Taking the small steps forward...

From Danielle...

Most of my work in Shanghai focused on marketing initiatives for Shokay, while other interns were more directly involved in the work of Ventures in Development, the nonprofit that is the main shareholder of Shokay. However, I did attend two of Ventures in Development’s Social Innovation Salons, at which a mix of Shanghai professionals and students gathered to brainstorm solutions to current social problems in China. Many people looking to support social entrepreneurship in China ask Carol if she knows of any strong social ventures, but the fact is there are still very few people taking this approach to solving social problems in China. ViD’s Social Innovation Salons aim to fill this gap by sparking discussion and debate – the first step to creating thriving social enterprises in a country where very few currently exist.

ViD’s salons are held every month, and each month a new social issue is discussed. July’s topic was the problems facing the children of migrant workers. Having volunteered at a nonprofit that provides migrant children with after school arts and sports enrichment programs in Beijing, I am pretty familiar with this issue. Essentially, a major trend in China right now is rural-urban migration. When workers leave their home villages in search of employment, they have two choices: they can either leave their children at home with relatives, or they can bring their children with them. However, because of the limitations of the hukou (household registration) system in China, it is very difficult for migrant children to attend decent schools in the new cities where their parents settle. As a result, migrant kids constitute an at-risk group that has trouble assimilating into mainstream society. Many of them end up attending substandard private schools set up in migrant communities, but they still cannot register to take national high school and college entrance examinations outside of their native area. Moreover, migrant families are very mobile, meaning the children have very little continuity in their education.

The first salon ViD held on this topic was at Fudan University. Carol first gave a presentation to a group of American and Chinese students participating in a cultural exchange program. After the presentation, we hosted a salon discussion on the migrant children topic. This salon was kind of an experiment, as it was the first time ViD had hosted a salon with only students. We structured the discussion so that it had two parts – first, participants would determine what aspect of the problem (health, education, discrimination, etc.) they would like to focus on, and then each group would come up with a solution that addressed this issue. Once they had centered on an idea, they would role play different stakeholders challenging their proposal and determine what obstacles needed to be overcome in order to turn the idea into reality. By the end of the salon, we hoped some innovative approaches would have emerged, and even if those ideas never were acted upon, at least the salon would have inspired the participants to think about how they might solve these social problems.

We were somewhat disappointed with the level of discussion at the first salon. It seemed we were introducing too many new concepts – as we listened in on the various group discussions, we overheard some students asking each other, “What is an NGO? What is a nonprofit organization?” Some of the American students had never been to China before and the migrant children issue was a completely new concept to them. The language barrier also made it difficult for American and Chinese students to effectively communicate their ideas to each other. On top of all of this, we were also trying to introduce the idea of a social enterprise and challenge the participants to think outside of the traditional foundation philanthropy/community service framework.

While the level of discussion at the second salon was more informed, it still proved difficult to get people to think differently about the challenge of funding a social program. When asked about how they would find funding for their idea, most of our discussion groups responded that they would seek corporate sponsorship, since companies should be interested in demonstrating their good citizenship and enhancing their public image. The unanswered question: in world with a global recession, many worthy causes and scarce resources, is it really sustainable to rely on the generosity of large companies? In addition, many ideas centered around volunteer and mentorship programs similar to those already in existence that, while they do provide some social services, do not necessarily address a problem at its root cause.

One of the most interesting ideas that emerged from the salon was a martial arts (wushu) center that trains and employs at-risk youth including migrant children. The center would take children off the streets, school them in the disciplines of martial arts, and generate revenue through classes for well-to-do Chinese and expats taught by kids who had reached a certain high level. Several days later, ViD also held a focus group with the goal of further developing this martial arts center idea and brainstorming ways to resolve the challenges raised at the salon. As the focus group reconsidered problems of funding and recruitment, the idea evolved from a martial arts center to a martial arts museum.

It remains to be seen whether anyone will actually act on this idea and attempt to establish a martial arts center or museum that employs the children of migrant workers, but at least the discussion has been started. As the ViD salons show, despite all the buzz about funding models, measuring impact, the definition of “social entrepreneurship” and scaling social enterprises, most people – even those who are aware of and concerned about the social problems - are still very unfamiliar with this new approach. Since the social entrepreneurship field is still so undeveloped in China, ViD has found that it is necessary to start from square one, challenging people to rethink traditional approaches to nonprofit work and development. It is a small but absolutely necessary step towards catalyzing broader social change.

