The Social Entrepreneur Podcast

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120, Paul Bradley, ROC USA | Housing Security for Mobile Home Owners Nov 02, 2016

Show notes

ROC USA is a non-profit organization with a mission of making quality resident ownership possible nationwide.

When Paul Bradley was studying economics in university, he became interest in cooperative business models. “It immediately appealed to me,” he told me. “By its structure, it’s a more broadly distributing form of business ownership. Resources are shared more broadly among workers, among members and among consumers of the cooperatives.”

Paul was also interested in development work, spending time in Central America. When he returned to his home in Concord, New Hampshire, he found the opportunity to work in development work in his own neighborhood. He worked with the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund where he organized mobile home park residents.

In the United States, there are around 50,000 mobile home parks. The residents, many of whom are low-income, often own the home in which they live, but they do not own the land on which the home sits. It can be quite expensive to move a mobile home to another lot.

Because mobile home owners do not own the lot, they do not have control over the lot rent. Rent can go up significantly with as little as sixty days’ notice.

Some mobile home park owners do not properly maintain the infrastructure such as roads and sewage. This can cause homeowners to be held captive in unsafe and deteriorating conditions.

Mobile home owners also lack the security of land tenure. A mobile home community can be closed with very little notice. This often happens when the value of the land has gone up significantly, and the land owner chooses to turn the land to another use. Homeowners who may have been paying rent for decades can suddenly lose their home.

ROC USA helps homeowners form a cooperative, and to purchase land in order to preserve and improve the community. Each homeowner owns one share in the cooperative that owns the land.

There are two barriers that keep mobile home owners from forming cooperatives and purchasing their land. One is technical know-how. The other is access to capital. ROC USA addresses both of these challenges.

ROC USA has scaled a model of resident ownership in manufactured home communities, building a network of more than 10,000 secure and affordable homes with partners in 14 states.

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

ROC USA: http://rocusa.org
ROC USA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rocusa.bettertogether
ROC USA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ROCUSAorg
Cooperatives for a Better World: http://cooperativesforabetterworld.coop

119, Alana Greer, Community Justice Project, Inc. | Lawyers for the Social Justice Movement Oct 31, 2016

Show notes

118, Avnish Gungadurdoss, Instiglio | Tying social program funding to results Oct 28, 2016

Show notes

Instiglio is a nonprofit with a mission of maximizing the social impact of every cent spent on social programs. They do that by tying funding to results.

Avnish Gungadurdoss grew up on the island nation of Mauritius. He was drawn to do social work at a young age. “I remember being taken by how much the poor’s trajectory was completely dependent on where they were born,” he told me. “To me that was a crazy thought, that life is up to the random chance of where you were born.”

While working in the field and seeing firsthand the gap between the promise of social programs and their outcome, he recognized that most social programs are funded for inputs and activities, not impact. “Policies that look good on paper get implemented in such a poor manner that they rarely deliver results on the ground,” he acknowledged. He and his cofounders decided to do something about that. They founded Instiglio in 2012.

Instiglio helps social programs to be more effective in solving the world’s most pressing issues. They do that by tying funding to results.

Instiglio is a leader in Results-Based Financing. That is, funding of social programs is tied directly to their impact. Instiglio focuses on two tools: Performance-Based Contracts and Impact Bonds.

They also provide Performance Management services to help service providers track and make data-driven decisions to improve the impact of their programs.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Avnish Gungadurdoss

“That’s the real standard we need to hold ourselves to in international development. Can we be better than just giving people a handout?”

“Can we actually solve these market failures in such a way that’s relevant, and that drives results and outcomes for the populations that we’re serving?”

“How do we actually make good policies work on the ground?”

“We have been able to mobilize about $320 million towards results-based financing instruments.”

“The deeper you look, the more troubling it was.”

“There was this broad recognition that every year billions of dollars are spent with absolutely no impact.”

“We wanted to shift the game.”

“It’s a fairly simple concept, but it’s tricky to do in practice.”

“These types of instruments are provoking some radical transformations.”

“You see the organizations transition from a beneficiary mindset to a client mindset.”

“Do it about something you care about, that grips you emotionally.”

“Your purpose has to be strong enough to keep you going.”

“Do it with a team that is equally committed and whom you can trust.”

