In the words of Ricky Ricardo, I’ve got some ’splaining to do! I need to apologize for being MIA lately here on the site! Let me share what I’ve been up to:

I came back from the StartingBloc Institute in Boston so inspired and motivated to really “take a chance” and move back to DC without much of a plan (eg. Job/Income/Home) and “make things happen”. The last couple of months living in Indiana have certainly been valuable in terms of my personal and professional growth — allowing me opportunities to explore this field that I love so much. But the time has come for me to turn what I have learnt into action. So I’ll be moving back to DC in hopes of finding employment and creating a self-sustaining lifestyle for myself. The most important factor of my return is to surround myself with inspirational people, a supportive foundation for both personal and professional growth, and opportunities of all shapes and sizes. I’m excited about restarting my life in DC, and hope to be as active as possible!

Having said that, I’ve been really busy with post-StartingBloc phone calls and preparing for my move to DC. I’m back on the job-market and intend on hitting the ground running when I get back to DC. On top of all of that, I’ll be visiting my boarding school alma mater, Culver Military Academy, this week meeting with some faculty and community members. In addition, I’ll be guest speaking in a class on social entrepreneurship! I’ll be sure to record it and put it up on the site! The following week, I’m headed down to Miami for the SVC/SE conference where I’ll be speaking on a panel about corruption. The week after that, I’ll be packing and preparing for my drive back to DC on March 29th!

So I apologize for the lack of posts on the site! I’m trying to keep active on Twitter, so be sure to follow me there! I promise to get back to posting to the site very soon!

Just a few weeks ago — Feb 11-15th — I had the great opportunity to join fellow social innovators from around the world at the 2010 StartingBloc Social Innovation Institute in Boston. I absolutely love attending events such as this (including GES, SOCAP, The Feast, and the upcoming SVC/SE Conferences). It’s a rare opportunity for like-minded entrepreneurs, intrapreneuers, and social-change enthusiasts to come together and share passions, ideas, and talents/resources. StartingBloc has done a great job recently in carving out a nice market in the field focused on not only students, but young-professionals in the field as well (serving as the middle-ground between GES and SOCAP).

The Institute was broken down into several components: Speakers, a Social Innovation Competition, and an “Ideas Marketplace” pitch competition.

The Speakers

The lineup of speakers included:

Houston Spencer – an inspirational speaker who I unfortunately missed on the first day due to travel failure, but really enjoyed hearing him speak a few days later about unconventional leadership and staying motivated in the field of social change.

Scott Sherman – One of the most excited and energetic people I’ve ever met whose Transformative Action Institute is spreading to colleges and universities across the world “training a new generation of social entrepreneurs, innovators, visionaries, and problem-solvers for the 21st century.” Scott’s presence alone is enough to get you out of your seat and want to change the world, and I had an awesome opportunity to chat with him on the second morning as we took the bus to Tufts.

Bob Tomasko – A professor at American University that I never had the opportunity to meet while I was there, but who is passionate about social enterprise and corporate social responsibility and integrating this into the curriculum. He has an extensive background consulting for companies like Coca-Cola, Ford, Mariott, and Toyota. I can’t wait to continue talking with Bob once I move back to DC!

Corey Szopinski – A social media guru who shared social media strategies for social change. Corey has been involved with developing interactive marketing initiatives for brands among the likes of Coca-Cola, Anheuser Busch, Volkswagon, Virgin Atlantic, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. His company, Core Industries, brings “award winning interactive marketing to organizations that are leading the green economy and that focus on the triple bottom line: people planet and profit.”

Tom Szaky – An entrepreneur I’ve been hearing a lot of lately — the co-founder of TerraCycle — talked “trash” at StartingBloc. It was actually very interesting hearing him talk about some of the legal challenges TerraCycle has faced in reusing a product like an old Coke bottle as a container for another re-branded product because Coke owns the patent on the shape of the bottle! He shared some interesting insight between “little guy” vs. “big guy” battles that can come with entrepreneurship and the need for legal protections that can support innovation and keep “big guy” companies from holding-up startups in court. Plus, TerraCycle is a very interesting case study of a social startup!

