HOW TO BE

A Social Entrepreneur Innovate

Get Creative
Grow an Idea

Before You're 30 Make a Business Plan

Sustain Yourself
Scale an Enterprise
Change the World

Mohit
Mukherjee
Director, Changemaker International
Founder, Centre for Executive Education
How to Be a Social Entrepreneur
Before You’re 30
By Mohit Mukherjee
Edited and Designed by: Ashley Hinson Dhakal, www.ashleydhakal.com

Special Thanks to Stephen Ladek www.ladek.com

For more resources, inspiration, and to connect with other social entrepreneurs, visit www.changemakerintl.com

All Content © 2015

No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means without prior written
permission, except for brief excerpts in reviews or analysis. All images published under Creative Commons license,
unless otherwise noted.

2
 Dedication
Start by doing the hardest
One morning, feeling overwhelmed with all the
tasks of the day, I asked my older daughter, Zelia,
thing that you have to do.
who’s seven, for her advice just before she was Don’t stop till you’re finished.
heading to summer camp. This is what she told me:

“Baba (meaning ‘Dad’ in Bengali), start by doing the

hardest thing that you have to do. Don’t stop till you’re
finished. If you feel like taking a break, like getting
a chocolate, don’t. Once you’re finished, you can do
something fun. Then start the next thing. But don’t try
to do too many things – just 3. Maybe 5. Ok, Baba?”

Young people, I’m realizing, have an amazing

wisdom and the more we can do as adults to help
that blossom, the better the world will be. And by
better, I mean a world where there is more social
justice, environmental care, happiness and peace.

My younger daughter, Soleil, is five. She expresses

her love for people with spontaneous hugs. That
morning I got an extra hug and kiss from her.

This handbook is dedicated to Zelia and Soleil,

who remind me daily of the incredible potential of
every one of us. They have helped me realize that
there’s nothing that I do that’s more challenging
than helping unleash this potential – and certainly
nothing as rewarding either. And to my wife, Eliana,
whose support and love have been unconditional.

3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction A Call to Action ................................................................................................6
1 What’s the Problem? Identifying the Issue ...............................................................................10
2 Let’s Strategize: Mission, Vision & Theory of Change .............................................................. 18
3 Legalities: For Profit, Non Profit, and Hybrid .......................................................................... 31
4 The Business Model: Sustaining the Organization ................................................................... 43
5 Market Leadership: Becoming a True Leader ...........................................................................54
6 Measuring Impact: Developing a Scoreboard ......................................................................... 66
7 The Team: Looking Beyond My Best Friends ........................................................................... 75
8 Growing the Venture: Why, How, and If .................................................................................. 84
9 Knowing Myself Better: It’s a Journey ..................................................................................... 95
Closing Thoughts Next Steps & Resources ................................................................... 110
4
 Your Roadmap:
This book is divided into 9 chapters, each with 4 basic elements

An Introduction to a integral element of becoming a social entrepreneur...

...and an explanation of: ”Why is this Critical?...

...followed by a series of Questions to ask yourself ...

...and lastly, a hands-on exercise, where it’s Your Turn

to show your stuff. Throughout, you’ll find Living Cases of real world social

enterprises making a difference, and Voices of Social Entrepreneurs telling first

hand, the challenges and triumphs of using business to change the world.

5
INTRODUCTION
A Call to Action

In This Chapter:

• Persistent Questions
• Clarity of Purpose
• Starting Now
INTRODUCTION The world is changing very fast...
...just in case hadn’t noticed. It may just have become
the norm for you. There’s a good chance that you can’t
remember what it was like before Facebook was around.
Ten years ago, smartphones did not exist. Today, there
are over 100,000 apps being developed daily. Ten years
ago, college-level online courses were the exception –
today, most U.S. universities have them. Ten years ago,
a 19-year old was more likely to rent a movie than to
download one. When was the last time you went to a CD
store or a Blockbuster?

Ever since the Berlin wall came down in 1989 and the
internet entered the public domain, we’ve been living in a
revolution. A technology-driven revolution that’s changed
the way you share information with your friends, the
way you get the news, the way you shop, the way you
learn, the way you listen to music or movies, and no
doubt the way you think.

Welcome to the ‘Conceptual Age’. How are you doing?

Wait, don’t tell me...I have an app for that!

7
 Ever since I started my senior year of college at

So
Stanford University in 1994, I have been thinking
about the broad question,
“What impact do I want to
make in my life?”

Why This guidebook is my attempt to synthesize 20

years of reflections into a single handbook on

Me?
‘how to be a social entrepreneur.’ It includes
lessons gleaned from eight jobs in five countries,
countless conversations with individuals ranging
from a Nobel Peace prize winner to my daughters,
readings in positive psychology, and two decades

x of soul searching.
Paris x Calcu
tta This journey helped me understand my top three
strengths – My love of learning, natural curiosity,
x and ability to synthesize and communicate big
Athens x ideas to assist others in finding their path to
Bombay personal success.
x
Geneva
The Handbook will take you through the steps
necessary to help you connect with your passions
x Tokyo and strengths. You will create a business plan that
will enable you to channel these passions and
strengths into your life’s work.
x Singapore
8
 Social Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, as many people go on to pursue
their passion without starting a new organization. You might be one of
those people. However, I still think this handbook will be helpful to you
as it will take you through many of the steps required to reflect deeply
on your purpose.

As you’ll see in the following chapters, following one’s

purpose takes many forms. One social entrepreneur who
started a bank with the aim of eradicating poverty said,
“I’m very selfish. I became a social entrepreneur to
maximize my own happiness. Because nothing
gave me more happiness than helping
someone get out of poverty.”

So this handbook
could have also been titled, “How to
find happiness before you’re 30” but then it would
have needed to be much thicker as I firmly believe that there are
many, many paths to ‘well-being,’ the term psychologists are now using
for ‘happiness’. I think that being a social entrepreneur is just one path to personal
well-being, but to me... It’s the best one!

9
CHAPTER ONE
What’s the Problem?
Identifying the Issue

In This Chapter:

• Identifying the Issue

• Brainstorming
• The 4 Ws
INTRODUCTION

Why Identifying the Issue is Critical

“Make the world more open and connected”

– that may be Facebook’s vision, but when Mark Zuckerberg

came up with the idea of the social network, he really just
wanted to know if the women in his freshman dorm were
single or not. I wouldn’t call Mark a social entrepreneur, but
he certainly was motivated to make his idea work.

Picking the ‘issue’ that is going to be the focus of your

organization is critical. The issue needs to be ‘real’ for you. It
could be as simple as the frustration you feel when so much
food in your house gets wasted while people near you are Jeff Skoll
living on food stamps. It could be as far away from you as Founder, Ebay
Ecuador, where you travelled to on vacation, and noticed
street children who did not have shoes, while at home you “Not everyone can be Gandhi, but
each of us has the power to make
have four pairs that you don’t wear any longer. Even though
sure our own lives count – and
you’re back home, thousands of miles from Ecuador, the
it’s those millions of lives that will
idea of being able to help these kids haunts you.
ultimately build a better world.”
www.doonething.org/heroes/pages-s/
skoll-quotes.htm

11
“ Whatever issue you
choose, you’ll become
an expert on - whether
you like it or not. ”

If it’s shoes
for children in
Ecuador, you’ll end up
learning all about the diseases one
can pick up as a result of infected cuts on the
feet. You’ll research the political and social history of
Ecuador, talk about the economics of shoe manufacturing at dinner and dream about shoes at night…

Have you ever noticed that dogs and their owners look and act in similar ways? You will be shaped by the
issue you pick. When I started an organization that hosts travelling courses, it changed the way I travel
– I viewed every new place as a potential site for hosting a course. So, pick the issue carefully – it will
become your life!

You may think, “Oh this is just going to be a 2-year gig...,” but it will suck you in. If I had to do it over, I’d start
a social enterprise educating people on the heath benefits of eating dark chocolate! You may be interested
in the issue of ‘bullying at school.’ You’ll find yourself learning a lot about teen suicide and the warning signs.
Soon, you’ll be attending conferences, networking and considering the feasibility of a call center operated by
teens for teens… In other words, it’s a “slippery slope” - once you start the ride, there’s no going back.
12
 Amani Institute
Amani Institute was built on the premise
that today’s problems are cross-disciplinary The Issue:
and global leaders need intensive, focused
education to solve such problems. At the
same time, the traditional educational
Traditional education is
system is too expensive for many and still
doesn’t provide the skills needed for jobs in
too expensive for many
international development. Amani Institute
(‘Amani’ meaning Peace) is a training center
and still doesn’t provide
that aims to reframe the concept of socially- the skills needed for
conscious education.
jobs in international
development.
Their curriculum combines field-based
learning with specific skills training, and
encourages a personal journey for the
Living Cases

student, enabling an understanding of one’s

passions and preparing the student for a
career facing the world’s most pressing
issues.

The institute offers certificate programs in

Social Innovation as well as other trainings
that take place at the Institute’s headquarters
in Nairobi, Kenya and in Brazil. The institute
believes that one should “Train intensely for
your career of impact - the way a doctor or
soldier or Olympic athlete would train.“

> Source: www.amaniinstitute.org/

13
 Here Are 10 Questions To Go Through After Engaging In The ‘Brainstorming’
Critical Questions Process. (You’ll Need Something To Write With As You Go Through This.)

OK, let’s get to it!

What’s the issue you’re going to focus on in building your social enterprise?

