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This Month's topic: New Approaches to Social Entrepreneurship
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| This
Month's Topic: New Approaches to Social Entrepreneurship |
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Sites of the Month
Each
month, this area provides with a number of my favorite and most helpful
sites regarding the topic of the month.
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Management Tip of the Month
Each issue, I start with a
discussion of my management perspective on the month's topic, and give
you a few hands-on ideas to consider.
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Recommended Publications
Here, I provide you with my
recommendations on the materials available that can help you
become more mission-capable in the area of New Approaches to Social Entrepreneurship.
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Technology
I provide you with some good
ideas for uses of tech to better your organization in the area of New Approaches to Social Entrepreneurship.
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Marketing Tip
So much to say, so little space to
say it.....
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Next Issue
In June, we'll turn to an area undergoing a lot of interest----Leadership Development.
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Past Issues:
You can see the topics of past Mission-Based
Management Newsletters, and then view those that are of
interest to you, by scrolling to the bottom of the newsletter, or by clicking here. |
Websites of the Month
Here are my recommendations for websites
of interest on this month's topic: New Approaches to Social Entrepreneurship:
| www.nationalcne.org/ |
The National Center for Nonprofit Enterprise. A great place to start finding out more about good enterprise decisions. |
| www.managementhelp.org/soc_entr/soc_entr.htm |
As always a great overview from the Free Management Library. |
| www.se-alliance.org/ |
The Social Enterprise Alliance. A crossroads between nonprofit and for profits interested in Social Enterprise |
| www.socialent.org |
Jerr Boschee's social enterprise website. This link is targeted to a new paper on the "Evolution of Social Enterprise". |
| www.ashoka.org/ |
Ashoka's website--international social entrepreneurship at its best. |
| http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/ |
The Stanford Center for Social Innovation. This link is targeted to their new research page |
| www.netimpact.org |
Net Impact. A terrific organization of business people who are trying to help through socially conscious businesses. |
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Management Tip of the Month
New Approaches to Social Entrepreneurship
There are two things that have evolved the most during my time with nonprofits: nonprofit educational resources, and social entrepreneurship.
What began as a term to describe nonprofits starting (gasp) profitable
ventures has morphed into a broad array of meanings that include
for-profit organizations, foundations, even Wall Street investment
funds. There are books (see below) conferences, and online resources
galore. There are many organizations specializing in social enterprise
for the various definitions, and lots of resources for you to use.
When I wrote Social Entrepreneurship: The Art of Mission-Based Venture Development way back in 2000, here's what I wrote as a definition: "A Social Entrepreneur is someone who takes risk on behalf of the people that their organization serves."
Now look at the definition from Wikipedia.
"Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurialship principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur
typically measures performance in profit and return, a social
entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on
society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and
citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors."
What a change. I want to take this issue to talk about how social
entrepreneurship has changed specifically for nonprofits, and how you
can make the most of it to benefit your mission.
First, the concept of social enterprise, being in business, being businesslike in pursuit of mission is much, much, much
more widely accepted as an appropriate model for nonprofits that at any
time in our history. It's not without controversy, of course, but
things are much better. The benefit here is that if you want to develop
an outside venture to support your mission, you probably won't be the
first organization in your community to do so.
Second,
there are so many more people out there who feel that they need to act
in a socially responsible way, even in the business world. Go to NetImpact
and you'll see what I mean. Particularly in the under 30 set, people
are charged up about helping the world while also being in business.
So, here's the question for you....can you link up with local (or
far-flung) businesses who have the same concerns you do? Are there ways
to partner, to collaborate that will advance your mission. Again,
NetImpact and Ashoka, as well as the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund
and the other resources listed above have lots and lots of ideas and
examples, but the key here is that you have a much more educated and
willing audience than 10 or 15 years ago.
Finally,
there are tons of good places for your staff to ramp up their abilities
in social venture development. If you feel you don't have the skillset
needed, you can get it, much closer to home than ever before. I always
say that taking reasonable risk on behalf of the people you serve is
good stewardship, the key being the adjective reasonable.
The only way to tell if one idea or another is reasonable risk is to
have good skills in feasibility studies and business plans. Never
before have we had so many good resources online and in print
specifically geared toward nonprofits. Get them and use them!
Being a social entrepreneur, at least in my definition above, is a
crucial part of having an effective, high-impact nonprofit
organization. Use the resources here to help your organization achieve
that status.
If
you found this hint helpful, there are lots more management, marketing,
and technology ideas for you in the "Ideas" section at www.missionbased.com.
Check them out--they're free.
And, remember to take a look at the Mission-Based
Management Blog.
