Want to share a story about a sustainable international social enterprise improving the lives of people at the base of the pyramid? Want to tell others about the amazing growth of a social enterprise? Beyond Profit and the SEEP Network have teamed up to create a competition to collect stories about growth, scale and transition to highlight both social enterprise successes and challenges.

The deadline to submit a case profile is September 10th 2010. View the template to make your submission: SEEP and Beyond Profit Transition Profiles.

Email socentstory@intellecap.com to submit.

ClearlySo, an online global marketplace for social business & enterprise, commerce and investment, has announced it will expand into India. The new platform, funded and supported by Shell Foundation, will provide the Indian social business and enterprise sector with an adapted form of the business model they have already rolled out in the UK and Canada.

Launched in March 2009, the platform serves as a directory of social businesses and enables participating businesses to receive discounts on professional services and get exposure to new sources of capital.  ClearlySo currently offers a range of services, information and support to over 1400 social business and enterprise members, over 300 suppliers of products & services and in excess of 250 social minded private and institutional investors. The company’s suite of services is designed especially for social entrepreneurs.

Rodney Schwartz, CEO of ClearlySo, believes that the platform will be particularly beneficial for the Indian market. He said, “In making this move we aim to provide India with services to support the nuts and bolts of truly innovative social enterprise building, with an eye as well towards galvanizing a vibrant Indian investor community.”

ClearlySo is currently searching for what they call a “Lead Entrepreneur,” someone to lead the expansion of the platform in India. The Lead Entrepreneur will lead and deploy the model, and receive some funding from the Shell Foundation, with ClearlySo’s backing and support.

The call for qualified applicants will be underway through September 25, 2010. The full business plan will then be co-created by the new entrepreneur, ClearlySo staff and advisors with aims for a formal launch of the business and platform during 2011.

By lighting up rural communities, a new group of social entrepreneurs are illuminating a whole new group of opportunities for rural residents. They’re making health clinics run more efficiently, giving small-scale entrepreneurs the power to scale up, and powering classrooms. This week, we bring you five social enterprises bringing electricity to off-the-grid areas.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – RuralLight

Philippines; For-Profit

RuralLight doesn’t see electricity as an end; it’s a means for other forms of development. Research by the Asian Development Bank found that 98% of rural families believe electricity is important for a child’s education. It frees up more study time, and allows entrepreneurs to be more efficient and profitable. RuralLight aims to bring these opportunities to otherwise off-the-grid communities. As the young leaders behind RuralLight see it, access to electricity in the short-term means long-term economic stability. With the goal of illuminating 100 Filipino communities by 2012, the RuralLight team shows no sign of giving up on a brighter future.

By lighting up rural communities, a new group of social entrepreneurs are illuminating a whole new group of opportunities for rural residents. They’re making health clinics run more efficiently, giving small-scale entrepreneurs the power to scale up, and powering classrooms. This week, we bring you five social enterprises bringing electricity to off-the-grid areas.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Volunteer WindAid

Peru; Non-Profit

This small windmill project is volunteer-powered. Volunteers join the program and spend five weeks installing a windmill in rural Peru. Forty-five percent of volunteer fees go directly towards paying for the windmills. The model is low-cost and easy to build, so every volunteer can make a valuable contribution. So far, WindAid has supported start up coastal businesses, and powered a rural school for the regular school day and nighttime classes.  The organization works with Peruvian communities, to locate the projects and places most in need of wind-generated energy. But the benefits don’t stop with the volunteers leave – each WindAid windmill is guaranteed to bring sustainable energy for at least 20 years.

By lighting up rural communities, a new group of social entrepreneurs are illuminating a whole new group of opportunities for rural residents. They’re making health clinics run more efficiently, giving small-scale entrepreneurs the power to scale up, and powering classrooms. Not to mention, most rural energy initiatives run on wind and solar power, lessening the impact of dirty coal and kerosene burning. This week, we bring you five social enterprises bringing electricity to off-the-grid areas.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Power Up Gambia

Gambia; Non-Profit

Running a hospital without electricity isn’t difficult – it’s near impossible. Keeping vaccines and medications at temperature, running life supporting machines, or having enough light to perform a surgery require some amount of power. Power Up Gambia hopes to fill that need, using sustainable solar energy. The organization is working clinic by clinic, to install solar panels. They’re at varying stages of completion in three different clinics, which altogether reach a potential 643,000 Gambian patients. Public health heavyweight Paul Farmer has already praised the project for its green efforts.