Jeff Chapin – Probably has the coolest job in the world as a “Social Impact Designer” for IDEO. Jeff provided awesome insight into the product design process, particularly BOP-focused design. He shared some projects he’s worked on with IDEO around the world, and I think inspired a lot of to either pursue design-focused careers or at least focus more attention on design approaches to problem solving.

Patrick Meier – A member of the Ushahidi team, Patrick shared an awesome overview of Ushahidi and its involvement in the recovery effort of Haiti. It was really amazing seeing pictures and video “behind the scenes” of the massive volunteer effort of people tracking down information across the web and mapping it on the database. Text messages, tweets, news reports were all dissected to get accurate information to rescue teams on-the-ground. I think everybody in the room was just in awe and inspired by the massive undertaking and work that Ushahidi and the teams of volunteers managed to do in the wake of one of the largest crises of our lifetime (so far).

Dan Pallotta – Author of the book Uncharitable, Dan talked about how the way that we measure and perceive how nonprofits should run dramatically impacts their effectiveness. High overhead and compensation packages are not necessarily bad or signs of corruption — especially when you compare them head-to-head with the budgets and salaries of private-sector companies. We need to move beyond these misconceptions of the social sector and provide them with the tools they need to maximize impact. This involves developing more results-oriented metrics that do not punish charities for running more like businesses. This is something that I’m very interested in and hope to talk more with Dan about.

Colette Stanzler – Building off the need for more results-oriented metrics, Colette shared how her organization — Root Cause — approaches building a social impact market that blends the nonprofit, private, and public sectors through cross-sector partnerships and collaboration. A major part of their work is focused on measuring social impact, identifying successful programs, and spreading and scaling those programs effectively through cross-sector partnerships.

Cheryl Kiser – Cheryl shared her experience as a consultant for businesses’ CSR and sustainability initiatives. She is just now settling into her new role as Managing Director of The Lewis Initiative at Babson College.

Ryan Allis – Co-Founder of iContact, Ryan is actually very much engaged in the concept of social entrepreneurship and CSR. Ryan shared how his company has integrated a 1% Time/Product/Equity/Payroll model for its CSR initiatives. Ryan is somebody to keep your eyes on as an emerging player in the social enterprise space. I’m looking forward to seeing where he goes down the road.

Mindy Lubber – Mindy’s work as the President of Ceres is focused on integrating sustainability into the capital markets, encouraging and helping companies outline and publish sustainability initiatives (and ideally metrics as well). Having recently returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, she told us how sustainability is becoming a more serious and central issue for business leaders — leading top business executives to attend her session at Davos.

Mitchell Wade – Concluding the Institute, Mitchell left us all with a quote that really resonated: The only change that really matters is that which happens after you leave. This is something that’s so important for us to remember as we build organizations or programs around the world focused on sustainability. From the very beginning we need to be focused on training others to build and grow the organization on their own! It seems like common sense, but you’d be surprised by how often this principle is forgotten.

Social Innovation Competition

One of the conference features was an event called the Social Innovation Competition. It was definitely an innovative way to help fund the institute — using the collaborative power of the fellows to serve as a consultancy to a corporate sponsor. I’m not sure how much I can talk about publicly about the client and the strategy we put together, but we put together a cross between a communications strategy and sustainability initiative for a major US corporation with offices around the world. My team had a blast working on the project, and actually made it to the final round!

Ideas Marketplace

This aspect of the conference allowed anybody to give a 1-minute pitch about their project or something they were passionate about. It was an awesome opportunity to hear everybody talk about their passions and interests! Three finalists were selected to give a longer pitch. Among the finalists were Maria Springer (Kito International) and Leticia Jauregui (CREA).

Final Thoughts

There is a lot of room for StartingBloc to grow as a network of social innovators and as an Institute. It would be nice to see more speakers at a TED-style pace (quick and to the point) as well as more workshops (a la GES).

