Category Archives: social Innovation

Cover the basics – what to do when raising capital

Posted on April 8, 2009 | Leave a comment

Following up on the level headed advice that Chuck Lacy gave prospective social entrepreneurs, I came across a recent post on one of VC blogs that is equally relevant. Here are some excerpts, you can see the entire article at

Cover the basics before you raise capital

… We all know that coming up with market sizing and revenue forecasts for a startup is as accurate as the weatherman predicting the weather. That being said, VCs want to understand the logic behind the numbers as much as the numbers themselves. Continue reading →

Interview on Social Entrepreneurship

Posted on April 3, 2009 | Leave a comment

I was recently interviewed by New England’s largest e-magazine for South Asians, lokvani.com about my views on social entrepreneurship. You can find the full interview at their site here.

“The passage of the Edward Kennedy Serve America Act this week marks the coming of age of Social Entrepreneurship (SE)” says Raj Melville, who is one of the co-founders of the TIE-SE SIG. He talked to Lokvani about this concept which combines for-profit and non-profit work by entrepreneurs to address a social issue in a sustainable and scalable manner. It has now become the new buzz word. (from Lokvani.com)

A new era of service by Barack Obama

Posted on March 19, 2009 | Leave a comment

I am reproducing the entire text of an editorial by President Barack Obama that appeared on TIME Magazine’s website today.

It was a precursor to the news later in the day that one of the two pieces of Service based legislation – the GIVE Act – was passed with a strong bi-partisan majority of 321 to 105 in the House. The senate version of the bill – the Kennedy/Hatch Serve America Act – is awaiting final approval. If the two bills are finally reconciled and passed, they will, according to the New York Times, “be [the] largest expansion of government-sponsored service programs since President John F. Kennedy first called for the creation of a national community service corps in 1963.”

This is indeed a new era of Service

Continue reading →

An opportunity of a lifetime

Posted on March 14, 2009 | 1 comment

An interesting side effect of the global recession on graduating college students – more are considering taking time to get engaged in public service. A recent article in the Boston Globe observes

Instead of going straight into a 100-hour-a-week job at an investment bank, they are pursuing less lucrative but potentially more satisfying opportunities in public service, enrolling in record numbers in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Teach for America.

In that article Harvard President, Drew Gilpin Faust observed.
“The path to Wall Street was so clearly defined, so if you weren’t sure what direction to go, this direction was filled with signposts and rewards,” Faust said in an interview. “But we are seeing two historic moments converge: this extraordinary financial crisis and this outpouring of interest in the public sphere.”

Faust said she hopes to tap alumni connections and join with other colleges to set up a recruitment process for public service that mirrors the way the corporate world woos students.

Sasha Dichter of the Acumen Fund ruminates in in his blog post The Other 690 : Continue reading →

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Posted in Philanthropy, Service, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation

Tagged Acumen Fund, Boston, Community service, Education, non-profit, Philanthropy, Service Corps, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, social Innovation, Social Investment, Youth entrepreneurship

Bill Drayton – Social Entrepreneurship’s Rock Star

Posted on March 4, 2009 | 1 comment

I was lucky to attend the HBS SE Conf 10^th Anniversary Keynote Panel. The panel consisted of Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka and granddaddy of social entrepreneurship, David Gergen, presidential advisor emeritus and ubiquitous political commentator, Jon Greenblatt, founder of Ethos water, and Clara Miller, CEO of Nonprofit fund. More on the panel in a later post.

The hall was packed. Over a thousand people filled the room, lined the wall and crowded the passageways. It was great to see the energy behind this. Continue reading →