1. The Social Community
Building communities
through social innovation
By Robin Low

2. Need for Social Innovation
• There are many social problems. Most are
more complex than it seems and when
solutions come from one discipline or simply
focused on “patching” the problem, the
problem rarely gets solved and often becomes
more complex as time goes by.

3. Social Innovation
• Social innovation is the best construct for
understanding and producing lasting social
change. However, not everything is considered
social innovation. Many organizations,
including social enterprises are merely doing
"social fixing" as innovation may require a
more drastic, cross disciplinary solution to
dissect the problem and creation of various
models to test the solution.

4. A definition of social innovation
“We contend that social innovation is the best
construct for understanding and producing
lasting social change. We redefine social
innovation to mean: A novel solution to a social
problem that is more effective, efficient,
sustainable or just than existing solutions and
for which the value created accrues primarily to
society as a whole rather than private
individuals.”
Source: Phills, Deiglmeier, and Miller (2008)

5. A definition of social entrepreneurship
• Adopting a mission to create and sustain social
value
• Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new
opportunities to serve that mission
• Engaging in a process of continuous innovation,
adaptation, and learning
• Acting boldly without being limited to resources
currently at hand
• Exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability to
the constituencies served

6. Ways to Solve a Social Problem
1) NGOs / Government - Mission Driven Way
Funds can be raised, the government can set up
departments and fund social projects.
Government like large scale projects, focusing on
equity. Funds used are accountable to voters. Slow
moving & takes a long time to implement.
NGOs are shaped by beliefs & values. Projects tend
to be responsive to the board, community, donors
and the public. It is also mission driven and
operate under a non-distribution constraint.

7. Ways to Solve a Social Problem
1. Corporations – Profit Driven Way
Lots of funds can be accessed to solve social
problems.
Corporations like large scale projects that make
lots of profits. Funds need to be accountable to
shareholders. Can move fast when necessary.
Corporations are profit driven and focus to
create shareholder value and not social impact.

8. Social Entrepreneurs
• Search for new ways of solving old problems
• Changemakers willing to take risks and drive
innovation
• Collaborate with business, nonprofit and
government

9. Social Entrepreneurs
4 main criteria:
• Innovation
• Financial Sustainability
• Impact
• Scale
Mission and money are balanced
Takes the best of “both worlds”
Goal: to create innovative, sustainable, effective,
and scalable solutions to social problem

11. "As I see it, there are two great forces of human nature:
self-interest and caring for others. Capitalism harnesses
self-interest in helpful sustainable ways, but only on
behalf of those who can pay. Philanthropy and
government aid channel our caring for those who can’t
pay, but the resources run out before they meet the
need… To provide…for the poor we need a system that
draws in innovators and businesses in a far better
way….I like to call this system creative capitalism…."
- B. Gates

12. Communities
• Marginalized communities are not helpless
communities.
• There is untapped human capacity.
• Communities are capable to solve their own
problems in the long run.
• People in similar communities can benefit
from their solutions.

13. Never Help:
Engage
Enable
Empower
Connect

14. Empowering Communities
• Training marginalized communities to view
problems as opportunities.
• These communities know their problems and
environment most.
• When local solutions are found, scaling to
other areas can be done to benefit many
others.
• Resources can be directed at other problems
once communities can be independent.

15. Building Social Communities
• Helping marginalized communities is
continuous.
• Donations to marginalized communities have
one life, once used, more donations are
needed.
• Empowering communities that support
themselves will be a sustainable way to bring
more options to the community.

16. "Social entrepreneurs are…the practical dreamers
who have the talent and the skill and the vision to
solve problems [and] to change the world….Social
entrepreneurs have a unique approach that is both
evolutionary and revolutionary, operating in free
markets where success is measured not just in
financial profit but also in the improvement of the
quality of people’s lives."
-- Skoll Foundation

17. Social Entrepreneurs
within the Community
• Marginalized people are not stupid.
• They may lack knowledge, connections and
money.
• There are always innovators in the community
that want to take action.
• They understand the local problem more than
anyone else.
• Their solutions may inspire others in the
communities and help other communities.

18. Social Communities
• If people from the communities can create
sustainable businesses and hire others from
the communities, jobs opportunities can be
created.
– Example of communities
• Ex-convicts
• Racial groups
• Physically handicapped
• etc

19. How it works
• Train interested members in the community in
entrepreneurship mindsets, lean startup
methodologies, bootstrap financing and design
thinking.
• Look for successful businessmen from the
community (i.e. ex-convicts who run successful
businesses) to be mentors or provide business loans
to people in the community who want to start
businesses that hire others in the community.

20. Ongoing Trial 1
Entrepreneurship Training
Najayo Correctional Facility(Dominican Republic)
Inmates (both male and female) sign up for
training.
After learning concepts, they work on prototypes
and test assumptions.
If their business hires other inmates, (when they
are out of prison), they are paired with ex-convict
mentors who may give them business loans.

21. Ongoing Trial 2
Project Ada (Singapore)
iOS programming training for Ex-prisoners
Goal: Get them to become freelancers to
supplement income. (Not give them jobs)
Integrate them into the programming
community. (Ex-prisoners -> Programmers)
In return, the newly trained freelance
programmers can be mentors to new ex-prisoners
interested to learn iOS programming.

22. Ongoing Trial 3
Relief 2.0 Enterprise
Running Entrepreneurship bootcamp for
disaster survivors.
When people buy products made by these
entrepreneurs, it is conscious buying instead of
donations.
These entrepreneurs can support themselves
with dignity.

23. Starting Communities
If you know of a marginalized community,
instead of donations, there may be other ways
of giving the people options to support
themselves.
If you believe that some of them may benefit
from entrepreneurship, and can create
businesses that hire others in the community to
create more opportunities.