Is It Too Hard to Break Into the Social Entrepreneurship Field?

categories: Creative Education, Dissent, Meta

Published June 09, 2009 @ 01:33PM PT

In a great post this morning on the Pop!Tech blog, Ashni Mohnot argues that there are some specific structural constraints to breaking into the social entrepreneurship field that have led to a deep (and perhaps hypocritical) contrast between the field's egalitarian view of the world and the demographic composition of who actually gets to participate.

She points to three particular frustrations:

1. MBAs Only: Mohnot points out that socially entrepreneurial nonprofits have a bit of a fetishization of the MBA degree as a qualification. I think she rightly suggests that while it's reasonable that many people with experience with nonprofit work will need some form of business training to thrive in more financially-driven social enterprises, the MBA is one path to that sort of knowledge and comes with it's own set of baggage (not to mention debt).

2. No Young Talent Cultivation: In a point that hits particularly close to home, Mohnot points out that many (if not most) social enterprises don't have space for young people just coming out of school. She uses a number of examples to suggest how hard it is for graduates to find compelling opportunities, and asks why talent cultivation isn't a more robust part of most social enterprises' practices.

3. White, Western Voices Only: Echoing a conversation that has been tearing across Social Edge for the last week, Mohnot argues that the conversation about social entrepreneurship is dominated by white, western voices. I think that one could argue that, at least when it comes to the blogosphere, part of this problem is that there are still major digital access issues and frankly, differences in comfort with self-promotion that dampen the number of social entrepreneurs in other countries who have any sort of active social media presence. I also think her critique overstates the case that social entrepreneurs only act as "good anthropologists" soliciting feedback rather than actively involving the poor in the design of their own programs (which is precisely what at least two of her previous examples, FORGE and Kiva, do) doesn't do quite enough to recognize the dramatic shift happening towards just that sort of approach. That said, the vast majority of the critique is still right on.

The fascinating thing is that all of this comes down, in some way, to how we prioritze the cultivation of talent as an essential element of the health of our field.

MBAs may be vital, but how do we help set undergraduates on a path to social enteprise leadership before they take on hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional debt? How do we build nonprofit cultures that value (and are willing to press donors for) professional development that could build some of this training into existing work?

How do we expand the offerings of groups like Kiva and the Acumen Fund that do have fellowship programs open to younger, less-experienced people who want to be in the social enterprise space? How do we disrupt the system to make it the norm for social enterprises to have associate training programs and other structures that would help unlock incredible talent that will otherwise find it's way to other arenas?

And finally, how do we provide the basic infrastructure, support, mentorship and opportunities to unleash the entrepreneurial talent of people in different parts of the world? Jonathan Gosier at Appfrica has found a model that certainly seems to be doing just that for East African software developers, so what can we learn from them?

The take away for me is that we have to be more dilligent in our approach to cultivating, harnessing, and retaining talent, whereever it may come from.

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Comments (9)

At the same time, nonprofits have a hard time with the opposite--keeping people past a certain age, that is, an age when they start paying mortgages and tuition. It seems there's a narrow window when organizations are either interested in attracting people or able to keep them. Either they're just out of school and too young, or old enough to need to make more money.

This blog discussed another blog post on this subject not long ago. I also wrote about it in the context of the for-profit mission-driven structure and how that offers people interested in social change a way to act on their beliefs and make a decent living. It's an important issue.

Anne Field
http://trueslant.com/annefield/2009/05/21/why-not-only-for-profit-because-people-have-to-make-a-living/

Posted by Anne Field on 06/09/2009 @ 02:49PM PT
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I'm going to take issue with your comment about recent graduates. Entrepreneurship isn't about finding a position in a company; it's about taking that passion (which is so concentrated and determined in kids who are fresh out of uni) and using it to drive towards something you wholeheartedly believe in. It's not always down to companies to recognise and foster new talent; graduates can cultivate it themselves, through their own innovation and determination.

That said, there's a girl called Cate Trotter who's started up a greenspotting enterprise, who's managed to get the backing of Timberland - and anyone else who wants to support her - through the Changents programme: http://www.changents.com/earthkeepers

It no longer falls to an individual company to support entrepreneurs; if the public gets behind ideas and shows its support, that's when social entrepreneurship becomes truly social.

Posted by Gaby Turner on 06/10/2009 @ 03:31AM PT
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Gaby,

Your last comment is right one. It is public's role to support social entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, as present there are only a small number of recent graduates able to enter this field as entrepreneurs. College graduates with massive debt can hardly afford this luxury, even with some of the most prestigious fellowships. The very few top fellowships in this field only just pay a living wage. While entrepreneurship is all about sacrifice for something larger, sometimes there isn't anything left to sacrifice (especially financially).

