Social Entrepreneurship

NYU Conference for Social Entrepreneurship Keynote: Jason Saul, Mission Measurement

by Nathaniel Whittemore

Published November 07, 2008 @ 01:50PM PST

Bringing some serious pragmatic heat, Mission Measurement founder Jason Saul just closed the conference by articulating a different vision for where the social benefit sector is headed and what it means for social entrepreneurs and the way they assess their impact.

His basic point is that the nonprofit sector is increasingly becoming a 'social capital market' (that term sound familiar?) in which organizations need to be focused on the outcomes they produce and measurement that allows them to improve their impact. As he put it, social entrepreneurs have allegiance to the outcome their trying to create, but should often be agnostic till the means. His perspective is that there are three major shifts happening in this context:

  • Fundraising is done – You’re selling a product called impact. You have to figure out how to measure it because the currency of the social capital market is the impact you have.

  • From activities to outcomes - We don’t define ourselves by what we do – we define ourselves by what value we create

  • A shift from “evaluation” to “measurement” – Its not about “proving” its about “improving”

Additionally, he provided a clear picture of what it would take to be successful in this new social capital market

Four key principles to survive in a social capital market

  • Engage your stakeholders

  • Align your strategies

  • Translate strategies into meaningful outcomes

  • Connect to the market

It was a great presentation with a lot of wisdom for social entrepreneurs. Will debrief and write more tomorrow.

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Nathaniel Whittemore Nathaniel Whittemore
Evanston, IL

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.

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