2. DEFINE GOALS AND
SUCCESS
What is the criteria for success in your
business?
•
•
• Gainful employment for yourself and
people you employ?
• Meeting Triple Bottom Line?
• Create Sustainable Change
3. PURPOSE
Reasons for starting a social project /
enterprise
•
•
• Solving a social problem
• Doing a current business in a better
(more social) way
5. FIRE FIGHTING VS
FIRE PREVENTION
Is your solution a short term fix or is it
a long term solution?
How to do you test?
•
•
• Will the business be around after
you leave?
8. CASE STUDY
Haiti Partners
• 501c3 Organization
• Change Haiti through Education
• Founders work and live in Haiti since
1992
• inspired by a sustainable education
model developed by a grassroots
organization in a remote area of Haiti
9. CASE STUDY: IMPACT
• build capacity through substantial
training
• improve school’s infrastructure
• provide access to seed capital
• support to create a social business
• helping them along toward long-
term financial independence.
10. CASE STUDY: RESULTS
• Currently supporting 7 schools (building
more)
• Close knit community – town meetings
everyday
• Community sends their children to high
school on their own as they see the
value of education
• Community empowered to make
decisions on their future
11. CASE STUDY
Ghana Shea Nuts
• Maata-N-Tudu (MTA) and Grameen Ghana
(GG) Partnership
• Rural women in Ghana collect Shea nut and
make Shea butter, an accessible income
generating activity
• But their incomes are unstable due to a lack
of market information, inadequate business
knowledge, and low negotiating power
12. CASE STUDY: IMPACT
• An order management and fulfillment
software package, provides buyer with
transparency on historical product
quality data and product traceability.
• Women get access to information
through price updates via SMS text
messages to mobile phones.
• Middlemen are cut out
13. CASE STUDY: RESULTS
(FOR PILOT)
• Women have been organized into
association called Star Shea Network (SSN)
• They have more negotiating power, & give
buyers access to larger quantities.
• Women have been trained to process better
quality nuts and butter. In November 2010,
SSN women sold over 93 metric tons of
nuts at premium prices to a buyer.
• Income increase significantly.
14. HOW TO CREATE
SUSTAINABLE IMPACT?
Common traits of sustainable projects
•
•
• Founders permanently in project (no exit
strategy or plans)
• Communities empowered to take
responsibility and make their own
decisions
15. HOW TO CREATE
SUSTAINABLE IMPACT?
Common traits of sustainable projects
• Local Champions in Charge
• Projects will still go on without founders
• Communities involved in decision
making process from day 1
• External support only to give more
options, opportunities and funding
17. ENGAGE
• People have their own aspirations.
• Communities should be allowed to
decide on their own future.
• A person outside the community
cannot solve the community’s
immediate problems without
engagement.
18. ENABLE
• Build capacity, train required skills
for required job.
• Help provide funding if equipment
or materials are required
• Provide more options to increase
income capacity
19. EMPOWER
• Allow communities to make their
own decisions.
• Allow communities to participate in
discussion, planning and
contribute.
20. CONNECT
• Connect the community with the
international market
• Connect the community with local /
international resource
• Connect the community with local
universities / technology
• Connect the community with funding
and expertise
21. CASE STUDY
Markets of Hope
A Global Market place of Products
and Services from disaster areas
and Disadvantaged Communities
28. CASE STUDY: IMPACT
Markets of Hope
• Connecting local handicraft and art
manufacturing business of disaster
areas in Haiti and Japan to the
world
• Trying to get the shelter shops on
board with transparency and
increase capacity
29. SHORT TERM VS
LONG TERM
• Not all short term projects are bad, some
lead to more understanding of ground
dynamics and changing into sustainable
projects
• Short term crisis need fast solutions.
• Everything depends on your goals and
success metrics
32. ROBIN’S SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
PRINCIPLES
• Learn from other’s experiences,
especially from ―competitors‖ or people
you don’t like
• When helping communities, focus on the
―best communities‖ and a few
individuals willing to engage with you,
build trust and work with the community
for a solution before scaling up. Don’t
just help ―any‖ community
33. ROBIN’S SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
PRINCIPLES
• Fail fast, fail early, learn from mistakes
and move on. (Don’t give up)
• Believe in yourself before others believe
in you.
• Don’t discard ideas before trying them,
some crazy ideas really work.
• Always have more than 1 idea in your
head. Let them compete.
34. ROBIN’S SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
PRINCIPLES
• Share ideas and collaborate – even if
someone steals your ideas, you can
always come out with better ones.
• Be open to accept new partners and
ideas. Invite them.
• Don’t trust Robin, trust yourself.
35. EMBRACE FAILURE
• Reaction to failure by many non-profit
organization create a risk adverse
culture.
• To move forward and progress,
organizations need to get rid of fear
36. FAILING INFORMATIVELY
• Nonprofits and the social enterprises
have to loose their fear of taking risks
and that opens us up to fail and improve
• Failure is a luxury – and we can’t fail the
people so it has to be incremental by
learning to learn from placing a lot of
Little Bets
37. FAILING INFORMATIVELY
• Nonprofits and funders need to change
upfront expectations about projects and
make space to allow for a fail or
something not working out. It’s okay as
long as we learn something from to
improve.
• New definition of success:
Adaptability and Transformation
38. FAILING INFORMATIVELY
• Nonprofits and social enterprises need
to fail from the inside out — we have to
make it okay to not be perfect inside of
nonprofits and to honestly share lessons
learned beyond our walls
• Culture change is needed
• Nonprofits and social enterprises need
to embrace failure, not just accept it.
This means front loading failure as well
as doing ―after action reviews.‖
