Good Capitalist Party at SXSWi reaches 1500 registrations
Ashoka’s Changemakers, along with Acumen Fund and the Social Capital Markets Conference is a sponsor of what looks to be one of the biggest parties at this year’s South by Southwest Interactive Conference. If you’re in Austin don’t miss it!

Ashoka Fellows Respond to Reconstruct Chile
On the 27th of February Chile was hit with an 8.8 magnitude earthquake, the fifth most powerful earthquake in history. Since then numerous Ashoka Fellows have mobilized to help with the reconstruction effort.

5 Lessons From the Tech Response to Haiti
Nearly two months ago today, Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 earthquake, and the tech community went into overdrive to try and make the relief effort smarter and more responsive. Looking back, what are the most important lessons we can begin to draw, and how should we think about how our systems can evolve to meet future disasters?

Technology and Social Innovation chat on Social Edge
Ashoka’s Rosa Wang is sharing her insights from the recent Tech4Society conference on Social Edge.

The New Dork – Entrepreneur State of Mind
A great parody video of Alicia Key’s and Jay-Z’s Empire State of Mind, all in the name of promoting entrepreneurship.

Have an Awesome Idea? Win a $1,000 Grant
The Awesome Foundation for Arts and Sciences awards a monthly $1,000 grant to projects “that support the interest of creating Awesome in the universe.” It’s a community organization, funded completely privately by micro-trustees around the country; payment comes in the form of cash, check, or gold doubloons

What I’ve Learned from the Unreasonable Institute
If you haven’t heard of the Unreasonable Institute, you will. The Unreasonable Institute attracts, incubates, and finances young social entrepreneurs with bold ideas to change the world.

This Week in Social Entrepreneurship is a weekly column covering developments across the social entrepreneurship sector, presented in partnership with SocialEarth.

On the 27th of February Chile was hit with an 8.8 magnitude earthquake, the fifth most powerful earthquake in history. Moments after the earthquake, Ashoka’s staff in the Southern Cone were in contact with the 34 Ashoka Fellows residing in Chile to offer them psychological support and appraise their needs. Ashoka has now been able to communicate with nearly all of them, and although the material losses are great, the Fellows, their families and constituents are accounted for and safe.
 
Days after the earthquake, Ashoka Fellow Macarena Currim said: “We now need to reinvent ourselves at the rate at which the most affected families need us to. Although this has been terrifying, it is clear that we, Chileans, are survivors.” Ashoka Fellow Ximena Abogabir and many others joined Macarena in thanking Ashoka for its support and for acting as a refuge in these difficult times: “Thank you all for sharing our dreams, but also our pains. It is clear that we can count on each other.”

Ashoka Fellows in the country are quickly responding to their communities’ needs. For the next two months, most will be focusing their efforts on addressing the affected populations’ short term needs. For example, through his organization, Ashoka Chile Fellow Caduzzi Salas is asking for bottled water, non-perishable food items, personal hygiene supplies, lamps and tents. Most importantly, Caduzzi mentioned the need for school supplies: young students were getting ready to start the new school year before the earthquake struck and having lost everything, their parents are not in a position to buy school supplies.

Ashoka Fellow Pedro Serrano has begun a workshop on emergency shelter in partnership with the Federico Santa María (FSM) University. He is working with a team of eight architects and engineers and 300 student volunteers to build hundreds of low cost provisional shelters and sanitation infrastructures. To make this initiative a reality, Pedro is currently looking to leverage the funding he just received from FSM University.

Yet another example is that of Ashoka Chile Fellow Vicky Quevedo who is seeking immediate support to rebuild the community radios affected by the earthquake.

This emergency response phase will be quickly followed by a long-term planning and reconstruction phase. Ashoka Fellows have mobilized their communities of changemakers and are already beginning to see how they can work as a coordinated group to organize this larger effort with the support of the Ashoka Southern Cone office.

If you are interested in supporting the short and long-term reconstruction efforts in Chile, do not hesitate to contact Maria Fonseca () and Ana Estenssoro () in the Ashoka Southern Cone office. (Phone: +54 11 4393-8646).

For the third installment in a series of blog posts for the Harvard Business Review website Ashoka Vice President Valeria Budinich explores the opportunities which exist at "the base of the pyramid", the 2 billion people worldwide who live on less than $2/day. How can market solutions be brought to bare to help these people gain greater stability, agency and safety in their lives?

She writes:

Markets are emerging for social problems. Consider these numbers:

    * $158 billion = size of the low-income health care market
    * $332 billion = size of the low-income housing market
    * $2.90 trillion = size of the low-income global food market

And there are other unformed markets that cut across income levels: For example, what's the size of the market for privacy problems? Or the market for new forms of education that teach skills as well as content?

