The Role of Empathy in Social Enterprise: Why it’s Vital to Your Success!

Empathy is a powerful emotion, allowing us to understand other people, their position, and their needs. For anyone looking to start a social enterprise, empathy will be vital. If you want to make a difference, you need to understand the communities you will be working in and how your efforts will impact them. What is the role of empathy in social enterprise? What about other kinds of business models? Let’s examine this!

What is empathy? Why is it so important in social enterprise?

In the past, charity and international development agencies had a habit of blindly (and sometimes condescendingly) charging into communities and launching projects will little to no feedback from the local community. Funded by donors, many of these projects continued even as local communities rejected them. These efforts lacked empathy. The result -unsurprisingly- was a lot of waste and projects that ultimately failed.

Now, many social enterprises are forging their own unique path. They are beholden to the market.  If they fail to listen to and incorporate local communities, their risk of failure is higher as money will dry up. The market is a powerful force for choosing winners and losers, and in the case of social enterprises, it helps keep them on task.

However, markets will not always ensure that a social enterprise remains true to its social aims. Markets ensure profit, not the well-being of people, communities, and the environment. That’s where empathy comes in. By embracing empathy, social enterprises can ensure that they stay true to their community and causes.

Related: How the Kind Foundation is Connecting Youth, Spreading Kindness and Creating Future Social Entrepreneurs

Putting Employees First Makes Business Sense

Of course, some might wonder why they should bother to pursue empathy or social entrepreneurship at all? Ultimately, most social entrepreneurs don’t have to grapple with that question, they already know the answer and it’s personal. However, companies that ignore communities and higher causes put themselves at risk. As Imran Anwar put it in his article “Why Putting People Before Profit Is Good Business:

“Companies that put profit before people can face the wrath of dissatisfied customers on social media. People may ditch a profit-centered brand the moment they find a better alternative.”

Beyond bad publicity on social media, Anwar also outlines how companies like Costco make money by playing their employees more. Why? Higher retention rates. Meanwhile, low wage companies, like Sam’s Club, struggle with low productivity and constant turnover.

Personally, I don’t need any incentives to want to build good companies or to put profits before people. However, for those businesses that do go with profits first, it’s important to ask if the short-term drive to produce profits is resulting in lost opportunities and higher long-term costs.  Perhaps empathy offers a path towards a profitable and sustainable future.

What is the role of empathy in social enterprise?

Interestingly enough, empathy is a relatively modern concept. Philosophers and psychologists only started grappling with empathy directly in the 19th century.  Of course, humans have almost certainly possessed empathy for thousands of years. Now, social entrepreneurs are using empathy to build enterprises that both produce a profit and address important social issues.

Empathy also plays an important role in “prosocial” behaviors. A prosocial behavior refers to putting someone else interests before your own. In the world of social enterprises, this can be expressed as putting people before profits. These prosocial tendencies are ultimately what distinguishes a social enterprise from a normal enterprise.

Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Social Business

Empathy Has Greek Roots But is a Modern Concept

The word “empathy” is relatively modern, especially by philosophical standards. Ethics, politics, and other concepts have been debated and examined for thousands of years. Often, these intellectual debates can be drawn directly from ancient Greece and other philosophically-inclined ancient civilizations right up until modern times. However, the Greek root of empathy, “empatheia”, actually meant “physical affection or passion”.

Only later on would empathy evolve into understanding how other people feel. As a word, empathy entered the English language in 1909 when German philosopher Edward Titchener adapted “empathy” from the German word “Einfühlung”, which means “feeling into.” Yet even the Germans had only begun grappling with “Einfühlung” in the second half of the 18th century.

While empathy is a relatively new topic of study, the emotion has undoubtedly played an important and long-standing role in the evolution of human society. However, our understanding of empathy remains relatively weak compared to other human emotions and concepts.

The Pros of Empathy in Social Enterprise

These days, empathy is important for social enterprises, which themselves are a relatively new concept. A social enterprise puts people, communities, and the environment before producing profits. Empathy is vital because it helps the social entrepreneur understand these communities, people, and causes. Without empathy, even the best of intentions can fail to produce any real results.

That doesn’t mean that social enterprises don’t pursue profits. They do. In fact, one of the key distinguishing features of a social enterprise is that pursue profits and operate in markets. However, profits aren’t enough for the social entrepreneur. Instead, they’re driven by something “higher”.

As Change Creator Founder Adam Force puts it:

“The motivation they have is not spawned by the idea of money. No, it’s from something bigger: A cause — it’s a mission in their life that they become obsessed with. Nothing can derail them from pursuing it. Their vision is clear.”

What is this Higher Purpose and What Does Empathy Have to Do With It?

There is no one universal “higher purpose” that will drive every social entrepreneur. If we were going to take a stab at defining such a universal it’d probably be something like “making the world a better place.”

Let’s be honest, that sounds nice but it doesn’t say much. What does it mean to make the world a better place? Less pollution? No more cruelty towards animals? The end of warfare? Global access to adequate health care? There’s no single answer.

Interestingly, those philosophers who first started grappling with empathy were faced with a similar challenge. They wanted to know what was going on in other people’s heads. What makes people tick? Why do we care about one another?

Just as there is no one answer for a “higher purpose”, there is no one definition of what empathy is. However, the Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation.”

We can think of it in layman terms as putting ourselves in another’s shoes. What is another person experiencing? What challenges might they face? Once one understands these questions the social entrepreneur can start to ponder “how can I make a difference in this community? How can I be a positive force for change?”

Related: Social Entrepreneurship: A Higher Calling With Ilaina Rabbat

Without empathy, a social entrepreneur is blind.

Profits on their own can drive business success. For the social entrepreneur, however, profits are not enough. Making a difference is what gets most social entrepreneurs out of bed in the morning. Profits keep the business sustainable and allow it to grow. Profits are necessary but not sufficient conditions for success.

High-minded causes need to be grounded, however. In general, you can approach social entrepreneurship as either community-grounded, meaning people, animals, etc. Or you can approach it as cause-grounded, i.e. reducing carbon emissions. The distinction is itself arbitrary. If you reduce carbon emissions you are going to impact communities. If you help a community become more sustainable, likewise you will be impacting a cause.

Empathy, or understanding these communities and causes and why your own efforts will be important, is a great start. However, you need to ground your empathy in more concrete measurements. Key performance indicators and other metrics are vital for tracking your progress and shortcomings.

A Case Study: Setbacks Happen but Empathy Can Right the Ship

We can learn as much from our failures as we can from our successes, if not more. Consider Mailafiya, an eHealth service program in Nigeria. The program was started due to a severe lack of access to health care facilities in rural areas. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools were a major component of Mailafiya’s efforts.

Mailafiya launched an aggressive effort to send 24 field teams into rural areas to collect data and provide services. The initial roll-out saw a 270% increase in patients seen and a 900% increase in diseases reported. Then, the program failed. A lack of access to the Internet, a lack of basic computer literacy among local health care workers, weak governance, and a poor local ICT infrastructure led to its collapse.

Mailafiya had plenty of passion, but not enough empathy. They didn’t understand the local conditions well enough to ensure success. The program didn’t fail, however. Instead, the program’s leaders doubled down on efforts to understand the local community and build empathy.

Putting Communities Before Causes Can Produce Results

Let’s wrap this discussion by discussing how putting people and causes before profits can be beneficial. Many social entrepreneurs find their empathy challenged when they are faced with business challenges and when profits are so tantalizing close. Meanwhile, many entrepreneurs who lack empathy never give anything besides the pursuit of profits a second thought.

This is a mistake. As Anwar Amran puts it:

“Putting people before everything else, including people, can make you lose focus on the things you do best. It diverts resources from your core business to what seems profitable in the short term.”

The Case of Southwest Airlines

Consider the fate of Pacific Southwest Airlines. Once one of the most successful airliners, the company tried to expand into car rentals and hotel business. These sectors offered enticing profit potential at the time but were outside of the company’s expertise. You’ve likely never heard of Pacific Southwest. That’s because the company went bankrupt. However, you’ve probably heard of the airliner that emerged from this bankruptcy: Southwest Airlines.

There are countless other examples of profits over all else failing. More recently, General Motors went through a bankruptcy after the company focused on building large (and very profitable) gas guzzlers, including SUVs and pickup trucks. When oil prices spiked from 2004 to 2008, people slowed their purchases of big trucks. When the economy crashed in 2007, even more, people stopped buying.GM had produced fantastic profits through the 90’s. By 2009, General Motors was bankrupt.

The company would emerge from the ashes, this time with a newfound understanding that short-term profits aren’t everything. While GM still sells trucks and SUV’s they’ve diversified. Now, GM offers a variety of higher-quality small cars and crossovers. Not only that, but GM offers the all-electric Chevrolet Volt, and plugin Hybrid the Chevrolet Volt.

GM, among other automakers, recently announced that they’d go all-electric. GM has also become a leader in climate change action. Frequently, when GM’s leaders speak to the public, you can hear their empathy. They have a newfound concern for producing environmentally-friendly technologies. GM’s also been doing much better as a company over the past decade. Coincidence? I think not.

Over the long run, is empathy in business better?

This adds an interesting foil to the debate around empathy and profits before people. Could the short-term drive to produce profits at the expense of people, communities, and causes hurt companies in the long run? Meanwhile, could empathy and embracing “higher” motives generate long-term results? Perhaps being sustainable can produce companies that are actually sustainable? And perhaps empathy will result in companies that perform better over the long run.

Related:

 

How Moeloco’s Social Good Impact Model Helps Children Get School Shoes

moeloco change creator

Exclusive interview with the founder of Moeloco, Kathy Wong.

Subscribe to this show on  iTunes  |  Stitcher  |  Soundcloud

In this interview we speak with founder of Moeloco, Kathy Wong, about her retail business and it’s mission to support children with school shoes. We break down what gave her the idea, how she created the impact model and where she’s going with the business.

Kathy Wong is what you might call a serial entrepreneur, having founded and run several businesses. Her first three businesses were focused on branding, design and marketing. Her later business was as an artisan, developing and also teaching people how to create mixed media jewelry. Kathy trained as a visual communicator, has always been a passionate philanthropist, loves children and has a thirst for personal development and people.

Her desire with Moeloco is to create a heart centered community of engaged individuals wanting to be the change they see in the world.

