Hundreds of students across the US responded to this question asked at last year’s Lend for America Summit by starting microfinance initiatives at their college.
“That’s 32 universities in 19 states disbursing $376,000 in microloans to underserved communities nationwide,” said Charity Yoro of Lend for America.
Lend for America is an alliance founded in 2009 in response to a growing number of students starting microfinance institutions to spur economic development in their communities. It provides technical assistance and creates networking opportunities for these organizations.
Every year, the Lend for America Summit invites students to come together for a weekend of training and peer learning. This year, the fifth annual event will take place on October 11 to 13 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
“In Philadelphia, our goal is to bring together the next generation of leaders to offer training on how young people can make a meaningful impact in their local communities,” said Vanessa Carter, Executive Director of Lend for America.
The agenda will focus on best practices for microlending and enabling students to help the working poor in their communities, including some of America’s most troubled cities such as Durham, North Carolina and New Brunswick, New Jersey.
One of the goals of the summit is to encourage students to start campus microfinance institutions or “Campus MFIs”. As a member organization of Lend for America, Campus MFIs receive support such as access to a resource library, small grants, and on-site consulting. Membership fees last year were $200.
Intersect Fund, the parent organization of Lend for America, was also a student-led initiative out of Rutgers University. Today, it is one of New Jersey’s largest microlenders.
CITI Community Development is this year’s lead sponsor. Other sponsors include Campus Philly and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
]]>Social Enterprise Exchange
Organized by Social Enterprise Scotland, the Social Enterprise Exchange will be held in Glasgow, Scotland on March 21. The exchange is dubbed as one of the biggest events for social enterprises in Scotland this year. At the exchange, there is expected to be about 150 exhibitors that are either social enterprises or firms supporting the sector.
Speakers include a mix of representatives from the City Health Care Partnership CIC, Buzzbnk, Social Investment Scotland, and PwC, to name but a few. Approximately 1,000 attendees are expected to attend at this point.
European Forum on Social Entrepreneurship
Similarly on March 21, the European Forum on Social Entrepreneurship will converge on Plovdiv, Bulgaria for a 4-day event ending March 24.
The Forum will include a conference called “The Social Entrepreneurship – A Basis for Sustainable Growth” and the Second European Fair of Social Enterprises and Cooperatives of Persons with Disabilities. It will be held jointly by European Commission, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, CECOP, and the Agency for Disabled People.
Expected attendees include representatives from 70 enterprises from Bulgaria and 17 social enterprises and cooperatives from Belgium, Italy, Rumania, Serbia, Austria, Norway, Greece, and Malta.
The goal of the Forum is to help further develop social entrepreneurship, the social economy, and the promotion of employment for persons with disabilities.
]]>The event is intended for those who are curious, engaged, and passionate about solving problems facing their organizations and the global landscape.
Last year, the event took place at the Pixar Studios and featured speakers representing various fields of work. According to a report on Forbes, The Intersection will focus on changes to improve education this time around.
Confirmed speakers include Ashoka’s Bill Drayton, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, and The Obvious Corporation’s Evan Williams. Once again, a limited number of students will be eligible for heavily discounted tickets. Early bird applications are accepted until November 30, 2012.
Photo from Håkan Dahlström of Googleplex, used under this Creative Commons license.
]]>The competition began in 1999 by MBA students at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and each year, a global final is held at Berkeley in April. In 2012, the competition received over 600 entries from 50 countries.
Currently, the competition is looking for participants for the April 2013 final. The contest is run in partnership with universities and organizations from around the world. Teams will enter through regional partners based on where they are located. The deadlines for submissions vary, and the majority has a first submission deadline this upcoming December and January.
Each team must include a graduate business student from any business school or an individual who has graduated from a business program within the past two years. The competition is broken down into three parts: executive summary rounds, regional finals where teams deliver a full business plan, and global finals where teams deliver a revised plan and presentation.
Teams are eligible for the competition if:
Photo from the Global Social Venture Competition.
]]>1) Social Enterprise World Forum 2012 (October 16-18, 2012)
The Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) is an initiative of NESsT, an international company that offers support to social enterprises in the planning, incubation, and expansion phases. SEWF focuses on building global awareness of the effectiveness of social enterprises in solving social problems. This year, it takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and includes keynotes from social enterprise pioneers and investors, training workshops, presentations, a social enterprise marketplace, a social enterprise awards gala, and live entertainment. Participants are also able to attend site visits to social enterprises in Rio de Janeiro. Attendance is estimated to be over 700 people from more than 30 countries.
This will be the 5th SEWF. The first one was held in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2008 and has since traveled to Melbourne, Australia (2009), San Francisco, California (2009), and Johannesburg, South Africa (2010). SEWF 2012 will focus on “impact investing”, which is an asset class expected to rise globally. Registration for this event is still open.