These numbers and issues represent enormous untapped opportunity. It's time to explore them by forming alliances with citizen-sector organizations, a new and powerful kind of partner for the private sector. Any company that doesn't seriously consider working with citizen-sector organizations, forming what we call "hybrid value chains" — or commercial partnerships that leverage the critical strengths of each — is missing an important opportunity.

Read the entire post here and leave a comment to join the conversation!

Dr. Terrie Rose is an inspirational leader and innovative social entrepreneur. After becoming a mother of three within three years, she instantly felt the hardships of being a parent. During this stressful time, Rose found time to volunteer as a consultant at a program that helped new mothers who had used drugs and alcohol during their pregnancy gain the parenting skills they needed to successfully raise a child. She witnessed many situations which were much worse than her own. As she was driving home on a cold October day in Minnesota, she started to cry.

“I was physically and emotionally exhausted with the benefit of a supportive spouse, good friends and attached garage – essential in Minnesota in the winter,” Rose explained.

A few years later, she remembers watching a young mom struggling to convince her 2-year-old to walk two blocks to the bus while she struggled to carry her baby through the snow covered sidewalk – this young mom turned out to be a client of program where Rose was a consultant years earlier.

“I could hardly imagine her daily struggles to remain sober, care for her children; find a job and quality child care, while living in the neighborhood which earlier in the year earned our city the title ‘Murderapolis,’” Rose said.

“Welfare reform never conveyed empathy or understanding or the commonality of her struggles with those of all mothers of young children. Rather, led by a mandate of self-sufficiency, these mothers’ struggles with issues of child care, employment and successful parenting were viewed as their own liability for their poor choices and self-imposed conditions of poverty, single parenting and social isolation,” Rose continued.

Dr. Terri Rose

This is when the idea of Baby’s Space came to her. Babies in poverty stricken neighborhoods were growing up in violent atmospheres which lacked proper relationships. Baby’s Space was created to help those babies build relationships, grow and make a positive impact on their community in the future. And thanks to Rose’s commitment, her friends and University of Minnesota colleagues, she was able to fund an initial venture, which has grown into a model that is being expanded into new neighborhoods across Minnesota.

First comes the fellowship, then comes the marriage

Rose was inducted as an Ashoka Fellow in December of 2008 and says, “The most important step in achieving my goals was the interview process.” For those new to Ashoka Fellowship, there are two interviews, the first being an in-depth interview, and the second being a panel-style interview. By the second interview Terrie knew where her full commitment lay, “It helped me realize that this was my cause now, this is what I was going to commit 100% to.”

Rose has also formed a partnership with Social Venture Partners Minnesota whom she met at their 2008 Engaged Philanthropy Conference. Rose described how she earned their attention, “I went to the conference hoping to meet other engaged philanthropists and while that didn’t happen, I knew I wanted to be engaged with the organization. SVP-Minnesota had been supporting youth development activities and had decided to broaden into early childhood. The competition for their 2009 investee was specific to early childhood. Alas, the marriage was set.”

A word for aspiring social entrepreneurs:

“Look for the head nods, have a deep understanding for your area and be a risk-taker,” is the advice Rose gives for new and aspiring social entrepreneurs. She touched on the importance of having a mentor, “A mentor and their experiences can help guide you in the right direction.”

We also discussed finding funding for social ventures and she said, “When you have the right idea, and it’s clear about the differences it will make, people will fund it.” Rose says that getting financial backers early on, attending conferences and doing whatever it takes, are keys to success (even if that means going to your neighbors, uncles, cousins and asking for funding).

At the end of our conversation I was motivated by Rose’s philosophy, “If everyone did what gave them passion, it would create a world that’s positive and engaging.” I say, take this to heart, do good when you can, experience as much as you can, and when you discover something that inspires you to build a change model… GO FOR IT!

Writen by Tristan Pollock, originally published at SocialEarth.org, re-published with permission.

Imagine Source: wheelofmisfortune.files.wordpress.com

Social Entrepreneurs at the World Economic Forum
Of all of the world's gatherings, none has a higher-power attendee list than the World Economic Forum. It's a place where government dignitaries rub elbows with top CEOs rubbing elbows with famous athletes and musicians, who are in turn rubbing elbows with...social entrepreneurs? Yes, that's right. Nathaniel Whittemore tells us more.

Baskin Robbins 32nd Flavor: Social Entrepreneurship
At 15, Ocean Robbins realized the planetary bio-system was hurting because of human behavior. He and his friend decided to start YES! a organization to help young people make a difference in the world.

Investing in Individuals to Solve the World’s Problems
Michael Norton Obe is a man with a mission; to change the world one day at a time. It sounds a little optimistic and slightly arrogant, until you hear him speak. Then, rather disconcertingly, you believe that such a thing may just be possible.

Slideshow: Social Media for Social Change
Tom Dawkins, Ashoka's Digital Change Director, has an informative presentation on using social media to do good he's been sharing with young people around the East Coast.

