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SSIR Opinion & Analysis

Dollar DaysSeptember 25

A panel talk on social media that I moderated today at the Harvard Business School Club of New York underscored what cash-crunched nonprofits ailing in the current financial crisis are just beginning to figure out: “crowdsourcing”—using the Web and online social media to invite mass collaboration—will become ever-more critical to 21st century advocacy. Those on my panel at the Club’s first-ever social enterprise summit—Vinay Bhagat, Greg McHale, Katrin Verclas, and Shelley Bernstein—agreed that the rise of social media, from mobile phones to online social networks to digital video-sharing, is forcing many charities to expand and rapidly accelerate their use of new Web capabilities to drum up much-needed new converts, dollars, and ideas. I call it the

Social Enterprise in Scotland: The World ForumSeptember 5

I’m here in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the first-ever Social Enterprise World Forum. There are over 400 attendees from 25 countries, all here to talk about how to use business to accomplish social outcomes. And Scotland is a logical place for such an event. “Social enterprise is a key part of the Scottish government’s social strategy,” says Ruth Parsons, Director of the Public Sector (Scottish government). Plus, the Social Enterprise Alliance is a cosponsor of the event, and we’re scheduled to host the third world forum in San Francisco in 2010.

One of the fun aspects of social enterprise conferences is to visit the social enterprises. Before the conference was formally opened, there were three different study tours available to attendees. I visited the One World Shop and learned about the history of the fair trade movement. The UK is probably the leading country in the world for consumption of fair trade products, mainly because fair trade has become a mainstream concept in supermarkets here.

We then walked through Edinburgh on a lovely, sunny afternoon to the Soap Company. This social enterprise sells hand-made soaps, creating production and retail jobs. It’s part of the Forth Sector, a regional social enterprise group with a handful of enterprises.

The opening ceremony had a mind-boggling location: Edinburg

How I Became a Social EntrepreneurSeptember 4

In the spring of 2001, I had just moved to California and took a temporary administrative job at the Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Center for Social Innovation. The two best things about that job were the people I worked with and the exposure to the amazing conferences and discussions that happened so frequently on campus. I remember first hearing the term “social entrepreneurship” in a lecture in Bishop Auditorium during my lunch break; I was instantly intrigued. I wanted to be a social entrepreneur!

But doing what, exactly? I had no idea. The motivation, values, and energy were all there, but the specific context was missing. This was a problem. You can’t be a social entrepreneur without, well, a specific idea to implement. I felt like someone who wanted to be an author but had no idea what the book should be about, or someone who dreamt of going to the Olympics but hadn’t chosen a sport.

So my task became choosing a context, and finding my one, specific mission. At least I wasn’t starting completely from scratch. I’d always known I wanted to do something to alleviate poverty, and to think globally about doing so. I tried to absorb everything about international development, poverty alleviation, and the like.

I began digging, searching, reading, reflecting, journaling—just trying to figure out what in the world I could do to make an impact on poverty. I kept files with titles like “dream jobs” and “social e

Feeback Loops That MatterAugust 23

There are several customer-centric tropes in the business world: “listen to the customer,” “the customer is always right,” “make the customer happy.”

It is harder to find this kind of focus in the world of social action, nonprofits or philanthropy. First of all, who is the customer? Is it the direct beneficiary of the service (the hungry person, the school child, the museum visitor, or the clinic patient)? Or is it the funder of the service provider (foundation, government funder, individual donor)? Or is it both?

Here’s the thing, when it comes to philanthropic institutions and customer service the question of who is the customer is almost a second-generation matter. When it comes right down to it, our civic institutions are not very good at listening to any of the possible customer groups. Customer satisfaction as a measure and tool – real feedback from customers (whoever they might be) – that actually changes organizational practice, focus, or services is tough to find. We don’t know if the customer is right or wrong, because we rarely ever ask.

Foundations typically haven’t seen themselves as having customers. This is starting to change with the grantee perception data and reports from the Center for Effective Philanthropy. More and more foundations are commissioning these surveys, respond

Data, Data, Everywhere…But How Do You Find What You Need?July 19

Ever noticed that we seem to be simultaneously drowning in information but can’t find what we need when we need it? We’ve got data everywhere, but not what we need, when we need it, and the knowledge of how we can use it.

Several efforts at addressing information in social capital markets make recommendations to address the availability, accessibility, comparability, and value of performance, outcome, indicators data. These efforts are focused on the need for emerging philanthropic capital markets to be able to track, compare, and discuss social outcomes in comparable, meaningful ways. Here are some of the data efforts that I know of:

Great Nonprofits Connectipedia SocialMarkets Xigi.net Social Capital Index Keystone’s “ Impact “ sessions RootCause Urban Institute Outcome Indicators Acumen Fund/Google/Salesforce’s work on Portfolio Data Management Jed Emerson’s new work, From Fragmentation to Function: Critical Concepts and Writings on Social Capital Market’s Structure Performance data commons, a recommendation from Keystone UPenn’s Center on High Impact Philanthropy Various reports and services from New Philanthropy Capital IssueLabThe Nonprofit Reporter SmartLink HealthyCity.org

Of course, existing data providers such as Guidestar, Center for Effective Philanthropy, Charity Navigator,