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Venture America
Bold leaders that are changing the world
About Venture America
Participants
Collaborators
ABOUT VENTURE AMERICA
The story of
social enterprise is best told through the voices and
experiences of its leaders. Thus, Community Wealth Ventures
(CWV) and the Social Enterprise Alliance (SEA), along with
Visionaries, a film production organization, have teamed up
to produce Venture America: Bold Leaders that Are
Changing the World, a first-ever video that vividly
documents how organizations are harnessing the potential of
market forces to affect social change.
Showcasing the
diversity and potential of social enterprise, Venture
America tells the unique stories of eight social
enterprise leaders and the impact that their work has on
their organizations and communities. Through an intimate
dialogue among leaders as well as individual interviews, the
video will share lessons learned, key challenges and
victories, as well as provide insights into the direction of
the industry and inspiration to others seeking to follow in
the footsteps of the fields’ leaders.
The video will be
filmed on Sunday, March 9, 2008, during a pre-conference
session at the 9th Social Enterprise Summit in Boston, MA.
THE PARTICIPANTS
Rafael Alvarez,
Founder and President
Genesys Works
Through its six
years of work with high school students in Houston, Genesys
Works has proven that an enriching employment opportunity
with a Fortune 500 company is a powerful driver of academic
performance and student achievement. After intensive
training in technical skills, such as information
technology, and soft skills, such as professional behavior,
students go to work for Genesys Works’ corporate clients.
The students are paid above-market wages and expand their
horizons and dreams. As a result, over 90 percent of
Genesys Works’ graduates go to college; 95% of the students
are the first in their families to go to college. Based on
its success in the Houston market, Genesys Works is
expanding to Minneapolis/St. Paul this year, and other
markets are on the horizon.
Prior to starting
Genesys Works, Rafael Alvarez worked eleven years for Compaq
Computer Corporation (now HP) in diverse management roles
including engineering program management, corporate strategy
and market intelligence. For his work as a social
entrepreneur, Rafael was inducted into the prestigious
international Ashoka Fellowship in 2006 and prior to that
was awarded the national Champion Award for Outstanding
Technology Leaders by the CTCNet in Washington D.C. An
engaging public speaker, Rafael has motivated audiences
around the country from Social Venture Partners
International Conference and Rice University to the Space
Shuttle Symposium and McKinsey & Co. on diverse topics
including social entrepreneurship, nonprofit earned income
models and changing organizational behaviors. Rafael is a
native of Mexico City and obtained a B.S. in Mechanical
Engineering from Texas A&M University and a M.S. in
Engineering Management from the University of Houston.
To learn more
about Genesys Works, click
here.
David Akers,
President & CEO
The Northeast Ohio Sourcing Office
The Northeast Ohio
Sourcing Office (NEO|SO) is demonstrating how government
entities can harness the potential of social enterprise.
Through its innovative corporate structure as a 501(c)3 and
a Council of Governments (a public sector entity authorized
under Ohio law), NEO|SO is able to offer group purchasing
services to municipalities and governmental agencies
throughout the northeast Ohio region. As a result, the
savings recouped through better pricing, better quality
products and services, and reduced procurement expenses are
reinvested in other government services and programs in need
of funding. In 2007, NEO|SO achieve more than $5MM in
spending through its contracts, generating $250,000 in
earned income.
David J. Akers is
an innovator with a passion for identifying opportunities
for business and civic growth, then developing and
implementing strategies to capitalize on those
opportunities. In his career, David has created and
launched more than a dozen initiatives in the business,
civic, and government sectors. David serves as a coach and
consultant for a broad range of clients, with particular
expertise in business development, communication skills, and
leadership development for professionals in both the
business and civic sectors. An author of two issued patents
and co-author of three additional pending patents, David
holds a bachelor of science in marketing and finance from
the University of Virginia’s McIntyre School of Commerce.
To learn more
about NEO|SO, click here.
Ami Dar,
Founder and Executive Director
Action without Borders/Idealist.org
Built in 1996 with
$3,500, Idealist.org, has become one of the most popular
resources for nonprofit employers and jobseekers on the Web,
with information posted by 70,000 organizations around the
world and accessed by more than 50,000 visitors every day.
IdeaList.org, and its parent, Action without Borders, allows
organizations to post a profile on the site with job,
internship or volunteer opportunities, as well as events,
resources, programs, and campaigns for individuals to search
for and browse. The resulting profits support the nurturing
and advancement of social change organizations around the
world. Action without Borders continues to push the
conventional thinking about how the internet can be use to
foment social networking and interpersonal connections over
distances great and small. Idealist has an annual budget of
$3M, of which more than $2.5M is derived from earned income.
Ami Dar was born
in Israel and grew up there and in Peru and Mexico. At 18,
he was drafted into the Israeli army, where he served as a
paratrooper in the Lebanese war of 1982. The misery and
senseless destruction he saw in Lebanon, combined with the
extreme poverty he had seen growing up in Latin America, led
him to start Action Without Borders as an organization that
would make it easier for people everywhere to take action on
the issues that concern them. In 2000 the Stern Family Fund
awarded Ami its annual $100,000 Public Interest Pioneer
grant (renewed in 2001) to help support his work with AWB.