“Social programs, when they work well, are smart economics and smart politics.”

“The idea of unlocking the potential of people who are otherwise constrained by poverty, should be of interest to every nation.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

Instiglio: http://www.instiglio.org

117, Safeena Husain, Educate Girls | The Power of an Educated Girl Oct 26, 2016

Show notes

Safeena Husain of Educate Girls works with volunteers across Indian villages to find out-of-school girls, bring them back to school and to educate them.

As an educated, successful woman, Safeena Husain visited a village, accompanied by her father. Because they were strangers in the village, the local residents were naturally curious. The local villagers asked Safeena’s father about his family. When her father explained that this was his only child, a daughter, the reaction shocked Safeena. “You poor thing,” they said. “Perhaps it is not too late for you. You can still try to have a son.” Safeena thought to herself, “If I am treated like this, what chance does the poor girl in the village have?”

When a girl is educated, they have the potential to enter the formal economy, gain employment and lift their families out of poverty.

Educate Girls works at the root cause of gender inequality in India's education system. They work with thousands of schools, reaching millions of children in some of India's most remote areas. Through their work, they have achieved over 90% enrollment and higher attendance for girls. They have also worked to improve school infrastructure, quality of education and learning outcomes for all girls.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Safeena Husain

“We find every girl who is out of school. We make sure she is brought back to school, stays in school and is learning.”

“To find the girls out of school, we go door-to-door.”

“It’s not enough to have her in school. If she’s not learning, everything would be worthless.”

“India has the highest number of out-of-school girls in the world.”

“We have the highest number of child brides anywhere on the planet.”

“And we also have the highest number of women or girls that are trafficked.”

“The World Bank says that investing in a girl’s education is the best investment a country can make.”

“For each additional year of schooling for a girl, family income goes up by 10% - 15%.”

“Once she is educated, she is 500 times more likely to educate her children.”

“These are not the rules. These are just the rules we have made.”

“I thought I have to do something in girls’ education, because I found my pathway through education.”

“They gave me a list of 26 critical gender gap districts.”

“I learned from a lot of best practices in this sector.”

“In terms of learning, we had an almost 30% better result than a regular government school, in our school.”

“My job is to have a vision of success.”

“It’s a mindset issue.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

Educate Girls: http://educategirls.ngo
Educate Girls on Twitter: https://twitter.com/educate_girls
Safeena Husain on Twitter: https://twitter.com/safeenahusain
Educate Girls on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/educategirls

116, Tom Streitz, Twin Cities RISE | Ending Poverty through Personal Empowerment Oct 24, 2016

Show notes

Twin Cities RISE transforms lives through personal empowerment and meaningful work.

In the United States, one of the richest countries in the world, why does poverty persist across generations? The path out of poverty is complex, but it almost always involves meaningful work. And, while it often takes technical skills to find a job, more often the barrier to work involves power skills – emotional intelligence, social intelligence, confidence, belief, a sense of self-worth. Through their Personal Empowerment program, Twin Cities RISE creates transformative change, self-confidence and self-reliance.

Twin Cities RISE helps individuals in poverty to find long-term, meaningful and stable employment. When someone joins Twin Cities RISE, they are assigned a coach. They participate in the Personal Empowerment program and they are connected with employment opportunities. Twin Cities RISE provides work skills training, internship opportunities, job search assistance, and employment placement.

Twin Cities RISE creates long-term results. Eighty-two percent of graduates are still at their job after one year and seventy-five percent after two years. That’s more than double the national job retention average. Through their Reentry Connect program, they have reduced first-year recidivism rates from 43% to 13%. Studies have shown that, for every dollar invested in Twin Cities RISE, they produce seven dollars of social benefit.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Tom Streitz

“The mission is focused around breaking multigenerational poverty.”

“The technical skills someone needs on a job, we believe come after a grounding in emotional intelligence.”

“The real foundation of what we’ve done is focusing on outcomes.”

“We were a pioneer in Minnesota for Pay for Performance.”

“The average income of someone coming into our program last year was around $3,000 to $4,000.”

“This is a place where people walk through the door and their future hangs in the balance.”

“For those who complete the program, it’s nothing short of a miracle.”

“Are you prepared to take this journey? If you are, the outcomes are phenomenal.”

“We don’t call people ‘clients.’ They’re participants.”