-Danielle

Adopt a Yak!

Back from Shanghai...!

Apologies for falling behind on my updates - my last few weeks in Shanghai were pretty busy and I recently arrived back at home in the United States. In the last few weeks, I learned a lot as I helped launch Shokay’s new Yak Around the World Campaign, as well as in various conversations with my mentor, Carol, about the challenges of founding and running a social enterprise - all of which I’d like to share with our PennSEM following!

In addition to working on Shokay’s online social media marketing strategy, my other main project was the Yak Around the World Campaign. The objectives of the campaign (which is still going on) are to highlight the work of individuals who are driving positive social change all over the world while also increasing awareness about Shokay. Shokay will be sending 24 of its adorable hand-knit baby yaks to visit changemakers and their organizations. When each person receives their yak, they will help kick off the campaign by answering the question, “What are you doing to change the world today?” They will then take a picture with their yak, write a description of their cause or organization, and submit it to Shokay via a simple online form. It is then their turn to send the yak to another changemaker they know, and that person will help continue to spread the campaign all over the globe. You can see the Yak Around the World website at http://yaks.typepad.com/dontjustyak, where yak followers can view each yak’s profile, pictures from the organizations the yaks have visited, and find out where else the yaks will be going.

To determine the yaks’ initial destinations, I drew upon both mine and Carol’s personal networks to find and contact changemakers who were willing to host a yak. We also reached out to several people via Twitter, including Adrienne Villani, a writer for the new social enterprise magazine Beyond Profit, who has repeatedly tweeted about how much she loves our baby yaks. The response was overwhelmingly positive! Some other individuals who will be receiving yaks include Joyce Meng and Jennifer Chen of Givology (I personally delivered this yak when I got back to New York last weekend), Sam Adelsberg of LendforPeace.org, Calvin Chin of Qifang, and Melissa Richer of the Ayllu Initiative.

On August 8 (a nice auspicious date), we hosted our campaign launch party at the Shokay Taikang Lu flagship store in Shanghai! All of our traveling yaks were on display, and those who had already been assigned an initial destination also had a card profiling the changemaker and the organization they would be visiting. People were invited to sample our yak cheese along with some crackers and wine, as well as tweet from our in-store Twitter station. Here are some pictures from the very successful event:

traveling yaks display

shokay twitter bird

individual yak

yak cheese

As the campaign continues to build a following, people who want to start a campaign within their own organization will be able to purchase an Adopt-a-Yak kit that they can circulate to encourage their team to do good. The idea is that when someone receives a yak, they are supposed to perform a Yak-sy Act of Kindness (YAK) – anything from making a microfinance loan online to volunteering at a soup kitchen – and then pass the yak to someone else in their organization. We were thinking this would be perfect for groups like Kiva Fellows, Peace Corps volunteers, or any company that would like to encourage its employees to perform community service. Proceeds from Adopt-a-Yak sales would go to Ventures in Development’s Social Innovation Fund to provide financial resources for budding social enterprise ideas that result from the organization’s Social Innovation Salons.

Much debate went into the conception of Yak Around the World. A huge issue was balancing Shokay’s marketing objectives with the more altruistic goals of helping other deserving social entrepreneurs build their following and support base. Some team members thought we should target celebrities, politicians, and other high-profile individuals who have a strong international fan base. However, in the end we decided that this would water down the meaning of our campaign, plus there was no guarantee these types of people would be interested in participating, since our campaign was an unproven concept. Moreover, we predicted that focusing on changemakers we admire would make the campaign more genuine and therefore more likely to attract a loyal following. If people saw the campaign as a shallow marketing effort, they would more likely to lose interest or even be turned off. As a growing social enterprise with limited resources, we needed to carefully consider how our campaign would shape our image and whether it made more sense to stress sales, branding, or goodwill. If our goal was to go viral, the key was to produce something that people would naturally want to pass on to their friends, even if they are aware one of our goals is also marketing.

It will be interesting to see how the campaign unfolds over the next few months! Sadly, we know it is very unlikely all of our yaks will make it back to Shanghai safely, given the uncertainties of the post system and the likelihood that some yaks will lose their way between destinations. Hopefully, though, the yaks that do make it back home will return with some fascinating stories, and they will have built up a strong following of people who support social changemakers!

-Danielle

Haywood's love for books and its powers...

