Results tagged “Social Entrepreneurship” from The NYU Reynolds Program Blog

The NYU Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship (www.nyu.edu/reynolds) is pleased to continue the 2009-10 "Social Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century" Speaker Series with Slow Money President and Investor's Circle Founder Woody Tasch. As president of Slow Money, a 501 c 3 formed in 2008, Woody is working to catalyze the flow of investment capital to small food enterprises and to promote new principles of fiduciary responsibility to support sustainable agriculture and the emergence of a restorative economy.

 

The event will take place on November 5 at 5:30pm at the Rudin Family Forum on the 2nd floor of the Puck Building, 295 Lafayette Street.  All are welcome, but space is limited and an RSVP is required at: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229L2SDHJJ8. 

 

 

Now in its forth year, The Social Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century Speaker Series features a remarkable selection of social entrepreneurs and related leaders who have launched extraordinary programs, companies and movements addressing the most pressing challenges of the 21st century.  Reflecting the NYU Reynolds belief that social entrepreneurship is a meta-profession drawing on cross-disciplinary knowledge and practice, the series presents prominent social entrepreneurs and leaders from across the spectrum of public and professional sectors who will share their insights as cutting-edge, far reaching change makers.

 

Other speakers this year include Honest Tea Founder and TeaEO Seth Goldman, Former U.S. Ambassador and President and CEO of Population Services International Karl Hofmann, and George Foundation Founder Dr. Abraham George. Additional speakers to be scheduled throughout the year.

 

To learn more about the NYU Reynolds Speaker Series, and to access our audio and video library of previous speakers, click here or cut and paste http://www.nyu.edu/reynolds/speaker_series/ into your browser. The audio and video library is also available from the podcast section of iTunes. Search NYU Reynolds Program.

 

To learn more about the NYU Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship, please visit us at http://www.nyu.edu/reynolds.  

 

 

Applications are available now for the New York University Reynolds Graduate Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship (www.nyu.edu/reynolds).   Our goal is to attract, train, and encourage the next generation of social entrepreneurs. Each year we offer up to twenty graduate fellowships to a highly selective group of individuals from across all fields of study who posses the vision and passion to implement pattern breaking change to intractable social problems in sustainable and scalable ways.

 

Successful applicants will receive $50,000 in tuition aid and participate in an intensive two-year curricular and co-curricular component to compliment the students' particular courses of study including:   

 

• Incubator for social venture and non-profit development and launch
• The NYU Reynolds "Social Entrepreneurship in the 21^st Century" Speaker Series
• Specially designed course in social entrepreneurship
• One on one and small group social entrepreneurial coaching sessions with leaders in the field
• Seminars and workshops led by the Reynolds Expert Advisors and alumni
• Peer review sessions
• Intensive business plan coaching
• Summer internships and project-related work
• Mentorship
• Networking opportunities with visionary leaders from the public, private and citizen sectors
• Membership in a community of diverse and extraordinary changemakers

 

This opportunity is open to individuals applying to any full-time two year master's degree program at NYU seeking September 2010 enrollment, or students that are currently enrolled in the schools of Law, Medicine or Dentistry and will have  two years remaining beginning September 2010.  Application deadlines vary by school and run January through February. For more information or to apply, please visit the NYU Reynolds website at http://www.nyu.edu/reynolds.

 

By Keren G. Raz, 2008 Fellow, NYU Law

There's a discussion taking place on the following website about how to define social entrepreneurship: http://whiteafrican.com/2009/09/01/social-entrepreneurs-and-socap-09/comment-page-1/#comment-154490

Yul-San Liem, a 2009 fellow, found a very interesting article that also included a definition of social entrepreneurship that I like...and it's also concrete enough to make sense to those who do not like buzz words or abstract vocabulary.

The definition is: Social entrepreneurship is the use of business to achieve social gain, as well as financial gain.

Here's the link to the article: http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=31448

by Trabian Shorters

Are Social Entrepreneurs indeed Earth's next best hope for survival, prosperity, utopia? Sure, why not. Believe what you choose to believe about it. It is just a term. It doesn't ultimately matter what you call the people who would rather do it than define it.

