Background

The three Founders of the Social-Impact Initiative came together around the core belief that social entrepreneurs are playing a key role in changing the world. They often start doing this at a local level in a deprived rural or urban community. Some of them go on to have impact at a regional, national, or even global level. Government, the Business Establishment and Capital Markets in the their current form all have a key role to play, but cannot alone solve the problems the world faces today. The Social Entrepreneur is a key ingredient in many of those solutions.

Social entrepreneurship is not a new phenomenon; in the past several years, however, there has been increased attention on these individuals and their power to create social change. While a plethora of training opportunities exist to help private sector entrepreneurs start and expand their businesses, until recently there has been very little in the way of targeted professional development opportunities available for social entrepreneurs.

Social-Impact Initiative was founded in 2004 to help address this gap in professional development opportunities for social entrepreneurs. After a comprehensive field study including extensive interviews with many social entrepreneurs, academics, funders, and other experts, the Social-Impact Initiative is now developing a programme that combines mentoring with skills training and access to funding. Social-Impact is a global initiative taking a local approach, and is currently searching for partners and powerful social entrepreneurs. The initial focus is in India where Social-Impact has applied for charitable legal status and launched the first pilot in June 2006 in Hyderabad.

Vision

Our vision is to enable social entrepreneurs worldwide to develop and grow economically sustainable, scalable enterprises with high measurable social impact working through our global organization and local and international partners.

Mission

Social-Impact helps social entrepreneurs implement their social mission in a sustainable and scalable way by providing the following:

• Long-term mentoring
• Access to basic skills training (e.g., finance, accounting, marketing, strategy, management, etc.) in partnership with local universities and NGO's
• Advanced training (e.g., corporate governance, accessing the social capital markets, organisational capacity building, entrepreneurial leadership, innovative business models, etc.)
• Access to financing
• Networking opportunities

Social-Impact has a broad definition of what a Social Entrepreneur is. We do NOT limit it to someone who is setting up and running a social enterprise: our social entrepreneurs could be doing that -or just as easily they could be running a charity or an NGO, or could be playing a socially directed role in an established business, in government, or in academia. What we do expect is that they share our values, so they will have:

• A clearly articulated vision and mission
• A desire to establish organisations on an economically sustainable basis
• A vision to have impact at scale
• A commitment to measuring impact

Pilot in Hyderabad

We have been working intensively in Hyderabad and surrounding Andhra Pradesh to launch our programme. We began in Hyderabad after reviewing several options in India and elsewhere based on a number of factors: the prevalence of urgent social needs in both urban and rural communities; the presence of many small to medium-sized NGO and other voluntary organisations seeking to address these needs; a vibrant business community with strong social interests; an academic infrastructure of the highest quality; and a warm and collaborative welcome from the community as we began to explore the opportunity to develop our ideas and launch Social-Impact there.

Team (Please click on a team member's photo/name to view/hide the details.)

Eric Archambeau, Ph.D., Co-Founder Archambeau is one of the three visionary founders of Social-Impact. He is also the Founding Director of the Social Entrepreneurship Program at INSEAD and General Partner at Wellington Partners. He has extensive management and venture capital experience, including roles as Co-founder and General Partner of Benchmark Capital's European operations and Atlas Venture in Silicon Valley. Archambeau also enjoyed success as an entrepreneur as Co-Founder and CEO of RightPoint and Trading Dynamics after spending the first part of his career in the semiconductor and EDA industry. He has an MBA from Santa Clara University as well as several electrical engineering and computer science degrees from Grenoble University, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley and the Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France.

Karl "Charly" Kleissner, Ph.D., Co-Founder Dr. Charly Kleissner is a philanthropic entrepreneur utilizing his high technology background in his venture philanthropy. He is co-founder of the KL Felicitas Foundation and the Social-Impact initiative helping social entrepreneurs worldwide to accelerate and increase their social impact. Dr. Kleissner serves on the Advisory Board of multiple not-for-profit companies like Acumen Fund, Global Social Benefit Incubator, Alliance for a New Humanity, and Global Philanthropy Forum. Dr. Kleissner has over twenty years of experience as a senior technology executive in Silicon Valley. He held executive and senior engineering management positions at Ariba Inc., NeXT Software Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., and Hewlett-Packard Company. Dr. Kleissner serves on the Advisory Board of multiple for-profit start-up companies like Papilia and Rearden Commerce Inc. Dr. Kleissner earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Technology, Vienna. He authored two software patents and published numerous articles. Dr. Kleissner received the 'Distinguished Alumnus' award from the University of Technology, Vienna.

Peter Wheeler, Co-Founder Wheeler is one of the three visionary Co-Founders of Social-Impact and has played a significant role in shaping the field of philanthropy and social entrepreneurship. He has previously served as a Partner and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs and was Founder of New Philanthropy Capital, which aims to increase the quality and quantity of resources available to the charitable sector. He currently serves as Chair of IP Value and futurebuilders, and he is a trustee of Charity Technology Trust and Kids Company. Peter has spent considerable parts of his career in India, including leading the Goldman Sachs initiative in India from 1994 and establishing its joint venture with Kotak Mahindra.

