September 2012
1 post
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Can the CCAT Assess the Health of Social...
I wrote last week about the Core Capacity Assessment Tool, developed by the TCC Group. I’m going to be going through certification training on September 5, and I’ll update you on how that goes. I’m really looking forward to learning more about the tool and its possible applications to social enterprises.
I’ve already been in communication with the TCC folks, and they are...
August 2012
26 posts
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Done is better than perfect: How Bridget Hilton...
We’ve heard of Bridget Hilton before. I’ve interviewed her before about starting Jack’s Soap, a social enterprise which works to eliminate preventable diseases like cholera through giving away a bar of soap for every one sold. It doesn’t stop there: It also teaches children in developing countries to form good handwashing habits and teaches locals to make soap for their own community.
Hilton...
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Silence
I walked through the winding alleyways of the slum, my eyes fixated on the ground below me. I tried nervously to avoid slipping into piles of mud and animal waste, created by a heavy rainfall the previous night. I had received a briefing during the one-hour car ride from Nairobi to the Mlolongo slums â and yet, as I inched closer and closer to the entrance of the small house, the theory, the...
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How To Get An Awesome Job At A Social Good Startup
Jobs are hard to come by these days, especially jobs where you can integrate purpose + passion ( in a way that provides meaning + solutions for families and communities facing a social or personal issue. Over the last 2 years Iâve gotten the opportunity to work for two incredible early stage companies (simultaneously) who address personal and social issues. Unfortunately, there arenât any...
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Meet Abby Goldberg - Teenage Activist
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvbOaL_TaFU?feature=player_detailpage]
Abby Goldberg and belongto.it’s Maurice Bretzfield Â
When Abby Goldberg was 12 years old she started a school project. A lover of animals she had seen a picture of a water bird with a plastic bag wrapped around its head. She knew that she had to do something.
One of the results of that “something”...
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Assessing Your Social Enterprise: You Have to Know...
I’m increasingly intrigued with the assessment tools that are available to leaders of non-profits and social enterprises. I attended a session at the Nonprofit Management Center at the University of St. Thomas/Minneapolis last week, and heard a presentation from Dr. John Brothers. Dr. Brothers summarized for us his model for organizational life cycles for non-profits. You’ll remember,...
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All About The Silicone
“Solid wastes” are the discarded leftovers of our advanced consumer society. This growing mountain of garbage and trash represents not only an attitude of indifference toward valuable natural resources, but also a serious economic and public health problem.
— Jimmy Carter
Within the United States the idea of milk that need not be refrigerated is still a very foreign idea. Much...
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Analyzing Cargill’s 2012 CSR Report: Good...
Cargill has issued its annual CSR report. The report outlines the food and agriculture conglomerate’s approach to corporate responsibility, with a special emphasis on its work to address global food security.
“Cargill is acting on its vision to be the global leader in nourishing people to address the complex challenge of feeding a world on its way to 9 billion people,” the...
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Grants to Help Remedy Americans’ Climate Change...
A new grant program announced this week will seek to better educate a relatively unpersuaded American populace about the realities of climate change.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced new grants for community-based educational centers in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington D.C. The grants were awarded under the Climate and Urban Systems Partnership, an NSF-funded...
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How are we wrong?
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the Awesome Foundation’s inaugural Awesome Summit. For those of you who do not know the Awesome Foundation, it’s a wonderful and successful experiment in philanthropy: Through local chapters in cities around the world, groups of about 10 pool their money together each month to different projects in their local communities. This funding can be for...
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8 Social Adventurepreneurs
8 Social Adventurepreneurs set on making the world so much better.
At Much Better Adventures HQ we spend a lot of our time scouring the world for inspiring projects and changemakers that offer ‘adventure holidays with a purpose’. These are the kind of people that make us want to do what we do.
Here’s a list of some of the most inspiring people who have stuck it to the man and made it their...
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Two Social Venture Entrepreneurs Set Out on...
[caption id=”attachment_19095” align=”aligncenter” width=”300”] The People vs. Citizens United; Buying America Back![/caption]
belongto.it, a new web-based venture that promotes dialogue between consumers and companies announced today that its principals, Maurice Bretzfield and Ben Miller have begun a 40 day 4,000 mile cross-country road trip to meet social...
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National Planting Day to Encourage Americans to...