1. What’s an issue area that you really care about a lot? ____________________________________
2. Why is the issue meaningful to you? ______________________________________________________
3. What’s ‘awesome’ about the issue? _______________________________________________________
4. What’s something relating to this issue that could be much better?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
5. What’s the smallest change you could make that could have the biggest impact?
__________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Who would benefit? _______________________________________________________________________

7. Who might pay for the benefits/ or support the initiative? ________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
8. Is it a big idea? What could make it bigger? _______________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
9. What are your unique strengths and how do they connect to this issue? __________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
10. How energized and excited are you about the ride ahead and becoming an expert in
this area? ________________________________________________________________________________

14
YOUR TURN
Brainstorming
Did you know that your brain
is divided into two hemispheres?
The left side of your brain is the side that
thinks analytically - It prioritizes, helps decide
what’s most feasible, rational, and logical.
The right side of your brain is the one that’s
in charge of creative thinking. Most of the
t
ORLD’ a
work you do in school engages the left side
T H E W
‘BEST IN
of your brain. For this brainstorming process,
Who is ?
orming EO.
I’m going to ask you to go into that creative,
r a i n s t a n y called ID r
spontaneous, emotional, unconstrained right b esign co
m p
comput
e
d t
side of your head. Yes, see the switch below g g e s t t hat it’s a g from the firs
su in
your ear... I’d like to signed everyth fog up.
d e n’t
They’ve goggles that do ing
...please turn that on! m o u s e to
ey h a v e t h e follow .
ively
C a li f o rnia, th em think creat ur
offices
in elps th elines fo
r yo
In their e ir w a lls – it h e g u id
p on th the sam
‘rules’ u hat you adopt
tt
I sugges ing sess
ion:
s t o r m
brain
eas own
e a r e n o bad id t write them d
1. Ther – jus t!
n ’t ju d ge ideas + ideas as leas
2. Do ity…30
G o f o r quant id e as in a group
)
3. il d e ( if
urage w one tim
4. Enco rson speaks at
pe
5. One rg
H a v e fun! k o u t : IDEO.o
6. ore, ch
e c
> For m

15
 WHAT?
You’ll need to capture and write down your
ideas. Your goal is to come with a minimum
of 30 ideas. The more the better. Do they
all have to be great ideas? No. Do they have The 4Ws of Brainstorming
to be doable? No. (This is not the time to
judge) So why go through this process? Jot down a few ideas as you go through
the boxes on this page. Use additional
paper to capture your thoughts.

WHY?
You’re doing this because you first want to
consider the world of possibilities in order
to make the best choice on which ‘Problem’
you’re going to focus on. Sometimes, the
idea that seemed ‘wild and crazy’ initially is
the one that you’ll decide to move forward
with!

WHO?
WHERE?
Is there someone you’ll be
Is there a place that inspires you where you feel collaborating with for the social
you’d be able to think creatively? Some of my best enterprise you’d like to start? If
ideas come in the shower, or the coffee shop near yes, invite him/her/them into the
my house. You need to identify a place where you brainstorming.
could brainstorm for up to 45 minutes without being
interrupted.

16
 “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of
it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your
body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This
“Social Entrepreneurs is the way to success.”
make ideas as simple and
understandable as possible Swami Vivekananda
so that thousands of local
changemakers can step up to
the plate and make it happen.”

Bill Drayton,
Founder of Ashoka

Additional Resources
The additional resources below, and at the end of each chapter, have been independently developed
and may help you in the process of establishing your social enterprise.

1. A guided process: 9 steps on How do Define the Problem: www.wikihow.com/Define-a-Problem

2. The Power of Defining the Problem (short HBR blog post with examples):
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/09/the_power_of_defining_the_prob.html

3. Defining the Problem Toolkit: www.stepstoolkit.org (Click on ‘Defining the Problem’)

17
CHAPTER TWO In This Chapter:

Let’s Strategize!
• How Will it Work?
• Involving Others
• Gaining Credibility

Theory Vision
Of Change
Mission
INTRODUCTION

This chapter...
...will lead you through the process of developing a mission statement for your social enterprise.
It will also help you articulate your vision – in other words, how will things look if you’re successful
in implementing your mission. The last critical piece of this process is the ‘Theory of Change’ – it
essentially helps answer the question, “Why and how will my approach to solving the problem that I’ve
identified actually work?”

When you have a clear mission...

you’ll be in a good position to present your Social Enterprise to a stranger.

When you have a vision of what ‘success’ looks like...

you’ll be able to inspire others to join you.

And when you can explain your ‘Theory of Change’ to your mother or father...
you’ll be in a great position to be able to raise money for your enterprise.

Note: If you’ve already decided who to involve on your venture, this is a

great time to get them involved. Remember, whoever helps you develop the
mission and vision is likely to be very committed to making it happen. It’s
the “slippery slope effect!” Ok – let’s slide!

19
Why Critical?
Why is this Critical?
Mission
You will hear about successful social entrepreneurs who did not write a business plan – no
written mission, vision, or theory of change. While sometimes the motivation to solve an
important problem using a new approach is enough to get you out of bed in the morning, if
you want to involve others in your enterprise, a written mission statement is critical.

At the University for Peace in Costa Rica, the mission statement is painted on a wall, like a
mural, with the logo of the United Nations and their slogan, “Our Hope for Peace”. Students love
to get their picture taken in front of it. While everyone agrees that it’s way too long (60 words), it
is dripping with inspiration.

UPEACE Mission Statement: “...To provide humanity with an international

`
institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human
beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate
cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace
and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the
United Nations.”

60 words.
Dripping with inspiration.

20
 Vision
With the vision, it’s not as critical to have it written down - it’s more important to be able to
describe the vision in a way that people can see it rather than to simply read words
from a page. The vision of what may be possible as a result of the social enterprise’s programs
helps your team to keep going through tough times.

For those of you who are runners, it’s

about knowing how satisfied you’ll
feel when you’ve finished your 10
km (6 mile) run. It’s what you need to
motivate you to get from mile 3 to 4.
Or, if you’re writing a 10-page term
paper and are on page 2, it’s the vision "Hey, not only am I
of your graduation day that gives you
a social entrepreneur,
the stamina to keep going.
but I'm going to make
But beyond the internal motivation, it work in the
long run."
the vision and mission give your
organization credibility. It’s like having
a business card. You don’t necessarily
need one to be in business, but it
conveys professionalism. It says...

21
 So what about the
‘Theory of Change?’
Well, that’s the icing on
the cake.

Theory of Change
Your ‘Theory of Change’ is like the icing on the cake. For those of you who have a ‘sweet tooth’, you
know that the icing separates the ‘good’ cakes from the ‘great’ ones.

Many social enterprises that I’ve come across have an inspiring mission statement and compelling
programs, but something is missing. Unfortunately, it’s usually the Theory of Change.

All right, so what is the ‘Theory of Change’?

Simply put, the Theory of Change logically explains the link between
the organization’s mission statement and its programs. The Theory of
Change explains why the organization does what it does.

22
The Theory of Change is best illustrated through an example...

You’ll recall that Grameen Bank’s mission is to enable the poor, especially the poorest,
to create a world without poverty. When you look at ‘what’ Grameen does, its main
program is providing small loans to poor people. Why does the organization do this?

For someone familiar with microcredit, the answer may be self evident. But many may ...if...
not see the connection. So, if asked the question, “Why do you give micro loans to poor
people if you’re trying to create a world without poverty?”, Mohammed Yunus might
answer:

“Well, my deep believe is that if a poor person has access to capital,

then she will be able to set up a micro-enterprise, generate profits,
pay back the loan, and move her family out of poverty.”

Notice the “…if….then….” logical link made in this answer above. A clearly
articulated Theory of Change should be able to make this ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ link
between the organization’s programs and the impact that it intends to have.

...then... Your Theory of Change may be obvious to you, but not to others. It explains
why your programs will have the desired impact illustrated in your mission
statement. It makes your strategy clear and shows professionalism. And most
importantly, it can turn an otherwise ‘good’ organization into a ‘great’ one.

We’ll make sure not to forget it!

23
 d. light

Living Cases
d.light is a social business based on
providing safe and reliable solar light
sources for the 1 in 3 people globally,
that do not have access to reliable
sources of electricity. The for-profit
enterprise has an ambitious vision:
“To transform the lives of at least 100
million people by 2020.”

The company was born out of a design

class after the founder, Sam Goldman,
witnessed first hand in Benin, the
dangers of kerosene lamps. The lamps,
if not handled carefully, can lead to
serious burns, which is what happened
to his neighbor’s son, and is also typical
in many parts of the world.
“...to enable households Not only are d.light’s solar lamps
without reliable safer, but they provide better light
in hospitals, for children studying at
electricity to Attain the night, and provide light sources for
those whose livelihoods depend upon
Same Quality of Life as working during late hours. Moreover,

those with electricity”

the use of solar lamps is dramatically
reducing CO2 emissions in the more
than 60 countries in which it operates.

> Source: www.dlightdesign.com/

24
 Fenugreen's FreshPaper

Living Cases
“Our mission is to improve access to fresh,
healthy food, and boost the lives of farmers
and communities worldwide - ‘Fresh for All.’ ”

​ avita Shukla is the brains behind an ingenious

K
product called FreshPaper, a patented
invention that enables fruits and vegetables to
last longer - two to four times longer! Shukla
invented FreshPaper while still in high school,
and discovered that certain edible spices,
incorporated into organic, compostable paper,
helps to keep produce fresh. It was a visit to
India that inspired the product - after falling
ill, her grandmother gave her a tea with spices
that inhibit bacterial and fungal growth.

Not only is her enterprise tackling food spoilage

and waste issues, but she is also donating one
package of FreshPaper for every package
bought to local food banks.

Today FreshPaper can be found in 35 countries,

and major retailers like Whole Foods.

> Source: http://www.fenugreen.com

“...to Improve Access to

fresh healthy food”

25
 Do You Feel Ready To Craft The Mission, Vision, & Theory Of Change For Your
Critical Questions Social Enterprise? Answer The Questions Below To Help With The Process.

Mission, Vision, & Theory of Change

Mission
1. What is the inspiration for starting your organization?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What does your social enterprise do?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. How does your organization do what it does?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Who does your organization serve?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
26
 Vision
Close your eyes. Imagine that you wake up ten years from today – your organization has been wildly
successful in achieving its mission. Now answer these questions:

1. What do things look like?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What’s changed so that your social enterprise is no longer needed and you can move on?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What allowed you to be successful?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

27
 Theory of Change
1. What are the most important elements of your program(s)?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What assumptions led you to choose these particular program elements?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Are there other ways to achieve the desired outcomes? If so, why are you taking a different approach?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now it’s Your Turn. Referring to your responses for the critical questions
above, go through the following checklist on the next page.

28
Your Turn
The Checklist

My Mission Statement: My Vision:

Is it inspirational? I can start with “I/We envision a world where….”

Is it specific enough to help you answer: If I close my eyes and imagine waking up ten
“What would you not do?” years from today – this is how my organization
Will it help you to know if your organization has achieved its mission.
has had a good year or not?

My Theory of Change:

Explains why I do things the way I do.

Could fit the statement: “If….then…..” to illustrate purpose.
Explains the logic of your actions according to the impact that you seek.

