Media
Media
Below are the videos and summaries of the sessions at the 2013 Social Enterprise Conference. We are glad you were able to share this day with us.
How can you inspire others to join you in creating change? Keynote speakers Jeremy Heimans and Charles Best are proven social movement makers. Whether it’s a successful campaign run by schoolchildren in Brazil to prevent their local public school from closing or the creation of global aggregation platform AVAZZ.org, individuals are becoming increasingly adept at creating social change. Jeremy focused on the tactical aspects of becoming an effective movement builder, encouraging the audience to think long term about their goals, deliberately construct a message that will allow for adaptation as goals evolve, and to create “stories with a purpose.” Charles Best used his organization, DonorsChoose.org, as an example of a successful social enterprise built through the efforts of individuals. DonorsChoose.org allows teachers to crowdfund the finances necessary for purchasing the supplies needed for their classroom or teaching project. Through the work of individual students, the organization was able to get itself off the ground and raise its first $30k in donations. Since then, there have been over 1 million “citizen donors” providing almost $200 million in funds for schools.
Featuring Charles Best, Founder & CEO of DonorsChoose.org; Jeremy Heimans, Co-Founder and CEO of Purpose; and moderated by Rachel Sklar, Co-founder of Change the Ratio and TheLi.st. Opening Remarks made by Professors Ray Fisman and Bruce Usher, co-directors, Social Enterprise Program, Columbia Business School.
Driving Adoption of Green Energy
MPOWERD creates affordable solar lamps that function in any environment on earth to produce brilliant light with zero emissions. The same light that empowers a poor child to study at night can empower you to think differently about energy. The creators of the Luci, an inflatable and waterproof solar lamp, join us for a brainstorming session on innovative ways MPOWERD can increase the customer adoption and engagement with the product in both developing and developed nations.
Speakers: Jacques-Philippe Piverger, CEO of MPOWERD; John Salzinger, Senior Director of Business Development & Co-founder of MPOWERD. Moderated by Bruce Usher, The Lise Strickler ’86 and Mark Gallogly ’86 Faculty Director; Executive-in-Residence at Columbia Business School
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcuTYVs11lQ
All the things you put into the world are in real-time competition with everything else that is out there. Today, every person is a publisher. In this session, conference participants were tasked with designing a campaign of their very own that could spread like wildfire. Participants were given three options: Attracting undergraduate students to consider science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) research; returning integrity to the financial markets/profession; and mainstreaming social impact investing.
Speakers:Grant Garrison, Strategy Director, GOOD/Corps; Jimmy Soni, Managing Editor of the Huffington Post
Designing for Two Billion
Natalie Foley, of Peer Insight, began the session with an introduction on “design doing,” a problem-solving tool when creating, designing and innovating for the underserved communities. Traditional problem-solving approaches do not work in the under developed world. Therefore design is problem solving for the unknown, which needs to be engaging and emotional. Innovation is the main path to growth, and the main path to impact.
When developing, we need to set a process of: What is? What if? What wows? What works? Impact?
Watch this session video to see the approaches one should be conscious of when designing a social enterprise that focused on serving customers at the bottom of the pyramid.
Speakers: Donnel Baird ’13, Founder of BlocPower; Ed Chan-Lizardo, Chief Development & Partnerships Officer of KickStart International; Manmeet Kaur ’12, Executive Director & Founder of CityHealthWorks; and Connie Lewin, Strategic Partnerships & Marketing Director, Global of Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE). Moderated by Natalie Foley, Vice-president & Chief Operating Officer of Peer Insight.
Development: For Communities, by Stakeholders
It’s not news that living in New York City is expensive. Fifty percent of New Yorkers are spending a third of their income on rent, an additional 33% are spending half of their incomes on rent and part of the lasting damage of Hurricane Sandy was the destruction of affordable homes. However, many groups within New York City are dedicated to the issue of affordable housing. Both for-profit and nonprofit groups are working on the issue and there is both city and capital budget dedicated to providing affordable housing. But there is still the pressing question of who will affordable housing serve – low-income or middle-income?
In this session we learn from the Atlantic Yards’ modular housing program, City of New York’s adAPT NYCCompetition, and Phipps Houses’ Hunter’s Point South. Project champions will discuss lessons, challenges, and the future of affordable housing.
Speakers: Kathryn Matheny, Chief of Staff & Deputy Commissioner for Strategy and Operations at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development; Daniel Nissenbaum ’88, Director, CRA Programs for the Urban Investment Group (UIG) of Goldman Sachs; Robert P. Sanna, Executive Vice President and Director of Construction & Design Development of Forest City Ratner; and Adam Weinstein, President and CEO, The Phipps Houses Group; Chair, Phipps Community Development Corporation. Moderated by Leanne Lachman, President, Lachman Associates; Executive-in-Residence, Columbia Business School.
