The Hotbabes’ Social Entrepreneurship Survey

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Running for a cause

Have you been fretting over a reason for getting yourself to go out for a run? Fret not as the Singtel & SCS Race Cancer 2010 is just round the corner. Held on July 4 2010, at Pasir Ris Park, it aims to raise funds for the Singapore Cancer Society. The race will include a 7.5km competitive run and a 5km fun run. Hurry up and get yourself pump up for the run while showing your support towards the fight against cancer. Every little effort counts, you support will be greatly appreciated.

For more information, please visit http://www.raceagainstcancer.org.sg

Micro-Volunteering?

With all the hype about voulnteering and iphones, people start to combine these two together and created something new. An iphone application for volunteering. Not just any directory that lists the organisations you can volunteer for but on-the-spot volunteering from your iphone.

Led by an organisation called The Extraordinaries, this combination of iphone and volunteering is called Micro-volunteering. The iphone application allows users to complete small volunteer tasks like translation for non-profit organisations.

The Extraordinaries claim that this application will help people who are just too busy to find a day to do some proper volunteering work. These people will be able to make use of the little pockets of time they have, be it while waiting for a bus or in between meetings, to volunteer. In other words, people get to volunteer without committing themselves to long volunteer hours.

Will this be a feasible idea and change the way we volunteer? Or will it be just a fad that proves to be worthless?

Download the app here and try it for yourself

Find out more about it here

Social Enterprise. What It Is Really About.

This video was created by a group of Portland State University undergraduates in their Marketing for Non-Profits Capstone course. In this video, they chose to talk about Springboard Innovation, an organisation that takes people under its wings, and help them turn their dreams into reality. In the first few minutes of this video, the students talked about their definitions on what they think a social enterprise is about.

They feel that Social Entrepreneurship is basically a new type of business that is innovative, social, and environmentally focused that destroys cultural norms and rebuild new, better ones. I agree with the author’s point of view. There are indeed patterns of thinking that is/will be hard to break free from (eg. There is nothing we can do to tackle problems like poverty, lack of food in countries). But with social enterprises, things that are at first impossible will be made possible. People with similar goals will come together and make a difference in the lives of many.

In the video, these students also stated that the main purpose of social enterprises is to do business and create jobs for people. Yes I agree that social enterprises do support and create jobs for people during tough times. But I personally feel that the main purpose of social enterprises is the attainment of social goals, and to lend a helping hand for people in need (other than solving unemployment only).

Lastly they stated that social enterprises do not focus alot on financial gain, as money making is not their main goal. Instead, they focus more on instilling social values in people and impacting peoples’ lives in a way or another.

Visit Springboard Innovation @ http://springboardinnovation.org/ :D

The Controversies in Social Entrepreneurship

http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org/blog/view/top_five_controversies_in_social_entrepreneurship

Nathaniel Whittemore wrote a thought provoking article (the link above), that talks about the five controversies in Social Entrepreneurship. In this blog post, I will write about my opinions and point of views on some of the five questions raised, and how we view the world of Social Entrepreneurship. Today, Social Entrepreneurship is one of the most misunderstood phrases, and many people do not clearly know what the real purpose of it.

1. Do visionary individuals or collective action drive social change?

Each member of the collective action is a visionary individual. I feel that both visionary individuals and collective action drive social change. However, humans relate more easily to individuals and thus, I can conclude that social change is driven more effectively by individuals rather than collective action. I feel that we should also note that there is another group of people (collective action) that aids in social change. Thus we should remember to highlight this group of people as well,  other than noticing the visionary individuals only.

2. How narrowly should “Social Entrepreneurship” be defined and to whom should the term be applied?

In my opinion, I feel that the debate of what defines Social Entrepreneurship will definitely be an ongoing one, that will last for a long period of time. Many people feel that Social Entrepreneurship should not be defined too narrowly or too broadly. However, I feel that defining Social Entrepreneurship is just a waste of time. Why, you might ask. Social Entrepreneurship should be a starting point for the classification of what makes a social entrepreneur successful and capable, rather than an endpoint. Therefore if we continue to debate about what the true meaning of Social Entrepreneurship is, we are actually focusing on the wrong part of the whole issue.

