CEOs Without Borders : Social Entrepreneurship Social Networking and Education

Social business continues to grow. I just ran across CEOs without Borders who offers these entrepreneurship services. It seems they are still building out their organization and website features.

I recently wrote a more extensive post about social networking opportunities for social entrepreneurs.

Life on $2 a day on Current TV

What does life at the bottom of the pyramid look like?

Current recently did a feature on living on $2 (sometimes in policy circles this segment of the population is refered to the base of the pyramid, the bottom of the pyramid, or BOP for short). Based on the day the Current photojournalists shot this is the budget breakdown for this family of 4:

Vegtables $1
Rice $1
Rent .12
Clothes Free from charity
———————-
Total per day $2.12

30 Top Micro Finance Institutions | Forbes Magazine

Top micro finance institutions according to Forbes Magazine. You can click the link to see all 50 micro finance institutions ranked):

1 ASA Bangladesh
2 Bandhan (Society and NBFC) India
3 Banco do Nordeste Brazil
4 Fundación Mundial de la Mujer Bucaramanga Colombia
5 FONDEP Micro-Crédit Morocco
6 Amhara Credit and Savings Institution Ethiopia
7 Banco Compartamos, S.A., Institución de Banca Múltiple Mexico
8 Association Al Amana for the Promotion of Micro-Enterprises Morocco
9 Fundación Mundo Mujer Popayán Colombia
10 Fundación WWB Colombia – Cali Colombia
11 Consumer Credit Union ‘Economic Partnership’ Russia
12 Fondation Banque Populaire pour le Micro-Credit Morocco
13 Microcredit Foundation of India India
14 EKI Bosnia and Herzegovina 66
15 Saadhana Microfin Society India
16 Jagorani Chakra Foundation Bangladesh
17 Grameen Bank Bangladesh
18 Partner Bosnia and Herzegovina
19 Grameen Koota India
20 Caja Municipal de Ahorro y Crédito de Cusco Peru
21 Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee Bangladesh
22 AgroInvest Serbia
23 Caja Municipal de Ahorro y Crédito de Trujillo Peru
23 Sharada’s Women’s Association for Weaker Section India
24 MIKROFIN Banja Luka Bosnia and Herzegovina
25 Khan Bank (Agricultural Bank of Mongolia LLP) Mongolia
26 INECO Bank Armenia
27 Fondation Zakoura Morocco
28 Dakahlya Businessmen’s Association for Community Development Egypt
29 Asmitha Microfin Ltd. India
30 Credi Fe Desarrollo Microempresarial S.A. Ecuador

A billion bootstraps : Social entrepreneurial resources for the base of the pyramid

Why Micro credit?

A Billlion Bootstraps highlights:

As a weapon against poverty in developing countries, microcredit is as vital as education, health, human rights and good government. To highlight its importance in eliminating poverty, the United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit. Richard Weingarten, executive secretary of the U.N. Capital Development Fund, said, “The demand for microfinance services remains largely unmet, especially in
Africa.” Despite this, less than 1% of World Bank funding goes to microcredit.

Resources from A Billion Bootstraps

I thought these resources from the social entrepreneurial and international development book Billion Bootstraps might be helpful: (Warning: this post is in beta for the next week…)

A Billion Bootstraps

Bouldermicrofinance

CGAP

Chalmers- The Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College trains the church worldwide to minister to the poor in their community without creating dependency. Training is available for pastors, deacons/lay leaders, missionaries, and ministry staff. It is delivered through web-deployed distance learning courses, self-study courses, and week-long training institutes held throughout the world.