29
 “One of the newest figures to emerge on the world stage in recent years is the
social entrepreneur. This is usually someone who burns with desire to make a
positive social impact on the world, but believes that the best way of doing it
is, as the saying goes, not by giving poor people a fish and feeding them for
a day, but by teaching them to fish, in hopes of feeding them for a lifetime. I
have come to know several social entrepreneurs in recent years, and most
combine a business school brain with a social worker’s heart.”
“Fail often so you can
succeed sooner.”
- Thomas L. Friedman, in, “The World
Is Flat: A Brief History of the
- Tom Kelley,
Twenty-first Century”
Ideo partner

Additional Resources
1. Mission: A great web-based resource for you to get ideas and be inspired to develop your own
mission statement: http://www.missionstatements.com/

2. Vision: See the HBS Elevator Pitch Builder, an interactive web-based tool that will help you articulate
your vision as part of a longer ‘elevator pitch’: http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/careers/pitch/

3. Theory of Change: Read this very clearly written piece explaining this key concept: “Zeroing in
on Impact,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2004: www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/
zeroing_in_on_impact

30
 In This Chapter:

CHAPTER THREE
• Your Unique Brand
• Early Decisions
• False Limitations

Legalities
Non-Profit
For-Profit
Hybrid
INTRODUCTION

Muhammed Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, famously said:

“I’m a businessman. I’m in the business of eradicating poverty”.

Social Entrepreneurs refuse to get caught in the old black and white world of “Are
you a greedy businessperson or a naïve nonprofit founder with a bleeding heart?”

So, how do you make the

decision of which legal
structure makes the most
strategic sense for you and
your organization?

This chapter will guide you

through the pros and cons
of each option.

32
Prior to social entrepreneurs,
there were two big divisions
amongst entrepreneurs.

Business entrepreneurs started companies

where it was assumed that their ultimate
objective was to make money, grow the
company, and if successful, build an empire.
Donald Trump is a living caricature of this.

On the other hand, if you were an idealistic

young woman wanting to help build a better
world, you started a non-profit organization
that relied on donations, volunteers, and
charitable contributions. Mother Teresa
comes to mind when I think about this
model.

So are you Donald Trump or Mother Teresa?

My guess is you are neither! You will find success by building your own
unique identity.

33
 Why is this Critical?
The decision of how you incorporate your social enterprise is one of the most important ‘ early decisions’
you’ll make. As you can see from the table on the next page, there are some real differences depending
on which legal structure you choose. There are, of course, differences across countries, but this pro/con
characterization is generally true for most countries.

These go beyond how you are perceived by society. They relate to what you can do (or not) with your
profits, which in turn may affect your ability to attract top talent. They relate to whether people are looking
for a financial return on their investment in you (if you are a for-profit) or more of a social return on their
investment (if you are a non-profit).

While your legal structure is a critical decision, I want to share with you this quote from the co-founder of
Kiva, Jessica Jackley:

“…people still have a lot of misperceptions about the limitations of being

a 501(c)(3)... It’s a tax code, not a religion. We do think like a business
wherever it makes sense, and we have tried hard not to get sucked into any
sort of false limitations of being a nonprofit.”

Note: 501(c)(3) is the tax code in the U.S. that refers to non-profit organizations.
34
CHARACTERISTICS OF NON-PROFITS & FOR-PROFITS
non profit
• Tax benefits
• Access to individual donations,
pros
volunteers, foundation grants, pro bono
professionals and other subsidized
resources
• Generally increased public trust
• Slower and more complicated process to
launch
cons
• More government regulation and
reporting requirements
• Restrictions on profits (i.e. need to be
reinvested and cannot be distributed to
employees as bonuses)
• Restrictions on revenue-generation
activities that are not central to the
organization’s mission
The section ‘Critical Questions’ later in this chapter will help you decide what’s best for your social
enterprise. But first, a few profiles of successful social enterprises...
35
for profit
• Relatively quick to start
• Relatively easy procedure to
incorporate
• No restrictions on profits
• Few government regulations
• No tax breaks
• Can’t apply to most foundations
for grants, raise money from
individual donations, or easily tap
into volunteer help
• Risk of ‘mission drift’ if the focus
turns only to profit
• Perception towards for-profit
social enterprises is still mixed
 KickStart
KickStart International, based in Nairobi, Kenya, has a mission to get millions of
people out of poverty quickly, cost-effectively and sustainably. One of their most
KickStart
successful products to date has been the ‘MoneyMaker Pump’ - an ingenious device
(non-profit) that has allowed famers in Africa to irrigate their fields using human energy as power.
KickStart realized long ago that with affordable irrigation tools, poor smallholder
farmers in sub-Saharan Africa can go from not growing enough food to feed their
families to starting a profitable business selling their surplus crops. The pumps
range in price from $70 and $150, and while it may seem like a big investment for
very poor farmers, the payoff is worth it. KickStart farmers increase their annual
farming income through irrigation from $150 to $850 – or nearly 500%, and increase
their overall household income by an average of 400% as they move from rain-fed
subsistence farming to year-round commercial irrigated agriculture.

Based on this model, you might guess that KickStart is a for-profit business. It’s in
fact a non-profit. Here’s why selling the pumps makes sense:
• Quick • Those who buy the tools are more likely to use them than those who are
• Sustainable given them.
• Cost-Effective • The greatest invention will have little impact if it does not get to the people
who need it. This is especially true when inventing for the developing world.
A private sector profit-making supply chain is the most cost-effective and self-
sustaining way of delivering goods and services to the poor.
• Aid programs that give things away offer temporary alleviation at best. At
worst they create dependency and damage the local economy. Giveaways
make sense in response to a humanitarian crisis, but they are not a long-term
or sustainable solution to poverty.

KickStart uses donor funds to design the pumps, establish the supply chains,
demonstrate and promote the pumps, and educate farmers about the benefits and
methods of irrigation. What a smart legal choice for an organization that wants to
keep the prices of the pumps as low as possible for farmers!

> Source: www.kickstart.org

36
Rubies in the Rubble
Based in the UK, Rubies in the Rubble is a for-profit social enterprise that decided to do
something about food waste. The company sources fruits and vegetables from surplus sourced

• Resourceful
from markets and farms to make delicious chutney and jams. Their mission is “To preserve, to
serve and to save.” The organization is able to fund their operations entirely through the sales

• Creative
• Scalable
of their product, which allows them to be a for-profit, while still focusing on their mission.

By using the extra supply of produce, and the fruits and vegetables that do not meet strict
guidelines on size and shape, Rubies in the Rubble saves perfectly good and nutritious food
from going to waste.

The company was started in the team’s own community kitchen employing long- term
unemployed. Today, the company is focused on growing impact by reducing food waste and
raising awareness about food sustainability globally.The business model of Rubies in the

(for-profit)
Rubies in the Rubble
Rubble could be replicated and scaled any place where there is a surplus of food, and food
waste.

Apparently their motto “Never let a good thing go to waste” is well received by the general
public, as the jams and chutneys made by Rubbies in the Rubble are now sold across the UK
in more than 200 retailers!

> Sources: http://www.rubiesintherubble.com/

http://ecopreneurist.com/2012/09/27/food-excess-to-profit/

37
 Pura Vida
Pura Vida’s founders were driven by potential impact more than
profit. However, as recent graduates from Harvard Business School,
what they knew best was how to start and run for-profit ventures.
So they began their journey with Pura Vida coffee - a company that
offers incredible coffee and tea products while making sure that the
sourcing of these ingredients respects the farmers and their land.

Pura Vida’s growth as a successful business offers a great example

of why a for-profit may also need the advantages of a non-profit. As
it grew, more and more consumers of Pura Vida Coffee wanted to
make a contribution to this social enterprise beyond drinking as many
cups of coffee as they could possibly drink in one day. They wanted
to be able to write that tax-deductible $100 check at Christmas, so
the Create Good Foundation was established by Pura Vida as a non-
profit partner. Now, a portion of proceeds of sales and donations
go towards supporting communities that grow coffee. Their slogan
perhaps sums it up best: “It’s better to give than receive. Unless you
can do both.”

> Source: http://puravidacreategood.com/

Pura Vida
• Innovative
• Responsive
• Ethical

38
(hybrid)
8 Critical Questions The Following Questions Will Help You Decide What Legal Structure
Might Work Best For Your Social Enterprise.

1. Is your organization’s primary motivation to have a positive impact on society?

YES Great, continue to question 2 (Note: This was a trick question!)
NO Hmm... You’re not yet a social enterprise and need to go back to craft your mission to reflect the
impact you want to make.

2. Will your revenue-generating activities align with your mission?

YES That’s a good sign and either legal option might work.
NO Consider starting two different organizations: a for-profit and a nonprofit (If you start a non-profit
that is selling goods or services not related to the organization’s mission, you could get into trouble
with your government).

3. Would it be difficult for the beneficiaries of your social enterprise to pay for your
service or product?
YES You’ll need to subsidize the costs of operations, which takes you in the direction of a non-profit.
NO You have a strong case for a for-profit organization.

4. Will the sales of your service or product cover the costs of running your organization?
(Remember to include salaries)
YES You have a case for the for-profit structure.
NO You’ll need some subsidies, which are better found as a non-profit
39
 5. Think about the groups or people who will benefit from your organization other
than your direct customers (or beneficiaries). Would they be willing to pay for those
benefits?
YES If yes, consider the for-profit structure.
NO If no, ask yourself if the sales of the product or service alone will cover your expenses?

6. Are you willing to give up some control over your social enterprise?

YES Typically a non-profit is open to greater government regulations and the Board is in control of the
organization
NO In a privately owned for-profit, the founder is in charge.

7. Will you need a large amount of money to get started?

YES If you anticipate needing quite a large sum of money to start-up or expand your social enterprise,
the process of raising money is usually more efficient with private investors if you have a for-profit
business model.
NO Either model will work fine.

8. Do you feel more comfortable with a non-profit legal structure?

YES Make sure that you understand the benefits of the for-profit model too, before you decide.

NO Make sure you understand the potential benefits of that legal structure before you decide.

At the end of the day, however you answered the questions above, you may emotionally have a strong
preference that you should also take into account. Even though social entrepreneurs are strategic, they
recognize the power of emotional preferences.
40
Your Turn
Ready to decide?
You should now be ready to make a decision about the legal
structure of your social enterprise.

What is your preferred choice?

Why is this the best choice for your organization?

41
 “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re
passionate about, you don’t have to have a
master plan with how things will play out.”
“I made a lot of mistakes starting up. If I could go
-
Mark Zuckerberg back, I would do less Powerpoint, less Microsoft
founder of Facebook Excel, and less asking experts for permission and
more just trying to get that website up, and trying to
get people onto the site, and really try to get moving on the
program activity that I believed in. Showing traction is a lot
better than showing projections. Do anything to show a little bit
of traction!”

- Premal Shah, President of Kiva

Additional Resources
1. How To Do Business Around The World: www.doingbusiness.org/

2. In Search Of The Hybrid Ideal: SSIR, Summer of 2012

www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/in_search_of_the_hybrid_ideal

3. Choosing A Legal Form For Your Social Enterprise:

http://socialenterprisefund.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/legal-structure.pdf

42
 $
CHAPTER FOUR
In This Chapter:

• The Business Model

The Business Model

• Income Sources
• The SE Spectrum

How are you Sustaining

the Organization?
INTRODUCTION

.
There’s a famous quote that I first heard
from an Argentinian friend of mine that I’d
like to share:
yo u
"Keep your head in the sky
but your feet on the ground."

The previous chapters focused more on

the “…head in the sky” part. Now, with our
feet firmly planted on the ground, having
connected with our passions, it’s time for a
reality check.

This chapter will take you through the

spectrum of ways in which you can generate
the following 3 things to make your social
enterprise sustainable:

Money
Time
& Resources
44
A ‘Wikipedia’ is the first
organization that

Movement Business
came to mind that fits
such a model.

On one end Meets

Impact
of the spectrum is
what I would call ‘a movement’.
This is when minimum financial resources
support the enterprise, which is driven by
the time and talent of the (typically) large On the other end of the spectrum is a
number of volunteers. for-profit social enterprise where the
business model is as straightforward
and compelling as a consumer company
like Nike, yet the main motivation is the
social impact.
An example of this would
be ‘Tom’s Shoes’ a for-profit
social enterprise that donates
a pair of shoes for every pair
of shoes a consumer buys.

Whether your legal structure is for-profit, non-profit, or a hybrid, by the end of this chapter you will
understand the economic engine of your organization. Still not seeing it? Think again – if your social
enterprise adds value to society, you’ll be able to identify who will provide the support you need.
45
Why is this Critical?
Social Entrepreneurs are sometimes perceived as being naïve – So
completely driven by the MISSION that they don’t carefully think
through the dollars and cents required to support their passion.

While I certainly don’t agree with this characterization, I must admit that I’ve
had many conversations with students at UPEACE about the fact that
money does matter. Without it, the passion can dry up. Eating Ramen
noodles (or rice and beans) for a year can get tiring. Just like you
need to support yourself after what may be an initial period of
‘bootstrapping,’ your employees will need to be paid too.

So, if you’ve not yet thought through your business

model very carefully, you’re going to be out of
business – it’s that simple. And here I’d like to
recall Dr. Yunus’ famous quote:

“I’m a businessman.
I’m in the business of
eradicating poverty...

What’s your business? “

46
INFLUENCE OF LEGAL STRUCTURES

If you’re a FOR PROFIT

... you need to cover all your expenses via
$
the sales of your product or service. If you
can’t, you’ll be out of business soon.

If you’re a NON PROFIT

...you have more sources of income, but you will need to focus your limited time and effort
on finding ways that work for you. For example, Stanford University is incredibly good at
fundraising from its alumni – in 2012 it raised over $1 billion! The International Red Cross is
very good at tracking their individual donors and getting them to donate in times of emergency.

$
47
 Under The Mango Tree
Under The Mango Tree has multiple goals
“Direct sourcing
in fulfilling its mission to bring livelihoods to
India.
and distribution of
honey as a for-profit,
First, they aim to provide an alternative
livelihood option for farmers that supports and bee-keeping
training and minimum
the natural environment (without bees, there
would be no pollination). Second, UTMT,

buy-back guarantee
provides direct access to the market for
producers of honey - this was identified as one
of the major barriers to success as there are
often several middle men, which cuts down as a non-profit”
on the eventual profit for the farmer. Third,
consumers are offered a single-origin honey
that takes advantage of the diverse range
Living Cases

of plants in India - each producing a slightly

different taste in the honey. UTMT hopes that
the honey will become the first with a fair trade
certification in India.

UTMT is a hybrid organization. As a for-profit,

they source honey direct from farmers and take
care of packaging and marketing, while their
non-profit arm, “Bees for Poverty Reduction,”
provides bee-keeping training and a minimum
buy-back guarantee for farmers.

> Source: http://utmt.in/

48
 VOICES OF
Social Entrepreneurs
Nick Martin, Founder, Tech Change

TechChange’s mission is to train leaders in how to leverage

relevant technologies for sustainable social change. They do this by
producing their own online courses using a unique learning platform
that encourages highly interactive, collaborative and social learning
on topics like “Technology for Monitoring and Evaluation” and “Mobile
Phones for International Development”. TechChange also partners
with organizations such as the UN Foundation, the World Bank, and
USAID to create courses on a wide variety of topics such as diagnosing
malaria in Nigeria and Uganda, HIV prevention for community health
workers, and more.

In the words of founder, Nick Martin: “We started out as a bunch of non-
profit folks who decided that we wanted to build a socially responsible
enterprise with TechChange. In the early days, we did some consulting
to sustain ourselves, but now our financial model is driven entirely by
revenue from our open enrollment and custom online courses. Now as
a registered B Corporation social enterprise, we are a team of software
engineers, instructional designers, multimedia producers, animators,
graphic designers, and education technologists that no longer have
to deal with the unpredictability of relying on grant funding, and
believe our current model, done right, can provide us greater
flexibility and sustainability.”

> More at www.techchange.org

49
Global Citizen Year
Started by Abigail Falik, an Ashoka Fellow, Global Citizen Year is a social
enterprise transforming the way young people transition into college
and approach higher education and their careers. Global Citizen Year
provides a combination of immersive learning and world-class training
in areas directly relevant to the higher education environment. By
partnering with universities to both endorse and develop transformative
“bridge year” apprenticeships in developing countries, Global Citizen
Year unlocks students’ potential as agents of change.

The Global Citizen Year program model focuses on Entrepreneurial

Leadership, Global Skills, and College and Career Readiness. The program
model includes ten-months of intensive leadership training and full
immersion in developing and emerging countries across the world. The
total cost of the program is approximately $30,000. The organization
knows that at this cost, a number of deserving students would not be
A Combination

Living Cases
able to take part in this experience.

So you might ask how Global Citizen Year is able to function - in other
Business model
words, “What is its Business Model?” The organization has done a great
job in raising funds both from individual donors as well as foundations.
enabling financial
This allows Global Citizen Year to offer financial aid to 80% of enrolling
participants. So, much like a nonprofit university, this organization covers
aid to 80% of
its annual budget via the tuition it charges (earned income) and the students
donations it receives (contributed income). The result is a growing program
that recently received an Ashoka-Cordes Innovation Award among others,
and partners with both Tufts University and The New School to make a
bridge year a common expectation for incoming students.

> Source: http://globalcitizenyear.org/

50
 Below Are 10 Critical Questions To Ask Yourself As You Think
Critical Questions Through Your Social Enterprise’s Business Model:
How are people going to hear about your
social enterprise?
$
Do you have the funds to cover your start-up
costs before the money starts coming in?
What is your time worth if you were to work
in another environment?
Will your social enterprise be able to
eventually pay you what you need? If not, can
it pay you enough so that you won’t need to
quit to get a full-time job?
Do you have someone on your team
(whether as an advisor, part time or full-time)
who has a ‘good business head’? Note: This
could be you.
51
Can you run your business model by three
people of different backgrounds and listen
to what that have to say? Make any changes
to your model you feel necessary based on
their feedback.
Do you have someone on your team who is
good at marketing? If not, try to have him/
her on your advisory board.
Find the most similar product/service to
yours that’s being offered. How much does
it cost? How does your product/service cost
compare?
Would you buy your own product/service?
Why? Why not?
Does everyone you know, from your father’s
best friend to your younger cousin know
about your social enterprise? If not, tell them
about it!
 Over to you! Fill out the business model worksheet below.
Your Turn If you have a team, work on it collaboratively. (Source: www.businessmodelgeneration.com)

The Business Model Planner

Possible Earned Revenue Streams

Product Sales
What is the sales price of my product? $20
How many can I expect to sell per month? 50
Total Sales $1000
Usage Fee for a Services
Do you have a ‘usage’ fee? $15
How many expected users/month? 40
Total Usage Fee $600
Subscription Fee:
How much is the monthly subscription? $4
How many expected users/month? 5
Total Subscription Fee $20
Licensing Fee:
Will you have a licensing fee for your intellectual property? $5
How many expected licensees/month? 9
Total Licensing Fee $45
Other revenue streams expected?
(Advertising/leasing/renting)
Estimated Amount $100

GRAND TOTAL $1,765

52
 “Chase the vision, not the money, the money
will end up following you.”

- Tony Hsieh
Zappos CEO “Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t
want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing
a tour of gas stations.”

- Tim O’Reilly,
O’Reilly Media founder and CEO

Additional Resources
1. Business Model Generation [Book]: www.businessmodelgeneration.com/book
& The Business Model Canvas: www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas

2. MARS Social Enterprise Business Models: www.marsdd.com/articles/social-enterprise-business-models/

3. Do Something Grants: www.dosomething.org/grants/database

53
 CHAPTER FIVE
Market Leadership
Becoming a True Leader

In This Chapter:

• Building a Tribe
• The Power of Technology
• The Business Plan
 INTRODUCTION
It would be a wonderful world indeed if the old
adage “build it and they will come” was true.
Unfortunately, in today’s information-soaked world,
getting your social enterprise noticed will be a
critical challenge. Here’s the good news: technology,
and the tidal wave of information that comes with
it, enables us to connect with the right people who
care about our causes, products and services.

The goal of this chapter is to introduce you

to the concept of Market Leadership. We will
side-step more traditional methods of marketing
your social enterprise, such as advertising, and
take a more holistic approach to help you and
your enterprise become a true leader - a voice of
authority that others will not only follow, but tell
their friends and family about as well.

By the end of this chapter you’ll be able to leverage

the “social” aspects of your enterprise to start
building a tribe of followers and curate the
market(s) you participate in.

55
Why is this Critical?
Practicing Market Leadership, as a part of, or as a complete replacement, for more traditional marketing
activities holds the promise of ensuring your social enterprise can successfully compete for the limited time
and attention of today’s (and tomorrow’s) consumers.

In short, rather than using marketing to convince others to use your service or buy your product, market
leadership seeks to engage your community and offer them the opportunity to (as much as possible) to play
a part in your success.

We Create
I’m The Best! “Shared Value”
Trust Me! Let’s Grow
Together

Traditional Marketing Market Leaders

VS.