We cover topics such as:

  • Idea discovery (why flip flops?)
  • How to create a physical product
  • How she started bring the business to life
  • How her social impact model works
  • Her biggest challenge as an social entrepreneur

Get more awesome interviews on our podcast page here

Get Funding! What Early Stage Investors Really Look For in a Social Enterprise Startup

So you’re looking for investors for your social enterprise? Fantastic! Here’s what early stage investors really look for in a social enterprise or startup idea.

Do you have what it takes to get funding? Keep reading!

Many investors are now considering the social and environmental benefits (or drawbacks) of potential investment opportunities.

Some funds and investors have even been set up specifically to fund social entrepreneurs, such as the TOMS Social Entrepreneurship Fund.

Other organizations, such as Investor’s Circle, will support any entrepreneur but will give socially and environmentally business special consideration.

It can be difficult for startups to get started without some initial capital. Sometimes, social entrepreneurs can fund their own efforts. Other times, they may have friends and family who are interested in investing. However, it’s often necessary to reach outside of personal networks to find funding. Good news is: angel investors, seed funds, and accelerators are willing to invest in startups and ideas.

Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Social Business

Consider the Investor’s Point of View

Every time you want to work with or pitch anyone about anything, consider the audience and their point of view.

What is an investor looking for?

The primary concern for most investors is producing a profit. They invest and assume risk in anticipation of making money. Some investments will go sour, that’s a fact of life. Other investments will go on to make money. Early round investors will “take gambles” and assume high amounts of risk.

However, no investor wants to lose money. Early round investors accept that they are investing in high-risk ventures. They will accept that risk if the long-term pay off looks big. Many young companies fail, but those that succeed and eventually reach either an IPO or a buyout can produce massive profits.

Data suggests that angel investors average returns of 2.5X their initial investments. However, while some savvy angel investors manage to turn a large profit, many fail to make much if any. In fact, angel investors are actually more likely to lose money than making money on a deal. When they do make money, they tend to make a lot.

Of course, investors who invest in social enterprises are looking for more than profits. Just like social entrepreneurs themselves, social enterprise investors looking to make a positive impact. Some investors will favor certain types of change. Bill Gates, for example, just announced a $2 billion investment in sustainable energy.

Related: How to know which type of investment to seek

What Early Stage Investors Look For In Social Enterprises?

Early stage investors in the social entrepreneurship space will look at the same things as other investors.

  • How does the team look?
  • How about the chosen leader or leaders?
  • What is their vision?
  • Any financial plans, projections, revenues, or other numbers?

However, for investors looking to invest in social enterprises, these numbers won’t be enough. And sometimes, they might overlook gaps in the business plan, product, or team if they believe in the potential to make a positive impact.

The most committed social enterprise funders will go even further and prioritize social and environmental benefits. These funders are more concerned with making a positive impact rather than producing profits. If the enterprise produces small profits but generates a lot of change, that’s not only acceptable but great.

Many social enterprise investors are looking for a mix of making an impact and producing a profit. Profits are important for two reasons. First, yes most investors are looking to generate a return.

Secondly, profits will help the business sustain itself and expand. Self-sustainability is one of the key differences between a social enterprise and a charity. Charities rely on donors. They have to run donation drives, find big money donors, or convince corporations to give them funding. A social enterprise can rely on funds revenues generated by selling products and services.

Understanding What “Early Stage” Investment Means

Investors look at different factors at different stages.

The earliest round of funding is usually called either “seed” or “angel” funding. Angel investors may not expect to see revenues and sales. In some cases, early-stage seed funders will even provide funding when the product itself hasn’t been clearly defined.

One accelerator, Startup Bootcamp, “simply” wants you to have identified your market and the “why” behind what you’re trying to create.

Of course, having sales or at least a defined product certainly helps. Yet early stage investors will invest in entrepreneurs and teams that they believe have potential. The more proof that your product or service will be a smash success, the better. Often, it makes sense to “bootstrap” and produce some results before you even look for funding. A pilot test or soft launch can go a long way towards providing that your business will be a success.

Let’s look at a case study.

Pilot Projects Are Fantastic For Proving Viability

Talk is great. Business plans are fantastic. A strong team and a great vision can go a long way. But do you know what gets investors really excited? Results. Of course, it can be hard to produce results without funding. However, you may be able to set up a pilot project, even a small-scale one on a tight budget or just plain old sweat. If so, you should get that rolling before you even approach investors.

Take Blue Ventures, for example. The company rebuilds tropical fisheries in coastal communities. Many fisheries have been overexploited, and either has collapsed or are at risk of collapsing. The environment itself is damaged and communities that rely on those fisheries have been adversely affected.

Blue Ventures started in one small village in Madagascar. The company ran an experiment, closing off a small section of an octopus fishery to see if it would rejuvenate. It was a small test project, the type of thing angel investors might fund even if the risks are high.

Related: Funding your social enterprise: first stop – grants

The experiment worked. The local fishery became far more productive. As news spread among other villages, Blue Vision found itself in hot demand. The market already proved that their idea would work. These early results helped Blue Ventures expand its efforts locally. It also attracted funding and resources. Blue Ventures went on to win the Tusk Conservation Award, a Skoll award, and other accolades.

Now, the Blue Venture’s impact has reached a viral phase.

Investors Invest in People (But That Probably Means Something Different Than What You Think)

There’s a common saying among venture capital firms: they invest in people, not ideas or even businesses.

This saying is very nuanced, and quite frankly, many aspiring tech geniuses and would-be social entrepreneurs misinterpret it. Venture capital firms don’t invest simply in “people”, nor do they invest in savvy salesmen who make great pitches. Venture Capital firms invest in people who they believe can get sh** done. Potential investors will spend a considerable amount of time evaluating management teams.

A savvy investor isn’t going to be convinced by a great smile or wowed by the most intricate investment proposal. Sure, these factors can make a great first impression; however, the world is full of savvy people and fantastic ideas. In the long run what separates titans of industry from intellectual tinkerers is the ability to execute.

Investors also prefer to invest in established and skilled teams. A lone entrepreneur can’t build a company on his or her own. Sometimes, seed funders will provide resources to a lone founder. However, it is important to build a team.

This team needs to be balanced. Let’s look at a quick excerpt from our magazine:

“The social enterprise startup is unique because it requires both social development and business acumen to be successful. In my experience very few people are experts at both. Some are development visionaries- they can see what needs changing and which ideas would help. Others are business gurus who can find the perfect price point, financial model, and business development strategy.”

In addition to having a social development expert and a business whiz, it also helps to have the technical/skilled staff on the team already. If you’re looking to launch an app, it’ll help if you have the app developer already on board.

Great Ideas Are Great But Not Enough

Here’s a fact: the word is full of great ideas. If you head to a conference, incubator, hackathon, or other event packed with bright, ambitious minds, and you get everyone to open up, you’ll hear tons of great ideas. I’ve been to quite a few of these events, and without exception, I’ve come across a ton of great ideas.

So what will make your social enterprise startup idea attract the big fish in silicon valley? You will need more than just a great idea if want to attract what early-stage investors really look for — a great idea and a great investment.

Here’s another fact: accurate, reliable futurologists are hard to come by. The brightest analysts at the best Venture Capitalist firms, the biggest banks, and the most elite consulting firms don’t know what the future holds. Sure, they might publish confident reports predicting future “certainties”. However, if you go and dig up past reports, you’ll find that the experts themselves are often wrong.

The inherent uncertainty of the future is one of the several reasons that early stage investors will invest in people rather than businesses or even ideas. The future might change, markets may not react the way that you think. However,  great business leaders will adjust. They will anticipate markets, look for opportunities, and when necessary, abandon or change ideas up.

No one can predict the future. Further, an idea that seems like a sure-fire could flop once it hits the market. And that’s assuming that the product ever reaches the market. Fact is, many startup ideas remain ideas and never become actual products.

As Lowercase Capital puts it “ideas are cheap and execution is the cat’s pajamas.”  A great team will bring great ideas to life. A proactive team will adjust when products are failing. The wrong team, however, will simply waste money.

Scaling Up: Every Early Stage Investor Wants to Go Big

Early stage investors know they are taking on risks. However, they also want to go big. Scalability is very important for every investor. They don’t just want to hear buzzwords about how you’re going to change the world or save the fish in the sea. They want to see an actual plan with steps and considerations.

Your plan to achieve scale doesn’t have to be micro-detailed. You don’t have to know every person or organization you will reach out to, or the exact structure of projects you haven’t even started working on. However, you do have to prove that you’re serious and that you’re thinking ahead.

You need to have a clear vision for how you plan to scale, and you need to have a general idea of who you’re going to contact and who can help you achieve your plans. For social enterprises, that often means the local community. Take Blue Ventures, for an example. The company rebuilds aquatic habitats, working with local fishers to make local fisheries sustainable.

A Quick Case Study: Using Profits to Drive Change

A social enterprise can rely on the products and services it sells to fund its operations. Often, simply the act of selling a good is creating impact. Consider Patagonia, a company that sells active lifestyle gear, including rock climbing equipment. When founder Yvon Chouinard founded the company he wanted to do more than just produce profits. In fact, he was already producing profits but realized that the steel pitons he was manufacturing were permanently damaging rock faces. So he started producing climbing equipment that wouldn’t hurt the environment.

Patagonia grew, and every time the company sold a product, that meant that customers were choosing a sustainable product that wouldn’t damage the environment. At the same time, the company was producing profits, which it could then reinvest in new product lines. Now Patagonia produces over a half billion dollars a year in revenues. Patagonia now produces a lot more than climbing gear. It is a full lifestyle company that produces a range of products. However, it has never lost sight of its social ambitions.

Patagonia was a stunning success, but it started small. The company reached its tremendous heights by utilizing the market and turning profits into sustainable change.

So Where Can I Actually Find Resources?

Enough talk. It’s time for action.

There are many opportunities for finding resources.

Consider your own social and family network. Do you have a “rich uncle” who might be willing to provide some funding? Do you have friends who could contribute some free sweat labor?

Explore these opportunities first, because if you can get the ball rolling now, it’ll help you when you apply for external funding.

If your company is very young, then you should consider accelerator programs. Resource and funding packages vary from accelerator to accelerator, however, most will offer somewhere around $120,000 dollars in exchange for 6% of your company. Most will also offer office space, mentorship, and business advice. They may also be able to link you up with venture capital firms.

