Categories: Build a Purpose-driven Business, funding, SRI
by Olivia Khalili
I’m wrapping up Social Business Venture week with a look at funding options for the breed of businesses that generate profits but exist primarily to fulfill a social need. The legal structure of your business should take into account how you plan to operate and earn revenue. Neither of these decisions can be taken lightly […]
Categories: Business Models, Businesses, Commercial & Nonprofit Partnerships, Interviews, Podcast
by Olivia Khalili
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] […]
Categories: Business Models, Businesses, Interviews, Podcast, Products
by admin
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 […]
Categories: Build a Purpose-driven Business, Business Models
by admin
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 […]
Categories: Build a Purpose-driven Business, Business Models
by admin
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 […]
Categories: Businesses, Interviews, Micro-lending, Podcast
by admin
Click the player to listen to our conversation. Prefer MP3? Right-click and download. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] After he left Amazon (“one of the hardest, scariest and best decisions” he’s made in his life) Kushal Chakrabarti knew he would start a company. He’d done well at Amazon, helping to improve its product […]
Categories: Corporate Social Responsibility, Rants & Raves
by admin
If you caught my poll earlier this week asking what areas you find meaningful in the cosmos of business and social responsibility, you know that I’ve been thinking hard about how to make the biggest impact. On one hand, there’s the CSR approach, which I’ll generalize as reaching more people but having less direct impact […]
Categories: Business Models, Commercial & Nonprofit Partnerships, Employee Involvement
by admin
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 […]
Categories: Rants & Raves
by admin
Note on this post: It’s personal. Come back tomorrow for stories and tactics, but stay today to participate and be heard. I launched this site in January 2008 to log my discoveries and articulate my thoughts on business and social responsibility. In the last nine months, I’ve worked to shape Cause Capitalism into a resource […]
Categories: Businesses, Cause Marketing, Consumer Behavior
by admin
When I talk about the benefits of building a business with a social mission, consumer support and loyalty come up a lot. One of the rewards of being a socially driven company is that consumers like to buy from you and will often take it upon themselves to share your mission with others. A new […]
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