Spark Workshop: Crowdfunding with Indiegogo
Crowdfunding and social sector industry expert Breanna DiGiammarino ran a workshop on crowdfunding. She covered use cases for crowdfunding in social innovation, and then delved deeply into the key pieces of a successful campaign: the pitch, perks and promotion. Participants had the chance to select a social innovation crowdfunding case study and develop a campaign strategy for it over the course of the session.
Facilitator: Breanna DiGiammarino, Education Vertical Lead and Vertical Team Ops at Indiegogo
Keynote II
“When you buy red, you can be helping bring someone on the brink of death back to life.”
Deborah Dugan, CEO of (RED).org, shared insights on how (RED) is able to marry a global aid foundation with corporations to create a community of giving. Ms. Dugan walks the audience through case studies of successful (RED) campaigns and discusses what its like to have U2’s Bono for a boss all while addressing how social media has changed the way that corporations and Millenials engage in philanthropy.
Speakers: Deborah Dugan, CEO of (RED).org and moderated by Joe Sibilia, CEO of CSRWire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYFigbA8DfQ
Overcoming Barriers to Corporate Change
Many global companies have made significant shifts in sustainability practices, gaining plaudits from environmental and social advocates, but often costing the company time, resources, and money. How can influential stakeholders, employees, customers, and investors be convinced to rally behind such changes? And how can this support be translated into concrete action?
In this series of tag-team interviews, representatives from leading global companies speak about the practices and the challenges their organizations face around the areas of sustainability. The issues range from sustainable supply chains, to water shed replenishment, to sustainable investing.
Speakers: Mitchell Gold, Co-founder & Chairman of Mitchell Gold; Brian Orlando ’99, Senior Marketing Director at Unilever; Jeff Seabright, Vice-president of Environment & Water Resources at The Coca-Cola Company. Moderated by Erika Karp ’91, CEO at Cornerstone Capital Inc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXn1T_MHaYw
Educating Young Minds through Media
“Media is only as good as the people who watch it,” Dan Lewis, the director of New Media Communication at Sesame Workshop said. Young people are increasingly consuming media of all kinds, making it imperative that organizations like Sesame Workshop, DoSomething.org, and NuSkool ensure that engaging media content is part of their work. From viral YouTube videos to mass-text messages to hip-hop in classrooms, hear about how these organizations are using media to change the way that younger generations are taught and engaged.
Speakers: Naomi Hirabayashi, Chief Marketing Officer at DoSomething.org; Daniel Lewis, Director of New Media Communication at Sesame Workshop; and Abran Maldonado, Co-founder of NuSkool. Moderated by Shane Snipes, Chief Digital Officer at Good-B.
Spark Workshop: Scaling with Frontier Markets
Frontier Markets (FM) provides rural Indian villagers access to clean energy for cooking and lighting. FM is able to bridge the gap between Indian Villagers and the organizations with an inclusive business model that makes last-mile distribution of clean-energy solutions possible. Brick-and-mortar retail and service centers have been setup by FM to establish a presence in the communities, and to facilitate transparency and trust in solar technology among rural villagers. Through FM innovative marketing campaigns are conducted and designed to educate rural villagers on the financial and health benefits of solar over kerosene, and are committed to unparalleled after-sales service to ensure ongoing customer satisfaction and thus, permanent social and environmental impact.
FM discussed the challenges for scaling their rural energy distribution company. Attendees were asked to provide feedback on:
- What challenges do social ventures face during the scaling process in India?
- Will the new technology integration help FM scale their organization? What challenges will they face as they integrate technology into their organization?
- What is needed to implement Technology into FM?
- Are there alternative solutions to help address these challenges? What models do similar social ventures use to reach their mass market? Can these models, or parts of these models, be used at FM to help scale?
Facilitator: Ajaita Shah, Founder/CEO of Frontier Markets & the President of Frontier Innovations Foundation.
Food Systems: Shake the Hand that Feeds You
Come hear 3 food-entrepreneurs give small talks on their big ideas for solving the global food crisis. In our world of 7 billion, 1 billion suffer from mal-nutrition, while another 1 billion suffer from over-nutrition. Although the world’s farmers harvest enough to feed the planet, twenty-five percent of our global food supply is lost to spoilage. In addition, society has a growing concern about the environmental and social consequences of where our food comes from and how it gets to our plates. Each world-class speaker will have 10 minutes to share their groundbreaking story and offer sustainable business solutions to the global food crisis.
Speakers: Jacqueline Holmes of Kopali Organics ; Christopher Lorn, Co-Founder of Table for Two USA; and Stephen Ritz, Founder of Green Bronx Machine.
Storytelling through Film
Films have the ability to take the viewer inside a completely new life, inspiring audiences towards change and an understanding of alternative lifestyles. Whether it’s witnessing indifference in war torn Darfur, fighting for artistic freedom in a heavily censored country, or celebrating female empowerment within the Arab world, these movies take us to the heart of major social issues. Come behind the lens and hear three renowned filmmakers discuss how their work strives to make a difference.
