Social Enterprise Toolkit

Social Enterprise IT Workforce Development

The EmpowerNet California Collaborative is working on the development of an online toolkit that will build capacity statewide to (1) launch successful, sustainable community technology centers; (2) develop and operate IT workforce training programs; and, (3) create IT-related social enterprises.

I was one of two keynote speakers at the launch meeting of the ENC, the other being Karen Chapple, Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley and Director of UCB's Center for Community Innovation. Prof. Chapple spoke about her research on IT workforce development, outlined in a policy brief, Moving Beyond the Divide, available at http://www.policylink.org/pdfs/Moving_Beyond_the_Divide.pdf.

Just Enough Planning

Just Enough Planning

Rolfe Larson and Andy Horsnell's Quick Business Plan

By: 

Rolfe Larson and Andy Horsnell

There’s nothing magical about business planning. At its core, it involves thinking through and documenting who your target customers are, how your proposed venture will profitably address their needs better than the competition, how you will communicate with these customers, and how resources will be obtained to pay for startup costs.

Rolfe Larson and Andy Horsnell are principal consultants at Rolfe Larson Associates, a marketing, finance and venture consulting firm that specializes in helping nonprofits develop successful earned income strategies. Rolfe Larson is the author of Venture Forth! The Essential Guide to Starting A Moneymaking Business in Your Nonprofit Organization, published by the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation.

The Quest for the Holy Grail

The Quest for the Holy Grail:

Michael Whitehead-Bust and Vincent Dawans on Financial Analysis for Social Enterprise

By: 

Michael Whitehead-Bust and Vincent Dawans

There is an elephant in the corner of this room. And we're going to talk about it.

As we go about our work with a wide range of social enterprises throughout the country, we have seen a significant and important Achilles heel that many in the room would rather not talk about: the quality of the financial and accounting systems by which we evaluate the financial performance of social enterprises.

Michael Whitehead-Bust is a Founding Partner of Foxhall Consulting Services, and has extensive experience in both the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. He works with not-for-profit clients in all phases of earned-income generation and has a particular focus on the development of effective financial and accounting systems. His clients range from small start-up not-for-profits to large corporate entities such as Fidelity Capital. Michael has held positions as CFO of various nonprofit social enterprises, co-founder of a venture philanthropy fund, a high school teacher, an outdoor educator, and as a corporate trainer. Michael hold an MBA in entrepreneurship and finance from Babson College, and has passed the Level II Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam.
Vincent Dawans is a Partner of Virtue Ventures LLC, a small, innovative firm rooted in practice and committed to furthering the field of social entrepreneurship through action-research, technical services and its own initiatives. Through the course of his work he has had to review too many financial statements, which explains his unhealthy obsession with making sense out of them. He has worked with social enterprises to create financial reporting that better reflects decision-making around business and social objectives. Dawans holds an MBA from the ICHEC Business School, Brussels, Belgium.


Turning Administrative Expenses Into Opportunities

Turning Administrative Expenses Into Opportunities

Consultant Warren Tranquada Shows how Nonprofits are Profiting from Back-office Efficiency

By: 

Warren Tranquada

As organizations develop new social enterprise ideas, they typically think first of businesses that leverage programmatic value, skills and assets. However, earned income innovation and social value can also come from administrative functions.

Scaling for Profit

Warren Tranquada is the Chief Executive Officer of Pepin, Tranquada, Baker & Associates, a consulting firm that helps non-profits develop and implement income diversification strategies. ‹ www.pepintranquada.com

Tips for the Long Haul

Tips for the Long Haul

How Project HIRED keeps creating earned income ventures in times of change

By: 

Jan Cohen and George Archambeau

Part Two: This retrospective view of Project HIRED and its history of earned income ventures continues this month with tips and other important factors that have made a difference in being able to plan, start up, and adapt Project HIRED’s businesses through many internal and environmental changes.

Project HIRED’s mission is to assist individuals with disabilities to gain competitive employment and advance their careers through partnerships with industry. Combined, our three social business ventures provide competitive employment to over 100 workers with disabilities (with salaries and benefits in excess of $2.6 million) and generate a net contribution of $410,000 or 12%.

