Ned.com Social Entrepreneurship Discussions

Collaboration: resources, documents, working groups, guidelines, etc

Great discussion on collaboration strategies and models today at the Social Entrepreneur Unconference in Portland - http://www.ned.com/group/seeb/ws /collaborationstrategies/. The question we were left wanting to ask of each other and the larger socent space is:

Last comment added: Sat, 03 Jul 2010 07:45:54 PDT

Real-time Kampala to Portland

This is the discussion for the real time connection between Portland and Kampala

Last comment added: Sun, 15 Aug 2010 06:59:05 PDT

Social Entrepreneur Unconference - February 5-7, 2010

Social Entrepreneurs and changemakers from around the world are invited to gather in Portland, Oregon on Feb 5-7, 2010 for a Ned.com Social Entrepreneur Unconference.

Beyond Social Media - Collaboration & Getting Things Done: come prepared to think big, partner up, and lay the groundwork for concrete social action plans that will get some important things done on issues you care about, in collaboration with others working in your field.

Where: NedSpace Old Town, Portland, Oregon, USA

When: February 5-7, 2010

Friday, Feb 5, 4:00pm - 6:00pm - Introductions & Agenda Setting, followed by informal happy hour (co-sponsored by Ned & Internet4Change)
Saturday Feb 6: 9:00am - 6:00pm - Break out meetings for group collaboration and planning. Lunch sponsored by (??). Evening meal sponsored by (??)
Sunday Feb 7, 10:00am - noon - Wrap-up & calls to action

Who: Up to 150 social entrepreneurs, activists and other changemakers (space is limited - register now at Ned.com!)

Cost: $35 per person is requested to help cover basic hosting costs (sponsors sought to offer Saturday lunch and dinner)

Lodging Options: A limited number of couch-surfing opportunities are available through NedSpace members (first come, first serve - register your need at Ned.com); low cost and high end hotel options are available nearby

Event Co-Sponsors: Ned.com, Internet4Change.com, whoever else...

Comments, questions, in this discussion thread.

If you are going to attend, please add your name and info to the workspace here.

Last comment added: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:01:16 PST

Best social entrepreneur books

Mark posted this list today!

Last comment added: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:11:46 PST

Tony Deifell; social entrepreneur interview with Moses Kariuki

Tony Deifell is not new to many who joined Ned from Onet.He was on the Founding board of KaBOOM,he came up with the wdydwyd idea and lately the Seeing Beyond Sight project. I interviewed him about his involvement with social enterprise and his views. There is much that i did not ask, but the conversation is open and you can ask as Tony responds.So feel free to jump in and contribute.

Interviewee: Tony Deifell

Interviewer: Moses Kariuki

Interactive Interview: Once you've read the initial interview between Tony and Moses please jump in and ask Tony additional questions about KaBOOM,wdydwyd,Seeing Beyond Sight and any social enterprise question.

1. What is KaBOOM!?

The vision of KaBOOM! is to have a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. It is the national market leader for community-built playgrounds, skateparks, fields (and now ice rinks). KaBOOM! is a great model for "social enterprise" defined as nonprofits that incorporate earned-income strategies. It generates 91% of its $20 million annual budget through earned-income activities with clients such as The Home Depot, Sprint, and Computer Associates. KaBOOM! is based in Wash DC with offices in Atlanta, Chicago and SF Bay Area.

KaBOOM! has built over 1,000 PlaySpaces in all 50 states with over 175,000 volunteers, and renovated 1,300 others. The model is a built-in-a-day, old-fashioned barn raising with an urban twist. Very simple. Very amazing.

I was on the founding board of KaBOOM! in 1996 and joined the senior management team in 2004 as the Chief Strategist, when I designed its growth strategy and performance-measurement system.

2. What is wdydwyd?

wdydwyd? is an acronym that I hope causes a little puzzlement when people see it for the first time. I like the mystery and curiosity it causes at first.

