Category Archives: non-profit

Registration Opens for ForSE 2008-Forum for Social Entrepreneurs

Posted on September 10, 2008 | Leave a comment

In 2007, I helped found an annual conference on Social Entrepreneurship in partnership with Boston University and the Deshpande Foundation called the Forum for Social Entrepreneurship or ForSE for short. ForSE brings together social innovators with leading business professionals, investors, donors, government officials, academics, and students to facilitate the sharing of new technology and business ideas along with hard-earned management learnings to foster informed discussion and action on new social venture concepts. Continue reading →

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Posted in Conference, Education, environment, Health, Information Technology, international development, Micro-enterprises, micro-finance, mobile technology, non-profit, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainability, sustainable development

Tagged Boston, Climate Change, Conference, ecosystem, Education, Food Security, Food Supply, Gerald Chertavian, Global Warming, Health, internet, microfinance, Mobile, mobile technology, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, social Innovation, sustainable development, Sustainable ventures, Year Up, Youth entrepreneurship

Paul Polak’s Twelve Steps to Practical Problem Solving

Posted on August 20, 2008 | Leave a comment

Paul Polak is a physiatrist by training but has spent the past 25 years working to alleviate poverty in the developing world. His non-profit, International Development Enterprises, has come up with innovative low cost technologies that have improved the local livelihood of people at the bottom of the pyramid. For example the simply designed bamboo treadle pump has sold over 1.7 million copies and generated over $1.4 billion in farmer revenue in Bangladesh.

Paul has encapsulated his learnings in a book Out of Poverty that describes a number of these technologies. More recently, Paul has posted an interesting video on You tube that summarizes his Twelve Steps to Practical Problem Solving.

Some of the observations are commonsense ones but it is remarkable how often people forget them in their eagerness to push technology.

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Posted in Agricultural Development, BOP, international development, non-profit, Poverty, Rural Development, Rural Entrepreneur, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, sustainable development, Water, Water resources

Tagged appropriate technology, bangladesh, BOP, innovation, international development, Paul Polak, Poverty, poverty alleviation, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, Social Impact, social Innovation, treadle pump, youtube

First-hand Village Level Perspectives

Posted on August 16, 2008 | Leave a comment

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to visit the Deshpande Foundation’s Social Entrepreneurship Sandbox in the Hubli/Dharwad area. The Foundation was established by Desh Deshpande, who is well known in the US as a serial entrepreneur, and his wife Jaishree. In India, they have focused on their home town of Hubli/Dharwad in Northern Karnataka to conduct an innovative experiment in accelerating social entrepreneurship in rural India. Continue reading →

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Posted in Agricultural Development, Hygiene, non-profit, Philanthropy, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, water and sanitation

Tagged Deshpande Foundation, Foundation, Hubli, India, Karnataka, NGO, Sandbox, self help groups, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, social Innovation, Social Investment, toilets, village life

The New Philanthropy – New models for Social Impact

Posted on July 27, 2008 | Leave a comment

I had a great time attending the conference to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of my alma mater, IIT Bombay. The event was well attended with over 800 attendees and very well organized. It was fun catching up with some of my classmates after 30 plus years!

I had the pleasure of moderating a wonderful panel on “The New Philanthropy – New models for Social Impact” with four great speakers presenting a wide range of activities that their different organizations pursue in the social sector. The panelists were

Shari Berenbach, Executive Director, Calvert Foundation
Omer Imtiazuddin, Health Portfolio Manager, Acumen Fund
Lisa Nitze, Vice President, Entrepreneur 2 Entrepreneur Program, Ashoka Global
Linda Segre, Managing Director, Operations & Initiatives, Google.org

I have written a more in-depth article for Lokvani, but some of the key points were: Continue reading →

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Posted in Conference, Health, Information Technology, micro-finance, non-profit, Philanthropy, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development, venture philanthropy

Tagged Acumen Fund, Ashoka, calvert foundation, Community Investment, Community Investment Notes, google, google foundation, google.org, hybrid philanthropy, India, Micro-enterprises, micro-finance, microcredit, microplace.com, New philanthropy, Philanthropy, poverty alleviation, renewable energy, small and medium enterprises, SME, Social Impact, social Innovation, Social Investment, venture fund, venture philanthropy

Innovative models for Social Change

Posted on July 11, 2008 | 2 comments

Last year I had written a piece for a conference blog with the title “Innovative models for Social Change“. I think the theme and topic is still relevant and I have reproduced it below.

Next week, I will be moderating a panel that will be addressing this theme at the 50^th Anniversary celebrations for my alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IITB for short) in New York. The panel is titled “The New Philanthropy – New models for Social Impact“. I am fortunate to have several of the innovative organizations that I mention in the post to be a part of my panel. The panel consists of: