I used to consult with nonprofits as part of a firm. What I’m about to write comes from my observations doing this work.
We can do more good and do it more quickly with a for-profit model.
Nonprofits aren’t bad, their model just has some flaws. [click to continue…]
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If your company doesn’t have the money (or inclination) for traditional marketing you can join the ranks of companies like Seventh Generation, Tesla Motors and Stonyfield Farm in the Gort Cloud. ‘The Gort Cloud’ is Richard Seireeni’s term for the invisible force powering today’s most visible green brands, as well as the title of his book, which profiles 25 leading green brands.
Many of the entrepreneurs I interview and read about talk about shrinking or doing away with their marketing budget to support their social initiatives–Stonyfield Farm chooses to spend more on organic ingredients, leaving them little for marketing. They, along with the other companies in the book, used the concept of the Gort Cloud to build their brand–primarily “because they didn’t have the budgets to do it any other way than by direct outreach to a sympathetic community” explains Richard.
I invited Richard, a veteran in brand development, to Cause Capitalism to talk about how social enterprises can use the Gort Cloud, and whether it’s even as powerful now as it was two years ago. We also talked about a terrific piece he wrote in the Huffington Post, “Drivers of Preference, Why consumers will Buy Green.”
Click the player below to listen or right-click and save for the MP3.
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We know that transparency is a strong indicator of a company’s social mission. Turns out, it’s also good for business. Recently, transparency has been shown to be a significant driver of ultimate financial performance. The thread between transparency and profit is trust. By opening up internal operations, successes and failures to the public and to employees, we demonstrate transparency as a company, which customers like. But the reason customers like this is because it allows them to trust us, to recommend us, to tell us when we err and to choose us again.
Thera N. Kalmijn of SureGround and R. Paul Herman of HIP Investor discussed these ideas in Trust, but Verify – a New Mantra for Customer Growth published on Sustainable Life Media. The article is excellent, examining how we can earn and nurture consumer trust and use it to rally support and profits for our social mission. Some of my favorite points from the article are below.
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I added a calendar of events in social enterprise, sustainability and microfinance that can help your social mission. If you know of an event that should be listed, email it to me.
So far, the listings are physical events because I generally think they hold themselves to a higher standard than online events. Want to prove me wrong? Send in your recs.
Happy enterprising.
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I was reminded tonight of how new the idea of social enterprise really is. Maybe not for you, but take a step back. Not only do some investors or consumers question it, but so do some of us. I just got off the phone with a change agent who is trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together to launch a cause-driven, for-profit business. I’m sharing his story because his uncertainty about earning a living from doing good surprised me.
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After talking with social entrepreneurs about the challenges they faced in building their businesses, I invited Teju Ravilochan to Cause Capitalism to share his vision for an organization that trains and mentors social entrepreneurs. But since Teju is a social entrepreneur himself, he can’t help but turn his vision into something real. With three friends from college Teju founded The Unreasonable Institute to develop the next generation of changemakers.
The Unreasonable Institute was inspired by the co-founders’ own failed social ventures. In their early 20s, they lacked credibility, experience, mentorship and access to capital, but not the passion, education and ideas, to create a successful business. The irony of it is that they are still young. They aren’t drawing on a career’s worth of experience or network. Instead, they’re using their commitment to help others to connect to leaders and teachers in social enterprise. Teju talks about the new social enterprise he’s building, who’s purpose is to help other young entrepreneurs help the world. Click the player below to listen or right-click and save for the MP3.
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The last part of this post’s title should be Provide Women with Access to Capital. This is the success story of a social enterprise created from a market opportunity, which proved its mettle by serving artisans in developing countries and attracting American companies like Disney, Hallmark, Whole Foods, and ultimately eBay. Last week World of Good sold its brand and assets to eBay and its wholesale division to GreaterGood/Charity USA.
I spoke with World of Good co-founder Siddharth Sanghvi on how he and Priya Haji built a business that caught eBay’s eye and turned responsible purchasing mainstream. Siddharth talks about how he and Priya built the company and gives suggestions for other social entrepreneurs. Our conversation is about 20 minutes. Click the player below to listen or right-click and save for the MP3.
Siddharth and Priya met in business school and founded World of Good in 2004 from a combined $10,000 in savings. [click to continue…]
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Sometimes, as social entrepreneurs, we’re reluctant to show our passion for the social side or our business. We get caught up in trying to appear soundly strategic or business-minded or we over think our messaging, “Will this look like cause-washing? Can customers get behind this? How will we measure and track our results?” There’s merit to the above questions, but there’s more merit in leading with passion (even more so when our business is driven by a social mission). I invited Caroline Duell to Cause Capitalism to talk about how she is growing Elemental Herbs from her dual passions for herbal healing and the outdoors and how she deals with the dilemmas accompany a conscience-driven business.
Listen to our conversation (about 45 minutes) by clicking on the player below. Prefer MP3? Just right-click and save. I’ve highlighted some points below, but Caroline conveys her enthusiasm, passion and fun with her company better than I do in the notes below. [click to continue…]
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I put together a list of topics to help entrepreneurs and businesses in build successful social missions, but I need your help.
1) Experts and entrepreneurs I can interview on the following topics:
2) Companies who’ve had unsuccessful social missions or initiatives and are willing to share what they’ve learned?
3) Companies who’ve built effective social missions and programs that we can learn from?
4) What else do you want to learn? What pieces of information will be the kryptonite for your business?
Please take one minute to think about who would be a great guest or topic for Cause Capitalism. Many of my past interviews have come from listener suggestions.
Thanks.
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I created Cause Capitalism to show you how to grow your business by incorporating a social mission. 
