I’ve been working at iDE for nearly 2 years, but the moment that changed my life—the moment when I truly experienced the impact of our work first-hand—was the day I met Anita Mwembe in Zambia…
Back in 2007, Anita and her family were living in a thatched roof hut on a small plot of land. She was making only $1-2 per day by selling packets of sugar and chickens outside the front of her hut. After becoming an iDE entrepreneur, she learned farming practices and invested in a drip irrigation system, which now allowed her to grow year round and sell crops for a better return.
Today, Anita is a full-scale entrepreneur. Not only has she quadrupled her income in only 5 years, but she’s also started a seed collective, purchased a car to get products to market more quickly, and even setup a women’s micro-lending network to support others in her community grow their businesses. But most important of all, is what this has provided…
Anita can now afford to send all of her children to school, she has built her family a new brick home, and she is even giving back to her community.
In short, through working with iDE, Anita’s entrepreneurial spirit has been unleashed. Her dreams are flourishing.
Since my trip to Zambia, I have traveled to Bangladesh and Cambodia also and I continue to be incredibly inspired and touched by the sparkle in the eyes of the people we work with – those who have invested in their future and with iDE’s partnership, brought themselves and their families out of poverty.
Please join me in spreading the word and help me reach my personal goal of $10,000 this holiday season. Our board is matching up to $50K dollar for dollar, so your investment is doubled.
It would be the greatest gift I’ve ever received if I reach my goal – which means we can help 500 individuals out of poverty.
IDE, w1sd0m, Skoll World Forum, Oxford Jam, TedXVolcano..
WOW! I don’t know how it happened, but somehow life has conspired to effect collaboration on a global scale. Ride-sharing, couch-surfing, new communities and networks forming … its mind-boggling and unimaginably inspiring. Last week, Oxford UK became the nexus of global social entrepreneurialism – launching a phenomenon (with a little help from a volcano in Iceland) that feels as if it has irrevocably altered the landscape for social entrepreneurs, their projects, and the people they exist to serve.
I came to Oxford During the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship on behalf of IDE – (International Development Enterprises), a 28 year old organization founded by Paul Polak. I was to meet the international board and discuss how IDE could achieve greater scale and impact by helping more people at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) sustainably increase their income . We stayed at Corpus Christi college and enjoyed gorgeous days and intensive discussions with great minds. I managed to make it to OxfordJam for a breakfast about online collaboration platforms for Impact Investing – I could only stay for an hour, yet even in that brief period met an incredible group of people open to innovation and collaboration on a scale I’ve never before experienced.
The volcano had already erupted, but nobody paid it any mind till the conferences were over and we realized that we were stuck. So back to London we all went..
… and so now, a new community is being born that is coming together in an even deeper way.
Saturday there was a great Kiva event where people shared Kiva trivia, their own business ideas, and trains and bus trips to the south of France and other places were arranged.
Here’s a little video clip of Matt Flannery, Kiva C0-Founder, and Premal Shah, President:
After this fun trivia contest, Matt & Premal asked if anyone had an emerging company and would like to talk about it. I stood up and introduced w1sd0m, an emerging network that I’m helping to build as core team, that helps social & sustainable enterprises like IDE (For which it’s already opened a lot of doors) find the intellectual, human, social & financial capital they need.
Sunday was the first ever “TedXVolcano” organized by Nathanial Whittemore, Evan Grant & June Cohen. In 36 hoursthese rockstars brought together TED, TEDxLondon, The Hub, Sandbox Network, Newspepper.com, & Robert Leslie along with Skoll World Forum Speakers and other great minds such as Matthew Bishop, Jim Hornthal, Gary Bolles, Peter Greenberg, Elizabeth Lindsey and musician Shesheela Raman.. Click here for the story of how they did it..
One of my favorite moments was when Jeff Skoll read his volcano poem:
This is an ode to the volcano
That sent our travel plans into the draino
I’m not really one to complaino
But this all hurts my little braino
Madrid, Casablanca, Amsterdam, Rejkavik on cruiseships
The trains will fail
All the escape routes that we planned
Are blocked by nature or by man
We heard the French trains may soon be striking
At this rate we’ll all be biking
With our luck we’ll all be struck by lightning!
This is all rather frightening
So better we all meet at TED
That is what I should have said
So thank you June and thank you all
Damn the volcano, let’s have a ball
Presented at TEDXVolcano, London, 4/19/2010
Monday afternoon, Suzanne Biegel, social venture investor and “catalyst at large” (i love her title!) and Dr. Audrey Selian of Rianta Capital organized some action-takers from the Friday OxfordJam breakfast who have built collaboration and connection platforms for impact investors and social entrepreneurs. Socential, Artha, ClearlySo, Nexii, Sasix, Gexsi along with w1sd0m were there to talk about ways to collaborate in an efficient way and eliminate waste of resources for entrepreneurs, and the networks themselves.