Embarking on an epic journey is the start of many a great story. One where the hero leaves what he knows to discover something new about himself. The Odyssey. The Hajj. Eat Pray Love. (Just kidding.)

The Tata Jagriti Yatra hopes to do the same thing – take 400 young people out of their comfort zone to find something new. But instead of mere self-discovery, the entrepreneurs who run the journey hope to ignite an entrepreneurial spirit over the course of an 18-day quest. Starting in Mumbai, the Jagriti Yatra travels 9,000 km by train around the perimeter of India. Along the way, they meet with social entrepreneurs from all over the country, observing how they create opportunity and employment. The hope is that by hearing success stories, the Yatris (as they’re called) will be inspired to start businesses of their own.

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Beyond Profit “On the Spot” with Eirik Sorlie from Beyond Profit on Vimeo.

August 12, 2010, marked the beginning of the United Nations’ International Year of Youth, which aims to promote dialogue and understanding between youth of all cultures. The Urban Youth Fund, a program under the UN-Habitat umbrella, recently announced the 51 projects that will receive funding this year. Beyond Profit spoke with Project Manager Eirik Sorlie about the fund, some of the successful projects and sustainable development.

We at Beyond Profit believe in the power of entrepreneurship to drive development. But creating a new social business isn’t an easy task – it involves a huge risk (personal and financial), and a special mix of business know-how and savvy street smarts that aren’t easily taught in a classroom. How can we both inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to take that risk, as well as equip them with the skills to be successful? This group of social enterprises is doing just that. This week, we bring you five organizations supporting the next group of changemakers.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Youth Engagement Services

Pakistan; Non-Profit

In a nation like Pakistan, it’s easy for youth to feel disempowered. Flooding, political strife, and misused aid are daunting problems for even the most seasoned development worker. But Youth Engagement Services (YES), the first youth service organization in Pakistan, helps Pakistani youth realize that they can still have an impact on seemingly massive issues. YES helps youth create and lead their own service projects, in fields like education, technology, health, and relief work. YES doesn’t only reach out to higher income, educated youth looking to give back. They reach the non-educated sector as well, instilling a sense of ownership over the future of their country. Youth Engagement Services provides skill training, and support their creation of a business plan. Startup seed funding is provided through a variety of donors. And once the business gets off the ground, YES continues monitoring and metrics, to make sure they’re growing effective enterprises. Beyond social enterprise, YES hopes to create a new generation of active Pakistani citizens.

The TEDGlobal Fellows program had their TED Global Conference this July in Oxford. Twenty-three individuals came from 20 countries and sectors as diverse as dance, agriculture, technology and biochemistry. Beyond Profit is bringing you exclusive interviews with select TEDGlobal fellows, for insight on how they are using innovative ways to create sustainable change. This is our last profile in the TED Talks series.

TEDGlobal Fellows profile: DK Osseo-Asare

The “Design for Development” movement is a controversial one. Many argue that it leads to architects and designers from industrialized nations designing for, rather than with, the citizens of developing nations. Ghanaian-American architect DK Osseo-Asare has seen similar, well-intentioned mistakes. “Definitely not all, but some of the emerging ‘humanitarian design’ initiatives today show up in communities without adequate partners, and fund their own design visions,” Osseo-Asare says. “We are wary of scenarios in which design is in a sense forced into local communities.” His two organizations, the think tank DSGN AGNC  (Design Agency) and architecture studio LOWDO (Low Design Office), aim to reverse this debilitating trend. For Osseo-Asare, design isn’t about constructing buildings – it’s about building connections.

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We at Beyond Profit believe in the power of entrepreneurship to drive development. But creating a new social business isn’t an easy task – it involves a huge risk (personal and financial), and a special mix of business know-how and savvy street smarts that aren’t easily taught in a classroom. How can we both inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to take that risk, as well as equip them with the skills to be successful? This group of social enterprises is doing just that. This week, we bring you five organizations supporting the next group of changemakers.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – ChangeFusion

Thailand; Non-Profit

ChangeFusion works with a broad range of social enterprises and NGOs in Thailand, providing design and investment advisory. But their recent endeavor has them working with a narrower niche – youth entrepreneurs in Thailand. While the youth unemployment rate is lower than the average for Southeast Asia and East Asia, young entrepreneurs still struggle to find funding for startup enterprises. ChangeFusion hopes to fill that gap, with startup investment and incubation targeted to youth businesses specifically. Since 2007, they’ve already supported projects in women’s handicrafts in India, and computer services in Thailand. As of 2009, they had serviced 50 young entrepreneurs.