Where StartingBloc really shines is in attracting an awesome group of fellows that have been vetted through the application process, and developing a strong life-long network connecting like-minded individuals and organizations. This is what attracted me to StartingBloc and was by-far my greatest take-away. As I return to Washington, DC in just a few weeks, I plan on being as active and engaged with this network as possibly by volunteering and helping organize events. Already in the last couple of weeks, I’ve had amazing phone calls and conversations with several fellows. They inspire me with every conversation, and I hope that I can bring some value to their work and their lives. That said, I really look forward to having a continued relationship with the StartingBloc community!

TEDxAmsterdam: Mark Kamau from TEDxAmsterdam on Vimeo.

This is such an inspirational story by Mark Kamau, a Kenyan who calls himself the “Slumdog Manager”. Born in the poverty of Kenya’s well-known slums, Kamau emerged as a web designer graduating from the NairoBits program. He attributes his success story to four principles:

He was:

• Respected
• Challenged
• Supported
• Given Responsibility

If we apply these same principles of dignity to “intelligent engagement” rather than the traditional concept of “aid”, we will be able to empower Africans to take control of their own destiny.

To promote the empowerment of Kenyan street youth, check out the amazing work being done by a former-street-kid-turned-entrepreneur, Wiclif Otieno and Kito International! Kito’s Maria Springer was just selected as an Unreasonable Fellow as well! Become a fan on Facebook and follow both @WiclifOtieno and @MariaSpringer on Twitter!

Regular readers of this blog know that Coca-Cola is one of my favorite companies. Here’s an update on what they are up to in Africa:

At Coca-Cola, we believe that the private sector can play a powerful role in reducing poverty – particularly by concentrating on core operations in a profitable but inclusive and responsible way.

In an earlier post, I described our commitment, as part of the Business Call to Action , to grow our network of Manual Distribution Centers – or MDCs – small independently owned businesses that now deliver over 80% of our drinks in the region. Under that commitment, we plan to increase the number of MDCs by up to 2,000 new independent distribution businesses by 2010, creating up to 8.400 new jobs and generating up to US$520 million in new revenues for local economies.

Complementing this project that focuses on our downstream supply chain, I am pleased to announce a further initiative that we will be taking in East Africa around our upstream supply chain.

In partnership with our bottling partner Coca-Cola Sabco, Technoserve and the Gates Foundation, we are launching a four-year $11.5 million initiative that will enable over 50.000 small mango and passion fruit farmers in Uganda and Kenya to increase their productivity and to participate for the first time in our Company and bottling system's supply chain, leading to a doubling of their incomes by 2014.

This initiative is part of our desire to go beyond traditional philanthropic CSR initiatives, important as they are, by leveraging our core business activities and operational expertise to facilitate economic empowerment and entrepreneurship in developing countries, and ultimately to bring about more jobs and more prosperity.

Post written for Business Fights Poverty by Euan Wilmshurst, Manager, International Government Relations, Coca-Cola

via The Coca-Cola Company partners with Gates Foundation and Technoserve in East Africa – Business Fights Poverty.

On the day prior to kickoff of the much anticipated StartingBloc conference, Fellows from around the world are finding themselves stranded in airport lounges from Dubai to DC! As a wave of winter weather barrels across the country, flights are being cancelled and roads are slicker than an olympic ice luge! As for me, I left this morning navigating my way through unplowed road to get to a ridiculously slippery I-70 that would take me to the Indianapolis Airport. It took a while to get used to the driving conditions (after I turned my car sideways after first getting on the highway and managed to correct myself). The 70 MPH speed limit let way to a cautionary 30-40 MPH pace. Every few miles there were cars who managed to find themselves in ditches on either side of the road — fortunately I was not one of them…yet!

I successfully arrived at the airport an hour before my flight, pulled into the long-term parking lot only to find that it had not been plowed and parking spots were nothing more than piles of snow up to 4 feet. My first parking attempt led to my car getting stuck halfway. After managing to get out of that situation, I successfully parked in another spot (just missing the shuttle to the airport). When I finally got to the ticket counter, my flight was 20 minutes away from takeoff. Apparently, the computers lock out 30 minutes prior — meaning I was S.O.L!