United States-Saudi Women’s Forum Offers Opportunity to Social Entrepreneurs
Dar Al-Hekma College hosted the US-Saudi Women’s Forum on Social Entrepreneurship on March 2-3, which offered students the opportunity to present their projects to judges, before first, second and third place winners were announced.

Old T-Shirts Make New Lives
SocialEarth's Ashley Dresser says her unsleeved laptop has seen its fair share of abuse, but it knows nothing in comparison to the approximately 17,000 people who are sex-trafficked into the United States each year. Laptop dents and scratches and the plight of sex-trafficked women might seem completely unrelated and a somewhat insensitive correlation to make, but due to the recent launch NYC’s the Longitude’s Hello Rewind social enterprise, the two actually have a lot in common.

Can You See the Invisible Class?
Social entrepreneur Avien McCrimmon discusses the dilemma of forgotten people that make more than minimum wage, but don’t qualify for government assistance because they earn too much for their household according to government guidelines -- however they are barely able to pay their primary bills.

This Week in Social Entrepreneurship is a column developed in partnership with SocialEarth and is prepared by Tristan Pollock.

Socialize Your Cause, social media consultants focused on the citizen sector, have just published a list of the "25 most influential non-profit tweeters" and they placed Ashoka at number 15! We're glad to be in such great company - be sure to check out the full list for many inspiring social entrepreneurs and important organizations doing great work.

As we enter the final two weeks of the Healthy Mothers, Strong World competition, applications to become Young Champions of Maternal Health are flowing in from all over the world. The sixteen young professionals with the best new projects and ideas selected through this competition will participate in a nine-month professional development program abroad, working on a maternal health project while being mentored by an Ashoka Fellow! They will also win a fully sponsored trip to the global maternal health Change Summit to be held in India this summer.

The deadline is soon (March 17th), but it hasn’t passed yet, and we need help from our Ashoka community to make sure that every maternal health all-star around the world knows about this incredible opportunity and is encouraged to apply.

Curious what people are proposing so far?

Read about Adam Thompson’s eHealth Information Systems on the competition site. Adam’s team is using information technology to help manage health facilities in Nigeria, influence health-related funding and policy decisions, and provide doctors with the patient information needed to improve decision-making before, during, and after labor.

*

Or you can check out Faatemehzahraa Ahmadi’s idea to improve maternal health in Iran through dialogue-based education. She’s interested in applying Freire’s educational model to women’s health literacy as a means of engaging women more deeply in reproductive health issues. This entry is sparking lots of discussion online!

In Pakistan, Dr. Faisal Mir is developing a strategy to use medical interns as care service providers in remote and rural locations in order to ease the burden on the already-stretched-thin global healthcare workforce. He believes this idea can be implemented without requiring significant policy changes to the Pakistani health system, and can even serve to strengthen maternal health policies in the country.

Visit http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/65090/entries to read the full cohort of entries that have come in so far, and click the “enter an idea” button to submit your own maternal health solution. To help spread the word about this competition, share the link to this blog post or the Changemakers competition site with your networks today!

*Photo from Flickr on Creative Commons License

Photo: Jay Ullal, Thinkers of the Jungle

Last Thursday, I had the privilege of sitting in on a presentation given by Dr. Willie Smits, a Senior Fellow of Ashoka, where I currently work as an intern for the Full Economic Citizenship program.  Born in Norway but a nationalized and 30-year resident of Indonesia, Dr. Smits has dedicated his life to ambitious projects aimed at stemming Indonesia’s rampant deforestation, protecting its endangered orangutan population, building sustainable livelihoods for local farmers, and developing new clean energy techniques through cooperative-based sugar palm farming.  With the boundless passion and drive characteristic of Ashoka Fellows, Dr. Smit’s vast expertise and discerning vision were inspiring.  Yet, as he made clear in his presentation, the obstacles and frustrations that have stood between him and the realization of that vision would be enough to exhaust any ordinary activist.

In Indonesia, the oil palm industry has led to severe deforestation, causing pervasive droughts and fires and nearly wiping out the local plant and animal life.  His pilot project, the “green village box,” marks an experimental and ambitious step to rebuild Borneo’s rainforest, restoring its biodiversity and the wildlife and human livelihoods it has sustained for thousands of years. As Indonesia’s economy has become untenably tied to its palm oil cash crop, the economic alternative offered by Dr. Smits’ program carries incredible potential for reorienting the unsustainable development path on which Indonesia has embarked. 