“They’re the ones driving their success. We are a witness to it.”

“Our retention rate on the job after one year is 82%, which is double the national average.”

“Business principles can drive very successful social outcomes.”

“By measuring it, we can demonstrate the economic proposition.”

“Every dollar the state of Minnesota has invested in Twin Cities RISE, has delivered seven dollars back to the taxpayers.”

“It pays for itself and has dividends both economically and socially.”

“It is literally going to the root.”

“It’s an intervention that’s meant to completely empower and transform someone on their journey.”

“Their intelligence and their grit is intact. What’s lacking is a belief that are either worthy of or can achieve anything of importance.”

“We are involved in addressing systemic issues that weave a web that keeps people enmeshed in systemic poverty.”

“Our vision is long-term, meaningful employment that supports you and your family.”

“Under our reentry connect program, the recidivism rate is under 12%.”

“We’re a school that’s free for people in poverty.”

“The best path out of poverty is a great job.”

“Employers love to hire our participants.”

“Look at the system that keeps that problem in place, and devise a very simple intervention.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

Twin Cities RISE: http://www.twincitiesrise.org
Book: The Non Nonprofit: For-Profit Thinking for Nonprofit Success: http://amzn.to/2exJWDF
Twin Cities RISE on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twincitiesrise
Twin Cities RISE on Twitter: https://twitter.com/twincitiesrise
Reentry Connect crowdfunding campaign: http://www.twincitiesrise.org/releaseandrestore

115, Anushka Ratnayake, myAgro | How to Move Smallholder Farmers out of Poverty Oct 21, 2016

Show notes

Anushka Ratnayake of myAgro uses a combination of savings, inputs and training to increase the income of smallholder farmers.

As a social entrepreneur, Anushka Ratnayake has seen startup challenges that are not common in other regions. For example, less than a year after launching myAgro, an armed conflict broke out in northern Mali. A group associated with Al-Qaeda set up a new state in Norther Mali. In response, the French military launched an operation and ousted the rebels.

Anushka Ratnayake, the founder of myAgro was an early employee with Kiva. There she learned about the power of microfinance to impact poverty. She also worked with One Acre Fund where her job was to develop a repayment process for smallholder farmers. She heard from the farmers that they wanted to prepay their loan, or in other words, they were asking for help in saving money for the future.

Seventy percent of the population of Mali are smallholder farmers, most living on less than two dollars per day. The farmers have seasonal income. They have the most cash at harvest time and less cash on hand when it is time to purchase seeds and fertilizer.

myAgro sells seeds and fertilizer on layaway via a mobile phone platform. They also provide training on well-established agricultural methods. This helps smallholder farmers grow more food and increase their income.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Anushka Ratnayake

“Smallholder farmers make up 80% of the two billion people living under two-dollars per day.”

“I saw this opportunity of low yields, lots of land and a fast growing population.”

“I started hacking One Acre Fund from within.”

“When you’re working a startup, everyone’s time and resources are so valuable.”

“On the side, I started working with someone on a savings program for a cow.”

“There were all doing amazing work, but no one had a savings program specifically for farmers.”

“Solving the financing problem for farmers is a key to ending poverty in our lifetime.”

“One of the reasons it’s hard to serve smallholder farmers is that they tend to need many different support mechanisms.”

“It’s really convenient for farmers to put small amounts of money aside.”

“We bulk purchase seeds and fertilizer and deliver it to farmers.”

“It’s that combination of financing plus delivery of inputs plus training that really gets us that increase in harvest and the increase in income that we’re seeing.”

“Farmers are increasing their harvest from 50% - 100% over a control field.”

“They’re increasing their income by an average of $150.”

“There was a twelve hour period when it was unclear whether Mali would continue to exist.”

“I think social enterprises sometimes under value the impact they have on their team.”

“Our favorite day across the organization is delivery day, when farmers get their inputs.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

myAgro: http://www.myagro.org/

114, Satyan Mishra, Drishtee | Developing Sustainable Communities Oct 19, 2016

Show notes

Satyan Mishra of Drishtee is developing sustainable communities in the villages of India.

In the late 1990s, while Satyan Mishra was working on a government contract, he had the opportunity to visit many villages across India. In India, more than 775 million people live in small villages. Nearly half of them live on less than one dollar per day.