Many angel investors are also very active. In 2011 angel investors seeded some 65,000 different startups with roughly $22 billion dollars. Finding angel investors can be tricky. Often, it takes a personal connection. By attending trade shows, conferences, and hackathons you might rub shoulders with potential angel investors.

Crowdfunding is also growing in popularity. However, securing funding is a bit of a crapshoot. Some projects stick and go viral, many simply fade away. If you go for crowdfunding on Kickstarter or another platform, make sure you explain the value of your project, why it’s different, and why people should care.

Final Words

No matter who you approach for funding, remember to consider their perspective.

What are their motives? Profits, sure. But what else? How can your business generate both profit and good for the world?

Put your presentation in terms that your audience will understand and relate to. There’s no way to guarantee that you will secure an investment, but aiming your pitch at your audience will help.

The Most Sacred Gift You Can Give According to Tony Robbins

tony robbins change creator

Tony Robbins, the unconventional social entrepreneur.

With one knock on the door on, Thanksgiving Day, his life changed and his mission to give back started. Now, as a coach, author, businessman, and philanthropist he has changed millions of lives.

He could have retired at the age of 26, but he realized there is much more to life than money. In 2016 he personally provided 59 million meals to people in the USA and matched 100 million more through his partnership with Feeding America to honor those who helped his family during tough times.

Check out Change Creator Magazine with Tony Robbins – Full Edition!

Social Responsibility Advice For A Good Life: An Open Letter

In this open letter to small & mid-sized companies, Fatima Homor, MBA, shares advice about social responsibility in all areas of life include business. Let her words inspire you to action and keep smiling!

For existing businesses:

Dear Social Entrepreneur,

Let me start at the end: I wish you profitable growth and also thank you for being a socially conscious businessperson.

Is it easy? Is it hard? Are you profitable?

Being a social enterprise from one perspective is easier, from the other is harder than it is for a rather unconscious business (UB).

Why?

First. A UB does not take a lot of crucial details into consideration, from paying the colleagues correctly and legally, to investing in renewable energy or sustainable NGO support.

Second. The UB focus is first and second on growing margin, it is a rather ego based attitude. Meaning, it won’t lead so easily to the give-up stage.

People committing to be social entrepreneurs chose a lifestyle, are more emotionally committed and therefore might feel overwhelmed more often.

Both the success and the failure of a social entrepreneur lies on their long-term belief they will be successful!

3 Reminders:

  1. Do not quit
  2. Talk about it to everyone
  3. Constantly read, research, and educate yourself

Related: 13 Traits That All Effective Social Entrepreneurs (And Conscious People) Share

I have some good advice and practices to share with you in order to offer you some support..

Need funding?

Start finding locally available Angel Investors.

Many of them told me in 2017: I am tired of the same pitches all the time, start-ups willing to earn money by creating an App etc. I want to invest into value-creation, where the entrepreneurs are 101% committed, and they also possess great knowledge in their topic of sustainability!

You have to commit to sustainability at all levels. CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) implemented into the core of the business starts with you personally.

Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Social Business

For example, do you smoke? Do you drink too much alcohol? Do you use makeup products tested on animals? Do you take plastic bags from the supermarkets? Do you overuse electricity? Do you eat too much meat? (One of the biggest contributors to global warming…) Do you have 10 minutes long showers? Do you pay for processed food? Don’t you recycle your own trash? Do you drink your coffee or water from a plastic bottle?

Don’t you talk to your friends…?

Why the heck have I raised the last question?

Because the philanthropic way of living is the first and foremost aspect of real and successful CSR operations. You need to be consistent on that in all areas of your life.

Related: The Most Sacred Gift You Can Give According to Tony Robbins

How does it apply to you?

There are similarities and differences when we take into consideration the actual to do’s, but being human at all times is a key perspective. To learn about this more, hire and get into contact with smiley people, women, and youth.

As an important practice, you must internalize your external costs. E.g. if your business acknowledges the facts of its food-waste cost impact and internalize these expenses, you will see how much more both you and your evaluators will reflect on your real sustainability goals. The Business Commission on Sustainability has measured the impact of this practice: 99%.

Another impactful task is to raise the wages of your employees and yourself from the minimum wage to the living wage level.

If you are unable to do so due to funding constraints, build these aspects into your business plan and offer it with an explanation to the Angel Investors.

Further, a key perspective is the education of yourself, your colleagues and partners. According to recent measures connected to the SDGs (United Nations 2030 Sustainability Development Goals), one dollar invested into education brings back 10 dollars at least.

How can you educate yourself?

There are tons of articles, books, Online-studying opportunities, where you can further and further educate yourself on your subject. You need to be an expert in your topic and turn your expertise into convincing sales.

Here comes a challenging question: do you have to be a good salesperson? Yes, you do. Should you be willing to earn a lot of money? Yes, you should.

One of the largest stop signs of social entrepreneurs is that they are afraid of talking about money, asking for payment of their goods, services. Social enterprises are NOT non-profits. And they shouldn’t be. Money in good hands is the best tool ever!

Do not get confused with being social and earning good money! These shall be on the same page. Have you read the Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki? Or the quote from Sharon Lechter:

“Your money. Your business. Your life.”

Social enterprises should earn more money so they are able to invest back more into themselves and their socially committed businesses.

Yes, we must support each other. Yes, we, socially committed business owners and CEOs should leave our doors open and provide real value when we open our hands. Though our businesses will thrive only when we become conscious about our real value creation.

What about existing businesses?

You shall use CSR as the main basis for your incomparable advantage to gain your loyal customers and coworkers on the long run. You should lead by example as a business owner both in your business and in your private life, and communicate it at every event, forum, and conference. Share the word of the doing good while doing well phenomenon is happening. Be proud of it! It is really chic!

change creator socially responsible team

50 years ago or so it was a chic to be the godfather-type-of businessman. Today we open our mouth and many of us say, our religion is: we believe in doing good. This brings us inclusion.

The SDGs aim to affect all aspects of our life. We are the doers! The more we are committed, the more success we earn. The more success we earn, the happier we are as we feel our life is meaningful.

I am Fatima Homor, MBA researcher at the University of Liverpool, owner of the Angeling Profit, CSR Kickstarter Online social enterprise. Thank you for your care and listening.

Greetings from Hungary now!
Fatima

Ps.: A smile is not unprofessional, a smile is self-confidence.

Related: 13 Traits That All Effective Social Entrepreneurs (And Conscious People) Share

How the KIND Foundation is Connecting Youth, Spreading Kindness and Creating Future Social Entrepreneurs

Today the KIND Foundation announces its biggest bet yet — a $20MM multi-year commitment to connect one million students through an initiative called Empatico! The name, which connotes empathy, underscores the importance of the so-called “soft skills,” which are increasingly critical to success in a divided country and interconnected world.

We are so proud of the work the KIND Foundation is doing to create the next generation of social entrepreneurs, we had to talk to the director of the KIND Foundation, Dana Rosenberg. Learn more from our interview here:

Listen to our interview with KIND Foundation Director, Dana Rosenberg

 

In 2016, The KIND Foundation was formed in order to help KIND Snacks further their efforts to make the world a kinder place. Through the foundation, they have been able to fund projects that implement systems of kindness in schools, recognize and support those who have performed extraordinary acts of kindness, and award grants to organizations who are attempting to make a difference in their community.

We were lucky enough to be able to interview the director of the KIND Foundation, Dana Rosenberg, in our Change Creator Podcast where we discussed the origins of the KIND Foundation, their current initiatives, and what they’ve done to help the social entrepreneur community.

What is the KIND Foundation?

“The KIND Foundation was established by KIND Healthy Snacks in the beginning of 2016. Through our foundation, our mission has always been to foster kinder and more empathetic communities,” Dana tells us. “You might be familiar with KIND Snacks as the meter of healthy, nutritious snack options but what you might not know is that we were also founded with the mission to inspire and spread kindness. Furthering that value of being kind has been part of our efforts since day one.”

Related: This 9 Year Old Wrote a Letter To KIND CEO, Here’s What Happened

 What is the KIND Schools Challenge and how did it form?

Dana knew that once the foundation was established, they needed to find ways in which they could engage with their community and help them further the belief that it was necessary to foster kindness and connect with each other.

“We were introduced to Rick Weissbourd who is the head of Making Caring Common, a program of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, and were really blown away by the work that they were doing there. As we got to know them, we established the first KIND Schools Challenge.”

The first KIND Schools Challenge was launched in Making Caring Common schools last year with the intent to help schools and students create change within their own community. It was extremely successful and financial support was given to a school in Jacksonville, where three students created a program that helped other students realize that they were more connected than they initially believed.

“Based on that experience, we teamed up with Harvard once again and we are so thrilled. Applications are now open for this year’s KIND Schools Challenge,” she announced. “The big difference this year is that we are no longer limiting it to the Making Caring Common network. We are opening this up nationally. Any middle school and high school in America can take part. All they need to do is form a team of 3 to 5 students, find a teacher adviser, and address a challenge that they are facing.”

Those who win the KIND Schools Challenge this year will be receiving a small stipend to launch the program and expert advice from a team at Harvard so that they can better shape their community into a kinder place.

What are you trying to achieve through your projects?

“For us, I think this is really making kindness more top of mind and reinforcing it as a value that we should all continue to prioritize and think about as we go on with our daily lives. For us, kindness calls on us to treat each other with respect, compassion, and empathy. It means taking that effort to listen and get to know people that you might not otherwise get to know. It goes well beyond this program. We hope that it is a mindset that people continue to prioritize and celebrate in their own lives.”

Kindness Gives Students a New Kind of Platform!

Teaming up with leading technologists (including the former CTO of Kickstarter) and global education experts to incubate the online learning tool, KIND Foundation has created a whole new way to connect students. Through seamless video conferencing technology and standards-based activities, an 8-year-old in India can now explore what life is like for an 8-year-old in Arkansas. Perhaps more important given the state of affairs in our country, that same kid in Arkansas can meaningfully interact with his or her Brooklyn peers.

Daniel, the Founder & CEO of KIND snacks conceived this idea more than a decade ago (they have the 4 am emails to prove it!) after doing work in the Middle East and realizing the importance of giving people a platform to share their stories.

Will you be expanding your efforts at the university level to help address the importance of social entrepreneurship?

