Tag Archives | Idea

Why I Lie About What I Do and Why It Matters for Social Entrepreneurs

By on April 29, 2013 in Building a Social Venture, Fundraising, Non-Profit Management, Outcome Evaluation

Do you know the Google search algorithm? You probably have a basic idea. If you know anything about computers and the Internet, you might have a pretty good idea. But the short answer is no, because the Google search algorithm might as well be written on a little piece of paper and locked in a [...]

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The Secret Power of Crowdsourcing

By on February 18, 2013 in Building a Social Venture, Design, Education, Social Entrepreneurship, Water

One of the most powerful but little talked about movements that has arisen in the last few years is that of crowdsourcing.  According to Wikipedia crowdsourcing “is a process that involves outsourcing tasks to a distributed group of people.”  With the explosion of the Internet, crowdsourcing is at last realizing its true potential as an [...]

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The Problem with Solving Problems

By on February 10, 2013 in Building a Social Venture, Design, Featured, Social Entrepreneurship

The formula is simple; identify an everyday life “problem” that impacts a large number of people.  Next step, create a product or service that solves the problem and deliver the solution (your product or service) to the people who have the problem.  This is entrepreneurship.  This is the formula that I was taught while starting [...]

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What’s Luck Got To Do With It?

By on February 4, 2013 in Social Entrepreneurship, Starting the Journey

Over fifty percent of all new businesses fail within the first year. After almost three semesters of studying business in college, I’m still not really sure whether professors share the statistic with intentions of intimidation or inspiration. It seems to me that many students are actually comforted by this percentage, it reassures them of the [...]

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It All Started in a Dorm Room.

By on November 16, 2012 in Featured, Social Entrepreneurship, Starting the Journey, Women's Empowerment, Youth Development

When people ask me how on earth I ended up starting my non-profit Women LEAD at the age of 20, I often don’t know what to respond. The process of starting Women LEAD is full of moments of luck meeting opportunity.  If you had told me 4 years ago that I would be co-founding a [...]

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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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An Unexpected Passion for High-Tech Social Entrepreneurship

By on October 26, 2012 in Education, Social Entrepreneurship, Starting the Journey

It started over dinner in San Francisco with an old friend named Ryan I hadn’t seen in a few years.  Somehow, the topic of the student loan debt crisis came up and while discussing it Ryan admitted he had a ton of debt from paying for his education.  Ryan’s passion was teaching and he was [...]

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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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Design + Social Change

By on September 26, 2012 in Social Entrepreneurship

Fields that have traditionally dealt with social change such as International Development and Non-Profit Management are changing. They are adapting to a competitive environment that has forced social leaders to adopt new approaches, new measurement tools, and new models. Because of this sea change, many professionals who have otherwise been absent to this space are [...]

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Lessons on and for the Journey

By on September 21, 2012 in Social Entrepreneurship, Starting the Journey

I find social entrepreneurs so inspiring. So many of them (us) have had other careers, and then a light clicked – enabling us to let go of our prescribed futures that no longer fit our ideals and chase what some call idealistic dreams, but what we all consider our true life path. It makes me [...]

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Dynamic Innovation

By on September 13, 2012 in Social Entrepreneurship

When working with a designer to produce your marketing material, the most dangerous thing you can say is  “I’ll know it when I see it.” True innovation comes from taking risks – it is impossible to “know it when you see it.” In fact, most ideas that are truly new often times lack a lot [...]

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Don’t Complain. Fix.

By on September 4, 2012 in Social Entrepreneurship

I used to complain. A lot. I would complain about the little annoyances in life that come up on a daily basis. But then something happened. I noticed two new inventions that fixed the problems I complained about for years. I love coffee. And not just for the caffeine buzz.  I love the taste of [...]

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