The Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) would like to extend a tremendous THANK YOU to the outgoing CASE MBA/Net Impact Leadership Team. CASE MBA Co-chairs Beth Cowan, Melanie Licis and Jessica Thomas and Net Impact Co-chairs Greg Kunkel and Adam Williams did an outstanding job of taking student involvement to a new level. CASE sincerely appreciated their individual and collective contributions to the Duke Start-Up Challenge Social Enterprise Track, the CASE Leadership in Social Entrepreneurship Award, career development, Fuqua on Board, the Net Impact Conference, and building interest in social entrepreneurship at Fuqua, Duke, and beyond. Their vision and leadership in bringing the two groups closer together was integral in laying the foundation for the new Social Impact Club, and the impact of these efforts will be felt for many years to come.

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Winner of the Duke Start-Up Challenge Social Enterprise Competition Announced

The Sandbox Learning Company, a web-based community and comprehensive education solution for parents and professionals working with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), was awarded over $10,000 in funding and services last weekend as the winner of the Duke Start-Up Challenge Social Enterprise competition. The nonprofit organization will ease the difficulty in working and living with the disability through online training in ASDs, online educational resources and support. Congratulations!

Thanks to all the organizers of the Duke Start-Up Challenge and especially to the final round judges of the Social Enterprise Track:

Christine Kawakami, Roberts Enterprise Development Fund
Chad Sclove, ISOPH
Chip Warner, Common Good Ventures

We appreciate your time and commitment to entrepreneurship and social impact!

The Duke Start-Up Challenge, an organization of Duke University, provides entrepreneurial leadership in the Southeast and promotes entrepreneurship across the nation.

In Practice--SE @ Work

Community Wealth Ventures is a social enterprise consulting firm that helps nonprofit organizations become more self-sustaining by generating revenue through business ventures and corporate partnerships. In addition, they assist corporations to improve their bottom line through the design and implementation of community investment strategies. Through its consulting and research, CWV influences both nonprofits and corporations to think differently about market-based approaches to their social sector activities.

Community Wealth Ventures, Inc., was founded in 1997, as a for-profit subsidiary of Share Our Strength, one of the nation's leading anti-hunger and anti-poverty organizations. Since its founding in 1984, Share Our Strength has raised more than $100 million through publications, community wealth enterprises, licensing, sponsorship agreements and cause-related partnerships with corporations such as American Express, Barnes & Noble, Calphalon Cookware, Tyson Foods and Evian.

Share Our Strength launched CWV on the premise that every organization can increase its social impact by building on its own internal assets, rather than relying on support from external organizations.

Source: CWV website

Social Venture Partners Releases First Annual Report

Social Venture Partners International aims to develop a philanthropic community that provides leadership, and a highly engaged, long-term approach to social investing. The SVP model was created in 1997, in Seattle, Washington, under the inspiration and vision of Paul Brainerd, Aldus Corporation founder and president. Additional founding members include Scott Oki, Ida Cole, Bill Neukom and Doug and Maggie Walker.

The vision of the founders was to build a philanthropic community using a model that paralleled venture capital practices. This model became known as venture philanthropy as popularized in the 1997 article “Virtuous Capital.” Key tenets of this approach to philanthropy include long-term, highly engaged investments of money, resources and business expertise to develop the capacity and sustainability of local nonprofits (investees).

As interest in this new approach to philanthropy grew, SVP organizations began developing throughout North America. Much of this growth was due to market conditions, SVP Seattle’s documentation of their work, and SVP Seattle’s willingness to provide coaching and counsel to other SVPs. By 2001, a loose network had formed, and SVP International (SVPI) was created to support and advance this network. As of the fall of 2003, there are 23 SVP organizations and over 1,100 SVP partnerships (approximately 1,500 total Partners including spouses, partners, etc.) across North America, with new Affiliates springing up across the globe.

View SVP's Annual Report (".pdf" format)

Source: SVP website

NEWS

The Dynamic Nonprofit Board

Corporate America is not alone in closely evaluating their governance practices. Nonprofit boards are becoming increasingly aware of the need to offer up transparent, accurate and meaningful oversight. Some are saying that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act should apply to nonprofits, too. A recent article in the McKinsey Quarterly discusses the mechanics behind a dynamic nonprofit Board of Directors. According to the article, "boards must venture beyond the traditional focus on raising funds, selecting CEOs, and setting high-level policy. Our research indicates that the best boards also provide professional expertise, represent the interests of their nonprofits to community leaders, recruit new talent to the organization, and provide the more rigorous management and performance oversight that funders increasingly demand. These boards get their hands dirty undertaking the tasks they do best while carefully avoiding micromanagement that would demoralize full-time staff members. Good boards, well aware that they lack the time and resources to tackle all of their responsibilities at once, manage to adapt—perhaps by devoting extra energy to a single task, such as a capital campaign, before moving on to the next challenge."

Read the article. You will have to register (it's free!) if you are not already a member.

Why Volunteers Make Better Leaders

Volunteering may not be the first thing you think of in the corporate sector. Corporate philanthropy has been around for a long time, but more and more companies are seeing the tremendous benefit of providing opportunities for their employees to participate directly in community involvement and volunteerism. In a new Strategy+Business article, authors Richard Pound and Karl Moore write, "volunteering in nonprofits isn’t just a charitable act; it’s a way for executives to hone their management and leadership skills. For younger managers, nonprofits offer rare chances to learn intangible leadership skills, such as persuasion and mediation." They go on to say that "because corporate managers volunteering in nonprofits don’t have titles to define their positions, they have to practice what some call “permission leadership.” That is, they have to earn the trust and respect of the people they are supervising."

Read the article

DON'T FORGET! Net Impact Calling for "Best MBA Paper" Entries — $5,000 prize

If you are a current student and would like to gain prestige and recognition from your peers, be honored at the Academy of Management Conference in New Orleans, published in the Journal of Corporate Citizenship and win $5,000 . . .then it’s time to enter the “Best MBA Paper” competition sponsored by The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College and Net Impact. If you or your team submits a paper that addresses some aspect of corporate citizenship or corporate social responsibility, you could be selected as one of the 2004 “Best MBA Paper” winners. Complete competition rules and guidelines can be found at the web site.

The application deadline is May 28th. Good luck!

Job Opportunities

Program Manager
Harbinger Partners

Harbinger Partners, a small, growing organization based in Cambridge, MA, is dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations understand how technology can make their operations thrive. As a Program Manager at Harbinger Partners, you will use your skills to help a women's shelter, an environmental program, or a community-organizing group serve more people in more effective ways through our Technology Pioneers Program. You will help nonprofit organizations think strategically about technology, and you will expand the reach of corporate philanthropy by helping for-profit and nonprofit organizations work together in a technology partnership. You will be excited not only to execute the program, but also to expand its reach because you will have control and responsibility. You will make a difference.

View the full job description (".pdf format). Also check out Harbinger Partners website for internship and other full-time opportunities.

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Duke School Marketing Summer Internship

Heard & Associates will be helping to recruit/select the right candidate for this internship, the position itself will be with The Duke School. Aid in developing a comprehensive marketing program for one of the nation's leading independent schools, The Duke School. Candidate will be point person for organization's various marketing needs, as well as act as a liaison between the school and it's partner advertising agency.Job offers excellent experience, small, friendly environment, lots of autonomy. The right candidate will have strong verbal, written and interpersonal skills. Email resume to czannoni@heardinc.com and specify "Duke School Internship".