Let Me Show
Pick Me!
“I’m bigger than You Why We’re
Pick Me!
everyone else” the Best

56
 Khan Academy
Market Leader:
Khan Academy offers
Khan Academy offers “a free world-class
education to anyone anywhere.” It was born
out of a simple need - Sal Khan’s cousin,
many miles away, needed help in math. He free educational help -
tutored her virtually until others found out
- soon, demand for his help skyrocketed.
skyrocketing the number
He recorded YouTube videos to meet the
demand, and before long, his following
of users and making the
grew to the point where he quit his regular
job to make tutoring videos full-time.
organization a true
market leader.
Today, Khan Academy has expanded its
programs to a range of subjects in multiple
languages and has an entire program
dedicated to getting Khan Academy into
Living Cases

classrooms. Through their site, teachers

can monitor student progress, enabling
students to go at their own pace, whether
at school or at home.

Khan Academy is a registered non-profit

organization and is committed to keeping
its educational resource material free.
Perhaps that’s why so many people are
using it - more than 400 million lessons
have been completed by students around
the world!

> Source: www.khanacademy.org

Source: www.khanacademy.org

57
 VOICES OF
Social Entrepreneurs
Jeff Skoll
Co-founder, Ebay
Founder, Participant Media and The Skoll Foundation

Participant Media believes that a good story told well can truly
make a difference in how one sees the world. Whether it is a feature
film, documentary or other form of media, Participant exists to tell
compelling, entertaining stories that also create awareness of the real
issues that shape our lives. The company seeks to entertain audiences
first, then to invite them to participate in making a difference. To facilitate
this, Participant Media creates specific social action campaigns for each
film and documentary designed to give a voice to issues that resonate
in the films.

“Participant is the only production company in town that has a double

bottom line: social good plus financial returns. It’s too early to tell how
our returns are going to look - though all signs are promising - but
social good is what we’re really after.” - Jeff Skolls

> Source: http://www.participantmedia.com/company

58
MARKET LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES

2
Leverage
Social Networks

1
By definition, to be a leader in your
market you must be a consistent and
vocal member. Social tools - Facebook,

Inspire a Following
Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, G+ - provide
amazing ways to connect, share and
participate with others. Encourage your community to evangelize
about your products or services: you’ve
seen or heard about the lines outside Apple
stores before a new product release. Market
leadership creates and nurtures these tribes

Make it a
of people and, if done correctly, energizes
them to become your most effective
Two-Way Street

3
marketing force ever.

Marketing, in the traditional sense, is a

one-way street - it seeks to communicate a
message to an audience that will influence
action. In contrast market leadership activities
actively seek interaction with and feedback
from the community you seek to serve.

59
 4
Next, let’s look
Simplify at some critical
questions to consider
Allow yourself the opportunity to ‘curate’ about how to go about
your market space in a unique way. practicing market
Surrounded by information, one of our leadership...
most important tasks as market leaders
is to sift through information, weed out
the bad, highlight the good and curate,
or organize, the best of the best so that
our community has a clearly defined view
of our market and how our product or

5
service fits in.

Take a Holistic View

Concentrate on defining your brand:
the words you use, the images you
associate with yourself, the place you
work from, the culture you foster in
your enterprise - all of these contribute
to how people perceive and define
your brand.

60
 Here Are Some Questions To Consider When Thinking About
Critical Questions Your Market Leadership Strategy:

Market Leaders
Unless you’ve created a truly unique and groundbreaking new technology or service, you’ll be
entering a market with other players – some competitors, some collaborators, some supporters.

• Who do you consider the current market leader in your space?

• Are you currently following them (blog, Twitter, Facebook, other)?
• Who are they following?
• How do they engage their audiences (you)?

Your Core Audience

There is likely a core group of people or companies that you believe your product/service is perfect
for, this is your target audience.

• Who are the people, groups or organizations that make up your target audience (the “ideal”
users of your product or service)?
• Where do these individuals and groups “hang out” online? For example – what blogs do they
read? What experts do they follow?
• What is their preferred way to communicate their needs to other companies and
organizations in your market – do they tweet? Do they use technical support? What offline
channels do they like to use?
• How will you get your voice heard?

61
 Tools & Techniques
As we mentioned earlier, there is massive competition for people’s attention. What tools and techniques
will you use to stand out?

• Are you an active user of social tools like Facebook, Twitter, G+, Pinterest?
• Do you have a blog that you maintain regularly?
• What associations are you a member of?
• How will choose to represent your brand, company, products and services?

Look & Feel

One of the keys to market leadership is participating in your market without consistently plugging your
products and services.

• What is the key word you want to have associated with your company?
• What is the feeling you want to have associated with your company?

Now that you’ve considered the critical questions above, it’s Your Turn to create
this section in your social enterprise business plan.

62
Your Turn
Social Enterprise Business Plan
Who are the current market leaders?
Describe who you think is your competition, and who you might partner with some day. Also, speak specifically about
the individual “voices” that stand out and list the reasons why you think they are of importance.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Who do you consider your target audience?

Use this section to create a picture of what you want (or believe) your ideal client, customer or user will be. Get as
specific as possible - age, lifestyle, likes/dislikes, where they live, etc. You may even create a small story about how they
would interact with your product or service in their day-to-day life.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

63
How will you get your voice heard?
Use this section to decide what your platforms will be for communicating about your product. Will you blog? Tweet?
Have a Facebook page? Will you go ‘analog’ and have live door-to-door marketing? What type of schedule will you keep?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How will you choose to represent your brand, company, products and services?
There are two outputs for this section: first, try to encode on what single word you would like associated with your
product or service. It’s a difficult choice, but try it! Second, write a paragraph about how you want your target audience
to describe you to the rest of the world - get specific about language, style, and energy.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is your pitch?

It may seem like a cliché, but having an elevator pitch for your company is incredibly important. Finish out this section of
your SE plan by writing the 30- to 60-second pitch you will use to describe your product or service.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
64
 “An idea is like a play. It needs a good producer and a good promoter even if it is a
masterpiece. Otherwise the play may never open; or it may open but, for a lack of
an audience, close after a week. Similarly, an idea will not move from the fringes
to the mainstream simply because it is good; it must be skillfully marketed
before it will actually shift people’s perceptions and behavior.”

“Life’s most persistent and

- David Bornstein, author of “How
urgent question is, ‘What are
to Change the World: Social you doing for others’?’”
Entrepreneurs and the Power of
New Ideas” - Martin Luther
King, Jr.

Additional Resources
1. Create Six Pitches For Your Se With Dan Pink’s Tools: www.danpink.com/pitch

2. Learn The Basics Of Curating Your Marketplace: www.bethkanter.org/content-curation-101/

3. An Interview With Ed Dale (Online Marketing Guru) On Market Leadership: http://thelocalmethod.com/035/

65
CHAPTER SIX
Measuring Impact
Developing a Scoreboard

In This Chapter:

• Effective Indicators
• Activities vs. Impact
• Your “Scoreboard”
INTRODUCTION

“How’s it
going?
As a social entrepreneur, you’ll need to look deeper
“Great,
thanks!” into that question if someone asks you how your
organization is doing.

This chapter will help you think about developing simple, but thorough indicators to measure the progress of
your social enterprise.

It’s fun to keep score but developing a compelling scoreboard for a social enterprise is not easy. In a
traditional for-profit business (such as Nike), looking at the company’s profits and market share is all that’s
needed to get a sense of how the company is doing. However, for a social enterprise, tracking the financial
performance is not enough. Because social impact is the goal, it is necessary to track performance in relation
to the mission of the organization.

Your goal by the end of this chapter is to have a ‘scoreboard’ – somewhere you
can have a quick look to get a sense if you’re doing ‘well’, ‘not so well’ or ‘great!’

Ready to play?

67
Why is this Critical?
Let me tell you the story of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to illustrate the importance of measuring
progress...

The organization, whose mission is “to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends” decided to
implement a clear scoreboard in order to put its thousands of employees, volunteers and board members on
the same page. This scoreboard was called ‘Bucks and Acres’ – in other words they would closely keep
their eye on two numbers – ‘bucks’ being slang for ‘money raised’ and ‘Acres’ referring to the total land under
TNC’s supervision. Easy, right? This overly simplistic scoreboard backfired.

It promoted a culture where “more is better” and while the TNC thought it
was doing the right thing, biodiversity extinction was taking place at very
high rates. Eventually, the organization had to abandon the very simple

Scoreboard but inadequate ‘Bucks and Acres’ scoreboard and move to one that had
9 different indicators that allowed them to track more closely how the
TNC’s work was helping biodiversity on a global scale – they became more
Bucks ACres strategic in where they bought land, helping to create biological corridors
and buying land were there were species at risk of extinction.

400 32 To summarize, measuring impact is critical because if you don’t measure

the right indicators, all your hard work may not lead to anything. Your
organization could be growing (like TNC) but not achieving its
objectives. Creating a simple scoreboard is good, as it allows you to
quickly see how the enterprise is doing – but overly simplistic indicators
may be just that – too easy and not accurate!
68
 Grameen Bank
Grameen Bank is an organization you’re familiar with. Earlier in this handbook,
we discussed how Dr. Yunus, it’s founder, takes a ‘business-like’ approach
Grameen Bank’s
to the issue of poverty alleviation. Let’s now focus on how the organization unique indicators
measures the impact of its micro-loans in the lives of the poor women.
enable Context-
Poverty is a complex social concern and it’s not just about income. It’s also
about health care, food, education, human rights, and more. So the way
Appropriate
Grameen keeps score on whether its loans are actually helping borrowers measures of
move out of poverty, involves much more than just counting borrowers or
knowing how much money they have loaned out – those would be ‘activity-
impact.
level indicators’ (see page 71 for more on activity vs. impact indicators).

In order to get to the ‘Impact-level indicators’, Grameen visits the homes of

the loan recipients and follows-up on the 10 indicators below:

Grameen Impact Indicators (Note: 1 USD = Approx. 80 Tk.)

Living Cases

1. The family lives in a house worth at least Tk. 25,000

2. Family members drink purified water
3. All children in the family over six years of age are all going to school
4. Minimum weekly loan installment of the borrower is Tk. 200 or more
5. Family uses sanitary latrine
6. Family members have adequate clothing for everyday use
7. Family has sources of additional income
8. The borrower maintains an average annual balance of Tk. 5,000
9. Family experiences no difficulty in having three square meals a day
10. Family can take care of health concerns

Now, not all organizations working in the area of micro-credit are able to
replicate this process, but they are able to rely on Grameen’s data that shows
it does work! Next you will read about the case of Kiva, inspired by Yunus.
They can rely on Grameen’s data that shows micro-credit is indeed effective.
> Source: www.grameen-info.org/
69
 Kiva
I’d like introduce you to Kiva – a nonprofit social
enterprise inspired by Dr. Muhammed Yunus, founder
of Grameen Bank. Kiva has expanded at an incredible
rate - the organization has reached individuals in 70
countries and loaned in excess of $400 million!

Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending

to alleviate poverty. That’s it – short and simple, but
significant. Their vision? “A world where all people – even
in the most remote areas of the globe – hold the power
to create opportunity for themselves and others.” See
how it works? In a couple of sentences, you know what
they do and what motivates them.

What you don’t know yet is why ‘lending’ is such an

Living Cases

important part of poverty alleviation. Kiva’s theory of

change? That “Microfinance is the idea that low-income
individuals are capable of lifting themselves out of
poverty if given access to financial services.”

So how does Kiva keep score? Here are some indicators

from a typical week on Kiva’s website:
• Money Lent This Week: $2,080,575
• Borrowers Funded This Week: 6,034
• Loan Repayment Rate: 98.80%
• New Lenders Joined This Week: 3,465

Luckily for Kiva, Grameen Bank has already established

that micro-lending contributes to alleviating poverty - so
Kiva is able to just keep track of activity-level indicators!
> Source: www.kiva.org
70
 Use The Questions In The Following Pages To Identify The Activity-
Critical Questions Level And Impact-Level Indicators For Your Social Enterprise.

The questions on the next

page have been divided into
r e x a m ple:
two sections – the first set of Fo
questions will help you develop United Nations-Mandated
your ‘activity-level indicators’ University for Peace (UPEACE)
and the second, your ‘impact-
level indicators’. Activity-level indicators
Classes offered
Activity-level indicators # of students enrolled
demonstrate that your
Diversity of faculty
organization is doing the work
it’s committed to do via its
programs or products. Impact-
Impact-level indicators
level indicators show that
What alumni are doing
the organization is actually
# of alumni helping to
achieving the mission it set out
build a better world
to achieve.

71
Activity Level Indicators:
1. What are the main programs or products of your social enterprise?
2. Fast-forward one year from the launch of your social enterprise - what are a few things that
you’d be able to count to show that things are working well?
3. Now, imagine there’s another social enterprise doing similar work to your organization.
What would you look at to get a sense of how big that organization is?
4. On a day-to-day basis, what are 3 things that you’ll observe to get a sense of how your
social enterprise is performing? How will you capture that data?
5. How will you use the results for learning and reporting?

Impact-Level Indicators:
1. What motivated you to start your social enterprise in the first place?
2. Who benefits from your social enterprise and what benefits does your organization provide?

3. What would you want a recipient of your service or product to say to you five years from
now if they knew that you were the founder?
4. Now imagine that you’re talking to an 8-year old child – How will you illustrate in a
simple story the positive impact of your organization?
5. Google.org (Google’s social investment unit) calls you and says: “We’d like to invest
in you. What are three good things that your organization is doing?” How would
you reply?
72
Your Turn
The Scoreboard
It’s now your turn to develop a system of monitoring and evaluation to be able to show that you’re having an
impact on your target population. You’ve already learned about Activity and Impact Indicators. But for a well-
rounded Scoreboard, it’s important to also consider what key objectives need to be achieved and to ask yourself:
“What kind of social change am I trying to create?”

Simple Indicators For

Your Scoreboard:
The
Objectives Ultimate Goal
Impact What are the key Describe the social
Indicators objectives that must change you are trying
be achieved to reach to create.
Activity What changes
your goal? (Relate this to your mission)
Indicators will occur in
participants’
What are the
behavior,
direct outputs of
knowledge, or
your activities quality of life?
or programs?

73
 “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the
unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.“

- George Bernard Shaw

“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach

how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the
fishing industry.”

- Bill Drayton

Additional Resources
1. Demonstrating Value Online Workbook:
www.demonstratingvalue.org/resources/demonstrating-value-workbook

2. Enterprising Non-Profits: Measuring Success:

www.enterprisingnonprofits.ca/planning-your-social-enterprise/measuring-success

3. Measuring Social Impact – Stanford Business School:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3t8XvSALek

74
CHAPTER SEVEN In This Chapter:

• Core Values

The Team
• Signature Strengths
• Personality Tests

Looking Beyond my Best Friends

 INTRODUCTION
Being a social entrepreneur does not
need to be a lonely journey. All social
entrepreneurs will need to eventually grow
their organizations, especially if they started
off alone. There are some distinct benefits of
starting the journey in a collaborative way.

However, there are also some potential

downsides to not being a ‘one-person show’
as decision-making gets more complex when
you add people your team. The choice of who
to bring into your social enterprise, either as
co-founders or in your management team, is
critical to the success of your organization and
to your personal well-being.

This chapter will help you to look beyond your

best friends when building a team. Building
a strong team involves bringing together
people with an alignment in values and
complementary strengths. At the end of this
chapter, you will be led through a strength-
finder assessment that will help you identify
your ‘signature strengths’.

76
Why is this Critical?
Building the right founding team is critical for many reasons.
As your organization grows, success shifts from:

“What Can I “How Effective

Generate? ” Can We Be? ”

While you may have had the idea for starting your social enterprise, a shared vision is
necessary for co-founders to invest their time and energy in something that is initially
just an idea.

Now, as you can imagine, getting along well with your founding team is very important
to advancing your social enterprise. This is one reason that it makes sense to reach
out to close friends. Also, your friends probably share some of your core values, which
then makes it much more likely that they will be interested in the social mission of your
organization. But here’s the catch – there’s also a good chance that your closest
friends share similar strengths and experiences as you do, and therefore may not
add as much value as someone with different skills and experiences.

Hmm...
77
As we advance
in this chapter...
...the goal is to try to identify three to five people who you feel share some of your core values,
and would be excited at the opportunity to contribute to your social enterprise, but who have
complementary (rather than overlapping strengths) to your own – in other words, they would have
different answers than you to the following questions:

5 Initial Questions To Get You Thinking:

1. Are you a ‘people person’ ?
2. Do you enjoy working with numbers?
3. Do you like to see the ‘big picture’ or the ‘step-by-step plan’?
4. What activities engage you so much that time seems to stop?
5. What do you see as your three ‘special skills’?

78
 GameChangers 500
“Why is it that we spotlight the Fortune 500, a list that
benchmarks success based on revenue alone? What
The amazing team
if we created a new list that showcased the growing
movement of organizations maximizing their positive
behind GameChangers
impact rather than just maximizing their profit?” 500 scoured the globe
These are the kinds of questions that Andrew Hewitt
had been striving to answer. He had seen too many
reviewing thousands
of his friends lose themselves in the ‘profit-at-all-costs’ of organizations
mode of traditional corporations and he couldn’t be
a bystander any longer. After a few years of working
with college students, he had the breakthrough idea
to create GameChangers 500 — a list that profiles
the world’s top purpose-driven organizations. This list
would help new graduates find meaningful careers and
work for companies using business as a force for good.
Living Cases

Andrew could not have executed on this vision without

the support of an amazing team – from expert advisors
to interns and a research team he hired to comb the
globe, reviewing thousands of organizations. His team
arrived at nine categories of best practices that these
“gamechanger” businesses follow.

The GameChangers 500 list (GC500) was announced

at Harvard’s Igniting Innovation Summit in 2103 and
offers an alternative to the traditional ‘profit-first’
organizations that have been recruiting top talent on
college campuses for decades.

> Source: www.gamechangers500.com

79
 In This Section, You’ll Be Building On Previous Questions. The 3 ‘Personality’
Critical Questions Tests Will Help You Identify Your Personality Type And Natural Strengths.

Identifying your Natural Strengths

(related to your innate talents):
ONE • What activities do you do naturally that others may struggle with?
• What would your best friend say are your natural talents?
• What type of work energizes you?

Assessments

TWO By taking the 3 assessments below, you will gain a deeper understanding of your
personality type and strengths.

• Brief Strengths Finder: See your top strengths, (Note: Register for free access)
www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

• Myers Briggs: Based on 72 multiple choice questions, obtain your 4-letter

type formula: www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

• Multiple Intelligence Assessment: 56 multiple choice questions, your top 3

intelligences: www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

80
 Your Developed Strengths:
These are strengths that have been developed through experience and/or education.
THREE These are not necessarily supported by your natural strengths.

• What skills have you gained through experience that most people do not have?
• On what topic could you easily write a few pages on?
• What subjects do you enjoy the most?
• What extra-curricular activities have you been involved with over several years?
• What would you say are your top three strengths?

Strengths Short List:

Here is where you’ll create a short list of your strengths. Compare your ‘developed
FOUR strengths’ list and your ‘natural strengths’. If the two support each other, add it to your
short list. It you have some strong natural strengths that you’re very keen to develop,
you can add it to your short list. Two questions that can be very helpful as you work
through this section are the questions:

1. I feel strong when….________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________

2. I feel weak when…..* _______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
*Note: These are activities that drain you and that you should ideally not be spending much time on.
> Source: Adapted from Strengths Magnifier, GameChangers500

81
Your Turn
Go through the critical questions outlined on pages 80-81 including the three recommended tests and fill in the table below. Next, have
at least three potential team members complete the same short tests. Why should they take time to go through this? Tell them honestly
that this process of self-discovery is very valuable and that it will help to build a better team.

Assessment Your Result Partner 1 Partner 2 Partner 3

Brief Your Top Strengths:

Strengths 1.
Finder 2.
3.

Myers-Briggs Your 4 - Letter Formula:

___________________

Multiple Your Top 3 Intelligences

Intelligence 1.
Assessment 2.
3.

Now that you have had a chance to see how your potential partners’ strengths and intelligences map against your own, we encourage
you to go back to the ‘right’ side of your brain and follow your intuition (informed by the results) – who would you like to join you?

Ready? Time to make “the ask!”

82
 “If you can’t feed a team with two
“The bank said it was a crazy idea to give money to pizzas, it’s too large.”
poor people because they are not credit-worthy, insisting
that all the money would be lost because the poor had no - Jeff Bezos, CEO,
collateral, but I did not agree. After several months, I finally I Founder, Amazon
found a solution: I offered myself as a guarantor. “I’ll sign the
papers,” I said. “You give me the money and the risk is on me.”

