I enjoyed this article. What I’m reading here is highly encouraging. Social entrepreneurship has seemed like a closed circle for specific types of causes. This despite the fact that there are successful causes which have been launched by nonprofit founders for many decades. At the National Institute for Civic Enterprise (NICE), we’ve polled human service founders this past year and discovered that most do not know what social enterprise means. This, despite the fact that they have built a cause from scratch and in many cases have replicated it. Funding is often traditional but more and more nonprofits are needing to diversify funding strategies through the sale of goods and services to build sustainability. They could learn a lot by being exposed to the newer SE strategies.
A large majority of existing human service initiatives in the U.S. have been launched by one person (or a few) holding a faith focus. We can learn much from these successful causes and founders. It’s my hope that SEA will embrace learning from these types of founders and leaders who we might call the original social enterprisers. This is what the NICE Network has been doing. This untapped and proven body of knowledge can help us all learn more about “what works”, avoid reinventing the wheel, and bring seasoned founders and leadership up-to-speed with social enterprise strategies.
It is perfectly true that “the kids from low-income backgrounds are actually at an advantage to becoming effective entrepreneurs in many ways. They don’t need to engineer any empathy for those they aim to serve because, well, they are those they aim to serve.” More, that’s why it is important not only the social entrepreneurs but the employees of the social enterprises to come from their customers background. Else there will be more frustrations for the poor seeing that the jobs in the social enterprises that have been created to serve them are taken by others (even if these are doing well their job). This is why I believe that any genuine social enterprise should have and a social insertion component, even if this will complicate the operation and the mission of the enterprise (that might be only to provide needed goods or services at affordable prices for the deprived people in a community).
Courtney E.Martin serves as an eye opener to the question that has been nagging my mind. social innovation has been given prominence in the European union countries and in the US. there are unlikely entrepreneurs are people who have or are contributing a lot to the social change in the world today. however in Africa the concept is still raw, it has not gotten the attention it requires.
my knowledge in sociology and communication from my undergraduate in the University of Nairobi is proofing to be so helpful even as i consider documenting the works of those people who are contributing to social innovation . I have been involved in so many volunteer activities. i credit this to my background. my life comprises building blocks from so many people and that has thought me the essence of empathy. Just like Nicolae Cuta has commented “the kids from low-income backgrounds are actually at an advantage to becoming effective entrepreneurs in many ways. i always try to help because i have been a beneficially of help from others .
even as i seek to grow as a social entrepreneurship consultant, i will continually seek to tap the knowledge that is shared in this group to enrich my self with the relevant information that will help me in helping others to form strategic collaboration that will explode the effect of socila innovation in Africa and the world
We loved this short article. Precisely what I’m reading here’s very telling. Cultural entrepreneurship offers seemed like a new finished eliptical for certain sorts of reasons. That despite the fact that you will discover productive reasons which were released by simply not for profit pioneers for several decades. With the Nation’s Initiate for Social Venture (NICE), we’ve polled human being service pioneers in 2009 and also learned that nearly all have no idea what societal company means. That, despite the fact that they have created an underlying cause by the start and perhaps get replicated this. Money is frequently traditional yet an increasing number of nonprofits usually are needing to diversify financing methods with the sale made associated with merchandise and also products and services to construct sustainability. They can discover a whole lot when you’re exposed to the particular more modern ZE methods.
Great and insightful piece. The topics addresses are things we think a lot about at Echoing Green—both in terms of our Fellowship process, but also our organization and staff. We are often asking ourselves who is “missing from the room,” and we think about ways to improve our application dissemination and outreach to reach more people. Just this year, we saw that only 40% of our applicants were female. This kind of data is incredibly important to us as we try to improve our processes—what are we doing that skews towards a male audience? How can we reach more women? How can we work with female entrepreneurs to build a stronger foothold in this space? Making sure we are always asking these questions—and thinking about who is missing from the room—is essential to deepening our support to our Fellows and in building a more successful Fellowship for social entrepreneurs.
