(For show notes and a full transcript, see https://tonyloyd.com/deirdre-horan).

Dri produces durable, fashionable, and environmentally sustainable umbrellas from ocean-bound plastic.

As a fifteen year-old, Deirdre Horan left her comfortable home in Acton, Massachusetts to join a youth group traveling to Gulfport, Mississippi. This was two years after Hurricane Katrina, and the community continued to struggle.

“What really struck me was the level of devastation that was still there two years later,” Deirdre explains. “It takes much longer than the initial relief to pick lives back up. People will always need assistance if they’ve been impacted. I saw at a young age that something can always be done for somebody.”

Deirdre continued to travel back to Gulfport year after year. But she also thought of how she could make a greater impact.

A shift in plans

In 2017, Deirdre watched a documentary, Garbage Island: An Ocean Full of Plastic. In the film, Captain Charles Moore made a comment that stuck with her.  “He said something like, ‘The oceans to a degree help clean itself out. We need to address the amount that’s flowing in,’” Dierdre explains.

“I went down a black hole, researching recycling. I learned that plastic bottles could be upcycled into polyester.

“One day I was walking to work and my umbrella flipped inside out. I was wet, discouraged, and angry. I threw the umbrella in the trash can. I checked the tag. It was made with polyester yarn. The wheels started turning. I realized that I didn’t know who made any umbrella, let alone an eco-friendly umbrella.”

That’s when the idea came for an umbrella made from ocean-bound plastic.

“I ran around telling everybody I knew about this idea. And then, I realized that I had to buckle down and do some research. One of the biggest hurdles was finding someone who could make it ethically.

“I vetted multiple companies before I made my decision.”

The problem

The world produces 380 million tons of plastic every year. Much of that is for single-use.

But what about recycling? Much of the plastic that is gathered for recycling is sent to countries with weak environmental laws and poor waste management systems. According to Deirdre Horan of Dri, over 17 billion pounds of plastic flows into the ocean every year. That’s more than one garbage truck per minute.

In many of these low-income countries, waste pickers will pick up ocean-bound plastic and bring it to recycling centers. That plastic is pelletized and can be spun into yarn and polyester.

The solution

Dri umbrellas are created from upcycled ocean-bound plastic. The handles are made from fast-growing bamboo, and the shafts are stainless steel, which is recyclable.

Learn More About Deirdre Horan and Dri

Dri: https://dri.earth

Dri on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dri_umbrellas

Dri on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DriUmbrellas

Vice Documentary, Garbage Island: An Ocean Full of Plastic: https://youtu.be/D41rO7mL6zM

IFundWomen: https://ifundwomen.com

First Founders: https://firstfounders.org

For a full transcript and extended show notes, see https://tonyloyd.com/shubham-issar.

Shubham Issar and Amanat Anand go from the UNICEF Wearables for Good Challenge to Shark Tank and beyond.

Shubham Issar and Amanat Anand grew up in New Delhi but met at Parsons School of Design in New York. They loved working together on hands-on design projects that made a difference. In 2015, they entered the UNICEF Wearables for Good Challenge. While investigating the challenge, they ran into a statistic that shocked them. Hundreds of thousands of children under the age of five die annually from infectious diseases that handwashing can prevent. Shubham and Amanat were determined to do something about that.

They returned to India to see handwashing in action. They sat in classrooms and observed. They discovered that teachers, overwhelmed by a student ratio of sixty-to-one, were rationing soap. Proper handwashing was not happening at critical times during the day.

They also observed the children enjoying their favorite pastime, drawing with bright colors.

Shubham and Amanat had an idea to make handwashing fun. They developed a prototype of a soap pen. Kids draw on their hands with brightly colored soap. It takes 20 to 40 seconds to wash off the design, ensuring proper handwashing.

UNICEF selected their design as one of ten winners of the Wearables for Good Challenge. And so, SoaPen, the product, and the company were born.

With the prize money, Shubham and Amanat conducted research and development. In 2017, they conducted a Kickstarter campaign to fund a production run. In 2018, they launched their first product on Amazon, but they struggled with sales.

"Talking about 2019 itself, it was just such a hard year for us," Shubham says. "We were bootstrapped. We launched on Amazon because we wanted to be where the parents were. But when you launch on Amazon, you're this little fish in this massive pond. You don't know how to reach the right audience.

"In October of 2019, we were featured in Real Simple magazine. Being the millennial I am, I had no idea the power that print media had. We completely sold out our entire inventory in two and a half weeks."

SoaPen's supply chain was not ready. Amazon's algorithm sent people to their page, but SoaPen could not meet the demand. Their supplier took more than eight weeks to produce new SoaPens. When the SoaPen products returned in stock, the wholesale channel took 70% of that order. So SoaPen remained out of stock on Amazon.

"On Amazon, if you're inactive for two weeks, you're essentially starting from scratch. I think that was very stressful. We finally felt like we had market validation, that the parents were interested in the product and that it was filling a need."

That was January 2020. Then, COVID hit, and they sold out again.

During this time, SoaPen received crucial customer feedback. Parents wanted more vibrant colors. And, they wanted a smaller roller ball for better drawing. When it seemed like SoaPen should rush into production, they decided to pause to get the product right.

With a redesign and supply chain issues, they took time to get the product back on shelves. They missed sales opportunities, but they developed a product that kids and their parents love.

Helping bamboo farmers and women in impoverished regions become self-reliant while eliminating plastic waste.

If Kathy Ku’s name is familiar to you, you might have heard about her previous social venture in Uganda, Spouts of Water. I interviewed Kathy in December 2016. Kathy and her co-founder John Kye left Spouts of Water, but it continues to thrive.

Around the same time that Kathy and John were in Uganda working on clean water, Dr. Noah Park was volunteering in low-income countries.

“One of our Korean co-founders visited our production site in Uganda seven years ago or so, but we had never met each other,” Kathy explains.

“He traveled to the less developed areas of developing countries and noted that a lot of bamboo was being grown in these areas and wanted to do something about it. He calculated by developing the bamboo industry in Vietnam, he could triple or quadruple the average yearly earnings in an area with 150,000 inhabitants. He’s also a dentist, so he naturally came upon bamboo toothbrushes.”

In the United States alone, over 1 billion plastic toothbrushes are thrown away each year. These toothbrushes are not recycled. They end up in the landfill or floating in the environment.

To deal with these two problems – plastic waste and helping poor bamboo farmers, Dr. Park launched his bamboo toothbrush company in Korea under the Dr. Noah brand. In 2020, Dr. Noah raised Series A capital to move into the US market. That is when Kathy Ku and John Kye joined the team.

