February 2011
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For Pepsi, a Business Decision With Social Benefit →
For Pepsi and other corporations, social impact is secondary to core business.
“The social benefits of the corn program are obvious in higher incomes that have improved nutritional and educational standards among the participating farmers, not to mention its impact on illegal immigration and possibly even the reduction of marijuana production…but PepsiCo insists those benefits are...
December 2010
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October 2010
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Help Shape the Future of the Social Sector
The Future Leaders in Philanthropy Community, a part of the Changing Our World organization, is conducting a survey to gain a better understanding of the attitudes and expectations of those new to the field of philanthropy.
Take their survey now and they’ll donate $1 to a Global Giving project.
Changing Our World invites those with varying perspectives to participate—both new and...
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September 2010
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“A full 83% of consumers want more of the products, services and retailers they...”
– 2010 Cone Cause Evolution Study, the nation’s only 17-year benchmark of cause marketing attitudes and behavior. Download the study here.
Read more about moms, millennials, and cause marketing here.
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Cleaner for the Environment, Not for the Dishes →
“Most Americans want to do things that are good for the environment, but not everyone wants to pay the price,” said Elke U. Weber, director of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University.
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How Millionaires and Billionaires Give
A few months ago, Warren Buffett pledged to give 99% of his wealth to charity during his lifetime, publicly encouraging the world’s richest to follow suit. He and Bill Gates have even scheduled a trip to China this month to figure out how to “do philanthropy” there. Meanwhile, Buffett business partner Charles Munger says the idea of “very intelligent people sitting around...
August 2010
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Promises Aren't Enough: Business Schools Need to... →
Three Yale School of Management professors wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about why it’s not enough to get students to take The MBA Oath.
They say: “The solution to ethical challenges in business is not to create an army of M.B.A.s who promise to do the right thing. Rather, as educators we must assume more responsibility by providing better, not less, leadership...
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“I want to support the organization that’s going for scale, not the one...”
– Fundraising and social innovation guru Dan Pallotta in “We Need to Rethink Fundraising”. Excellent arguments for why donors shouldn’t expect charities not to spend on fundraising.
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WatchRecently, the Unreasonable Institute fellows gave their final business pitches at the 2010 Global Summit. Luckily, they captured these all on film and posted all the presentations on their website.
Above is just a sample, which came from Who Gives a Crap, a group that will make “environmentally sustainable toilet paper and donate profits to water sanitation projects in the developing...
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As Businesses Grow, Can They Keep Their...
This question is at the center of two recent articles: “A Coffee Conundrum” about Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (New York Times) and “Start Here. Change Everything.” about Justin’s Nut Butters (Ad Age).
Good reading about the challenges and opportunities that face environmentally-friendly companies as they scale up.
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Timberland's Stakeholder Engagement Calls →
Timberland’s CEO Jeff Swartz regularly hosts stakeholder engagement calls to “inform, inspire, and engage others about Timberland’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.”
Last week, he hosted one with Mountain Equipment Co-op CEO David Labistour. They discussed “the need for comparability of products’ environmental impacts to inform consumers’...
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WatchHands That Feed—“a documentary film exploring the agricultural collapse in Haiti, its role in the post-earthquake food crisis, and the emerging grassroots development models that seek to restore Haiti’s food supply and environment”—is looking for a few more hundred dollars in donations through their KickStarter page.
Amazingly, they’ve already reached their initial goal of...
July 2010
22 posts
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“There’s a misfit in each of us [entrepreneurs], and it’s the most...”
– Dan Pallotta in “Misfit Entrepreneurs” on his Harvard Business Review blog. What a wise, compassionate thinker this man is. His book, Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential, is also now available in paperback!
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Work as a charity: water Development Intern →
In under 4 years, supporters of charity: water have funded 2600+ projects in 17 countries that bring clean water to over 1.2 million people. If you’re a graduate student in New York City with experience in fundraising, apply for this internship immediately.
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“If every charity was run with more of a business focus, the world would be a...”
– John Wood, a former senior executive at Microsoft before founding Room to Read in 2000. Find out more about the organization’s model in Fortune Tech’s “How technology can help spread literacy”.
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What is Summer Like for a Climate Corps Fellow?
Now in its third year, the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps—in partnership with Net Impact—has matched 51 students from leading business schools with companies looking to develop actionable energy efficiency plans.
Last year, Climate Corps identified $54 million in energy savings at leading corporations.
While the results of this year’s have yet to be seen, I recommend...
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A Test to Identify Entrepreneurs →
“The Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, a branch of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for International Development, has devised a psychometric test to help banks in emerging markets easily screen loan applicants. The goal is to spur lending to small and midsize companies, a vital sector often underfunded in the developing world.”
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“The best way to combat poverty is to help each person make money and stand on...”
– Tadashi Yanai, Chairman and President of Fast Retailing, which owns the Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo.
“Japan’s casual clothing brand Uniqlo and Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus said Tuesday they would create a textiles company in Bangladesh to help poor women gain financial...
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“[Teach for America] is, I’m told by some recent grads, one of the coolest...”
– “What They’re Doing After Harvard” from the Wall Street Journal. Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp explains why her program beats working on Wall Street.
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Give to Seth Godin's charity: water Birthday... →
Marketing guru Seth Godin just turned 50 years old. But instead of sending him gifts, he’d rather you make a donation to charity: water.