The concept is simple: people are invited to answer the question "why do you do what you do?" with the goal of sparking self-reflection in a creative way. It a worldwide community-art project that had its beginnings in the Omidyar Network community. It has since been featured on BBC WORLD and Utne Magazine. Over 3,000 people have answered the question from groups as diverse as Harvard Business School, Burning Man, Echoing Green Foundation, Kellogg Foundation Fellows, Social Venture Network, and users from around the world. Another 386,000 people have visited the website from 189 countries for inspiration.

It all started with a phone call, late one night as I was scrambling to prepare for a trip to South Africa. I wanted to ignore the phone, but felt an urge to answer. A child blurted out, "Why do you do what you do?" Without saying hello. The 14 year old was simply completing a school assignment to interview someone from a community service agency. He looked in the phone book and landed on my phone number. The question stuck with me for many years and sparked me to create a community-art project that could involve thousands of people.

Some answers acknowledge messages from childhood that still motivate us today such as "Because otherwise I'd be punished." Some are aspirational, "To be connected to the world," while others reflect a symbloic personal historical event: "2 Rebellious for Priesthood." While less frequent, the more vulnerable ones are often touching: "Because I'm afraid to do what I don't do." Gloria Steinham wrote, "For the same reason little kids say, 'It's not fair." Each answer must be in a photo -- often very visually triking.

What's your answer?

You can answer it yourself or view other people's answers, or even * collaborate* to do it in your community go to www.wdydwyd.com, where you can also sign up to get a weekly email of a few of the best submissions.

It was one of the most active threads on Onet with 483 comments and viewed by 13,430 times by others. It reached 1,267 members. Many folks on Ned have collaborated on the project: Mark Grimes did it at an Alberta Street festival in Portland. Clare Mulvany did it with tons of social entrepreneurs in Ireland. Christina Jordan did it in Africa. Meron Moroz did it at the Community to Community Conference. Susan Megy did it at an Onet members gathering. Eyeclectic did it at a art gathering. Jean, Dominique, Anne Marie, Julie, Ted, Pash, Liz, Evonne, Anna, Niny, Thomas, Mickki, Michael, Luke, Norbert, Greg, Linda, Brandon, Lars and others all were very Involved.

3. What does Seeing Beyong Sight entail?

This project is about how there is a lot more to seeing than meets the eye.

I taught blind students photography in the early 1990's, but they taught me how to "see" in ways I wouldn't have imagined.

Chronicle Books published a book of the work last year: www.seeingbeyondsight.org

We've gotten some good press for it. Utne Magainze called it, "uniquely powerful." FastCompany.com described it as, "savvy, passionate, witty, and yes, beautiful" And Shambhala Sun wrote: "This book will make you look—and look again— at how you perceive and what you assume."

All nice words, but you should see for yourself! It tells the stories of visually impaired teens, but it is really about how all of us "see" and "don't see" the world. In that way, it is also a spiritual in many ways.

With tons of help from the Ned & Onet community, we did a "Seeing Beyond Sight Challenge." A bunch of folks did it on Ned, and here are their stories: http://backupdelta.omidyar.net/g roup/soundshadows/news/16

Basically, it was a simple excercize in walking in the world differently. All you do it don a blindfold and go photograph with all your senses — except for your eyes. There are a bunch of examples, sample curricula for a group activity or classroom, and more here: http://www.seeingbeyondsight.org /photochallenge (and join the flickr group if you want!)

We're also working on a film now to follow up on where all the students are now. There is a 71-second video clip here: http://www.seeingbeyondsight.org /film

4. Which challenges did you encounter while founding KaBOOM?

I wasn't "the founder." I was on the founding board of directors. Darell Hammond and Dawn Hutchison were the founders.

I was the only other person involve the first 10 years of the organization, though. One of the challenges was proving the concept. In for profit work, you get venture money to prove the concept of what works in a product or service. In nonprofit, philanthropy can serve that role. But, philanthropy wasn't very easy for KaBOOM! in the early years. Partly was b/c it was started by a bunch of young, un-proven upstarts. But, mostly because philanthropy had two negative views on our work: 1) "play" was seen as fluffy and not so important, and 2) since we had mostly corporate involvement, foundations didn't think we needed the funding (quite wrong though).