2) Social Finance Forum 2012 (November 8-9, 2012)
Over in Toronto, Canada, the 5th annual Social Finance Forum hosted by the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing is a 2-day impact investing program that will examine the opportunities and challenges surrounding impact measurement, what makes a good deal, and how existing market opportunities measure up. The momentum for impact investing has been building over the last few years, but key questions still need to be answered: What is impact? How is impact measured? How should we value impact? What is a good deal? Who is impacted?
There will also be pitch sessions from social ventures and workshops for skill-building. By bringing together investors, finance professionals, academics, representatives from government, impact measurement practitioners, and organizations with social missions such as social enterprises, the Social Finance Forum is a place to connect and move ideas forward. Registration for this event is open until November 7.
3) Global Social Business Summit 2012 (November 8-10, 2012)
The 4th annual Global Social Business Summit (GSBS) takes place in Vienna, Austria. “Social business” is a term coined by Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus to describe a non-loss, non-dividend company with a social objective. Created by Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Creative Lab, the GSBS brings together experts from corporations, civil society, governments, and academia to foster innovative ideas for social business to serve society’s most pressing needs.
This year, the focus is on creativity coupled with the advantages of technological progress. Numerous international social business entrepreneurs will be present to share their expertise and exchange groundbreaking ideas. Registration for this event is still open.
4) Make a Difference Asia 2013 (January 25-27, 2013)
Since 2010, Make a Difference (MaD) Asia has been putting together an annual forum for over 1,200 difference makers aged 16-35 with a goal of inspiring young people to create positive change in society. The event is held in Hong Kong and divided into four activities: MaD Dialogues is a conversation with seasoned movers and shakers, MaD Studios offers an opportunity to learn methods to create real impact in communities, MaD Experiences is a wide range of experiential activities designed to inspire and empower, and MaD @ West Kowloon takes over the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade with art, performances, workshops, and other creative activities to foster co-creation.
This year, there will also be a “MaD Venture Fellows Programme” on January 24-27 that will invite social entrepreneurs from around the world to discover investors, partners, and opportunities to take their businesses to the next level. A highlight of the Programme is the “MaD Ventures Salon” which will select six finalist Fellows to pitch their ventures to potential investors and partners. Out of the six finalists, three winners will be invited to present at the main forum. To encourage applications from abroad, Fellows may be eligible for full or partial travel subsidies. Applications are due October 28, 2012.
5) Skoll World Forum 2013 (April 10-12, 2013)
If you want to attend an event that has a high probability of putting tears to your eyes and filling your heart with joy, the Skoll World Forum is the perfect one. An initiative of the Skoll Foundation, the Skoll World Forum was created to recognize and support the world’s leading social entrepreneurs – many of whom have a story to tell about their triumph over adversity. The Forum gathers 900 key government officials, social finance professionals, academics, philanthropic funders, and other key players to tell these stories.
Over three days, attendees engage in debates, discussions, and work sessions aimed at innovating, accelerating, and scaling solutions to social challenges. The Skoll Award For Social Entrepreneurship recipients will also be announced at the gathering. This time, the Skoll World Forum will take place once again in Oxford, UK and will be in its 10th anniversary. Though it is an invitation-only event, applications to attend will be accepted and will open later in the year.
]]>
]]>
]]>
Kevin Jones, the co-founder and convener of SOCAP, introduces the conference as a place for “disruptive technology” and “personal connection”. He talks about one person in particular who exemplifies why the conference takes place. This person is Tonee Ndungu, who started Kytabu, a textbook subscription service in Kenya that would make textbooks affordable and accessible for students. The company would source reverse-engineered tablets without all the unnecessary extras so that it costs only $40 to make. In Kenya, poor people can afford to buy smaller portions of products, such as sachets of shampoo. Kytabu operates on the same principle by letting poor familiar rent a book instead of buying it at an unaffordable price. They can rent books on a daily, weekly, monthly, school term, or annual basis. By making both the tablet and e-books affordable, educational content can reach the masses. However, like many social enterprises, what they need is the funding to operate and scale. SOCAP tries to connect the money and meaning.
Tonee Ndungu was one of five social entrepreneurs to take the stage on Day 1 and be given 30 seconds to introduce their organizations with the goal of expansion through investment. The others were:
Alexander Eaton (Sistema Biobolsa) – Based in Mexico, Sistema Biobolsa takes organic waste and produces bio-fertilizer for crops and biogas for heating and cooking.
Sheikh Turay (Liberation Chocolate) – Based in Liberia, Liberation Chocolate helps former child soldiers reintegrate into society by employing them to restore cocoa farms.
