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 [...]
How much control of your company are you willing to give up in exchange for funds? is a question that all investment-seeking entrepreneurs need to answer. Social entrepreneurs are confronted with another key question that impacts how they want to set legally establish their organization: How important is profit versus mission? With these two questions [...]
There seems to be a problem. Â An influential group of global CEOs list brand, trust and reputation as their “primary considerations for acting on sustainability.” Â Motivators like revenue growth and cost reduction, consumer demand, employee engagement and retention and personal motivation lagged significantly behind. Many CEOs seem to have reversed cause and effect. Brand trust [...]
How to let your mission guide you: Your mission should guide your decisions, but sometimes you’ll have to prioritize long-term mission over short-term consequences as Organic Valley did when it shipped milk from Ohio to North Carolina to help farmers there start a local business. The short-term compromise was the environmental impact of shipping milk so [...]
“But who are you? What is this idea? It doesn’t fit any of the existing patterns because they were set up to serve the old idea…. “ This is Ashoka founder Bill Drayton’s description of a feeling often experience by social entrepreneurs, himself included. Â I’m sharing it because it’s something you’ve probably felt, as have [...]
Consider becoming certified as a B Corporation. If you’re looking for mission-aligned capital for an existing business, B Corp status will help, and if you’re looking for traditional investing, it won’t hurt. B Corporation certification signals to investors, consumers and employees that you are use business to solve social and environmental problems. For companies looking [...]
Start small and focus your efforts on your mission. Â You’ve probably heard this at some point, but it’s hard to do. Â How do you know if your perception of focus is, well, out of focus? Â Your employees can be the best reflection of reality. “If your employees or people connected to your company can’t tell [...]
You want more green initiatives in your company and so do your employees and consumers. Â You’d love to give employee rebates for hybrid car purchases or offer transportation stipends, but the funding for these programs just isn’t there right now. Â It’s taking action (rather than any specific action) that counts. A year ago NetApp was [...]
How does good beget good? And what are you doing to tip the domino? In his book, The HIP Investor: Make Bigger Profits by Building a Better World, R. Paul Herman lists employee satisfaction as an indicator of strong investment returns.  He points to Wharton finance professor Alex Edmans’ work identifying a “direct positive correlation over [...]
Your next pair of Levi’s might come with a clothesline or shoebox-sized dryer. Â After a recent lifecycle assessment, Levi’s realized that 60% of the climate impact of a pair of jeans comes after the jeans are made and sold; nearly 80% of this is from drying the jeans in a dryer. Â The presumed and easy [...]
I'm Olivia Khalili. I created Cause Capitalism to show you how to grow your business by incorporating a social mission. 
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