The Great Bay Foundation’s newest grantee is the Smokey House Center, an organization that for the past 34 years has taught middle and high school students real world skills in the areas of science, math, ecology, communications, reading, writing, problem solving, critical thinking, responsibility, and teamwork. On 4,500 acres of land used for farming, forestry, and education programming, disadvantaged youth are engaged in the active care and hands-on management of the natural resources that surround them. The alternative setting and instructional approach has proved effective in helping thousands of young people graduate from high school and develop the academic, social, and workplace skills to become contributing members of society.

Smokey House participants work in teams of six, guided by an adult leader, in a variety of farm and farm-related tasks: growing organic vegetables, blueberries, and Christmas trees; making charcoal and maple syrup; and raising sheep. Smokey House takes a two-pronged strategy to increasing individuals’ self-reliance: the organization provides its youth workers both a minimum wage and academic credit for their work, the latter of which is possible due to the organization’s strong relationship with area schools and the academic learning it incorporates into the various work tasks.

Lynn Bondurant, Smokey House’s Executive Director, approached Great Bay about obtaining funding to support the organization’s Maple Sugaring Business. Smokey House has operated this business for as long as the organization has provided work-based learning programs to disadvantaged teens. However, increases in fuel costs have made it difficult for the maple sugaring business to operate in the black. Staff and students have recently researched ways to retrofit the business so that it can once again succeed. Lynn asked Great Bay to provide $51,380 to be used to increase the efficiency of the sugarhouse and improve and expand the sugarbush. This effort will include purchasing a wood evaporator, adding 250 taps, reconfiguring other aspects of the business’s sap collection system, and hiring marketing and design consultants and a forester.

Of the 56 revenue-generating projects Great Bay has supported since 1998, this is the first to involve teens in a line of work with such a strong tradition in New England. Smokey House’s and, more specifically, the Maple Sugaring Business’s clear social and business goals make it a perfect fit for our funding.

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‘Social Entrepreneurship’ is becoming commonplace in MBA programs across the country. Schools are recognizing students’ interest in social-sector management topics and the growing trend of MBA graduates seeking to use their educations to “make a difference.” The Foster School of Business at the University of Washington has gone one step further: it holds a “Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition” (GSEC) in which “students from around the world find creative, commercially sustainable ways to address problems of poverty in the developing world.”

We see social entrepreneurship business plan competitions such as GSEC as ideal opportunities for introducing business students to the benefits of social enterprise, and to providing these individuals with real-world opportunities to investigate pressing social problems and to present practical, sustainable solutions.

GSEC’s guidelines’ are similar to those used by the Great Bay Foundation when evaluating grant requests. Great Bay needs to be sure that proposed projects can make a positive impact on the lives’ of disadvantaged individuals, that their models are capable of being implemented, and that their enterprises can be sustained through earned-income.

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Social Enterprise comes in a multitude of permutations, but we found one of the most provocative in this recent New York Times article, Youthful Offenders Restoring Luster to Diners of Old. The article describes a unique program in which offenders at the Rhode Island juvenile detention center are working to restore four vintage diners for the New Hope Diner Project. Those not nailing, varnishing, or tiling are learning the culinary skills critical to operating these restored eating establishments, and some of the new chefs will be employed in the diners once they have fulfilled the terms of their incarceration.

PS - Read the article if you need to  translate  such traditional diner fare as the “slider, sinker, and Adam and Eve on a Raft.” Bon Appetite!!

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As the fields of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise develop in practice, it is imperative that the academic theory related to these fields evolves as well. The Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) is one publication well known and respected for providing consistent research and practice-based knowledge to readers who are working to make the world a better place. Great Bay is a SSIR subscriber, and I’m sure we’ll be blogging about many of its articles as time goes on.

Today, however, I’m writing to highlight Innovations, a quarterly academic journal published by MIT Press. The journal’s content focuses on the intersection between technology, governance, and globalization. Innovations’ audience includes entrepreneurial public servants, entrepreneurs with a “public conscience,” innovators, and scholars interested in innovation. The journal’s authors include a former head of state, the founder and CEO of the World Economic Forum, a former director of the U.S. National Science Foundation, former university presidents, MacArthur Fellows, Ashoka Fellows, Skoll awardees, and Schwab Social Entrepreneurs.