Veronica D’Souza (Ruby Cup) – Based in Denmark and Kenya, Ruby Cup is an affordable menstrual hygiene product that helps girls and women in emerging markets manage their menstruation.
Paseka Lesolang (WHC – Water, Hygiene, Convenience) – Based in South Africa, WHC was prompted by a World Health Organization statistic saying South Africa’s water consumption will exceed availability by 2025 to produce a simple device that when installed in a toilet, releases an organic detergent that makes the water reusable.
Follow @sebuzzcom on Twitter for updates on SOCAP 2012.
Photo from Social Capital Markets.
]]>The event was held at the Centre for Social Innovation. Toronto for Acumen is one of 15 Chapters run by local volunteers to increase awareness and excitement for what Acumen Fund calls patient capital.
The session provided insights on the Acumen Fund model. It highlighted the 10 things they learned about tackling poverty and focused on #2: Neither grants nor markets alone will solve the problems of poverty. On the one hand, traditional aid tends to lack a feedback loop that takes into account the voice of the customer. On the other hand, traditional venture capital puts investors’ demand first, not the customer. Acumen Fund uses a patient capital model that invests donor money in equity or debt for a period of 8 to 15 years on solutions that will eventually become financially sustainable.
Acumen Fund has four investment criteria:
1) Strong Leadership
2) Scalability
3) Financial Sustainability
4) Social Impact
Scalability reflects Acumen Fund’s desire to make large impact investments that reach over 1 million end users within 5 years. Companies also have to show the potential to cover operating expenses with revenue within a period of 5 to 7 years. In terms of social impact, Acumen Fund is essentially looking for “game changers” – those who can make a product or deliver a service that addresses a critical need for the bottom of the pyramid more favorably than anything currently available.
Other than providing an overview of Acumen Fund, the session generated some questions from the attendees. Some wondered what role governments play with regards to solutions for the vulnerable. One of Acumen Fund’s investments Ziqitza Health Care Limited provides a 24-hour ambulance service in India by dialing 1298. The plans were to get a number more easily remembered such as 911 or 999, but this option literally came at a cost. There is often disconnect between agencies and the people they serve.
Others wondered how Acumen Fund measures social impact. In reality, it is generally easy to measure the outputs – how many malaria nets distributed – but it is difficult to measure the outcomes – the degree to which people are better off as a result of those nets.
Acumen Fund has established presence in developing markets yet the presence remains less for regions such as North America. These are untapped markets since poverty can be seen in the most unexpected places. Acumen Fund Chapters are paving the way for investment at a local level. In Canada, immigrants and Aboriginals are seen as most vulnerable to poverty and with that comes Acumen Fund’s interest in exploring the possibility of a North American portfolio.
]]>These were the words that came from Vikram Akula, who is the former Chairman of SKS Microfinance, and rang through the ears of 1,500 attendees in the Social Enterprise Conference at Harvard on February 25. SKS Microfinance and the microfinance industry came under immense scrutiny when a program that was designed to help the poor got carried away.
At the Social Enterprise Conference, Akula acknowledged the legitimacy of the criticism from professor Muhammad Yunus, the pioneer of social business and microfinance, who had previously voiced his concerns over SKS’s deployment of private capital in microfinance and its profit orientation.
Perhaps this dramatic confession on Saturday night has bigger implications. Akula brings up learning points for social entrepreneurs. The first is mission drift. Part of the reason for SKS’s woes was the move away from the focus of serving the poor as its core mission. It becomes easy to lose sight of the social mission when not everyone in the social enterprise space is altruist and as a result, it is vital for social entrepreneurs to ensure the mission and core values are defined and pursued.
The second point is a call-to-action. The problems of SKS highlight the need to figure out how we can provide a better space for social enterprises to pursue their missions without pressuring them to abandon that pursuit. SKS Microfinance is a prime example of the outcome between tensions of profit and social purpose.
“The mistakes I’ve made can help the rest of you” said Akula at the end of his speech.
Ashoka Founder and CEO Bill Drayton was also present to deliver his keynote.
“Right now I believe we’re at the most profound transition point in the history of our species,” he said.
Drayton observes a new model he calls collaborative entrepreneurship – that seeks teams working across traditional boundaries of public, non-profit, and private sectors – between social entrepreneurs.
He challenges the attendees to “help your friends have the courage that you have” in trying to create a better world and adds that the supply of investment opportunities need to continue to increase to harness the excitement for social investment that brings in the energy and capital.
Winners of the Pitch for Change competition were announced. Ho’oulu Pacific, which aims to address epidemic levels of obesity, diabetes, and unemployment of Pacific Islanders, took first place, followed by Jamela Oil in second and Emprofit in third. Essmart is the audience choice. Prizes include cash and consulting hours by Root Cause and Echoing Green to develop the ideas.
Photo from Social Enterprise Conference.
]]>