Eventually we proved what many children's health specialists already knew... that unstructured play has direct correlation to 1) decreasing the rates of childhood obesity and the sever health-related consequences, 2) increasing the rates of success in school (particularly in poor and minority communities), 3) decreasing youth violence and 4) breaking the cycles of poverty. So, "play" is critical. But, because it leads with "fun," it doesn't get the props it deserves.

Secondly, it still boggles my mind that philanthropists will draw away from supporting a venture that has all the ingredients of scaling b/c it has figured out how its social mission aligns with a smart revenue model that doesn't just depend on begging. The smartest philanthropists (e.g. Pam & Pierre Omidyar) figured out that KaBOOM! was a wise investment.

5. How does KaBOOM generate income to sustain its core idea?

A playground costs on average $65,000. 85% of that is funded by a "corporate partners" (e.g. The Home Depot, Jet Blue, Computer Associates) and 15% by the "community partner" (e.g. local Boys & Girls Club, YMCA, Friends of the Park, etc). For 85%, the corporation gets 1) to be involved in making a tangible difference in the community, 2) a great employee civic-engagement and team-building opportunity, 3) great PR that is more valuable than what they could get per dollar of advertising spending, and 4) consistently high-quality event planning across a widely fragmented local sites. The community gets 1) a great new place for their children to play, 2) a wonderfully empowering community-engagement project, 3) a relationship with a private-sector company, 4) great PR from local news etc.

6. Do you think KaBOOM model can be applied in developing countries?

That is not my expertise, but I would think so. KaBOOM! has built in Mexico and it worked. Also, we started to build fields for soccer and football, so that might be more applicable. Currently, KaBOOM!'s mission is focused on the United States though. I think there is an opportunity for someone to do it internationally though.

7. Which is your most memorable wdydwyd answer?

Great question. Gloria Steinham said, "for the same reason little kids say, 'it's not fair'" I may remember that because it was her. There are so many good ones. I think my favorite ones are the ones that are more vulnerable. We all have many reasons for why we do what we do, and some reasons we're probably not as proud of (e.g. greed, fear, insecurity, etc.) I love when people confess that in an honest way b/c enevitablly, many many people silently relate to them and realize that their not alone. So, some of my favorite in this vein: "Because otherwise I'd be punished." "God damn it, I don't want to be a housewife, messing around with a bunch of children... I do not want to have a typical job, be a typcial employeed working from 8am to 5pm. I just need companions to create with." "Because it's nostalgic and it use to make me thin (over a photo of pills)"

I do think that the positive wdydwyd responses are important though. They create a stake-in-the-ground for our better selves. When we vocalize and visualize our aspirations, we are more likely to live into them. It's a two way street. Denying the darker side can be dangerous. I look at is as becoming friends with my monsters (my worst self) and lifting up my angels (my better self).

8. How did you teach blind students photography?

Just give them cameras and ask them what they want to take pictures of. As teachers, we were learning as much as they were about how all this worked.

We believed in something seemingly contradictory -- that they could communicate visually, even though they had limited vision.

Okay, so here is a more pragmatic explanation.

While many of the students couldn't perceive light, all of them could feel the heat it produced, and they understood how the sun works. We would describe how the camera's button opens the shutter long enough for light to burn an image onto the surface of the film. We also used the metaphor of sound recording, since music was such a big part of every student's world. We told them that light waves travel through the air and bounce off surfaces, just as sound does. The challenge of learning about the visual world of photography was eased by the students' ability to draw on a familiar realm of expression. For some vocabulary assignments, we used photographic terms, such as lens, shutter, light meter, and aperture. A particularly helpful word—compose—allowed us to explain how photography used some of the same principles as music or writing.

