Startup Insider Initiative: Empowering Social Entrepreneurs

Commitment to Action

Startup Insider Initiative: Empowering Social Entrepreneurs

Commitment by

Short Enterprises

In 2014, Short Enterprise, along with its university partners, committed to developing a new national e-publication website 'Startup Insider Initiative,' which will work to address the challenge of building awareness, exposure, and support for social entrepreneurs and ventures. Over the next three years, this new e-publication will feature 500 social enterprise, and will devote at least 50% of its coverage to girls and women involved in the social impact space.

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Tabs

Overview

Summary

Commitment

Startup Insider Initiative: Empowering Social Entrepreneurs

Launched

2014

Est. Duration

3 Years

Estimated Total Value

$482,000

Region

Northern America

Countries

United States

Commitment by

Short Enterprises

Partner(s) of the Commitment Maker(s)

Syracuse University, Tel Aviv University, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, The Madden School of Business at Le Moyne College, Ate Ateneo de Manila University, C.K. Prahalad Center at the Loyola Institute of Business Administration, ESADE Business School, Fu Jen University

Details

APPROACH
Short Enterprises and university partners commit to developing a new national e-publication website 'Startup Insider Initiative,' which will work to address the challenge of building awareness, exposure, and support for social entrepreneurs and ventures among the key constituencies and publics that will benefit their efforts to scale.
Partners at the Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications are providing their expertise in assisting with the development and implementation of strategies to identify, engage, and involve those in the social impact space with the e-publication. Partners at Newhouse will also assist in the development and implementation of strategies to identify, engage, and raise awareness of the e-publication amongst the key constituencies and publics that will benefit the social ventures highlighted and featured in the e-publication. Short Enterprises is also developing and implementing, in coordination with Newhouse, a specifically tailored and targeted outreach strategy to engage and involve girls and women in the social impact sector.
Partners at Syracuse University's Martin J. Whitman School of Management will provide logistical support throughout the overall planning and implementation of the commitment. This will include the planning and implementation of a vetting process for selecting the social ventures featured by the e-publication. They will also assist in the development and implementation of a strategy for addressing the challenge of measuring and evaluating the social value of those that are featured by the e-publication so that it can be most effectively conveyed. Partners at the Whitman School are also spearheading the development and implementation of a sponsorship strategy for the e-publication that will assist in raising the additional funds required for the commitment.
Short Enterprises will serve as lead on the project and provide expertise in the planning and implementation of the e-publication in collaboration with university partners. Short Enterprises will also provide its expertise in public relations in overseeing the development of the feature articles published by the e-publication over the course of the commitment.
ACTION PLAN
2014:
- Launch of multi-year initiative (July)
- Begin working with S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications to develop plan and strategy for e-publication website: outreach, coalition building, communications strategy, etc. (September)
- Begin collaboration with Whitman School of Management Graduate Consulting Team: logistical support, vetting strategy, sponsorship strategy, & social impact metrics (September)
- Newhouse students present work completed during the Fall 2014 semester on strategies for engaging the project's key publics and constituencies (December)
2015:
- Begin working with Newhouse to implement strategies developed during Fall 2014 semester (January)
- Begin pre-development of e-publication website (January)
- Worked completed by Whitman on sponsorship strategy (February)
- Begin securing corporate sponsors (February)
- Begin development of e-publication website (September)
- Plan/strategy completed by Whitman team for vetting and measuring/conveying social value (September)
2016:
- Soft launch of e-publication website (January)
- Monitoring & Evaluation Checkpoint #1: Short Enterprises and university partners will report on efforts to monitor and evaluate performance of this commitment (June)
- 100 social ventures featured to date (June)
- Monitoring & Evaluation Checkpoint #2: Short Enterprises and university partners will report on efforts to monitor and evaluate performance of this commitment (December)
2017:
- 250 social ventures featured to date (January)
- Monitoring & Evaluation Checkpoint #3: Short Enterprises and university partners will report on efforts to monitor and evaluate performance of this commitment (June)
- 500 social ventures featured to date (December)
- Final Monitoring & Evaluation Checkpoint (#4): Short Enterprises and university partners will report on efforts to monitor and evaluate performance of this commitment (December)
- Final Report - Findings, Performance, & Recommendations: completed by Short Enterprises (December)

Background

A major barrier to growth cited by social entrepreneurs in the impact space is the challenge of building the necessary awareness and support amongst key constituencies and publics such as potential collaborators, clients, funders, and investors. Further complicating the matter is that social value isn't easily measured, which in turn makes it even more difficult for social enterprises to effectively convey and communicate their business concept and bottom line. These sentiments were echoed in a 2014 report issued by the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, which found that helping to raise awareness of social businesses is one of the most valuable contributions that the corporate world can make to the social enterprise sector. The report also highlighted the lack of public awareness of social ventures as a key impediment to growth in the sector and suggested that the internet can play a growing role in the building of consumer awareness and support for social ventures. Seeing as 60% of U.S. social enterprises were created since 2006 or later, with 29% created since 2011, there is a growing interest in the impact sector. With the sector already reporting million in annual revenues and 15,000 employees, addressing the sector's key challenge of raising awareness could result in even further growth within the sector and further contribute to the U.S. economy.