Satyan saw how the presence of a computer in a village could have an impact. His company, Drishtee started setting up kiosks in villages. By 2006 they had set up over 1,000 village kiosks. And yet, as Satyan told me, “I realized that what we had done had not really made any impact on the community.” Economic challenges, social constraints and environmental degradation remained.

So, Satyan and his cofounders at Drishtee decided to take the company in a different direction. While they continue to work at the village level, today they use the power of entrepreneurship to take on the social challenges of the villages.

They take a holistic approach to community development. They start with livelihood. This often comes by developing local agriculture. Once people have livelihood, then Drishtee works to add services – doctors, education, banking, cobblers, etc., which further stimulates the economy. This is followed by infrastructure such as roads and electricity. The fourth area of intervention is governance.

Drishtee incubates businesses in a non-profit. If the ideas is successful and looks like it will be able to scale, they move the idea into the for-profit side of the business.

They are in about six thousand villages today. That means that their work impacts around two million families.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Satyan Mishra

“We have always worked in villages.”

“We have always believed in entrepreneurship.”

“We have always been drive by business models.”

“There are business solutions for every problem that exists.”

“When I was in class nine, I wanted to be filthy rich.”

“We realized the computers could not solve all of the problems of the community.”

“The idea of Drishtee was to make money initially, but over a period of time I realized that this is perhaps not the best way to become the richest person in the world.”

“Our entire approach was very top-down.”

“That is when we started looking at the community as a customer.”

“Sixty-five percent of people live in the villages, but they contribute about fifteen percent of the overall GDP.”

“When you go into a village, you see that most people do not have jobs.”

“The first and foremost need that they had was livelihood.”

“There were four areas that were needed. The first was livelihood.”

“Agriculture stood out as an area that we could train and enhance.”

“We are like a pipeline. Start with an idea. Incubate it. Nurture it.”

“We have limited bandwidth, but the need of the community is unlimited.”

“I think a social entrepreneur is one who will be relentless, and would be flexible.”

“We have been treating the symptoms. It’s time to look at the core disease.”

“We have moved away from living together.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

Drishtee: http://drishtee.com
MadhuKrishi: https://www.facebook.com/MadhuKrishi
Drishtee Rural Apparel Production (DRAP): http://www.drishtee.org/?page_id=63
Gharunda: http://www.drishtee.org/?page_id=73

113, Yvette Ondachi, Ojay Greene | Connecting Smallholder Farmers to Markets Oct 16, 2016

Show notes

Yvette Ondachi uses technology to connect smallholder farmers to markets.

Yvette Ondachi is a biochemist. She was a pharmaceutical product manager across several east African countries. “The problem I encountered was, most people couldn’t afford [medicine],” Yvette told me. Even after an experiment in which the company lowered the cost of medications by 75%, many people still could not get access to medicine.

“One of the things that propelled me,” Yvette explained, “was watching mothers, helpless as their children suffered from preventable diseases.” She knew she had to do something to make a difference. “Something within me became very restless. I said, ‘I have to do something about this.’”

Most of the people who were unable to buy medicine were smallholder farmers, those who farm on small plots of land and live off of their crops. Globally, there are about 500 million smallholder farmers. They produce 80% of the food consumed in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. In Kenya, around 42 million people work at least part time in agriculture.

Yvette’s company, Ojay Greene works with smallholder farmers to remove the barriers that limit them. Ojay Greene uses technology to give smallholder farmers access to markets, therefore increasing their earnings. Farmers who participate increase their income by five times over five years.

Quotes from Yvette Ondachi about Smallholder Farmers

“What we do with smallholder farmers is, we link them to profitable markets.”

“Smallholder farmers constitute between 50% and 70% of populations across Africa.”

“Poverty robs them of their potential.”

“I asked the question, why is it that people who are involved in food production are poor?”

“Despite advances in mobile phones and other advances, very little had occurred in agriculture.”

“I looked at the skill I had in my hand, and the skill I had in my hand was marketing.”

“There was a lack of coordination between the supply and the demand.”

“It is uncomfortable to watch people wallow in poverty.”

“I was looking at the science of farming.”

“This text system came out as a result of a problem and a frustration.”

“In Sub-Saharan Africa, the continent is spending close to $40 billion importing food.”