Center for Micro finance

Micro Enterprise and Development Institute

microcredit summit

microfinance ?

microlinks (video)

mixmarket.org (see also: the mix)

peerservants.org-PEER Servants seeks to accomplish one goal — to transform lives by partnering for economic empowerment and renewal. We are a group of primarily volunteers who work with international microfinance partners. These organizations empower the materially poor through micro-enterprise development wherein small businesses are established that can provide for individuals, families, churches, and communities. Our microfinance partners and the micro-entrepreneurs they serve are used by God to add meaning and fulfillment to our own lives. The transformation we seek is not only for them, but for us as well.

micro finance management institute

UN Cap development Fund
(distance learning)

USAID

WC Credit Union

World Bank

Year of Microcredit

They also suggest the following Micro credit Organizations. I might further suggest the links and resources from the Micro Credit Summit

If you happen to be the author, know the author, or can suggest a resource feel free to leave a comment…

Design Principles for the Bottom of the Pyramid

Industrial Designers

A recent design conference panel called “The Other 6 Billion People” created this list of ideas that rifted off of ten of Prahalads twelve principles for design (FYI: they didn’t always agree with Prahalad’s 12 BOP principles):

Prahalad’s 10 principles and the ideas that floated to the top:

1) Don’t just focus on lowering price.
a. Design labor-leveraging devices in economies where that has competitive value
b. Local manufacturing with small runs
c. Poor man’s SLA (stereolithography), such as printing with low tolerance 3D printer
d. Target peoples needs with appropriate technology
e. Use these markets for piloting new products before scale-up
f. Don’t copy our requirements
g. Good design comes from knowledge
h. Redesign the life of the product
i. Designing for infrastructure
j. Design to the minimum (focus on needs)

2) Look for hybrid solutions.
a. Learn how things are sold locally
b. Some people feel they don’t need Internet culture
c. Technologies not available everywhere and not easily accessed
d. Infrastructure: hard to maintain/replacement parts
e. Cost of product caused by location of production
f. Making something sophisticated may not be the answer
g. Look for similar cultures for external opportunities
h. Create leverage by working through government
i. We must understand their world
j. Combine requirements
i. Economically viable
ii. Share costs through service
iii. Fills compelling need

3) Plan for cross-cultural portability.
a. Design becomes rural within geographic context of end user
b. Rework inside of computer to use alternative source of power
c. Fundamentally multi-cultural “uncommon place”
d. Branding: customer relations
e. Create meaningful product ingredients and building blocks
f. Alternate demographics are market fragments

4) Reduce, reuse, recycle.
a. Cradle to cradle
b. Lower labor costs to make repairs worthwhile
c. Use students to replace tools
d. Collaborative, participative process

5) Deskilling work is critical.
a. Create a new architecture for education
b. Leverage relationships with government

6) Develop new approaches to customer education.
a. Product that teaches a skill (local activism)
b. Familiarity with user
c. Teach a marketable skill (read, write, etc.)
d. Help them to start/maintain a business of their own
e. Create a new architecture for education

7) Products must work in hostile environments.
a. India proof
b. Different environmental criteria (if you get dust in it, you’re done)
c. Prosperity can create a hostile environment
d. Protect ideas: deal with allowing ideas to prosper

8} Don’t assume technological literacy.
a. Understand what they are trying to accomplish
b. Make it familiar in form and function
c. Single purpose vs. multi-purpose
d. They are not early adopters
e. Make it so they don’t have to figure out how to use it
f. Simplicity
g. Framing the world in terms of how they understand it
h. Remote, indirect communication
i. Find out what excites them
j. Adapting to local people vs. learning from them
k. Programmers in India who think like Westerners
l. Learning curves may be inappropriate and technological literacy means different things to different people
m. Simple function, simple to operate (evident), minimal maintenance

9) Rethink distribution.
a. More localized manufacturing
b. More modular products
c. Supply products that are raw materials for local designers
d. Self distributing caused by needs
e. Sustainable livelihoods, sustainable business models

10) Expect technology leapfrogging.
a. Technology requiring little infrastructure
b. We must understand their world

Alternative Design Principles for the BOP Resources
• You can read the BOP Protocol 2.0, which provides better principles for co-creation of enterprises with the poor.

• Project H: Design Manifesto (for the BOP)

• If you check out the book Design for the Other 90 Percent, Out of Poverty by Paul Polack, or Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid you can find more principles for people at base of the pyramid.