So now I’m writing to you all from my “headquarters” for the day: Starbucks in the Indy Airport In an effort to mitigate against all risk of missing another flight, I’ll be camping out here until my flight tomorrow at 11AM. It’s been nice — I ended up meeting with my cousin Ben who was flying into town for business. And I’ve managed to get a lot of work and reading done!

For everybody traveling, stay safe and keep your spirits high! All the StaringBloc Fellows, I’ll see you in the days to come as we trickle into Boston from all over the globe!

00:00 – 01:00 Introduction
01:00 – 03:11 About John Kim and Interest in WorldCupCSR
03:11 – 05:37 Creating Sustainable Infrastructure
05:37 – 07:08 How Did You Decide to Explore This Topic Via Blogging?
07:08 – 10:17 Trends and Major Players
10:17 – 12:43 How Are Sponsors Engaging in CSR?
12:43 – 13:31 Nike
13:31 – 15:03 One Goal Campaign
15:03 – 16:20 Nestle
16:20 – 17:07 MTN
17:07 – 19:13 IBM
19:13 – 21:21 ADIDAS
21:21 – 23:07 Do Firms Look At South Africa or Africa as a Viable Market?
23:07 – 24:44 Why Should Companies Engage in CSR / Cause Marketing Efforts Around the World Cup?
24:44 – 26:32 While in The Global Spotlight, What Does South Africa Have to Gain?

This is a video I’ve been excited about doing since I came up with the idea for my podcast! For the last couple of months, John Kim has been blogging and tweeting about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) around the 2010 World Cup hosted by South Africa. I’ve been following his writing for a while now, and wanted to invite him to talk on the matter — to help give us an overview of what companies are doing in the CSR / Cause Marketing field surrounding the event!

In our discussion, we covered a lot of ground (hence the length of the video!) and some key points came up:

1. Building sustainable infrastructure around the event. Not just environmentally, but economically! Roads, trains, and the like — things that can last beyond the event and serve to drive forward the country’s economy.
2. Aligning CSR initiatives with the company’s brand! And,
3. The precedent that this sets for the Rio Olympics in 2016 — how should companies engage sponsorship, CSR, and cause marketing in a poverty-stricken country? (Less included in the video, maybe a good topic for future discussion after the event!)

What John pointed out to me was a disappointment that the potential for successful CSR campaigns wasn’t being entirely fulfilled. Now, granted, this could be because it is still early (he made sure to note). But he gave an example of how car manufactures like Kia, for example, could be investing in building roads or transportation infrastructure to help garner greater market share — I think it’s brilliant! There is still a lot to be seen!

John is going to be in attendance at the games, so keep an eye on his blog and twitter for updates and more awesome related content!

• WorldCupCSR Blog
• Follow @WorldCupCSR on Twitter

As always, this video is available through the following sites (subscribe, comment, and rate! Oh, and share!):

• YouTube Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3
• Vimeo
• blip.tv
• iTunes

00:00 – 00:32 Introduction
00:32 – 02:23 Market Context
02:23 – 03:13 What is Ayllu?
03:14 – 04:55 What is Microfranchising?
04:55 – 06:20 Is There A Microfinance Connection?
06:20 – 08:04 How Did You Come Up With Ayllu?
08:04 – 11:01 Groundwork Laid in Brazil
11:01 – 12:34 Future of Ayllu

One of the largest challenges that social enterprises face is that of scale: how to bring their enterprises to new markets and maximize their potential social impact. Melissa Richer created the Ayllu Initiative with this in mind. Her organization seeks to bundle proven business models through a microfranchising mechanism to connect them with local supply chains, distribution channels, legal and financial support, etc in new markets (thus lowering the cost and technical barriers to entry). Currently, Ayllu is preparing for a pilot in Brazil.

Melissa was kind enough to join me in the above video interview, during which she passionately explained the need for this type of solution among social enterprises worldwide. With all of the amazing ventures out there, there needs to be a way to bring those models to the poorest corners of the world so that we are not continually relying on entrepreneurs to “reinvent the wheel”. I love the concept, agree with the need, and can’t wait to see how Ayllu grows in the years to come!

My thanks again to Melissa for taking the time to share her insights and work with us!

