Impact Explorer
  • Impact Library
    • Community Toolkits
    • Life of Service Resources
    • Learning Hubs
  • Freebies
  • Blog
  • Get the Scoop
  • Contact
    • About
    • Hey, You.
    • Let's Work Together

Blog

In Defense of Social Entrepreneurship

1/30/2017

Comments

 
Picture
A few years ago, I stumbled across social entrepreneurship and the B Corps movement. Before that, I had been working in the nonprofit world, where I experienced its highs and lows, strong and weak points.

Despite the small victories and successes along the way, I constantly asked myself questions like...
  • Why should the people who are working the hardest to make positive change in the world live on shoestring salaries?
  • Why should those receiving services have to depend on the whims of fancy, fickle donors or uncertain government grants?
  • Why couldn’t we create systems where everyone is working together to move away from the helping mentality to an empowerment one?

Turns out, a lot of people were way ahead of me. The B Corps movement, a push to transform business into a force for good in the world that originated in the US, had already started spread around the world –– including Latin America, where I was headed for my next job in the summer of 2015.

The landscape at the startup B Corporation where I worked looked very different than my previous workplaces. Fast-paced design thinking workshops. Cross-organizational collaboration. Pop-up stands at a few days’ notice. Lean startup principles. Growth mindset and failing forward.

Everyone’s participation and energy for the mission felt so palpable. Something clicked.

Happy and empowered people all around. This was what I was looking for.

While working at that B Corporation and learning about others, I became convinced that social enterprise is the future of business, and more importantly, is the future of solving problems in the world.

To me, it is a win for all involved, and ultimately a better system than what we’ve been working with up until now.

However, social enterprise is not without its detractors or concerns, and rightly so. I want to take a look at a few of the arguments against social entrepreneurship, and think about ways we can address them as social entrepreneurs, or socents, of the future.


Read More
Comments

Roll Up Your Sleeves. 

1/20/2017

Comments

 
Picture
Today is January 20, 2017.

I’ve been struggling for weeks, thinking about what I would say today. How I would feel today. What I would do today.

In fact, for the last two months, nearly all I have thought about, when my mind drifts throughout the day:

“What are we going to do?”

I’ve asked this question to friends, to mentors, to family members, to the universe.

“What are we going to do?”

During my masochistic daily review of the news, I find frightening emotions welling up inside of me. They are mixtures or pain, fear, sadness, doubt, hopelessness, anger, and frustration.

I end up doing many things, from venting to people, to binge reading, to writing, to crying, to shouting, to drinking. Sometimes a combination of all of those.

“What are we going to do?”


Read More
Comments
    Let's change the world.

    Who wrote this?

    Gina Edwards, Impact Explorer founder and lover of all pun jokes, making a positive change in the world, Stephen Colbert, Jif Peanut Butter, and staying inside on rainy days. Order may vary.
    ​More on Gina here. 

    Picture

    Archives

    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016

    Categories

    All
    B Corps
    Career
    Community
    Creation
    Ecotourism
    Entrepreneur
    Finances
    Life Of Service
    Live
    Project Idea
    Service Mindset
    Travel
    Work

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Impact Library
    • Community Toolkits
    • Life of Service Resources
    • Learning Hubs
  • Freebies
  • Blog
  • Get the Scoop
  • Contact
    • About
    • Hey, You.
    • Let's Work Together