Social Entrepreneurship Course Proposal

Social Entrepreneurship Course Proposal

Submitted by Dr. Kathryn J. Ready, Professor of Management

Course Description and Outline

Catalog Description

Majoropportunities and challenges facing social entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations will be examined through an engaged learning approach. Students will learn about social issues in the Winona area community by analyzingnonprofit organizations and comparing the operations with profit organizations. Volunteering at a local nonprofit organization and an organizational analysis project are required. The course will consist of lectures, class discussions, guest speakers, and organizational tours and presentations. Offered as needed. Prerequisites: Management 325 or Management 317.

Course syllabus including course outline, topics, instructional methods course requirements, textbooks is attached.

Course Outline of the major topics and subtopics

A)Defining Social Entrepreneurship and its Mission

1)Introduction to course

2)Defining Social Entrepreneurship and importance

3)Defining and writing the Mission statement

4)How does the “mission based” organization compare with a for profit organization?

5)Mission Drift

6)Strategic Objectives

B)Understanding the Nonprofit Organization

1)What is a Nonprofit Organization? Deciding to start a Nonprofit

2)Incorporating multiple constituencies in a strategic service vision

3)Operating to accomplish the mission/strategic plan

4)Types of nonprofit Organization

C)Industry Analysis and the Competitive Framework

1)Where do innovative opportunities originate

2)Strong leadership – blessing or a curse

3)Industry analysis and the Competitive Strategy Framework

4)Organizational assessment

5)Comparing Profit and Nonprofit models

D)Who are the Social Entrepreneurs?

1)Who are Social Entrepreneurs

2)U.S. and international organizations

E)NGO’s, Federations and the importance of Community

1)NGO

a)Rule and Mission

b)Board Composition

2)Federation

a)Relationship to local nonprofits

b)Board Responsibilities

F)The Role of the Board and Cooperative Strategies

1)Managing Board

2)Defining skills of the board

3)Board Functions and recruitment

4)Life Cycle of the Board – Changing members

5)Creating a cooperative strategy

6)Recruiting willing and able partners

7)Working with the community

G)Resources and Earned Income Strategies

1)Steps to assess your resource need

2)Developing a research mobilization strategy

3)Earned income vs. unearned income paths

4)Three Different Earned income paths:

a)Getting paid for what you already do

b)Launching a new business venture

c)Building revenue relationships

5)5 Steps for Developing a Viable Earned Income Strategy

H)Staffing, Systems and Accountability

1)Paid Staff vs. Volunteers

a)Staff involvement in setting objectives

b)Smart objectives

2)Understanding accountability

a)Building and evaluating management systems

b)Developing a performance information system

I)Profit Arms and Marketing your Organization

1)Profit Arms

a)Donor-investors

b)Promoting the Social Enterprise as a bonus for investors

2)Marketing Strategies

a)Identifying your customers and understanding their needs and wants

b)Pricing to maximized social impact

c)Promoting your product/service

d)Fund-raising and sources funds

e)Press releases

f)Making the most of special events

J)Business Plan and Securing Funding

1)Securing Funding

a)Developing the business plan

b)Communication with your funding source

K)Grants and Program Evaluation

1)Grants proposals

2) Writing a Grant Proposal

3)Managing Growth and Performance

4)Grant sources

5)Program Evaluation

L) Role of United Way

1)United Way as a funding organization

a)Materials needed for grant application

M)Final Project and Presentation of Reports

1)Individual assessment

2)Final project reports

Instructional methods utilized

In addition to readings, discussions, and class lectures, the course is supported by on-site tours and presentations of local nonprofit organizations, and in-class speakers. Examples of tour sites with accompanying presentations related to class material include Eagle Bluff, Humane Society, Habitat ReStore, Minnesota Marine Art Museum, and Volunteer Services. Examples of in-class speakers with presentations related to class material include representatives of the United Way, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and the WSU grants office.

Course requirements

Course requirements include individual papers including journal and reflective writing, team assignments culminating in organizational assessment and a professional team presentation to class and organizational representatives, volunteering at local nonprofit organization, class discussions utilizing course materials from articles, books and volunteer experiences, and involvement in tours and in-class presenters. General information about the nature of assignments follows:

Community Service - Students will spend 15 hours volunteering at a local nonprofit organization or community agency. Students will select their placement from a list of options provided by the Instructor. An individual detailed log will be kept on volunteer activities and what they learned during each separate volunteering experience. This will be attached to a final project assessment. In the final assessment, students will discuss experiences and what they have learned. They will focus on how they have grown as a result of the experience, what they have learned about the role of the social entrepreneur and the functioning of nonprofit organizations, and examine how the social issue and /or the objectives of the organization relate to their life.