“Right now, we’re evaluating all different points of a young person’s journey until they enter the workforce. For us, our next step is going to be that third and fourth grade age range. We think it’s a really interesting opportunity in terms of the development of a child and their ability to accept and understand different viewpoints. However, we’re also exploring those older age groups as well.”

Related: How 3 Students Stepped Up to Win a National Kindness Award

She goes on to discuss the free social entrepreneurship summit that the KIND Foundation hosted last year where interested entrepreneurs could learn about how to make money while building their own business that was socially conscious. All of the KIND staff took the day off to help entrepreneurs with different areas of business and they were able to speak with successful members of the entrepreneur community such as Arianna Huffington and CEO of KIND, Daniel Lewbetzky.

“It was really an incredible day and an opportunity to give back to our own history. KIND is really proud to be a business with a social purpose and a chance to really encourage that next generation of social entrepreneurs. We need more people who are thinking about, how do I create a great business but also have an impact at the same time?”

She also tells us that working on social entrepreneurship is not an area that they are currently focusing on but that it will be in the future.

What should people be doing to support the mission of spreading kindness?

“Submission for projects to be a part of the (KIND Schools) challenge closes on October 25th. I just encourage as many people across the country to get involved, to think of an idea, and to submit it and to really make an effort to make their schools kinder and more caring. The other thing is, in terms of your social entrepreneurs, I encourage them to look at the KIND Schools Challenge toolkit that came out of last year. These tips and tricks that we’re giving to middle school and high schoolers can be applied to social entrepreneurs to make this a part of your daily life.”

How to Spread Kindness in Your Communities – Key Takeaways:

  • Make a real effort to learn from others. Many of the people in your community have gone through situations that you have gone through as well. Make an effort to learn about the lives of others and you will be better suited to empathize, connect, and show them kindness.
  • Incorporate kindness into your daily life. Find ways that you express kindness to people daily and turn kindness into a habit.
  • Get involved. Look for programs and organizations in your community who are trying to make a difference and get involved. Major changes begin with individuals like you!
  • Kindness needs a bigger platform in this world! How will you spread kindness and empathy today?
  • Think about opportunities to create a great business with impact!

You can find out more about the KIND Foundation and their initiatives through the links below:

KIND Schools Challenge

KIND Schools Challenge Toolkit

Kind Entrepreneurship Summit

Of course, you can always support brands like Kind buy purchasing their product. Check out the latest prices of Kind bars right now!

How This Perfume Company’s Impact Model Helps Women

change creator divona

Exclusive interview with the co-founder of DIVONA, Kayte Torreao da Costa.

Subscribe to this show on  iTunes  |  Stitcher  |  Soundcloud

Kayte Torreao da Costa and Mylene Paquin didn’t want to create just another perfume company – they dreamed of creating a perfume company with a purpose. One that supports the issues that many women care about. If something as small as a care package can bring light into these women’s lives than they believe it’s all worth it.

In this interview, we talk with Kayte Torreao da Costa to uncover how they connected as co-founders and developed such a unique impact model for their perfume business.

They know people want to make an impact in the world and they want their impact to reflect who they are as a person. DIVONA created a line of perfumes that provides you with a scent that reflects your unique identity as well as an easy way to empower thousands of women with a single purchase.

Some Topics Discussed:

  1. How the co-founders met and knew it was a fit
  2. How the business started
  3. How their business is set up
  4. A breakdown of their impact model and how it works
  5. When they had to pivot their model and why
  6. How they validated their product
  7. Their approach to funding
  8. A travel experience that impacted her life

This just scratches the surface so dive in and get the details to help inspire your own impact!

Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Social Business

You might also enjoy:

Why Social Enterprise Matters: An Examination Into the Role of Social Enterprise to Solve Social Problems

Unlike solely for-profit businesses, social enterprises are in the unique position to solve real social problems in this world and make money doing it. Unlike charities that have to continue to raise funds to give back, social business can create lasting and sustainable solutions for social and societal change. In today’s changing landscape, we examine why social enterprise matters — why do we need it? What can we do to support it?

The rise of entrepreneurship has had its fair share of benefits. However, businesses have also brought about some difficult challenges that are affecting us now and can get even worse in future if not controlled.

Due to this, some people started thinking about more than just profits. To them, there’s no need for people to try providing solutions with their businesses, only to end up creating other problems elsewhere. There were just too many social, cultural and environmental issues that needed to be sorted out.

Think about it. Have you heard about factories that mistreat their workers? Don’t you just cringe at the thought of blood diamonds? Or at the fact that some companies have been constantly messing up the environment? You’re not alone, many have been asking themselves the above questions and more.

So, what’s the solution to all this?

Simple. Social entrepreneurship.

This is where for profit social enterprise companies create solutions to the above issues. They mix up profitable and non-profit ventures to ensure they generate a positive return to the society, especially where social, cultural and environmental issues are concerned. Their focus is more on the social impact than their financial gains.

Why exactly does social entrepreneurship matter?

It’s a smart way to solve social problems. It is the only way to solve sustainable, long-lasting social problems.

Let’s face it. The society faces so many problems.

In an interview with Change Creator, Sasha Fisher, the co-founder and executive director of Spark MicroGrants, stated that she grew up wondering why the world she lived in was unequal. There are people and societies that have way more than enough to survive. On the other hand, some local communities can barely afford a decent meal.

Social enterprises smartly solve social problems. Let’s look at Spark MicroGrants, for example.

Smart example #1: Spark MicroGrants

Spark does not focus on giving aid to communities or lording over them with what they’re supposed to do. They actually give communities control over their future.

When Sasha went to Rwanda, she was keen on ensuring that whatever happens was owned by the local communities. They used this as a way to create long-term change. Spark works in conjunction with the Rwandan government to strengthen leadership in the village.

Their business model is simple: The community selects their own projects that have an income component. Spark then focuses on bringing those projects to life. Through this collaboration, they have been able to help communities build businesses where they mill cereals for other villagers and also sell surplus crops from farming.

The village is now more hopeful. They have better family lives. They are not only able to earn an income from this, but they also have immense control of their future.

If you’re thinking of starting an impactful social enterprise like Spark, here are some key things you can learn from Spark MicroGrants:

  • Empower communities to have control over their own future
  • Work on positive and sustainable change, where a community doesn’t depend on you but are able to depend on them
  • Focus on social impact than financial impact – such communities usually need more than just finances
  • Help people improve their conflict-resolution mechanisms

Spark has done a tremendous job and changed so many lives. It’s now offering solutions to 5 countries – Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, DRC, and Ghana.

Another group of people that need more help across the board is persons with disabilities. And that’s where Accessibility Partners comes in.

Smart example #2: Accessibility Partners

This is a socially aware business that helps in accessibility issues – testing and reviewing products to make sure IT (information technology) is accessible to persons with a number of disabilities.

What makes the Accessibility Partners team unique is that more than 70 percent of its employees are actually individuals with disabilities. This ends up being a smart way to empower this specific important group of individuals – using a team that faces similar challenges. It’s a powerful business model aimed to help those inside and outside of the company.

Founded in 2003, it has now become a strong force to reckon with. It works with private and public information technology companies, organizations of different sizes and federal agencies. This socially aware organization comprises of technologists, subject matter experts, and senior consultants.

Some of the key takeaways that can be derived from this social enterprise business model include:

  • Social entrepreneurship is also excelling in the tech industry
  • Persons who are considered disadvantaged can actually become extremely productive when given a chance.
  • Success kills stigma

When a stigmatized group of people is successful, the world gets to see that they don’t need to stigmatize them. That they’re also human beings who have immense strengths that are useful and important for the society.

The above organizations show us clearly that socially aware businesses smartly solve social issues. Some of these issues are usually left in the hands of governments and non-profits. However, this is all changing because such companies are making the implementation of such projects quicker.

Social entrepreneurship hastens implementation of key projects.

Governments are responsible for taking care of their citizens – at least that’s what people have been thinking for ages.

However, governments can sometimes be spread too thin. They run too many projects at the same time. This means that they prioritize certain projects over others, thus some important projects may take too long to be enacted.

In comes social entrepreneurs. These are keen to meet their set agendas without relying on government processes. The community, therefore, reaps the benefits faster without having to wait for the government to prioritize their issues.

Additionally, and sadly, the governments of some growing countries have not yet gotten to the point where they put the ordinary person first. Others are still oppressive to their citizens. It takes independent social initiatives to bring positive change to the society in these countries that are fast losing hope.

Related: Want to Change The World? You Need To Read This First

Social aware businesses don’t just hasten projects that would have been done by government. They also do the same for non-profits.

Housing is one of the areas that many people need help on. There are so many homeless people in the world. The numbers are appalling.

When a global survey was done on the homeless back in 2005 by the United Nations, it was found that there were 100 million homeless people. Worse yet, 1.6 billion did not have adequate housing. Lots of people are dying out there due to poorly built houses. Natural disasters like earthquakes even multiply such fatalities to unimaginable levels.

Dr. Elizabeth Hausler, featured on the cover of issue 10 of Change Creator Magazine, is working hard to change this. She actually won the prestigious 2017 Skoll Award. She’s changing lives, one brick at a time.

Here’s how:

How Build Change is literally building change.

Dr. Elizabeth Hausler is the founder the award-winning organization called Build Change.

“It’s not the earthquake that kills people; it’s the collapse of a poorly built building.” – Hausler

According to her, safe housing is a basic human right.

So, what’s Build Change all about?

It’s a social enterprise that saves lives through working with communities in emerging countries to build houses and schools. They do this in a way that these structures don’t collapse when there are occurrences of earthquakes and typhoons.

Their mission is to reduce injuries, deaths and economic losses brought about by these natural disasters.

They first work with governments to develop building standards. This fills a gap in these countries, where the government does not have the capacity, personnel, resources, vehicles, inspection capabilities or even budget required to enforce effective building codes.

Build Change streamlines all this, making it simpler and even using latest information technology tools and apps to make sure things work smoothly. It also provides access to financing; knowing very well that businessmen will need a grant or a loan to build back their businesses after a disaster.

Through such initiatives, Build Change has enhanced the safety of the structures of 230,000 people. It has won numerous awards for its excellent work.

This all started when Hausler decided to leave her comfort zone and fly to India after the 2001 earthquake that killed between 13,000 and 20,000 people. She couldn’t just keep quiet and keep seeing disasters like the one on the figure above. Not if she could do something about it. And now 230,000 people are living in safer conditions.