About Kathy Ku

“I grew up in an immigrant family and community that always stressed this idea of giving back,” Kathy says. “My mom would tell me, ‘you should run an orphanage when you grow up.’ Now, I look back and think we definitely should have been worrying about our roof over our heads. But this idea of looking to do good and doing well always stuck with me.

“By the time I joined Juni Essentials, they were still trying to figure out the production process. We’re talking like 50 toothbrushes being made a day. I had a manufacturing background and helped ramp it up. We’re now making more than 50,000 toothbrushes a month. We’ll get to 100,000 soon.

“Not a lot of people know about bamboo toothbrushes, and of the people who’ve tried them, I think a lot of people have been turned off by them. They feel different from plastic toothbrushes. And I think this is where we come in.

“Our product is fundamentally made differently from other products out there. That’s why we chose to make it ourselves. Our surface is heat-treated using patented technology that provides this smooth surface - the toothbrushing experience is comparable to that of plastic toothbrushes, so why not switch?

“I think I generally have good intentions, but the execution has been difficult. For example, I want to be good to the environment, and my husband and I compost and try to use compostable Ziploc bags. But I still drive my high school car, a Cadillac, which probably contributes to 50% of California’s carbon emissions. I think bamboo toothbrushes make me happy because it’s an active decision I make every morning and evening when I brush my teeth.”

Learn More About Kathy Ku, Juni Essentials:

• Juni Essentials: https://juniessentials.com
• Juni Essentials on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juniessentials
• Juni Essentials on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juniessentials
• Kathy Ku on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seulkathyku
• Kathy’s 2016 interview about Spouts of Water: https://tonyloyd.com/podcast/143-kathy-ku-and-john-kye-spouts-of-water-safe-drinking-water-for-all-ugandans/

Eat for Equity is building a culture of generosity through sustainable community feasts.

In the early 2000s, Emily Torgrimson was a college student on financial aid. She lived in a cooperative house in Boston with 24 people. “We always came together around food,” she recalls. “The kitchen was the hub of the home.”

During Emily’s senior year, Hurricane Katrina struck the southern US coast. Not only was Katrina one of the costliest and deadliest storms in US history, it also uncovered financial and racial inequities. Emily wanted to do something, but, she says, “I had no money to give. So, I wondered what kind of difference I could make.”

Because it was Emily’s turn to cook in her cooperative house, she was looking at recipes, when she stumbled across a recipe for jambalaya. This gave her an idea. She asked her housemates, “If I made a New Orleans themed meal, do you think people would throw in a buck or two for hurricane relief?” Her housemates agreed. They handed out fliers. They invited friends and classmates. In the end, one-hundred people showed up, ate Cajun food and raised money for hurricane relief. They called the event “Eat for Equity.” Eat for Equity eventually became Emily’s life’s work.

After returning to Minnesota, Emily began to host Eat for Equity meals with her roommate in their small home. After about a year of monthly meals, a friend, Jane, hosted an Eat for Equity meal. People who knew Jane showed up for the meal. Then Eat for Equity began to grow to more homes, more social causes, and more people who were willing to experience something new.

How does Eat for Equity Work? You walk in to a home, an art gallery or a farm. Volunteers have prepared a feast with from-scratch cooking, utilizing local produce. You give what you can. That might be $10 or $50. You might not have money, but you can volunteer to help with dishes or provide music. The meal supports a nonprofit cause.

Eat for Equity also hosts dinners called “The Welcome Table,” which is focused on immigrants and refugees. Four cooks are featured in each dinner. Each course reflects their family heritage.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Emily Torgrimson

“You walk into abundance.”

“How do you use food to bring people together to support a great cause, to address inequities around us?”

“I think of Eat for Equity as trying to create connections.”

“There are all these ways you can give that feed you and also create something bigger around you.”

“You can be generous with what you have.”

“You share a piece of yourself when you cook for people.”

“I wanted to be part of the story, as much as I wanted to tell it.”

“I fell in love with Minneapolis and the culture of collaboration.”

“Catering has basically doubled every year.”

“Just try something and see how it feels.”

“Everything happens around food.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• Eat for Equity: https://eatforequity.org
• Eat for Equity on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/EatForEquity
• Eat for Equity on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatforequity
• Eat for Equity on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eatforequity
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: https://tonyloyd.com/book

NOTE: This is an encore presentation of an episode that first aired on July 11, 2016. Advice from Lee Wallace is featured in the book, Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs. To hear the original, extended interview, go here: https://tonyloyd.com/096. 

Smallholder farmers grow more than half of the coffee consumed worldwide.

Imagine if you will, that you are working at a non-profit in Minnesota, focusing on public policy. The phone rings, and the person on the other end says “Hello. This is the Port of Los Angeles. We have 38,000 pounds of green coffee with your name on it. How would you like to pick this up?” You know nothing about coffee or roasting or retail. What would you do?

That is exactly what happened twenty years ago at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. In today’s Social Entrepreneur, Lee Wallace, the Queen Bean of Peace Coffee tells us the rest of the story.

Peace Coffee is a for-profit social enterprise, owned by a nonprofit, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Peace Coffee has a wholesale business that they have been running for about two decades. They also have four retail coffee shops within the Twin Cities, Minnesota.

Last year Peace Coffee purchased 735,000 lbs. of coffee from 12 countries and 20 smallholder farmer cooperatives. In the process, Peace Coffee paid $370,000 in fair trade premiums.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Lee Wallace

“We think hard about how to do the right thing for coffee farmers.”

“Our customers named us.”

“I was trying to find a career that made sense to me in terms of my passions.”

“What I was trying to do was find places that sit at the nexus of mission and money.”

“Pretty quickly I realized that this is a magical place for me.”

“I have always been interested in how organizations work.”

“We spend a lot of our time at work.”

“The Twin Cities is an amazing place to learn about natural foods because we have such a vibrant and thriving co-op ecosystem.”

“My dad really wanted us to understand the history of industry as it came in and out of communities and how that really impacted families in those communities.”

“The original idea was that we would be an importer of all kinds of things.”

“More than 50% of the world’s coffee farmers, farm coffee on very small parcels of land.”

“We come this work with the sense that, what we’re doing is working on trying to elevate the livelihood of an awful lot of people who historically have been very disadvantaged when it comes to the way trade works.”

“It’s livelihood, but its community development too.”

“Co-ops are stepping in and playing the role of civil society in these communities.”

“People in these communities have ideas and know how they’re going to make their communities better. Our job is to be a good partner on the other side of that.”

“We have a price floor…We believe that below this level is unsustainable for coffee farmers.”

“This company existing 10 years from now is more important than what is happening this month. This company is bigger than all of us.”