• 1000 Words: A Manifesto for Sustainability in Design By Allan Chochinov

Bottom of the Pyramid, Humanitarian Design, and Development Organizations Part II

I’ve included this list of design for the other 90 percent from the book. I thought it might help people understand the landscape of design for the base of the pyramid:

Advanced Micro Devices (???)
American Assistance for Cambodia
Architechtural Association, London
Basic Initiative
Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti
City Build Consortium of Schools
Center for Connected Health
Construction Management and Consulting Services
Continuum
Design that Matters
First Mile Solutions
fuse project
Global Village Shelters
Godisa Technologies
House of Dance and Feathers
International Development Enterprises (IDE)
Kennedy & Volich Architecture, Ltd.
Kickstart International
Lifestraw
M3 Design
Mad Housers
Meridian Design
MIT D-Lab
One Laptop Per Child
PermaNet
Portable Light Project
Potters for Peace
Project Locus
Public Architecture
Q Drum (PTY) Ltd
Ratankiri
SELCO-India
Side by Side International (???)
Squid Labs
Star Sight
University of Kansas School of Architecture and Urban Planning
World Bike
You Orleans

For more base of the pyramid resources and strategic social enterprise and micro entrerprise to solve poverty.

Bottom of the Pyramid, Humanitarian Design, and Development Organizations

I borrowed this list from the back of Design for the Other 90 Percent. What an inspiring, helpful, and well designed book. You will note that probably just 25% of these organizations are directly concerned with design (however another 50% are concerned with development issues, which have design based concerns in the bottom of the pyramid context). However, I think its a great list for those in the design communities who want to connect with socially conscious designers and development professionals.

AIGA Aspen Design Summit
Architecture for Humanity
CARE
Design Corps
Doctors Without Borders
Industrial Designers of America
International Fund for Agricultural Development
National Endowment for the Arts
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
New Orleans Wiki
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Oxfam America
Rolex Awards for Enterprise
UNICEF
UNIFEM
United Nations
Urban Institute
US Census Bureau
World Bank
World Energy Council
World Health Organization
World Revolution
World Wildlife Fund

For more base of the pyramid resources and strategic social enterprise and micro entrerprise to solve poverty.

You can also check out Design for the Other 90 Percent at the Copper Hewitt. More to come!

Update: Project H Design should probably be added to the list of BOP designers. You can learn more from this design conference video featuring Emily Pilloton humanitarian product designer and founder of Project H Design. (I’m looking forward to reading her sustainable design manifesto as well as the design accord for sustainability)

The Base of the Pyramid | Worlds 50 Poorest Countries

Base of the Pyramid: The World’s 50 Poorest Countries According to the United Nations

UN list of least developed countries

Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, East Timor, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Tanzania, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia.

For more base of the pyramid resources and strategic social enterprise and micro entrerprise to solve poverty.

(FYI: Post to be updated soon…not sure how I’m going to build out the content at the moment. I just hope its useful)

Out of the Box Thinking to Solve Homelessness in the United States

Paul Polak’s Story about Solving the Issues of Poverty and Homelessness in America

Micro businesses, Employment, and Income for Homeless Individuals
Paul talks about creating micro businesses based on lockers for homeless and selling drugs (I’m not sure how that works in the case of the homeless population)

I think a business based on trades: painting, plumbing, electricity, carpentry, construction, land scaping could all help provide employment for homeless individuals while providing money for counseling, housing, education, and food.

Likewise a more technology based service could work too based around photography, photo editing, content creation, and outsourcing via elance. I don’t think this could scale as well as a business based on trades, but could be part of an overall homeless education and training offering.

Check out Paul Polak’s 12 Steps to practical problem solving:

1. Go where the action is. “Spend significant time with your customers. This is how you learn what they need,” he says. Not hours, days. Polak lived with his farmers for 6 months.
2. Interview at least 100 customers a year. You do it. Not an employee. Listen to what they have to say. “Too many entrepreneurs build the product they want to build — not the one that’s needed.”
3. Context matters. If your solution isn’t right for the context, for example, if it costs too much for the customers you’re trying to serve, you won’t succeed.
4. Think big. Act big.
5. Think like a child.
6. See and do the obvious. Others won’t, which is opportunity for you.
7. Leverage precedents. If somebody has already invented it, don’t do it again.
8. Scale. Your business must have potential to scale. Remember, your market must include at least 1 million customers.
9. Design to specific cost and price targets. Not the other way around. (Celeste: it means — Do not price to your design, design to the price you need to hit to make your product appropriate to your customer.).
10. Follow practical three-year plans. Two years is too short. Ten is too long.
11. Visit your customers again. And again. “Any successful business in this country is based on talking to your customers all the time. A good CEO spends half his time ‘in the field.’”
12. Stay positive. Don’t be distracted by what other people think.

