Are You the Next Echoing Green Fellow?

Echoing Green has launched their annual search for social entrepreneurs. Each year, Echoing Green identifies promising social entrepreneurs with bold ideas to solve society’s most pressing problems and provides them with up to $90,000 in seed funding, strategic support, leadership development, and a powerful community of nearly 500 other Fellows and alumni. To date, Echoing Green has invested nearly $30 million in seed funding to almost 500 social entrepreneurs and their organizations.

Echoing Green is a great organization and a real pioneer in the social entrepreneurship space. To find out more, you can read my interview with Lara Galinsky, SVP at Echoing Green, and read about English at Work an Echoing Green fellow and Social Velocity client transforming the lives of ESL service workers.

Echoing Green’s online Fellowship application will be open from December 5, 2011 to January 9, 2012. You can find out more about the Fellowship application process here and you can sign up to receive the latest news on the process here.

Good Luck!

Tags: Echoing Green, echoing green fellows, nonprofit, social entrepreneur competitions, social entrepreneur start up funding, social entrepreneurs

Building the Social Entrepreneurship Movement: An Interview with Lara Galinsky

In this month’s Social Velocity blog interview, we’re talking with Lara Galinksy. Lara is an author, career expert and senior vice president of Echoing Green. Over the last two decades, Echoing Green has invested $30 million in 500 social entrepreneurs around the world. Galinsky is the co-author of Work on Purpose, which provides a framework for aligning passions with talents to achieve personal fulfillment and societal impact. She is also the co-author of Be Bold: Create a Career with Impact (2007).

You can read past interviews in our Social Innovation Interview Series here.

Nell: Echoing Green was in many ways one of the first instigators of the social entrepreneurship movement, founded in 1987 and having launched some of the darlings of the movement like Wendy Kopp of Teach For America, and Michael Brown and Alan Khazei of City Year. How do you think the social entrepreneurship movement has evolved over time? How is the field of social entrepreneurship different now than it was 20+ years ago?

Lara: The most wonderful way in which the field of social entrepreneurship has developed over the past 20+ years is the fact that, today, questions about the “field” can even be asked. Twenty years ago social entrepreneurship was not a field. It was not a movement. It was barely even a term.

Just five years ago a young woman approached me and told me that she wanted to be a social entrepreneur. I took a step back. I had never heard anyone say that they had wanted to be a social entrepreneur before. Now, I hear it all the time.

Universities now offer specializations and masters degrees in social enterprise. A number of new organizations are emerging to fund, support and incubate social entrepreneurial organizations. And more and more people identify themselves as potential social entrepreneurs. This year alone, we received nearly 3,000 applications for our Fellowship.

Nell: How has Echoing Green’s model evolved over time? What are you doing differently and how do you continually reinvent your organization and your contribution to the social entrepreneurship space?

Lara: Echoing Green has always been a very nimble organization, largely because we have been responsive to the evolution of the field of social entrepreneurship. As the field develops, new trends continuously emerge, changing the way we work.

Right now, we are seeing an increase in for-profit and hybrid organizations in the social entrepreneurship space. This year, 31% of the organizations that applied for our Fellowship used one of these two models. A few Echoing Green Fellows that use either a for-profit or hybrid model are Pharmasecure, Sparked.com, and FarmBuilders.

We are also seeing more product development within the space. Some Echoing Green Fellows who epitomize this trend are Global Cycle Solutions, EGG Energy and Mobius Motors.

There has been an increase in mobile technology. Some of our Fellows working within this field include Mideast Youth, Frogtek. You can read more about this particular trend in our recent blog series on mobile technology.

Finally, over 55% of our semifinalists have identified themselves as younger than 35 for the past four years. Inspired by the altruism of the Millennial generation, we have been giving more attention to the career needs of Millennials at large through our new program, Work on Purpose.

Nell: Some have cautioned that the social entrepreneurship movement focuses too much on individual, charismatic social entrepreneurs instead of institutions or broader/deeper efforts for social change. But Echoing Green is very much interested in individual social entrepreneurs, so how do you counter that argument?

