Building High Impact Organizations: Creating Financial Sustainability for Social Enterprises and Nonprofits // BUSINESS 351

Green Breakfast Club + Social Innovators Collective + General Assembly 

Next session meets November 15th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm

This series was produced by Shana Dressler, Co-founder, Social Innovators Collective, and Danielle Lanyard, Founder, Green Breakfast Club

When you set out to create social change, your bottom line is usually the furthest thing from your mind. With programs to develop, policy to influence, and partnerships to forge, it's easy to say, “I'll figure out how to keep our doors open later.”

But what if you could prevent future roadblocks by mastering best practices for your organization's financial sustainability? That's why Green Breakfast Club and the Social Innovators Collective have partnered with General Assembly to provide founders, staff, advisers, and friends of nonprofit and social enterprise organizations with the tools they need to thrive. Our series of interactive workshops will teach you tactics you can put into action the very next day – and continue to benefit from for years.

Content is geared toward anyone contemplating or currently working for a nonprofit organization or social enterprise – entrepreneurs, consultants, city organizers, marketing executives, lawyers, and students will all benefit. Whether you’re in the early stages of planning a new organization or have been putting off thinking about financial sustainability for years, now is the right time to tackle these key issues in a friendly, supportive setting. Your investors will thank you for it.

Our instructors represent decades of experience in social entrepreneurship, design, fundraising, law, and finance. They know what a healthy organization looks like, from the incorporation stage through board expansion. And they'll teach you how to avoid common traps as you work to advance your organization's mission, from the early stages of incorporation through long-term fundraising planning.

STUDENT TAKEAWAYS:

• A detailed roadmap of steps to secure your org's financial sustainability. 
• A new network of social-venture savvy peers committed to similar financial goals. 
• Access to industry leaders who are committed to the financial health of up-and-coming social good organizations. 

SESSION OVERVIEWS:

Week Five / Generate Revenue: Funding Your Social Enterprise or Nonprofit (11/15)

When you’re in startup mode, if you don’t secure funding quickly, you won’t be able to keep your doors open for business – or in our world, do social good! Whether you’re running a social enterprise or a nonprofit you need a solid, strategic plan that maps out where the funds for your operating and program costs are going to come from. This workshop will provide you with exactly that.

Zoravar S. Dhaliwal has an extensive background in finance and holds an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is the co-founder and CEO of Community Lab, a nonprofit based in New York City that partners with the Earth Institute at Columbia University to advise governments and organizations on sustainable international development and foreign direct investment.

Shana Dressler is the co-founder of the Social Innovators Collective, a dynamic, energetic network of emerging founders, leaders and individuals who work in the social enterprise and nonprofit sectors. Since February 2009, she has concentrated on building unique giving communities focused on raising funds and awareness around such issues as human rights, the global water crisis, youth education, women’s leadership, and social entrepreneurship. Through her nonprofit organization, the Global Giving Circle, she created opportunities for people of all income levels to support hybrid grassroots social enterprise and philanthropic initiatives focused on poverty alleviation. 

Green Breakfast Club is a monthly networking event series that provides a forum for growing local green business communities to exchange resources.

The Social Innovators Collective is a dynamic, energetic network of emerging leaders in the social enterprise and nonprofit sectors.
 

Thanks to our outreach partners:

COMPLETED SESSIONS:

Week One / Become Financially Sustainable: A Roadmap and Resources (10/11)

A mountaineer wouldn’t scale Mt. Everest without proper gear and a map, and neither should today’s leader launch a new venture without a clear plan and the resources needed to thrive. This kickoff session will chart out ways in which social entrepreneurs and nonprofit founders can find support at all stages of development.

Danielle Lanyard is a globetrotting serial social entrepreneur. After working in education all over the world, she launched the startups Travelcology and Open Venture Society, and founded Third Rail Ventures, an organization to support and seed startups for social and ecological change. Currently, she runs the Green Breakfast Club and has begun work on E-Wasted, a documentary film project on electronic waste.
 

Week Two / Engage Your Audience: Branding, Design, and Communication (10/25)

Rallying the public around a cause is no easy feat. To build an emotional connection with your audience, your brand needs a strong message, good design, and effective communication. Learn how to apply these tools to your enterprise and create a brand that raises money, sells products, breeds activists, and launches movements.

Deroy Peraza was born in Havana, Cuba. He has a BFA from Parsons the New School of Design and is a founding partner and creative director at Hyperakt. Deroy loves working at the crossroads of social entrepreneurship and design, and relentlessly searches for meaningful challenges. He loves juggling vastly different projects, such as data visualizations, brand identities, website interfaces and inventing products such as LetsSwap.it.

Week Three / Pitch Your Idea: Persuasive Communication (11/1)

Learn how to pitch for both business plan competitions, to individual investors and stakeholders and major donors from a seven-time winner of business plan pitch competitions, Alastair Ong, Co-founder and COO of GreenSoul Shoes. Alastair will guide entrepreneurs seeking funding through an interactive presentation on how to create that winning pitch.  The workshop will systemattically break down the art of the pitch, offering information on the six Ms (mission, model, market, management, marketing, and magic sauce), the 10-20-30 rule, and why the same skills in pitching apply to talking to investors and funders.

NOTE TO NONPROFIT LEADERS: The same strategy and skills covered in this workshop can be applied to effectively secure funding, major donors, and corporate sponsors.

Alastair Ong is a serial entrepreneur, having successfully created, financed, launched, and sold two online technology companies before starting his third company, GreenSoul Shoes. Before starting these ventures, Alastair was an attorney specializing in structured finance at Brown & Wood, LLP, and a litigation associate at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP.