Most Popular Social Entrepreneurship Posts
My Last Word on the Kiva Controversy
Published November 12, 2009 @ 12:59PM PT
The controversy around Kiva's marketing reached a new level earlier this week when an article appeared in the New York Times titled "Confusion Over Where Money Lent on Kiva Goes." For those who had been following the story, there was nothing particularly new. But because it was in the New York Times, it's gotten a whole lot more traction. Personally, I think it's time we moved on. To that end, here's my last word on it.
1. (Most Important) Do the people on Kiva actually get the money? The answer is yes, and this is why despite all the ruckus and important questions about transparency, I think Kiva should come out of this with our support. The difference between perception and reality is about the flow of capital. The way it actually works is that Microfinance Institutions make loans to people before their pictures go up on the site. The money donated goes to those MFIs to support the loans they make. Kiva borrowers DO get the money they're promised; where you, as a loaner, come into the equation, is just a little bit different than some thought. For my part, I think that their actual process is the correct one for maximizing efficiency, for the reasons CEO Matt Flannery articulates here.
2. Do I think that Kiva messed up? I sure do. This one has been a bit difficult for me to blog about because while Kiva is one of my favorite nonprofits in the world, I think this was a tremendous goof. There is no more important capital in today's world than trust. And there is nothing more important for a site like Kiva than to create a compelling giving experience. By fudging the perception, or at least not working too hard to change people's misperceptions that ended up being advantageous (depending on how you look at it), Kiva has lost the trust of some of its lenders, perhaps irrevocably.
Announcing the Charter for Compassion
Published November 12, 2009 @ 09:47AM PT
Some version of the Golden Rule is at the core of almost all belief systems. The idea is simple - that one should do to others as they would have done to them, that one should strive to understand the experience of another as their own. The Golden Rule is an affirmation of empathy.
The Charter for Compassion is a new collaboration from faith and belief leaders from across disciplines to affirm the centrality of empathy and compassion for others at the core of the human experience. The charter was initiated as part of a 2008 "TED Wish" by Karen Armstrong. TED Wishes are $100,000 grants given to a few exceptional people each year.
Since then, TED, in collaboration with a wide array of partner groups, has put together the Charter and more than 70 launch events to put it in the public spotlight. Entrepreneurial faith groups like the Interfaith Youth Core are part of the network helping disseminate the project.
To learn more about the Charter and the partner organizations, visit Charterforcompassion.org
Google's Gift to Holiday Travelers
Published November 11, 2009 @ 08:44PM PT
In a move that is sure to generate huge positive will, Google is giving holiday travelers at 47 airports around the country the gift of free WI-FI. This is on top of free in-fright wireless for the month of December on Virgan America flights. While this is clearly a marketing play, it's still worth breaking down a bit to see what we can learn.
Given that, here are four reasons this is incredibly smart business:
1. It's awesome. Unlike many campaigns that ostensibly give consumers something back, the thing that Google is providing is genuinely useful and will, assuredly, make many travelers chaotic flight cancelations just a bit less painful. People don't want stuff just because it's free, but they definitely want good stuff because it's free.
2. It's connected to the core business. Rather than giving away free coffee (although Starbucks, if you want to match Google's airport support, that would be great), or fruitcakes, or something neat but not related to Google, they are providing something that reinforces their brand as the heart of the internet.
Using Twitter to Scale Caring
Published November 11, 2009 @ 11:18AM PT
What is the real power of social media for today's enterprises? According to self-made wine guru, internet icon, and entrepreneur extraordinaire Gary Vaynerchuk, it is all about the ability to scale the way you care.
I've been a fan of Gary V. for a while. He first came to prominence by doing a once a day internet TV show where he talked about wine (and life), affectionately known as the Thundershow. But while trying to figure out what goes with fish might have brought people in the door, what really built Gary's brand was his passion, enthusiasm, and willingness to go the extra mile to engage with his viewers.
Indeed, unlike many, Gary has always refused to see engaging with his audience - whether the tool was Twitter Search or Blog search - as somehow separate and distinct from his "real work." As he tells it, every person who has given him advice has told him it's simply not scalable to engage with all the people who talk about him and his work on line, yet for him, it's a gift to live in a time where he actually can interact and engage with the people who care enough to pay attention to him.
From Founder to Funder: New Seed Stage VC Launches
Published November 10, 2009 @ 01:01PM PT
The pressure on venture capital firms for big exits is tremendous. Union Squares Venture principle Fred Wilson wrote about "The Venture Capital Math Problem," in the end hoping for a return to a scenario that involves smaller funds and more focus. This week, the Founder Collective is launching, putting this entrpereneur-centric perspective into practice.
Founded by active entrepreneurs, the Founder Collective is a $40 million fund based out of NYC and Cambridge, MA that will invest in seed stage ventures. To use their words, "a person or two and an idea is our favorite stage."
From their website, it seems like they want to create a fund that focuses heavily on mentorship and advising and that works to align the incentives of funders with founders. Indeed, most of the people contributing money to the fund are active founders themselves, like Hunch CEO Chris Dixon.
The Days of Asshole Leadership Are Numbered
Published November 10, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Business Insider recently published a list of the 25 most hated CEOs. Ouch. What's remarkable is how consistent the reasons for them being hated hold across the example. Turns out, if you want to be hated by your employees, all you have to do is: not tolerate dissent, minimize feedback channels, discourage the use of personal agency and decision making and finally, make sure to be a jerk. Who would have guessed?!
In all seriousness though, the days of asshole leadership are numbered.
We've all experienced asshole leadership. Asshole leadership is leadership that doesn't encourage conversation across the company. It's leadership that fails to create a broader mission that people can actually care about. It's leadership that systemically fails to affirm and respect the contributions of the people who come together to make products and services happen. It's leadership that gets lost in the sound of it's own voice. It's leadership that can't and won't tolerate dissent, because it is leadership that is terrified and threatened by change.
Asshole leadership is all about the leader, and not about the enterprise. Asshole leadership is no leadership at all.
Top November Books: Changing Business Edition
Published November 09, 2009 @ 01:05PM PT
Every month, I'll be sharing five book recommendations for readers of this blog. Not all of them will be focused on social entrepreneurship, per se. Sometimes the list will have a theme - as it does this month - other times it won't. Not all of the books will be new. All that's guaranteed is that they will be good reads.
This month, I'd like to share a number of books that have the potential to shift our notions about business, and help us think about enterprise from a variety of new lenses.
Free: The Future of a Radical Price. By Chris Anderson. Following up his hugely influential 'The Long Tail,' Wired Magazine editor Chris Anderson writes about the history and future of the price of free. Demonstrating how the cost of production - particularly, but not only, on the internet - is driving prices ever lower, Anderson puts forth some important provocations. This book matters for social entrepreneurs because it challenges some of the mantras of capitalism, including notably the idea that people value things they pay for more highly. In the internet era, that may no longer be true.
