By Rolfe Larson on December 30, 2010
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been an explosion of colleges and universities offering social enterprise or variations of that theme at the graduate level. Many of these programs are tied to a business school, which can really help when you bring your great social change idea to the marketplace. And if you’re already mid-career […]
By Rolfe Larson on December 16, 2010
There’s still time to pick up some holiday gifts that also help social enterprises. If there’s a restaurant or coffee shop in your town that’s a social enterprise (and the odds are there’s more than one), give them a call to see if you can purchase a gift certificate. Many of them will let you […]
By Rolfe Larson on October 2, 2010
If there’s one challenge many social enterprises have in common, it’s finding capital. Insufficient capitalization is a primary reason that small businesses fail or fail to grow, and that’s also the case for social enterprises. The good news: that seems to be changing. A new field is emerging, so young that it still goes by […]
By Rolfe Larson on September 20, 2010
As the term social enterprise gains traction in the marketplace, more and more organizations are using that term. There is a real risk that this expansion will dilute the meaning of social enterprise to the point that it means any organization that can claim social as well as financial goals, no matter how vague or […]
By Rolfe Larson on August 3, 2010
This recent report summarizes a recent survey of 740 organizations on the current state of the SE field in the US. This work was prepared by the Social Enterprise Alliance, in partnership with Community Wealth Ventures and Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship. REDF funded the survey. Some interesting findings include: Top […]
By Rolfe Larson on July 14, 2010
Earlier this year, the Social Enterprise Alliance published Succeeding at Social Enterprise: Hard-Won Lessons for Nonprofits and Social Entrepreneurs (Jossey-Bass). Anyone interested in starting or strengthening a social enterprise would benefit from reading this informative book. The book’s sixteen chapters are organized into three sections: Startup and Structure, Methods, and Leadership. Each section contains chapters […]
By Rolfe Larson on June 29, 2010
This blog was written by guest writer Andy Horsnell. While working for a nonprofit capacity building service, I had occasion to put together an “Executive Director Boot Camp” that would help EDs identify and begin addressing issues that were critical for their on-the-job effectiveness. Early in the development of this project, I almost had myself […]
By Rolfe Larson on June 17, 2010
Can a nonprofit purchase a for-profit company and operate it as a social enterprise? This question came up in a recent discussion on the npEnterprise Forum. Incidentally, npE is the official listserv partner of the Social Enterprise Alliance, and, with 7000+ global subscribers, has become the global commons for the social enterprise movement. Subscriptions are […]
By Rolfe Larson on June 10, 2010
One of the nice things about writing a blog is getting comments. And now that the Free Management Library blogs are attracting more than 10,000 readers each week (wow!), we’re glad to hear what readers are thinking. Here are two particularly interesting recent comments: On whether the “social” in social enterprise is redundant, Andy Horsnell […]
By Rolfe Larson on June 2, 2010
Google “social enterprise” and you’ll get 2.1 million citations. I kid you not. So, if you want to be more selective, here’s a quick guide on what we’ve found to be the most useful online sources of practical information about how to succeed with social enterprise (SE). (Full disclosure: I’m affiliated with several that I’ve […]
Rolfe Larson provides consulting and training in areas such as strategic planning, market research, feasibility analysis, business planning, marketing and implementation strategies.
[Read more ...]