English posts only — Socential

FAQ: How does Socential ensure quality of the social enterprises and the projects listed?

June 10, 2010 By Naoko Felder-Kuzu

We have an efficient and scalable approach to ensure the quality of the social enterprises that list projects on Socential.net. We are working with trusted partners (currently Ashoka Switzerland, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and Avina Stiftung) which perform due diligence in the relevant areas and regions. Social investors can see which partner has performed due diligence on which social enterprise. We plan to add new partners as we expand our operations.

A second important quality factor is the transparency throughout our processes. We require a high level of transparency from the social enterprises that list projects on Socential.net. Descriptions of the projects and organizations are submitted in a standardized format. Once a project is active social enterprises report regularly (as defined in each project description) on Socential.net on the progress of their projects. Socential follows up to make sure this reporting is implemented. All content is reviewed by Socential before it is published.

Filed Under: English posts only

Socential Newsletter 01/10

June 1, 2010 By Naoko Felder-Kuzu View Comments

Dear Reader

it is with great pleasure that we send you this first edition of the Socential Newsletter. From now on, we will use this newsletter to regularly update you on our general progress, highlight current projects on Socential.net, and sometimes provide tips on relevant readings and events related to social entrepreneurship. The idea is to keep it short, to the point and relevant for our current circle of stakeholders. We hope you enjoy the newsletter and look forward to receiving your feedback and ideas. Happy reading!

Best regards,
Naoko Felder and the Socential Team

Progress Update

The past few months have been very busy and exciting for us, with good progress made through our online- as well as offline activities. Most importantly, the first projects have been fully funded on Socential.net. We look forward to soon receive the first progress updates from the project leaders.

For those of you looking for a way to invest a few Francs where you can see how your money makes a real difference to people, environment and economy, we strongly recommend you have a look at one the projects on the marketplace still open for funding. How to do it? If you haven’t already done so, we recommend you to create your profile on Socential.net – it’s fast and free! Then you can browse around and invest in the projects listed, for instance the one from Blindekuh (see below), which gives you the unique chance to make a social impact and later witness and benefit from it yourself by receiving a voucher for dining in the dark!

Activity Highlight

In April, we hosted a kick-off apero in the new Socential office with the social entrepreneurs on our marketplace together with current and potential premium social investors. We were particularly happy to have Bunker Roy of Barefoot College attend our event, as there were many people wanting to meet him during his short visit to Zürich. Bunker made it on the 2010 TIME 100 list which is great news.

We’re thrilled that the three Barefoot College projects on Socential.net have already been fully funded, the last one being the solar electrification project in Guatemala, where local villagers are trained to become solar engineers and electrify their village in an economic and environmentally friendly way. We remain in close contact with Bunker, hoping to be able to list more of his projects soon.

To conclude, the very positive feedback we received from all sides on this event inspired us to plan for a least one more event in 2010, next time as an exclusive event of the Socential Club.

Featured Project

Expansion of the restaurant «blindekuh» Basel | Blind-Licht Foundation
Following the success of the first dark restaurant in the world in Zurich in 1999, “Blindekuh” opened another restaurant in Basel in 2005.Despite the operation adjustments… More

Latest from our blog

Reflections after 2010 Skoll Forum| Naoko Felder
This year’s title (theme) of the Skoll World Forum was “Catalysing Collaboration” and I believe it fully lived up to it. The program reflected and encouraged much more interaction…More

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Filed Under: All blog posts, English posts only

Why do we need social entrepreneurs?

May 31, 2010 By Naoko Felder-Kuzu View Comments

Social entrepreneurs are solving society’s most pressing problems that have either been ignored or have not been effectively addressed by other entities.

We live in a world that is benefitting from the breakthroughs achieved through industrial, scientific and technological innovation.

Despite all these breakthroughs, there are so many problems at all levels, global, national and local that have not been solved and some are not even tackled. These challenges include; poverty, health care, illiteracy, climate change, water, terrorism, human rights abuses, inequality, to mention a few.

Governments, international development agencies and charities have been working on these challenges for decades but the results show that their efforts have not been sufficient and/or their methods (top-down, no long term focus) have not been effective. The private sector (corporations) would not look to solve these problems as their main objective is to maximize profits for their shareholders. Moreover, many corporations have damaged the environment and have tolerated inequality in their pursuit for short term gains.

Social entrepreneurs provide solutions to society’s problems that have not been tackled or that have not been effectively addressed by other entities. Social entrepreneurs are passionate but pragmatic, result-oriented, innovative and their commitment is in reshaping society and benefitting humanity. This is why they are successful in providing sustainable solutions.

The successful microfinance movement as a grassroots, bottom-up approach is an excellent example of social entrepreneurship. Now millions of poor people are getting access to financial services such as small loans (microcredit), saving facilities, microinsurance, and remittances due to the initiative of grassroot local organizations. Big banks would not offer this service as it was not a profitable business for them and the governments were also not offering such services.

Social entrepreneurship is seen as one of the answers to the urgent need for creative and effective problem solving that would change the world for the better.

Filed Under: All blog posts, English posts only, Knowledge Tagged With: microfinance, social entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship

Socential represented on a lunch with the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein

February 19, 2010 By Patrik Elsa View Comments

The U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein and Mrs. Beyer recently hosted a luncheon for Switzerland-based business, academic, science, and NGO leaders on the theme of “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in a Globalized World.” Socential (represented by Patrik Elsa) greatfully accepted the ambassador’s invitation to join the lunch. I’m confident when saying that it was rewarding for both sides to bring the topic of social entrepreneurship in Switzerland into the interesting discussion.

Filed Under: All blog posts, English posts only, Socential in the media, Status update

Article about Socential in ceo* magazine

February 3, 2010 By Linus Gabrielsson View Comments

In the February edition of ceo* magazine, which is published in print today, there is a really good article about Socential and its two founders, Patrik Elsa and myself. Recommended reading for anyone who likes to get the idea of Socential explained in a more digestible manner (and anyone who wants to see me and Patrik in a corporate jungle environment )!

Here are the links to the extracted pages in English and German of the current edition.

Here are links to the full English, German, and French pdf versions of the current edition.

Filed Under: All blog posts, English posts only, Socential in the media

Socential context

December 3, 2009 By Patrik Elsa

Social [′sō-shəl] : of or relating to human society, the interaction of the individual and the group, or the welfare of human beings as members of society.

Entrepreneur [äⁿn-trə-p(r)ə-′nər] : one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.

Social entrepreneurs drive innovative and sustainable solutions to social and environmental issues. They identify a pressing social problem and use entrepreneurial skills to solve it. Their work differ from traditional charity as they use innovative business models and methods to ensure effectiveness and scalability and also differ from traditional business as they put the benefit to society first.

Socential [sō-′sen(t)-shəl] empowers high calibre social entrepreneurs to realize their ideas and projects. We are building an online marketplace for investing, networking and collaboration in social entrepreneurship.

We provide social entrepreneurs the valuable access to dedicated capital, resources and know-how.

We offer philanthropists, social investors and individuals who would like to empower innovative solutions to social issues the chance to contribute their skills, products, services and funds.

Filed Under: All blog posts, English posts only, Status update

We would like to welcome Naoko Felder-Kuzu as Advocacy Director to the Socential Team

November 30, 2009 By Patrik Elsa View Comments

naoko Update: 31.03.2010 Socential has appointed Naoko Felder-Kuzu, who since January 2010 is also heading social investment management at Socential, as one of the new board members: http://www.socential.org/804

Naoko, born in Japan and raised in El Salvador and Guatemala, is an advisor on microfinance and impact investments based in Zurich, Switzerland. She advises asset managers as well as foundations. Her first book Making Sense-Microfinance and Microfinance Investments was one of the first books on microfinance investments. In her second book “Kleiner Einsatz, Grosse Wirkung” or Microfinance and Beyond: Introducing microfranchising and social businesses she portrays the innovative social/businesses models that provide sustainable solutions to the problem of poverty. Her expertise and passion is on promoting business models with a double bottom line (financial and social returns) and bridging the economic divide through the creation of entrepreneurs in developing countries. She is a board member of a family foundation in Switzerland.