Equity & Access

Please take a moment to ponder this question: what was the first book that you owned that triggered your interest in reading? Was it the magical intrigue inherent in the Harry Potter series, which you or a loved one stood in line to buy on its first day of release (or electronically bought online weeks in advance as I did)? Was it the epic mystery explored through the adventures of the Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe and the rest of the tales of Narnia? For me, after much contemplation, I can trace my avid love of reading to the pillow-ridden floor of my first grade classroom.

Each Friday, my class and I would gather around my teacher and sit entranced as our young minds ingested the words flowing forth from her rendition of Junie B. Jones. Following Junie’s first days in kindergarten and riding that “stupid smelly bus;” being proud of her for finally! making it into the first grade; being right there by her side when she contemplated the ethicalness of cheating on homework; learning how to be a good big brother from her example of taking care of her own recently-born sibling. I loved that series!

Can you imagine my surprise when I found out that there were actually over a dozen books in the series! I came home excited, pleading with my parents to let me buy the rest of the series so that I could find out who was the secret admirer that gave Junie that elaborate Valentine’s Day card, and whether she would successfully pull off acting in her first play on “Broadway,” and what she would possibly find hiding under her bed! Education has always been a pillar in my family, and fortunately I had parents, grandparents, and an entire network of supportive aunts, uncles, cousins, and neighbors who encouraged my growing affinity for literature, as juvenile as it may have been at that time. Thus, slowly but surely my collection of Junie B. Jones’ books grew. And when I outgrew those books, I simply began to apply my newfound love of reading to the ever-growing collection that surely came to replace them on my bookshelf.

However, when comparing my own childhood with that of so many others, I have come to realize just how privileged and blessed that I was to have the opportunity to even be able to hold and own and read an appropriate children’s book.

There’s a deep chasm prevalent in our society—a gaping disconnect in our nation’s low income communities’ access to critical educational resources. A recent study shows that while in middle income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to one (1), in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is one (1) age-appropriate book for every 300 children. 80% of preschool and after-school programs serving low-income populations have no age-appropriate books for their children.

Imagine not being able to open a single book and call it your own. How many worlds would remain unexplored, ideas untested, histories forgotten, and cultures hidden far away? This is a fundamental issue of equity and access.

Despite these astounding figures, however, I write this blog entry with a sense of pride and hope. Over these past few weeks I have been afforded the opportunity to work with and learn from First Book, a groundbreaking education nonprofit that provides new books to children in need, addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy – access to books. Since 1992, First Book has distributed more than 65 million free and low cost books in thousands of communities.

In the upcoming weeks, I will be sharing more with you about how First Book’s business model is designed for maximum efficiency. Their non-programmatic costs total less than 3% of their revenue. As a result, every $1 donation to First Book results in $10 worth of new books directly into the hands of children in need. Every $2.50 donated provides a brand new book to a child in need. If an organization serves a population of which 50% are low-income, then they are granted access to the First Book Marketplace, where we provide over 1,200 book titles that generally cost between 50-90% off retail prices. Furthermore, if an organization qualifies for Title I status or serves a population of which 80% are low-income, we provide them access not only to our Marketplace, but also to our First Book National Book Bank, where the recipient group can receive up to three books, per child, free of charge.

In the past, I’ve enjoyed a variety of internships and work experiences in the public sector—none, however, quite match the deeply fulfilling nature inherent in working with this organization. And somehow, I feel that this experience is only the beginning. I look forward to taking you all along for the ride.

-Haywood

Social Innovation Salons in China!

Social Innovation Salons

When I first learnt from Carol (my PennSEM mentor) that one of my responsibilities this summer will be to host Ventures in Development’s salons, I was a bit confused. Firstly, I don’t possess any hair-cutting skills; secondly, I thought ViD only deals with yak fur, not human hair?

The official definition of ‘social innovation salon’ from ViD’s webpage is “a monthly after-work cocktail event that will stimulate a cross-disciplinary audience to generate innovative ideas that address particular social issues”. Even though I was momentarily relieved to learn that there will be no hair-cutting involved in this event, I still couldn’t quite grasp the idea until I coordinated a salon in Hong Kong last month.

A group of participants brainstorming ideas at the Social Innovation Salon

To make things simple, a social innovation salon is basically a discussion group that runs in a creative format. In my opinion there are 3 points that make our salon stands out from normal discussion groups:

1. Cross-disciplinary audience: The more diverse, the better! Participants who are non-experts in the area of discussion are most welcome so that more unconventional ideas can be brainstormed.