According to the Innovations website, the publication is based on “two simple premises”: (1) “while culture and economics do create significant differences among populations, creativity is a characteristic shared by people everywhere”; and (2) “while many pressing societal challenges are global, their solutions are local.” The site states, “Innovations in one place can inform and inspire innovations elsewhere.” We couldn’t agree more with this statement, as social entrepreneurs’ efforts often serve as catalysts for large-scale, fundamental social change. Great Bay grantee Kathy Freund, who founded the Independent Transportation Network™ and ITNAmerica®, is a great example.

If you’re interested in learning more about Innovations, many of its articles are available free of charge online (until August 30th). Here’s a quick sample of a few that you might find interesting and relevant to your work:

“Empowering the Rural Poor to Develop Themselves: The Barefoot Approach” (Bunker Roy and Jessie Hardigan, in the Spring 2008 issue)

“Toward an Entrepreneurial Society: Why Measurement Matters” (Carl J. Schramm, Winter 2008 issue)

“Social Innovators with a Business Case: Facing 21st Century Challenges One Market at a Time” (Klais Schwab and Pamela Hartigan, Fall 2006 issue)

Are you aware of other academic publications that offer research and practice-based information for social entrepreneurs?

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The effective use of technology has become vitally important to a nonprofit’s ability to achieve its mission. Yet as nonprofit technology needs increase, so do the many software options available to meet those needs. How are nonprofits supposed to choose among the many choices and identify the solution(s) that is/are right for them? Well, an organization in Portland, Maine seeks to solve this problem.

Idealware, founded and directed by Laura Quinn, offers reviews and articles about software of interest to nonprofits. The organization takes a “Consumer-reports-style” approach, providing relevant, unbiased, and authoritative information on various software programs. The organization offers product comparisons, recommendations, case studies, and software news. Ultimately, the goal is to enable nonprofits to better understand the pros and cons of various software programs.

Idealware achieves its mission in two ways. First, it publishes reports and articles on topics related to constituent databases, websites, email and advocacy, and office productivity. Second, it offers online seminars, some of which have focused on building and editing websites, integrating various software systems, and understanding website analytics. Many of the resources available at www.idealware.org are free of charge. For additional information on Idealware, you can read Laura Quinn’s Blog here.

At Great Bay, we know how important technology can be to our grantees’ efforts. At our 2006 Annual Conference, we were fortunate to have as a guest speaker Victor d’Allant, who is the Executive Director of Social Edge, an online forum for social entrepreneurs sponsored by the Skoll Foundation. Victor introduced our attendees to cutting-edge online communication tools, such as Blogging, Tagging, and ‘Flickring.’ His presentation was so well received that he’ll be back again this December to update us all on recent developments in the world of online technology.

Great Bay has provided financial support to organizations already utilizing technology to achieve both social and business goals. Information Technology Exchange (led by Chris Martin) and MaxImpact Institute (led by Ben Ocra) are two examples. ITE has recently implemented an Open Source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system by the name of SugarCRM. Chris notes that the system has had a positive impact on his organization’s internal productivity, as well as its ability to build and strengthen relationships with customers and constituents.

So, how are you using technology in your organization?

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Great Bay recently selected its 55th grantee organization, ReCycle North, located in Burlington, Vermont. The organization is only the second the Foundation has funded in Vermont since it expanded its grantmaking to the state in 2007. (The first was Vermont Works for Women, which received Great Bay planning grant funds last fall. Note that both of these organizations were mentioned in the recent Blog post Green-collar Jobs.)

Led by social entrepreneur Tom Longstreth, ReCycle North’s mission is to “(1) protect the environment by reducing the amount of reusable and repairable items dumped in landfills, (2) give individuals in transition valuable job skills, technical training and more opportunity and (3) alleviate the effects of poverty by making vital household goods and building materials available to the poor.”

The organization’s earned income ventures include a household goods store, a building materials center, a deconstruction service, and computer and appliance repair shops. Together, the project’s serve a diverse range of disadvantaged individuals, providing them training and/or paid employment.

