc Zuckerberg’s fan page suggested it on last January. If you missed this news, no worries, a press article from the Guardian is waiting for you just here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/jan/26/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-page-hacked

What the social entrepreneurship field is up to: The trends in social entrepreneurship to watch for 2011:

Since 2009, Dowser.org has embraced an optimistic philosophy, highlighting a “solution frame” instead of a “problem frame”. In a certain way, it’s likely the better choice to do above all in social entrepreneurship which still is a niche market subject to criticism.  Considering this metrics, Dowser.org has recently provided eight trends in social entrepreneurship to watch for 2011 that you can find on the link below:

http://dowser.org/eight-trends-in-social-entrepreneurship-to-watch-for-in-2011/

These trends are very relevant of our field’s enhancing and can go together with the objective of The Schwab Foundation which managed and organized for 13 years now a competition between social entrepreneurs from Africa, Asia, South America and Europe, encouraging them to go beyond their bounds and develop consistently an innovative, positive and proactive action. In great detailed, you can read a post on mladinfo.com but what we can remind us of is the fact that for spreading social entrepreneurship, we really need to foster the community on a collaborative approach.

Social entrepreneurship’s case study: When Multinationals go social for business:

IBM is maybe the case study of the moment in the social business field because it makes part of these multinationals who want to integrate responsibility and sustainability into the business process thanks to social network.

If the last month’s hack of the Facebook’s fan page intended the same goal, IBM offers now its skills to formalize clearly this social business model for classical ones. More than that, its new strategy consists in being also a social business and to do so, IBM will give the keys to leverage social network and collaborative approach by supporting innovation and suggesting to all the stakeholders (internals, customers, partners) some new standards in the social business space.

In an article extracted from eweek.com a comparison is even made between the Web 2.0 and the IBM’s case study where social network and social business’s mixture could represent a new era in the Economy’s History.

To learn more about this case study:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Move-Over-Facebook-IBM-Goes-Social-for-Business-176476/1/

To learn more about IBM’s new strategy:

http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/?re=1brf3

http://blogs.forrester.com/ted_schadler/11-02-03-day_one_for_ibms_social_business_strategy_its_business_in_the_empowered_era

Social entrepreneurship’s criticism: Are NGOs and Foundations truly crystal clear?

According to Novethic – a French non financial rating agency – NGOs and foundations are doubtful. Indeed, if we question their funding and transparency policies we could point out like two French deputies that they are sometimes inconsistent. So far, NGOs – especially environmental ones – are not those putting in question because as their evaluation as their organization is made by the stakeholders.

Nevertheless, if they are not in the heart of the troubles they have to pay attention – like the Foundations – to a double issue regarding their corporate governance:

-          Develop some partnerships with multinationals with a better CSR because they are obviously not the best-in-class regarding this metric.

-          Avoid the crossholdings to get a better impartiality in the board of directors.

If NGOs and Foundations have some good motivations, they have to be very rigorous, maybe more than a classical firm in term of transparency because they convey some social and moral values.

To read the Novethic’s post (French content):

http://www.novethic.fr/novethic/planete/institution/etats/transparence_financement_deputes_se_penchent_fondations_et_ong_environnementales/132830.jsp

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Learn about Social entrepreneurship: Managementhelp.org or how to grasp a social enterprise.

People are often lost when you talk about sustainable development, social entrepreneurship, social and solidarity economy and indeed, it’s not that easy to avoid such amalgam if you have not an appropriate background or interests dealing with these topics. Plus, for those who would already acquired such interests, it’s quite costly to access to accurate information. By noticing all these boundaries, managementhelp.org is a website providing a large, easy-to-access, online articles and above all FREE library about any topics which could help comprehension on management for organization, for-profit/non-profit, group or individuals. Good news for people who want to grasp social entrepreneurship because there are plenty of articles which explain all you have to know about that. Moreover, it will be a plus to reconsider the definition of what social entrepreneurship really is because of the fact that it’s a free community resource.

To learn more about managementhelp.org:

www.managementhelp.org

To learn more about social entrepreneurship on managementhelp.org:

http://managementhelp.org/soc_entr/soc_entr.htm

What the social entrepreneurship field is up to: French people trust in social entrepreneurs:

In France, social entrepreneurship appears often like a conceptual subject without concrete application. Indeed, if French people have a vague idea of what social entrepreneurship is all about, no studies had been provided explaining their involvement. As a result, for the “salons des entrepreneurs” on last 2^nd of February, three French social agencies for the promotion of the social business – CSA/Avise/lacroix – took a poll dealing with the reputation of social entrepreneurship in France. According to this survey, 81% of French people are interested by a social way to think the economy – especially young people and executives who are looking for human treatment instead of individualism.