“You’d be amazed at who would be willing to talk to you.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• Peace Coffee: https://www.peacecoffee.com/
• Peace Coffee on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Peace-Coffee-26583664405/
• Peace Coffee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peace_coffee/
• Peace Coffee on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Peace_Coffee
• Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: http://www.iatp.org/
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: https://tonyloyd.com/book

Offering paid job training for youth.

Sara Hart Weihmann is the Director of Social Enterprise at New Avenues for Youth in Portland. She oversees a portfolio of workforce development social enterprises that offer goods and services to the local community. This provides paid work experiences and job training for youth experiencing housing instability. These enterprises include a Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop and a screen-printing business, New Avenues INK.

“I have always had a strong sense of environmental justice since I was a young kid,” Sara explains. “My parents would tell you that I was constantly giving them feedback about lights being left on in rooms. I had these little tickets I would issue to them if they left the lights on.

“So I’ve always been Type A do the right thing. You fall into line. We owe the environment everything. So I really took that environmental view forward into my life.

“In my younger years, I even thought that environmental justice needed to come first before social justice was addressed.

“After graduating college, I found a unique MBA graduate program in the Bay Area with an emphasis on environmental sustainability and social justice. I started a business specializing in installing edible gardens and urban farms throughout the Bay Area.

“What started as a passion for ecological sustainability and horticulture quickly evolved into a passion for food sovereignty, social justice, and elevating the voices of indigenous, black, and people of color to advocate for the resources they needed to thrive in the community.

“I started participating on non-profit boards, coalitions, and councils focusing on food system equity. I found myself passionate about working with young people living in excluded neighborhoods and mentoring them in agriculture and business strategy.

“There is nothing more fulfilling to me than seeing young people recognize their inherent value in an entrepreneurial setting where they get the freedom to brainstorm and take risks with their peers with guidance from mentors.

“When I moved back to my hometown of Portland, I noticed this opportunity at New Avenues for Youth as Director of Social Enterprise. It seemed like an excellent fit for my skills and passion. It was a combination of business strategy and management to serve young people experiencing housing insecurity.

“That was over seven years ago, and I still feel inspired every day by the impacts our workforce development social enterprises have on participants and the community.”

About New Avenues INK:

New Avenues INK is a screen-printing social enterprise owned and operated by non-profit New Avenues for Youth. Since its establishment in 2013, New Avenues INK has specialized in providing high-quality, cost-competitive decorated apparel items to customers while delivering paid work experiences and job training to youth experiencing homelessness in the community.

New Avenues for Youth’s social enterprise portfolio has provided hundreds of paid internships over the years to young people who have little-to-no traditional work experience. Young people receive an hourly wage to learn necessary job skills and participate in career exploration and career coaching. Interns can build confidence in businesses, experience being a part of a team, practice receiving and providing feedback, and ultimately learn about the world of work in a trauma-informed environment.

Learn More About Sara Weihmann and New Avenues INK:

• New Avenues INK: https://www.newavenuesink.org  

The Twin Cities Impact Investing Ecosystem Map documents impact investing activity in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

If you would have picked up a copy of the Financial Times last Saturday, you might have noticed a half-page ad asking readers to participate in the Investing for Global Impact research study. Two pages later, you may have also noticed a full-page ad for a report from Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) on the relationship between the Sustainable Development Goals and investment opportunities. And, you may have caught this interview with Rehana Nathoo of The Case Foundation on their efforts to map this space.

Impact investing is a hot topic. According to the World Economic Forum, impact investing “intentionally seeks to create both financial return and positive social or environmental impact that is actively measured.”

But, what does impact investing look like in the Twin Cities? Last year, Susan Hammel set about to answer this question. Susan is the CEO of Cogent Consulting and Executive in Residence for impact investing for the Minnesota Council on Foundations. In 2016, Cogent Consulting partnered with the Bush Foundation, the Impact Hub Minneapolis – Saint Paul, and others in the community to map the impact investment space. The result is Twin Cities Impact Investing Ecosystem map.

The map consists of three components: sources of capital, companies being funded and intermediaries. The map covers both debt and equity investments.

Work on the Twin Cities Impact Investment Ecosystem continues. Cogent Consulting is holding a meeting on November 28, 2017, “What's Next for Twin Cities Impact Investing Ecosystem?” Click here for details.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Susan Hammel

“Entrepreneurs really need patient capital to fuel their great ideas.” @susan_hammel

“If it is intentional and measured, it is an impact investment.” @susan_hammel

“Where is all this money going? Could any of it being going to good purposes?” @susan_hammel

“We don’t think there is a deal flow problem we think there is a deal mismatch problem.” @susan_hammel

“The Investees sometimes go to the investors and ask them for things they will never do.” @susan_hammel

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• Twin Cities Impact Investing Ecosystem: https://minneapolis.impacthub.net/impact-investing-ecosystem
• Upcoming event, “What's Next for Twin Cities Impact Investing Ecosystem,” https://www.eventbrite.com/e/whats-next-for-twin-cities-impact-investing-ecosystem-tickets-39456629842
• Cogent Consulting: http://www.cogentconsulting.net
• Bush Foundation: https://www.bushfoundation.org
• Impact Hub Minneapolis – Saint Paul: https://minneapolis.impacthub.net
• Minnesota Council on Foundations: https://mcf.org
• Susan Hammel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-hammel/
• Susan Hammel on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cogentconsultinginc/
• Susan Hammel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/susan_hammel
• Book: The Impact Investor: Lessons in Leadership and Strategy for Collaborative Capitalism: http://amzn.to/2xZcbTF
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: https://tonyloyd.com/book

NOTE: This is an encore presentation of an episode that first aired on March 6, 2017. Grace Garey and Watsi are featured in the book, Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs. To hear the original, extended interview, go here: https://tonyloyd.com/157.

Watsi is on a mission to provide healthcare for every person in the world.

A billion people around the world do not have access to basic healthcare. And, for those who are fortunate enough to have access, the cost of healthcare can create a life-crippling financial burden.

Watsi enables anyone to directly fund life-changing healthcare for people around the world. You can go to their website, see photos and read stories of patients. You can donate as little as five dollars. All the donated money goes directly to the patient.

Donors receive updates throughout the funding process. Once the patient’s healthcare is funded, donors receive updates from doctors and healthcare workers. Donors experience full transparency from the donation to the impact.

Since launching four years ago, visitors to the site have raised $7.5 million to provide healthcare for more than 10,000 patients in 24 countries.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Grace Garey

“We believe everyone deserves healthcare.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“A billion people around the world don’t have access to basic healthcare.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“It’s all through a network of local medical partners.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“When you support a patient, by default, 100% of your donation goes to support that patient’s care.”