Some of the key takeaways from this include:

  • To make a change, many times you need to leave your comfort zone and go help people in another state, country or region
  • Use technology to streamline your processes
  • Governments and NGOs do not always have the capacity to solve some problems. Help them when you can.

Social aware enterprises solve business problems, but here’s more.

They offer solutions that cater for people in both social and economic networks. They matter because go above just business. They take it up a notch by making sure that whatever solutions they give do not end up messing up social, cultural and environmental ecosystems – they make it their mission to safeguard these important sectors.

Their functions are nourished by the emotional and informational support. Here entrepreneurs holistically take care of those in need.

As an agent of change that contributes significantly to the global economy, it brings change in ways that governments, businesses, and non-profits don’t. They offer alternative solutions when the administration is not effectively working on the needs of the day.

If you’re such an entrepreneur, you get joys and satisfaction that are way beyond money. Most businesses are out for a profit. But your social enterprises will balance economic and social issues. This is a higher calling which brings lasting change, making the world a better place for now and the future.

The Gallup study, How Millenials Want to Work and Live brought out very important findings. These include:

  • Millennials don’t just want to focus on a paycheck, they want to serve a purpose
  • They’re shifting focus from their satisfaction to their development
  • Instead of working for bosses, millennials are looking for coaches
  • Their lives are not about annual reviews, but rather ongoing conversations
  • They don’t focus only on their weaknesses, they put emphasis on their strengths
  • To millennials, it’s not just a job – it’s their lives

This study shows that millennials don’t just want to do business, they want to leave a social impact. This clearly shows that social entrepreneurship now matters more than ever.

According to Nielsen, global consumers are more willing to reward companies that give back to communities. The giving aspect makes them want to pay more for the products.

For social purpose businesses, this is a huge plus. It will not only increase their bottom line but also give them more resources that they can use to make an even bigger impact on the society.

Let’s look at one entrepreneur who took business as more than just an avenue to make money.

The Dr. Alasdair Harris (Al) example.

Dr. Harris is referred to as simply “Al” in his site, Blue Ventures.

Al founded Blue Ventures, an award-winning social enterprise, in 2003. This was to show that proper marine conservation requires entrepreneurial, pragmatic and locally-led approaches.

Al’s organization has made a huge difference in marine ecosystems and also created a stream of revenues for locals in emerging countries. One of its biggest achievements is that it created the biggest marine-protected, locally-managed areas in the Indian Ocean They also established sustainable ecotourism businesses and aquaculture.

This solves both a business and a social problem.

Successful social entrepreneurs set an example.

Above we talked about Sasha Fisher’s worry when she was growing up. She simply struggled with the fact that there is so much inequality in the world, and that led to her founding Spark MicroGrants a while later.

Sadly, there are many live lives oblivious of the challenges that other people are facing in the world. In their minds, they say, “Those are other people’s problems. Let their governments and non-profits fix them.”

When people actually go out of their way and start changing people’s lives, the whole story changes.

As a social entrepreneur, you inspire others to work on social businesses. You set an example to those who once looked at social, cultural and environmental challenges as “other people’s problems”. Through your initiative, they start believing that they, too, can make a difference.

Since this is a sector that brings in a lot of positive change, the world needs lots of inspirational stories, just like yours. It’s inspiring to see someone considered privileged and comfortable going out of their way to create solutions for those who really need a helping hand.

The world matters and social entrepreneurs bring global solutions to business.

There are so many things happening all over the world. Lots of global changes that need our attention.

Social aware businesses bring in an angle that solves pertinent issues such as health, education, and employment among others. They strengthen economies and deliver efficient public services.

Many social entrepreneurs think globally. Think about the following before starting your social enterprise.

  • Is your business solving humanity problems?
  • Are you infringing on any fundamental human rights?
  • Are the items you use for your business products of factories that mistreat and underpay their workers?
  • Are you solving any cultural, environmental or social issues?

Nielsen’s sustainability imperative came up with some interesting findings in 2015. These included the following:

  • Sales of consumer goods from brands that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability grew by over 4% in 2015. Those without grew by less than 1%.
  • 60% of consumers were willing to pay more money for sustainable brands in 2015. This was a remarkable improvement from the previous years – 50% in 2013 and 55% in 2014.

(Source: Nielsen)


This shows that it’s not only brands that are becoming socially aware, consumers are, too. As much as social entrepreneurs focus on social impact, the above study proves that increase in social awareness is also changing how global business is done.

Key takeaways here include:

  • Your business should not only fix local solutions. Think globally.
  • Customers are happy if your products are socially aware. There’s a whole market out there for such initiatives.
  • Focus on social impact, no matter how small it is. When more people implement such projects, the effect will be noticed globally.

They fix problems brought about by business.

Business is not wrong in totality. They need to make a profit, and we need to buy their goods and services. We need their products to solve some of our basic and luxurious needs. Some businesses, even without precisely being social enterprises, still make the world a better place.

However, there are a number of businesses that have brought about some of our biggest global challenges. Social enterprise changes this by marrying for profit and non-profit aspects. This takes care of some of the global challenges that we’re currently facing.

The shocking Rana Plaza tragedy — how tragedy can create change.

The Rana Plaza tragedy made people change their thoughts on who exactly makes their clothes.

This single tragedy led to the deaths of more than 1,100 people and is the worst industrial accident in the world. What now remains is the debris of what was once a factory that made cheap clothing for the west.

On the 23rd April 2013, a television feature showed cracks in the Rana Plaza building. However, Sohel Rana stated in the media that it was safe for workers to return to the building. He reported that it was still safe.

However, on 24th April, at around 8:57 am, the building collapsed with over 3,122 workers still inside. 1100 did not make it out alive.

Sohel was simply trying to make as much profit as possible from his business. However, he didn’t consider the safety and livelihood of his workers, leading to this astronomical tragedy that could have been avoided.

This led to a rise in socially aware businesses that actually make sure that all their processes are done in a way that does not endanger human beings or the environment. Therefore, they’re fixing a huge problem that other businesses have been creating for ages.

Scarcity has brought about marvelous innovations, but false scarcity creates problems.

There are definitely more problems than people who can solve them. Thus social entrepreneurs have used this scarcity of resources to come up with some of the biggest innovations of our times. These are huge innovations since they solve issues such as poverty, poor quality of life and environmental issues among others.

This mixes up a mission and cutting-edge technology.

Solutions brought about by social entrepreneurship.

There are many awesome companies that have been started by social entrepreneurs. Here are a few:

  1. Kiva: Provides loans that change lives
  2. Grameen Bank: Gives banking solutions to the poor in Bangladesh
  3. Teach for America: Learning solutions for Americans
  4. Accessibility Partners: Makes it easy for persons with disabilities to access information technology
  5. Everlane: A socially aware clothing company

Cost-effectiveness in social entrepreneurship.

Social entrepreneurs think about the long-term impact of their initiatives. In their eyes, there’s no need for creating a huge business today that will bring end up causing a disaster in future.

Think about some of these workplaces that give their workers poor working and living conditions, exposing them to numerous expensive health challenges, such as the Rana Plaza tragedy mentioned above.

Social aware entrepreneurs think differently. Their goal is to heighten innovation and impact, not income.

Here profits are not as valuable as social results. No matter how much income is made, a social awareness project fails if it does not have a meaningful social impact. In fact, any social entrepreneur who generates colossal profits and does not convert that into a cost-effective, meaningful social impact has wasted useful resources.

Some of the social impacts they can push for include:

  • A cleaner environment
  • Easier access to health care
  • Improved education
  • Housing for the homeless
  • Reduced poverty
  • Protection of abused children
  • Improved working conditions

These are done in a cost-effective way. They end up bettering the lives of the disadvantaged. In the long-term, they’re good for the well-being of other human beings and eventually the overall worldwide economy.

Here, cost-effectiveness will not only affect the core services being offered by a company, it also applies in their employee uptake.

The 2016 Cone Communications Employee Engagement Study came up with interesting findings to back up this claim. Their studies showed that:

  • More than 75% of millennials would accept a pay cut if hired in a responsible company
  • 88% find jobs more fulfilling when provided with opportunities to make a positive impact on environmental and social issues (US average is 74%)
  • When deciding where to work, 76% consider the social and environmental commitments of a company
  • 64% would decline job offers from companies without strong CSR practices

The key takeaway here is the fact that social entrepreneurs find it easier to hire millennials, thus reducing the costs and time taken to hire experts.

Millenials will soon form more than 50% of the workforce, therefore having practices that appeal to them will greatly increase their chances to work for you. A brilliant, socially conscious, young workforce will be able to help greatly push the agenda of a business, while still ensuring there’s reasonable social impact.

So, does social entrepreneurship matter?

Yes it does.

It solves social problems, hastens implementation of key projects, solves business problems, fixes issues brought about by businesses and is cost-effective in the long run. It changes lives. It makes the world a better place. More people need to follow this model and start creating lasting, effective, sustainable social impact. The world needs it!

5 Best Tips for Increasing Your Productivity That You Need to Know Now!

Productivity: a seemingly simple word that manages to both excite and terrify the entrepreneur within us.

Over the years, there have been plenty of self-help gurus and business owners that have come forward with their own ideas on how to boost productivity. However, some ideas are more harmful than helpful and a lot of people are unable to differentiate the good from the bad. Instead of wasting your time devouring self-help books and scouring the internet for productivity courses, take a look at 5 of the best tips for boosting your productivity below.

  1. Use Technology to Your Advantage

In the productivity world, technology is often advertised as the bane of one’s existence. While technology does have the potential to prevent you from getting work done, it also has the potential to increase your productivity.

One article on Ecopreneur explores several of the apps currently on the market that can help you improve your productivity, including:

  • Evernote: “Evernote manages everything from basic plaintext notes to rich text documents to images to entire web pages… Three of the handiest features are the ability to take a picture of a document with your device’s camera and store it as a note, which Evernote can then search within, the ability to record audio notes for either transcribing into text or for use as an audio recording, and the Shared Notebook feature, which allows you to collaborate with other members of your team. As a productivity app, Evernote is hard to beat.
  • HootSuite: “This social media management system makes it simple and effective to post to multiple social networks, including Twitter, Facebook (both personal pages and company pages), LinkedIn, and Google+, and it allows for collaboration with other team members.”
  • Carrot: “This somewhat aggressive to-do app helps motivate you to get stuff done by giving you feedback with an attitude. Carrot has a gesture-based interface, learns as you use it, and offers ‘rewards’ when you stay on track. This app, of all of those listed here, is probably the one most likely to be considered a productivity app exclusively, as it focuses solely on tasks and the completion of the tasks.”

