Tim's Library

Editor’s note: The video link below takes a look at how StudentMentor.org is helping college students achieve their dreams. StudentMentor.org, a ground-breaking national mentoring organization, has been invited to The White House to meet the President and talk to White House officials about the critical issue of college completion and career readiness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVvQgd5eCf0

Editor’s Note: The company referenced in the article below “Investing in the Bottom of the Ladder,” by Jody Heymann, demonstrates that for-profit companies can do better by paying and treating their lowest paid employees better. The two companies I’ve been most directly involved in are primarily impacted by their lowest paid workers (WorkPlace Media and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers). In fact, over 350 of our 400 workers live on the margins. Like Great Little Box, it seems obvious to us that the better your treat your “lowest rung of the ladder” employee, the greater your overall success – financially and societally.

Excerpt: “The companies we studied had in fact increased their profitability by investing in their employees at the bottom of the ladder.”

http://www.capitalidea.org/downloads/pdfs/CI_one_page.pdf

Editor’s note: The attached overview of a cool non-profit in Austin, TX, intrigues me for two reasons – 1. It’s a great mission we’re working on too and 2. It’s one of the best simple overviews I’ve ever seen of a social mission.    

Editor's Note:  While not a classic case study, as we usually place here, the article below by Seth Borenstein summarizes research and findings from the leading authority on violence, Steven Pinker, with summary facts and figures and some corroborating evidence as well.  Perhaps the findings will surprise you as they did me.  The quote that captures the point the best is "The decline of violence may be the most significant and least appreciated development in the history of our species.”

http://stephengyllenhaal.net/world-becoming-less-violent-despite-global-conflict-statistics-show-violence-in-steady-decline-world-more-peaceful/

 
Editor’s Note: As part of foundation’s work to establish a CDFI (Community Development Financial Institute,) we have been researching best practices to (someday) achieve scale beyond Ashtabula County.  This paper looks at early practice in the area of distance-based business development services. Through a survey of practitioners and more in-depth conversations with early pioneers of this work, the paper provides lessons for those looking to embark or expand efforts in this area.  

A long-time challenge facing microenterprise programs is how to reach out to larger numbers of entrepreneurs efficiently despite the distance in proximity to a program office. A common strategy, for both rural and urban programs, has been to grow geographically — establishing branch or regional offices wherever potential clients work and reside in numbers. While the bricks and mortar strategy has many obvious benefits (local credibility, increased market knowledge, and enhanced customer service being just a few), it also carries some substantial drawbacks, not the least of which is cost. Although these drawbacks do not mean that practitioners will not continue to expand their physical presence, there are compelling reasons to look more closely at distance learning.  (To Continue)

Article Link

Editor’s Note: In the attached article, Jacob Harold of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation shares his perspective on the role foundations should play in aligning the self-interests of various organizations in order to remedy complex social issues, such as poverty.

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Editor's note:  Since this was difficult for me to read and understand, I'll guess it may be the same for you.  I've been directly involved with Head Start through the work of our partners and it's a hard program not to love.  But there lies the rub which is worth our minds wrangling with.  I also love Klein's equal disdain for rich and for poor government programs when it is becomes obvious they have outlived their usefulness.  I wish we had statesmen, instead of politicians, who were will to take similarly fearless looks at our government investments. More...

Editor’s Note:  The following article, picked up from Divine Chocolate’s website www.divinechocolateusa.com outlines a brand I ran across a few years ago.  I was trying to figure out how to bring products from our partner IPM to the USA and saw this brand had built to over $15 million of sales in England.   Looking more deeply, it’s one of the earliest social enterprise stories around I’ve heard.  I hope you enjoy. More...

Partner for the Greater Good
Written by Abby Callard
Published: BeyondProfit.com, May 19, 2011

Editor’s note:  This brief article, by Abby Callard from the e-magazine “Beyond Profit”, is about a very hopeful idea titled component sharing model.  We all love the concept of public-private partnerships but it’s hard to find real success stories.  This model suggests that key to success is not only sharing financial responsibilities but appropriately splitting tasks.  In fact, to me the key point of the article is that government is often good in setting up programs but no nearly as good in executing them.  Callard suggests through this success story, that execution is best left to the locals.  Makes sense to me. More...