“My parents are both progressive people who raised me and my sister to care about the rest of the world, outside of our bubble.”

“When people are safe and healthy and have access to the basic things they need, they make good decisions and they make the world around them better.”

“We started working on Watsi on nights and weekends.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“We just started.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“We employed the generosity of a lot of people who were excited about the idea.”

“We really didn’t know if it would work or not.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“We started with almost no systems.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“Our initial goal was that we would fund healthcare for ten patients in the first six months, and we did it in the first six hours.”

“I didn’t know what Y Combinator was.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“We were more like the for-profit startups than we were different.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“When we got to YC, everyone was thinking really big.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“We told them that we wanted to change global health and they did not blink an eye.”

“They assumed it was worth trying.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“There are now a dozen or so non-profits and social ventures who have gone through Y Combinator. They’ve all meshed this idea of making an impact with the idea of reaching scale.”

“Up to 40% of health funding is lost to inefficiency.” @gracegarey, @watsi

“The hardest part throughout this whole journey is just scaling as a person.”

“Everyone talks about what it takes to scale your startup, but you also have to scale.”

“You have to get used to being really bad at your job most of the time.” @gracegarey, @watsi

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• Watsi: https://watsi.org
• Watsi on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Watsi.org
• Watsi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/watsi
• Watsi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/watsi
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: https://tonyloyd.com/book

People who were involved in the criminal justice system are more than their labels.

Karen Lee is the Chief Executive Officer of Pioneer Human Services.

She was born during the 1960s civil rights era. “During my lifetime, I’ve seen quite a bit of discrimination. I’ve always wanted to do something about that in a way that was true to me.”

Karen graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point. She served our country until the 1990s.

After her military service ended, she attended the University of Washington School of Law, where she received her JD degree. “I wanted to be a civil rights attorney,” Karen explains, “but I found that I liked working with people and leading organizations.”

She took several middle management positions. In 2005, she was asked to serve as the Commissioner for the Washington State Employment Security Division.

“We would get these reports on employment and wages from the labor economists that work there. That’s when I saw the disparity that exists in society today.

“I got a good look at the income gap. What was troubling was that the income gap was most apparent with people who had a negative interaction with the justice system. Black people, indigenous people, and people of color were all at the labor market’s bottom. I wanted to do something about that.”

Karen used her position in the labor department to try several programs. But then, the governor’s term was coming to an end. That’s when she noticed that Pioneer Human Services was looking for a new CEO.

“This particular segment of the population is one that I have often been concerned about because of my race and because I know people that have been involved with the justice system. I have family members that have been involved with the justice system, and they’ve struggled to find employment. And so I’ve wanted to do something about that.”

About Pioneer Human Services

Pioneer Human Services provides counseling, treatment, housing, job skills training, and employment for those involved in the criminal justice system. Pioneer provides career paths and living wage jobs for a population many disregard. Pioneer is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit social-enterprises. Pioneer serves over 10,000 people a year through its diversion, treatment, housing, and job training programs.

Under Karen’s leadership, Pioneer successfully operates several revenue-generating businesses that provide living-wage jobs and help fund its mission.

Learn More About Karen Lee and Pioneer Human Services:

Pioneer Human Services: https://pioneerhumanservices.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuGf99lQwbSXXObe9NlwrOQ

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/pioneer-human-services

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PioneerWA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PioneerWA

One Sky is an international NGO that works with governments and communities to help the most disadvantaged and marginalized children.

Jenny Bowen is a storyteller. In this interview, she tells the story of OneSky. I would also suggest that you pick up Jenny’s book, Wish You Happy Forever: What China’s Children Taught Me About Moving Mountains. Because Jenny tells the story so well, I recommend the audiobook.

It seems like a simple concept. When children interact with loving parents, they learn…well, they learn everything. They learn a sense of self. They develop language and mobility and curiosity and so much more. But, not all children are so lucky as to have loving parents. In some extreme cases, children are neglected. They can wither and eventually die.

In 1996, Jenny Bowen and her husband Dick read an article about Children’s Welfare Institutions, or orphanages. They sat in stunned disbelief as they learned the mortality rate of children in these orphanages was upwards of 85%. They were moved to help, but they were not sure what exactly to do. It was Dick who first suggested that they could adopt one of the children and bring her home.

In 1997 Jenny and Dick adopted Maya from a Chinese orphanage. When they received their daughter, she suffered from parasites and dysentery. She was emotionally vacant.

Jenny says that she did what any mother would have done. She loved her daughter, interacted with her, read to her and paid attention to her. Maya’s development was subtle at first. But one year after adopting Maya, Jenny watched Maya play in the garden with other children. Jenny said to Dick, “It’s so easy…why don’t we do that for all the kids we can’t bring home?” She knew that she had to go back to China to help other vulnerable children like Maya.

Jenny’s story is one of incredible perseverance. She focused on solutions. She flowed like a river around immovable objects. When people did not say no, she took it as a yes. She transcended political, cultural and language barriers to find what was accessible to everyone: the love of children and the desire to see those children prosper.

Today, Jenny is the CEO and Founder of OneSky. She sees the problem of child development as a global problem. She says that about one-half of all children in the world will never reach their full potential because they don’t have access to the resources and love they need. OneSky for all children currently operates in China, Vietnam and soon, Myanmar.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Jenny Bowen

“We focus on low resource communities.”

“It’s so easy why don’t we do that for all the kids we can’t bring home.”

“It wasn’t easy…Everyone told me that it would be impossible.”

“I couldn’t have done what I have done if I did not feel absolutely driven.”

“Our mission has grown to focus on what is universal in all children.”

“We were certainly living comfortable lives, and maybe we could save one life.”

“I knew what I had to do. I just knew it.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• OneSky: https://onesky.org/
• OneSky on Twitter: https://twitter.com/oneskyorg
• OneSky on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onesky.org
• OneSky on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oneskyorg/
• Book: Wish You Happy Forever: What China’s Children Taught Me About Moving Mountains: http://amzn.to/2xzyBNL
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: https://tonyloyd.com/book

uCodeGirl offers pathways to technology careers for teen girls by tapping into their curiosity, skills, and potential.

Betty Gronneberg grew up in Ethiopia. She attended Addis Ababa University where she majored in statistics. Betty recalls a day in college when she saw her name on a list of students who had been accepted into the new Computer Science track. She was one of two female students on the list. This was 1991. The “world wide web” had not yet been invented. Betty learned to write simple programs in BASIC, an early computer language.