Keep America Beautiful (KAB), the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization, is encouraging Americans to plant native species of trees, shrubs, and plants during National Planting Day. The first-ever National Planting Day will be held on Saturday, September 8, and will emphasize the power of native species to restore ecological balance.
The benefits of...
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National Planting Day to Encourage Americans to...
Keep America Beautiful (KAB), the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization, is encouraging Americans to plant native species of trees, shrubs, and plants during National Planting Day. The first-ever National Planting Day will be held on Saturday, September 8, and will emphasize the power of native species to restore ecological balance.
The benefits of...
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How to Bridge the Cultural Divide
I’ve been talking to social entrepreneurs about the variety of performance challenges they face. Recently, I wrote about the cultural chasm that can exist in a social enterprise—on one side of the chasm are the non-profit folks. They’re focused on altruistic, communitarian values. On the other side of the chasm are the business folks. They’re focused on the bottom-line.
...
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5 Practical Ways You Can Feel and Practice...
Therefore, if you want to be successful, you need to feel more gratitude. Fortunately, gratitude, like most emotions, is like a muscle: The more you use it, the stronger and more resilient it becomes.
That’s a quote from a recent Inc.com article titled “True Secret to Success (It’s Not What You Think)” which is focused on individuals, success and overall happiness in your...
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5 Things Your Organization Can Learn From NBC &...
I love the Olympics. I also enjoy social media. Those two facts make the London games, the “social media” games, a treat to watch. It’s also brought a lot of issues to the forefront of the conversation. I had read about the hate towards the coverage by NBC and got to experience the “travesty” that was their coverage firsthand while I was in Chicago and it got me...
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Cultivating Entrepreneurship and Education in...
Let’s start off with a little exercise: try to analyse your life for a few minutes and identify the learning opportunities available in your environment. Try to think of the number of people that are or have been acting as mentors, the inspiration you can find in your surroundings and the number of supporters that help you through the steps you take in your day-to-day activities. How many did you...
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The “Emergence of Ethical Consumerism in India”...
A few days ago we stumbled upon a paper (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2103599) about Ethicus, an ethical fashion brand that the paperâs author claims nurtured the âemergence of ethical consumerism in Indiaâ. While, the work of Ethicus and Appachi Cotton (a for-profit enterprise located inPollachi, India and the founder of Ethicus), are great case examples of brands...
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Giving Women A Choice
“The State of World Population 2011 reveals that Guatemalan women between 15 and 49 years have on average 3.8 children (2010-2015), when the average Latin-American level is 2.2. For indigenous women, this percentage is 4.5 children per female of reproductive age, which continues to place the country as the holder of the highest fertility rate in Latin America.” - The Guatemala Times,...
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Sustainability: It's in the Water
Water is a precious commodity and it has become a central sustainability issue with concepts such as “water footprint” and “embedded water” quickly catching up with carbon in terms of importance. Companies are central to water sustainability since they are the biggest users of the stuff.
In India, a new draft of the National Water Policy 2012, if approved, will force...
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Social Innovation: Chrysler Leading the Way for...
Chrysler Group, which produces some of the world’s most recognizable, social innovation vehicles, has been named among the ”Best Companies For Diversity” for 2012 by readers of the magazine, Diversity/Careers in Engineering & Information Technology. This accolade is given to companies who are ‘doing the best work promoting diversity, supporting minorities and women,...
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¿Que Será del Caribe?
“These are the big fish, who always try to eat down the small fish. I tell you what, they would do anything to materialize their every wish.” - Bob Marley, Guiltiness
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca is a city of some 700 residents, plus tourists, sitting on the Caribbean coast of southern Costa Rica, where AfroCaribe people came to settle from other islands in the sea several generations...
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Restoring Chitimacha: How Companies Can Serve as...
“The artist has a special task and duty: the task of reminding men of their humanity and the promise of their creativity.”
As historian, sociologist and critic Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) so eloquently noted in the quote above, all art – visual, musical, literary, architectural, performing, culinary – reflects the best of humanity. We are, after all, the culture that we create.
This month, the...
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Bridging the Culture Gap
As I talk with social entrepreneurs about the biggest challenges they face in making their social enterprises successful, several themes have emerged. I’ll be writing about them here.
One of those themes is “bridging the culture gap.” I’ve written about this topic before, and it deserves much more thought and exploration. Social entrepreneurs experience the pulling and hauling that takes place...
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Social Innovation: Sanofi Part of a Historic...