2. Quick brainstorm and pitch format: Instead of a laundry list of solutions or a long-winded elaboration with pros and cons, we ask our participants to throw out quick and focused ideas so as to get the creative juices flowing freely.

3. Incremental follow-up: The salon is just a start. We want to put the ideas generated into action and scale it up to a feasible project step by step. The detail flow is as follows:

Every month, ViD will select a discussion topic that is of social interest, yet, hasn’t received enough attention from the society to make significant progress. Since the salon is held monthly in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei, we will discuss a social problem that is general to these 3 places. Previous discussion topics spans from migrant workers to elderly care. As for our salons in July, we decided to explore ways to help marginalized children in the region.

The difficulties encountered by marginalized children often relate to education and integration into the local community. As the old saying goes, “the youngsters today are the leaders of tomorrow”, the importance of cultivating marginalized children cannot be neglected. In the case of Hong Kong, there are 2 groups of children that can be classified as ‘marginalized children’—the ‘new immigrant children’ who came to Hong Kong from the mainland China, and the ‘ethnic-minority children’, generally referring to South Asian children (e.g. Pakistani, Nepalese, Indians) who resided in Hong Kong when their parents come here to work. We decided to focus on the latter group due to a less portion of resources allocated to helping them and more barriers that they have to face. The details of this salon, including creative solutions pitched by the participants can be read from our typepad blog.

A participant pitching his group’s idea of having a cricket program for both local and EM children to facilitate integration.

Through taking part in this salon, I better understood not just the problems faced by the ethnic-minority children, but also the process of social innovation. Start small, but think big! Even the most seemingly-outrageous idea can be the start of a feasible model if enough follow-up steps are taken. I’m now on my way to prepare this month’s salon and am truly excited at the thought that my little contribution might have stimulated the growth of a social enterprise that solves a particular social problem in my hometown!

- Vicky

Watch this amazing video/documentary on Ventures in Development!

Click the title above to watch, and watch out for our intern Danielle Matsumoto! However, it's in Chinese and we apologize for that.

Sustainable Urban Farms?!

Sustainable Urban Farms

This past Sunday, I helped out with an interesting social enterprise here in Singapore called Ground Up Initiative. As a little background -

GUI’s Mission is

1. To foster connection between Man and Earth through sustainable activities.

2. To grow a flourishing community that drives local and global humanitarian, social and environmental initiatives.

3. To nurture members and groom leaders.

[From GUI’s website: http://www.groundupinitiative.org/story.html]

One of their initiatives is to create sustainable urban farms in the middle of bustling metropolises. One particular urban farm is currently located in a quaint little park called Bottle Tree Park. This project started in April 2009 and attracts around 15-20 volunteers each week. The goal of this project is to create a bio intensive farm in order to provide enough vegetables and produce for the community volunteers and the needy.

I helped out by creating this trellis:

Here I am in front of the greenhouse:

-Catherine

The Importance of Good Governance

Last Friday, I attended a talk on Charity Governance. It was very insightful and interesting. Whether you’re talking about the private sector or the public sector, governance is an issue that is absolutely critical to the success of an organization.

Why is Good Governance Important?

In the public sector, good governance is incredibly important, because a charitable organization is often entrusted with other people’s hard earned money. Donors expect that the organization will keep and use the funds in an efficient and effective manner. Accountability and transparency are essential when maintaining trustworthy relationships with stakeholders. Good governance is a primary way to showcase an organization’s level of accountability and transparency.

What is an Issue with Governance?

Maintaining good governance practices requires money and resources. While large organizations with a substantial amount of funding have the capacity for larger administration costs, smaller charities often do not. The dilemma that then arises is whether that organization should focus their limited funding on good governance or using that money toward its charitable programs. While the answer is murky and not clear cut, the bottom line is that good governance has been shown to improve the effectiveness of organizations and is extremely important for maintaining positive relationships with stakeholders.

-Catherine

Greetings from Emily and Gina!

Wednesday, May 27 2009

Greetings from Bloomsbury Place!

Right off the British Museum and on a row of white bricked buildings, 2 Bloomsbury Place is the home of Volans’ London Office. It might only be the second day at the Volans office, but Gina (the other PennSEM intern) and I have found ourselves suddenly immersed in a new London—one that is an energetic hub of international social enterprise activity. I think it’s safe to say that this London goes beyond boating across the Thames and taking photos of Big Ben.