In 2002, 2003, and 2004 the Nonprofit Times included Ami in
its annual list of the 50 most influential people in the
nonprofit sector, and in the fall of 2004 Ashoka invited him
to join its global fellowship of social entrepreneurs.
To learn more
about Idealist.org, click
here.
Steven Dawson,
President
Pathways to Independence
PHI is a national
nonprofit organization that improves the lives of people who
need home and residential care—by creating quality jobs for
the workers who provide that care. PHI is the nonprofit
sponsor of the $100 million “Pathways to Independence”
system in New York City, which is a hybrid of nonprofit and
cooperative enterprises, includes the $30 million Cooperate
Home Care Associates (CHCA), a 20-year-old home health care
organization in the South Bronx that set out to create a new
business model in the health care industry. Worker-owned
since its inception, and employing more than 1100 workers,
CHCA is now the largest worker co-op in the United States.
In 2000, Pathways also created Independence Care System, an
$80 million nonprofit that coordinates the care for
low-income adults with physical disabilities who live in
their homes. And two years ago, Pathways initiated the SKILL
Center, a $2 million nonprofit that trains more than 500
inner-city women each year to become home health aides.
Through its entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to
supporting low-income women to escape poverty, PHI seeks
national, sector-wide change by improving wages, benefits
and working conditions for the entire long-term care
workforce.
Steven Dawson has
helped lead PHI since its inception in 1992. Steven is the
recipient of the National Network of Sector Partner’s 2007
Cindy Marano Trailblazer’s Award for Innovative Leadership,
and has co-authored several national publications on health
care employment issues, published by the Aspen Institute,
including Direct-Care Health Workers: The Unnecessary Crisis
in Long-Term Care, and Sectoral Strategies for Low-Income
Workers.
To learn more
about Pathways to Independence, click
here.
Jane Nichols,
President & CEO
Goodwill of Southern Rivers
Located in
Columbus, GA (about 1.5 hour drive south of Atlanta),
Goodwill of Southern Rivers has built upon Goodwill’s legacy
as a social enterprise and explored new areas of
entrepreneurship. By purchasing a Ben and Jerry’s
franchise, Goodwill of Southern Rivers has created a fun
employment opportunity for area youth and a community
attraction that is a destination for Columbus residents and
families. Jane considers Goodwill to be “a small business
conglomerate” that invests in profitable enterprises that
offer long term substantiality for the employees and the
community.
A 19-year veteran
of Goodwill, Jane P. Nichols became Goodwill Industries of
the Southern Rivers’ President and CEO following a
successful career in senior retail bank management at a
multi-billion dollar financial institution. Her duties
included management of multiple branch locations,
operations, compliance, human resources, cash management,
and acquisitions. Nichols currently serves on the publicly
traded BB&T Bankcard Board of Directors headquartered in
North Carolina and the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce
Board of Directors located in Columbus, Georgia. She is also
the Chair of the Chamber’s Leadership Columbus Committee.
Jane’s formal
education includes a Bachelors in Communications from
Georgia Southern University and a Masters in Management and
Human Resources from Troy University.
To learn more
about the Goodwill of Southern Rivers, click
here.
Ariela Rozman,
Chief Executive Officer
The New Teacher Project
Teacher quality is
the most critical issue in raising achievement in schools.
Thus, by training and preparing teachers for the classroom
and by helping principals and school districts recruit and
retain high-quality teachers, The New Teacher Project has
achieved revolutionary results. Since its inception, the
fee-for-service model of working with school districts has
enabled The New Teacher Project to become financially
self-sufficient. In addition, this model has forced the
organization to be acutely attentive to the needs and
changing demands of the education market. As a result, it
has increased its service offering and expects to double in
revenue in the next five years.
Prior to becoming
CEO in 2007, Ariela Rozman served for four years as Vice
President of Teaching Fellows Programs, TNTP’s largest
business line. Before joining The New Teacher Project,
Ariela led the Online Marketing group for PlanetRx.com,
managing the company's online customer acquisition strategy,
media buying and creative agency relationships, and
partnerships with companies such as AOL, Yahoo! and iVillage.
Prior to joining PlanetRx.com, she worked as Special
Assistant to the CEO at Muresco, a retail and manufacturing
conglomerate in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she was
responsible for rolling out a streamlined organizational
process and developing and implementing the corresponding
learning modules. Ariela has also served as a consultant at
Bain & Co., a leading strategy consulting firm, working with
Fortune 500 companies to improve their growth strategies and
revenue opportunities. She holds a BA in Political and
Social Thought from the University of Virginia.
To learn more
about The New Teacher Project, click
here.
Steve Schwalb,
President & CEO
Pioneer Human Services
Pioneer Human
Services is one of the pre-eminent social enterprise
organizations in the country. With six lines of business,
from manufacturing to catering, and reporting nearly $60MM
in revenue from, Pioneer Human Services is a national model
for the potential of social enterprise. Since its founding
in 1963, revenue generated from its businesses have enabled
the organization to served over 100,000 people through an
integrated array of services including housing, employment,
training, treatment, counseling, and re-entry services.