Students often wanted their pictures to be in color, and some students would try to identify images by the colors in them. But we mostly shot black-and-white film so that the students could learn to develop their own photographs. Since this process is primarily done in total darkness, the students had an advantage over sighted students, who often have trouble loading film on reels without being able to rely on their eyesight.

9. How would you rate the success of Seeing Beyond Sight...Did the project reach your targets?

It was way past my expectations (but not without a lot of struggle and work).

We got in the NYTimes Book Review, which Chronicle Books say happens only rarely with any book. We had tons of press coverage from NPR to magazines such as Utne, Fast Company, COLORS, and Edutopia as well as LA Times, Baltimore Sun, SF Chronicle and much more. Also, most photography books sell about 2,000 copies or less, and SBS has sold over 5,000 and counting.

Thousands of people came to SBS events and talks. Hundreds of people around the world reached beyond their comfort zone to don a blindfold and try photography using all their senses except for their eyes. And, one thing I love, is that people are making interdisciplinary connections to the stories -- a Rabbi gave a Yom Kippur sermon about the book, a Presbyterian pastor used it in a sermon, a wide array of groups who I'd never think would be interest in blind photography are asking me to speak (e.g. Planned Parenthood state conference, staff retreat for a for-profit skin-care company, sales reps for a financial services company, massage therapy school, a major internet company). My hope with this project was that it wouldn't be balkanized into a "disability" thing, but that people would see how the stories of these teenagers were about how everyone sees and doesn't see. We all learn from each other. We all have valuable perspectives. There is no place for pity... only room for connection.

10. Which is the common denominator that you see in Social enterprises?

The common deominator in social enterprises is that there is no common denominator. In for profits, the common denominator is money (sales), and that runs through all the ratios of your financial statements and financial analysis. But, when it comes to a double or triple bottom line enterprise, the common denominator isn't so common anymore. People try to monetize social and environmental returns, but it is all weird science if you ask me. Give an analyst a set of number, she can come up with a completely different story than another analyst with the same set of numbers. Add "social" and "environment" outcomes into the mix, you can bake the numbers however you want.

Okay, I realize that you don't want just a contrarian point of view, so I'll say that the common denominator could be the commitment to utilizing market forces (and earned income) to meet a primarily social mission.

11. In your view why is Social Enterprise so common in this century?

I think social enterprise is common because it is a new term that describes what many people are already aspiring to do. For profits are increasingly wanting to be socially responsible and view themselves as an actor within a social and policital ecosystem much larger than them. Nonprofits are increasing seeing the value of being market-based interms of earned revenue, of course, but also in terms of business practices, efficiencies and understanding their customers. There is a incredible blurring of the traditional sector lines, and less people feel at home with their conventional labels anymore. We want to be something else, and for some people, that is "social enterprise."

12. How do you see the future of social enterprises?

More blurring. More blurring. More blurring.

I have been a big advocate for a long time in a new IRS designation for social enterprise and is a mix of the two sectors in much the same way as the UK's experiment with the Community Interest Company (CIC).

Last comment added: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:52:50 PDT

Speak Shop's Cindy Cooper; social entrepreneur interview with Moses Kariuki

What is Speak Shop?: Speak Shop, http://www.speakshop.com, is an award-winning pioneer in online foreign language tutoring. Speak Shop was founded by Clay and Cindy Cooper to increase access to foreign language education and to generate economic opportunity for people in Latin America. People around the nation use Speak Shop to take live Spanish lessons online while supporting international economic development.

Interviewee: Cindy Cooper

From Left: Clay and Cindy Cooper

Interviewer: Moses Kariuki

1. When and why did you start Speak Shop?

In 1998, Clay Cooper had to learn Spanish for graduate school. At the age of 31 and after falling short of his goals in traditional classes, he was worried. Friends told him to try studying abroad in Guatemala where excellent tutoring was cheap and the accent was clear, and they were right. As he became fluent, he kept thinking about all the people he knew who would love to take lessons abroad too, but were unable to because of time and money. Then, hurricane Mitch hit Guatemala and caused extensive flooding and landslides. As Clay helped his tutor dig mud out from the rustic homes in his village, Clay realized his tutor was living in a state of poverty. In nations with greater economic opportunities, someone with his tutor's education and work ethic would earn at least a middle class income. These factors and converging technological advances inspired him to create Speak Shop.

