The 2009 Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship Conference

I urge you to attend the 2009 Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship Conference on Wednesday, 9/16/09. My friend Darian Rodriguez Heyman will be presenting alongside Ralph Nader, and it promises to be be an exciting, fruitful event.

This confrerence is designed to help executives from nonprofits, social enterprises, and small and medium-sized businesses better understand important trends and key factors for success as they seek to grow their organizations in these challenging times.
The program will feature presentations from:
  • Ralph Nader, former U.S. presidential candidate, consumer advocate and founder of The Center for Study of Responsive Law and Public Citizen
  • Darian Rodriguez Heyman, advisor to the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development and former Executive Director at Craigslist Foundation
  • Dick Sweeney, co-founder of Keurig Coffee
DETAILS

DATE: September 16, 2009
TIME: 8 am – 12 pm
LOCATION: Rothman Institute at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ, one of the top 20 entrepreneurship centers in the nation (Princeton Review)

EARNED INCOME: Encourage Triple Bottom Line for Nonprofits

This entry is in response to an op ed piece by Nicholas D. Kristof in The New York Times on December 24, 2008: The Sin in Doing Good Deeds

A new concept in business is the Triple Bottom Line: Profit, People, and the Planet. By paying attention to all of these elements, we create more responsible corporations, and in turn, a more responsible society. Just as businesses are expanding their outlook from merely profit to include social and environmental responsibility, it is time that we allowed nonprofits to expand their focus as well to incorporate a bit of the profit motive.

Earned income ventures is the name that nonprofits are giving to their business pursuits, allowing them to derive revenue from sources other than purely altruistic donations. This trend is on the rise and is here to stay, so let’s embrace it and allow nonprofits to take advantage of the market forces that have rewarded those in the private sector.

WAKE UP CALL: To what extent does your nonprofit take advantage of market forces to achieve its mission?

The Moment of Now Conference 2008



On October 24, 2008, the Columbia School of Business held a conference titled “The Moment of Now: Market Innovations in Social Enterprise” to explore themes in the emerging sector of social enterprise. In this session on Cultivating Effective NGO-Business Partnerships, Gordon Peterson (second from left),  VP of Corporate Social Responsibility for The Timberland Company, squared off with two nonprofits: Allison Clements (left), Corporate Counsel for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Kyle Cahill, Director of Corporate Engagement at the Environmental Defense (third from left), moderated by Alan Webber, Founder of Fast Company magazine.Continue reading

Social Entrepreneurial Sweet Spot

At a recent Green Marketing Group gathering convened by Les Judd of Green Bouroughs, a monthly gathering of environmentally-minded business owners to help each other share ideas and grow our business, Kerry Gillick-Goldberg, VP of PR for The Business Development Group simplified the essence of small business marketing as the intersection among three variables: what you do best, what buyers want and how you can make money bridging the two.

The provided specific marketing advice to the several of the members seeking to promote their green products, and discussed ways of helping increasing revenue for entrepreneurs through: increasing your billable rate, hiring others, passive income projects, books and products, commissions and affiliate sales and partnerships.

WAKE UP CALL: Whether in business or at a nonprofit, are you doing what leverages you best attributes and meets a market need?

RESOURCES:

Les Judd, Green Marketing Group: les@greenboroughs.com

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The Triple Bottom Line


At a Craigslist Foundation event on Social Entrepreneurship, Jeffrey Robinson, PhD. Asst. Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, at the NYU Stern School of Business, discussed the triple bottom line of social ventures: profits, social responsibility and environmental responsibility – given equal weight. The triple bottom line concept is gaining traction as a viable business model as people seek to make a living by doing good.

WAKE UP CALL: In what ways can you incorporate these areas into your bottom line?

Lessons from a Social Entrepreneur

At a meeting of aspiring social entrepreneurs, Santosh Ramdoss, a Graduate Fellow at NYU and the winner of their business plan competition, shared his in-the-trenches story of identifying the needs of India’s poor. Thinking he would help them start their own businesses (as witness the enormous micro financing movement), he discovered that they’d rather have steady jobs.

Lessons

– Be prepared to be fooled by randomness and respect its importance
– Dealing with failure requires resilience
– Need humility and the need to learn from, not about
– Be socially entrepreneurial in everything you do.
– It takes way longer than you think

WAKE  UP CALL: In what ways are you prepared to take advantage of the unexpected?

RESOURCE: Santhosh@profitsforpeople.org