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Print Resources
My recommendations for texts and other
readings on New Approaches to Social Entrepreneurship:
Social Entrepreneurship: The Art of Mission-Based Venture Development by Peter Brinckerhoff\
How to Change the World, Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, by David Borenstien
Social Entrepreneurship, A Modern Approach to Social Value Creation, by Arthur Brooks
These are my current favorites, but there are tons of other great books. Click here and you'll be automatically taken to Amazon's list of books on Social Entrepreneurship. Lots of excellent resources for you.
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Technology Tip
New Approaches to Social Entrepreneurship...and Technology
The
key for tech and social enterprise is that you can a: keep on top of
what's going on by regularly checking in with the organizations in the
list above. There are also many resources online to help you write
better business plans (if that is your focus) and, of course, good
software to that effect as well.
Remember that technology (to use Jim Collins' great term) is just
an accelerator of a good idea, not the replacement for it. If your
organization does not like innovation--you're done in this area. If you
don't listen to everyone's ideas---you're not using all your resources
to promote mission.
The key with social entrepreneurship is that you need to use all
your resources to help improve your mission. So, on the tech side,
whether it is using a spreadsheet to run monthly cashflows, or using a
far-flung network of people to help you develop a good business plan,
or subscribing to an Ashoka RSS feed so that you can see the newest
ideas (and perhaps use one) in social enterprise, tech can help, but
only to support an innovative organization.
Suggestion: Put
together a small team of people. One should be excited about developing
new ideas to advance your mission, another should be very, very
comfortable online with the various technologies that are there to
help. A third should be all about the numbers. Now, cut them loose and
ask them how tech can help you become more entrepreneurial, always in
support of your mission.
You'll be surprised what they discover.
If
you found this hint helpful, there are lots more management, marketing,
and technology ideas for you in the "Ideas" section at www.missionbased.com.
Check them out--they're free
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Training Schedule for Peter Brinckerhoff
Below you'll see the date, location, and
topics of public
training I'm
currently scheduled to do in the next few months. For more information
on a particular speaking engagement, get in touch with the contact
person listed in the right hand column, or email me.
For more information on my availability
throughout the next 12-18 months, available topics, sample agendas, and
fees go to www.missionbased.com/training.htm
| 5/08/08 |
Hartford |
Generation Change |
The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
Meher Shulman
mshulman@hfpg.org |
| 5/15-16/08 |
Savannah |
Business Development |
NISH
Grant Harrison
gharrison@nish.org |
| 5/20-21/08 |
Virginia Beach, VA |
Recruitment and Retention |
NISH
Therese Stein
Tstein@nish.org |
| 6/3/08 |
Philadelphia |
The Business of Mission-Based Organizations |
The Nonprofit Center at LaSalle University
Laura Otten
otten@lasalle.edu |
| 6/10/08 |
New Orleans |
Generation Change |
Volunteers of America Annual Conference
Teresa Alfaro
talfaro@voa.org
|
| 6/20/08 |
Henderson, NV |
Generation Change |
American Dietetic Association Leadership Institute
Diane Barrera
Dbarrera@eatright.org |
Marketing Tip
New Approaches to Social Entrepreneurship and Marketing
The great thing about the advances in social enterprise is that everyone wants to be a social entrepreneur. So let them---by working with you and your organization.
Use your marketing tools to reach out to people to help your
organization become more entrepreneurial. If you are developing a new
business, talk to your local college or university about using business
students to help you---with the added allure that they can be social
entrepreneurs.
I watched just such a pitch work well at Kellogg when I taught there. A very high percentage of the MBA students at Kellogg belong to NetImpact,
and thus are very socially aware and concerned. There are a lot of
internships set up with nonprofits, but those organizations that
offered "opportunities in social enterprise" as part of their
applications to Kellogg for student assistance seemed to consistently
draw the best students.
Remember, this is a competitive advantage. If your organization is a
mission-based business, if you act innovatively and qualify as a
socially entrepreneurial organization, you can appeal not only to the
MBA for help, but also to younger business people for financial
assistance, committee membership etc. Use ALL your assets!
If you found this hint helpful, there are
lots more management, marketing, and technology ideas for you in the
"Ideas" section at www.missionbased.com.
Check them out--they're free.
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Future Topics for
The
Mission-Based Management Newsletter....
| June |
Leadership Development |
| July |
Technology Planning |
| August |
Vision, Mission, Values |
| Send me your topic suggestions at: peter@missionbased.com |
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Top
You asked, so here they are:
Past Single-Topic Issues of the Mission-Based Management Newsletter...
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Copyright
2008, Corporate Alternatives, inc.
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