Filed under Social Enterprise …

Jul 06 2012
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Career, Good Profiles, NGOs, Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship

Good Profile – Jaspal Shakya (OpportuneJobs.com)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

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What do you do for a living nowadays?

I am the Co-Founder and CEO of OpportuneJobs.com, a for-profit initiative of SkillsKarma Services Private Limited. OpportuneJobs.com is a one stop portal for jobs, fellowships, internships, volunteering, consulting services, RFP/EOI/Tender, events and news. It is a creative enterprise managed by a group of young, passionate, innovative and skill driven entrepreneurs, whose constant endeavor has been addressing the needs of development professionals and corporate/NGOs/social enterprises across India. As a CEO my responsibilities include developing and implementing strategies, making major decisions, and managing the overall operations and resources of OpportuneJobs.com.

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Jun 11 2012
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Good Profiles, NGOs, Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship

Good Profile – Tom Rippin (On Purpose)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

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What do you do for a living nowadays?

I am the CEO and Founder of On Purpose, a social enterprise that is a leadership programme for professionals seeking to transition into the social enterprise space at a relatively early point in their career. We believe that the way capitalism works is changing and that equipping as many as possible of the very best talent to work on new models of how society works is a critical mission.

What that means in practice is that I spend a lot of my time thinking about how to develop people, helping them get used to working in new ways and/or organizations, modeling behaviours and exposing them to others who model useful behaviours and a lot of networking and network sharing. Beyond that, I also have to run the nuts and bolts of the organization and the actual programme (now together with my colleague Kate Richardson).

The programme runs for one year, full time and we recruit high-calibre professionals (from any sector) who have at least several years’ work experience. During the programme these “Associates” do four things:

  • Work for six months each in two organizations that are combining social (or environmental) and commercial ways of working (for which the Associates are paid a living allowance)
  • Attend half a day a week of training covering the most important topics from both the social enterprise and commercial worlds
  • Meet once a fortnight with a mentor who helps them add as much value to the organization they are working for as possible
  • Talk to a coach once a quarter about their personal goals, their career and how they are transitioning into social enterprise

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May 10 2012
7 Comments
Development, Good Profiles, NGOs, Social Enterprise

Good Profile – Krystina Nguyen (US Peace Corps – Cameroon)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

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What are you up to nowadays?

I’m currently serving as a Small Business Advisor for the US Peace Corps in Ngaoundere, Cameroon.  The Peace Corps is an independent U.S. government agency that places volunteers in developing countries in various sectors across business, education, health, agriculture, environment, and community development. Peace Corps Volunteers serve for 27 months (two years of service after three months of technical, cultural, and language training) living at a level next to those they are serving. Each Volunteer is placed with a partner organization and can branch out to various other projects in the community. I will be finished with my contract in July 2012.

There are currently two core competencies for my Community Economic Development division: 1) Enhance opportunities for income generation and 2) Build local capacity for economic growth.

My partner organization is MC2, a microfinance organization found throughout Cameroon.  I serve as a consultant on various projects including strategic community outreach, benchmarking the loan review process, and training staff in IT.  I also manage and organize micro-credit cooperatives in the VSLA model; when individuals are too illiterate or marginalized for a traditional microfinance institution, the cooperative provides access to credit, a mechanism for saving, and an opportunity for low-risk investment.  As youth under twenty-five years old make up 60% of Cameroon’s population, I work with A2Empowerment to provide scholarships and income-generative activities for teenage girls who have dropped out of school.  My last weeks will be spent overseeing the final logistics to organize a market for a community of 8,000 people.

That being said, every Peace Corps position, even within the same division, is different. This is because the needs of each community and each Volunteer are different.

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Apr 26 2012
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Career, Development, Good Profiles, Impact Investing, Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainability

Good Profile – Chelsea Katz (Kellogg Net Impact / Fresh Takes Kitchen)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

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What are you up to these days?

