A packed crowd gathered in Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art to listen to eight panelists discuss how to impact the world and your bottom-line. Chicago Ideas Week‘s sold out Social Entrepreneurship panel challenged the audience to harness their inspiration and start their own social ventures.
We wanted to continue the social entrepreneurship conversation by taking a closer look at the people and businesses behind the mic.
Dave Gilboa: Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Warby Parker
If you haven’t heard of Warby Parker, you’re most likely reading this with 20/20 vision. Founded in late 2010, the glasses e-tailer is steadily accomplishing it’s mission of disrupting the $16B eyewear industry by offering affordable high fashion prescription eyewear to the masses. Warby has quickly become known as “the Zappos of the glasses industry ” and with an estimated evaluation of over a $100 million, the company is garnering attention from more than the visually impaired.
While Warby’s numbers are impressive, Gilboa earned a seat on the panel for the company’s “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program aimed at helping the over 500 million people around the world who don’t have access to proper vision care. Warby has partnered with nonprofit organizations like RestoringVision.org to donate more than 75,000 pairs of glasses in over 36 countries.
Scott Harrison: Founder & CEO, charity: water
Returning from a two-year stent as a volunteer photojournalist on a Liberian hospital ship, Scott Harrison founded charity: water. Harrison’s non-profit organization focuses on providing clean drinkable water to the one in eight people around the world who lacks access to the most basic of human needs.
5 years after its inception, charity: water has raised $43 million dollars for clean water projects around the world. The recently launched “Dollars to Projects” feature allows sponsors the ability to track and view where and what every one of their dollars is being used for around the world.
David Murphy: Co-Founder & Former President & CEO, Better World Books
David Murphy is the co-founder of Better World Books - a for-profit social enterprise with an out-of-the-box business model and a triple bottom line.
The online bookseller partners with almost 4,000 libraries and college campuses to collect unwanted textbooks and resell them online. Better World Books then distributes 8-10% of its revenues, yes we said revenues not profits, to its global literacy partners like Room to Read, Books for Africa and WorldFund. According to its website, Better World Books has raised more than $10 million for global literacy efforts and rescued over 64 million books from landfills.
David Bornstein: Founder, Dowser
Well-known author of “How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas“and “Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know, David Borenstein joined the panel both as a literary expert on the topic and also as the founder of Dowser, a media organization reporting on social innovation. Borenstein founded Dowser as a means of shedding light on the thousands of social innovation stories happening around the world and inspiring future innovators.
Emma Clippinger: Co-Founder & Executive Director, Gardens for Health International
After interning with the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative in Rwanda, Emma Clippinger along with cofounder Julie Carney was inspired to form Gardens for Health International (GHI). GHI is a social nonprofit focused on closing Africa’s growing “nutrition gap” in HIV/AIDS treatment by fostering economic development and providing nutrition education.
Currently working in Rwanda, GHI assists communities affected by HIV/AIDs to form small business cooperatives and access arable land. GHI also provides micro-loans to the cooperatives and initial investments for agribusiness opportunities. By promoting nutritional wellness and agribusiness, GHI helps Rwandan communities provide themselves with vital nutrients and economic independence.
Jeff Nelson: Co-Founder & Executive Director, Urban Students Empowered
Jeff Nelson co-founded Urban Students Empowered, a nonprofit dedicate to raising the college graduation rates of low-income students by finding and training highly effective teachers. USE identifies and equips high-quality passionate teachers to assist underperforming students with their studies, college prep scores and even their attendance records. Unlike similar mentorship programs USE students are not only assisted during high school, they correspond with the same USE teacher through their freshman year in college. According to a recent Chicago Tribune article, 99 percent of the approximately 1,000 USE students have been accepted into college with 83 percent pursuing a four-year degree.
Leila Janah: Founder & CEO, Samasource
Leila Janah founded Samasource in 2008 with a simple and bold mission – create dignified jobs for people below the poverty line by leveraging web 2.0.
The nonprofit organization now connects over 1,200 low-income workers with simple data-entry jobs outsourced from companies around the world.
Large companies like Google are choosing Samasource’s microwork platform as an alternative to standard outsourcing providers.
Robert Fogarty: Founder, Dear World
When hurricane Gustav hit New Orleans in 2008, Robert Fogarty worked with the government to evacuate the city. The experience inspired and spawned Fogarty to create Evacuteer, a nonprofit focused on recruiting, training, and managing New Orleans’ evacuation volunteers or “Evacuteers.”
In order to give fund his nonprofit and his dinner plate, Fogarty started DearWorld.me, a photography business and self-expression photo project that donates 10 percent of its revenue to Evacuteer. Every month two million visitors, visit DearWorld.me to view Fogarty’s simple and powerful photo presentation.