As someone who has been labeled a social entrepreneur, and then was asked to find social entrepreneurs for Ashoka, and now is asked to coach emergent social entrepreneurs for NYU's Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship, I am most surprised by two things:

1. How fast one goes from 20-something aspirant as I was, to mentor material. That time flies much faster than you would imagine.
2. How calculated, cautious, and afraid the current generation of "changemakers" appears to me.

So maybe, as a mentor, I can earn my chops by having an opinion on that.

The desire to simultaneously "make a difference" and "earn a living" is admirable and good - but you do have to prioritize one over the other. There is no "program" for social change nor a meaningful life. You must already have that desire kindled inside of you. It is the root of courage. For some, the desire to make a difference smolders and for others it burns. The rest are faking. Like any true love, it is impossible to embrace "social change" from a safe distance.

So let's talk about "risk-management."

Your willingness to risk normally decreases as you age. That's why all those people who tell you that they will make their money first and then commit to changing the world are proven wrong 99% of the time. If you are too afraid to risk it now, that usually means that you plan to have far more to lose in the future.

I know that the many people who want to make social entrepreneurship a "field" say that we should have many levels of tolerance - from charismatic prodigy to nonprofit paper shuffler. Fine by me but let's not confuse wage-making with changemaking.

Social change is NOT a field. It is a calling - a profession in the original meaning of the word. You may be called by your faith, your conscience, your ancestors, or your circumstances but the optimistic belief and integrity of a zealous changemaker (by whatever label) is vital to human progress. That makes it sacred.

I like the way that John Gardner described it.

"[People] of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community."

I often encourage young people to fail big as soon as they possibly can because learning how to get back up is far more useful than learning how to never fall down. You would still be crawling if this were not inherently true. Think how limiting that life would be.

Time flies so how long should you crawl? Are you a changemaker by any name?

 
 

By David Russell 

There are as many questions raised, as answers I have found, in social entrepreneurship.

As a Reynolds Fellow at NYU, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to explore some of these questions as they pertain to the projects on which I am presently engaged.

How does one optimally prioritise scarce resources? What are the most effective means to secure support for a cause? Where can greatest value be added?

Such questions are not unique to social entrepreneurship, but they are just some of the issues that I am addressing on work with the Rwandan Survivors Fund (SURF) and HelpAge International (HAI).

With the 15^th Anniversary commemoration of the Rwandan genocide next year, the needs of the estimated 400,000 survivors in Rwanda are still great. SURF's approach to the support it delivers to survivors, through raising awareness and funds internationally, is defined by a holistic philosophy. It recognises that it cannot address any need in isolation - whether that be shelter, healthcare, education, employment. There is a necessity to develop programmes that are integrated to provide the comprehensive support that many survivors still require.

For SURF, how does one optimally prioritise scarce resources? By listening to the needs of the survivors, and prioritising resources dependent on the issues that are most pressing as determined by them. What is most effective to secure support? Giving a voice to the survivors, empowering them in the process to speak out for themselves. Where can greatest value be added? Through channelling funding through local grassroots survivor's organisations, to enable them to own and deliver the programmes.

With the UN International Day of Older Persons approaching on October 1^st, the challenge for HAI is how to engage the international community to address our aging society. The approach I helped to develop is an adaptation of community organising, to mobilise older persons across countries to empower them to meet with their respective Governments and call for improvements in national policies on aging - through a programme called Age Demands Action.

For HAI, how does one optimally prioritise scarce resources? By developing a programme of direct action, which for a minimal cost can deliver a maximum impact. What is most effective to secure support? By identifying and engaging those in policymaking positions, and empowering the older persons to demand action directly from them. Where can greatest value be added? By leveraging the Government to deliver services that otherwise would not be met by the private sector.

But often answers lead back to further questions. And when the questions relate to social entrepreneurship, they ultimately lead back to how the work is sustainable; scalable; pattern breaking?

And therein lies another question: How many socially entrepreneurial acts make a social entrepreneur? And another: Does it matter what the work is called, as long as it doing good?