Socially Responsible Business
Too Good to Fail
In August 2010 the US government closed ShoreBank, one of the country’s leading social enterprises. Why did ShoreBank fail?
Tag: Hybrid Organizations
Business
Nonprofit, For-profit, or Something in Between?
Before answering structure and capital questions, think through your venture, your value proposition, your motivation, and your definition of success.
Social Entrepreneurship
For Love or Lucre
A veteran social entrepreneur provides a guide to those who are thinking through the thorny question of whether to create a nonprofit, a for-profit, or something in between.
Socially Responsible Business
Turning a Profit by Helping the Poor
Politically radical social workers didn’t expect to be working in a bank any more than white-collar bankers expected to be holding meetings in a crowded public market.
Corporate Philanthropy
Do No Evil
Google DotOrg launched in 2004 with bold ambitions and almost $1 billion in seed funding. But the results have been less than stellar.
Podcast
Social Enterprise
Erickson, Levine, Kim, Deiglmeier - Structures for Social Enterprise
Social problems are being addressed not only through the traditional nonprofit sector but also with emerging social enterprise structures such as for-profits that focus on the triple bottom line and hybrid models that blend market and nonmarket approaches. Kriss Deiglmeier, executive director of the Center for Social Innovation, moderates a panel of social enterprise leaders who discuss the unique aspects of their respective organization's legal structure, and share perspectives in establishing and maintaining enterprises dedicated to advancing social impact.
Podcast
Philanthropy & Funding
Panel Discussion - Skoll World Forum: Financing the Growth of Operations
Financing the growth of operations to achieve major scale is undoubtedly the biggest challenge facing social entrepreneurship. This panel discussion explores the current challenges and constraints in mobilizing capital flow to compelling social enterprises. Experts cover a range of strategies and channels available to social entrepreneurs for financing growth plans, including emerging alternatives to create new asset classes (hybrid, for-profit, and for-benefit models).
Podcast
Social Enterprise
Panel Discussion - Skoll World Forum: Hybrid Business Models
How do you use for-profit activities to fund your social entrepreneurship mission? In this panel discussion at the Skoll World Forum, experts talk about how to combine for- and nonprofit activities for greatest effect. They show that business and nonprofit can mix, drawing on examples such as efforts to profitably provide water to poor villagers by training street children to run businesses, and franchising medical care to creating a transparent market place for handmade goods.
Podcast
Social Enterprise
John Sage - Social Enterprise, Fair Trade and Coffee
Combining idealism with a genuine love of business, John Sage cofounded the social enterprise company Pura Vida, one of the largest distributors of fair trade organic coffee in the world. In this University podcast, he discusses his mission to improve the lives of people in coffee-growing regions. Sage explains how Pura Vida works at the intersection of the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, showing how the two can be blended to generate both revenues and social good.