Charlie

Posted by Charles Harding on 06/10/2009 @ 12:10PM PT
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Perhaps this shows some of the grit required to make it on your own? Entrepreneurship can prove to be a strong source of income, and true entrepreneurs will probably have worked their way through uni with crackpot business plans and money-making schemes, learning along the way. With a past like this, would a true entrepreneur really want a fellowship? Surely they'd rather look for sponsorship or rally public support rather than becoming a mouthpiece for another organisation's ideas - and profits?

Posted by Gaby Turner on 06/11/2009 @ 05:45AM PT
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Speaking of fetishization...what's up with this entrepreneur fetish? I'm not saying, in anyway that entreprepreneurs bush wackers...whatever, aren't needed and shouldn't be praised (even glorified and put up on a little pedastel as an exemplar...at least temporarily) but seriously, the point is sort of it's an elite, or at least, exclusive breed. I'll admit, I like to think big...when I think of "social enterprise" I see a viable alternative to rampant consumerism and exploitative economics. What would be much more interesting to me is to have this field (SE) develop social collaborators! To me it's not so much about being innovative as meaningful. Yes we are implementing historically(not so much) innovative practices and organizational systems, but let's think of how this could work as a ubiquitous network, not a meritocratic race to the top. The point is...we're not all cream; nor should we be...we'd all get to fat. To me; it seems, this is a field that is still forming it's foundations...we should be very concious about how sustainable they are. My wishlist is to have nurturing and cultivating organisational environments where pretty much anyone can live out their dream of the good life. Maybe my cynicism comes from too much experience with founders syndrome, a serious problem in social start-ups. Or maybe it truly is inspired by the vision of collaborative social design teams...just my two cents, for now.

Posted by Damian Tapia on 08/11/2009 @ 02:30PM PT
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MBA fetish? Probably. I belive Forge, Kiva and Acumen derive from that stable and it's most apparent in dialogue like Skolls Social Edge.

I'm not entirely convinced about the White Western Voices thing. For example, Dambisa Moya has gained a lot of interest as a young black woman who's on the same wavelenght as us I believe. She does of course have an MBA and a Harvard pedigree.

Now here's something that may be of interest. The appointment of a UK enterprise tsar hasn't impressed many in the field of social enterprise. You may observe my own experience of breaking into social enterprise in the context of being heard.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2009/jun/09/alan-sugar-social-enterprise

Posted by Jeff Mowatt on 06/10/2009 @ 04:36AM PT
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As someone who spent the past year in school searching for a way into the social entrepreneurship space, I agree that there are many challenges to breaking into the field. As a summer associate at the Acumen Fund, I know that it is a priority for us to develop avenues for young talent to enter the space. One way we are exploring that is through our Young Leaders Workshop (http://blog.acumenfund.org/2009/06/03/acumen-hosts-first-student-leaders-workshop-for-undergraduates/) and we are hoping to build upon this very successful experience.

Also, as a white American male currently pursuing an MBA, I find myself in the minority at Acumen even though I think everyone here could say the same given the gender, geographic, educational and ethnic diversity.

I believe that one big problem is the amount of opportunities currently available within organizations like Acumen and Kiva (main offices with under 40 people). One way to solve this is to build pipelines for talent directly into social ventures themselves who are desperately looking for talent and skills out in the field. Usually, this will mean people who already have skills and experience in the working world and are willing to take pay cuts. Developing a system that facilitates this and supports this transition is key. However, the need for experienced talent in this area only adds to the chicken/egg dilemma.

As an organization, we are always listening to hear what people have to say about this. Please feel free to write me at bmurray@acumenfund.org if you have any suggestions about how we can improve.

Posted by Brian Murray on 06/10/2009 @ 06:19AM PT
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Gaby and Brian, I couldn't agree with you more.

What we need to address the barriers brought up by Ashni is to believe in and invest in young social entrepreneurs from all over the world with big ideas for social change. We need to train them to make their ideas a reality by pairing them with mentors who can show them the ropes, by aligning them with seed capital and a global network of support, and by providing them the personal & entrepreneurial skills they need to start and run an effective social enterprise.

These are the main reasons we started and believe in The Unreasonable Institute (www.unreasonableinstitute.org), focused on incubating 25 young social entrepreneurs from all over the world each year to create purpose-driven ventures that can be financially self-sustaining in a year, scalable to multiple countries within 3 years, and ultimatley able to reach at least 1 million people.

We believe that social entrepreneurship has the power to change the world like never before. We also believe that young people from all countries need to be at the helm of this emerging movement. You don't need an MBA to effectively launch an idea that could change the world, especially if you're being mentored by the Bill Draytons or the Jacqueline Novogratzs of the world.

Posted by Teju Ravilochan on 06/10/2009 @ 10:37AM PT
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Hi Teju

I see that like us, you are profit for purpose which is good to know.

http://www.p-ced.com/

We're being a little unreasonable ourselves :-)

Jeff

Posted by Jeff Mowatt on 06/10/2009 @ 10:47AM PT
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Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.