Another networking event after this meeting led to even more fascinating conversations over dinner with Jill Finlayson & Jason Clark of SocialEdge, Lora O’Connor of Citizenglobal.com, Cathy Clark who runs the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) program at Duke, Suzanne Biegel, Sean Holt, David Green (Solar World for All), and others.
Waking up this morning I’m slammed with all of the ideas, people, and inspiration swirling in my head. I don’t even need coffee!
As much as being ‘stranded’ in London would be viewed by many as disastrous, the remarkable thing about this exceptional group of people is that, when faced with no other options, they simply turned lemons into lemonade. For the past ten days, due in no small part to the intercession of the very earth so many are working to save, some of the most brilliant minds and open hearts in the world have come together to talk, to dance, to celebrate – and most importantly of all, to find new ways of working together (as the Buddhists would say) in service to all beings.
I’m grateful and honored and humbled to have been invited to engage with these people, at this time, in this way.
As George Bernard Shaw once said, ”The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in adapting the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man [& woman].”
This quote inspired a group of brilliant young men who recently graduated from University of Colorado. From this, The Unreasonable Institute was born in Boulder, Colorado, dubbed here on HeidiCuppari.com for the first time as“SocEnt Valley.” (the new center for social & sustainable entrepreneurship & enterprise!).
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a few of these young, passionate social entrepreneurs. I’m blown away by their innovation and drive. They have created an incredibly interesting model. They have assembled an list of advisors, veterans and thought leaders in this industry as well, which includes my partner and President of w1sd0m, Greg Berry.
See below for notes and actions to take from Teju Ravilochan. I reposted them here because I believe in them and what they’re doing, and want to support them by spreading the word…
“The Background. We announced to the world that we were searching for young entrepreneurs with ventures that could effectively address social and environmental problems while financially sustainable and globally scalable to millions of people. The response was incredible! And now, after receiving 284 applications from 45 countries, we’ve developed an unusual way to involve the world in selecting the 25 entrepreneurs we’ll bring to the Unreasonable Institute while admitting them free of charge, testing their entrepreneurial ability, and covering our costs of operations. It’s an online platform called the Unreasonable Finalist Marketplace and you can learn everything you need to know about it from watching this 1-minute and 12 second YouTube video, to the tune of AC/DC’s Back in Black (if you’d like more background on the Unreasonable Institute, feel free to scroll down to the very bottom of this email and read the section entitled “The Background on the Unreasonable Institute.” Otherwise, read on…)
2 Simple Requests. Every entrepreneur on the marketplace must rally the support of hundreds of people from across the globe. This is your chance to have your say! If you can spare 10-20 minutes:
Head to our online Finalist Marketplace and vote with your dollars ($10, $50, however much you like within the current $250 max) for an entrepreneur you believe will change the course of history. The fate of our finalists, and of the lives they will affect, rests in your hands.
Tell 5 people you know about our marketplace. Whether or not you can contribute financially to any of the entrepreneurs on the marketplace, perhaps the single most important way to support our finalists without spending a dollar or more than 5 minutes of your time is to tell 5 people you know about the opportunity to back these young, high-impact entrepreneurs. I’ll even make it easy for you: You can copy and paste details below into the relevant channels.
Copy and paste this message to your Twitter Account: These 33 entrepreneurs could change the world. You decide which 25 attend the Unreasonable Institute http://ow.ly/149cu
Copy and paste this message to your Facebook Account: These 33 entrepreneurs could change the world. You decide which 25 will receive the training, mentorship, and seed capital they need to launch at the Unreasonable Institute: http://ow.ly/149cu
Background on The Unreasonable Institute:
We select and bring together (attract & unite) 25 young social entrepreneurs (Unreasonable Fellows) from across the globe for a 10-week summer institute in Boulder, Colorado. During these 10 weeks, we incubatetheir ideas by providing them rigorous entrepreneurial skill training, legal advice, prototype consulting, web hosting and development services, and mentorship from 50 proven entrepreneurs and investors like the co-founder of Google.org and an entrepreneur who has lifted over 19 million people out of poverty. (Note from Heidi.. He’s talking about Paul Polak, Founder of IDE, the organization I’m raising funds for. See my projects page) After bringing their ideas from an idea stage to a prototype stage / investable stage (giving their ideas legs), we provide them access to at least $150,000 in seed capital and the chance to pitch to over 200 investors and enlightened philanthropists (finance) and support them with a global network to give their ideas wings. Our goal is to incubate & finance 25 social ventures a year that will each effectively address a major global issue (e.g. poverty, environmental degradation, slavery), become financially self-sustaining within a year, scale beyond the country of origin within 3 years, and ultimately reach at least 1 million people.
Because.. its snowy almost every place else in the US this time of year and you need SUN? Or because you can stroll on South Beach and see lots of thongs and muscled bodies?
Well, those reasons are always fun, (believe me, I’ll probably be doing a bit of that too.. why not??!!) but if you want to connect with world leaders in social venture capital and social enterprise.. AND attend the most important Haiti conference at the same time, Miami’s hot and the place to be.
Alvaro Rodriguez Arregui - Ignia Jonathan C. Lewis, MicroCredit Enterprises Daniella Levine – Human Services Coalition Kelly Michel – Vox Capital Rodrigo Villar – New Ventures Mexico Percy Venegas – Solar Business Technology Eric Leenson – Progressive Asset Management and Instituto Ethos Raul Pomares – Guggenheim Partners
Also, Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise Conference, Miami-2010 will be your best opportunity in 2010 to learn, network, and connect with hundreds of top social enterprise/financial leaders and organizations from Latin America, the Caribbean, and the state of Florida- in addition to organizations worldwide which have an interest in expanding to the region.
I’ve reposted some info from the conference website below for at-a-glance info on the conference:
The following groups will be attending SVC/SE, Miami-2010:
Venture Philanthropists
Social-responsible Funds
Venture Capital/Private Equity Investment Banks
Institutional Investors
Angel Investors/Individual Investors
Private Wealth Managers
Foundations
Multinational Corporate Executives
Development Banks and Agencies
Nonprofit Organizations Businesses with a Social Agenda
Social Enterprises and Social Entrepreneurs
Civil Society Organizations
Advocacy Groups
Government Organizations
Top University Leaders
Conference Goals:
Promote economic development within the region by utilizing Social Venture Capital and Social Enterprise.
Establish Miami as a capital of Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise for Latin America, the Caribbean and the state of Florida. Contribute and support continued construction of the local social enterprise ecosystem.
Educate traditional finance (private banking, venture capital, and angel investment) about investment opportunities within Social Venture Capital and Social Enterprise. Leverage Miami’s reputation as a regional financial capital for the benefit of Social Venture Capital and Social Enterprise in the region.
Act as a primary connecting point to the Latin American/ Caribbean Diaspora, from whom it is believed some of the next great Social Enterprise leaders can come. The Diaspora may also represent a material source of capital for both existing and new Social Enterprise organizations within the region.
Work in collaboration with other organizations and conferences in establishing effective and standard investment metrics within the industry.
Sustainable Haiti is a special “conference within a conference” taking place during Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise Conference
Sustainable Haiti will contain 45 workshops/panels and over 100 speakers from around the world during its 3 days. Topics will include: Developing Haiti’s tourism sector, increased agriculture opportunities, microfinance for Haitian women, utilizing media to increase awareness to Haiti’s opportunities, job growth, and overall financing of Haitian development projects. Not one to miss!
I’m working on the coolest project right now which completely aligns with my passion and mission in life: use my skills, passion, knowledge and networks to make the world a better place for our children.. and their children..
I was recently retained to help Touchpoint Trust Group find 75 Triple Bottom Line (TBL) deals to review by January 22. That means, these companies have put PEOPLE and PLANET on the same level of importance of PROFIT. I’m speaking to incredible human beings about their work EVERY DAY, and I can’t wipe the smile off my face.
The Innovative Lilith I4C Campaign is a partnership with Sarah McLaughlin and the Lilith Fair, and TouchPoint! Trust Group. The goal is to select 4-6 ‘social enterprises’ or ‘people, planet, profit’ businesses to receive an investment and major promotion around the Lilith Fair, in June. The selected companies will actually go ON TOUR with the Lilith Fair and the huge audience will learn about their business, and how they are changing lives.
When I visited my friend Chandra Reddy Metzler during her Fullbright appointment in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2000, I was first introduced to micro-finance, micro-health and NGOs. I was incredibly inspired by the model, and it made an impression for the future when I would get introduced to the work of Acumen Fund.
I was head of fundraising at Acumen Fund in 2004 and 2005 and was more immersed than ever in the idea of ‘social enterprise’ and ‘social entrepreneurship’. I had dreamed about business models which generated social change before, but to see this group of MBAs, who could have been making a fortune in banking, putting their heads together to solve the world’s social problems.
I had a very successful time at Acumen Fund, and have been interested in the ‘Triple Bottom Line” (TBL) space since then. To that end, in addition to this project, I recently joined the core team of w1sd0m, a network that connects entrepreneurs, investors and advisors in this industry.
You can do something too!
Please connect with the I4C Campaign on Twitter, and Facebook, and spread the word!!
I’ve been working at iDE for nearly 2 years, but the moment that changed my life—the moment when I truly experienced the impact of our work first-hand—was the day I met Anita Mwembe in Zambia…