Archive for July, 2009

Monday, July 20, 2009 – Friday, July 24, 2009

Last week we began to feature a “Social Enterprise of the Day” on Twitter. To supplement this new initiative, here is a bit more information on our featured social enterprises. Enjoy!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Social Enterprise of the Day – Shokay

Shokay, formed by Harvard classmates and friends in 2005, is busy introducing luxury yak* down to the global market. Shokay hopes to create a market for yak fiber (a luxury product relatively unknown to the fashion world), in order to increase the value of the raw fiber and provide Tibetan yak herders with long-term employment and higher sustainable income. Sourcing its yak fiber directly from Tibetan herders, Shokay is investing and reinvesting its success into local communities, ensuring the opportunity of choice for future Tibetan generations.

Shokay’s development impact is four-fold: direct income generation, preserve local culture, promote sustainable use of the environment, and community development work. Currently, Shokay works with 2,600 people from the Hei Ma He Village of Qinghai Province in Western China, providing a sustainable source of employment and income to these herders. Shokay also works with a team of knitters in Chong Ming Island off of Shanghai to bring its collection of home, kids, and accessories to fruition.

Our favorite part of the Shokay web-experience is the kitschy twit pics of the Shokay’s yaks (not the live ones).

Follow Shokay on Twitter at @shokay

*For those who are unfamiliar with yaks, they are large, furry, animals that are part of the cow-family, and reside in cold, mountainous areas of South and Central Asia. » Continue reading “Twitter “Social Enterprise of the Day” Roundup”

Antony Bugg-Levine is a Managing Director at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York where he leads the Harnessing the Power of Impact Investing initiative. A native of South Africa, he previously led the Kenya office of the NGO TechnoServe and worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Co. He is also currently an adjunct associate professor at Columbia Business School.

Impact investing is emerging at a time when financial markets worldwide are in turmoil.

While industry participants can do little in the short term to address the wealth destruction that is reducing available capital, they can work strategically to position the industry to absorb a greater share of investment capital when markets inevitably thaw.

In Hyderabad, India, a private school is expanding after receiving a loan from the India School Finance Company.  The Company, capitalized by Gray Ghost, a US$200 million investment fund in the United States, is demonstrating that educational opportunity can be expanded through for-profit investment in schools that charge as little as US$4 per month.

Around Virunga National Park in the Eastern Congo, farmers are receiving premium prices selling vanilla and coffee to Gourmet Gardens, a Ugandan exporter. Despite the political instability that keeps mainstream lenders away, Gourmet Gardens secured a working capital loan for these purchases from Root Capital, a US-based non–profit that lends to farmers cooperatives and agriculture aggregators around the world.

In Chicago, USA a business is providing new jobs with good benefits to low-skilled workers after receiving a loan from ShoreBank, a pioneering community bank. ShoreBank could give the loan because major insurance companies and pension funds –including Prudential and TIAA-CREF, two of America’s largest financial institutions – made equity investments and targeted cash deposits to expand its lending capacity.

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Although they may not know it yet, the students in Hyderabad, the Congolese farmers and the business owner in Chicago are all participants in the rapidly emerging industry of impact investing. Like the individual and institutions who invested in the India School Finance Company, Root Capital and Shorebank, impact investors seek to make for-profit investments that can also provide solutions to social and environmental challenges.

These impact investors offer a bridge between traditional philanthropy – that can incubate innovation and mobilize attention on exciting solutions – and the private sector capital markets that ultimately hold the wealth required to take these solutions to a satisfactory scale. » Continue reading “Impact Investing: Harnessing Capital Markets to Drive Development at Scale”

Today, the amount of information flowing in and out of the international development space is mostly overwhelming.  In fact, ‘mostly’ does not cut it. It is incredibly overwhelming. Even if I decide to focus on one small facet of international development, whether it is social enterprise, aid, reproductive health, or any other worthy cause, I often feel as though I simply cannot keep up.

I spend the better part of every day (including weekends) cursing the invention of Twitter, blogs, online 24-hour-a-day-updated-by-the-minute media. Life used to be so simple – i.e., my source of information used to be in print – The New York Times, select semi-academic publications such as Foreign Policy, the Atlantic, and The New Yorker. End of story!