- Muhammed Yunus
Founder of Grameen Bank

Additional Resources
1. The Four Cores Of Credibility (Excerpt From The Speed Of Trust) By Steven Covey, 2004:
http://www.myspeedoftrust.com/How-The-Speed-of-Trust-works/book

2. How To Build A Great Team With Imperfect People By Jeff Haden, March 2012:
http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/how-to-build-a-great-team-with-imperfect-people.html

3. TED Talk By Tom Wujec: “Build A Tower, Build A Team” & Accompanying “Marshmallow Challenge”:
www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/tom_wujec_build_a_tower.html, http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html

83
 In This Chapter:
CHAPTER EIGHT • Planning Ahead

Growing the Venture

• 5 Rs of Scaling
• 3 Impact Models

Getting Serious about Social Impact

INTRODUCTION
It may seem very early to be thinking about growing your social enterprise – after all, you’re just getting
started. But for several reasons, it’s really not too early. Just as with a baby, one expects that eventually, he
or she will outgrow the crib. Parents usually have a small bed ready before the little one is uncomfortable.
Similarly, planning for your social enterprise’s growth is smart thinking.

There are different models for expanding the impact of your enterprise. This chapter will cover three different
approaches and show you the pros and cons of each. We’ll also go over some inspiring cases that illustrate
different approaches. By the end of the chapter, you’ll be able to plan your own social enterprise’s strategy for
scaling.

NOTE: If you ever enter a social enterprise business plan contest or look for funding this is a very important consideration – judges and
investors will look closely at your scaling model.

85
 9
Why is this Critical?

You might have heard the expression, “A stitch in time saves nine”. What this means is that
if you repair a small tear you can prevent the need for repairing the larger tear. Planning for your enterprise’s
eventual growth is a bit like that. If you did not think about it upfront, it may be much more work later.

Thinking about the potential impact of your idea from the

beginning, allows you to have a bigger vision
This should not only be more motivating to you but will also allow you
to attract good people to join your organization. So, for example, if
you are setting up an innovative day-care for low-income families in
your community, you might only be able to attract local interest.

However, if at the core of your organization’s scaling strategy is the

idea of replicating your model in all communities that fit your three criteria
for replication, your local pilot day-care is actually a globally relevant
enterprise. For example, your criteria might be: (1) low income families, (2)
a space offered by the community, and (3) a community member being the
Executive Director.

86
Your ability to access funding and support will be greatly increased if you have thoroughly
considered the scalability of your organization.

Ashoka has 5 criteria for selecting the social entrepreneurs they support. Ashoka is not unique
in its criteria for selecting and supporting social entrepreneurs. A well-defined scaling plan is a critical piece
of showing that you are serious about social impact.

The social impact of

The ethical fiber the idea The demonstrated
of the social creativity of the
entrepreneur social entrepreneur

A highly The dedication and

innovative idea commitment to
pursue their idea

87
 Girls Who Code
Today, more than ever before, computer
skills, especially programming, are at the
From a single program in
forefront of job opportunities. Beyond basic
computer literacy, knowing how to code
NYC to 8 programs in 5
gives an added edge in the competitive job cities - in one year!
market.

Traditionally, however, the field of computer

programming has been dominated by
males. Reshma Saujani is out to change
that.

To reduce this inequality, Girls Who Code

aims to expose 1 million girls to computer
science education by 2020. This means
Living Cases

that more girls will fill jobs related to

engineering, robotics, web design and app
development. About Girls Who Code, she
says: “This is more than just a program. It’s
a movement.”

Girls Who Code has expanded quickly - in

just one year, it went from a single program
in NYC to 8 programs in 5 cities. It was also
able to partner with some great companies
and organizations as sponsors and partners
- groups like Twitter, Google, Intel and Ebay.
With this support, Girls Who Code is sure
to continue their impressive growth.

> Source: www.girlswhocode.com

88
 Hamri Bahini (Our Sisters)
“Hamri Bahini - The Green Angels is a Social Enterprise
of the Himalayan Climate Initiative that creates Green
Jobs for the young and vulnerable Nepali women with A two-fold solution:
low formal schooling and family incomes”
Providing jobs for
In particular, the Green Angels program focuses on
the collection and recycling of plastic (PET) bottles in
uneducated women and
the Kathmandu Valley. The problem is two-fold. There
are few jobs for uneducated women in Nepal, and
protecting the natural
environmental pollution is off the charts in Kathmandu. environment.
Of the bottles recovered from landfills, almost all are
sold to a third party and smuggled to India or China
for recycling. The result: low wages for the work of the
workers in Nepal and no processing center jobs.
Living Cases

Green Angels provides both – a fair wage for the workers

who recover the bottles and a processing center where
bottles are packaged for recycling. The organization
has partnered with companies that use large amount
of plastic bottles (party venues, etc.) to get their bottles
directly. The organization issues these companies a CSR
certificate for their partnership.

With surplus funds, Green Angels provides “medical

care, safety kits, educational support for their children
and trainings” for the women. And on top of it all, the
organization has an environmental impact – decreasing
the amount of bottles in landfills and promoting green
jobs - particularly for women.

> Source: www.himalayanclimate.org/PETRecollection

89
THREE MAIN WAYS TO SCALE YOUR IMPACT
1.Branching:
In this model you would
grow by opening new
‘branch’ sites. You hire the
new employees and are
completely responsible for
the overall management
and performance of your
branch sites. This is much
like what banks do in the
commercial world.
Level of
Control HIGH
Resources HIGH
Required
90
3. Diffusion:
This is the ‘Open Source’
2. Affiliation: approach to spreading your
This is the ‘McDonald’s’ innovation. You may write up a
model of the social case study of what you did and
sector. Affiliates would how you did it and share that
share your brand and story for others to pick up. Or
your ‘special sauce’ you could actively ‘share your
but they would be story’ both informally and at
independent legally conferences. Your goal would
from your social be to inspire others to replicate
enterprise, allowing your model, but you would
them quite a lot of typically have no control over
autonomy. what they then do.
MEDIUM LOW
MEDIUM LOW
The 5R’s of Scaling

Readiness Is the innovation ready to be spread? YES NO

Receptivity Will the innovation be well-received in target

communities? YES NO

Resources What resources, financial or otherwise,are required to

get the job done right?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Risk What is the chance that the innovation will be
implemented incorrectly?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Returns What is the bottom line?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

> Source: Dees, Scaling Social Impact (2004)

91
 Below You Will Be Asking Yourself Some Serious Questions About
Critical Questions How You Intend To Scale Your Enterprise.

“Should a social entrepreneur always grow the enterprise?”

Technically I would answer ‘No’ to this question, but I do feel that a social entrepreneur must think about
how they can extend their positive impact. There are just different ways of doing it. Below are some critical
questions that you should ask to determine your scaling strategy:

1. What is your innovation or your ‘special sauce’?

2. Does your approach need a high level of technical know-how?

3. How easy/difficult do you think it would be to replicate what you’re doing?

4. What would make you feel ‘successful’ in your social enterprise?

5. Would it be difficult for you to delegate tasks to others?*

*If you answered ‘Yes’ to this question, remember, you can’t do it alone. Delegating tasks is
necessary for growing an enterprise and also helps to strengthen your team.

92
Your Turn
After going through the Critical Questions on the previous page, you should now be ready
to fill out the statements below:

My organization’s core innovation (or ‘special sauce’) is:

Our scaling approach would be BRANCHING, AFFILIATION, or DIFFUSION (choose one) because:

93
 “Begin with the end
“... While entrepreneurs initiate, they also do something altogether
in mind.”
different: they use money (often belonging to someone else) to build
- Steven Covey a profitable business that’s bigger than themselves. The goal of the
entrepreneur is to build an entity, something that can grow and thrive
once it’s moving. And that’s a fabulous prospect, one that requries plenty of
guts and initiative.”

- Seth Godin, Poke the Box

Additional Resources
1. Duke Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship:
www.caseatduke.org/knowledge/scalingsocialimpact/index.html

2. Who are you not to scale? Three Lessons from Peace First:
www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2013/04/05/who-are-you-not-to-scale-3-lessons-from-peace-first/

3. ‘A Call for Our Time: The Story of The Pachamama Alliance’ & how they are getting the word out:
http://vimeo.com/17068946, www.pachamama.org/workshops/about

94
CHAPTER NINE

Knowing Myself Better

In This Chapter:
It's a Journey
• Positive Psychology
• Appreciative Inquiry
• Personal Priorities
INTRODUCTION
Success can be anticlimactic.

This chapter will get into the central question: “What makes you happy?” The answer to this
question looks different for each person, but the good news is that positive psychologists present us
with a very solid framework for understanding the five pillars of well-being which can be captured by the
acronym: PERMA.

This chapter will delve deeper into each of

P E R M A these pillars, and by the end, you will have
more clarity around the following:
Positive Emotions

• A short-list of your core values

Relationships
Engagement

• An understanding of each of the pillars

Achievement of PERMA.
Meaning

• A few priority areas for you outside of

the organization that you’re building

96
Why is this Critical?
As a social entrepreneur, there are many
reasons that it’s critical to really think about
the following question:
“What makes me happy?”
Social entrepreneurship is as much about
impacting others positively as it is about
having a positive impact on oneself. In fact,
if all your energy is directed outwards and
you’re feeling completely drained, it’s not
good for your organization.
The work needs to energize and
fulfill you too - otherwise you’ll quit.
97
What organization helps
young people find success
and happiness?
Well, if happiness comes from helping
others, which I believe it does, then
Random Kid would have to be at the
top of the list. Random Kid envisions
a world where all kids love what they
do - and where the world is a better
place because of it.
Imagine a place where you can
browse real-world global issues and
immediately get involved - either with
a solution that is already developed,
or by developing your own. And it
gets better - you are the leader of
the project, and Random Kid gives
you all the tools you need to succeed,
including seed funds, consultation
and your own project website. Their
mission: “By helping kids to become
innovative and successful world
problem-solvers, we are securing a
better fate for our world now, and
into the future.”
> Source: www.randomkid.org
THINKING ABOUT HAPPINESS

There is a growing body of research with interesting findings about happiness. We are used to thinking about
happiness as a state we arrive at when we’ve hit our goals and targets. For example, if you’re starting an
organization to develop low-cost solar heaters, you may think...

“I’ll be happy when I have steady sales

of $200,000/year, a team of 4 people,
and when my community recognizes me
as a promising changemaker in my town.”

Fair enough. But actually, this kind of thinking is quite elusive. If and when you were to hit these goals, you’d
redefine success. Now it might be, “I’ll be happy when i have...

“$350,000 in sales, 2 offices,

and a front-page story in
the city newspaper.”
This can be a never-ending game and could lead you to feeling completely drained. Overall, in order to sustain
your passion and perseverance, you need to ‘enjoy the journey’ in order to be able to generate the kind of
energy needed for your organization.