Seven pharmaceutical companies, including Sanofi and four research institutions working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have created a social innovation partnership to speed up the discovery of essential new treatments for tuberculosis (TB). This collaboration is known as the TB Drug Accelerator (TBDA) and will target the discovery of new TB drugs by collaborating on early-stage...
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New Social Innovation Report, 'Hit the Gas' Throws...
A new social innovation report, called, ‘Hit the Gas,’ published this July by Centre Forum, a think tank, says the U.K. government should ban all food leftovers from landfill by the end of decade to boost technology, which can turn it intoenergy. A step like this is needed because the U.K. will run out of new landfill sites by 2020 and needs to meet E.U. rules to stop biodegradable...
July 2012
28 posts
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CasaSito
“Casa” = “Home”
“Sito” = “Site”
“CasaSito” = “Little Engine”
This short documentary centers on the CasaSito Organization - a changemaker organization based in Antigua, Guatemala that focuses its efforts on making sure rural children in nearby towns and villages receive an education.
While schools are, of course, an...
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Pacific Island of Tongatapu Turns to Sustainable...
Small island nations living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean often rely on diesel generators for power. Besides the environmental problems associated with diesel, the logistics involved in shipping in the stuff are also complex and very expensive. Wouldn’t it be nice, then, to generate electricity in loco, using light that comes from the sun?
This is exactly what the island of Tongatapu...
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Don't Drink the Kool-Aid
I am in grave risk of stepping directly into readers’ fury by writing this post for a site that “is the leading source for news and information about social entrepreneurship,” but I think the perspective I will share is one not often heard on a site with such a focus. (I hope this wordy disclaimer will hold back some fury, at least.)
In my last post on Social Earth, I wrote...
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Population Control is a Key Sustainability Concept
Overpopulation is the elephant in the room, one of the key issues related to environmental sustainability that doesn’t get much airplay. On the 11th of July the international community remembered World Population Day, which is a date to draw attention to the consequences of population growth on natural resources, sustainability, urbanization, healthcare, etc.
It’s a complex issue,...
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Ethical Fashion Startup Veraly Seeks to Develop...
A new startup will make it easier than ever to find and purchase ethically produced apparel and accessories. Veraly, an ethical fashion ecommerce site, plans to run beta testing through September leading up to a public launch later this year.
The site will initially offer dozens of verified ethically sourced products, and the founders plan to add more products as the company grows. A team of...
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Campesino a Campesino (Farmer to Farmer)
“Most of the extremely poor people in the world earn their living now from one-acre farms.
They can earn much more money by finding ways to grow and sell high-value labor-intensive crops such as off-season fruits and vegetables.” - Paul Polak, Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail
“Campesino a Campesino” is a short documentary that centers...
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Social Innovation: Mobius Motors Create An African...
Joel Jackson arrived in Kenya in 2009 and immediately had a social innovation idea—yet it had nothing to do with the not-for-profit farming organisation that he had come with. It wasn’t farming that caught Joel’s attention, it was the state of the African roads: the lack of appropriate transport that has affected many parts of rural Africa, keeping areas remote. Joel Jackson rolled up...
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Ritmo en los Barrios
This short documentary focuses on a program run by Building New Hope - a changemaker based in Granada, Nicaragua. Ritmo en los Barrios is a program that teaches impoverished children to find their inner musical talent.
The program works to aid impoverished youth in the area through musical education, creating a new life path for children that takes them out of poverty, and for one specific...
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Growing Demand for Careers with Social Impact
A recent survey by Net Impact, an international nonprofit, revealed that more than 70 percent of college-goers and almost half the workforce are keen to take up jobs that make a social impact. Almost 60 percent of students are even ready to accept a reduced pay if given an opportunity to work for an employer that represents their social values.
While such jobs and careers are more than welcome,...
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Mentoring Social Innovators: Interview with Beth...
I recently interviewed my colleague and friend, Beth Parkhill, founder and owner of Mentor Planet, a service that matches mentors with social innovators. Beth is a highly experienced professional, who sees the need to support social innovators, by matching them with mentors who can give innovators the benefit of the hard-earned knowledge and experience they need to avoid the pitfalls that come...
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Marathon in the Mountains
Recently in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, I had the opportunity to be up close and personal with a great changemaker organization called Escuela de la Calle (School of the Street), a school for street kids that is also the parent company for El Hogar – a home for street kids without home or functioning family, and for Quetzaltrekkers, a trekking organization puts all it money it raises towards...