I now have 2,289 unread articles on my Google Reader from 47 different blogs. Living in Mumbai, I have to check Twitter in the morning to keep up with tweets from the North American workday and evening, then keep track of the Indian/European workday, and, when that is finally over, I once again get the North American morning barrage. Borders and time zones no longer matter. Honestly, I’m worn out.

But, when I think about those who lack access – access to education, access to employment, access to a better life – the common denominator being access to information – I thank my lucky stars.  » Continue reading “Too Much? Too Little?”

Sagar Siva Shankar is a Senior Associate with the Business Advisory Team at Intellecap. Intellecap (publisher of Beyond Profit) is a for-profit development firm with a focus on intermediating capital and advisory solutions for small and medium enterprise development.

It is a dusty, sun-baked road that takes us to Singampet village in Mahbubnagar district, over a hundred kilometers away from Hyderabad, the capital of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India. The surrounding fields are bare, waiting for the first monsoon rains to begin before the summer crop season starts. Yet economic activity here has not come to a standstill as it would have in the past. The reason for that change can be found in Damodar Reddy’s house. It is here that Damodar, an agent for a leading Indian retail company, runs a milk collection point for his village.

The collection point provided by the company is a simple setup, with jerry cans for milk collection and computerized instruments for measuring fat content and milk density. The collection process is turn key: farmers milk their cows twice a day and bring the fresh milk to the collection point. The computerized instruments generate a receipt based on the weight and fat content of the milk provided by each farmer. At the end of a fortnight, each farmer gets paid by the company directly. Damodar gets a commission for managing the center and ensuring its smooth functioning. » Continue reading “It’s Not All Bull: Mainstream Business Can Fight Poverty”

Sachin Malhan has been an entrepreneur his entire life, or at least he has felt like one. In 2003, knowing that corporate law was not his cup of tea, he started his first venture, and then his second, and then his third. But, his latest venture is the one that brings us the greatest excitement!

In late 2008, Sachin co-founded Inclusive Planet (IP), an enterprise that creates innovative web and mobile based services specifically designed for the differently-abled.* Never one to look at the small picture, Sachin dreams of IP becoming the definitive global online community and marketplace for the differently-abled. His dreams stretch far beyond the boundaries of the Indian subcontinent!

Just take a second to imagine being differently-abled in India. Imagine being blind. Or in a wheelchair. Now, imagine crossing a Mumbai street – motorbikes rushing at you, a stray cow standing in the median, a puddle disguising a huge pothole, a bus charging through that puddle. Now you’ve got the picture of what Sachin and his IP co-founders were up against when they decided to launch this venture.

Worldwide, the differently-abled lack access – access to learning and entertainment, access to places, to people. Sachin and IP are setting out to change this. » Continue reading “Access for All”

Pamela Hartigan became the new director of the Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship at the Oxford Said School of Business earlier this year.  With experience as the first Managing Director at the Schwab Foundation, and a Co-Founder and Partner at Volans, she is an entrepreneur in her own right.  Beyond Profit editor, Lindsay Clinton, caught up with Mrs. Hartigan at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford on March 27.

Beyond Profit (BP): How do you define social entrepreneurship, and what makes a a social entrepreneur different from an entrepreneur?

Hartigan: Social entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship.  It is innovative, resourceful, and leverages new opportunities to create new systems and products.  It is about system change.  It is not about palliative, charitable solutions to poverty.  It is actually about finding sustainable, innovative pathways to completely change the system.  Social entrepreneurs are very practical, innovative, and solutions-oriented.  They want to completely change the situation for whatever condition is spurring inequity.

The difference between social and business entrepreneurs is that when business entrepreneurs set up their enterprise, they have to focus on how to make a profit.  Why?  Because the assumption is that they have to pay back their investors and begin to make profit.  The social entrepreneur, in contrast, is actually setting out to correct market and government failures.  And while it might be profitable, the bottom line is to not to make a profit, but to change the system.   » Continue reading “A Good Time to be Unreasonable”

Last year, the folks at the Social Capital Markets Conference (SoCap) began what has come to be known as the Woodstock of social enterprise. The conference returns this September with version 2.0, SoCap 2009.

At a time when the rules of business are being re-written, businesses across the board are creating new models for doing well by doing good. Faced with new global challenges, businesses and governments seeking to inject energy into sagging economies are looking to boost the role of innovation and entrepreneurship. It seems we all are looking for new approaches, new paradigms, new ways of thinking, new ways of doing good.