We are very much looking forward to working with Naoko on our common vision to empower social entrepreneurs, and see a great value in having her expertise on board!

Filed Under: All blog posts, English posts only, Status update

We are looking for further team members!

November 20, 2009 By Linus Gabrielsson

We obviously are much looking forward to going live with the online marketplace pilot on January 1st. Apart from increased visibility in the market, this also means needing to combine operations with further development – of the services as well as through onboarding more excellent social entrepreneurs. We have recognized that with the right extension of our core team, we have the opportunity to take Socential to the next level. If you, or someone you know, would like to take an active part of this exciting development, don’t hesitate to let us know!

So who are we looking for? Highly motivated and skilled individuals who share our passion for the mission and have the ability to take on tha lead and responsibility for a part of our social enterprise. Working experience is an advantage but not a must – most important is competence in the respective subject matter, and the ability to complement the team by bringing in fresh, clever ideas and challenging our thinking.

It is important to note that at least for the near term, each team member has to fund his/her own time, or work on a voluntary basis. What we can provide from day one though, is the chance to generate a significant social value combined with a great personal learning experience.

Also note that we have defined a minimum working pensum for each role, for it to bring significant value as well as to be meaningful for the team member. Currently, we are primarily looking to fill the following roles:

CFO (minimum 20%)

Responsibilities

Planning and operating finance
Liquidity management
Managing investments
Assisting in investor relations
Ensuring tax and financial regulatory compliance

Profile

Experience of financial mgmt
Good understanding of accounting and financial reporting
Communicative skills

Online editor (minimum 20%)

Responsibilities

Content management of Socential.org and Socential.net
Ensuring quality of marketplace content
Managing related matter with online customers and partners
Documenting and escalating feedback as well as issues and improvement opportunities discovered

Profile

Highly skilled in German language and writing/publishing
Able and ready to take the lead for the relevant responsibilities, prioritizing matters and escalating duly when necessary
Service-mindedness and ability to establish trust with customers as well as within the team

Legal council (min 20%)

Responsibilities

Identifying relevant regulations for the current as well as possible future organization
Prioritizing and making sure relevant regulations are followed
Developing legal formulations and documents for use by our organization and with different stakeholders
Subject matter expert for legal questions and matter within the team as well as on external inquiries

Profile

Subject matter expertise for legal matters in Switzerland related to our organization as well as our operations (e.g. association & foundation law, online services)
Ability to take responsibility and interact directly with external stakeholders when necessary

Initiative manager (minimum 40%)

Responsibilities

Heading (development and operation of) specific initiatives within Socential
Identifying new initiative opportunities
Identifying, targeting and interacting with relevant stakeholders

Profile

A good understanding of the particular environment and market of a social enterprise as well as experience with regular business environments and -thinking
A creative and motivated extension of our team, able to take on own responsibility and give constructive feedback, but also to challenge our thinking on other matters related to our business
Able to set priorities, work in a structured manner, and professionally approach and work with various stakeholders

Project office manager (minimum 40%)

Responsibilities

Supporting the development of Socential and its priority projects
In charge of the project office, with responsibilities such as project planning, deliverable & document management, collaboration management, task prioritization and tracking, tracking progress, tracking risks and issues, communication management and stakeholder management

Profile

A creative and motivated extension of our team, able to take on own responsibility and give constructive feedback, but also to challenge our thinking on other matters related to our business
Able to set priorities, work in a structured manner, and professionally approach and work with various stakeholders
Basic understanding, and possibly experience, of project management

Filed Under: All blog posts, English posts only, Requests

Who we are:

What we do:

What we deliver:

What makes us unique:

CFO (minimum 20%)

Legal council (min 20%)

Initiative manager (minimum 40%)

Project office manager (minimum 40%)