Great Bay has awarded ReCycle North $65,000 to assist in the start-up of its YouthBuild Weatherization Training and Service Program, which will offer weatherization services to low- and moderate income Vermonters. The project will train all of its YouthBuild students — young men and women (16-24 year olds) who have dropped out of high school and are interested in learning construction skills — in Energy Star construction and weatherization techniques.

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A recent article by Linda Baker in Fast Company magazine illustrates how emerging “green-collar jobs” can be used to achieve social change. “I’m Bad! I’m Slick” (May 2008) focuses on the work of Van Jones, a social entrepreneur in Oakland, California who has been leading an effort to create our country’s first green-collar jobs corps—which, as the article points out, will train low-income youth in the renewable-energy, organic food, and green construction industries.

The author notes that increased investments in clean technology companies, as well as more states with renewable-energy standards, has created a need for a green labor force. Van Jones wants to train people from disadvantaged backgrounds for these green jobs. He believes that the growth potential of the green economy offers a unique opportunity to truly lift people out of poverty. He is quoted in the article as stating, “If we are actually going to meet the challenge of global warming, we are going to have to weatherize millions of homes and install millions of solar panels. That’s millions of new jobs. We need to connect the people who most need the work with the work that most needs to be done.” His efforts have been well received in Oakland, and now he’s aiming for national expansion.

Two of the Great Bay Foundation’s recent grantees are in the process of launching business ventures directly related to what Jones has in mind. The first, Vermont Works for Women (led by Tiffany Bluemle), received $39,300, some of which is being used to write a business plan for a venture that would train female ex-offenders to install solar panels. The second, ReCycle North (led by Tom Longstreth) received $65,000 to assist in the start-up of its YouthBuild Weatherization Training and Service Program (more on this in a future post).

We agree that the growth of the green economy presents a unique opportunity to achieve social change, and specifically to increase individuals’ self-reliance. Through green jobs, disadvantaged individuals can earn a living while gaining marketable skills that will only increase in demand as time goes on.

Ashoka, the organization that has long and distinguished history of supporting innovative social entrepreneurs wherever they might exist, elected Jones into its prestigious Fellowship in 2000. You can read about his work with Ashoka here.

As always, we’re interested in knowing what you think. What are your thoughts about “green collar jobs”?

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Great Bay’s newest grantee is an arts-based social enterprise dedicated to making youth more self-reliant.

Founded in 1990 by social entrepreneur Susan Rodgerson, Artists for Humanity (AFH) provides paid employment in the arts to inner-city high school youth. AFH operates a number of micro businesses, including those related to painting/murals, sculpture/industrial design, silk screen, graphic design, and photography/web design - each of which provides youth the opportunity to design and sell products. Since the organization’s inception, AFH has earned over $3 million in revenue through the sale of young people’s art. The social enterprise income has been instrumental in enabling AFH to grow its program offerings and achieve its social objectives.

In recent years, AFH has begun replicating its project in other geographic areas, including Woonsocket, RI and Kansas City, Mo. It was Susan Rodgerson’s interest in replicating the model in Portland, Maine that led her to the Great Bay Foundation. She requested planning grant funds to explore the feasibility of a Portland project. Impressed by AFH’s use of earned-income ventures as a means to increasing young people’s economic self-reliance, Great Bay provided $26,565 to support the endeavor.

To read more about Artists for Humanity and other Great Bay Grantees, please visit our Funded Projects page.

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Four more new videos are up and live on our website. You can view them along with our others via Great Bay’s You Tube Channel, or you can go directly to grantees’ Chris and Jodi Martin (ITE - Information Technology Exchange); Melvin Murrel (New Hampshire Aquaculture Association); and/or friends of the foundation, Alta Fleming (Sovereign Bank); and Jim Middleton (Employ+Ability) on our website. And please don’t forget to post any comments you might have!

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Three new videos are up and live on our website. You can view them along with our others via Great Bay’s You Tube Channel, or you can go directly to Mike Rodrigues (Triangle); Eileen Hayes (Amos House); and Harold Siefken (Group Home Foundation) on our website.

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