Dr. Smits’ plan has been built around the cultivation of sugar palm trees, a remarkably versatile and edible plant that can also be used to produce ethanol. It requires little water and no artificial fertilizer, is six times more productive than sugar cane, and is highly resistant to fires, volcanoes, and floods.  Since sugar palm growth depends on secondary forests, and its harvesting requires taping its juices without destroying the tree, cooperative sugar palm farming promotes biodiversity, conservation, and food security while at the same time offering a sustainable livelihood for Borneo’s residents. Growing to employ thousands of farmers, the cooperative structure of the project also offers a democratic and dignified alternative to exploitative mono-crop palm oil plantations. In turn, these farmers become the watchdogs and caretakers of Borneo’s forests.

Studying all relevant factors, from climate, rainfall, and soil type to human resources and infrastructure, Dr. Smits is now exploring the global potential of his program.  With a pilot project in Colombia that includes one million sugar palms, it seems he is well on his way to globally expanding his vision.  However while what he has achieved is indeed inspiring, it has not come easily. Among the many challenges he continues to face, government corruption and corporate greed threaten to transform his innovations into industries that exploit the same natural and human resources he has sought to protect.

Presenting his findings and concerns to a room full of eager Ashoka staffers, Dr. Smits received both praise and valuable feedback, with some offering strategies he could pursue to up-scale his project without losing control of its momentum.  The presentation concluded with a hopeful implication that, while the challenges he faces are formidable, they were not insurmountable.  Something clear about Ashoka’s mission also resonated: that through dynamically exchanging ideas with a diverse set of perspectives and skill sets, and through incubating the innovations of the world’s brightest social entrepreneurs, visions for a better world can be brought to life with a force and momentum that few concede to be possible.

Contributed by Courtney Ivins, intern with Ashoka's Full Economic Citizenship program.

Ashoka Launches Globalizer
After 30 years of developing the field of Social Entrepreneurship Ashoka is taking our next step: working intensively with a carefully-selected group of 25 Ashoka Fellows to assist them to "go global" and capturing and disseminating the knowledge created to assist other social entrepreneurs to scale up their innovations to reach to scale of the challenges they address.

Technologies that Solve Social Problems
Developing technologies that solve the right problems can be enormously challenging, and then bringing them to the people who need them even more so. Social entrepreneurs from around the world met in Hyderabad earlier this month to share what they have learned about the challenges and successes of technological innovation to serve the poor. Join the discussion.

EB-6: The Proposed Social Entrepreneur Immigration Visa
The majority of immigrants come to the United States with a dream and very little money to make it on. Instead of starting on the streets, what if all they needed was a big idea and their financial security could then be petitioned for? Ashley Dresser of SocialEarth discusses this further.

TOMS Shoes Founder Blake Mycoskie Discusses Social Entrepreneurship
Jeff Slobotski had the opportunity to interview Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes. "Blake has an amazing story of how he's built the TOMS Shoes name into an internationally recognized social entrepreneurship success story." Jeff blogs.

New Frontiers for the Social Entrepreneurship API
"As a collaboration working to provide better access to information about social entrepreneurs, the Social Entrepreneurship API is a testimonial to how far the field's come. It's also an example of how far it has to go." Nathaniel Whittemore writes.

Wrap-up of the last #SocEntChat on Innovations in Peace-Building
The Ashoka Peace team have written up a summary of the key ideas from the most recent #SocEntChat on Twitter (first Wednsday of every month, 4-6pm US EST).

Business Plan Essentials for Social Entrepreneurs
Watch this recorded webinar for social entrepreneurs, small business owners who want to add "people and planet" benefits to their bottom line and those thinking about making a difference through business.

This Week in Social Entrepreneurship is a column developed in partnership with SocialEarth and is prepared by Tristan Pollock.

Grasshopper is a company dedicated to helping entrepreneurs get started and succeed. Their flagship product is a phone system designed for entrepreneurs.

To help inspire people to start a business and live their dreams last year they created a video, "Entrepreneurs Can Change the World", which has so far recieved almost 350,000 views on YouTube.

All very cool. But it gets cooler. After numerous requests from people to license their video they eventually recieved an offer to good to refuse: $20,000 from Nestle to allow them to use the video internally.

I'll let them describe what they decided to do with the money:

"We decided we wanted to donate the money to Ashoka (http://www.ashoka.org). Ashoka Youth Venture aims to help an entire generation of young people develop as leaders that will improve their communities now and throughout their lives by inspiring and supporting them to launch and lead their own civic-minded organizations and businesses. Ashoka believes that the greatest contribution we can make to the world is to increase dramatically the number of change makers today and in every future generation."

Thank you so much to Grasshopper for your support! As always we couldn't do this work without the support of those who believe, as we do, that everyone needs to have the opportunity to create change in their community, to be inspired and supported and encouraged to give themselves permission to be changemakers.

Grasshopper encourages people to think about how they can change the world. So they and Ashoka have a great deal in common. Check out the video they created - if you put the word "social" in front of the "entrepreneur" it would be a perfect match to our message. Great job everyone at Grasshopper!