Over the years, we developed the idea into a business plan. Our core concept was a fair trade marketplace where language tutors in developing countries could become micro-entrepreneurs and sell their services directly to customers around the world. In turn, people all over the world could take high quality and cross-cultural language lessons with live tutors via webcam. The tutors, who lacked sufficient customer demand on a local level, could access a global market of customers, work their way out of poverty, and be rewarded for the quality of their work. The customers, who rarely are able to take the time and spend the money to travel and study with a tutor in a developing country, could take private lessons from the convenience of their computers.

We used our savings to develop a prototype website, including scheduling, payment, lesson feedback, and videoconferencing systems. Skype video did not exist at the time. In 2004, we quit our jobs, sold our belongings and went to Guatemala to find our first tutors. No one knew if language instruction via webcam would work at the time. A few months later, we had our first real customers along with rave reviews. It was very exciting!

2. What Motivated you to an extent of quitting your jobs to start Speak Shop?

We believed in Speak Shop and the huge potential social benefits. We also believed it was a scalable model that could be used for any language. Even though we didn’t know if it would work, we had to try. Both of us were always entrepreneurial, coming up with ideas and trying to solve problems in better ways. You get restless when you really believe in something and think you have a viable plan to make it work.

We also believed that in the worst case, if we tried and failed, we could get jobs again. We would lose our savings, and that was frightening, but we could always start over. We decided it was worth it to put off buying a home or having kids.

Being that we were a couple, the risk of quitting everything was in some ways bigger and in some ways smaller than if only one spouse takes the plunge. Both of us lost steady income, but on the plus side both of us were also supporting and encouraging each other through the exciting, scary and unknown adventure. We were there to help each other when things were difficult, and when things went well, we could celebrate together. No one else would really understand how much it meant to find our first tutors, or get our first customer. It is amazing to be able to share that with your spouse.

3. Which difficulties did you encounter while starting up?

There were lots! The first and biggest challenge was that our core service, tutoring via webcam, was completely unheard of. We had to be pioneers and take a risk that learning through a webcam would even work. We had to convince tutors to spend time learning new technology and business practices before we ever had customers. Then, we had to try to find customers. No one was looking for the type of service we offered because it did not exist in people’s minds yet. Even now, webcam tutoring is not top of mind for most people. We also had huge challenges dealing with internet and power outages in developing countries, finding efficient ways to process payments, and continuing to develop the business without external funding.

4. Speak shop has received several awards in the past, like the best Social Return on Investment and the Oregon InnoTech Innovation Award, which efforts did you put to receive such awards?.

Award competitions are a lot of work, but they are valuable. It's like starting a social venture: You put in a lot of effort without any promise of a pay off. So even though we didn't expect to win, we figured why not try. We've lost more competitions than we have won, but it's been worth it.

I think we have won some awards because we worked hard to create a business model that would deliver the most social impact while being financially sustainable. That has helped differentiate us. We were also trying something completely new in terms of the service we offered. Language tutoring by webcam was unheard of when we started, and the competitions were a great way to get feedback and to get the word out about our innovation. It's also a great idea to enter competitions because they force you to explain your ideas to others, which helps crystallize them for yourself.

5. Does Speak shop play a referee role between the students and the tutors or you just provide a play field?

We provide customer service to tutors and students, but we also put a lot of effort into empowering the tutors to work directly with their customers whenever possible. There's the problem of the language barrier between students and tutors, so we do bridge the communication.

6. Do you have plans of having people learn other languages at Speak Shop?

Absolutely. We have always planned to expand beyond Spanish, assuming we could make Spanish work! Now that we have gotten over that hurdle, we are working on adding other languages. The website and business model are very flexible, and we hope there is no limit to the languages we offer.

7. In your view, what is motivating more and more people to shift to social entrepreneurship?

People have always been motivated to help others and do good. They have always volunteered, donated, and helped their neighbors. Social entrepreneurship is a fairly new channel for making change, but it is proving to be a powerful way to make things better in our world.

It's a bit tricky to answer the question because there are so many ideas about social entrepreneurship means. We might loosely define it as using the best of business to deliver social impact. That's an exciting premise because business has proven to be one of the most powerful forces in the world, for good or bad. It depends how you use it! So with more people seeing exciting and positive results through social entrepreneurship, more people are inspired to try these new approaches.

8. How do you get feedback from tutors and students?

Students use our rating and comment system to leave lesson feedback – it’s like the rating systems on Amazon or eBay. We also provide email, phone, and Skype contact information to all students and encourage them to contact us. Finally, students have access to a discussion forum where they can ask us or each other questions and leave feedback*

We are available to tutors via email or instant messaging, and we regularly solicit their feedback on all kinds of things including website development and marketing ideas*

9. What should be done to encourage more social entrepreneurship?

A tough question! There are many ways, but I see two main avenues.

Encourage sharing among social entrepreneurs. ned and interviews like this are great for this!
Increase funding for social entrepreneurs.

10. While for profit entrepreneurs check profits to know whether they will continue with the venture, how do you measure profits of a social enterprise like Speak Shop?

We are set up as a for-profit because we believe it is the best business model for the success of our services and social impact. Our primary social measure is the net gain tutors receive by teaching through Speak Shop. In other words, how much additional income they have by teaching at Speak Shop that they would otherwise not have. This is fairly easy to track since we know how many lessons they teach online, and the tutors typically teach online when they do not have in person students. This is because they have a responsibility and vested interest to continue teaching in person. But for the majority of the year, there are far more tutors than students, so teaching online is a brand new source of income. Also for tutors, we have a variety of other social impact indicators we look at which are less quantifiable related to skill-building, impact on family and community, feelings of confidence and empowerment.

As for students, we have gotten great, and usually unsolicited, feedback about the value Speak Shop offers them. We need to start surveying them more formally and tracking this.

11. What makes some social entrepreneurs fail despite having a lot of potential?

I don’t know that I have good insight on this, but I would suspect the same types of things that lead “traditional” entrepreneurs to fail. Probably things such as: lack of funding, an idea whose time is not right, poor planning, bad luck.

12. Where do you see Speak Shop in the next 10 Years?

We’d love to have 1,000,000 students and 100,000 tutors from all over the world and 100+ languages.

Now an invitation to all Ned members, please ask Cindy any additional follow up questions you have regarding Speak Shop, social entrepreneurs or anything related to their business venture.

Last comment added: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:39:21 PDT

What Makes a Great Question? Weekly Social Entrepreneur Interviews

OK, Moses and Chanbanditnant are going to trade off and do alternate week interviews with various social entrepreneurs from around the globe. Who are they, what do they do, what works and why? What doesn’t work, and why?

So I see the interactive interview structure as a little like this. Moses/Chanbanditnant will conduct a brief email interview (8-12 questions) with the social entrepreneur getting a little history, a gif photograph, their web site address, and other such info.

Each week (they will alternate weeks) they will start a new thread in the Social Entrepreneurs, Social Enterprise, & Social Business group with that interview, and the interviewee will be shared the link and invited into the second interactive community portion of the interview, with all interested online Ned community members participating. That interactive community interview session could be scheduled to last a week, but hopefully some of the social entrepreneurs would find this a caring and dynamic community which to participate in as well. Perhaps.

I'll help by queuing up the social entrepreneurs ahead of time for the interview, then hand off in an email to either Moses or Chanbanditnant.

Other thoughts, ideas and feedback?

Last comment added: Fri, 30 May 2008 07:30:33 PDT