Social Entrepreneur: Conscious Companies | Benefit Corporations | Impact Investing

Social Enterprise UK is the membership and advocacy body for social enterprises in the United Kingdom. Peter Holbrook started his career with the retailer Marks & Spencer. He also worked at The Body Shop. In both cases, he watched as values-based companies changed once they became shareholder-driven. Peter wanted to have a social impact with his work, so worked for Oxfam and for Greenpeace. There, he found organizations that were working on purpose but were missing some of the innovation and drive of for-profit enterprises. In 2001, he launched Sunlight Development Trust, a community owned and managed charity. They work in the Medway community in South East England to improve health and well-being. Sunlight Development takes an innovative approach. They house a community café, recording studio, and a community radio station, located next to health services. Peter’s work with Sunlight Development attracted the attention of political parties from both sides of the aisle. Prime Minister Gordon Brown appoin

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media is a research-driven organization that is changing media to empower girls.  While watching television with her daughter, Geena Davis noticed that women were not well represented. She was concerned about the messages that were being sent to her daughter and to her twin boys. Geena launched a research project and was disturbed by what she found. In 2009, Geena met with Madeline Di Nonno, a 30-year veteran of the entertainment industry. Together, they launched the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media. Here is what they found. Women and girls make up 51% of the population and yet, if you watch movies and television, you might not know that. For every minute of female screen and speaking time, there are three minutes of male screen and speaking time. Women make up around 17% of crowd scenes. And only 17% of the top 100 feature films of 2015 featured solo female roles. The kinds of characters played by women are also off-balance. 80% of the characters seen

Dr. Yohans Wodaje Emiru is the founder of Telemed Medical Services. Their flagship service is helloDoctor. For every doctor in Ethiopia, there are more than 30,000 patients. Compare that to less than 400 patients per doctor in the United States. Millions of Ethiopian patients are cut off from medical services due to geography and infrastructure. There are also cultural barriers to medical treatment. Some conditions can seem embarrassing to discuss face-to-face with a local doctor. Transportation costs or consultation fees may be a barrier to treatment. Yohans Wodaje Emiru has found a way to use technology to provide access to medical professionals using a simple hand-handheld phone. Yohans understands the challenges of medical services in Ethiopia. He graduated from medical school at Addis Ababa University. He worked in several roles, including being the Medical Director of Saint Urael Medical Services in Addis Ababa. He also worked in a remote town in a government hospital where he saw first-hand the chall

Watsi is on a mission to provide healthcare for every person in the world. In March, on Social Entrepreneur, we are focusing on Sustainable Development Goal 3, Good Health and Well-Being. 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 onto their web site, 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 donation to the impact. Since launching four years ago, visitors to the site have raised $7.5 million to provide healthcare for more than 10,000 patients in 24 countries. So

GirlTrek is the largest public health nonprofit for African-American women and girls in the United States. Morgan Dixon was a school teacher. As she learned about the statistical probability of chronic disease and early death among her students, she wanted to take action. Morgan knew that walking was a powerful antidote to many of the health challenges faced by those in her community. She began by walking with her students. As satisfying as those walks were, she knew that the solution needed to scale. With her friend, Vanessa Garrison, they used Facebook to organize a 10-week walking challenge. The next year, women came back and asked Morgan and Vanessa to run the challenge again. That’s when they knew they were on to something. As important as walking is, Morgan and Vanessa sensed that they were on to something even bigger. Morgan told me, “We started to look to our history for what happened when black women walked for change?” They connected the movement with the history of black women and civil rights. T

Hello Tractor is an AgTech company focused on improving food and income security across sub-Saharan Africa through a tractor co-sharing platform. Collaborative consumption is reshaping the world. There are the well-known players. For example, Airbnb rents more rooms than Hilton, Marriott, and InterContinental combined. If you want to get around in a city, you can grab a ride with someone via Lyft or pick up a bike with bike sharing services such as Nice Ride Minnesota. But can collaborative consumption help feed the world? That’s what Hello Tractor is attempting to do.   In Africa and Asia, more than 80% of the food is produced by smallholder farmers. These farmers cannot afford to purchase and maintain a tractor. They depend on manual labor to work their land. With a lack of available labor, they often do not fully cultivate their land. Hello Tractor builds low horsepower tractors, suitable for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Smallholder farmers can request tractor services by sending a text, ju

Under the Mango Tree increases agricultural yields by teaching rural farmers to keep bees.  Vijaya Pastala and Under the Mango Tree are a good illustration of something that I believe which is, miracles find you while you’re in motion. Vijaya started experimenting with her business idea in January 2009. By January, 2010, Vijaya had 8,000 rupees in the bank. That’s less than $120 USD. At the time, the monthly cost of running Under the Mango Tree was around 34,000 rupees. Under the Mango Tree was gaining positive press, but beneath the surface, Vijay’s personal savings, which she was using to fund the company, were running out. During this crisis, Vijaya received a request for a meeting from a stranger. Given all that she was managing, she considered turning down the meeting. It turned out that the stranger was willing to provide the funds needed to meet their operating costs. By May 2010, Under the Mango Tree won the UnLtd India competition, which provided their first seed investment. Other money was to foll

Wanda Organic is a for-profit social enterprise that works with farmers to improve their productivity and profitability by improving their soil. At the age of 28, Marion Atieno Moon quit her job. She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do next, but she knew there had to be more to life than work and a paycheck. When she returned home to Kenya, she noticed a pattern. As she visited the villages of her childhood, she was expected to bring food. This was a sharp contrast when compared to her travel to other regions where strangers often offered food to her. As she considered the causes of food insecurity, she realized that food production depends on a handful of factors such as climate, water, and soil. Soil has been called “the living epidermis of the planet.” It is the thin membrane upon which all life on earth depends. Marion saw the poor quality of soil as a business opportunity. Challenges with Food Production in Kenya Kenya is a microcosm of the challenges of food production globally. One report