Betty’s experience grew rapidly as the internet began to spread. She became a country-wide email administrator for Ethiopia. In 1995, she became the first webmaster for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. With each new assignment, Betty noticed that she was one of the few women in the room. In 1995, 37% of computing jobs went to women. Since women make up half of the population, that’s bad news. And, the news is getting worse. Today, according to Betty, “Nationally 18% of the technology sector is made up of women.”

Betty began to ask a fundamental question. “In this great United States, where everything is possible, why are there not many women?” According to Betty, girls begin to lose interest in technology around middle school, when the girls are around 12 or 13 years old. They don’t see the relevance of technology in their everyday lives. Betty began to imagine an organization that helps young girls to apply technology in a fun environment.

To help her work out the details of this new organization, Betty applied for and became a Bush Fellow with the Bush Foundation. From the beginning, as she was filling out her application for the Bush Fellowship, she began to refine her ideas. Through her experience with the Bush Foundation, she formed a new organization, uCodeGirl. uCodeGirl is a Fargo, North Dakota based nonprofit that focuses on building confidence and talent for young girls between the ages of 12 and 18, and to inspire them to pursue opportunities in technology.

uCodeGirl is making technology fun, relevant, and accessible. Girls learn leadership skills and an entrepreneurial mindset. Leading women in technology provide mentoring.

uCodeGirl also helps girls to learn hands-on skills. They provide a three-week summer camp where the girls can experiment with technology to solve their own problems. In the process, they help the girls to build a pathway to a career in technology.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Betty Gronneberg

“We want to go to the young girls where the divergence happens and cultivate their confidence.”

“Nationally 18% of the technology sector is made up of women.”

“It’s like nothing changed, but everything changed.”

“I have always been resourceful and resilient.”

“We want to help young girls to see technology as a solution for real-world problems.”

“We want to cultivate their confidence.”

“When you exude that passion, it’s easy for people to say, I’m here to help. What can I do?”

“Not everybody is an early adopter of your idea.”

“Be okay with no.”

“It takes all of us to be a tech savvy generation.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• UCodeGirl: http://www.ucodegirl.org/
• UCodeGirl on Twitter: https://twitter.com/uCodeGirl
• UCodeGirl on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uCodeGirl/
• Bush Foundation: https://www.bushfoundation.org
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: https://tonyloyd.com/book

The Level Market is the premier marketplace for aid and relief supplies.

Stephanie Cox grew up looking at National Geographic with her grandfather. “I knew I wanted to travel the world when I was 6, 7, 8 years old,” she explains. After graduating from college, she traveled the world as a freelance journalist. In 2004, she had a near death experience during the Boxing Day Tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people. She worked in Nepal and in Eastern Europe during times of conflict. But, she found it difficult to make a living. Her family encouraged her to return to the United States to find her way forward.

Stephanie moved to Colorado to attend graduate school. While there, she pitched an idea to iDE, a global organization that creates market-based solutions in agriculture, water, and sanitation. Stephanie offered to travel to Tanzania to document the impact of iDE’s efforts. Using her skills as a journalist, Stephanie says “I spent three months in the back of a pickup truck.” Her efforts paid off. She landed a full-time role with iDE, where she remained for 13 years.

In 2014, ten years after the Boxing Day tsunami, Stephanie received a call from a colleague in Sierra Leone. He shared how difficult it was to find aid and relief supplies. Stephanie offered to help. Although she had many connections in the aid and relief space, she also struggled to find supplies. She compared her experience with finding relief supplies with her experience shopping on Amazon or Alibaba. She knew that there had to be a better way. Stephanie thought, “If no one’s going to do it, a single mom in her PJs will do it.” That was the genesis of The Level Market.

The Level Market connect buyers and suppliers of products such as solar lights, shelter, and cooking stoves around the world. The Level Market’s site allows government agencies, relief agencies, and nonprofits groups to purchase goods for those on the front lines. According to Stephanie, “They can come to our site and find quality, top notch aid supplies.”

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Stephanie Cox

“Today, we’re in the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.”

“We were looking at the problem of discovery and distribution.”

“There was never a hub to connect buyers and suppliers of these products.”

“It was a fragmented and broken industry.”

“We were very specific as to who could sell their products on our marketplace.”

“I always wanted to be the first female president.”

“I knew I wanted to travel the world when I was 6, 7, 8 years old.”

“I was always interested in words, ideas, and communication.”

“I was in Eastern Europe during the time when it was very unstable.”

“I grew up in a family where my mom was a Democrat, and my dad was a Republican.”

“I spent three months in the back of a pickup truck.”

“They can come to our site and find good quality, top notch aid supplies.”

“I got to understand the pain of entrepreneurship.”

“If no one’s going to do it, a single mom in her PJs will do it.”

“Get your heels firmly in the mud.”

“If you do donate find out specifically what it is that they need.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• The Level Market: https://www.thelevelmarket.com/
• The Level Market on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelevelmarket
• The Level Market on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelevelmarket
• The Level Market on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/9318912/
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: https://tonyloyd.com/book

Change Creator is a platform for motivated social entrepreneurs who are ready to create solutions to the world’s problems.

What would it take to produce one million new change creators per year for the next 10 years? That’s the question that Adam Force, Amy Aitman, and Keisuke Kubota of Change Creator Magazine sat down to answer. The result of that question is a new strategy.

Change Creator Magazine is a multimedia platform empowering forward-thinking change creators and established enterprises to drive social progress. Their mission centers around three of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They focus on SDG 1, No Poverty; SDG 6, Clean Water and Sanitation; and SDG 7, Affordable and Clean Energy.

According to Adam, “People want to make a living doing something that matters, aligning their capital to values.” Adam thinks of Change Creator Magazine as an ongoing form of mentorship. They interview social entrepreneurs and global icons to learn about their strategies, how they get their ideas, and how are they scaling. Some examples of notable figures featured in the magazine are Tony Robbins, Dale Partridge, Ariana Huffington, and Guy Kawasaki.

Based on reader surveys, Change Creator Magazine is changing technology platforms, creating an improved reader experience. The magazine uses responsive text for mobile and desktop. Also based on this feedback, they are featuring more stories of every day social entrepreneurs.

“There is so much more we want to offer people in to help them along their journey,” Adam says. To take on additional changes, Change Creator is launching a crowd funding campaign. This will allow them to create new educational and consulting offerings. They will be able to offer virtual summits, speaker series, and online courses.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes

“They want to make a living doing something that matters to them.”

“One of our key values is collaboration.”

“The magazine is an ongoing form of mentorship.”

“We extract these insights and we put them in the magazine.”

“We’re doing the heavy lifting and saying, here are the strategies.”