I am wrapping up my final quarter at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and will complete my MBA in less than two months!  While at Kellogg, I’ve focused on Social Enterprise (SEEK) and Entrepreneurship academic concentrations and have taken several great experiential or project-based courses including Sustainability Lab, Innovate for Impact, and Impact Investing (taught by David Chen of Equilibrium Capital Partners). I’ve also been heavily involved in the Net Impact Community.  This year I served as the VP of Careers for the Net Impact Club and chaired the Innovating Social Change Conference.  In my first year I led the Social Impact Career Trek to the Bay Area and the Global Health Initiative HIV/AIDS diagnostics market research trip to Kenya. 

What did you do prior to school?

I spent three years in Accenture’s Talent & Organization Performance practice where I provided consulting services to a variety of cross-industry clients with a focus on change management, organization design, and talent strategy. While at Accenture, I also provided extensive pro-bono consulting services to a number of nonprofit organizations including Accenture Development Partnerships, i.c.stars, and Junior Achievement.  I was also very involved in Corporate Citizenship efforts and developed a collaborative internal network of social impact enthusiasts dubbed the “Accenture Network for Social Impact” and managed Accenture’s sponsorship of the national Net Impact conference.  After a year as a pro-bono consultant, I transitioned to a full-time strategic project manager role with i.c.stars – an innovative Chicago nonprofit organization that uses project-based learning and full immersion teaching to provide opportunities for change-driven, inner-city community leaders to develop skills in business and technology. At i.c.stars I managed a portfolio of social enterprise consulting projects, fundraising events, and strategic initiatives, and led a cycle of interns through the first project in the training program.

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Apr 23 2012
11 Comments
Reflection, Social Enterprise, Weekly Ponder

The Importance of “Impact Offtakers” – Why Growth Is NOT The End Goal Of Social Enterprises

As a corporate strategy person, I totally get why traditional for-profit companies seek to grow: to make ever more money for their shareholders. Fine. But what I don’t get are social enterprises – however you define the term – when they talk about the “do-good equivalent” of the word “growth”, which is often referred to as “scale”. If the end goal of a for-profit corporation is to make as much money as possible (infinity + beyond $$$), what is the end goal of a nonprofit or for-profit social enterprise?

As a famous person once said: It’s the impact, stupid! And so the discussion becomes, in every single conference since the term “social enterprise” entered the mainstream a decade ago, about how we in fact can scale the impact of such organizations over time. A recent session during the 2012 Skoll World Forum, for example, was focused exclusively on the idea of how to envisage scaling beyond initial seed funding and “exit strategies” for social enterprises.

Although the panelists in this session touch on the subject, I feel not enough space in today’s literature is dedicated to a question that has somewhat plagued me for a long time – in fact, it has plagued me ever since I got interested in social enterprises.

The question is this: why the heck does everyone seem (so obsessively) to equate the scaling of impact with the scaling of the actual organization? In this post, allow me to make an argument for the importance of finding an “impact offtaker” as a critical scaling mechanism that supersedes that of organizational growth when it comes to social enterprises.

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Apr 21 2012
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CSR, Good & Gasp, Justice & Society, Philanthropy, Social Enterprise, Sustainability

Good & Gasp #4 – Scaling Social Enterprises, iPhone Guilt, Ethical Rankings, Philanthropy Limits

Good & Gasp #4

Scaling Social Enterprises, iPhone Guilt, Ethical Rankings, Philanthropy Time Limits

Themes that caught my attention, interest or made my eyes roll while roaming the web world of doing good:

  • Scaling Social Enterprises – how can social enterprises scale post seed-investment stage?
  • iPhone Guilt – is Apple or its loyal consumers (you) to be blamed for the Foxconn debacle?
  • Philanthropy Limits – should foundations consider spending their money quicker and winding down (dying) earlier?
  • Ethical Rankings – if weapons companies make the list of most ethical firms, what exactly do we mean by “ethical”?