Not every application will work for you, however. Make sure that you carefully research and test each app before you begin relying on it to boost your productivity.

  1. Know Your Energy Schedule

Everyone has certain times throughout the day when they feel the most energized. For me, I feel the most energized in the mornings. At around 2:00 p.m., I begin to experience a lull that affects my productivity and prevents me from plowing through my tasks. Instead of fighting it and trying to accomplish one task for hours, I use this time to complete simple tasks that require minimal effort. The lull eventually wears off and I begin working on my important tasks again.

Figure out when you feel the most energized, focused, and motivated and schedule your important work around those times. For some people, this may not be possible. You may be a night owl who is currently working a 9-5 job. If this is the case for you and your energy isn’t highest during your working hours, find ways that you can boost your energy levels.

Some great ways to boost your energy include listening to motivational music, getting up and doing a brief exercise every 10 minutes or so, and drinking plenty of cold water. Only consider caffeine and supplements if you have tried alternative methods and they haven’t worked for you.

If you are a night owl, don’t let society’s normal schedule prevent you from doing work when you are capable of doing it best. An article in Foundr recently investigated the night owl lifestyle and provided several examples of famous night owls including Elon Musk, who goes to bed at 1:00 a.m. and wakes up at 7:00 a.m., Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, who goes to bed at 2:00 a.m. and wakes up at around 10:00 a.m., and Moz founder Rand Fishkin, who goes to bed between 1:30 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. and wakes up between 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.

Related: Characteristics of a Social Entrepreneur

  1. Rely on Others for Time-Consuming Tasks

Outsourcing is a blessing for many business owners. No matter what type of business you run, there are probably hundreds of tasks you do throughout the day that takes away from the time you need to complete major projects. Maybe you spend several hours a day marketing yourself and your product when you should be creating content for your product. Maybe you’re taking time out of your day to schedule appointments with clients instead of working with clients you already have.

Whatever it is that is preventing you from being truly productive, I can guarantee that there is someone or something out there that could be doing these tasks for you. The freelance market has experienced a dramatic change over the past few years and there is currently an abundance of professionals on the internet, waiting to take on work that business owners don’t have time for.

Although outsourcing has a stigma attached to it, there is a way that you can outsource your work while being socially conscious. Companies such as Samasource and Digital Divide Data take the work that you need to be done and outsource it to underdeveloped countries to provide those in need with employment.

The CEO of DDD, Michael Chertok, further explains this in an article in Huffington Post.

“Today, more than two dozen BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) firms in countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya and Pakistan deliver services to clients performed by individuals from very disadvantaged backgrounds. In countries where the BPO industry is thriving, including India, the Philippines and the U.S.A., social entrepreneurs are bringing this model to small towns and villages in rural and remote areas to create employment and opportunity.”

  1. Keep Your To-Do List Realistic

I can’t even begin to explain to you how many times I have packed my to-do list with nearly impossible tasks. If you know what I am talking about, then you understand the feeling that comes after you are unable to achieve everything that you set out to do. This daily feeling of “failure” leads you to believe that you are not capable of being a productive human being.

The problem, however, does not lie in your inability to tackle so many tasks at once. It lies in your inability to create a realistic to-do list. If you only have 8 hours to work and you’ve put over 10 large projects on your to-do list, you are setting yourself up for failure. Rather than going through this cycle, determine what you are able to do with the time that you have available.

Start by looking at your work and figuring out what needs to be done first. Organize your work in order of importance and start there. Once you’ve organized your work, schedule the most important tasks as soon as possible and place the items that you have time to do towards the end of your list or personal organizer. Take into consideration how much time you have to dedicate towards these projects and whether or not you will be able to finish each task on that given day.

Solène Pignet, CEO of Creators for Good, wrote a post on her blog a few years ago that explored the topic of social entrepreneurs and burnout. In it, she offered this helpful advice:

  • Plan – how much you want to work on a weekly basis, and stick to that
  • Schedule – your holidays and long weekends in advance. At least 6 times per year (yes! that often! You are not an employee; you need more rest than them to have enough energy!)
  • Be strategic – about the impact you want to have, the milestones you need to reach, and the selective actions you are going to take. And then, stick to it! Stop working quantitatively, and have a qualitative approach instead.

If you remain honest and organized, your productivity levels will begin to soar.

Related: 7 Productivity Myths Busted: Are You Falling for Any of These?

  1. Practice Self-Care When Needed

Sometimes, the best thing that you can do for yourself is to take a break and recharge. I know, it seems counterintuitive. However, think back to the last time that you attempted to do work when you were mentally exhausted or upset. Did you get any work done? If so, did you manage to produce the same quality of work that you would have if you were happy and well-rested? The answer to this is most likely no.

Jamie Green, a social entrepreneur who sells sleepwear and uses the proceeds to feed the homeless, creating homeless shelters, and generate employment, was recently featured in an article on Virgin where he commented on taking time to break away from his work:

“I spend 95 percent of my time behind a screen. If it’s not on my laptop creating pitch decks, answering emails and editing photos, it is spending time on my phone scrolling Instagram and reading the news – and to be honest it can take its toll on my mental health. I have different methods of dealing with this – I call them refocus days – and they might include going for a surf, cleaning the house or listening to a podcast while on a drive to get re-inspired.”

You can’t be productive if you have allowed your emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical health to suffer. If you need an entire day to recuperate, take a day off. If you only need a couple of hours, take a break from your work for a couple of hours. No matter how long it takes for you to recharge, you must take the time out of your day to do it or else your quality of work and your work output will continually suffer.

Do you need some ideas on how to practice self-care? Here are some suggestions that Forbes recommends for social entrepreneurs:

  • Set aside time during your day to meditate
  • Create a solid support system of people that you can go to when you feel overwhelmed with life and work
  • Start a journal that helps you to recognize symptoms and triggers of burnout

Productivity seems to be elusive to so many people because they believe it is an art or a science rather than what it is: a deep understanding of the self. Knowing what drives you, when you feel driven, and what helps you to tackle the world is productivity in a nutshell. With these 5 tips, you will be better able to understand yourself and become more productive.

5 Expert Tips on How to Turn Your Side Hustle Into a Good Business

Side hustles are great supplemental income opportunities that allow us to pursue our passions and talents outside of our everyday job. However, what happens when your side hustle proves itself to be profitable and becomes a potential full-time job? It can be a daunting task to turn your side hustle into your main job but it is possible. Many business owners that we know today have done exactly that. While we are not telling you to quit your day job just yet, if you truly believe in what you are doing, read this article!

If you believe that you want to turn your side hustle into a business, use the 5 expert tips below.

  1. Begin Treating Your Side Hustle as a Business

Before you begin researching business plans and crafting your own, you will first have to determine whether or not you truly want to turn your hobby job into a full-time job or business. In order to do this, simply start treating your side hustle as if it already was a business.

Begin working longer hours, taking on more clients, and launching new projects. If you are unable to handle the increase in work for your side hustle or if you begin to lose the passion that you currently had for it, you will most likely not be able to handle it as a business. It’s better to leave it as it was than to pursue something that will end up failing down the road.

If you are able to handle the increase in work and you are thriving, however, then your side hustle may be a viable business. You will also have a better idea of what you will be doing when you turn your hobby into a full-time business. Of course, there’s more than just time and commitment to your idea that matters here. You need to plan ahead of time for success and learn from others who have done just as you want to do.

Take heed to a lesson here from Sophie Unwin, who runs a social enterprise that teaches people how to repair and recycle damaged household items known as Remade in Edinburgh, made this amazing statement about passion and business ideas:

 “I’ve been thinking about the social enterprises that have sprung up around me, and why some succeed where others don’t. I think a lot of success comes down to how convinced the founder is about their idea, and how they can make that idea a shared vision…”

Related: Powerful Lessons From 3 Award Winning Social Entrepreneurs

  1. Start Building Your Audience

It doesn’t matter if you are selling the holy grail of weight loss pills that actually works. Without an audience, you will have no one to sell your product to. If you’ve been hustling on the side for awhile, your audience might be larger than you think. We love to consider the low-hanging fruit you have around you, by that we mean your friends, your co-workers, your circle of influence. We all have them. Just look at your social media feeds! How many potential clients or customers are there?

While you should have already built an audience working on your side hustle, you will need to expand in order to become a business. First, build a website that’s attractive, functional, and make sure that it showcases your achievements to your audience. This website will help you to sell yourself to people and convince them that it’s your product or services that they should be buying. You can also start creating social media profiles that make your work and advertisements easily shareable.

Next, you will need to figure out your marketing plan. Here are some questions that you are going to need to ask yourself during this process:

  • Who exactly is MY audience?
  • Do I have enough funds to pay for commercials and advertisements?
  • What are some free methods that I can use to get my products or services out there?
  • How can I market myself and appear more attractive to my audience?
  • How can I stand out from my competition?

A marketing plan and a website may not be immediately put to use but they are both things that need to be established prior to filling out business forms and licenses. This way, you will be able to launch your business immediately once you’ve been approved.

Side Hustle Nation founder and social entrepreneur Nick Loper was recently featured in the Change Creator podcast where he talks about monetization, marketing, and reaching his desired audience. He says,

 “It’s been just a slow steady climb… Basically, when you write every post, you gotta think of, who is this for and how can I get it in front of them?”

  1. Add to Your Experience and Ask for Feedback

There is a big difference between occasionally earning money from a side hustle and running a serious business. Let’s imagine that you have been producing wedding invitations and other wedding-based goods on a small online marketplace. While a couple of successful designs that you’ve produced for your side hustle are impressive enough to a potential client looking for quick, affordable work, you are going to need more experience than what you currently have in order to attract customers to your business.

Rather than taking on clients who aren’t going to improve your work experience or reputation, aim to take on bigger clients who will help you to grow in your field. These clients generally pay more, respect you and your time, and expect you to provide them with products or services that are of the highest quality.