“Our focus is listening to our audience and giving them the interviews they can’t anywhere else.” Amy

“We want to put out awesome content that has value.” Amy

“The more you dig through, the more value you find.” Amy

“What are we providing people to give them the outcomes they’re looking for?”

“We’ve developed a crisp vision called our brand network.”

“We have six new channels that we will be rolling out.”

“Phase one is crowdfunding to start development of the next program.”

“Our point is building a community.” Keisuke Kubota

“We want to create 1,000,000 change creators a year for the next 10 years.” Amy

“Really put yourself out there to build relationships.”

“Don’t think that just because you put a strategy together that if it doesn’t work your done.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• Change Creator Magazine: https://changecreatormag.com/tonyloyd
• Change Creator Magazine on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Change_Creator
• Change Creator Magazine on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/changecreator/
• Change Creator Magazine on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/change_creator/
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: https://tonyloyd.com/book

AguaClara designs gravity-powered water treatment plants for low-income communities around the world.

According to May Sharif, Founder and Managing Director of AguaClara, “More than one in ten people around the world don’t have access to clean drinking water on tap.” When people don’t have access to clean drinking water, adults lose time at work and children miss school. They suffer from illness and or even death. “Up to two million people die each year due to waterborne disease,” May explains. “Most of them are children under five.” By providing access to clean drinking water, people prosper and children learn.

Conventional water treatment plants typically do not last more than two years in rural and remote communities. They require skilled technicians and proprietary parts to run and to be maintained. AguaClara has a different approach. AguaClara develops community-scale, non-electric water treatment systems. The systems are designed to be operated by a person with a sixth-grade education and are powered entirely by gravity. They use local materials and local labor to build and maintain the systems, creating a sustainable solution.

AguaClara has its roots at Cornell University. In 2005, Dr. Monroe Weber-Shirk worked with Salvadoran refugees in Honduras. He noticed the lack of access to clean drinking water. He saw that there were water treatment plants, however the plants did not work. As he investigated the cause of widespread failure of water treatment systems in poor communities, he discovered that the systems built in these communities were not designed for the communities. Working with graduate students, he and the team designed a series of technologies for off-grid water treatment.

May Sharif became involved in AguaClara as a student. She joined the summer internship program and developed designs for the program. “That was my first exposure to the developing world and what water can mean to an entire community,” she says. May pursued a Master’s of Engineering degree and continued to work on AguaClara as her project. After graduation, Dr. Weber-Shirk asked her to continue to work on AguaClara. In 2013, May and fellow graduates of the Cornell AguaClara program formed AguaClara LLC, a social enterprise.

AguaClara currently has 14 systems in Honduras serving 65,000 people, four systems in India serving 2,000 people and a new plant is being built in Nicaragua.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Maysoon Sharif

“More than one in ten people around the world don’t have access to clean drinking water on tap.”

“Conventional water treatment plants don’t last more than two years in remote and off-grid communities.”

“We put out designs that are open-source.”

“Me being there and working on designs wasn’t translating into new projects happening.”

“Gravity-powered water treatment works, and it works well.”

“Our partners worked on commercializing it for us.”

“It’s a certified BCorporation.”

“Yes, you can find people to trust but also learn to develop an eye for who you can trust.”

“When we leave, we want to make sure they’re taking care of it.”

“Fail fast.”

“You have no way of predicting what’s going to happen.”

“Put your plan in place and be ready to throw it out the window.”

“I make it a point not to get married to anything I create.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• AguaClara: http://www.aguaclarallc.com
• AguaClara on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aguaclarah2o
• AguaClara on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aguaclarallc/
• AguaClara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3560610
• Certified BCorporation: http://www.bcorporation.net
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: https://tonyloyd.com/book

What Sandra Goldmark learned from a seven-year experiment fixing stuff.

Sandra Goldmark is the Director of Sustainability and Climate Action at Barnard College. For seven years, she ran Fixup, a popup repair shop for household items of all kinds. It was staffed by theatre artists. “We use our backstage skills to fix people's broken stuff,” Sandra explains. “and to create an alternative to use and discard.”

Sandra has gathered her lessons learned and put them in a new book, Fixation: How to Have Stuff without Breaking the Planet.

“We are reinventing repair as a viable part of a sustainable, equitable, circular economy,” Sandra says. “We were mobile, so there was no fixed storefront. We accepted a wide range of items as a one-stop drop-off for our customers. We used an event-type structure to create a sense of urgency and community. And we partnered with a range of organizations.”

It started with a vacuum cleaner.

Around 2013, Sandra had a problem. Several items around her house broke – a lamp, a toaster oven, a backpack, and a vacuum cleaner. “It seemed crazy to me that it is easier to buy a new vacuum than get one fixed. It seems crazy to me to look around and see stores and homes and landfills filled with stuff.

“Everywhere I looked around me the whole pattern of consumption seemed totally out of whack. The environmental impacts of our system of consumption are staggering. People aren't happy with this pattern and how it plays out in their own lives. And when you look at individual objects, many of them are actually fixable. The whole system seemed totally broken. But it also seemed fixable!

“My work on circularity and repair is rooted in my work in the theatre - my belief that ALL of us have a role to play in finding solutions and building changes.”

Sandra started simply. “I just started. I was home on maternity leave, and I got a bee in my bonnet and never let go. We started with grassroots advertising, word of mouth, and leveraging neighborhood networks, especially parent networks.”

It worked! At their first popup event, people showed up with their broken stuff.

“We partnered with other organizations to move into new neighborhoods, eventually operating pop-ups in neighborhoods across 3 boroughs.”  

Sandra didn’t always get it right.

“I tried to raise money from investors at one point during the process, and that did not work,” Sandra says. “The project didn't seem to fit some sort of model or mold that they were looking for, and we didn't seem to speak each other's language. I think this is an important point, not for my business per se, but about how we approach climate solutions, how we think about innovation, and how we can learn to work across siloes.

“The hardest part was trying to iterate and pivot while also keeping our focus.”

A popup shop becomes a book.

Sandra sees the book as an extension of her work. “Now, in this latest phase, we are reaching more people through the book, Fixation.

“Fixation provides a comprehensive look at the problem, a clear path forward, and a call to action for individuals, businesses, and policymakers.”

Learn More About Sandra Goldmark and Fixation:

• Book: Fixation: How to Have Stuff without Breaking the Planet: https://amzn.to/3qLlK3M
• Sandra Goldmark: https://sandragoldmark.com

The Web Neutral Project is a comprehensive certification program that calculates, offsets and neutralizes the carbon footprint of websites and digital products.