Students will complete team assignments through the course that will be used in the final written organizational analysis that will be presented to the class and the organization with a copy going to the organization as well. These individual assignments that are due throughout the course include (1) description of the mission/goals of the community organization including value statements, explanation of constituency, services provided, and geographic coverage; (2) analysis of current organizational structure including staffing, volunteers, and the board; (3) evaluation of funding and financial support including funding from government, public and private foundation grants, discussion of earned and unearned income strategies, profit arms and evaluation of budget, monthly financial reports and technology that supports operational efficiencies; (4) examination of marketing plan and marketing activities including feedback mechanisms, comparison with competitors and differentiation of services; (5) integration of material from class in providing an overall assessment of operations, SWOT analysis, and evaluation of organizational sustainability with conclusions. Feedback will be provided to students from each team assignment, and should be used to further develop the final project paper that will be presented to the class and the corresponding nonprofit organization.

Individual assignments include (1) an evaluation of mission statements of 5 social ventures and recommended changes to better align mission with organization; (2) evaluation of a social entrepreneur and their contributions to society; (3) individual assessment of learning experience related to nonprofit involvement.

Team assignments include (1) major organizational analysis and supporting team assignments and (2) non-governmental organization and federation reports. The NGO and federation reports include description of mission and goals of the agency, evaluation of leadership, assessment of organization funding and operational structure, description of population served, examination of social issue organization addresses and discussion of current policy issues confronting organization.

Course materials

Cunningham, Katie, and Marc Ricks. "Why Measure Nonprofits Use Metric to Show That They are Efficient. But What If Donors Don't Care?" Stanford Social Innovation (2004): 44- 51.

Dees, J. Gregory, Jed Emerson and Peter Economy. Enterprising Nonprofits: A toolkit for Social Entrepreneurs, John Wiley: New York, ISBN: 0-471-39735-0, 2001.

Dees, J. Gregroy, Jed Emerson, and Peter Economy, Strategic Tools for Social Entrepreneur: Enhancing the Performance of Your Enterprising Nonprofit, John Wiley: New York, ISBN: 0-471-15068-1, 2002

Flandez, Raymund. "Voluntary Pricing Lets Small Eateries Give and Get Back." (2007): b8-11.

Foster, William, and Gail Fine. "How Nonprofits Get Really Big." Stanford Social Innovation (2007): 46-55.

Hafner, Katie. "Philanthropy Google's Way: Not the Usual." (2006): 1-6.

Hauser, Jerry. "Organizational Lessons for Nonprofits." The McKinsey Quarterly 2003 Special

Jansen, Paul J., and David M. Katz. "For Nonprofits, Time is Money." The McKinsey Quarterly 2002 Volume 1 (2002): 126-133.

Light, Paul C. "Reshaping Social Entrepreneurship." Stanford Social Innovation Review (2006): 47-51.

Lowell, Stephanie, Les Silverman, and Lynn Taliento. "Not-for Profit Management: The Gift That Keeps on Giving." The McKinsey Quarterly 2001 Number 1 (2001): 147-155.

Martin, Roger L., and Sally Osberg. "Social Entrepreneurship: the Case for Definition." Stanford Social Innovation Review (2007): 29-39.

O'Flanagan, Maisie, and Lynn Taliento. "Nonprofits: Ensuring That Bigger is Better." The McKinsley Quarterly 2004 Volume 2 (2004): 113-122.

Sargeant, Adrian, and John B. Ford. "The Power of Brands." Stanford Social Innovation Review (2007): 41-47.

Sawhill, John, and David Williamson. "Measuring What Matters in Nonprofits." The McKinsey Quarterly 2001 Number 2 (2001): 98-107.

Silverman, Les, and Lynn Taliento. "What Business Execs Don’t Know -But Should- About Nonprofits." Stanford Social Innovation Review (2006): 37-43.

Silverman, Rachel E. "A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy." (2007): d1-4.

Snibbe, Alana C. "Drowning in Data." Stanford Social Innovation Review (2006).

Warwick, Mal. "Guess Who's Socially Irresponsible." Stanford Social Innovation (2007): 12-13.

Assessment of outcomes

Students will complete individual and team assignments and will be provided feedback to enhance final report. The final report will be provided to instructor and to organizational representatives. Organizational representatives will provide feedback to students on the analysis and presentation after the presentation. Rubrics will be used to evaluate content and presentation skills.

Class will assess presentations by other classmates on the following criteria: thorough discussion of organizational background, thorough understanding of mission and vision, complete analysis of staffing, analysis of board composition, evaluation of earned income strategies, thorough discussion of grants and grant process, analysis of marketing strategies, thorough discussion of recommendations with support. Class members that are not part of presenting team will further evaluate major areas that differ from their organization and/or other organizations that we have learned about during the semester. They will provide feedback demonstrating their critical thinking skills and knowledge acquired by providing feedback on what areas should be further analyzed or additional recommendations for the organization being discussed. Students will be asked to consider their organization and others that they have examined during the semester in providing an assessment.

Students will assess individual team member’s involvement in project assignments, project final paper, project presentation and in-class team discussions.

List of references

Ashoka Council, Leading Social Entrepreneurs, Ashoka Innovators for the Public, 2006.