Partnership Opportunities

Partners on the commitment span across many different sectors. These include Initiative Sponsorship Partners,who will be named sponsors for the project and contribute financial support toward the initiative's launch and implementation, Initiative Leadership Council Members, who include individuals with expertise in fields relevant to the initiative who would join our Leadership Council that advises on the planning and implementation of the overall initiative (Additional expertise needed: social finance, impact investing, venture capital, marketing, press and media relations, business development, IT and programming, social venture expert based in Australia, social venture expert based in Asia), Social Venture Referral Partners, which includes partners who will refer social ventures to the e-publication for featuring, Content Distribution Partners, who will distribute e-publication content out via their communications channels in order to enhance overall reach and distribution, Implementing Partners, who will assist in the development of the platform and e-publication and/or assist with content creation for the e-publication,Marketing Partners, who will assist in marketing the e-publication itself, and Graphic Design Partners,who will assist in the development of the brand identity and design elements for the platform/e-publication.

The e-publication website will feature social ventures and related content throughout the United States. Opportunities are available for contributing writers to be featured on the new international e-publication, as well as opportunities to highlight social ventures from the United States and throughout the world.

Progress Reports

August 2016

While implementing the early stages of this Commitment , it was recognized by university partners that the barriers to growth in the social impact sector are multifaceted and that an e-publication alone would not be sufficient to tackle the complex array of challenges faced by the sector. With this in mind, it was announced at the international CNN Center in October 2014 that the work was expanding to include the development of a new social enterprise institute, programming, research efforts, and community engagement initiatives focused on tackling the barriers to growth faced by the sector in a more comprehensive and holistic fashion. Following the announcement, these efforts were recognized and featured prominently by the Huffington Post and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative as "What's Working in Small Business".

Officially unveiled in early 2015, the Global Social Enterprise Institute is currently housed at the Madden School of Business at Le Moyne College and quickly grew a global consortium of over 250 university and institutional collaborators. Noteworthy collaborators include, but are not limited to, Ashoka, Clinton Foundation, the White House, U.S. Department of Education, HATCH, London+Acumen, Posible México, Stanford, Yale, and Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs.

With the support of this global network of collaborators, the Institute is now successfully operating programming focused on: (1) assisting social enterprises to overcome barriers to growth, (2) consolidating the silos of technical assistance resources available, and (3) reaching globally to create cross sector partnerships, open new market opportunities, and facilitate engagement with investors, communities, and government agencies.

The Institute's approach is built on a firm belief in creating world class opportunities for hands on, engaged experiential scholarship ("learning by doing"). The Institute also leverages a "transdisciplinary" approach to entrepreneurial development, which is facilitating collaboration between various sectors in order to encourage breakthroughs in theory, practice, policy, job creation, and economic development outcomes. This feature of transdisciplinary collaboration is especially relevant as society faces complex environmental and social problems that require new and transformative solutions.

To date, the Global Social Enterprise Institute has engaged with over 1,500 individuals and 300 social entrepreneurs throughout the world through programming, initiatives, lectures, workshops, presentations, coaching, business plan support, pro bono consulting, and technical assistance. Furthermore, over 400 undergraduate and graduate students have been engaged in the Institute's efforts through internships for credit, extracurricular engagements, lectures, and in-class experiential learning opportunities in eight university courses. Additional success to date includes spearheading the strategic planning efforts for the creation of an innovative Proof of Concept Accelerator with nine collaborating universities and community organizations with a particular focus on revitalizing a neighborhood with the highest levels of poverty concentration in the U.S. among Hispanics and African Americans. The Institute was also accepted into the Ashoka U Commons, which is facilitating collaboration among a number of university social entrepreneurship programs.

In keeping with the original goal, the Institute continues to have a particular focus on promoting an equal playing field in the sector by supporting female entrepreneurs who are working to have a positive impact both locally and globally. "By participating in the Startup Insider Initiative and with the launch of the Global Social Enterprise Institute, we are helping to strengthen efforts to facilitate the involvement of women with entrepreneurial ventures in the U.S. and around the world," said Dr. Linda LeMura, president of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y. and the first female president of a Jesuit college or university in the world. "As a Jesuit institution, Le Moyne is committed to the tenets of social justice, leadership and service to others - principles that dovetail perfectly with the spirit of social entrepreneurship. Every day, women are breaking new ground in the workforce, particularly within entrepreneurial firms, and we are proud that efforts through this initiative will serve to support them."

With the successful completion of the 2014 CGI America CTA by Short Enterprises and partners, the Global Social Enterprise Institute will now focus on implementing a multiyear strategy aiming to: (1) create 1,000 jobs, (2) facilitate $50 million in new business development, (3) streamline access to the $6.57 trillion in capital earmarked for sustainable investments with the development of a new social enterprise impact assessment framework, and (4) leverage the combined reach and resources of a growing international network of university and institutional stakeholders in order to facilitate and foster significant economic development outcomes.