Matt Reid and Jack Amend have known each other almost all of their lives. They grew up just down the street from one another. Matt attended the University of Minnesota where he studied Environmental Science.

Jack attended the University of California, Santa Barbara where he studied Political Science. While in school, Jack ran a graphic design and web development company as a side-hustle. After school, Jack and some friends put together a creative agency with a focus on cause-driven organizations. Jack’s company used solar-powered servers to run their company. When some of their customers asked for a way to tell the story of solar-powered servers, Jack hit upon an idea. Could he provide a certification program for the internet, much like LEED certification for buildings? To figure this out, he reached out to Matt.

The IT sector consumes 10% of all global energy, and it’s growing. IT produces more greenhouse gasses than the entire global aviation industry. With an additional 3 billion people expected to come online, it is critical that we think of the carbon footprint of our global presence.

The Web Neutral Project offers a certification for carbon-neutral websites. They offer solar-powered web hosting. And, they can help you optimize your web page design, reducing energy consumption.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Jack Amend and Matthew Reid

“It’s something that’s unknown to the general public.”

“The average person who uses the web isn’t aware of the effects it is having.”

“The footprint of the internet is about 50% larger than the global aviation industry.”

“The average website in a year produces about 4,700 lbs. of CO2.”

“The infrastructure of the internet is dependent on fossil fuels.”

“There is an issue with green washing.”

“Something I like about the entrepreneurial experience is getting to learn new things all of the time.” Matt Reid

“Echoing Green has been a huge validation of what we’re working on.”

“I didn’t know almost anything about entrepreneurship.” Matt Reid

“Try to manage your expectations.” Jack Amend

“Be ready for the long grinding days where you feel like you do so much, but not gotten too far.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• Web Neutral Project: http://www.webneutralproject.com
• Web Neutral Project on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/webneutralproject
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: http://tonyloyd.com/book

Hamilton Perkins Collection is a certified B Corporation, offering designer travel bags at an affordable price. Each bag is made from 100% recycled plastic bottles and lined with vinyl from repurposed billboards.

Hamilton Perkins found his niche early with retail sales. During university, he had a sneaker business on eBay. He made and sold leather bags. After college he entered financial services, rising through the ranks at Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. Yet, he had an entrepreneurial itch. So, he enrolled in an MBA program at William & Mary while working full-time.

Not only was Hamilton working full time while pursuing his MBA, but he also had a side-hustle business creating leather bags. To make sure he was creating something that customers would want, he conducted over 1,000 customer interviews. Hamilton describes his strategy, “I spent every break, and every lunch and every happy hour with a customer throughout business school.”

One of the key learnings was that consumers wanted their purchases to have a social impact. “A lot of people want more out of the companies they support,” Hamilton explains.

Hamilton consumed a lot of water from plastic bottles. “I saw what eight plastic water bottles every day for a week looked like,” he says. Hamilton researched and found a company, Thread, that makes material out of water bottles. He found a source of used billboard vinyl. He put them together into a prototype bag.

To test interest in the bag, they set up an event at a new art gallery and invited potential customers. That evening Hamilton gave a 90-second speech. That night they received a couple dozen orders. This gave them the confidence to move to a Kickstarter campaign. They launched the campaign with a goal of raising $10,000. They hit their goal in under a week.

With the upcycled billboard liner, each bag is unique. But, Hamilton says, “We’re not making a bag that is eco-friendly and crafty. It’s eco-friendly and stylish. It starts with style, then it’s quality, and then it’s impact.” For every Hamilton Perkins Collection bag, they use material from 17 plastic bottles. The inside is lined with one square yard of upcycled billboard vinyl.

Customers have responded. “We just need to make the product,” Hamilton says. “Once we make it, it sells out.”

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Hamilton Perkins

“Everything I was trying to do was pointing me in the direction of ‘Why don’t you go start a company?’”

 “A bag came to me because I needed it. I wanted to travel.”

“No two bags are ever exactly the same.”

“It’s cleaning up the environment. It’s also providing dignified income opportunities.”

“The real business plan was, would people buy it?”

“We wanted to make a product that mattered.”

“I learned a whole lot about patience in the first six months.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• Hamilton Perkins Collection: https://hamiltonperkins.com
  • NOTE: Use “socialentrepreneur” as a discount code. You’ll get $10 off your first order.
• Hamilton Perkins Collection on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HAMILTONPERKINS
• Hamilton Perkins Collection on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HamiltonPerkins
• Hamilton Perkins Collection on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hamiltonperkins
• Hamilton Perkins Collection on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/hamiltonperkins
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: http://tonyloyd.com/book

Social Venture Partners is a nonprofit that uses the venture capital model to help other nonprofits build capacity and grow.

Sometimes you want to do more. It might feel satisfying at the moment to march and chant. But does the impact last? You can donate money to social causes, and that’s important. But sometimes, it feels like you want to do even more.

One trend in philanthropy is engaged philanthropy. Engaged philanthropy recognizes that you have more than financial capital to give to a cause. You also have intellectual capital and social capital. You can use your skills and experience to help a nonprofit. You have a network of connections which can benefit a nonprofit. Social Venture Partners allows individuals and corporations to practice engaged philanthropy.

There are 42 Social Venture Partners affiliates around the globe. Social Venture Partners, Minnesota is one of them. They focus their efforts on serving youth.

The partners at Social Venture Partners identify potential nonprofits to target. They look for nonprofits that are emerging early stage, with some proof of concept. Ann Herzog-Olson, the Executive Director of Social Venture Partners Minnesota says, “We focus on nonprofits who have a vision of where they want to go and look like they’re emerging. Then we help them build a capacity building plan.” The individual and corporate partners at Social Venture Partners stick with the nonprofit for three years as they build their capacity.

In some cases, the nonprofit wants to serve more youth. In those cases, Social Venture Partners help them to scale. In other cases, the nonprofits want their existing programs to be more effective.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Ann Herzog-Olson

“Youth are kind of lost in the middle.”

“Social Venture Partners is focused on building capacity.”

“We look for nonprofits that are directly serving youth.”

“It’s what we call engaged philanthropy.”

“It’s skilled expertize, professional expertize, that we provide to the nonprofits.”

“We usually get about 30 to 50 applications, and we select just one nonprofit.”

“We walk alongside them.”

“It’s highly strategic skilled volunteers.”

“We use revenue as a proxy.”

“They double their revenue in three years.”

“We expect our partners to become involved and volunteer their time.”

“It’s sophisticated volunteering.”

“We train people to use their skills to help a nonprofit in a strategic way.”

“We are impacting more teens as we add more partners.”

“Development’s really about the donor.”

