You can read articles and books on how to write your mission statement, but not here. This is a collection of ideas that worked for other social entrepreneurs and what they would do differently next time. It’s what they wished they’d had when defining their mission. Most mission statements sound like a sixth-grader’s attempt to […]
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Turning Wine Into Water: A New Online Retailer With a Purpose–With Ryan Bettencourt
Click the player to listen to the interview or right-click and save for the MP3. Get the Mp3 Player Widget widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info) Like this interview? You can thank Ryan on Twitter like this. I do a lot of name calling here: for-profit, nonprofit, […]
What’s Your Vote for the Best Socially Driven Companies?
With the blogs I read, the experts I interview and the networking groups I belong to, I figured I had a pretty accurate count of U.S. companies that are crushing it with their social mission. But I don’t. And I need your help. Which companies or entrepreneurs do you know that we can learn from? […]
Should Your Business Use an e-Commerce Philanthropy Platform? What You Can Gain and What to Be Wary Of
Yesterday I wrote about some of the ways that small startups with limited resources can create a social mission. Today, I came across a tool that makes it easy for your company to try out a buy-one-give-one model called B1G1. Traditionally, buy-one-give-one refers to like products. TOMS Shoes and Sunnight Solar are great examples. Every […]
10 More Social Venture Capital Firms You Told Me About
“A BUSINESS THAT MAKES NOTHING BUT MONEY IS A POOR BUSINESS.” — Henry Ford In response to an email I received asking about sources of social venture capital, I published this list of 15 social investment firms. Based on tweets and suggestions I got from people like you who are using business to meet social or […]
In Response to ‘What’s Your Life About?’ He Founded Good Capital–With Kevin Jones
I created Cause Capitalism to answer the question of how you can have a stronger business and help change the world. The problem with such a nifty concept is that it’s still new, which means that all the ‘market mechanisms’ aren’t in place to help your early social enterprise scale to serve more people. As […]
15 Social Venture Capital Firms That You Should Know About
Building a business is hard. Getting the funding you might need is tough. But, as you know, when your business satisfies a social or environmental need, your options for funding are even scarcer. One of the things I hear a lot from social entrepreneurs is the tough time they have finding people willing to fund […]
Why CVS’ Social Responsibility Programs Are Its Most Wasted Resource
If your company consistently runs social responsibility programs, but doesn’t take the time or have the confidence in its programs to make sure I know about them, it’s doing me and itself a disservice. Like Walgreens or Rite Aid, CVS is a national pharmacy chain. There’s no visible differentiation between it and its competitors. Maybe […]
Why Your Mission Should Alienate Some People
When you stand for something, you’re not supposed to please everyone. The misstep of trying to please everybody comes when we don’t stand for something, when we lack an internal drumbeat stronger than the chatter of the crowd. Most people know that the clothing company Patagonia* gives money to myriad environmental organizations. Fewer people know […]
3 Tactics To Use Sustainability to Screw Your Competition
If you’re challenged by a boss, board or business partner who thinks sustainability is a luxury or a trend to revisit in three years, make the business case that doing environmental and social good means beating competitors. “It’s an imperative that your business start creating good, not just less harm,” says Seventh Generation co-founder Jeffrey […]
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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