“We’re taking them on a journey where they move from subsistence farming to building micro enterprises.”

“The end game of what we’re trying to achieve is to build strong and vibrant communities.”

“We’re looking at going into four countries by 2018.”

“When you have a goal, it’s important to stick to it.”

“For every ten doors I knock, chances are that nine are shut.”

“Many people want the success of your journey and not the hardship of your journey.”

“I looked into the business aspect of the social enterprise and said this has to make business sense.”

“We have focused on churning up the revenue.”

“Never forget why you did this in the first place.”

“Don’t do this for the money. Do this for the positive change.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

Ojay Greene: http://www.ojaygreene.com
Ojay Greene on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OjayGreene

112, Martin von Hildebrand, Gaia Amazonas | Promoting the Rights of Indigenous People and the Environment Oct 14, 2016

Show notes

Martin von Hildebrand has been working with indigenous people for the last 42 years to protect their rights and the environment.

Martin lived with indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest from the 1972 through 1980. There, he witnessed rubber tappers exploiting the lands and missionaries converting the indigenous people from their traditional ways. By listening to the indigenous people, he was able to learn what they wanted, and to explore ways to secure their future.

Martin realized that, the indigenous people needed to secure land rights, the right to self-governance, and environmental protections. Martin worked with the government to secure all of these rights. In Colombia, 26 million hectares were set aside. Indigenous people have their own governmental system, and they are managing their environmental programs.

Martin’s work is spreading beyond Colombia to the rest of the Amazon. The Amazon is critical for so many reason. The Amazon is a rich source of biodiversity. Twenty percent of the world’s oxygen comes from the Amazon. And the Amazon rainforest is responsible for moving moisture from the sea inwards, through what has been described as “flying rivers.”

Today, the rainforest remains under pressure from hydropower, oil, mining, roads, timber production and agriculture. Martin takes a collaborative and pragmatic approach to saving the rainforest.

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

Gaia Amazonas: http://gaiaamazonas.org
Gaia Amazonas on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gaiaamazonas
Gaia Amazonas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gaiaamazonas

111, Anne Field, Award-Winning Writer, Editor, Journalist | Not Only For Profit Oct 12, 2016

Show notes

Anne Field is interested in “not only for profit” businesses.

Anne Field is an award-winning writer, editor and journalist. Just over ten years ago, she wrote an article on for-profit social enterprises and impact investing. At the time, the term impact investing was new. The B-Lab had just been formed, and new social enterprises were blooming. Anne became fascinated how companies could make a profit with a purpose.

Today, Anne is best known for her Forbes blog Not Only for Profit. She writes about for-profit social enterprises and impact investing. She primarily focuses on the startup journey. She is one of the people I closely follow on social media.

In this conversation, Anne describes where her interest in social entrepreneurship and impact investing began. She describes some of the forces behind the growth of social entrepreneurship including the financial meltdown, the frustration with inaction on some of the larger issues of our time, and the important role of millennials.

She describes four trends in social entrepreneurship that she is noticing, including companies that utilize tech breakthroughs, accelerators, companies that repurpose waste and local equity investments.

She describes her worries about social entrepreneurship, but also her hopes.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Anne Field

“I started hearing more and more about this new thing [social entrepreneurship]. This was more than ten years ago.”

“The field has grown more and really blossomed.”

“Something that gave it a big push is the financial meltdown and the sort of world economic crisis.”

“What happens in the political sphere has been extremely depressing and seems to be going nowhere. Most importantly in the US is the area of climate change.”

“The trend of millennial interest is extremely important. It’s really what’s giving this at all a shot and arm.”

“I just don’t know if all this stuff is going to last if it had legs or if it’s what amounts to a fad.”

“There’s another issue also with just how much these enterprises can scale.”

“For them to be really effective, these companies really have to scale.”

“I do see it becoming more entrenched, for example in business schools.”

“My hope is that it becomes increasingly mainstream.”

“You have to focus on the money.”

“I think that the for-profit part is very important in helping a company scale and become sustainable.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

Anne Field: http://annefieldonline.com
Anne Field’s blog on Forbes, Not Only for Profit: http://www.forbes.com/sites/annefield/
Anne Field on Twitter: https://twitter.com/annefieldonline
Soular Backpack: https://the-soular-backpack.myshopify.com

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