More Ayllu Resources:

• The Ayllu Initiative Website
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Follow Ayllu on Twtitter

Watch This Video on the Following Platforms:

• YouTube Part 1 / Part 2
• Vimeo (Coming Soon!)
• Blip.tv
• iTunes

Hey everybody, here’s the first batch of essay responses for the Echoing Green Fellowship — your feedback is much appreciated!

Download the Essay Questions and Guidelines Here

Your Bold Idea

International Transparency Solutions is a new for-profit social venture designed to connect investors and the developing world through a suite of due diligence and investment oversight solutions. We are committed to delivering cost-effective services to the growing ranks of social investors and 3^rd world investment-seekers – a market where such solutions can radically transform the way we engage the developing world.

Our clients – individual investors, nonprofits, and even government agencies – will eventually be able to login to an online portal providing them access to their global portfolio of investments complete with pictures, video updates, and objective analyses and assessments. Investment-seeking institutions will have a platform on which they can be recognized and rewarded for their integrity through our VeriSign-like “Certification of Anti-Corruption” program. All of this will be facilitated by a network of “Transparency Professionals” tasked with serving as in-country liaisons between investors and their investments.

Our innovative proactive approach to due diligence serves to build confidence around global investment in developing countries while simultaneously facilitating more responsible and effective investment. By creating a more transparent and accountable environment for investment in the developing world, we seek to positively impact the cost-benefit relationship that individuals and organizations use when considering whether or not to partake in corrupt or dishonest activity.

Evolution

Two years ago, I was working for an e-commerce company in Nairobi, Kenya when I noticed so much lost investment potential in both the for- and non-profit sectors due to a high global perception of corruption. I watched as legitimate and hard-working charities worked right alongside organizations that were blatantly corrupt with no way for foreign investors to distinguish between the two. Compounding on this, I watched as US-based nonprofits were sinking money into programs with severe issues and not conducting the due diligence needed to recognize and fix these problems.

While in Kenya, I began work on designing a certification program to help lift honest and accountable organizations above that stigma of corruption and allow them to be recognized and rewarded for their integrity. The rest of the business model began to develop around this concept after I returned to Washington, DC and pursued research and discussions with representatives across the private, public, and independent sectors. After putting two years of work into developing the concept and model, I incorporated the business in March of 2009 and went about laying the groundwork to move forward.

Transparency Solutions is currently working on lining up the resources needed to carry out our pilot-program in Nairobi, Kenya so that we may have a presentable “proof of concept”. There is enormous potential to deepen and broaden our social impact over the course of five years including: expanding our client base, extending into new countries, investing in in-country programs (eg. E-government solutions, SMS-based fraud reporting mechanisms, taxi certification, etc.), and growing our online platforms to increase information accessibility and public engagement.

Innovation

Transparency Solutions takes a truly innovative approach toward ameliorating two key issues impeding investment in the developing world: First, social investors (including nonprofits) do not have access to any affordable and effective solutions for carrying out due diligence; Second, the mere perception of corruption that plagues developing countries is holding back massive investment potential for local investment-seeking institutions (including nonprofits) and is consequently perpetuating an environment for corruption even further!

Existing due diligence firms such as Kroll, Diligence LLC, and TRACE have failed to acknowledge the growing social investment sector and continue to serve the large and wealthy clients who can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for services designed more for mergers and acquisitions than grassroots-level social impact! On the corruption end, various watchdogs have cropped up around the world however there is no organization out there offering tangible solutions to help curb the root causes that perpetuate this social injustice.

Transparency Solutions is flipping the concept of due diligence on its head to serve this new and growing market with customized solutions that meet their specific needs. Our strategy is built upon creating a network of Transparency Professionals: on-the-ground experts that proactively tap into and develop grassroots-level intelligence networks and carry out assessments of both the organizations we certify and the programs, organizations, and investments that our clients fund and support. Our company targets both ends of the investment spectrum – investors and investment-seekers – to create a more transparent and accountable ecosystem for social investment.

Need

Accessing information, much less credible information, in the developing world has always been a challenge. All one needs to do is consider briefly the Western perception of Africa — the stereotypes that are perpetuated due to a lack of any alternative information. Corruption. War. Disease. Online Scams.

