Greg, Joy Anderson drove down and took a side trip from Seattle to meet me earlier this year. A great FTF and alas I had to miss her Criterion Convergence conference this year, but am going to try to make it next year. I introduced Joy Anderson, Tim Freundlich, Kevin Jones to John Berger so they good look at The Emancipation Network too. (we should invite Joy, Tim and Kevin here)

Other funding instruments in the FOOD CHAIN resource library

Not there are ...

http://www.goodcap.net/

http://www.casefoundation.org/

http://www.svpinternational.org/

We're working at adapting the use of labour sponsored investment structures.

But early days ...

And also Community Wealth Ventures:

Community Wealth Ventures, Inc., was founded in 1997, as a for-profit subsidiary of Share Our Strength, one of the nation's leading anti-hunger and anti-poverty organizations. Since its founding in 1984, Share Our Strength has raised more than $100 million through publications, community wealth enterprises, licensing, sponsorship agreements and cause-related partnerships with corporations such as American Express, Barnes & Noble, Calphalon Cookware, Tyson Foods and Evian.

Hope this is not to much of a tangent...

One issue I come across is the funding of business development, advice, professional servics, and mentoring.

My background is biz dev, and I have worked as a consultant in NGOs and Corporates. One of the difficulties I see in both microfinance and social entreps is there is limited expert opinion available. I belive this keep initiatives small and stops growth.

Nearly all the support I have seen is either voluntary or very low paid which does not attract talent that can make a difference.

Skills and understanding of accountancy, tax, business planning etc etc are needed but often treated as luxuries by donors.

In my opinion we need to leverage all the knowledge that is out there, how can we create a system that allows for rewarding contributions and funding advice for emerging social businesses..

Paul

Paul

Cheers for your note.

I believe that Jean Russell (http://www.omidyar.net/user/u488 700722/) is working on a similar plan, although more focussed on a coaching / mentoring platform, developing a service that coaches and social entrepreneurs can both use, incorporating alternative currencies.

I've botched up the description for sure. Surf around her O-net stuff and her site (http://wagn.nurture.biz/wiki/Nur ture) and it will be enunciated more clearly somewhere.

Cheers, Greg

Thanks to Mark I know the folks at Goodcap, and I am very impressed with their plan. I think they are off to a slower start than they have hoped, and as I understand it, it is proving hard to convince investors that they should combine investing with philanthropy. There is a behavioral finance problem here, but basically it means that investors want their investments in one mental "pocket" and their charity in another pocket.

I wish there were a lot more names to add to you list, but this is a really new area, and most of the groups I have found really only provide nonprofit financing.

Strengh really why,offcourse it's hard/ have fail to understand the concept i thing so if not, highlite me then but it's quiet an inspiring topic to me.

aha

found another one:

GEXSI - Global Exchange for Social Investment www.gexsi.org

and a good powerpoint summary of them: http://www.new-ventures.org/arqu ivos/12a-Florian%20Winckler-GEXS I.pdf