“They need to have a vision of where they want to take their organization.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• Social Venture Partners, Minnesota: http://www.socialventurepartners.org/minnesota
• Social Venture Partners, Minnesota on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/svpminnesota
• Social Venture Partners, Minnesota on Twitter: https://twitter.com/svpminnesota
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: http://tonyloyd.com/book

Plaine Products helps reduce single-use plastics by producing natural, vegan shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in returnable, reusable containers.

In 2013, Lindsey McCoy was living in the Bahamas and running a non-profit called Save the Bays. “I had zero interest in going into business,” she told me. “I was going to save the world.”

As she explored the islands, she noticed the impact of single use plastics. “Without regular trash pick up, you see those water bottles, flip flops and plastic bags in the water and along the side of the road,” she explains. “To me, single-use plastics is one of those things that once you start to notice it, you realize it’s everywhere.”

Lindsey tried to reduce her personal use of plastic. But she found it difficult to find plastic-free alternatives to shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. “It began to occur to me that there was a way to solve this by going outside of the non-profit community Providing a product might be a better solution.”

When she returned to the United States in 2015, she and her sister, Alison Webster, went to work on the problem. Together, they formed Plane Products. Plaine Products produces natural, vegan shampoo, conditioner & body wash in returnable, refillable, reusable containers. When a customer empties a Plaine Products bottle, they order a replacement. They place the empty bottle into the box and return it to Plaine Products to be sanitized and refilled.

It took Lindsey and Alison almost two years from idea to product launch. They had to find a contract manufacturer who produces natural products. They needed to work with someone who would be willing to refill bottles. And, they had to figure out their non-plastic packaging. At first, they tried steel containers, but the containers rusted. When they switched to aluminum containers, they found that the packaging not only lasted, but it was lighter to ship, saving costs. And, they had to figure out how to explain the concept of reusable packaging.

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Lindsey McCoy

“Once you start to notice it, you realize it’s everywhere.”

“I’m lazy. I’m busy. Making shampoo in my tub was not going to work for me.”

“Our addiction to convenience and dispensability seems only to be growing.”

“There will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.”

“As far as we know, no one is doing this.”

“We were doing something totally different, and that made it even harder.”

“We tried some terrible products.”

“You can be small and still mighty.”

“Progress not perfection.”  

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• Plaine Products: https://www.plaineproducts.com/
• Plaine Products on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plaineproducts
• Plaine Products on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlaineProducts
• Plaine Products on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plaineproducts
• Plaine Products on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/plaineproducts
• Book: Crazy Good Advice: 10 Lessons Learned from 150 Leading Social Entrepreneurs: http://amzn.to/2hqn9xx

NOTE: For a full transcript of the conversation, see: https://tonyloyd.com/karim-abouelnaga.

Close the Opportunity Gap through high-impact programs before, during, and outside of school hours.

Karim Abouelnaga is CEO of Practice Makes Perfect, a company he founded when he was 18 years old. Practice Makes Perfect partners with K-12 schools to help narrow the opportunity gap.

Karim is a TED Fellow and Echoing Green Fellow. At 23, he was named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in education, and at 24 was named to Magic Johnson’s 32 under 32 list. In 2016, he was ranked in the top 3 most influential young entrepreneurs under 25 globally. Karim’s TED Talk was named one of the 9 Most Inspiring Talks of 2017.

Karim has gathered his lessons learned in a powerful new book, The Purpose-Driven Social Entrepreneur.

Learn More About Karim Abouelnaga and Practice Makes Perfect:

• Book: The Purpose-Driven Social Entrepreneur: https://amzn.to/3seHTYO
• Practice Makes Perfect: https://practicemakesperfect.org
• Karim Abouelnaga: https://www.karimabouelnaga.com

The Skoll Foundation drives large-scale change for the world’s most pressing problems. They invest in, connect and celebrate social entrepreneurs.

Sally Osberg’s reading early in life shaped her outlook. “I was reading biographies of people like Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jane Adams, and people who convinced me that you could make a pretty powerful difference in the world. And somehow that seeped into my consciousness and gave me a real sense of agency, and I could be meaningful in the scheme of trying to make the world a better place.”

Sally is the President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. She describes what they’re looking for this way. “We look for the convergence of an innovative idea; a great innovator with the determination and wherewithal to stay at this work; and an inflection point where there is sufficient evidence that this idea works.”

 Jeff Skoll founded the Skoll Foundation in 1999. Jeff was the founding president of eBay. Jeff’s vision is a more peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. In 2001, he reached out the Sally to help him create a different kind of philanthropy.

Each year, the Skoll Foundation recognizes four to six changemakers who are ready to scale their impact. They invest in these changemakers through the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. Awardees receive a $1.25 million investment over three years. They also gain access to a global community of innovative leaders and who are solving the world’s most pressing problems.

“We’re looking for a proven track record,” Sally explains. “We’re looking for a truly pressing global problem…And then this inflection point. Is the team in place? Is the evidence in place? Is there a discipline in place? Is there a great board?”

The Skoll Foundation connects social entrepreneurs through the annual Skoll World Forum. They video, document and share the stories of these changemakers.

Sally has announced that she will be soon stepping down from her role at the Skoll Foundation. As she looks back and forward at the same time, she reflects on the world as she sees it. “The challenges have never seemed so complex and massive in scale. And yet, the upwelling of talent and interest and goodness from people… I look at young people and see this incredible determination to tackle these problems and not make a choice between doing good, making a difference and a viable career. And I believe that holds so much promise.”

Social Entrepreneurship Quotes from Sally Osberg

“We partner with social entrepreneurs and celebrate the impact of their great ideas.”

“I tried to channel his DNA, which is fundamentally entrepreneurial.”

“Our mission is our strategy: Invest, Connect and Celebrate.”

“There are great solutions out there. We just have to open our aperture to find them.”

“People think of social entrepreneurs as lone rangers. They are anything but.”

“We first and foremost are trying to be a good partner to the social entrepreneurs.”

“We can help to amplify, accelerate and strengthen, how all this comes together.”

“I plan to continue working with people who want to make a difference in the world.”

“I believe the empowerment of women and girls holds major promise for the world.”

“It is not a moment for us to descend into cynicism or despair.”

“I see this aspiration in young people around social entrepreneurship.”

“That combination of expertise and humility…is a critical piece.”

“Develop some area of expertise.”

“Think about social entrepreneurship different.”

“Learn about a social entrepreneur who is making a difference on an issue that they care about.”

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• Skoll Foundation: http://skoll.org
• Skoll Foundation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SkollFoundation
• Skoll Foundation on Twitter: https://twitter.com/skollfoundation
• Book: Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works: http://amzn.to/2hdyBwm