Steve Schwalb has
served as President and CEO of Pioneer Human Services since
April, 2007. Prior to that, Steve had a 33-year career in
the field of corrections, where he has held numerous
positions, including the Federal Bureau of Prisons’
Assistant Director where he oversaw the education,
vocational training, recreation, parenting, transition
preparation, citizen volunteers and industrial work
programs. He has also served as the COO of Federal Prison
Industries, Inc., overseeing over 100 factories that employ
21,000 inmates and 1,400 staff, and generated $800 million
in annual sales, as well as Associate Superintendent and
Program Manager of Washington State Department of
Corrections and Director of the King County Jail in
Seattle. During his federal career, Steve was appointed by
the President to the Committee for Purchase From People Who
Are Blind or Severely Disabled, and served as chairman for
four of his twelve years on the committee. Steve received
his B.A. degree in Business Administration from the
University of Washington. He and his wife, Susan, are
Seattle natives and have two children, a 32- year old son,
Jason and a 28-year old daughter, Jaime.
To learn more
about Pioneer Human Services, click
here.
Jennifer Vanica,
President & CEO
Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation/Market Creek Plaza
The cornerstone of
the work of the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation (JCNI)
is Market Creek Plaza, a $23.5-million commercial and
cultural center harnessing the economic power of this
community to create social change. The Plaza, built on the
site of an abandoned aerospace factory, was planned,
designed, built, leased and is now owned and operated by
teams of community residents. In 2006, the Plaza recaptured
$34.2 million of $60 million in economic leakage from this
community. Over 80 percent of the Plaza was constructed by
community contractors, and it created 200 new jobs -- 81
percent held by community residents. In 2006, partial
ownership of the Plaza was transferred to the community
through the country’s first Community-Development Initial
Public Offering (CD-IPO) which paved the way for residents
to invest in this significant community asset and benefit
from it over time. The CD-IPO was launched and closed in
five months with participation and investment goals met. In
their first year, investors elected representative
leadership and received what are hoped to be the first of
many dividend checks.
Jennifer’s
experience spans the country, from grassroots organizing and
planning to the development of public-private partnerships
and multi-million dollar campaigns. In her role with the
Jacobs foundations, she oversees a complex network of
mission-related, non- and for-profit companies and a
cross-disciplinary team that covers everything from
community organizing to commercial development. Under
Jennifer’s leadership, the Jacobs foundations have received
several awards for their work. In 1999, the National
Society of Fundraising Executives named the Jacobs
Foundations as Philanthropic Organization of the Year, and
in 2007, they were awarded a Critical Impact Award from the
national Council on Foundations for their bold and
innovative solutions to enhance the public good. Jennifer is
a graduate of Wittenberg University and received the
distinguished Alumni Citation Award in 2003. She is married
and has three sons and two grandchildren.
To learn more
about Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, click
here.
THE COLLABORATORS
Community
Wealth Ventures
As a social
enterprise consulting firm and social enterprise itself,
Community Wealth Ventures accelerates the impact of
high-performing nonprofits organizations by designing and
implementing strategy for launching or growing revenue
generating vehicles. CWV has worked with leaders of more
than 200 innovative organizations – which range from large
national nonprofit organizations to community-based
organizations, through focusing on solutions to issues and
areas critical to the success and growth of social ventures,
including organizational strategy development,
identification and execution of growth strategies,
sustainability, and entrepreneur leadership development.
Recent clients include organizations such as AARP, Alcoa
Foundation, Ben & Jerry’s, Case Foundation, First Book,
Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Johns Hopkins
University, KaBoom!, National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, Neighborworks, Timberland, Volunteers of
America and YWCA of O’ahu.
Social
Enterprise Alliance and the 9th Social Enterprise Summit
The national
association of individuals and organizations building
effective, more sustainable nonprofits through earned income
strategies, SEA has a membership of SEA more than 10,000
individuals and organizations dedicated to social
enterprise. The organization provides a network and forum
for practitioners and consultants, as well as works to
advocate for social enterprise through public policy and
promoting best practices. SEA hosts an annual conference,
the Social Enterprise Summit, at which approximately 600-700
leaders of social enterprises, foundations, educational
institutions and consultants. The 9th Social Enterprise
Summit will be held in Boston, MA from March 9-11, 2008.
To learn more
about SEA, click here.
Visionaries
Visionaries, Inc.
is a nonprofit organization dedicated to using the power of
media to tell stories of the people and organizations making
positive social change throughout the world. Since 1995,
Visionaries, Inc. has been producing the Visionaries
documentary series for public television and recently became
the “preferred producer” of new programming for Starfish
Television Network, a non-profit broadcast channel.
Visionaries, Inc. has received numerous awards including the
2006 Genesis Award for Outstanding PBS Documentary, the 2003
Two Telly Award, the 2001 National Assembly of Health and
Human Service Organizations - Excellence in Media Award and
the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Emmy
Nomination in 2000 for Best Documentary Program,
Mid-Atlantic Region.
To learn more
about Visionaries, click
here.
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