Tag Archives | Building a Social Venture

Need a Break?

By on April 1, 2013 in Building a Social Venture, Impact Assessment, Social Entrepreneurship, Starting the Journey

If you’re like me, chances are you sat and made a business plan that was based off the idea that you’d raise upwards of $50,000 the first year your organization was registered. You likely visited DoSomething and applied for some starter grants and checked out the DoSomething Award winners. Then, at some point, somebody told you [...]

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10 Tips for Aspiring Social Entrepreneurs

By on March 11, 2013 in Building a Social Venture, Fundraising, Social Entrepreneurship, Starting the Journey

We’d all like to think that beyond the warm and fuzzy feeling we get from donating or volunteering, our efforts lead to some form of sustainable change. But how can we measure our impact amidst all the negative news about wasted aid and futility? We certainly don’t profess to know the answers, but in the [...]

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Founder’s Syndrome vs. Organizational Sustainability

By on March 8, 2013 in Social Entrepreneurship, Social Intrapreneurship

Starting a social change organization is often hard for the same reasons that make it feel easy. For instance, if you’re an entrepreneur, working for yourself is much more fun than doing what someone else says. But working for yourself has at least one very serious side effect that must be managed: Often without the [...]

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In the Business of Helping Others, Put Yourself First

By on March 6, 2013 in Starting the Journey

Recently, I ran into a hurdle with my organization, Cheti. The journey to, over, and past this obstacle has been as much a discovery of myself as it was of others. I have seen that during the last three years I have been so concerned with moving things forward that I never gave myself the [...]

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True Grit: Entrepreneurial Lessons from the Blessing Basket Project

By on February 25, 2013 in Building a Social Venture, Social Entrepreneurship

As active social entrepreneurs, we frequently hear the stories of many successful leaders, student ‘treps, and innovators through networking, fellowships, competitions, and conferences. And, in many cases, the narratives can start to sound similar, the goal of “changing the world” are generally similar, and the starting points are— you guessed it— similar. So when we [...]

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Attempting Sustainability

By on February 22, 2013 in Community Building, Impact Assessment, Social Entrepreneurship, Stories of Impact

You’ve heard the term “sustainability,” but have you thought about it outside of the environmental context? There are many ways in which social change programs can be unsustainable. Programs can be designed without a community’s real capacity, interest, or needs in mind. They can provide expensive and unfamiliar tools that community members don’t know how [...]

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I Am Only One But Still I Am One…Lesson Learned.

By on February 6, 2013 in Building a Social Venture, Education, Poverty, Social Entrepreneurship, Starting the Journey, Women's Empowerment

Helen Keller once said “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do”.  This has been the most challenging concept I have yet to face and accept in [...]

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The Way of Failing

By on November 30, 2012 in Building a Social Venture

I have had the luxury of failing at something that I cared deeply about in my life, but I have refused to let it define me as a person. Rather, the act of failing is a blessing. For those of you tirelessly and thanklessly working to make an impact in the lives of others, I [...]

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Who (doesn’t) run the world? Girls.

By on November 28, 2012 in Featured, Women's Empowerment

Only 20% of political leaders in the world are women. Women leaders are under-represented in every country, from Nepal, where my organization works, to the United States, where despite recent gains, only 20% of Congress is female. In 2010, I co-founded Women LEAD, a leadership development organization for young women in Kathmandu, Nepal, because I [...]

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Changing the World: One Minute at a Time

By on November 12, 2012 in Arts & Culture, Social Entrepreneurship, Starting the Journey

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been involved in some kind of social good.  My parents were big supporters of giving back and helping out in our communities.  I don’t remember a time when we didn’t think about donating things or including people. Then when I entered school, community service became part of [...]

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Launching a Successful Non-Profit: Four Crucial Lessons

By on November 2, 2012 in Education, Non-Profits, Social Entrepreneurship

In the 8 months it took to launch our tech non-profit, StudentDonate.com, my team and I learned a ton of critical lessons along the way.  Below are the top 4 lessons we’ve learned that will help any burgeoning or even established social entrepreneur. Your Website Needs to Rock – Face it, in the 21st century [...]

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Dignity – A Basic Human Right

By on October 29, 2012 in Building a Social Venture, Education, Social Entrepreneurship, Women's Empowerment

I recently watched an online video that criticized the way in which ‘Africa’ and ‘Africans’ are portrayed by well-intentioned charities and not for profit organizations (Binyavanga Wainaina).  I have always prided myself on being aware of the many stereotypes that exist in the world and in particu lar regarding those living in African countries. However, [...]

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Beaten to the Punch: A Lesson Best Learned Early

By on October 10, 2012 in Social Entrepreneurship, Stories of Impact

I’m turning twenty in less than a month. For many, this birthday is virtually meaningless, no driver’s test to take, no voting privileges awarded, no toasts yet legally made. For me, however, it represents something new in my life; a whole new chapter and a whole new decade.  Try as I might to remain in denial, [...]

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What it Takes: Six Critical Principles of Social Entrepreneurship

By on September 24, 2012 in Social Entrepreneurship

These six ideas have guided my work with the Congo Leadership Initiative. They’re helpful for any social entrepreneur at every stage of development. 1) The social sector takes risks. Governments can be slow and traditional companies exist to fulfill a profit motive, but one of the best things about working in the social sector is [...]

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