Social Entrepreneur: Conscious Companies | Benefit Corporations | Impact Investing

Eat for Equity is building a culture of generosity through sustainable community feasts. In the early 2000s, Emily Torgrimson was a college student on financial aid. She lived in a cooperative house in Boston with 24 people. “We always came together around food,” she recalls. “The kitchen was the hub of the home.” During Emily’s senior year, Hurricane Katrina struck the southern US coast. Not only was Katrina one of the costliest and deadliest storms in US history, it also uncovered financial and racial inequities. Emily wanted to do something, but, she says, “I had no money to give. So, I wondered what kind of difference I could make.” Because it was Emily’s turn to cook in her cooperative house, she was looking at recipes, when she stumbled across a recipe for jambalaya. This gave her an idea. She asked her housemates, “If I made a New Orleans themed meal, do you think people would throw in a buck or two for hurricane relief?” Her housemates agreed. They handed out fliers. They invited friends and classma

NOTE: This is an encore presentation of an episode that first aired on July 11, 2016. Advice from Lee Wallace is featured in the book, Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs. To hear the original, extended interview, go here: https://tonyloyd.com/096.    Smallholder farmers grow more than half of the coffee consumed worldwide. Imagine if you will, that you are working at a non-profit in Minnesota, focusing on public policy. The phone rings, and the person on the other end says “Hello. This is the Port of Los Angeles. We have 38,000 pounds of green coffee with your name on it. How would you like to pick this up?” You know nothing about coffee or roasting or retail. What would you do? That is exactly what happened twenty years ago at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. In today’s Social Entrepreneur, Lee Wallace, the Queen Bean of Peace Coffee tells us the rest of the story. Peace Coffee is a for-profit social enterprise, owned by a nonprofit, the Institute f

The Twin Cities Impact Investing Ecosystem Map documents impact investing activity in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. If you would have picked up a copy of the Financial Times last Saturday, you might have noticed a half-page ad asking readers to participate in the Investing for Global Impact research study. Two pages later, you may have also noticed a full-page ad for a report from Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) on the relationship between the Sustainable Development Goals and investment opportunities. And, you may have caught this interview with Rehana Nathoo of The Case Foundation on their efforts to map this space. Impact investing is a hot topic. According to the World Economic Forum, impact investing “intentionally seeks to create both financial return and positive social or environmental impact that is actively measured.” But, what does impact investing look like in the Twin Cities? Last year, Susan Hammel set about to answer this question. Susan is the CEO of Cogent Consulting and Executive

  NOTE: This is an encore presentation of an episode that first aired on March 6, 2017. Grace Garey and Watsi are featured in the book, Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs. To hear the original, extended interview, go here: https://tonyloyd.com/157. Watsi is on a mission to provide healthcare for every person in the world. A billion people around the world do not have access to basic healthcare. And, for those who are fortunate enough to have access, the cost of healthcare can create a life-crippling financial burden. Watsi enables anyone to directly fund life-changing healthcare for people around the world. You can go to their website, see photos and read stories of patients. You can donate as little as five dollars. All the donated money goes directly to the patient. Donors receive updates throughout the funding process. Once the patient’s healthcare is funded, donors receive updates from doctors and healthcare workers. Donors experience full transparency from the don