Lara: We know that the individual is absolutely key to the success of a social entrepreneurship project. The power of someone who has found their unique contribution to the world—which we call the individual’s “hustle,” the perfect balance of their heat and their head—is undeniable. However, we believe that it is not enough to put strong young social entrepreneurs in the world. We must also create a world that will support these social entrepreneurs and their ground-breaking ideas.

When we began to envision our newest program, Work on Purpose, a few years ago, a number of individuals had already identified Echoing Green as uniquely positioned to help them ignite a career in social change—including those who were not social entrepreneurs. We came to realize that with our 25-year history of sourcing and supporting social innovators who have successfully created personally meaningful, world-changing careers, we had access to career-creation methodologies that were desperately needed among those who want careers in social change, particularly Millennials.

With this in mind, we developed a new book, Work on Purpose, which shares the best practices of our Fellows with a wider population of individuals interested in careers with impact. We are now developing an online platform, workshops, keynote speeches, panel discussions, course workshop guides, small group discussion guides, and other tools for deep exploration to supplement the book. The cost of our failure to harness the potential of the Millennial generation’s altruistic energy by not providing them with the inspiration, the tools and the resources they need to create the social change careers they want is simply too great to ignore.

Nell: Echoing Green provides a very needed injection of capital to startup social entrepreneurs, as do the burgeoning contests and other startup capital activities out there, but there is still a lack of capital at the next stage (growth) for social entrepreneurs. How do you see that capital space evolving, and what will encourage it to grow?

Lara: Of significant importance in expanding the level of capital provided to this space is greater overall recognition and understanding of the activity that is already occurring and studies on the successes and failures that happen. We need to develop our knowledge of what investment instruments make sense for social businesses and how they lead to requisite returns for investors.

The government could encourage capital in the sector by protecting the social investor from loss (downside protection), through collateral provision and other measures. They could also structure investment support in such a way that it amplifies returns to the investors by making public capital available but allowing disproportionate returns to private investors. Both these concepts have been used to effect in the UK.

Finally, greater use of PRIs by foundations and public charities will significantly increase capital flow. There is insufficient understanding around the IRS consideration of valid PRI approaches, and we need more progressive investments to demonstrate the true charitable impact of this type of capital.

Nell: What’s next for the social entrepreneurship movement? What needs to happen to continue to build support for and interest in social entrepreneurship?

Lara: The most important goal is for social entrepreneurs to demonstrate, collectively and over time, that they can tackle the world’s biggest challenges with scalable impact. Social entrepreneurs are nothing if not ambitious, and the field has set expectations of social impact very high. With a meaningful amount of money, attention, and human capital now in the field, Echoing Green hopes to see a steady stream of rigorously evaluated outcomes.

Below that over-arching goal, Echoing Green is particularly hopeful about two areas for continued progress in the field. First, we would like to see a much greater diversity in the social, economic, and geographic background of social entrepreneurs. At a minimum, the social entrepreneur community should mirror the diversity of the communities where social entrepreneurs work.

Secondly, we hope that the broader ecosystem of support structures for the field continues to develop. This includes the vital human capital represented by projects such as Work on Purpose, as well as the political environment, financial system, etc.

Tags: City Year, Echoing Green, Lara Galinsky, scaling social enterprise, Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship, Social Velocity blog interview, Teach for America, Work on Purpose

Call for 2011 Unreasonable Institute Applicants

The World’s Most Unreasonable Trailer from Unreasonable Institute on Vimeo.

The Unreasonable Institute, a breeding ground for high impact social entrepreneurs, is looking for their next class of fellows. The Unreasonable Institute inaugural class brought 22 social entrepreneurs with an idea for a social enterprise to reach at least 1 million people together for 10 weeks last summer. They are a pretty impressive group of people.