Transparency International publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, which is accompanied by a color-coded map of the world illustrating the “perceived levels” of corruption from country to country. What stands out most on this map is the dark-red that plagues the entire developing world. These perceptions are rooted in truth, and absent any alternative information these perceptions negatively influence the investment climate.

It’s estimated that the World Bank loses 30-40% of its funds to outright corruption. A New York Times article cites millions of dollars in grants awarded to Kenyan nonprofits to fight AIDS – only years later to discover those programs were never carried out. Nonprofit fraud in the United States – one of the more judicious countries of the world – was estimated to account for $40 billion in 2006.

The environment for social investment is one currently mired by a lack of transparency and accountability. This inhibits investment, perpetuates real corruption, and undermines confidence in the social sector’s ability to create lasting and sustainable change.

Transparency Solutions was founded to fill the information asymmetry, connect investors with their investments, and build overall confidence around the investment climate emerging in the Global South. Our programs will make aid and investment programs more efficient and effective, realign investment with integrity and create incentives against corruption.

Programs

The mission of International Transparency Solutions is to “develop innovative solutions that build confidence around global investment in the developing world while fostering a culture or transparency and accountability.” Our clients can be broken down into two basic categories: Investors and Investment-Seekers.

The investor category, right now, targets specifically nonprofits that are working with partner organizations or country offices abroad, foundations with program related investments (PRIs) or grants abroad, and government agencies restrained by “diplomatic security protocol.” Our investor clients will be able to tap into our on-the-ground intelligence networks to conduct pre-investment due diligence, vendor/recipient verification, or conduct a needs assessment. Our post-investment services will allow them to ensure their programs are running smoothly and properly. Our Transparency Professionals will conduct site visits and carry out full assessments of programs to make sure investors have the information they need to make appropriate decisions or report back to their boards and funders.

For investment-seekers, we will offer a “Certification of Anti-Corruption” that uses our global brand of integrity to help lift them above the stigma of corruption. This seal will certify the organization meets a set of “Standards of Transparency and Accountability” and is continually subject to random audit by Transparency Solutions’ in-country staff. Through strategic partnerships, we hope to also offer exclusive access to grants and various discounts to help incentivize program compliance.

Down the pipeline, there is enormous room for innovation and development: e-government platforms, SMS-based reporting mechanisms, and a user-driven charity database, just to name a few ideas!

Please leave your comments on the post, e-mail me a marked-up .doc file, or Contact Me directly!

Thank You!

See Also: Transparency Solutions Root Cause Analysis (Please Review!)

And the Transparency Solutions Innovation Matrix

Bounce was a nice and quick one-night read, written in the fable style of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist and integrating many of the same business principles as can be found in Jack Stack’s The Great Game of Business. The book progressively lays out a set of management principles designed to help structure your business so that when inevitable hard-times come around, your company is able to respond with resilience (a.k.a. Bounce).

It’s probably a good book to keep on the bookshelf for future reference and inspiration! It’s definitely a book I plan to pick up in the future when things get rocky! Also, as I mentioned above, if you don’t like the fable-style of writing then be sure to grab a copy of The Great Game of Business for many of the same principles and concepts!

If you’re involved in social innovation and global health, there is an upcoming conference that is a must-attend meeting of the minds! It’s the 7th Annual Global Health & Innovation Conference at Yale University (April 17 – April 18).

The speaker lineup is one of the best I’ve seen, and there is a supplementary 5-minute pitch competition for entrepreneurs to present their ideas (something I know from experience is an invaluable experience in-and-of itself)! The conference will feature over 200 AMAZING speakers, including keynotes from Seth Godin, Jacqueline Novogratz, Jeffrey Sachs and Sonia Sachs!

One of the other cool features of the conference will be “Conversation Panels” hosted by select speakers on topics including:

• Advice From The Experts: Careers in Global Health
• Innovating in Global Health
• Challenges and Success in Establishing International Partnerships
• And several more TBA!

Register before January 31st for a discounted rate of $150 (Regular) / $110 (Student). After this date, prices start to move up incrementally as the event nears!