Will Morgan, International Director Will joins Social-Impact from his most recent post at the Skoll Foundation where he supported domestic and international social entrepreneurs. Will managed a grant portfolio designed to address the Silicon Valley's most significant challenges. He also helped manage Skoll's international portfolio of social entrepreneurs. Will previously worked as a Program Officer at International Development Enterprises (IDE) in Golden, Colo., where he managed a program to distribute irrigation devices to poor, rural farmers in Haiti. He also aided the organization in grant writing and monitoring and evaluation duties for programs in other countries. Prior to IDE, he worked at Chemonics International in Washington, D.C., one of the Beltway's largest USAID contractors. In this position, he helped assemble consulting teams and prepared bids for U.S.-funded development projects in Latin America. He has additional experience in the fields of environmental law and foreign policy research. Will earned a bachelor of arts in Latin American Economic Development from Franklin and Marshall College, in Lancaster, Penn. He completed his international master's of business administration at the University of Denver.

Thomas TT, Director, India As Director of Social-Impact India , Thomas holds overall leadership and administration for Social-Impact's first programmes in India. He has over 15 years of experience in the social development sector working in various capacities. He has extensive experience of working on Corporate Social Responsibility programmes as well as education and research. He also worked for about one year with German donor ZDH/SEQUA Partnership program that has the mandate of promoting employment opportunities through Local Area Development and SME promotion. Thomas holds Masters Degrees in Social Work and degree in Law.

Kim Alter, Consultant An MBA with a social conscience, Kim Alter has endeavored for over 15 years to power social change with entrepreneurship. Alter is the founding partner of Virtue Ventures, a consulting firm specializing in social entrepreneurship. In addition to co-founding a self-financed social enterprise operating in five African countries, she has worked in corporate marketing and as a microfinance technical advisor for international agencies such as Save the Children and Catholic Relief. She is author of, Managing the Double Bottom Line: A Business Planning Guide for Social Enterprises, monograph, Social Enterprise Typology, contributing author of, Generating and Sustaining Nonprofit Earned Income, and contributing author of, Social Entrepreneurship: New Paradigms of Sustainable Social Change. Alter is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford University's Said Business School.

Keely Stevenson, Consultant Stevenson has had a passion for civic and social entrepreneurial organisations her entire career. She has worked for the United Nations, California Senate, ProPeru and Skoll Foundation, where she launched the Social Edge online community for social entrepreneurs. Most recently, she has been a consultant to the Royal Bafokeng Nation (South Africa) and Triodos Bank (UK). She is also a Fellow with the Acumen Fund, a nonprofit global social venture investment fund. Stevenson studied Political Science at UC Berkeley and completed her MBA at Oxford University with a focus on social entrepreneurship.

Advisory Council

Social-Impact has selected an excellent advisory council to guide its strategic development:

V. Chandrasekar - Executive Director, Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development Executive Director of the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development at the ISB, Dr Chandrasekar brings to the ISB a rich combination of academic and industry experience. He has been a consultant to many organizations both in the U.S. and India in the areas of entrepreneurship, strategy, product development, market analysis and economic studies. He has been actively involved in promoting new start-ups, both in technology and non-technology areas. Dr. Chandrasekar has taught subjects such as Marketing, Organizational management and innovation, New Product Development and Venture creation with an orientation to emerging markets in institutions such as IIM-B, IISc, University of Denver, and the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Queen Margaret College, Scotland, and ESSEC Business School at Cergy, France. Dr. Chandrasekar received his doctorate degree from the University of Denver, USA where his thesis was in the area of Innovations and Organizational change.

P.N. Devarajan - Founder & Managing Trustee, NSDS Mr. P. N. Devarajan brings rich background and experience in general management to the Advisory Council for Social-Impact. In addition to his hands-on knowledge of human resource management, Mr. Devarajan also provides a high-level perspective in his posts as Chairman of India's National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), and the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in Pune. Between 1983 and 1994, he served as Director of the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India. Mr. Devarajan is a founder and managing trustee of Manava Seva Dharma Samvardhani (NSDS) that manages Center for Social Initiaves and Management (CSIM), one of Social-Impact's key partners. CSIM equips budding social entrepreneurs with knowledge and professional competencies for achieving organizational and programmatic excellence.

Hemanth Nandigala - Executive Director (comm.), Virchow Biotech Dr.Hemanth Nandigala is the Executive Director (comm.) of Virchow Biotech, a biopharmaceutical company involved in the manufacture of biogenerics. Dr.Nandigala brings to the team not only his experience from various line functions in Marketing; Integrated Communications and general management but also his grass roots entrepreneurial knowlege of starting and growing a company in a technology intensive industry. He is also a Board member on the Hyderabad chapter of Entrepreneurs' Organization, a peer-to-peer global networking organization with over 6000 members spread over 120 chapters in 40 countries.

