Last Friday, Stern opened its doors to more than two dozen experts from across the social sector as the Social Enterprise Association (SEA) hosted its first annual Social Innovation Symposium. Organized by SEA in collaboration with its social enterprise counterparts at Law School and Wagner, the sold-out symposium featured a keynote address by Chris Hughes.

Hughes, introduced by Dean Peter Henry and interviewed by Wall Street Journal senior technology editor Julia Angwin, co-founded Facebook and served as the director of online organizing for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. His most recent venture, Jumo, brings the organizing power of social networks to the social sector, providing a platform for individuals and social organizations to interact online. Jumo has attracted an unprecedented amount of both interest and capital for a nonprofit startup, a concept unfamiliar to many on both the private and nonprofit sides of enterprise.

The symposium, titled “Ripple Effect: New Approaches to Social Innovation,” was produced in a innovative collaboration between Stern’s Social Enterprise Association, the Law School’s Law and Social Entrepreneurship Association and Wagner’s Bridge. Stern students and SEA board members Jessica Rivkin Larson (MBA ‘11) and Daniel Saat (MBA/MPA ‘13) sat on the event’s Leadership Committee and designed the event to feature emerging topics in social innovation. Four breakout sessions engaged the audience on the topics of social impact bonds, bottom-of- the-pyramid impact strategies, social enterprise idea evaluation and the use of new technologies for public engagement.

Organizations represented at the symposium ranged from some of the most recognized names in the social sector, such as Ashoka, the Grameen Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation to startup innovators like Causes, Rwanda Ventures and Citizen Effect.

Read the rest of the article in the Stern Oppy here

On November 18 and 19, a group of SEA-ers attended the first United Nations Global Conference for Social Change. Complimentary tickets were provided by Louise Guido, CEO of the Foundation of Social Change and Professor Jill Kickul.  The Foundation for Social Change is a non-profit organization that was designed to teach companies how to implement their social action strategies.

Amir Dossal, the Executive Director of the UN Office for Partnerships, kicked off the first day by emphasizing that developing countries will only thrive with the investment of corporations.  Though billions of dollars are donated each year, moving from philanthropic giving to investing in the poor is the factor that will drive sustainable change. All corporations need to move to a place where Corporate Social Responsibility will be part of the DNA of the organization.

Ms. Guido supported this sentiment as she noted that one of her main goals it to help companies make money while bettering the world at the same time.  The energy levels were rising as she suggested that we reconsider the term “Corporate Social Responsibility” and rebrand it as “Corporate Social Opportunity” as it carries a feeling of hope and change for people to make a difference.

Bennett Freeman was up next. Freeman is the Senior VP of Calvert Investments. Calvert Investments has been one of the leaders in Socially Responsible Investments. Calvert allows its investors to make money while at the same time investing in companies which better the world.

Nike focused on the environmental impacts of producing their products.  Traditionally, the manufacturing component of Nike has had deleterious effects on the surrounding environment because of amongst other things, the water deficit and the raw material consumption. Nike gave a 15-minute detailing how they are manufacturing better products with less waste.

Read more highlights in the Stern Oppy here.

Stewart Satter (MBA ‘82) always had an entrepreneurial spirit. In high school, Satter founded a car detailing business that became so profitable that he kept it up through college. “You have to invest a lot of time and energy into a business,” Satter says. “I got up very early on Saturday mornings, distributing brochures in my hometown that I’d made myself. Some people responded, became customers and were so impressed with my work that they referred me. Then during college, I’d drive home every weekend to run my business and eventually had a couple of people working for me. Many think it’s easy to operate a business, but it isn’t. You have to give up a lot of other things in life and so, you better love what you’re doing.”

After graduating from Stern, Satter moved to Hong Kong to set up and run a laboratory for his U.S. based family business, Consumer Testing Laboratories. After four years abroad, he returned, bought out the other company stakeholders and as CEO, grew the firm from 30 to the 1000 employees that it has today. The key to his success? Read more in the Stern Oppy here.

SEA members with Mindy Lubber, President of CERES, at the UN Global Conference for Social Change.  CERES is the leading coalition of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to build sustainability into the capital markets and address sustainability challenges such as global climate change.

SEA Members at UN Global Conference for Social Change

The Global Conference for Social Change was filled with innovative thinkers achieving meaningful results in the field of development and sustainability.  One presenter of note was Jozefina Cutura from The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which is a U.S. foreign aid agency created in 2004 by the U.S. Congress.  MCC partners with poor countries around the world to develop programs to reduce poverty.  In order for a country to work with MCC, that country must prove its commitment to good governance, economic freedom, and investments in their citizens.  MCC provides large-scale grants to these countries to fund country-led initiatives to improve economic conditions.  These grants come in two forms:  Compacts, which are large, five-year grants for countries that pass MCC’s eligibility criteria; and Threshold programs, which are smaller grants awarded to countries that come close to passing these criteria and are firmly committed to improving their policy performance.  To date, MCC has devoted $7 billion to poverty reducing Compacts and $495 million to policy improvement Threshold Programs.  While MCC works with countries globally, in the future they will be focusing on Indonesia, Zambia and Cape Verde.   Another interesting fact about the MCC is that the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the U.S. Trade Representative, and the USAID Administrator serve on the board along with four private sector representatives.

The Foundation for Social Change is dedicated to encouraging businesses to view social innovation as a way to benefit both their bottom line and address critical social issues.

“That’s right, the days of compromising profit for Corporate Social Responsibility are over! It’s time for us to stop seeing social action programs as sacrifices and to start treating them as what they are: opportunities.” This was the message that Louise Guido – CEO and founder of the Foundation for Social Change – delivered through the Global Conference for Social Change.

In partnership with the UN, this two-day event highlighted some of the highest profile speakers and business leaders and what they are doing to incorporate social action into their business DNA. 

When organizing this conference, the Foundation for Social Change was hoping to mobilize businesses in order to make them more collaborative. By bringing businesses, non-profits, and government officials together in a very targeted dialogue, it stimulates discussion and fosters an environment that encourages new ideas and problem solving across sectors. And that is exactly what they did.

From Nike’s sustainable design line, to Interface’s “Mission Zero,” the Foundation for Social Change brought leaders together to share their ideas and brainstorm practical applications for achieving positive social change so that we can move from talking about social change, to actually making it happen. For more information about the Foundation for Social Change visit: http://foundationchange.org

- Posted by Ana-Maria Alba-Bohorquez

When class let out on Thursday, October 21st, fifteen Stern Emerging Markets Association (EMA) members had only one thing on their minds— road trip!

Shuffling our belongings on to a glorified airport van, we blazed a trail down to Washington D.C. You couldn’t have thought of a more diverse bunch— hailing from Argentina, Bosnia, Brazil, England, Florida, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. I, a token Red Sox fan, was thrown in for good measure. After five hours of conversation and a guilty pit stop at Roy Rogers, we finally made it to our alumni happy hour at the Black Rooster, a dive bar near Georgetown (we’re Sternies, what did you expect?). After a round of beers and fried everything, we called it in early ahead of a busy Friday to follow.

D.C. is known as much for cherry blossoms and beltway politics as it is for being the epicenter of global development, financing, economics, and policy. Beyond the red carpet and flashing lights, thanks to EMA president Mark Rimer (‘11), we had our own VIP day in store— private meetings with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), World Bank Group, International Finance Corporation (IFC), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Inter American Development Bank (IADB). After a quick continental breakfast at the Best Western, we were off…

To read more in the Stern Oppy, click here.

Ready a Q&A with SEA Speaker Tim McCollum, co-founder of Madécasse Chocolate, in the Stern Oppy here.