The second Unreasonable Institute will bring 25 social entrepreneurs together for 8 weeks in the summer of 2011 in Boulder, Colorado. During that time, they will live under the same roof alongside experts and thought leaders to bring their ideas to fruition. They’ll work and live with 60 world-class mentors, pitch their ventures to investors in up to five U.S. cities, and prepare to launch financially self-sustaining, globally scalable ventures that can serve the needs of at least one million people.

To find out if you have what it takes to be an Unreasonable fellow, check out their eligibility requirements, and the selection process. You can also learn more about what fellows get and the costs.

Applications are due November 20th. Good luck!

Tags: Social Enterprise, social entrepreneur competitions, Social Entrepreneurship, The Unreasonable Institute

Echoing Green Call for Social Entrepreneurs

Today Echoing Green launches their annual search for budding social entrepreneurs to invest in. For over 20 years Echoing Green has provided $30 million in seed funding and support to nearly 500 social entrepreneurs – including the founders of Teach For America, City Year, College Summit, and SKS Microfinance, some of the darlings of the social entrepreneurship world.

Echoing Green invests in and supports outstanding emerging social entrepreneurs to launch new organizations that deliver bold, high-impact solutions. Through a two-year fellowship program, they help visionaries develop new solutions to society’s most difficult problems. These social entrepreneurs and their organizations work to solve deeply-rooted social, environmental, economic, and political inequities to ensure equal access and to help all individuals reach their potential.

This year Social Velocity is a search partner for Echoing Green to help them find fellowship applicants. In the Spring of 2011 Echoing Green will award between 12 and 20 fellowships to early-stage social entrepreneurs.  Fellows receive up to $90,000 in seed funding over two years, operational and technical support, and access to a powerful global community of fellows and alumni. The online application opened today and will close on November 12th.

If you think you might qualify, check out their eligibility requirements and assessment criteria and their 2011 Application Handbook.  You can also take a look at some of their past fellows.  They are an impressive, engaging, inspiring group. In fact, one of Social Velocity’s clients, English at Work, is led by Echoing Green Fellow, Maile Broccoli-Hickey. You can read their story here.

The Echoing Green Fellowship is a fabulous opportunity for an aspiring social entrepreneur to not only receive a couple of years of funding and assistance, but also gain a lifetime membership to an elite network of leaders of the social innovation movement. And any past Fellow will tell you that that brings countless opportunities to make things happen.

Good Luck!

Tags: City Year, College Summit, Echoing Green, Echoing Green Fellowship, English at Work, Maile Broccoli-Hickey, SKS Microfinance, Social Entrepreneurship, Social Velocity, Teach for America

Social Innovation Comes to Texas with a Bang

As I wrote in an earlier post, I have been part of an exciting new project that is bringing social innovation to Texas.  The Texas Social Innovation Initiative is a partnership between Dallas Social Venture Partners, the OneStar Foundation, and Root Cause in Boston to help seven innovative Dallas-area nonprofits prepare a pitch for growth capital to social investors.

Social Velocity has been one of three consulting teams working with these seven nonprofit organizations to create a compelling growth capital pitch. I have been working with Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas helping them prepare a compelling pitch to grow their one-to-one mentoring program for children of imprisoned parents.  I’ve also been working with H.I.S. Bridge Builders to grow their education and employment training program in the poorest parts of Dallas.  Both organizations have demonstrated an ability to change lives in critical ways, they just needed help articulating their work, their results and their plans for growth to an audience of savvy social investors.

Both nonprofits will join five other nonprofit organizations to present their growth pitches to an audience of 300+ potential investors on June 10th. The pitch stage will be the featured component of a day-long showcase of social innovation, called the bigBANG!, at Union Station in Dallas.

The bigBANG! will bring together social investors, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and others who are interested in connecting money and social change in Texas. The day will feature a socially conscious marketplace, profiles of lessons learned by social entrepreneurs, the fast pitch stage and much more.

