Financing Social Returns in Southeast Asia: Synergy Social Ventures
[Re-posted from SocialFinance.ca. See the original post from 15 February 2012 here.] Part 1 of this blog post highlighted some difficulties faced by social entrepreneurs in Asia; Part 2 profiles Synergy Social Ventures, which supports social enterprise, and ties in lessons for the broader world of social finance. Synergy Social Ventures is a not-for-profit organization that was created in response to the challenges we saw preventing social enterprises from accelerating in Southeast Asia and China. In our work with entrepreneurs throughout the region, we identified a number of commonalities. Firstly, the vast majority of ventures are in ...
Financing Social Returns in Southeast Asia: Barriers
[Re-posted from SocialFinance.ca. See the original post from 14 February 2012 here.] The concepts of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship are newer to Southeast Asia and China than to other parts of the world. If someone was asked to name the most successful social enterprises globally, it is unlikely that an individual or organization from Southeast Asia or China would be the first to come to mind. But a closer look at the region reveals many entrepreneurial individuals and teams creating impact in innovative ways and striving to develop business models that will financially sustain and ...
Comparing Apples to Oranges
In the world of social entrepreneurship, we talk a lot about financial sustainability (this, not to be confused with environmental sustainability, which I wrote briefly about last week). The problem (as with many other sector terms, including social enterprise and impact investing, among others) is that the term is still used broadly to mean several different things. I recently spoke at Green Drinks @ HKU on a session on social entrepreneurship, where one of my co-panelists presented two stories of a social enterprise and a non-profit, and posed this question to the audience: "Which of these organizations is ...
Vancity
I’ve spent this past week in Vancouver before I head off to DC for the Aspen ANDE Conference and then to San Francisco! Every time I’m back in Vancouver, I feel really lucky to call this awesome city home. But on this trip back, there is something I’m appreciating more than ever, and of all things it’s the financial institution I worked with during my last 5 years in Vancouver. It may sound strange that I suddenly feel so much connection with and appreciation for my former employer, let me explain. Vancity Savings is based in Vancouver ...