This is a much longer video about Paul Polack’s practical problem solving method.

Helping the Homeless Resources
Survival Guide for the Homeless-an example of helping homeless individuals by highlighting local social services.

Why agricultural development assistance and the green revolution fails.

How to fix development assistance and the green revolution in developing world: A Critique of US AID, the World Bank, and Other Foreign Aid Donors.

The two primary base of the pyramid solutions that have been provided to developing world include large scale development projects and micro-enterprise. Until recently, organizations like US AID deployed primarily large scale development projects–and they ruled the roost. Increasing evidence is emerging which suggests a move toward smaller scale solutions which leverage markets is a far better solution.

“While they put high priority on growing enough to eat, these one-acre farm families will never create enough wealth to move themselves out of poverty by selling their surplus rice, wheat, and corn, which has relatively low value in the marketplace. But they can earn new income of at least five hundred dollars a year by growing non-mechanized, high-value, off-season crops such as fruits, vegetables, and herbs.” Paul Polak in “Out of Poverty“

Role of simplicity in design for other other 90 percent

“Revolutionary change in markets is usually based on breakthroughs in affordability and miniaturization, married to innovations in marketing and distribution.” Paul Polak in “Out of Poverty“

Polack suggests that the developing world has several hurdles that assistance, be it charity or microlending must come to grips with:

1) Lack of Hope
2) Clouded Vision
3) No intellectual property protection
4) Subsidies
5) Corruption
6) Isolation
7) Lack of Information
8} Poor Access to Credit

Polak suggests four core focuses for micro enterprise development in the developing world:

1) Creating private sector supply chains to provide reasonably priced materials, tools, designs, and training for slum enterprises producing handmade replicas of museum pottery, or fine silk scarves or purses for Paris, or hand-carved doors, or the myriad of other high-value, labor-intensive products that could be fabricated by slum residents.

2) Creating private sector value chains that market the products made by slum residents and that ensure that quality standards are met

3) Access to credit

4) Access to prosperous customers able and willing to purchase the high-value products and service produced by slum workers.

Later Polack discusses key 6 criteria for base of the pyramid poverty solutions (on page 45):

1) First priority goes to models that effectively serve customers who live on less than a dollar a day.

2) Products and services are designed to reach price points affordable to people who earn less than a dollar a day, when sold at an unsubsidized fair market price.

3) First priority does to the design and marketplace delivery of income-generating tools and strategies capable of at least paying for themselves in the first year.

4) The business model expressed in a viable business plan will be capable of reaching bottom-line profitability within a time frame acceptable to investors who fund the business.

5) Measurable positive impacts on poverty are an essential component of a viable business plan.

6) Capacity for scaling up the business to reach millions of poor customers is an essential component of a viable business plan.

International Development Enterprise’s untraditional marketing to people at the base of the pyramid:

1) Calendars, leaflets, and posters.

2) Troubadours. We hired traveling four-member bands that composed a song about the treadle pump and performed at farmers markets and fairs, with leaflets directing potential customers to dealers.

3) Drama. We hired a troupe of traveling actors who gave performances in open-air settings of a play specifically to promote treadle pumps.

4) A full length feature movie. We produced a ninety-minute feature movie, using top Bangladeshi male and female leads and a popular director. The treadle pump played a central role in the plot. Using a generator and a screen, the movie played to a rural audience of a million people a year.

Hope these resources were helpful, feel free to check out the BOP and social enterprise articles and links below.

Despite the Best Intentions: Was Development Assistance a Mistake for the Base of the Pyramid?

