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Social Good Instigators is a podcast featuring social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders. While social entrepreneurship is not a new concept (the term was first introduced in the early 1970’s) it has been receiving more attention of late. The goal of each interview is to share advice from social entrepreneurs for social entrepreneurs. Our hope is that listeners will learn ways to ensure their endeavor succeeds and thrives.

This podcast was originally launched in July 2015 as The Nonprofit Leader’s Network Podcast. There were 44 episodes broadcast as part of that initiative that covered topics ranging from board development to program development to fundraising. There have been over 33,800 downloads so far!

What is Social Entrepreneurship?

You might be wondering to yourself what I mean by social entrepreneurship. While there are multiple definitions available (with some of those conflicting), I’m a little partial to the one the European Commission uses:

A social enterprise is an operator in the social economy whose main objective is to have a social impact rather than make a profit for their owners or shareholders. It operates by providing goods and services for the market in an entrepreneurial and innovative fashion and uses its profits primarily to achieve social objectives. It is managed in an open and responsible manner and, in particular, involves employees, consumers and stakeholders affected by its commercial activities. http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/social-economy/enterprises_en

Social enterprises can be for- or non-profit. I’m particularly interested in organizations that are meeting social service/employment needs and/or are funding their endeavors in unique ways.

Be a Guest on the Show!

Do you know a social entrepreneur who would have some good tips and wisdom to share? Please have them email Kirsten@BullockConsulting.net and share what they’re up to. By using the subject line “I’d like to be a guest on the podcast” you’ll make sure your email gets read.

About Your Host: Kirsten Bullock

Kirsten is a Ph.D. student in Entrepreneurship at the University of Louisville (starting August 2017). She has 20+ years serving the nonprofit sector, first as a staff member and later as a consultant and entrepreneur. She’s launched (and sold) two brands including The Nonprofit Academy and the Nonprofit Leaders Network.

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  2. NLN11: Adaptive Approaches to Nonprofit Change with Mark Clark

NLN11: Adaptive Approaches to Nonprofit Change with Mark Clark

Nov 16, 2015

Our guest this episode of the Nonprofit Leaders Network Podcast series is Mark Clark, CEO of Generations for Peace, the leading global non-profit peace building organization, which he joined in 2011. Mark has been a corporate lawyer and served as a British Army Officer, and his diverse experience includes humanitarian and emergency relief work, sustainable development, youth leadership, post conflict transition and democratic governance.

Generations for Peace is dedicated to sustainable conflict transformation at the grassroots level, and empowers volunteer leaders of youth to promote active tolerance and responsible citizenship in communities experiencing different forms of conflict and violence across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Here are some of the highlights from our wide ranging discussion –

Permanent Change Requires Long-Term Commitment

Peace building is a long-term process. It needs long-term commitment by us to the volunteers we are supporting and to their communities. Over the last eight years we have trained just under 8,900 volunteers with an average age of between 25 and 35. We want to be working in communities with them for many years, and to really see a deep transformation of the conflict dynamics in any particular case, and be able to seize emergent opportunities for progress as they arise, year-by-year.

The Adaptive Change Process

We focus is on where we can start to build relationships via our youth leaders, knowing that their influence may be small at the beginning. Starting with a focus of just moving from A to B, then B to C and so on, adapting to change as we go. We use the adaptive process of gaining trust, gaining acceptance, and gradually rolling out different forms of activities to allow our volunteers to really gain access to people throughout the chain of influence in their locations.

Finding Funding for Non-Definite Processes Requires Education

Our adaptive, step-by-step approach means that we have to make a big effort to educate our donors. We have to have evidence of the impact our actions are having. Are they sustainable, are they cost effective? With those big questions in mind, we devote a lot of energy into our monitoring and evaluation; of the people running programs, direct participants and also the wider community who are touched or impacted by those directly involved. That depth and breadth of review gives much richer, more compelling data and evidence.

Being Adaptable Means No Mistakes (Just Learning Experiences)

We have an organizational culture where making mistakes is okay. To learn from those mistakes we include in our program cycles space for learning and reflection. If you can build that into your routines and the way your teams work, then you have the opportunity to turn what may seem to be mistakes into, probably, the most valuable learning that will drive your innovation and implementation.

Find more information on the podcast at www.SocialGoodInstigators.com.

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