Are You a Social Entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship is not just a "capitalist" idea for making money. It is the dream of creating value where an opportunity is perceived. Social entrepreneurs see opportunities in the problems our society faces. They see the challenge and are willing to assume the risks of finding solutions to these problems. What are the Key Traits that go into making a successful social Entrepreneur?

This Harvard Business Review 2009 interview with John Elkington, Founder and Chief Entrepreneur, SustainAbility presents some ideas about what makes a good social entrepreneur.

Social Entrepreneurship Fund Raising -- Ethics or Results

Recently, a colleague in the nonprofit sector asked me "In these tough financial times, what should be the major criteria in selecting an individual to head up our agency's fund raising efforts: a record of successful selling; or strong personal ethics?"

I told him, "Ethics, of course." He asked, "Why?

The difference, as I see it, is that when soliciting funding for a non-profit, it is the mission of the organization that is the product. If the mission and message are in conflict then forget any expectation of ethical performance on the part of the fundraiser or the organization.

I said, "Non-profits have a mission, a purpose which is something other than to make a profit for the investors. The mission is an intangible product. And the donors are the investors in that product. The organization, as perceived by the donor or potential donor who is being asked to support it, will be judge by how committed the fundraiser is to the mission."

"But does it hurt to be a good sales person?" he asked.

"Of course not. In fact a good sales person is one who real believes in the product and who can transfer that passion for the product to the potential customer."

"What does it mean then to be ethical?" he asked.

"That is very simple," I said. "When soliciting support for a cause, be honest. Make no promises that you personally can't keep. And 'Say what you mean and mean what you say'."

In my opinion, there are three main reasons for placing ethics over salesmanship in a nonprofit organization first.

1. Personal ethics are critically important for establishing and maintaining trust between the non-profit organization and its donors.

2. Selling an intangible is really selling trust. Trust is the most valuable and powerful product in the world and, yet it is also the most fragile product. Once broken, it may never be recovered. If the fundraiser does not care about the mission they represent, how can the organization expect that the fundraiser will care about the impression they leave with donors?

3. The fundraiser is often the only organizational face the public and donors sees. She will be the one they hold immediately accountable for how the organization uses the funds solicited.

So long story short, the idal ethical fundraiser can be summed up as someone who is:

1. Personally commitment to the message and honestly presented to donors
2. Insists on organizational transparency about the purpose and use of the funds.
3. Holds herself personally accountable to the donor for reporting on Mission integrity and reporting honestly what the organization has done and achieved with the funds.

Social entrepreneurship - Charity Water

Access to clean safe drinking water is considered by many in the developed world to be a right. Today some people in the west are beginning to recognize the value of clean, potable drinking water and its shortage in much of the world. They are also recognizing the interrelationship between access to potable water and public health and economic development.

I am not surprised that there is a problem. When I served in Peru in the early years of the Peace Corps I encountered and observed a big contradictions in our USAID Alliance for Progress and the Food for Peace program. The former was designed to help develop the rural economy. The latter,The Food for Peace program, addressed the nutritional needs of children through support to school lunch programs in rural Peruvian villages. The program supplied dry milk, rice and other surplus agricultural products from the US. On the surface, this seemed to be a great idea for improving the health of the children. However, there was one big problem -- dirty and contaminated water.

The local water supply was limited in the villages I visited. The same stream or pool was used by humans for drinking, washing food and clothing, and by animals to drinking and in some cases to irrigate crops. From a public health perspective, These uncovered streams and cisterns carried water of very questionable quality.

The problem I noticed was at the schools where the dry milk was being mixed with the contaminated water. Mixing dry milk with contaminated water produces a nutritional rich environment for the waterborne diseases found in the local water supply.

Working with other Peace Corps volunteers and the Programa del Agua Potable, in the Peruvian Ministerio de Salud, we were able to obtain 8 army surplus water pumps to start a program of placing wells at the local schools. Villages were encouraged to dig the wells near the schools to make potable water available for the school lunch program. Village that did this, lined the wells and purchased the pipe for the pump were given a pump. We had more requests that we could supply. The program was such as success that the Peruvian authorities took over the program. They bought pumps available on the local market and made them available under the same conditions.That experience has stayed with me over the past 50 years.

Today water is an even more crucial resource in the developing world. When I came across this video of Charity Water I felt this is an excellent example of social entrepreneurship that can have a lasting impact on those served.

Scott Harrison and Charity Water in inspirational story.I hope you enjoy it