Let me give you a better understanding of Volans as a company. Volans Ventures is a for-profit company, dedicated to the business of social and environmental innovation. Founded in March 2008 by John Elkington, Pamela Hartigan, and Kevin Teo, Volans is a part think-tank, part consultancy, part broker and part incubator in this field. Volans works with corporations and social enterprises to create opportunities for talent share, to spark the innovation of new business models, and to facilitate investment in scalable solutions. Based in London and Singapore, the company might be young but is developing rapidly with partnerships across the world. There is no doubt that Volans’ growth is fueled by an amazing power team in the field of social entrepreneurship, including our own very own PennSEM mentor, Charmian Love. With a diverse background in fine arts, management consulting, and non-profit work, Charmian understands the importance of creative sector partnerships towards creating social and economic value—a value also shared by Volans.

So where do Gina and I come in?

We have been assigned to develop a catalogue template of social entrepreneurs to best capture the information of social enterprises. Through this template, we want to assess, at a high level, which elements drive innovation or success in these enterprises. Elements might include factors such as the region served, industry or sector focus, the size of the enterprise, or the stage of scalability the enterprise is in. The more difficult elements to categorize are the actual “innovations” that these enterprises have developed. Is it a set of unique product characteristics? A service that no one else has thought of? A new kind of channel partnership? A new kind of supplier relationship? Government connections?

After developing this template, Gina and I are to apply the template into social enterprises solving environmental challenges, particularly in the fields of Climate Change and Water & Sanitation. We will be populating a database (the catalogue) of the most innovative enterprises in these fields through desk research and interviews with social entrepreneurs and business leaders themselves!

This template helps to build Volan’s internal understanding of social enterprises and innovation. With our work in two sectors of Volan’s targeted 21, our template and research can help serve as a platform for Volan’s Phoenix 500 Database. Phoenix 500 is a more in-depth and integrated version of Volans’ recent Phoenix Economy, a report analyzing trends driving change and 50 organizations spearheading that change. This new report will become the core data and intelligence resource that may be used to develop criteria and award methodology in the future.

The goal still seems abstract and slightly overwhelming (who are we to define “innovation” when experts and entrepreneurs have been trying to define it themselves for years?), but we are both excited to dig deeper and sculpt this project into something tangible and valuable. Another reason to be excited is our own personal investment in our assigned research. Gina, who will be working in the Climate Change sector, has a later internship with the Singapore EDB in San Francisco, focused in the Energy sector. I will be working in Water and Sanitation, and have had previous exposure to issues of the global water crisis and water rights through helping plan PIBV’s Water Privatization panel.

Social Entrepreneurship is still a young movement that is still maturing; inevitably, its foundation of understanding is still limited. It’s exciting to take part in building that knowledge base.

What are your thoughts on elements of innovation and success in social enterprise?

Halfway through Sagar's journey...

In my first post, I broached the idea of working at an organization specific level, or working at the sector level. I convinced myself that getting the latter experience was better for me, because I know what conditions on the ground are like. Having lived in Mumbai all my life, having travelled around the rural countryside, having made trips through the slums, I thought I knew the conditions and situations that people lived in, and came from. In any case,

When I talk to someone in my usual network, I implicitly make these assumptions unless visually contradicted:

1. The person has a complete family

2. The person has a life-plan, or a sense of life-security

3. The person has someone close to spend time with, or at least communicate with on a regular basis

4. The person has gone, or is going to go to college along the regular time cycle

I didn't even know that I was making these assumptions until they were all shattered by a simple conversation with my hostel neighbor. He works at hotel in the Raffles Area, would like to return home to India but can't afford to because he has to support his mother and sister, is pursuing part-time vocational college at the age of 26. And he is still better off than other youth that I have been reading about and interacting with. That made me realize how truly lucky I was just to have been brought up in a secure and loving environment. How important family is, and people are.

It's a totally different thing to see someone from afar and try to empathize with them, and talking with them and realizing that it would only have taken a very slight twist of fate for the two of you to have switched roles. And why should he be the one suffering?

p.s. I know I haven't posted much detail of my actual work and experience in Singapore - and my posts have been more philosophical. I will definitely try and include some finer details and nuances of Singapore life (with photos) for my next post.

-Sagar