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The U.S. Invests in Social Innovation in India to...
As its consumers struggle to cope with rising petrol prices, India is turning to social innovation to find a new generation of biofuels derived from agricultural waste. It is also part of the country’s ambitious science and research program to revive blending ethanol with gasoline, as its policy roadmap still aims to replace up to 20% of gasoline with ethanol in transport fuels by 2017....
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Viva Le France's Investing in Social Innovation...
Let’s visit France to know about what our digital future holds… An annual social innovation event called, ‘Futur-en-Seine’ that took place recently, brought together more than 80 prototypes and innovative devices from the world of digital content and services that could be part of our lives in the future. The event was the brainchild of Cap Digital, a unique not-for-profit...
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Award-winning Social Innovation Projects for Rural...
The winners of the Dell Social Innovation Challenge (DSIC) were announced in Austin, Texas last month [month, not week—winners were announced JUNE 13TH], and the top awards were bagged by young social innovators with projects for rural India. The awards are instituted to recognize undergraduate and graduate students who come up with social innovation projects that make an impact on communities...
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Moments
A moment. It is the smallest possible denominator in life. We plan our lives in years, we set goals based on months, we have to-do lists by the day, but everything eventually comes down to the moment. Life is an endless string of moments and I have a tendency to get swept away in them. For that single instant, to be completely bewitched by living, breathing, feeling the splendor of a moment – it...
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Social Innovation in Gaza is Giving Hope to Youth
The University of Applied Science (Ucas) in Gaza creates social innovation in web systems, computer games, animation films and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools for a growing number of clients across the globe, as well as for the young people in this region who are longing for an opportunity to develop their creativity. Ayman Afifi, international relations officer at Ucas who oversees its...
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New Social Innovation 'State of the Air App' That...
The American Lung Association has launched a new social innovation ‘State of the Air’ app, which is free for the iPhone and Android. It’s an app that not only gives you the air quality in your area for the next few days, but also lets you know if the levels of ozone or if a particular type of pollution in your area is bad enough to put you or someone you know at risk....
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Why We Hike
This short documentary centers around a volunteer guide at Quetzaltrekkers, a trekking organization in Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala, that puts all of its profits towards Escuela de la Calle and El Hogar, a school and a home built to aid street kids in Guatemala.
Why We Hike from Actuality Media on Vimeo.
Find out more about the filmmakers, the subjects and Guatemala at...
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Social Entrepreneur Wins SVN Hall of Fame Award
Cheryl Dorsey, president of Echoing Green, an organization promoting social entrepreneurship, has been recently named as one of the Social Venture Network’s (SVN) Hall of Fame Impact Award Winners as a Visionary Social Entrepreneur. The award is a well-deserved recognition of her pioneering work in the field of social entrepreneurship.
For more than 25 years, Echoing Green has been an...
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An Equation For Sustainability
At Emotive Brand, we view corporate responsibility reporting as an equation, not a document. Therefore, our strategy is to build the strongest available reporting equation in any given year, as part of a multi-year evolution that benefits the client, its stakeholders, and society.
STRONGEST AVAILABLE EQUATION
No one prepares or reads a document in isolation, and no one’s position is fixed....
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The Frustrating Attitudes of Low Income Housing...
Now the dust has settled after the Rio+20 and delegates have conveniently brushed aside many of the core issues in a familiarly recognised fashion, many of us were left scratching our heads as to what the US$ 210 million spent on the summit actually yielded. No more so was this frustration reflected than in relation to the interrelated topics of urban reform and global base of the pyramid (BoP)...
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BASF Expands Sustainability Database
It’s a daunting task to understand the claims and requirements of eco labels, designed to tell consumers about the environmental footprint of the product being purchased. Many businesses spend considerable time and resources trying to manage these classifications. In order to help its employees, stakeholders, suppliers, NGOs, government officials, and trade associations with the task, BASF...
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A New Zero Emission Car Makes a Long Awaited...
[caption id=”” align=”alignleft” width=”529”] Zero Emission Car[/caption]
Originally developed in Luxembourg in 1991 the air car is due to hit India’s streets this August. According to George Lawson— Tata Motors of India has scheduled the Air Car to hit Indian streets by August 2012. “There are no keys, just an access card which can be read by...
