OVERVIEW

The world is becoming an increasingly globalized society. We know more about people in other areas of the world thanks to the speed at which news travels the Internet. The world’s communities have vastly disparate standards of living due to socio-economic differences and there is a justified desire to level the playing field and provide a safe and prosperous future for everyone, even within prosperous countries, where pockets of inequality still exist.

THE PROBLEM

The problem comes from the fact that while people want to do something of value for their community, they don’t always have the necessary skills or means to see those dreams brought to reality. How can we promote participation to help others achieve their goal and have an opportunity to achieve a personal goal, as well? Furthermore, how can we instill the leadership skills to have a global and lasting impact on society, in general?

RESEARCH

Understanding and Defining Social Entrepreneurship

To clarify our perspective of what social entrepreneurship is, we read up on efforts by various organizations around the world and successful projects that had been effective in creating a positive change and found that social entrepreneurship could be broadly defined as

Applying startup principles and practices to social, cultural, or environmental endeavors to achieve a positive, lasting impact on the world.

Interviews and Observations

In addition to our online research articles, we spoke with high school and college students, as well as employed young adults to assess their awareness of social entrepreneurship. We also visited with subject matter experts (SMEs) to learn from their experience in working with social organizations and understand the hurdles they face in accomplishing their missions. Finally, we observed local start up locations to draw analogous inspiration from the methods they applied to work towards success.

 
Student & Young Adults
Student / Young Adult Interviewee
To assess student and young adult awareness of social entrepreneurship, we spoke to high school students, college students, and young adults. While they didn’t always know what “social entrepreneurship” was, they were intrinsically aware of social causes or movements that reflected the spirit of social entrepreneurship.

More importantly, they expressed an interest in contributing to such causes, though they doubted that they would know how to launch one themselves. Additionally, they understood that some method of funding, resources, and possibly volunteers, would be a necessary component of success.
Subject Matter Experts
Naeem Randhawa
IRUSA - Austin
Subject matter experts were also consulted to give us an experienced viewpoint of issues faced by such organizations. They listed volunteerism, fundraising, and logistical support as difficult at the outset of a project.

Additionally, they stated that successfully growing the organization could be a hurdle, due to competing perceptions, philosophies, and agendas as leadership diversified and expanded.
Analogous Startup Research
WeWork
(Startup Incubator)
As one additional step, we also visited local incubators to perform analogous research and see what they offered to foster resident companies. Incubators tended to provide common areas to promote socialization, classrooms to share knowledge, and common business services, such a common reception area, printing, and faxing.

Well established companies, such as Dell and IBM, also housed with the incubator to provide resources or on-site contacts. Their function was to help startups get or learn about cutting edge technologies. And at least one incubator offered an app to facilitate B2B services between companies within the incubator.
 
Takeaways
  • Many students and young adults have their own vision of things they want to see changed in the world.
  • Students and young adults are not intrinsically aware of “social entrepreneurship” as a concept or force for change, but they are aware of and actively participate in social causes.
  • Students and young adults are involved in social causes, however, they are not clear that they can be the driving force behind social change.
  • Students and young adults don't know how to go about setting up an organization or getting resources, funding, and participants.
  • Startups pool and share resources, services, and knowledge to gain a collective advantage.
  • Startups look to mentors to get their endeavors off the ground.
  • Once a startup is launched, they sometimes have trouble scaling.

IDEATION

Brainstorming and Themes

From our takeaways, we were able to create the specific categories align our a social entrepreneur would need to possess or address to create a successful startup. The categories led to exploration of themes that would allow us to align the needs and goals of members with the insights from SMEs.

 
Categories
Themes
Themes Explored
Themes Explored
 

Those themes were then used to specific points of view to generate ideas that would satisfy the objective of enticing students and young adults to commit to the endeavor.

  • How might we create a social networking community for young entrepreneurs to connect?
  • How might we gather or provide accessible resources to foster new social entrepreneurial start ups?
  • How might we educate young adults to be the change they want to see?
 
HMW Setup Social Networking
HMW Assist with Locating Resources
HMW Provide Skills & Education
 
Proposed Solutions and a Final Selection

Based on the points of view listed we were able to determine three possible solutions to satisfy the requirements that would help young people to embrace social entrepreneurship:

 
The Co-Op

Create a cooperative organization where people can share their ideas, volunteer, learn, lead their own projects, and fulfill a dream by doing. while being guided by a mentor.

The How-To Kit

Create a kit to guide people through the process of setting up their own social entrepreneurship organization, including guides on funding, acquiring resources, volunteers, project planning, and growth.

The Mobile App

Create a social media app where people can inspire and challenge each other by setting a good example and posting to the hash tag #doinggood

 

As a group we voted to decide which of the three final concepts had the most potential. The idea of the kit was the least favored, however, we realized that rather than abandoning it, we could integrate it into a co-op as a manual. The co-op and the game both held merit, however, the reward of getting a dream or goal accomplished had the highest reward. Young people's ideas would not be dismissed as too lofty. Instead they would be guided to give them the best possibility to see that they could initiate change in the world.

We proceeded to create a journeymap for the concept and with iterative refinement, came up with the following scenario of how to help students and young adults achieve their goals.

Journeymapping
 
Pete signs up at the co-op,
shares his dream,
and gives his time,
while learning the ropes
to get his own project done
and live in a better world!
 
A High Level View of the Co-Op paths

Using system thinking we defined the process of flowing through each path available to members and mentors, alike. We wanted an overview of how a person can join the co-op and step through various tasks and activities to keep them engaged, especially when planning their own project.

When a project is completed successfully, they can volunteer with another project, continue learning, design another project, mentor someone else's project, or leave the organization to take the skills and knowledge they've acquired to a new organization or even their own start up.

Guiding the Member

We strive to show the members what opportunities there are for them to give of their time, show them how to get projects exposure and guidance to enable fulfillment, and live in a better world they're helping to create. It all starts with delving into their story and what has brought them to our social co-op. They start with some basic info and a narrative about their personal history and tell us about their goals, aspirations, and dreams. We ask about their expectations to align their dreams with our organization's capacity to help, and invite them to share their knowledge and skills to see how they can contribute. Any information can be updated via the dashboard.

Learn more about the organization and it's opportunities.
Register for a new account and tell us about your interests.
Tell us what city you live in to explore local opportunities.
Tell us if you can travel to other destinations to help.
How do you perceive your self in the world you live in?
What are your interests? What social endeavors interest you?
What do you expect to get out of your involvement with us?
What skills and knowledge can you contribute to help others?
Manage your profile, projects, workshops, and schedule.

CONCLUSION

Feedback

After completing the preliminary design, we took the concept to students at a nearby campus to get feedback.

Overall, the concept was well-received primarily because the students liked that they could get something accomplished that would allow them to target their interests, rather than being forced into someone else's project. Most stated that they were unaware of any such program that would provide them the opportunity to do something they wanted to do. One reviewer offered a suggestion that badges be given on the profile, showing their list of accomplishments with the organization. They stated that it would show their growth as they proceeded through volunteering and course completion to show they could function as team leads for big projects or to fulfill a new role on a project.

While a few students initially balked at having to volunteer, some expressed that it would be a great opening not to feel pressured to come up with a project idea, up front. They saw the benefit of access to the leadership workshops until they were ready to pursue a project of their own.

Furthermore, they felt that gaining a valuable mentor and useful leadership skills was a huge plus, and would benefit them in the future.