SoCap 09 will seek to make sense of these new challenges and new approaches – helping us to understand this new environment.  Like last year’s event, SoCap 2009 will bring together investors, donors, entrepreneurs, and thought-leaders. The conference will offer you the opportunity to connect with socially conscious investors, learn how to raise money for impact investing in a recessionary economy, how to create new and effective partnerships and the opportunity to learn from peers across the globe.

SoCap already has a great line up of speakers, including:

• Sonal Shah, head of President Obama’s newly-created Office of Social Innovation
• Aaron Sklar of IDEO
• Dan Crisafulli of the Skoll Foundation
• Kevin Jones of Good Capital

Beyond Profit, and its sister publication, Microfinance Insights are Media Partners of SoCap 09. Watch out for more event updates from us, and don’t forget to look for us at the Media table.

You can also keep track of the event through the SoCap 09 Blog, on Twitter, and on Facebook. If you are a social enterprise enthusiast, SoCap 09 offers you the opportunity to connect with other like-minded individuals and businesses with an interest in creating social value through their investments.

And also, don’t forget that until July 8^th, you get a 40% discount on registration. Click here to register.

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”

Neil Armstrong, Mission Commander of Apollo 11, the first manned mission to land on the Moon, uttered these words on July 20, 1969. Little did he know the role they would play in the pop culture psyche. Much like the Apollo mission altered the course of American engagement in the Cold War, today – July 2, 2009 – has the potential to change the social dynamics on the Indian subcontinent.

The human rights of homosexuals have been restored as Section 377, a law from the British Raj era which says homosexuality and “unnatural sex” are criminal acts, has been overturned by the Delhi High Court.* India is finally loosening the shackles of colonialism and looking at the big picture—which shows that more than half the countries in the world have decriminalized homosexuality (84 remain). India has finally shed the dubious distinction of punishing homosexual acts with a 10-year prison sentence. India no longer shares a place on the list of homophobic countries, which includes Pakistan, Uganda, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone — not exactly the kind of company that a ‘‘liberal democracy’’ like India wants to keep.

For gays in India, no more lurking in the shadows. No more harassment. No more prejudice. No more persecution. No more marginalization. No more exploitation. No more humiliation. No more fearing the cop’s baton. No more hiding in the closet, both figuratively and literally. » Continue reading “Kicking Open the Door”

The Hub Launches in Mumbai!!!!!!

Last Saturday, a few members of our team attended an event that captured the energy of the social enterprise boom in Mumbai – the launch of the Hub. An initiative of UnLtd India, the Hub is a creative space for social entrepreneurs to gather, work, network, and conduct meetings.  The Hub promises to be “a unique collaborative space that would help spark bold, radical, and innovative solutions for social change in Mumbai. A fresh space for people with ideas and passion for social change to work from, meet, connect, learn, and grow.” The first of its kind in India, Hubs currently exist in a smattering of European metropolises, across North America, in the Middle East, and in far-flung Buenos Aires and Johannesburg.

In a city where space is at a premium, the Hub is a refuge from the din, and a lovely space to meet and exchange ideas.  The most remarkable feature of the physical structure, besides the expansive balcony, is a gorgeous red winding iron staircase.  With two floors, and numerous nooks, crannies, and libraries, we know we’ll find ourselves back there, interviewing budding social innovators.

Not to get too meta on you, but we love that the Hub is a social enterprise that incubates social enterprises.  The Hub will pay its bills by developing a membership base and cultivating those who will pay to use the space on an hourly basis.  And, in the meantime, they plan on hosting regular events and discussions for those in the social enterprise sphere. » Continue reading “Mumbai Shining”

Miss Malini continued to champion our cause with her second short interview with a local social entrepreneur, this time with Inir Pinheiro, founder of the social enterprise Grassroutes. Grassroutes seeks to build a bridge between the urban and the rural dweller by developing community managed tourism that enables people to experience Indian villages in their most authentic forms. By promoting tourism in tribal regions near Mumbai, visitors get to learn what villages really have to offer!

LISTEN to Inir Pinheiro on Radio One.

This interview is part of a special series that Mumbai’s Radio One on 94.3 is doing to promote awareness of social enterprise and social entrepreneurs. Miss Malini, the radio jockey, did the first short segment on June 18, interviewing Dhruv Lakra, founder of Mirakle Couriers, a courier company that employs disadvantaged people from the deaf community.

We can’t wait for what’s next!