Nita Goyal - Ph.D., Vice President, Tavant Technologies Nita Goyal brings her experience as a technology entrepreneur to Social-Impact. She is co-founder and VP New Product Development at Tavant Technologies, an 1100+ strong IT services company based in US and India. Prior to that, she co-founded Exemplary Software - a spin-off from HP Labs where Nita was a researcher. She is also a Fellow of the Reuters Digital Vision Program at Stanford University that supports social entrepreneurs in leveraging information and communication technology. She has combined her work at Tavant and at RDVP to launch SocialWay (http://www.socialway.com), a website that enables people to share items and by getting more usage from things helps address socio-economic and environmental issues. Nita has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University and a B.Tech. (CS) from IIT, Kanpur, India. She has the distinction of being the first woman with a Computer Science degree from any of the Indian Institutes of Technology.

Sashi Kumar - Treasurer, Yugantar & Co-founder, ThinkSoft Sashi Kumar is Treasurer of Yugantar & co-founded ThinkSoft, over the years he has worked on several assignments related to project design, management and execution. He has been a researcher on issues related to urban and rural poverty, health and participation and a resource person with organizations working on micro-finance, dalit rights, communal harmony, food security and dry land agriculture. He has worked as a consultant on Government programmes in Urban Services for the Poor, Tribal Welfare, Forestry, and Irrigation & Water Management. His particular interest is Local Area Development and Cluster-Based approaches to Economic Growth. One of his recent projects was producing a report on "Communal Conflict and Peace Initiatives in Hyderabad: Past and Present "(2004-2005, COVA & Aman Trust).

Shantha Sinha - Secretary Trustee, M V Foundation Shantha Sinha is the Secretary Trustee of the M Venkatarangaiya Foundation (better known as MV Foundation) instituted in 1981 in memory of Professor Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya, an eminent educationist and historian in southern India. She is also a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Hyderabad. In 1998, Shantha Sinha was honored with the Padmashri and the Albert Shanker International Award (from Education International) in recognition of the MV Foundation's outstanding work in the field of eliminating child labor and spreading education .She was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2003. As a Secretary Trustee of MVFoundation she has been involved in programs for elimination of child labor through universalisation of elementary education in Ranga Reddy district. This has resulted in about 400,000 children in 5-14 years age being withdrawn from work, and also in strengthening of government schools in 2500 villages. At present the focus of M.V.Foundation is on girl-children and children engaged as bonded labourers; partnership developing, with government teachers, women's groups, youth associations, PTAs and local bodies; training and networking with other NGOs. MVFoundation implements its programs in 6000 villages in Andhra Pradesh and offers technical support to government and NGO's in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Rajasthan.

M. Suresh Rao - Professor and Chairperson for the Center for Entrepreneurship, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) M. Suresh Rao is a professor and chairperson for the Center for Entrepreneurship at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR). He has a thirty-year track record in industry, including the Godrej Group, where he was involved in creating the "change with continuity" management process to introduce more entrepreneurial performance parameters into the company. He also worked in New Economy start ups as Vice President and C.E.O. Professor Rao is a member of India's National Entrepreneurship Network and is on its Faculty Advisory Board. Professor Rao is a member of the Technopreneur Promotion Program (TePP) Screening Committee set up by DSIR, under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Varun Sahni - India Country Manager, Acumen Fund Varun Sahni is the India Country Manager Acumen Fund, a global not-for-profit social venture fund. Prior to joining Acumen Fund Mr. Sahni has worked in the area of social enterprise for the past eight years, most recently as a consultant to Hindustan Lever Limited's Project Shakti on establishing sustainable livelihood opportunities for women across rural India. Mr. Sahni also worked with CARE in India on developing business development services for the rural non-farm sector, enabling mainstream market linkages with buyers across the globe.

Vijay Kumar Gupta - Managing Director, Quality Photonics Private Limited Mr. Vijay Kumar Gupta is the Managing Director of Quality Photonics Private Limited. He has over 23 years of entrepreneurial and business experience, including 18 years in corporate finance and project management. Mr. Gupta was the first to develop and produce LEDs in India, and his company is now the sole provider for these devices for the entire Indian telecommunications industry. Mr. Gupta is a member of many National and local level business associations and serves as president of the Electronic Component Industries Association as well as the Electronics Industries Association. Mr. Gupta also won several awards for his entrepreneurial capabilities, including the "Entrepreneur of the Year" in 1994 by the Hyderabad Management Association.

Collaborators & Strategic Partners

The Social-Impact team is also establishing formal partnerships with collaborators to support in the identification, mentoring and training of social entrepreneurs. These may include: management training institutions, nonprofit organisations, donor agencies, corporate bodies, professional associations, individuals who share Social-Impact's mission. Social-Impact is fortunate to be collaborating with the following partners:

With branches in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai, the Centre for Social Initiative and Management's mission is to equip budding social entrepreneurs with knowledge and professional competencies for achieving excellence in their endeavors.

Acumen Fund aims to create a blueprint for building financially sustainable and scalable organizations that deliver affordable, critical goods and services that elevate the lives of the poor.

Thinksoft Consultants is based in Hyderabad, India, and is a leading provider of capacity building and consulting services to government, non-government and corporate entities working in the social sector.

Social-Impact is a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. As part of its mission and services, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors facilitates the charitable purposes of Social-Impact, serving as the fiscal sponsor for the initiative. For more information about Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, please visit www.rockpa.org.