Tip 1: access to expertise

Janet S. Cohen has been a consultant and trainer working with nonprofit organizations for more than 18 years. Her focus is customized work sessions and consulting services for nonprofit organizations on diversification of revenue, earned income, marketing planning, and strategic planning processes. In addition to her own training/consulting business, Ms. Cohen is the Director of New Business Ventures at HOPE Services. She was an affiliate consultant with CompassPoint Nonprofit Services in the Bay Area for 6 years, a senior consultant with the National Center for Social Entrepreneurs for 5 years, and Chief Executive Officer of Project HIRED for 10 years. Under her leadership, Project HIRED grew from a staff of 2 and budget of $50,000 to a staff of 15 and revenues of $ 2.3 million. She has degrees from the University of Massachusetts, the University of Maryland, and a Certificate in Marketing: New Products and Services from the University of California at Santa Cruz. E-mail Jan at jcohenca@aol.com.

Staying On The Path Of Financial Sustainability

Staying On The Path Of Financial Sustainability

A Retrospective on 19 years with Project HIRED

By: 

Jan Cohen and George Archambeau

Project HIRED launched its first social business venture, HIRED Temps temporary staffing services, in 1986. Since then, California’s Silicon Valley has gone through several recessions. The most recent was particularly severe with hundreds of companies going out of business and the loss of 200,000 (or 15%) of total jobs. 19 years later, HIRED Temps continues to be a highly successful business venture, annually providing employment to over 100 individuals with significant disabilities, with $1.3+ million in gross sales and contributing over $100,000 annually to fund other programs and services.

Janet S. Cohen has been a consultant and trainer working with nonprofit organizations for more than 18 years. Her focus is customized work sessions and consulting services for nonprofit organizations on diversification of revenue, earned income, marketing planning, and strategic planning processes. In addition to her own training/consulting business, Ms. Cohen is the Director of New Business Ventures at HOPE Services. She was an affiliate consultant with CompassPoint Nonprofit Services in the Bay Area for 6 years, a senior consultant with the National Center for Social Entrepreneurs for 5 years, and Chief Executive Officer of Project HIRED for 10 years. Under her leadership, Project HIRED grew from a staff of 2 and budget of $50,000 to a staff of 15 and revenues of $ 2.3 million. She has degrees from the University of Massachusetts, the University of Maryland, and a Certificate in Marketing: New Products and Services from the University of California at Santa Cruz. E-mail Jan at jcohenca@aol.com.

Social Fusion Media Panel Report

Social Fusion Media Panel Report

On May 27th the third annual Conversations in Social Enterprise launched with Media Mavens: The Art and Compromise of Selling Good News. The ongoing summer luncheon series is a “Best Practices” forum sponsored by the San Francisco-based Social Fusion, a social enterprise incubator with a mission of fusing the power of business with the heart of social impact.

Using Star Power for Webcam Peace

Implementation

Implementation

Rolfe Larson and Andy Horsnell on Turning Your Business Plan into a Business

By: 

Rolfe Larson and Andy Horsnell

You’ve gone through the steps. You've sorted through numerous venture ideas (January 2005 SER: Fast Track or Back Burner), assessed the feasibility of a few of them (February 2005 SER: Testing the Waters), and written a quick business plan for one (March 2005 SER: Just Enough Planning).

Now you’re ready to move beyond planning and start doing. Your business plan is reasonably thorough, so there’s nothing to worry about, right? Sorry—wrong. Hopefully, it tells you enough to get started, but it’s only a plan. The rest you’ll have to figure out as you go.

Rolfe Larson and Andy Horsnell are principal consultants at Rolfe Larson Associates (www.RolfeLarson.com), a marketing, finance and venture consulting firm that specializes in helping nonprofits develop successful earned income strategies. Rolfe Larson is the author of Venture Forth! The Essential Guide to Starting A Moneymaking Business in Your Nonprofit Organization, published by the Fieldstone Alliance.

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