But the best part is that this momentum around social innovation in Texas doesn’t have to end on June 10th. OneStar is currently looking for funding to take this project around the state, giving many more innovative nonprofits the opportunity to seek growth capital for their proven solutions. I am so excited to see momentum around social innovation growing in Texas.  It just makes sense that this great big state with a commitment to social issues, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and plenty of cash would be ripe for the social innovation movement to take hold.

If you’re going to be in Dallas on June 10th, come join us!

Tags: Big Brothers Big Sisters North Texas, bigBANG!, Dallas Social Venture Partners, H.I.S. BridgeBuilders, OneStar Foundation, root cause, social entrepreneurs, social investors, Social Velocity, Texas Social Innovation Initiative

Capital for Social Entrepreneurs

I have written before about the importance of creating a social capital market in order to truly make social innovation possible.  A social capital market provides the same depth and breadth of financial vehicles to social entrepreneurs (both nonprofit and for profit) that traditional businesses enjoy.  This means that financial vehicles such as debt, growth capital, seed funding, equity deals and so on would be in ready supply to those organization’s whose business model includes a social impact component.  The upcoming Social Capital Markets Conference (the second annual this September in San Francisco) is a step in the right direction by bringing philanthropists, social investors, social entrepreneurs and others together to talk about how we bring such a market to fruition.

But there are many other examples of entities that are already out there experimenting with new financial vehicles.  Investor’s Circle is one of these.  Investors’ Circle is a network of over 200 angel investors, professional venture capitalists, foundations, family offices and others who are using private capital to promote the transition to a sustainable economy. It is the largest and oldest network of early-stage investors dedicated to funding mission-driven companies. Since 1992, Investors’ Circle has facilitated the flow of over $130 million into 200 for-profit companies and small funds addressing social and environmental issues. Investors’ Circle members have been behind Zip Car, TerraCycle, United Villages, and Verdant Power among others.

Investor’s Circle is an exciting example of what a social capital market begins to look like.  The capital investments that these investors make are different than traditional angel or VC investments.  For these investors, the social impact is critical, so they are willing to be patient about the financial return in order to make sure that it comes with social return.  As one of their investees, Jere Kolstad, CEO and President of Montana Renewables, has said:

IC Members are…investors who share our vision for more sustainable industry, and who express their commitment with patient, long-term investments.  It’s about more than money for this group—they want you to succeed financially, but not at the cost of forfeiting your social and environmental values.

Investors’ Circle is currently doing a Call for Applicants for its Fall Conference and Venture Fair to be held November 15th – 17th, 2009 in Washington, DC.  If you are an early or expansion-stage companies whose business addresses significant social or environmental issues and are in need of capital submit an application by July 31st. Companies that are selected to present to the investors receive:

• Pre-event coaching on your presentation from IC investors
• The opportunity to present to 150 angel and institutional investors interested in socially-responsible deals
• Extensive formal networking opportunities with investors

It’s a pretty great opportunity.  And a great model for bringing more capital into the social innovation space.  I’d love to see more groups like them, especially in the Southwest.

Tags: Investors Circle, Montana Renewables, Social Capital Markets conference, social entrepreneurs, TerraCycle, United Villages, Verdant Power, Zip Car

The Benevolent Energy of a New Generation

I participated in the semi-finalist judging this past week of the Dell Social Innovation Competition, run by the University of Texas’s RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service.  The competition invites undergraduate and graduate level students from colleges worldwide to submit business or nonprofit venture plans.  The goal of the competition is to encourage and train students to use entrepreneurial practices in the creation of creative solutions to the world’s most entrenched social problems. Through three elimination rounds of competition one winner is chosen to receive $50,000 for their venture. This year over 1,500 students representing 33 countries studying at hundreds of universities around the globe entered their ideas. 

This is the third year of the competition.  Last year’s winner, Husk Power Systems, turns discarded rice husks into energy in India.  The social enterprise is so innovative they even found a way to turn the ash from the burned husks into fertilizer and cement.  Husk Power Systems was named FastCompany’s Social Enterprise of the Year last year.

