The three “breakout” sessions I attended today discussed very similar ground in terms of how to structure social enterprises and build business models that are accessible to investment, financially sustainable, and socially optimal. I’ll start by mentioning the institutional challenges that social ventures run up against – particularly corporate structure. Our corporate structures in the [...]

After stock markets worldwide collapsed, bringing down 401Ks and people’s personal assets, common sense would tell you that traditional assumptions of the market and modern portfolio theory needs to be reevaluated. We need to move beyond the “OR”: I either maximize profits OR give my money away. The social capital markets offer investors an opportunity [...]

Entrepreneurs are continually in search of capital investment to launch their enterprises forward. Venture Capital firms and traditional capital markets were designed around the concept of earning quick and really high yields on their investments. Social entrepreneurs, too, are in continual search of capital to launch their enterprises forward. The difference, however, is that quick [...]

The first “breakout” session I attended was “The Future of Social Innovation on the Web”. Panel participants included: Premal Shah, Kiva.org; Jonathan Greenblatt, All for Good; Steve Newcomb, Virgence; and Ben Rattray, Change.org. Some very interesting and critical discussions were raised ranging from for-profit v. non-profit, competition v. collaboration, and how to develop and foster [...]

Today at SOCAP09, Sonal Shah, Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation, opened the conference with a Keynote addressing the work being done by the Obama Administration in determining the role of government in the social innovation arena. At a time when US communities are in need of new and high-impact solutions to [...]

I’m at the airport right now on my way to San Francisco for this week’s Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP09). SOCAP presents an awesome opportunity to those of us engaged in the social enterprise / business-for-development movements to come together, meet one another, and discuss some very important issues concerning the future of the movement. [...]