• Was Development Assistance a Mistake, William Easterly, May 2007

• The Big Potential of Small Farms, Scientific America, Paul Polak, August 2005 (note: this is a themed issue, however Scientific American only lets you look at the first 2 paragraphs)

• Small is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered E. F. Schumacher

• Design for the Other 90 Percent from the Cooper Hewitt

• More from Compassion in Politics on International Development Enterprises and Design for the Other 90 Percent

African Social Enterprise Business Model

Technoserve’s Believe Begin Become Micro Enterprise Educational Program

Technoserve’s program Believe Begin Become is an innovative microenterprise program which includes entrepreneurial training and a business plan competition. Technoserve has programs in Ghana, Kenya, Swaziland, Tanzania, South Africa, and South America.

Please check out our other resources about the base of the pyramid. Enjoy!

Social Entrepreneurship Events and Education Calendar for 2009

Corporate Social Responsibility and Enterprise Events and Education Calendar in the United States for 2009

• SE Alliance Summit scheduled for April 15-17, 2009 at the InterContinental Hotel in New Orleans.

• Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Fransisco, CA April 26 – 28, 2009

• Social Enterprise Club-Harvard School of Education March 1, 2009

• May 4, 2009, the Phoenix Project, together with The Corporation for National and Community Service, will convene Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship: How Technology is Knocking Down Doors and Fueling Social Innovation! For more information, please visit www.aseconference.org.

• Global Micro Finance Investment Congress Leading micro finance experts speak. May 19-21, 2009 ($1495 – $2395)

• International Development Design Summit in Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) , 8 July through 12 August 2009

• Social Capital Markets (SoCap 2009) Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, CA September 1-3, 2009

• Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University provides a 2 week intensive ” that enables successful technology innovators to scale their endeavors and achieve sustainability.”

• 6th Annual Conference of Social Entrepreneurs at NYU Stern (not announced yet: November 2009)

• 2009 Net Impact North America Conference, November 13-14, 2009
The Johnson School at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

• Nonprofit Bootcamp organized by the Craigslist Foundation (not announced yet; was hosted in San Fransisco in October in 2008) For more details from the Craigslist Foundation or check out this Nonprofit Bootcamp participant interview by JD Lasica.

• Micro enterprise events and conference list at Micro finance Gateway

Other Educational and Training Events

Institute for Social Renewal:

Delancey Street’s Institute for Social Renewal (ISR) is a “think and action tank” geared toward solving the most pressing justice issues of our day such as drugs, crime, homelessness, poverty, illiteracy, and self-destructive values, attitudes, and behaviors which are tearing apart not only some of our individuals, but also the fabric of our whole society. The Institute provides training and technical assistance in replication of the Delancey Street model, applied particularly to underclass populations such as ex-felons and homeless people, among others. There is specific focus on such issues as:

• Job development and economic self-sufficiency
• Self-governance
• Drug-free, crime-free community living
• Social responsibility
• Social entrepreneurship

Cost is $150 per day of training per person; $300 per person for two day Institute. For a group of five or more from one location, the cost is $125 per day of training per person. Please no cell phones at Institute.

For free social entrepreneurship education (training and case studies)

Below you will find the schedule for the 2009 Social enterprise Club event…. Even if you aren’t attending it can give you an idea who some of the major players and thought leaders in social entrepreneurship are and may help you follow the blog commentary on the conference online.

If you have more calendar events for social entrepreneurs and non-profits, feel free to leave that info in the comments. I will do my best to add relevant events to this post. Thanks!

EDUCATION TRACK

Education Reform: What Can the US Learn from the International Community?
Moderator: Dr. Charles Glenn, Dean ad interim of the School of Education, Boston University
- JEFF BEARD Director General, International Baccalaureate
- ANDREW COULSON Director of the Center for Educational Freedom, The Cato Institute
- HARRY PATRINOS Senior Education Economist, The World Bank
- CHRIS WHITTLE Founder and Chairman, Edison Schools Inc.
back to top

Education Leaders Closing the Achievement Gap
Moderator: Stacey Childress, Lecturer and Senior Researcher, Harvard Business School
- LINDA BROWN Executive Director and Founder, Building Excellent Schools
- KARL CHENG Partner, The Parthenon Group
- FRANCES MCLAUGHLIN Senior Director, The Broad Foundation
- DR. THOMAS PAYZANT Professor of Practice, Harvard Graduate School of Education
- JEFF WETZLER Senior Vice President and Chief Learning Officer, Teach For America

