How do you engage employees in your company’s sustainability efforts, particularly when you’re just starting out? It can be trickier thank you’d think. In Strategy for Sustainability Adam Werbach reminds us that, Just as sustainability does not work for businesses unless it serves business needs first, sustainability does not engage individuals unless it first and foremost […]
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How Better World Books Built A Multimillion-Dollar, Venture Backed Social Enterprise–with David Murphy
In this 7-minute clip, Better World Books President and CEO David Murphy talks about the company’s fiduciary commitment to its nonprofit literacy partners and how it received funding, initially with an SBA loan and later through Good Capital, a social investment firm. Right-click and download for the MP3. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] […]
How Turning His Non-profit Into a Profitable Company Helped His Social Mission–with Aseem Das
If you want the real story from a successful for-profit social entrepreneur, click the player to listen to Aseem Das talk about founding and transforming World Centric. Prefer MP3? Right-click and download. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] World Centric evolved from a nonprofit to a nonprofit with a revenue-earning component to a for-profit […]
A Social Business Venture Can Make You an Iconoclast, But You’ll Have To Do a Lot of Balancing
A social business venture packs a lot of punch. If you care strongly about mission and impact but don’t want to solicit donors and institutional funding, it might be the right model for your work. By definition, this type of enterprise generates profits, which are reinvested into the business to advance the cause and sustain […]
What Is a Social Business Venture and Is It Right For You?
I’m refocusing on the crux of cause capitalism: building a business to drive social (or environmental) change because I believe that the force of capitalism can be used to solve many of the problems we face and because it’s in companies’ best business interest to do so. I see cause capitalism is a continuum with […]
Should Your Company Be Volunteering For Bravado? (This Company Is)
As a sign of their technological and business prowess, iTeleport employees volunteer one day every week with the Khan Academy, a non-profit working to provide top-level education for free to anyone with access to a computer. It’s not a marketing or publicity ploy and it’s not a recruitment tool (directly, at least). iTeleport founder Jahanzeb […]
Want to Change the World? Read This First
I’ve read a string of great books lately, parts of which occasionally flash into my consciousness, but none has made the same impression as Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. It’s the self-told story of John Wood’s departure from Microsoft to create libraries at first, then classrooms, then schools and finally scholarships in Southeast Asia and […]
Why Joie de Vivre Invests in Culture For The Most Bang For Its Bucks
The principle of the following story is so simple and effective that it’s a wonder we ever conjured up advertising to sell our wares. Take your largest and most expensive asset, your employees, and use it to build your business. During an interview last week with enlightened entrepreneur Chip Conley he mentioned that his company, […]
How To Grow Your Business By Giving Your Employees a Calling–with Chip Conley
When Chip Conley applied his interpretation of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to his hospitality company Joie de Vivre, he tripled its size when most of his competitors were going bankrupt in the post-9/11, Travelocity-frenzy years. Click the player to listen to my 20-minute conversation with Chip or right-click and save for the MP3. [Audio clip: view […]
The Success of Your Company’s Mission Hinges On The Answer To “What’s Your Job?”
Start small and focus your efforts on your mission. You’ve probably heard this at some point, but it’s hard to do. How do you know if your perception of focus is, well, out of focus? Your employees can be the best reflection of reality. “If your employees or people connected to your company can’t tell […]
I'm Olivia Khalili. I created Cause Capitalism to show you how to grow your business by incorporating a social mission. I've worked extensively with both nonprofits and for-profits. I found that when you combine the two, you grow your profits, impassion all your stakeholders and do good in the world. Read more.
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