Along with growing your experience, you will also need to ask clients for feedback on your products or services. This feedback will be valuable to you later one. Especially when you post it on your website so that you can prove to potential clients that you have worked with others before and are capable of delivering them the product or service that they need.

You should also be looking for feedback from other organizations and businesses. Unwin, who we mentioned earlier in the article, discussed the importance of receiving feedback from organizations in regards to her business:

 “I talked to a lot of organisations in my field before I started Remade in Edinburgh, to get feedback, learn from them, and to ensure I wasn’t replicating what anyone was already doing in Edinburgh… A couple of years on, when things were really picking up, those other organisations felt like they had a stake in our success because they had been consulted from the beginning. Having them on board has been really valuable as we’ve grown. Make sure there’s buy-in from the groups you work with… you’re going to have a difficult time if the people in your field aren’t convinced.”

  1. Save Enough Money for Emergency Situations

We all envision our businesses being successful from the moment that we launch them but this is often not the case. To prepare for this, grow your savings until you have enough money to safely fall back on in the event of an emergency.

Take into consideration both business expenses and personal living expenses such as:

  • Marketing Costs
  • Website Costs
  • Employee Wages (if applicable)
  • Office Rent and Utility Costs
  • Food
  • Electricity and Water
  • Personal Costs
  • Debt

Once you have enough to cover the costs of launching your business, unforeseen costs, and a couple of months of living expenses, you should be able to safely move forward with your business.

Of course, this is only applicable to side hustles that are not large enough or significant enough to receive the funding that they need. Do you have interested investors? Are you currently looking for more funding for your social enterprise? If you want to increase your wealth, it starts with a mindset. I recommend you read Lessons for Wealth that Stand the Test of Time to get started!

Related: 8 Considerations For Social Enterprise Growth and Funding That You Need to Know

  1. Build a Network Now!

Forming relationships with other experts and professionals in your field is necessary if you want to thrive as a business owner rather than survive. When you have a relationship with another business owner, it benefits both parties. Through them, you are able to better market your product to a larger audience who will trust what your partner is endorsing. You will also be able to collaborate with them in the event that you find yourself running out of ideas for new products or services.

In order to network successfully, you will need to form meaningful relationships with other professionals. These meaningful, personal relationships will bleed over into your business life when you begin performing favors for each other. Attempting to only ask from favors from others without attempting to form a relationship with them will only prevent others from working with you and might affect your reputation.

In fact, there is a great post in Change Creator magazine that explains the why and the how of reaching out to important influencers in your industry. In order to reach these people in your industry that have already developed their business and have an extensive audience, you will have to:

  • Identify who these major players are
  • Start mentioning them in your content and providing valuable feedback on their content
  • Reach out to them once you’ve received more exposure and attracted their attention

These types of business relationships with other experts will not only help you grow but will make you a major player as well.

Turning your side hustle into a full-time job isn’t as difficult as it seems. Once you’ve done the research, created a plan, and prepared yourself to execute it, you will officially be able to say that your passion is now your career. Take these 5 tips seriously and the transition from hustler to business owner will happen with ease.

Meet Three of the Best Companies Upcycling and Reusing Waste for Social Good

Want to save the world? Let’s start with reducing waste! Here are three of the best companies upcycling and reusing the valuable resources we have! This may even lead you to start your own social enterprise.

Meet Jared Criscuolo: UpCycling Waste to Create a Better Fertilizer

Site: https://www.upcycleandcompany.com/

Jared Criscuolo wants to turn your poop into fertilizer. In 2012, Jared got sick from polluted water while surfing. The water was contaminated with wastewater and runoff from the city. This is a common occurrence in the USA, and Jared set out to be part of the solution to our waste problems.

 

He started his own fertilizer company, epicycles waste products from other industries to add to the fertilizer, and has tapped into the brewing industry as well. The end product is a 100% safe, dry pellet that is easy to apply. Jared’s goal is to upcycle 3 million pounds of biosolids per year. Most fertilizers involve mining for nutrients, which decimates the land, and they’re shipped around the world, guzzling fossil fuels. Jared’s “future friendly fertilizer” is sourced, made, and sold locally.

To learn more about Jared Criscuolo, visit his Website and follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

Meet Tessa Cook and Saasha Celestial-One: Creators of the OLIO Food Waste App

Everyone is going to love leftovers now with the OLIO Food Waste App. Tessa and Saasha found a way to share leftover food so there’s less food waste!

Saasha-Celestial-One

Saasha Celestial-One, Co-Founder & COO

OLIO is a free app that connects neighbors with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. This could be food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, spare home-grown vegetables, bread from your baker, or the groceries in your fridge when you go away. For your convenience, OLIO can also be used for non-food household items too.

Got leftovers, but no friends to share them with? There’s an app for that! With OLIO you can list your surplus food and someone can come pick it up from you.

 

About half of all food in the USA is never eaten. This app is out to shrink that number and feed bellies, not bins! Nearly 200,000 people have downloaded the app so far and shared food with their neighbors.

To learn more about the OLIO Food Waste App, visit their Website and follow them on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram.

Toast Ale: Craft Beer Made From Wasted Bread

Americans love their bread, but they waste millions of pounds of it each year. Most ends up in landfills where it emits methane: a potent green house gas. Americans also love their beer, so Toast Ale has come up with an innovative solution to make a craft beer from bread that would have otherwise gone to waste!

“We have over 200 soup kitchens in New York City but I don’t think that is enough to use all the bread that New York City Produces.” Madi and Devin of Toast Ale have long been stressed by the scale of wasted food. They just brewed a pilot batch in New York with 300 pounds of rescued bread, and are crowdfunding to bring full-scale production to the US by this summer.

They plan to rescue 10,000 pounds of bread in their first year and brew 150,000 pints of Toast Ale. 100% of the profits will be donated to charities working to end food waste. Toast Ale believes that saving the environment requires throwing a better party than the people destroying it.

To learn more about Toast Ale, visit their Website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram

Support their crowdfunding campaign to bring this beer to the USA: Indiegogo

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15 Ways You Can Integrate Social Impact Into Your Life Now

social impact

This article was originally posted by Hannah Gay on on https://hannahgay.com

Let me let you in on a little secret.

We all have an opportunity to influence social impact.

Every one of us. Yes, you too.

This doesn’t mean totally jumping ship and starting a nonprofit. Instead, it’s a process of reflection, deliberate opportunity recognition, creativity, service leadership, and a little bit of soul searching.

And yes, it generally means being intentional with money and power. For better or worse, both of those are the biggest tools out there for igniting (or stifling) social change.

Read on for my top fifteen opportunities for you to integrate impact into your life today, and be sure to download the supplemental worksheet to help guide you through these.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. None of what I say should be taken as investment advice or advice for personal wealth management. Rather, I am putting opportunities on your radar that you can discuss with your financial planner, your family, or whomever helps you make investment decisions. I am not recommending or endorsing any funding/investment opportunity I outline or hyperlink below. A few of the investment opportunities I have outlined are restricted to US citizens. I am not making any judgement claim there about whether or not they should be open internationally. I am a fan of the articles and companies I mention, but my mention and fandom should not be misinterpreted as endorsement. For more, please review my Terms of Service.

Opportunity #1: Give unrestricted funding to nonprofits

Whether you give $10 or $10 million, if you have a day job that is outside of working at the nonprofit you’re giving to, you probably don’t have enough information to decide how those funds should be spent.

I get it, sometimes nonprofit leaders and employees are so overwhelmed that at times, they actually may not have enough information either.

Regardless of who knows more about what, your money should be empowering, not a source of power. There is a difference. Funders want to be able to claim some ownership of results, which is a totally normal expectation, but too often, here’s what happens.

Funder A says “here’s a ton of money to do X.” So the nonprofit, needing money, does X, even if it’s a little different than what they were previously doing.

Funder B comes along and thinks “Shoot. Funder A is funding X, so if I fund X too I can only claim half the credit for the results. So I’m going to fund Y.” The nonprofit hadn’t really been doing Y before, but because it needs money, it now starts doing Y.

And then Funder C comes along and funds Z. And it goes on, until the nonprofit is now doing 10 different things moderately ok to appease funders instead of doing one thing well.

If you sense opportunity for better spending, don’t prescribe anything. Instead, empower staff with help (ahem..this is what I do!) to actually build a sustainable organization in which funds will be spent most effectively, regardless of who’s giving.

Related: Want to Change The World? You Need to Read This First!

Opportunity #2: Fund salaries at nonprofits

There is absolutely nothing stopping a funder from paying directly for overhead. It’s not incredibly sexy, and it’s not going to get you the same bragging rights at a cocktail party as your buddy who says “I helped pay for water for seventeen poor children in this third world country.”

But let me lift back the curtain a little. I’m on a Facebook group that is 30,000+ strong, full of nonprofit employees supporting one another. And guess what conversations I’m seeing pop up each week? How to apply for food stamps. Best tips for living on a $40K salary with a family of four in an urban area. When it’s ok to jump ship to the corporate sector for salary parity.

Larger nonprofits often have some semblance of salary parity, but the smaller ones don’t. A lot of this comes down to the refusal of funders to pay, which is straight up power grab that has detrimental effects on emotional health and wellbeing (see Inequitable Salaries at Nonprofits Are a Kind of Bullying and the study it cites on economic bullying for more).

And those nonprofits that say “100% of your donation will go directly to programming”– insinuating that this is a more worthy donation – piss me off. Because behind the scenes, somebody is paying for salaries and overhead. Nothing effective is totally volunteer run; you know this. If you want to fund world change, you need to be sure that smart, talented people are creating that change. And smart, talented people cost money.

So while you may not be paying directly for clean water for seventeen children in a poor country, you will be paying for talent that sticks around, earns a dignified salary, and enables change for hundreds or thousands of people throughout his or her career.

Opportunity #3: If you’re on a nonprofit board, be a leader in demanding salary parity

See above.

There is absolutely zero strategic reason for nonprofit employees to be paid less than their for-profit peers. It’s an industry standard that has led to high turnover which has led, in my opinion, to stagnant results. Yes, there are hundreds of nonprofits out there all trying to solve the same problems. But if you’re on a board, you should truly believe in the change potential of the organization you help lead and its team, and it’s your fiduciary responsibility to ensure impact. Salary parity is a huge step in that direction; there’s a lot more world change that can get done with happy and emotionally healthy employees who stay.

