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"This blog is about Social Enterprise and Social Startups, based on the things I'm learning through advising and working with charities and social enterprises. The posts cover topics related to Social Enterprise and Third Sector development, including Social Innovation, Sustainability, Collaboration, Tips for Social Startups, SROI and Social Trends."

About SOCAP10 Today a new form of capitalism is arising that recognizes both the power and efficiency of market systems and the ability to direct them toward social and environmental issues leading to a more balanced set of "returns." Early efforts by social entrepreneurs and enlightened investors have given rise to "Social Capital Markets" that include affordable housing, clean technology, microfinance, fair trade and many other socially focused enterprises. SOCAP10 convenes the major players and emerging thought leaders in the field to discuss innovative ways to expand those markets and bring socially responsible investing and the channeling of capital to SMEs and grassroots business organizations into the mainstream. We want to talk about where private sector dollars can work at venture start up speed without being encumbered by laborious engagement with government structures who have complex theories of change. We'd like to bring funders to the table to talk about how they can co-invest and what restraints there are around the capital, including expectations and desired impacts. We'd like to bring NGO's and entrepreneurs to the table to talk to the ways they are working with government to make their programs more effective. We want to bring government to the table to talk about the channels they are opening for private and public partnerships. We need to change the way we do business, as individuals, organizations and government institutions. We want to prove that it is possible to do well by doing good.

"Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a nonprofit organization that creates and evaluates solutions to social and development problems, and works to scale up successful ideas through implementation and dissemination to policymakers, practitioners, investors and donors. Primary Objectives Innovate: Develop innovative solutions to poverty and policy problems worldwide. Use frontier knowledge from economics, psychology and public health. Evaluate: Conduct randomized controlled trials to evaluate public policies. This provides the highest quality and most reliable answers to what works and what does not. Our evaluations seek to generate insight into why particular strategies work -- not just whether they work -- so as to make the findings useful for scale-up and replication in other settings and countries. Replicate: Replicate evaluations in multiple settings. We can learn from one evaluation, but we can learn much more about what to do after seeing replications of similar interventions in multiple settings, and learn when ideas work best, and when they do not. Communicate: Communicate lessons to donors and implementers. The ultimate aim of IPA is to help resources be allocated to effective programs and policies. IPA's communication strategy targets both donors, to help guide them to programs and ideas that have been proven effective, as well as to organizations, to help guide their programming decisions towards more effective ideas and implementation strategies. We do this through non-technical communication on individual studies and sets of studies, as well as through synthesis articles and conversations that frame key policy issues and present reliable evidence to help guide development practitioners, policymakers, investors and donors towards better decisions and allocation of resources. Scale: Scale-up of effective solutions. This includes hands-on technical assistance or direct implementation if appropriate, as well as extensive communication and advoc

We get results! - We don't just have great ideas; we know how to turn these ideas into actions that lead to results. We have proven success in earning our clients quality and frequent media placement - both locally and nationally. We are strategic in identifying story opportunities and keeping on top of emerging trends. We tell compelling stories and give editors what they want the way they want it. We are social media experts - We know that the ever-evolving online world of blogs, social networking and bookmarking sites, micro-blogs, and forums can seem overwhelming. There can be thousands of bloggers talking about your business, as well as relationships to develop using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. We craft successful viral campaigns, navigating the social media space to identify opportunities and who our clients should connect with. We are also active participants in, and monitors of, relevant conversations and are fluent in the myriad ways our clients can effectively participate. Connect with us on Facebook We build strong relationships - We take the time to really get to know our clients and their work intimately with regular face-to-face meetings and conversations. And we provide detailed monthly status reports so they always know what work we are doing on their behalf and why. We have earned a solid reputation among our diverse media contacts as an excellent resource for stories and are counted on for accurate and timely assistance with story development. In addition, we have numerous connections that can be catalysts for extending the impact of our communication efforts. We take a team approach - Instead of the traditional agency "silo" approach to client services, our staff collaborates on all clients so they benefit from the collective brain trust of our entire team. We do our homework - In order to serve our clients in a fast-changing media and economic landscape, we stay on top of the latest research, statistics and trends wi

"The rise of social and sustainable enterprise has occurred in response to an overwhelming need for systemic change. Yet collectively, the issues we're seeking to address require more intelligence, more resources and more influence than we individually have access to. We firmly believe that the wisdom we require to pass through the perfect storm of social, environmental and economic problems is to be found in the collective - in our connections and collaborations - as opposed to within the confines of our own individual, entrepreneurial and organizational structures. W1SDØM has been created to support change agents, investors and advisors by facilitating the flow of capital - be it human, intellectual, social or financial - to more effectively create the next generation of global sustainable enterprise."