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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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Feb 27 2012
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Career, Forum, NGOs, Social Enterprise, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #6 – Money Talks: Should Doing Good have more Impact on Your Wallets?

Weekly Ponder #6

Money Talks: Should Doing Good have more Impact on Your Wallets?

Raise your hands if you have heard the following phrase: “Doing Good While Doing Well.” Now raise your hands if you did not know that this refers to companies and investors. Yes, the money goes to them. Not to you. That is, not to most of you, who are likely neither a company nor have the money to play impact investor. If you care about such things as “doing well” (ah heck, let’s call it what it is: money), my ponder of the week may resonate.

Personally, and frankly, I cannot imagine why we would care about how much “good profits” those responsible/sustainable corporations make or why we would care that the (already wealthy) impact investors get a little extra cash in the bank, without first talking about making “good living” ourselves. Perhaps that explains my aversion to a phrase which smells like good PR but lacks personal significance that I can relate to by any measure.

A further thought. To review a perennial bone that I love to unearth occasionally (see previous post where I mentioned the issue of compensation), I continually try to tell myself that the following is not true: that the vast majority of “do-good” jobs that DIRECTLY affect the (social/environmental) bottom line, e.g., working for social enterprises and NGOs, do not seem to pay so well. We’re not even comparing to traditional for-profit jobs here. We just have to compare that to those do-good jobs that exist more to ENABLE other change-makers, e.g., foundations, institutions like World Bank, ADB, and consultancies. If you didn’t know, allow me to suggest this carefully: the latter make (a lot) more money than the former! Today’s question is not why there is a difference and whether that is appropriate or fair, or exactly what levels of positions we are talking about here (although both may be addressed by a future post). Today’s question may be simply about why do-good pay is (relatively) low and unattractive period – and whether this is okay.

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Feb 21 2012
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Career, Good Profiles

Good Profile – Mrim Boutla (More Than Money Careers)

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 a recovering brain scientist turned career coach and social entrepreneur. Right now, I am partnering with Dr. Mark Albion, former Harvard Business School Professor and Co-Founder of Net Impact to grow More Than Money Careers. More Than Money Careers is a for-profit social enterprise that helps students and professionals Get Clear, Get Connected and Get Hired for well-paying career opportunities that match their values.

More Than Money Careers offers an online library of modules and online training programs that university staff can use as they work with students and working professionals to get hired for career opportunities in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Social Enterprise, and Sustainable Business.

We are in our first year of operations, and thus far we have 13 campus partners: Brown University, Carlson School of Management (University of Minnesota), Darden School of Business (University of Virginia), George Washington University School of Business, Kenan-Flagler School of Business (University of North Carolina), Lokey Graduate School of Business (Mills College), Ross School of Business (University of Michigan), Seattle University, Smith School of Business (University of Maryland), Terry College of Business (University of Georgia), Texas State University, Yale School of Management, and Zicklin School of Business (Baruch College).

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Jan 18 2012
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Career, Impact Investing, Lists

A 6-Step Impact Investing Career Checklist (Part 3) – “Personalities” or: Who Runs the Show?

Key Ideas in this Post:

  • Impact investing is the latest hot topic in the do-good community around the world. At its core, the idea of actually “investing” in social-purpose organizations and achieve both “social and environmental” and “financial” returns for money, as an alternative and complement to philanthropy, gets people excited. Whether you think it’s just repackaging of old ideas or a legitimate paradigm shift, this “field” has undeniably gotten significant attention in the last five years.
  • In Part 1 and Part 2 of this 5-part series, I proposed a 6-step mental checklist that may help you navigate your career in this field, and I started with elaborating on the first two items dealing with understanding why people seem to care about impact investing, identifying current opportunities, becoming more aware of your actual role on the job, and remain cautious because career development is probably currently not a priority for the majority of impact investing firms but those with most money, scale, and years of experience (which is very few).
  • In this Part 3, I will discuss the third component in the checklist, which involve understanding who you are dealing with as the so-called “impact investor”. I will claim that the personalities of people running impact investment firms nowadays spans a certain spectrum and may or may not be a good fit with you depending on your own preferences and needs. Understanding this will help you probe in your interview and during your research phase to better gauge if a particular firm is the right place for you. Trust me, this is definitely not much talked about when all the media nowadays report and debate on impact investing on its theoretical and abstract features, while paying on average rather little attention to its human level. Let me ask: while impact investing managers can talk passionately about the people their investments help all day and all night, how many can articulate where they see their employees move within their organization in five years? Lastly, do not be surprised if you see a strong theme around money and attitudes towards it. I write about them at length in this post because it is somewhat of an impact investing “dirty little secret” and not discussed because we are supposed to talk about doing good here, right? Well, what I would simply like to do here is to draw the connection between personalities and the way they lead people to interview and negotiate with you sometimes in rather strange, seemingly counter intuitive ways.

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