Opportunity #4: Ask the nonprofit you donate to what giving structure is preferred

Say you have $1,000 you want to donate. Some nonprofits may prefer all that cash today, while others may actually prefer you donate $100 a month for the next ten months. Obviously this plays out differently for you, but when you can, it’s great to be willing to at least have this conversation, especially if you’re dishing out larger amounts.

Opportunity #5: Pay for your team or company’s corporate day of service

I know, even typing those words makes me be like – wait what? Pay to give time away?

Yes. Well, mostly. Unless a nonprofit seeks you out or advertises opportunities for service, recognize that oftentimes, creating an opportunity for your team or company to come in and volunteer takes a ton of work. Managing this opportunity and your team also pulls the nonprofit staff away from doing their day-to-day stuff.

Think of literally every other activity you may be do for group bonding and employee engagement. Experience something together like a boat ride or show? Play intramural baseball? Have a corporate retreat in the mountains? All of that costs money, because some other organization is creating and curating an experience for you. The same goes for volunteer days.

Opportunity #6: Design for nonprofits instead of giving away your for profit solution for free

I have been on the customer and client side of free or reduced-price software or pro bono consulting provided to nonprofits. And generally, it’s been a huge pain. I’ve spent more time hacking my way around software or educating pro bono consultants than I have saved from using these products or service.

If you’re offering what you do for free to nonprofits, your software and service was not designed for nonprofit customers and clients; if it had been, they would pay for it (nonprofits do, after all, have budgets, however limited they may be).

Related: How Maggie Doyne Turned Her Compassion Into A Thriving Social Enterprise

Case study: Small nonprofits and social enterprises, oftentimes with five or six figure budgets, pay me – sometimes a lot – because 100% of what I do was designed for them.

If you want to create impact, design for nonprofits and social enterprises. Create SASS products and consulting services that help them align revenue and impact generation. Design something that is both at a price point that works for them and that will generate income for your company, so that in your leaner years, it doesn’t disappear (guess what sucks: when a pro-bono consulting project is cut halfway through implementation because the consultants had to focus on a revenue-generating client instead. True story).

Another case study: Keela. Small nonprofits can probably hack together a bunch of free software to manage projects, donors, end users, and more, or they can pay as little as $35 a month for an all-one nonprofit management system. Nonprofits have a solution, Keela makes money that can sustain it as a company, and everyone wins.

Related: Want to Change The World? You Need to Read This First!

Opportunity #7: Consider this new era of crowdfunding

In the spring of 2016, part of the JOBS Act in the US in (specifically Title III known as Regulation Crowdfunding or Reg CF) opened up revenue sharing opportunities that had previously been restricted to accredited investors – or relatively upper middle class Americans.

This is not your grandma’s crowdfunding where you get a t-shirt in return for what is essentially a donation. This is an actual regulated asset that can get real returns (or, like any other investment, real losses).

The investment is a hybrid debt/equity structure that’s worth exploring, whether you’re an accredited investor or not. But in short, this has opened up small (often as small as $100-$200 minimum) investment opportunities in all sorts of funds and businesses. It’s a great way to help fund small business creation in your backyard or globally in impact areas and communities you care about.

Check out my friends at Startwise.

I’m always looking out for similar platforms and will update this blog as I learn of more. And keep your ear to the ground. I have had opportunities to invest $100 in a fund for low income housing, a woman-empowering media company, and more, just because I love these companies and have followed them pretty closely for awhile. A lot more companies are opening their revenue sharing doors in similar ways.

Opportunity #8: Generally seek out impact investment opportunity

I can’t begin to list all the other opportunities for impact investing that exist or all the case studies thus far that demonstrate the opportunity for significant returns. Whether you have oversight of pension funds or endowments or just a few hundred or thousand dollars of personal wealth, pretty much every single major bank out there now has some sort impact investment portfolio or structure, and platforms like Swell (incubated within Pacific Life) are popping up all the time. Whomever manages these funds will generate both impact and financial performance reporting, and participating in decision making as a shareholder is a great opportunity have a voice in driving that reported impact forward.

Opportunity #9: Bank with credit unions or community banks

Whether you are using it to manage your personal finances or your company’s money, where you bank has tremendous impact. Many community banks and credit unions are established as nonprofits, and so many of them use the revenue your banking helps generate to combat things like predatory lending, or to introduce savings and banking habits to unbanked and underbanked populations – many of which are also lower income and stuck in cycles of high interest rate debt and zero savings.

Local credit unions and community banks are a great way of helping the economic development of your home community, while a lot of online credit unions serve members and communities nationally. Check out Mighty Deposit’s tools for helping you find a bank that effects the change that matters to you most.

Opportunity #10: Hire, manage, and promote for impact

If you lead a team, manage employees, oversee hiring, run professional development, foster talent pipelines, or otherwise have anything to do with the professional and financial opportunity of people who work at your employer or company, you have tremendous opportunity to change the gender, race, and other wage gaps that are sadly the status quo. There’s so much out there on hiring diverse talent, but not enough on fostering equity once someone is already working for you.

Analyze salaries and benefit packages and change things that need to be changed for parity. Change maternity leave to parental leave and open it to all genders. Let every female employee know that they are welcome to start or grow their families while employed with you. Build in a program that allows women to leave for a few months and come back without feeling left behind; they’ll be much more likely to stay with and contribute to your company after their maternity leave if you do so.

And yes, policies like this have up-front costs. But the longer-term returns are proven, as outlined in hundreds of reports like The science behind why paid parental leave is good for everyone.

Opportunity #11: Shop locally, shop small, and shop quality

In December of 2016, I challenged myself to stop shopping for clothes point blank. If I really, really needed or wanted something, it had to be ethically made, it had to be timeless, and it had to be quality. Since then, my wardrobe has gotten a lot more manageable as I’ve lost countless fast-fashion purchases to my rag bin, I have realized how little I needed them and have not had to buy new replacements. And while I’ve formed relationships with a lot of ethical brands, I’ve also let them kindly know that I would likely not be buying their stuff until I needed it – to which they have all responded “duh, that’s part of our mission!” (I’m looking at you Proclaim, my newest BFFs on Instagram)!

One of my business school friends just launched a bathing suit line and posted on LinkedIn about her newfound shock at seeing a $10 bathing suit, when she now knows first hand what it takes to make a quality garment while paying fair wages.

I know not every family can afford to constantly shop with this mindset, but if and when you can, do it (it also has a side benefit of major Marie Kondo clarity, and honestly has saved me tons of money over the long term as I’ve become more conscious of quality over quantity and variety).

If you ever need any inspiration, just Google “ethical brands” or type it into the Instagram search bar. While there’s no universal certification of ethical brands (I do not think something needs to be fair trade or otherwise certified to have positive impact), most brands that are truly impactful are also incredibly transparent.

Opportunity #12: Travel with intention

Yes, I know, travel is typically a luxury. But you don’t need to travel far. Even visiting another neighborhood or nearby town or eating another culture’s food or seeing their performances builds empathy and crosses a lot of bridges. Or maybe it’s just traveling across the street and inviting your neighbors you’d never really talked to over.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in global politics over the last year, empathy is where it’s at, and forming genuine connections and conversations with people is the fastest track to empathy I’ve seen.

If you can, take your kids. I never traveled internationally until I was in college, but even the domestic small trips my parents would take me on (literally never in touristy spots) while I grew up had a huge influence on my career and worldview.

Approach travel with humility and intention. Go outside of the touristy areas. Get a little lost and support small businesses and in the communities you visit. Listen, eat, watch, soak it all in, but don’t ever ask to be educated (and please don’t ask people or children who don’t look like you to pose for hashtagable pictures with you – and ask first before photographing them or their homes). It’s never anybody else’s responsibility to explain their culture or community to you – but if they offer to do so, what an awesome opportunity. Show gratitude.

If you ever need to learn why or want some inspiration, check out my friend Lauren’s blog at Best World Ever. She just took some time off work to travel the world and explore social impact in various cultures and markets, and is an inspiring woman to and through.

Opportunity #13: Speak up

If you have a platform and privilege, use it. It may be a little uncomfortable, but if you don’t, who will?

Interpret this as you will, but I have rarely seen negative repercussions for speaking up on behalf of underserved, discriminated against, or otherwise unfairly treated populations – whether they be halfway across the world or across the conference table from you.

I have seen enormous missed opportunities though when it comes to advocating for them. Take a few moments to start jotting down where you see opportunities to speak up, and next to them write down how you can seize that opportunity next time it comes your way. Look forward not backward, and you will see your impact grow exponentially.

Opportunity #14: Jump ship, but with humility and hunger

Sometimes, it’s just the right time for you to take you talent to a nonprofit, social enterprise, or otherwise socially aware and responsible company. Before you start your search though, take some time to be very deliberate about what you know, what you’re good at, and what you don’t know.

It’s fine to look for a new job in an impact area you’re passionate about, like education, but it’s more impactful to recognize what you have to learn in that space than to spend hours Googling it before your first interview in order to come across as having any expertise. You don’t. The person across the table interviewing you probably does. Let them know that you know that, and that while you’ll do your best to self-educate, you’re also hungry to learn from them and their team.

And then on day one of the job, start learning. Observe, listen, explore what has worked and has not worked in the past before offering your innovative ideas. Listen to learn, not to respond. Make a running list of questions. They may be deep profound thoughts or they may be tactical, and don’t feel the need to answer them all at once.

With time, you’ll be the person at the table with expertise, but know that it’s going to take time. The person who hired you knows that too, and they’d rather you take that time than pretend to know what you don’t.

Opportunity #15: Intention Driven Impact program

Ok, now for why I’m sharing all this. I’m all about opportunity recognition, but at times, we just need a little help and a little discipline when it comes to recognizing opportunities to integrate social impact into our day-to-day lives. I love helping friends and strangers grasp this opportunity over time, something I’ve done informally for long enough that it’s high time I formalize it.

My Intention Driven Impact program – for individuals who want to lead more impactful lives or be more effective at the impact they are already driving – is launching this fall. I’m starting with only a handful of clients as I fit this into my existing client services. Access the supplementary worksheet for this blog post and automatically join the waitlist today to ensure your spot at the top of the list once spots open up.

Related: 13 Traits That All Effective Social Entrepreneurs (and Conscious People) Share