Innovation as an Engine for Change in K-12 Education: New Principals, Schools and Tools
Moderator: Stacey Childress, Lecturer and Senior Researcher, Harvard Business School
- LARRY BERGER CEO and Co-Founder, Wireless Generation
- BENJAMIN FENTON Chief School Performance Support Officer and Co-Founder, New Leaders for New Schools
- JOHN STUPPY President, TutorVista.com
- JOSH ZOIA Founding Principal, KIPP Academy Lynn

INVESTING TRACK

Mega-Banks in Microfinance: Endgame or Irrelevant?
Moderator: Professor Michael Chu, Senior Lecturer in the Initiative on Social Enterprise, Harvard Business School
- ROBERT ANNIBALE Director of Microfinance, Citigroup
- ÁLVARO RODRÍGUEZ ARREGUI Chairman of the Board, ACCION International

The Growth of Corporate Social Responsibility: Is it Sustainable?
Moderator: Herman “Dutch” Leonard, Co-Chair of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative; Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration; George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Sector Management, Harvard University
- RAPHAEL BEMPORAD Principal & Founding Partner, BBMG
- ROBERT GLASSMAN Co-Chairman & Co-Founder, Wainwright Bank & Trust Company
- ALEX HAUSMAN CSR Reporting Manager, The Timberland Company
- CARLY JANSON Social Impact Director, Boston Consulting Group

Profitable Social Impact: Exploring For-Profit Business Models that Create Social Wealth
Moderator: V. Kasturi “Kash” Rangan, Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, Harvard Business School
- COLIN BRADY (HBS ‘04) COO, (Product)RED
- CLIFFORD HENRY Associate Director, Procter & Gamble Global Sustainability
-ZLATA HAJRO Associate, Microfinance Institutions Group, Morgan Stanley

Building New Valleys: Venture Capital and International Development
Moderator: Nick Beim, General Partner, Matrix Partners
- ASIM KHWAJA Associate Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
- RAJ KUNDRA Director of Capital Markets and Energy Portfolio, Acumen Fund
- STACE LINDSAY Consultant; Entrepreneur, Blue Moon Fund; New England Portable Storage, LLC

Social Innovation 2.0: Changing the Way Foundations and Corporations Do Business
Moderator: Karim Lakhani, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School
- NANCY BARRAND Special Adviser for Program Development, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- MARIA BLAIR Associate Vice President & Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation
- CHARLIE BROWN Executive Director, Ashoka’s Changemakers.net
- KRISTIN D. RECHBERGER Vice President of Corporate Partnerships, National Geographic Society

ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRACK

Cause Marketing: Private Gain or Public Good
Moderator: Jay Winsten, Associate Dean and the Frank Stanton Director of the School’s Center for Health Communication, Harvard School of Public Health
- ALISON DASILVA Vice President, Knowledge Leadership and Insights, Cone, Inc.
- V. KASTURI “KASH” RANGAN Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, Harvard Business School
- KATE ROBERTS Founder and Director, YouthAIDS
- IAN V. ROWE Vice President of Strategic Partnerships & Public Affairs, MTV: Music Television

Going to Scale . . .
Moderator: Lisa Schorr Kaplan, Associate Director, Impact and Evaluation, The Bridgespan Group
- GEORGE CHU Chief Financial Officer, Citizen Schools
- GEORGE OVERHOLSER Founder and Managing Director, NFF Capital Partners
- ALAN SAFRAN Executive Director, MATCH Charter Public High School
- STEPHEN SEIDEL Director of Field Operations, Habitat for Humanity International

Re-Thinking Development Funding: Innovative Foundation Business Models
Moderator: Jon Hugget, Partner, The Bridgespan Group
- MATTHEW DAGGETT Dalberg Global Development Advisers
- PAMELA HARTIGAN Founding Partner, Volans Ventures; Founding Managing Director, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
- RUTH MESSINGER President, American Jewish World Service
- SALIMAH SAMJI Program Manager, Google.org

Consuming with a Conscience
Moderator: Tom Steenburgh, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
- DAVID CROSS Principal, (R)evolution Partners
- CHRISTINE DRISCOLL Business Development Manager, edun LIVE
- NANCY MAHON, ESQ. Executive Director, MAC AIDS Fund
- CRAIG R. SCHLONEGER CEO, Ten Thousand Villages

