By Rolfe Larson on January 14, 2016
Compiled by Rolfe Larson and Janine Vanderburg With President Obama’s recent State of the Union address, this seems to be a good time to assess the State of Social Enterprise (SE). We decided to crowd-source this one primarily through the npEnterprise Forum (npE), the 10,000+ circulation, non-commercial, moderated online forum for all things SE. […]
By Rolfe Larson on September 15, 2014
Recently I was struck by a comment from the St Louis County Police Department, that in predominately black communities such as Ferguson, the police practice a “zero tolerance” policy. So if you’re pulled over for almost anything, and they do that fairly often in these communities, and you have an outstanding warrant or even a traffic […]
By Rolfe Larson on April 30, 2014
Here a few inspiring social enterprise ideas discussed at the recent national Social Venture Network conference. (Source: Forbes article by Devin Thorpe) 1. Be Political. While 92% of Americans favor disclosure of genetically engineered ingredients in their food, objections from the powerful food industry are so strong that only through collective advocacy will this change.
By Rolfe Larson on August 31, 2013
Jed Emerson is a leader in social capital, with good ideas and clear thinking on this important topic for many social ventures. Here are some highlights from a recent interview:
By Rolfe Larson on July 10, 2013
Impact Investing continues to garner a lot of attention, at Davos, at the Clinton Global Initiative, at the G8 Summit, and at social enterprises big and small. But it’s still having little financial impact. For now, big institutional investors are not participating. Until they do, impact investing will remain small.
By Rolfe Larson on March 20, 2013
Seems obvious: of course prior business experience is a big advantage when starting a social enterprise. But now there’s evidence that this might not be correct. Research suggests that LESS experienced social entrepreneurs were MORE successful (in terms of revenue and social media network) compared to their MORE experienced colleagues. And the WORST performance came from social […]
By Rolfe Larson on February 23, 2013
While the term “impact investing” (or social capital) has garnered substantial attention in recent years, the more traditional field of microfinance, still by far the largest share of impact investments, gets less attention yet has decades of experience doing social capital. Here are a few of lessons from the micro finance sector worth reviewing as […]
By Rolfe Larson on January 31, 2013
I don’t know about that, but it’s definitely making waves in the social change world. Social capital — and by that we mean investors and lenders who are focused on providing funds not for (or at least not only for) their own profit, but also for the greater social or environmental good — is on […]
By Rolfe Larson on October 9, 2012
There are many reasons why one social enterprise grows fast, while another one doesn’t. Frankly, I think luck has a lot to do with it, but there are many other factors as well. A recent article in the Guardian suggests that the attitude of the leader is the most critical ingredient, and that’s hard to […]
By Rolfe Larson on April 17, 2012
Marc Lane, arguably the most prolific writer in the social enterprise sector, last year wrote another one of his useful books, entitled: Social Enterprise: Empowering Mission-Drive Entrepreneurs. It’s a good book to glance through, and even more important, to have nearby on your bookshelf for when you have a legal question about social enterprise. For […]
Rolfe Larson provides consulting and training in areas such as strategic planning, market research, feasibility analysis, business planning, marketing and implementation strategies.
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