Speakers: Mona Eldaief, Director of Rafea: Solar Mama; Madeleine Sackler, Filmmaker of Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus; and Ricki Stern, Filmmaker of The Devil Came on Horseback. Moderated by Monika Mitchell, Founder & CEO, Good-B
Impact Investing in Action; Where would you put your money?
What makes an Acumen investment? A potential for a large scale social impact, a financial sustainable, a game changer idea or new model, or a scalable opportunity the fight poverty. Learn what Acumen looks for in their investment applications and then apply it to this case study. As a new member of the Acumen board, Jessica Martin will walk you through a potential investment with a small farmer from Kenya who is looking to expand his company by raising capital to purchase hybrid genetically modified seeds to increase sales by 4X the current output. At the end you can determine if you would invest in this company.
Speakers:Antony Bugg-Levine, CEO of the Nonprofit Finance Fund and Jessica Martin, Innovation Associate at Acumen.
Be the Change: Mobilizing Grassroot Movements
When the well-being of communities is threatened, some are resilient and come together to take action. Why and how do people mobilize to make change? Join us as we discuss a case study in effective grassroots organizing in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in New York City.
Speakers: Jake Beinecke, Farm Viability Project, Analyst at Open Space Institute.; Diego Ibanez, Organizer of Occupy Sandy; and Matt Pelak, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Team Rubicon. Moderated by Ray Horton, Frank R. Lautenberg Professor of Ethics and Corporate Governance and Faculty Director, Programs in Social Enterprise, Executive Education at Columbia Business School.
Spark Workshop: Crowdfunding with Frontier Innovations
Frontier Innovations (FI) is a 501c3 established in early 2013 to address the challenges of last-mile distribution in clean energy products in developing countries. FI promotes clean energy initiatives and partners with social entrepreneurs to ensure safe, reliable and sustainable access to energy for developing countries.
Recently, in efforts to raise funding for a project, FI launched a crowdfunding campaign for its partner, Frontier Markets, which was facing challenges in providing access to solar lanterns to ultra-poor households. However, the crowdfunding strategy was unsuccessful.
This session discussed the challenges of crowdfunding through a case study of FI efforts with Frontier Markets.
Groups were asked to brainstorm on the following questions to help FI with future campaigns:
- What approach should FI be using to raise capital?
- Is crowdfunding the best source?
- If so, how do they market it? Who do they reach out to? How should the campaign be setup? Who is their target donor? What should donors be funding and what are their interests?
- If not, what are some approaches they can use? What are similar social ventures doing to raise capital?
Facilitator: Ajaita Shah, Founder/CEO of Frontier Markets & the President of Frontier Innovations Foundation.
Wham! Bam! Islam! film screening
When film maker Isacc Solotaroff was researching this project, it seemed that Muslim societies across the world were at a fascinating crossroads. There were the forces of fundamentalism that wanted to anchor the culture to Qur’anic strictures and modernists who wanted to find a way for Islam to integrate with the rest of the world. Mr. Solotaroff was fascinated to see what would happen to someone like Naif who was so demonstrably planting his flag on the side of those who want to push Muslim societies into the 21st century. Beyond that he was doing it in a way that could be seen as highly provocative — a children’s entertainment property based on Western-styled superheroes with powers that are borrowed from Allah’s 99 names! —Mr. Solotaroff figured that was likely to stir up the hornets nest and would make for an interesting film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2uKL6GZdT0
Social Venture Pitch Competition
The 2013 Social Venture Pitch Competition featured three emerging social entrepreneurs who each had 5 minutes to pitch their enterprise to our panel of judges. Watch this video clip to see what Abran Maldonado, Tommy Mitchell, and Casey Santiago ’07 are currently working on, our judges’ feedback and which social innovator won the 2013 Social Venture Pitch Competition!
Entrepreneurs: Abran Maldonado, Co-founder of NuSkool; Tommy Mitchell, CEO of Green Barrel Energy; and Casey Santiago ’07, Founder of Kangu. Moderated by Professor Ron Gonen ’04, Founder of Recyclebank. Judged by: Kesha Cash ’10, Director, Investments at Jalia Ventures and Alberto Escarlate, Venture Partner at Collaborative Fund.
Keynote III
Learn about Naif Al-Mutawa ’03’s quest to create The 99, a superheroes comic series based on the values of Islam, and the role that culture and arts can have in influencing culture. Along with Issac Solotaroff, the filmmaker of WHAM! BAM! ISLAM!, a documentary about Mr. Al-Mutawa’s project, hear about the challenges associated with starting an organization dedicated to changing culture attitudes and perspectives through the arts. Speakers: Naif Al-Mutawa ’03, Founder and CEO of Teshkeel Media Group and Issac Solotaroff, Filmmaker, WHAM! BAM! ISLAM! Moderated by: Sheena S. Iyengar, S. T. Lee Professor of Business of Columbia Business School.
Thank you
Thank you for attending the 2013 Social Enterprise Conference this past October. We hope to see you in October 2014!