GLOBAL TRENDS TRACK

The New Era of Humanitarian Response
Moderator: Jennifer Leaning, Co-director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Professor of the Practice of International Health, Harvard School of Public Health; Senior Advisor in International and Policy Studies, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
- TAREK GHANI Investment Manager, Humanity United
- ASIM KHWAJA Associate Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
- HELGA LEIFSDOTTIR Coordinator, ReliefWeb, UN Offi ce for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
- TED OKADA Director, Microsoft Humanitarian Systems

International Development in 2020
Moderator: Eric Werker Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School
- NANCY BARRY President, Enterprise Solutions to Poverty
- TJADA D’OYEN Agricultural Development Program Officer, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- DONALD LEE Senior Advisor, Office of Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations
- DONALD F. TERRY Manager of the Multilateral Investment Fund, Inter-American Development Bank

Technologies. Innovation. Development
Moderator: Joost Bonsen, Program Director, Legatum Center, Massachuesetts Institute of Technology
- DAMIEN BALSAN Director, Head of NFC Business Development Americas, Nokia Emerging Business Unit
- Timothy Prestero Co-Founder and Co-Director, Design that Matters
- KHALID QUADIR CEO, Brummer & Partners Bangladesh Limited; Founder, bracNet
- AMY SMITH Senior Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Future of Social Enterprise
Moderator: Gordon Bloom, Founder, Harvard Social Entrepreneurship Collaboratory (SE Lab)
- ALVARO RODRIGUEZ ARREGUI Founder and Managing Partner, IGNIA Partners, LLC
- NANCY BARRY President, Nancy Barry Associates-Enterprise Solutions to Poverty
- PAMELA HARTIGAN Founding Partner, Volans Ventures; Founding Managing Director, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
- MARK KRAMER Founder and Managing Director, FSG Consulting

Careers in Mision-Driven Consulting
Moderator: Mukti Khaire, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School
- SUSAN WOLF DITKOFF Manager, The Bridgespan Group
- MARCELA ESCOBARI Executive Director, Harvard Center for International Development
- ADEEB MAHMUD Consultant, FSG Social Impact Advisors
- MEREDITH QUINN Strategic Services Project Manager, Ithaka

Impending Climate Change Revolution: What Lies Ahead for Businesses and Nations Worldwide?
Moderator: Armond Cohen, Executive Director, Clean Air Task Force
- KYLE CAHILL Manager, Corporate Partnerships Program, Environmental Defense
- NICK NICHOLS Vice President, Environmental Practice, NERA Consulting
- ADAM SEITCHIK Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Trillium Asset Management Corporation
back to top

Innovative Solutions to Homelessness
Moderator: Edward Marchant, Harvard University, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy
- NELLI GARTMAN Senior Researcher, Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy at Brandeis University
- LORIANN GIRVAN Director of the Common Ground Institute, Common Ground Community
- KAREN OLSON Founder and President, Family Promise

OTHER TRACK

Election 2008: Is Change on the Horizon?
Moderator: Darin McKeever, Co-Founder, Heads Up
- AUDREY R. ALVARADO Director, Nonprofi t Congress, Executive Director, National Council of Nonprofit Associations
- ROBERT EGGER Founder and President, DC Central Kitchen and V3 Campaign
- KELLEY KREITZ Fellow, Knowledge Sharing, Root Cause
- KELLY WARD Director, America Forward

Out of Poverty : Paul Polack

Who is Paul Polack? And what does he have to do with tactics for solving global poverty?
Paul Polack’s organization IDE has brought 17 million out of poverty. Paul has made available resources for social change and solutions to poverty. His book Out of Poverty looks like a great read for social entrepreneurs like myself. I can’t wait to pick it up on Amazon.