The judging process culminated last night in our final decision making meeting.  We were charged with narrowing the 75 semi-finalists down to 3 finalists and an alternate. Those finalists will be announced today.  It was in some ways an overwhelming charge; the ideas and energy of the applicants was amazing.

In the process of judging, however, I was struck by two things.  First, it seems that there is something happening in this generation of students.  When I was in graduate school, towards the end of the dot-com era, most student interest and energy was channelled towards technology opportunities.  So many of my classmates were swept up in the  dot-com craze, hoping to become the next multi-millionaire entrepreneur.  Many thought the old notions of profitability, company valuation, business planning were outdated.  Dot-coms were ushering in an entirely new business model that was breaking all the rules.  Obviously that didn’t pan out.

Now it seems a new energy and excitement is sweeping college and graduate school campuses.  But this energy and excitement has a much more benevolent spin to it.  Now  the rage is to create a social enterprise, to become a social enterpreneur.  The Dell competition is one of countless social enterprise competitions across the globe. There are so many problems facing our world from tremendous poverty and disease, to global warming, to inadequate food and energy supplies, to disparate educational opportunities.  The push is no longer to find the next greatest technology in order to make money, but rather to find the next greatest technology in order to save lives or save the planet.  That’s a really interesting switch.  And an exciting, inspiring one.

Which brings me to the second thing that struck me.  Just as there was hubris in the dot-com boom, I can’t help but wonder if there might be just a little hubris in this trend as well.  I don’t want to dampen the energy and excitement of this generation of idealist at all.  I marvel at their resolve to work towards righting so many disequilibriums.  But I do wonder if some of the social enterprises that emerge, not necessarily in this competition, are borne of Americans thinking that they have the answer to what ails other countries.  I think true solutions to the world’s problems have to be envisioned and created locally, that is to say a social entrepreneur needs to spend some serious time living, breathing, researching and listening to the market they are trying to penetrate.  They also need to find significant local partners to suggest, refine and challenge solutions.  Western countries can absolutely offer ideas and certainly resources to make those solutions a reality, but I’d hate to see anyone in this new generation acting like the missionaries of the 19th and 20th centuries bringing “answers” to developing countries.

That’s not to say that any of the plans we reviewed suffered this fate.  Rather, I’m merely offering a caution to the great idealists of this new generation.  By all means, keep the ideas, energy, enthusiasm and initiative coming.  But at the same time, let’s take a step back and make sure that the ventures being created are locally grown and developed.  That is the only way that they will truly be sustainable solutions.

Tags: Dell Social Innovation Competition, FastCompany, Husk Power Systems, RGK Center, social entrepreneurs

Signs of a Movement

Things are definitely happening.  While our country is struggling to address the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression, to elect a new President, and so on, new ideas in the social sector are building momentum.  Here are just a few examples from the past week of a growing movement:

• The SoCap 2008 (Social Capital Markets) Conference held in San Francisco this week and sponsored by Good Capital saw its registrations double after the financial collapse.  Sessions yesterday were beyond standing room only.  The conference brings together people interested in changing the world through sustainable business (businesses with a social mission). Perhaps some of the talent and resources from the failure of investment banks will be channeled into social return on investment.  It seems people are hungry for a new way.
• New Orleans continues to be a mecca for social innovation.  The Idea Village, a nonprofit working to envigorate the city’s entrepreneurial engine, just announced a $100,000 business idea competition.  The idea has to help retain and engage 25-34 year olds in New Orleans.
• The Council on Foundations wrote an open letter to their 2,000 member foundations asking them to step up during these difficult economic times and help the nonprofits in their communities.  Rather than hide behind the turmoil and their shrinking endowments, foundations should “continue to serve the common good in these uncommon times.”  It remains to be seen what will come out of this call and their members response to it, but the fact that the largest association of foundations in the country realizes the enormity of the situation and wants to react in a new way is encouraging.

Tags: Foundations, New Orleans, Social Enterprise, social innovation