4. Do social entrepreneurs address root causes or just symptoms of social problems?

Social entrepreneurs recognises a social problem and they have a deep understanding of both the root causes and the symptoms of social problems that they are trying to address. For example, social organisations are able to help, or at least leave an impact of the lives of people. Although these social entrepreneurs might seem that they are addressing only the symptoms of social problems at first, there might be results in the long run that would benefit the people.

Doing Social Entrepreneurship From Another Angle

Doing social entreneurship is indeed solving many social problems, but how big is its impact on the society? Is it big enough to solve the many persistent social problems? Well, this have been the many problems face by many social enterpreneurswhen doing their businesses.  Perhaps, the reason of not being able to solve it is that they have been tackling this problem from the samee point of view. But why don’t we change our point of view, look at things from another angle and broaden our view?  There may be so many things that are overlooked which are very essentive for further thoughts.

Social Entrepreneurship From Young (EOM)

Why are we always “forced” to do CIPs or even initiate our own CIPs in school? Just in case you didnt know, self/ class- initiated CIPs are definitely considered to be social entrepreneurship. I believe that by doing this, schools are trying to cultivate the spirit of social entrepreneurship among students like us. For many, it may seem like a bad thing; Wasting too much of our time when it could be spent on things like studying or hanging out with our friends. However for me, I feel that it is something that all of us should learn how to appreciate and to even enjoy doing.

Most definitely, I feel that social entrepreneurship should be made known to kids at early age. This would raise their awareness of social entrepreneurship at an early age and even know what it is about. This would be the stepping stone to helping them to even start out social enterprises. So now the question comes, why do i feel that children should come into contact with social entrepreneurship at a young age when they are supposed to be enjoying themselves running in the open and playing with puddles of water on the ground after the rain. Well, i belive that my reason is simple enough. Social entrepreneurship can make children realise the happenings around them; That there are many out there who are not as fortunate as them to be able to run in the open or play with puddles of water happily. It will make them realise that the things that they have do not come easily and are not to be taken granted for. They can learn about all these when they come into contact with social entrepreneurship when they see different groups of people with different backgrounds and this is something that they cannot learn from reading books in school or even playing with their soft toys.

So in conclusion i feel that children should come into contact with social entrepreneurship at a young age so that they can see for themselves what the world is like and at the same time realise how fortunate they are and will do something to help change the state of the unfortunate around the world. A little step leads to a big change.

Social Entrepreneurship? Cross Out The Social!

Define social entreprise. Social enterprises are businesses trading for social and environmental purposes.

Define traditional entreprise. An entreprise is a legally recognised organisation designed to provide goods or services to consumers.

What’s the difference? People say that while a traditional entreprise is aimed at making profits only, social entreprise is about making money to sustain itself and to change the society.

But is it really the case?

I think that traditional entreprises can also be considered as social entreprises. Yes, what people say about traditional entreprises being profit-driven and social entreprises being social-driven is true. However, can we deny that traditional entreprises are not relevant to social problems?

McDonalds sold millions of burgers and solved the need for fast food. Nike sold millions of pairs of shoes and solved the need for well, proper shoes. Apple sold millions of iPhones and greatly improved the way we use the internet, improving communication. Even the humble markets we have solved our need for food.These needs might seem minor to those social needs that social entreprises aim at. Yet, these solutions to minor needs are what that shape our society today. Without these companies, our world will not be what it is today.

All in all, even though the main motive of traditional and social entreprises are different, they do bring about the same impact — changing our lifes and society. Thus, I think that there is absolutely no need to differentiate social entrepreneurship from regular entrepreneurship. Other than the different business models and the different motives, everything just boils down to the same thing. A social change.