12 Social Entrepreneurial Principles for Solving Poverty in the Developing World:

1) Goto where the action is. You can’t solve poverty from a World Bank office.
2) Talk to the people and listen to what they have to say.
3) Learn everything about the context of the problem and the people.
4) Think and act big. No reason to be modest. Small solutions applied thousands of thousands of times.
5) Think like a child to find the obvious solution people have missed in the past. (Irony of thinking big and like a child)
6) See and do the obvious. Emersing yourself in the problem helps.
7) If someone has invented it–you don’t have to. Find existing solutions
8} Make sure your approach can be scaled up.
9) Design for the poor. Affordability rules the design process with poor customers.
10) Follow practical 3 year plans. Must transform into effective work plan for 3 years.
11) Continue to learn from your customers. (interviewed more than 3000 farm families, $12 solar lantern)
12) Don’t be distracted by what other people say (Almost every project I’ve done has had sceptics)

• Visit the people who have the problem–in their real life setting. Have a keen interest in learning new things.

• If you give money away. Donate to organizations that have measurable impacts.

• Extreme poverty can be found in your community too.

Stand Up and Speak Out about Poverty and Inequality

These folks have a YouTube channel and are launched a Twitter and even a PodCamp. How’s that for groundbreaking? Chris Brogan has great coverage. Mahalo has a pretty decent rundown of some sweet poverty resources.

This is a problem internationally and domestically. More locally, Richard Florida in his book the Creative Class warns:

“The top 1 percent of households earned 20 percent of all income and held 33 percent of all net worth. The US hasn’t witnessed an income gap like this since the Gilded Age.”

Dave Richards thinks the answer is micro-finance. What do you think? Is microfinance a viable solution domestically and internationally? What model is best?

Corporate Corruption, Poverty, and the Christian Response

 
Jim Wallis of Sojourners on Global Poverty and Christian Compassion

A few thoughts on how neglectful policies fuel the erosion of family from the pages of Jim Wallis’ book “God’s Politics“…

Global Poverty and Family Values

“Indeed, what can destroy family life and values is losing a job that provides the capacity to support your family or being unable to find affordable housing, quality health care, or educational opportunity for your children. Conversely, steady employment at a livable family income, access to health care, a path to homeownership, and the chance to send your kids to good schools can lay the best foundation for solid and successful family values.”
~Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners

Corporate Corruption and Global Poverty

“Today it is large corporations that push down wages, cut health benefits, lay off workers, and export good jobs overseas; they are the biggest violators of ‘family values’ and the principal force destabilizing family life in America”
~Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners

Militarism, Budgets, and Global Poverty: Interdependent Issues

“We must have a clear moral message. Budgets with billions of dollars of increases for the military and massive tax cuts for the wealthiest—while cutting funding for overcoming poverty—should be named as morally unacceptable. Rather, funding for real solutions to poverty needs to be increased. Let’s reward people’s efforts to improve their lives.”
~Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners

Hyper Affluence and Greed vs. Global Poverty

“More and more we see how our anxious striving after affluence has also created spiritual poverty. It is the great myth of modern advertising that mere prosperity can give us happy, fulfilled, and purposeful lives. Nobody wants to say out loud that shopping doesn’t satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart.”
~Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners

What do you think? Is the Christian response to turn away from these atrocities? Should Christians be taking a stand on these issue? How can the situation be changed? How can political and economic power be checked sufficiently and kept accountable? Any authors or verses or examples you like on the issue of poverty?

Got Poverty?

The folks over at Justice and Compassion have an interesting post about global poverty and the One Campaign to eradicate it.

Senator Frist points out that the One Campaign “uses health and medicine as a current of peace.” I hope the American people can hear that urgent call.

Should it be an Election issue? Is it better than the war in Iraq? Will solving poverty address terrorism? Is poverty the most important issue thats being talked about? Is this a faith issue? Should we engage goverments to solve poverty? Should the government engage faith communities?

21 Solutions to Save the World

21 Solutions to Save the World-Innovative solutions for inequality, Aids, poverty, foreign aid, disease, the war on terror, religious extremism, and the environment from the worlds leading experts, including, Jeffrey Sachs, Howard Garner, Joseph Nye, Bill McKibben, Homer-Dixon, and Amy Jaffee.

Most imporant issue covered? Any issue get overlooked? Best solution? And what does “expert” mean or how do we determine who is an “expert” in this new media era?

(Its too bad than in an age of open-source, that Foreign Policy and other publications cling to their information. So you’ll probably have to use your local bookstore, newsstand, or university electronic pubs database….)