Such a pleasure to read this amazing article by Emily Kasriel . So much insightful and inspiring at the same time to walk through various facets of the article. It touches upon the global COVID-19 pandemic and civil rights protests against racism that created a greater awareness of the intersecting inequalities and power disparities between social-change leaders and their beneficiaries, philanthropists and the NGOs they support, and white people and people of color working within organizations. A must read !
While I agree with almost everything in this article, I was jarred by an early assertion. "Traditionally, philanthropy and social entrepreneurship have operated from a top-down approach." Really? I have no argument with philanthropy: it’s built into the way the structure operates. But, the entire social entrepreneurship movement started as a counter-movement to traditional top-down government programs, development aid and charity. And Proximity Design, an award-winning social enterprise, is used as a perfect example of more bottoms-up approaches. I think the initial word in their name, proximity, is a great signal of what social entrepreneurs should be trying to do: getting close and listening carefully.
That being said, social entrepreneurs still have a long way to go, even if their top-down starting point isn’t the same as philanthropy. While social entrepreneurs in theory are much closer partners with the communities they serve than philanthropists, it’s pretty clear they could do a lot more deep listening to those communities. As a data person, I notice this when data is used to punish communities in the name of impact and accountability, and this backfires. Gathering information in order to punish people undercuts the entire point of deep listening.
I see deep listening as central to better and more effective social entrepreneurship. It’s about shifting power to the people who know the most about a social problem. It’s about social entrepreneurs being open to being completely wrong about how to be an effective partner in positive social change! Something that cannot be learned if you never listen.
COMMENTS
BY Anuj Sharma
ON November 27, 2021 11:52 PM
Such a pleasure to read this amazing article by Emily Kasriel . So much insightful and inspiring at the same time to walk through various facets of the article. It touches upon the global COVID-19 pandemic and civil rights protests against racism that created a greater awareness of the intersecting inequalities and power disparities between social-change leaders and their beneficiaries, philanthropists and the NGOs they support, and white people and people of color working within organizations. A must read !
BY JIM FRUCHTERMAN, Benetech
ON December 10, 2021 04:45 PM
While I agree with almost everything in this article, I was jarred by an early assertion. "Traditionally, philanthropy and social entrepreneurship have operated from a top-down approach." Really? I have no argument with philanthropy: it’s built into the way the structure operates. But, the entire social entrepreneurship movement started as a counter-movement to traditional top-down government programs, development aid and charity. And Proximity Design, an award-winning social enterprise, is used as a perfect example of more bottoms-up approaches. I think the initial word in their name, proximity, is a great signal of what social entrepreneurs should be trying to do: getting close and listening carefully.
That being said, social entrepreneurs still have a long way to go, even if their top-down starting point isn’t the same as philanthropy. While social entrepreneurs in theory are much closer partners with the communities they serve than philanthropists, it’s pretty clear they could do a lot more deep listening to those communities. As a data person, I notice this when data is used to punish communities in the name of impact and accountability, and this backfires. Gathering information in order to punish people undercuts the entire point of deep listening.
I see deep listening as central to better and more effective social entrepreneurship. It’s about shifting power to the people who know the most about a social problem. It’s about social entrepreneurs being open to being completely wrong about how to be an effective partner in positive social change! Something that cannot be learned if you never listen.