Social Start-Up Success Stories

When it comes to social entrepreneurship, there is no shortage of ideas from people who want to make a great impact on the world. However, leaders in the nonprofit sector face many challenges on their path to implementing their ideas in order to affect change locally and globally.

According to Kathleen Kelly Janus, one of the main struggles for social entrepreneurs is fundraising. While this activity is important for a nonprofit’s longevity, leaders must also focus on developing a network of individuals who will help advocate for a business and its innovations. Aside from fundraising, how can social entrepreneurs fully optimize the skills of their staff? How can impact be measured to ensure a nonprofit is necessary and will succeed?

Janus is a lecturer at Stanford and co-founder of Spark, a nonprofit focused on building a community of young activists to promote gender equality. As the recent author of “Social Start Up Success,” Janus focuses in on the challenges nonprofits encounter as they seek to provide for their communities in a conversation with a group of social entrepreneurs from a range of sectors, sharing both lessons learned and methods employed to overcome certain barriers.

SPEAKERS
Natalie L. Bridgeman Fields
Founder and Executive Director, Accountability Counsel

Gemma Bulos
Director of Social Innovation and Impact, Claremont McKenna College

MODERATOR:
Kathleen Kelly Janus
Co-Founder, Spark