COMMENTS
BY Debra Berg
ON February 19, 2015 02:39 PM
I enjoyed this article. What I’m reading here is highly encouraging. Social entrepreneurship has seemed like a closed circle for specific types of causes. This despite the fact that there are successful causes which have been launched by nonprofit founders for many decades. At the National Institute for Civic Enterprise (NICE), we’ve polled human service founders this past year and discovered that most do not know what social enterprise means. This, despite the fact that they have built a cause from scratch and in many cases have replicated it. Funding is often traditional but more and more nonprofits are needing to diversify funding strategies through the sale of goods and services to build sustainability. They could learn a lot by being exposed to the newer SE strategies.
A large majority of existing human service initiatives in the U.S. have been launched by one person (or a few) holding a faith focus. We can learn much from these successful causes and founders. It’s my hope that SEA will embrace learning from these types of founders and leaders who we might call the original social enterprisers. This is what the NICE Network has been doing. This untapped and proven body of knowledge can help us all learn more about “what works”, avoid reinventing the wheel, and bring seasoned founders and leadership up-to-speed with social enterprise strategies.
BY Nicolae Cuta
ON February 21, 2015 10:19 PM
It is perfectly true that “the kids from low-income backgrounds are actually at an advantage to becoming effective entrepreneurs in many ways. They don’t need to engineer any empathy for those they aim to serve because, well, they are those they aim to serve.” More, that’s why it is important not only the social entrepreneurs but the employees of the social enterprises to come from their customers background. Else there will be more frustrations for the poor seeing that the jobs in the social enterprises that have been created to serve them are taken by others (even if these are doing well their job). This is why I believe that any genuine social enterprise should have and a social insertion component, even if this will complicate the operation and the mission of the enterprise (that might be only to provide needed goods or services at affordable prices for the deprived people in a community).
BY Shadrack Agaki
ON February 22, 2015 11:53 PM
Courtney E.Martin serves as an eye opener to the question that has been nagging my mind. social innovation has been given prominence in the European union countries and in the US. there are unlikely entrepreneurs are people who have or are contributing a lot to the social change in the world today. however in Africa the concept is still raw, it has not gotten the attention it requires.
my knowledge in sociology and communication from my undergraduate in the University of Nairobi is proofing to be so helpful even as i consider documenting the works of those people who are contributing to social innovation . I have been involved in so many volunteer activities. i credit this to my background. my life comprises building blocks from so many people and that has thought me the essence of empathy. Just like Nicolae Cuta has commented “the kids from low-income backgrounds are actually at an advantage to becoming effective entrepreneurs in many ways. i always try to help because i have been a beneficially of help from others .
even as i seek to grow as a social entrepreneurship consultant, i will continually seek to tap the knowledge that is shared in this group to enrich my self with the relevant information that will help me in helping others to form strategic collaboration that will explode the effect of socila innovation in Africa and the world
BY Jennifer
ON February 23, 2015 07:26 AM
We loved this short article. Precisely what I’m reading here’s very telling. Cultural entrepreneurship offers seemed like a new finished eliptical for certain sorts of reasons. That despite the fact that you will discover productive reasons which were released by simply not for profit pioneers for several decades. With the Nation’s Initiate for Social Venture (NICE), we’ve polled human being service pioneers in 2009 and also learned that nearly all have no idea what societal company means. That, despite the fact that they have created an underlying cause by the start and perhaps get replicated this. Money is frequently traditional yet an increasing number of nonprofits usually are needing to diversify financing methods with the sale made associated with merchandise and also products and services to construct sustainability. They can discover a whole lot when you’re exposed to the particular more modern ZE methods.
BY Janna
ON March 2, 2015 08:45 AM
Great and insightful piece. The topics addresses are things we think a lot about at Echoing Green—both in terms of our Fellowship process, but also our organization and staff. We are often asking ourselves who is “missing from the room,” and we think about ways to improve our application dissemination and outreach to reach more people. Just this year, we saw that only 40% of our applicants were female. This kind of data is incredibly important to us as we try to improve our processes—what are we doing that skews towards a male audience? How can we reach more women? How can we work with female entrepreneurs to build a stronger foothold in this space? Making sure we are always asking these questions—and thinking about who is missing from the room—is essential to deepening our support to our Fellows and in building a more successful Fellowship for social entrepreneurs.