Lessons from 22 Ashoka Social Entrepreneurs About System Change

With a 40-year track record of promoting and supporting social entrepreneurship, for-profit and non-profit organizations alike have much to learn from the ventures Ashoka fosters as a non-profit.

With that in mind, Ashoka North America leaders Constanze Frichen and Michael Zakaras are about to be released. America’s way forwardfeatures lessons from 22 Ashoka social entrepreneurs. Bozer is co-editor of this book published by Georgetown University Press. “It’s not like the whole country is polarized and dysfunctional,” Frischen says. “There are things that work beyond ideology and that really have a lasting impact, but these stories are undertold.”

They recently discussed some of the book’s key lessons.

You talk about the importance of using empathy to shape social entrepreneurial ventures. Why is it so important?

Michael Zakaras: Many attribute the success of Ashoka entrepreneurs and fellows to their business plans and natural talent. But it does mean they have the ability to deeply understand the problem. Often from people who have experienced the problem themselves. When you truly understand who your clients are and what they are working on, you can build smarter solutions.

Constanze Frischen: It’s a different way of looking at how development works. Large development projects implemented from above often do not work. They don’t match what people think they need in the field.

Zakhara: Focusing only on treating symptoms will not bring about real change. One of the four criteria for selecting Ashoka Fellows is whether they have a system-changing approach.

Can you elaborate on that approach?

Zakhara: This means that social entrepreneurs focus less on serving people and more on changing situations. They do so through changing policies, creating new markets, and seeding work elsewhere. We look at what we call independent replication, how many people are replicating elsewhere what I do.

Frischen: Our peers are grappling with changing roles, changing structures, and changing mindsets.

Zakhara: It is much easier to measure the number of mosquito nets delivered. It is necessary, but it takes real patience to change mindsets and cultures. But the world of social entrepreneurship is geared towards a direct-to-service approach. In contrast to what we are doing to introduce the new normal into the world. Are you focused on the root cause, or are you focused on treating the symptoms of a more serious problem?

Frischen: The market may be in an area where it has failed. But social entrepreneurs are looking at ways to harness the resources of those who live there and create systematic incentives to build new things that work.

One social entrepreneur who seems to stand out is Appalachia’s Brandon Dennison and Coalfield Development. Can you talk about his approach to seeding the business?

Zakhara: Brandon’s role at Coalfield Development is more like an orchestra conductor rather than a particular engineer. He started with the idea that workforce development in Appalachia wasn’t working. We train people, but there are no jobs. He has a model of 33 hours of paid work, 6 hours of study and 3 hours of professional and personal development. They also incubate businesses at the local level and are often green companies. The goal is to create a positive 21st century economy for him.

Through his new coalition, which has just been infused with huge federal dollars, he talks about how he’s working with mayors, social enterprises, businesses, universities, and nonprofits to reinvent Appalachia’s economy. . It’s not a question of how to launch one solar company, they are launching many social enterprises, including solar companies, because that’s the opportunity. He said we have the manpower, the mindset and the infrastructure to pump massive amounts of electricity out of West Virginia. But this requires cooperation, doing workforce development work differently and helping social enterprises to set up and succeed.

Frischen: He’s building an ecosystem. You don’t do it in isolation. You do it as a community.

An example is starting from the bottom up and listening to people. He has a vocational training program. But it also involves knocking people into the ground with ideas about what to build in a community-owned way.

In order to do that, we need training plus small seed grants that will allow us to launch these businesses. It’s a way to rebuild your infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of a top-down approach. There have been so many top-down attempts to develop this area that have failed.

Zakhara: To create the right kind of for-profit economic activity that enables more people to thrive, the non-profit or civil society organizations that are creating the foundation for this economic impact to occur are critical. play a role.