Signs of an exciting trend at the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference

This past Sunday, March 4, nearly 1,000 people gathered to learn and exchange ideas at Harvard’s business school conference on “Social Enterprise.” The phrase is sufficiently broad to cover a wide range of issues, from socially responsible business to business-like social change and everything in between. The aim of the conference, according to its co-chairs, is to engage a broad set of institutions across sectors to “turn dreams into reality,” and the theme of bringing pragmatic approaches to achieving lofty goals for social justice was woven strongly throughout the day’s discussions. Victoria Hale exemplified this in her opening keynote when she talked about the way that her non-profit pharmaceutical company was engaging with corporations, foundations and governments to bring critical health products to the 10 million who die needlessly every year from preventable diseases.

I had the opportunity to speak on two panels about different facets of our work: the first focused on investing in emerging markets, and the second on venture philanthropy. On both panels, I shared the floor with pioneering organizations that are changing the rules of the game, either by changing how capital flows to developing countries, or changing how philanthropy drives social change. At Acumen Fund, we are excited by the potential to merge both of these trends to demonstrate how philanthropy can catalyze changes in how foreign aid and private capital reaches those who have the greatest impact on the lives of the poor in countries such as India, Kenya, Pakistan and Uganda.

Engaging with the other panelists is always a thrill, whether that means learning more about non-profit finance from Clara Miller, president and CEO of the Non-Profit Finance Fund, over a muffin, or sitting beside Sarah Alexander, executive director of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association, which tracks trends and opportunities in a sector that is critical for us to understand. Listening to Sarah Di Troia, a partner at New Profit Inc., was like looking in a mirror, as she shared the challenges and rewards of developing true partnerships with social entrepreneurs as they take their organizations to scale. Cheryl Dorsey, president of Echoing Green, reminded us where it all begins by describing the potential for early-stage social innovators to bring tremendous value to communities worldwide. 

The audience in both panels was perhaps the most inspiring, with students, professionals and thought leaders bringing their own ideas and questions to the table for discussion and debate. One exciting trend I noticed from having attended in years past was the growth in the number of entrepreneurs in the room, with many participants engaged in starting social enterprises alongside, or instead of “day jobs.” For all of us who had the privilege of presenting, the reality is never far from our minds that supporting and scaling social innovations is only possible if more and entrepreneurs and talented professionals take on the task of testing out ideas, defining workable models, and scaling institutions.  I left the conference confident that there is a growing wave of these entrepreneurs and professionals, and that those of us who spend our days seeking and investing in these people and their organizations have our work cut out for us.