Social entrepreneurship is defined by the University of Oxford Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship as “the practice of combining innovation, resourcefulness and opportunity to address critical social and environmental challenges. Social entrepreneurs focus on transforming systems and practices that are the root causes of poverty, marginalization, environmental deterioration and accompanying loss of human dignity” (Saïd Business School, 2013). Skoll Centre explains further that social entrepreneurship is composed of three main components namely sociality, innovation and market orientation (Saïd Business School, 2013). This means that social entrepreneurship benefits the public through new concepts and ideas that aims to address different social issues across various sectors and markets. Organizations in this field are usually non-profit. One example of an organization which practices social entrepreneurship is the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS).
BBBS is a non-profit organization which was founded by Ernest Coulter, a young New York City court clerk in 1904. Coulter noticed that there was an increasing number of boys going to the courtroom and he knew that there are caring adults who would be willing to help these kids. The movement started out with 39 volunteers who agreed to befriend one boy each. After more than 100 years of operations, Big Brothers Big Sisters presence is no longer confined in America. It now serves more than 270,000 children in13 countries.
The vision of BBBS is for all children to be successful in life. Its mission is to “provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever”. BBBS achieves its mission by partnering with parents/guardians, volunteers, donors and supporters who wish to help change the lives of children facing adversity from ages 6 to 18. Particularly, BBBS helps children achieve educational success by avoiding risky behaviors such as fights, drugs and alcohol. This is done through a one-to-one mentoring where a caring adult mentor is carefully matched with a child facing adversity.
Like any other organization, BBBS has a strategic plan to achieve its goals. Being a non-profit organization, their measure of success is not through profit or the amount of funds that they gather, but rather, through the outcomes of the children whom they help and how these children are able to have a positive impact on their communities. BBBS uses modern business techniques to reach their objectives. They are guided by four strategic pillars which are impact at scale; sustainable resources; intentionality, diversity and inclusion; and leadership and partnership. Their services and support are focused in four areas namely brand enhancement, integrated technology platforms, national partnerships and resource development and specialized services, innovation and high performance.
BBBS aims to attain brand enhancement and be the leader in youth mentoring services by obtaining corporate and marketing partnerships with groups who are equally committed to improving the children’s lives. BBBS plans to launch campaigns through the help of media partners to mobilize citizens to support their cause. Like most organizations today, BBBS uses social media to encourage their supporters to become social media ambassadors and share their involvement with BBBS.
Being an organization which relies on grants and funding from outside sources, BBBS’ strategy is to deploy their fund development and marketing teams to prospects whose objectives are aligned with theirs. They plan to develop and implement an Enterprise Customer Relationship Management (ECRM) system to engage their current and past volunteers.
Another business technique implemented by BBBS is in the use of technology. Their information management system is essential in the data gathering and analysis particularly in the matching of a child to a mentor. The donor and volunteer data base is further enhanced through a more efficient integrated technology system.
The impact of BBBS in the community is difficult to quantify. Through its mentoring program, BBBS has helped children become more confident in their schoolwork performance, relate better with their families and are less likely to use drugs and alcohol. With the support of BBBS, every child now is given the chance to succeed in life.
An organization like the BBBS clearly exemplifies what social entrepreneurship is. It may be a non-profit organization but it does not differentiate them from other business organizations in terms of adopting modern business techniques to assure the realization of its goals and objectives. The major difference is that the gauge for success for this social entrepreneur is not the amount of dollars that come in but rather, it is the number of children that they are able to mold to become responsible citizens of the world.
References
Big Brothers Big Sisters International. (2013). History of BBBS. Retrieved from bbbsi.org: http://www.bbbsi.org/about/historybbbs/
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. (2013). Changing lives for better, forever. Retrieved from bbbs.org: http://www.bbbs.org/site/c.9iILI3NGKhK6F/b.5962349/k.A334/So_many_ways_to_get_started.htm
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. (2013). Changing perspectives. Changing lives. Retrieved from bbbs.org: http://www.bbbs.org/site/c.9iILI3NGKhK6F/b.5962351/k.42EB/We_are_here_to_start_something.htm
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. (2013). Starting something since 1904. Retrieved from bbbs.org: http://www.bbbs.org/site/c.9iILI3NGKhK6F/b.5960955/k.E56C/Starting_something_since_1904.htm
BigBrotherBigSisters.org. (n.d.). Big Brothers Big Sisters strategic plan 2011-2015. Retrieved from bbbs.org: http://www.bbbs.org/atf/cf/%7B8778d05c-7ccb-4dee-9d6e-70f27c016cc9%7D/20120822_STRATPLAN.PDF
Said Business School. (2013). Defining social entrepreneurship. Retrieved from sbs.ox.ac.uk: http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/centres/skoll/about/Pages/whatisse2.aspx
Said Business School. (2013). What is social entrepreneurship? Retrieved from sbs.ox.ac.uk: http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/centres/skoll/about/Pages/whatisse.aspx