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Mar 31 2012
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Good & Gasp, Impact Investing, Justice & Society, Social Enterprise, Sustainability

Good & Gasp #3 – Social Enterprise in Chinese, EcoMind, Common Wealth, Muppetgate, Human Engineering

Good & Gasp #3

Social Enterprise in Chinese, EcoMind, Common Wealth, Muppetgate, Human Engineering

Themes that caught my attention, interest or made my eyes roll while roaming the web world of doing good:

  • Social Enterprise in Chinese – 3 definitions of “social enterprise” in the same (huge) country?
  • EcoMind & Mental Myths – do the “end of growth” pessimists have it all wrong?
  • Common Resource Use Charges – should companies pay for polluting (and should we get some of the proceeds of such “common wealth” charges)?
  • Goldman Sachs’ Muppetgate – why do GS’ “muppet” clients keep coming back for more?
  • Human vs. Climate Engineering – should we consider genetically “making” humans more environmentally friendly?

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Mar 27 2012
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Career, CSR, Good Profiles, Social Enterprise

Good Profile – Stacy McCoy (Give To Get Jobs)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

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What do you do for a living nowadays?

Currently, I am the co-founder of Give To Get Jobs. Give To Get Jobs is a for-profit social enterprise job board for jobs that use a sustainable business model to address a social and/or environmental mission, mainly social enterprise and CSR. As a social enterprise ourselves, we donate a portion of the proceeds to fund job creation programs.

As one of the co-founders, I manage a lot of the day-to-day operations and get involved with developing long-term strategy. You can find me updating social media channels, managing the blog, building partnerships, reaching out to social enterprises, publishing job posts, you name it!

Is “doing good” a key reason why you chose this job?

Yes. The reason why I launched a social enterprise is because of the opportunity to do good. I view “doing good” as having a positive impact on the world. It is actively pursuing something benefiting instead of harming society.

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Mar 21 2012
12 Comments
Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship

Competition vs. Collaboration in Social Entrepreneurship – Can’t We All Be Friends?

In a recent article I read, the author, Yotam Ariel, tries to offer a social entrepreneur working in solar lamp distribution an opportunity to cut his costs by half by arranging for bulk-buying with other solar entrepreneurs to reduce the unit cost for each manufacturer. The entrepreneur refuses, citing that he would rather not help his competitors to “free-ride” off of his (bigger) purchasing power.

Hence, the author wonders why it is that people with similar social missions are still hesitating or outright refusing to share resources. What fears or concerns motivates them to do so? What speaks in favor or against collaborating with other social entrepreneurs? How much competition do we need among social businesses?

Good questions in my book! I wonder what you think after indulging my thoughts for a moment…

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Mar 11 2012
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Career, Polls, Social Enterprise

Weekly Poll #5 – Mulla, Mulla, Mulla: What’s the $ Reality of Social Enterprises?

Weekly Poll #5:

Mulla, Mulla, Mulla: What’s the $ Reality of Social Enterprises?

In a previous Weekly Ponder that dealt with how much “impact” we expect doing good to have on our wallet, the poll results suggested the majority of people do actually care about “doing good and doing well” when it comes to working for social enterprises or NGOs in terms of expecting to make a good living, too. Not only did they care, but they also seemed to agree that the level of pay seems relatively low and unattractive at present.

I’ve since then had a chance for a few good conversations with fellow Good Generation members here and there over a cup of coffee or dinner on the subject of compensation. We agreed that while NGO studies have been around for a while, there exists too little transparency and research in the relatively recent field of for-profit social enterprises on what salary levels currently are and whether this has been adequate to attract and retain talent lured by the call to “do good and do well”. More enigmatic even to me is what the expected progression should be for someone within 2, 5 or even 10 years of working for a social enterprise. The assumption of some people remains that a social enterprise should pay better than the traditional NGO because it’s more like a “business”. Interesting! But is it true?

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