Good news for the corporate world because this involvement is very representative of its responsible trend. Whereas the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 has created a responsibility of the stock market (Socially Responsible Investment, solidarity fund, etc…) this study shows above all that social entrepreneurship field offers concrete opportunities, not only for investors but all sectors taken together in France (goods, services, information). Such a chance or truth strategy from the French government, what we can say for sure is that France understands how many and how much these emerging markets will represent some growth drivers.

As a result, it’s not surprising that the French Economy goes together with the French education which provides more and more formations and trainings focusing on sustainability. Finally, although some authority measures has been taken, France seems to prepare the way to a social and human entrepreneurship.

To learn more about the survey (French content):

http://www.la-croix.com/illustrations/Multimedia/Actu/2011/2/1/avise-lacroix.pdf

Social entrepreneurship’s case study: The MicroConsigment Model (MCM) or how to manage a social business.

In the social entrepreneurship’s field, many actors work for the same goal: emancipate social & economic development – in poor countries particularly. These actors can be donors, universities, firms or NGOs etc. If all of them contribute to reach this goal, they have a management which sometimes opposes them, each one pretending that their own way is the best one to achieve social positive value. However, this confrontation is likely going to disappear thanks to collaboration & financing approach between stakeholders: the MicroConsignment Model (MCM).

What is it all about? The MCM is a new and innovative way to fight poverty, especially in rural area. Villagers, social enterprises, NGOs, investors, join their effort and finance a same campaign on consignment instead of loans or microcredit. If there is no refunding preoccupation of a loan, because the provision of payment is expected only on completed sales, MCM entrepreneurs are able to focus only on development strategy. The plus of this pro action concerns also the expertise of each stakeholder who can provide accurate diagnosis and recommendations via their own skills and backgrounds. With such management, this ecosystem which was born in Central America – Guatemalla – will likely improve itself in all poor countries, allowing products, services and information to be sold in a sustainable way.

To learn more about the MCM model:

http://www.microconsignment.com/summarydescription.html

To learn more about the MCM model success:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/04/how-to-grow-a-social-business/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Social entrepreneurship’s criticism:

If social entrepreneurship is currently spreading its content touching finance, goods, services as well in poor countries as in wealthy ones, it still works thanks to philanthropy from huge firms’ foundations and/or riches investors to undeveloped countries. But what happens when the donors turned frugal? That’s exactly what The Chronicle of biggest donors was wondering in an article extracted from advisorone.com and the facts appeal from recession and dependency.

Indeed as numerous economists suggested it, the years 2010 nor 2011 won’t be those of the economic recovery. This fact represents a bad point for the social business philanthropy because if investors are losing trust in the market, they will prefer treasuring their money up instead of placing them on outstanding funds. Plus, according to the article, even during a good economic period, wealthy donors would not invest if they could not profit from tax benefits.

As a consequence, that’s exactly where we can criticize the social entrepreneurship model too dependent of the stock market and not ready for now to emancipate itself from neither the capitalism nor the pro-action of the State. Therefore, whereas the donations of 2007 were around $75M, they plunge around $40M in 2010 due to some austerity and external measures.

To learn more about The Chronicle of biggest donors:

http://www.advisorone.com/article/wealthiest-donors-turned-frugal-2010-chronicle-philanthropy

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Watch it on a PDF here: Events

Or directly here:

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What is PLANET’NGO ?

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Seguridad y privacidad en Redes sociales

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That’s the tweet you send by clicking on the tweet button on Twitter Causes page : hope140.org. Today one in five adults is still not literate and about two-thirds of them are women while 67.4 million children are out of school according to UNESCO.

If you want to do more than just sending a jumbled tweet you could either buy wine or donate to help publish a book. While drinking wine is not the first thing that you do when you want to promote a cause this seems to be a very effective way of enabling people to contribute while getting something tangible in return. You could choose between a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay from Crush Pad. Five dollars from the sale of every bottle will help establish libraries and provide books to children in one of the poorest regions in India.

World Literacy Day which was observed on September 8^th is one of the 3 causes featured on Hope 140. The others are for Haiti reconstruction and fighting Malaria. The Haiti page points to the telethon hosted by George Clooney, Wyclef Jean and CNN’s Anderson Cooper and various organizations, relief efforts and news sources. The page to help fight Malaria directs you to RT2Give which is a TwitPay Service to donate money to non profits and causes.

These are great examples of how we can use the viral power of social media for social good. The literacy day is in collaboration with Room to Read the case study of which is available for other non profits and social entrepreneurs to access. Nonprofit organizations can also use Twitter’s promoted tweet service for promoting their cause. Click here to find out more.

Vallabh Rao is from Bangalore, India. Follow him on Twitter here.

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