98
 Roadtrip Nation
Every person who has discovered their true
path in life is not only happy with themselves,
that person is happy with the world, and as
such, contributes in a meaningful way. That’s “To Guide Young
the philosophy behind Roadtrip Nation - to
cut out the voices of others that put pressure
People to find their
to find a “reasonable” profession, and to find
one’s path independently - with the guidance
own path in life by
of those who have paved the way. interviewing leaders in
Each season of Roadtrip Nation’s television different fields.”
show takes young people searching for their
path in life, and follows them on a journey
across the country to interview leaders in
different fields.
Living Cases

Roadtrip Nation (.org) is figuring out how

to get their manifesto into schools. They
developed a series of interventions, some
of which involve looking through interview
archives and writing reflections and others
that are based on online courses through
their website - all to keep encouraging young
people to find their own passion and escape
“the noise” of trying to figure out what to do
in life.

> Source: http://roadtripnation.com and .org

99
 Educate!
Based in Uganda, and focusing on young

“The goal of education

people ages 16-20, Educate! has a mission of
“Transforming African education systems to

should be to prepare
develop young leaders and entrepreneurs.” The
organization is concentrating on getting their
educational method into school systems.
students for life,
The focus of their leadership and entrepreneurial
education is sustainable development, and
rather than prepare
their method is hands-on activities where
youth develop their own business models. Also
them for a test”
engrained in Educate!’s model is access to a
powerful network and mentorship.

Living Cases
Educate! believes that school needs to be
relevant and prepare students for real life: “The
goal of education should be to prepare students
for life, rather than prepare them for a test” In
a survey done with Educate! graduates, it was
found that students who completed the program
went on to pursue tertiary education, showing
that Educate! fostered life-long learning. The
study also found a 160% increase in monthly
salary for graduates of the program, from $9/
month to $23/month.

> Source: www.experienceeducate.org/

100
 VOICES OF

Social Entrepreneurs
For-profit leader: Toby Sherman
Director of Food Service, Greyston Foundation

Greyston, a bakery based in New York, believes in self-sufficiency for the

poverty-stricken neighborhoods in which it operates. Their “pathmaking”
philosophy is exemplified in their slogan: “We don’t hire people to
bake brownies, we bake brownies to hire people.” Every year they help
approximately 2,500 on their path to self-sufficiency, and bake 4 million
pounds of brownies for clients like Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.

“If your expectation is that people are going to support your business
because of who you are and what you do as an organization, those
people may come to you once. Thereafter, most people buy
based on what they need as consumers; they will evaluate
your product on price, quality, and service—not pity.”

> Sources:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/2921.html
www.greyston.com

101
Appreciative Inquiry
Why do you think it's important to remain positive?
We live in an extremely fast-changing world – and change produces stress. We can choose to focus on
the negatives of change or adopt a proactive mindset. There is a lot of research from the field of positive
psychology showing the benefits of having an appreciative mindset – from allowing us to be more creative
and learn better to being able to recover more quickly from setbacks. A very practical application of this is
captured in an approach called ’Appreciative Inquiry’ (AI). Let me run you through some of the main
assumptions behind AI.

Positive Principle Focusing on the positive causes it to grow and brings out the
best in people and organizations.

Constructionist Principle A belief that the words we used don’t just describe our world -
they actually create the world we live in.

Simultaneity Principle The idea that inquiry and change happen simultaneously –
the act of asking questions begins the change process.

The Poetic Principle Individuals and organizations are in a state of constant

change vs. changing from a particular state to another state.

Anticipatory Principle Images of the future affect the way we behave in the present.
Source: David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva
102
 Based On These 5 Principles, Here Are Some Critical Questions To
Critical Questions Ask Yourself. And Remember, Our Questions Create New Worlds …

Questions For You:

1. How Would You Describe Yourself In One Paragraph?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What Are Three Things You’d Like To See More Of In Your Life?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

103
 3. What Are The Smallest Changes You Could Make That Could Have The Biggest Impact On Your
Happiness?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What’s Your Story? Can You Write Down In One Paragraph What Inspired You To Start Your Social
Enterprise?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Where Do You Visualize Yourself Three Years From Now?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

104
 Your Turn
Now that you’ve had a chance to answer the questions above, here are three activities that will help you
identify things that are important for you to know about yourself.

1. For each of the five letters in PERMA in the chart below, write down one thing that’s very important to
you and state how you plan to keep track of that activity
2. Do the ‘Core Values’ activity on the next page
3. Try the Empathy Activity on page 106-107

PERMA One activity that you

commit to doing
Evaluating Progress -
How are you keeping track?

P - Positive Emotions

E - Engagement

R - Relationships

M - Meaning

A - Achievement

105
Core Values Activity
5 Steps:
This activity will help you identify your core values. Pay attention to your inner dialogue as you make choices.

1. Review the values list below. Add any values that are important to you (but are not listed) in the
spaces provided.
2. Now, put a star next to all of the values that are important to you, including any you may have added.
This will become your personal set of values.

Status Peace
Family Truth Recognition
Power Justice Joy
Love
Friendship
Integrity Wisdom Commitment
Honesty Fame
Success
Wealth
Influence Steps 3 - 5
(next page)
106
 Steps 3 - 5
3. Now narrow the list to five circling more important ones.
4. Now narrow the list to three. This activity comes
5. And finally, choose your top two core values. from The Center for
Ethical Leadership.
They explain ethical
leadership as: knowing
Conclusion: Working with your Core Values your core values and
having the courage to
You have just discovered, or re-connected with your core values. How are you
act on them on behalf
integrating your core values into your social enterprise?
of the common good.

Why two? Because you can remember two. Also, in a situation where you need to
make difficult decisions, knowing your two core values can be very important as
such decisions often put certain values against others.

E.g. “Shall I stay late to finish this important project and

cancel the quality time I had planned with my wife?”
(Commitment vs. Family).

I encourage you to share this activity with your team.

107
Empathy Activity
An important part of human flourishing is through strengthening relationships and building
trust with other people. People we care about often tell us about a victory, a triumph, and other
good things that happen to them.

How we respond matters – it can either build the relationship or undermine it. There are four basic
ways of responding, only one of which builds relationships:

1. Active Constructive: Expresses authentic interest. You help the other person to savor the
experience. As a result, the person feels validated and understood.

2. Passive Constructive: You want to be supportive but you are quiet, providing understated
support. You might be distracted—watching TV or checking your phone. The conversation
eventually fizzles out. As a result the other person might feel unimportant, misunderstood,
embarrassed, and guilty.

3. Active Destructive: You are overtly negative. You bring the conversation to a halt. As a
result the other person might feel ashamed, embarrassed, guilty or angry.

4. Passive Destructive: You ignore the event and the conversation never even starts. As a
result, the other person might feel confused, guilty or disappointed.

Guess what? Only ‘Active Constructive’

responding leads to stronger relationships!
108
Try It!
Listen carefully each time someone you care about tells you about a good experience.

Go out of your way to respond actively and constructively.

Ask the person to relive the event - spend time responding and eliciting details.

> Source: Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being by Martin Seligman

Bill Drayton on Empathy:

“Changemakers have four fundamental traits that cannot be understated: empathy,
teamwork, leadership, and change-making. We are reaching the transition point
very quickly, and parts of the world that do not master these traits will be left in
terrible shape. Any teenager who masters these skills and changes their world is
bringing 20-25 teenagers with them,” What’s more, “any teenager that changes her
or his world in some way is a changemaker for life.”

109
 Closing Thoughts
I’m writing this in one of the most tranquil places
I’ve encountered in my travels – it’s a little Bed and
Breakfast located a few kilometers up the hill from
the University for Peace, in Costa Rica.
It’s an open road ahead with
One evening, sitting out on the patio of the hotel, endless possibilities.
I was feeling anxiety contemplating the question
“What’s next?” I looked up from my notepad - the
sun was setting. The view of the lush green tropical I hope this Guidebook has
valley was even more spectacular than usual.
helped as a signpost for the
My feeling of overwhelm was replaced with deep amazing journey to come.
tranquility. I felt a message that I have experienced
several times in my life – that, ultimately, happiness is
not so much about what’s happening outside of me.
It’s about what I make of my environment. Having
started and grown an educational organization,
I feel the confidence to create purposeful work
wherever I am next.

So, here are some closing thoughts: You can’t

always control your external environment, but you
are ultimately in charge of the decisions you make.

So, what’s the impact you want to make with your

precious time?

- Mohit
110
Resources

doonething.org In addition to the

resources listed at the
amaniinstitute.org
utmt.in end of each chapter,
ideo.org here is a list of the
businessmodelgeneration.com
upeace.org groups mentioned in
participantmedia.com/company the text throughout the
grameen-info.org
techchange.org book for easy reference
dlightdesign.com
globalcitizenyear.org
fenugreen.com
khanacademy.org
kiva.org randomkid.org
nature.org
kickstart.org roadtripnation.com
google.org
rubiesintherubble.com experienceeducate.org
gamechangers500.com
puravidacreategood.com greyston.com
ashoka.org
toms.com davidcooperrider.com
girlswhocode.com
ethicalleadership.org
sethgodin.typepad.com
Top 10 'Next Steps'
1. Echoing Green / A pioneering organization in the field of social entrepreneurship
http://www.echoinggreen.org/work-on-purpose/resources

2. Ashoka Youth Venture / International community of young changemakers

https://www.youthventure.org

3. Changemaker International / A hub for youth interested in becoming social entrepreneurs

http://www.changemakerintl.com

4. Funding Sources / A list of foundations funding youth action

http://www.freechild.org/funds4progress.htm

5. Catapult / An incubator for the world’s most promising young social entrepreneurs
http://www.catapultideas.com/index.html

6. AshokaU / Global network of students, faculty & administrators collaborating to solve real world problems
http://ashokau.org

7. UPEACE Centre for Executive Education / (founded by Mohit) In-person & online Social Innovation courses
www.centre.upeace.org

8. Alliance of Youth Civilizations / Supports youth entrepreneurs for social change

http://unaocyouth.org

9. Stanford Social Innovation Review / A leading journal covering social entrepreneurship

http://www.ssireview.org/topics/category/social_entrepreneurship

10. Skoll Foundation / Foundation supporting social entrepreneurs around the world for the last 15 years
http://www.skollfoundation.org
Innovate
Get Creative
Grow an Idea
Make a Business Plan
Sustain Yourself
Scale an Enterprise
Change the World