Here’s his pitch:
If you go to the special page they created and buy a well for a village that doesn’t have one, you can supply clean water to two people for twenty years. If just a thousand of the readers of this blog do it, we could ...
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“And less mail would be better for the economy, better for businesses and...”
– Daniel Gross in “Going Postal” on Slate.com.
A very interesting perspective on the U.S. Postal Service’s request for a 2-cent increase in first-class postage.
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Bold Public-Private Venture Aims to Make Ore. City... →
“The Oregon Sustainability Center, slated for construction at the edge of Portland State University’s downtown campus, will generate all of its electricity, consume only the rain that falls upon it, and process all of its wastewater. The ‘triple-net-zero’ building will have offices for businesses with an eye on the triple bottom line—economic, social and environmental...
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“When you mix profit and social benefit and say that your company will pursue...”
– Muhammad Yunus in “Social Entrepreneurs Must Drop the Balancing Act”, an excerpt from his new book, Building Social Business.
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The Ultimate Guide to Social Entrepreneur Funding →
“To get you started, we’ve got here a great guide to finding social entrepreneur grants and loans so that you can bring your concept to fruition and make the world a better place.”
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Site connects nonprofits and social entrepreneurs... →
“A new website connects lawyers who want to volunteer time with non profits and social entrepreneurs looking for free legal services.
TrustLaw Connect is an online service promoting pro bono legal work around the world. It works a bit like Kiva in that people requesting and people donating help are vetted and then matched through the service, which is run by the Thomson Reuters...
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U.S. Lagging, Not Leading, Social Entrepreneurship →
Very interesting article (and comments!) on the Harvard Business Review Blog “The Conversation” about why the U.S. needs to “spend less time and money training entrepreneurs and funding contests domestically [and] invest more in social entrepreneurs globally.”
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Watch]]> TechCrunch interviews Samasource CEO Leila Janah in How Samasource Helps The World. According to its website, Samasource is “Microwork for the next billion.” They bring dignified, computer-based work to women, youth, and refugees living in poverty.
In the video, they talk about Samasource’s model, its challenges, its competitive advantage, and why it’s run as a...
June 2010
25 posts
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“I think building a company is the best way to change the world, because it’s the...”
– Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook in an interview for Inside Facebook
His sister, Randi Zuckerberg, works on Creative & Buzz Marketing, Politics, and Social Change at Facebook, and provides a lot of support for nonprofits. Interesting. How do you react to this comment?
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Starbucks expanding recycling program with coffee... →
“Starbucks is finding new ways to use the 3 billion paper cups its customers use each year, even in cities where recycling is not popular or mandated. This fall, it will send cups used at its Chicago stores to Green Bay, where a Georgia Pacific paper mill will turn them into Starbucks napkins. The effort is a major push by Starbucks to create a commercial market for its used cups,...
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More pay-what-you-want Paneras coming →
The Panera nonprofit restaurant model appears to be succeeding in its first month of operations.
From the article: “Its cashiers tell customers their orders’ ‘suggested’ price based on the menu. About 60 to 70 percent pay in full. About 15 percent leave a little more and another 15 percent pay less, or nothing at all. A handful have left big donations, like $20 for a...
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“First, my pledge: More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my...”
– Warren Buffett in “My Philanthropic Pledge” in FORTUNE as part of the $600 Billion Challenge
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Successful Strategies for Social Change →
Very interesting examples of community building and trauma response from UNICEF and Ashoka that focus on the power of play to transform reality.
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WatchYou can now watch The New Recruits online!
This new PBS documentary follows the journey of three business students chosen to participate in the Acumen Fund Fellows Program, which sends social entrepreneurs to work with Acumen-funded social enterprises in Kenya, India, and Pakistan. Start watching right now!
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Why Environmentalists Must Work with Big... →
Gwen Ruta, Vice President for Corporate Partnerships at Environmental Defense Fund discusses the risks and opportunities of working with big corporations on their environmental policies.
The opportunities outweigh the risks. She says: “The horror of the BP oil disaster is the scope and impact that it’s having on the Gulf coast. Yet Fortune 500 companies, precisely because of their...
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“What do you expect of business in solving social problems, now and in the...”
– Question posed in “The Corporate Philanthropist: Stakeholders’ Expectations of Business” from Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP).
This question is then answered from all perspectives by a range of private, public, and social sector leaders:
Investor...
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Social Entrepreneurs! What Are Your Favorite...
We’re looking for your favorite strategic, motivational, or historical books that help you do good business. In the comments below, write the title of the book, why you love it, and how it’s useful for other social entrepreneurs and socially responsible business folks.
Then we’ll take your recommendations and create a Socially Responsible Reading List!
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“We tilt toward problems, rather than away from them.”
– Patrick Corvington, Chief Executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service’s chief executive, in “Volunteerism Increases at Highest Rate in 6 Years” by Chronicle of Philanthropy
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The Way I Work: Blake Mycoskie of Toms Shoes →
Some really fantastic nuggets in this article.
One of my favorites: “When I’m traveling, I usually send one e-mail a week to the whole staff. I try to stay connected to everyone through letters. Some people call them little manifestoes. I’m a very open person, so I really tell the staff what I’m struggling with and what I’m happy about. I tell them what I think the...