Prior to Samasource, Janah was a founding Director of  Incentives for Global Health, an initiative to increase R&D spending on diseases of the poor, and a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners (now Booz & Co.). She has also worked at the World Bank and as a travel writer for Let’s Go in Mozambique, Brazil, and Borneo.

Janah was a Visiting Scholar with the Stanford Program on Global Justice and Australian National University’s Center for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. She received a BA from Harvard and lives in San Francisco.

Can you tell us a little bit about Samasource and what inspired you to start it?

I founded Samasource in 2008 to reduce poverty among poor women and youth by giving them dignified work. Inspired by entrepreneurs I had met in Kenya the year before, and by experiences I had as a management consultant working in the global services sector, I engineered the idea of sending microwork — small, web-based tasks like enhancing or verifying data, images, and text –to people who live on less than three dollars a day in poor parts of the world. Samasource employs this workforce in 16 work centers around the world, providing a web platform that we built in-house, training for workers, and a lot of work quality management and feedback. Our team in San Francisco runs sales, international operations, and engineering, and operates much like a typical startup. To date, Samasource has provided work to more than 1,500 people living in India, Haiti, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa and distributed over one million US dollars in worker payments to the field.

I first visited Africa when I was seventeen to volunteer at a school for blind in Ghana. There, I quickly learned that many of the ideas I had about poverty were wrong— I found that people are poor because they are disconnected from global markets.  In Ghana, this was manifested directly in a lack of good, quality jobs available to bright young people.  Most of my students wanted to leave Ghana for no other reason than to find decent work.

I believe that the best societies are the ones that promote the hardest working and brightest people.  After Ghana, I felt that my life’s purpose was to level the playing field for work. I feel that even more strongly now.  I think we have a duty, as people who live in a relatively wealthy country, to free up all of this talent waiting in the wings and ready to participate in the global economy. We have to connect that talent to genuine opportunity.

The idea of Samasource really came together a few years later in 2007 when I was in Kenya on a safari. I got bored vacationing and convinced a local business incubator to connect me to some local entrepreneurs in the emerging tech space in Nairobi. I met almost 50 who were starting small companies that could do data entry, web mining, and other basic tasks. The entrepreneurs told me that their greatest challenge was finding enough contracts for employment.  I asked them how someone like me might be valuable to them. “Go out and find us work. You can sell our services”, they said.

Outsourcing deals are typically won on golf courses and in the boardrooms and bars of big European and American cities. These Kenyan entrepreneurs were totally disconnected from global markets, but willing and able to work.

Can you tell us a story of how the Samasource platform was successfully used?

In 2009, we began building a delivery center in Haiti using low-cost netbooks and satellite connectivity, on the back of our tech platform. Haitians live in a densely populated country (10 million people on an island smaller than Maryland), learn French and English at school, share a time zone with New York, and live a short, cheap flight away from Miami – all this makes them great candidates for digital work. In a region where the chief economic activity is subsistence farming and 80% of the population lives in poverty, the type of work Samasource offers could make a dramatic impact. Fifty-three percent of Haitians are literate. By the most conservative estimate, that leaves about a million people as potential Samasource workers.

When the country was rocked by a massive earthquake on January 12th, 2010, it became clear that Samasource’s work in Haiti would become an important part of the country’s reconstruction, and we moved ahead with great urgency.  Working with a partner on the ground, we maintained Internet connectivity in Mirebalais and provided microwork opportunities to people who had lost their livelihoods. Today, Samasource has trained forty workers in Haiti who now have employment and a growing set of skills. Most importantly, they have hope for the future.

What’s the largest challenge in bringing digital work to rural communities in the developing world?

My vision is that Samasource operates on a business model that benefits both our clients and our workers by offering a qualified distributed pool of labor that is well educated, trained and motivated.  Because we focus on work that requires some measure of expertise and dedication, our biggest challenges are designing the micro tasks smartly and giving people the right and effective training. We stay on top of this by employing a dedicated workforce managed by strong local leaders who provide quality control and extensive training in local work centers.

One challenge to the work that Samasource does is the fact that jobs that could be done by workers here in the US are being outsourced to workers abroad. How do you respond to individuals that challenge Samasource’s mission on those grounds?

Before going to Africa, I started my career in global justice working on educational equity for the ACLU in Inglewood, a neighborhood close to where I went to high school. There are definitely important battles to be fought here in America, and we’re actually in the midst of brainstorming ways to bring Samasource’s model to the US.

In terms of our global work, I would respond by saying that Samasource is not displacing opportunities for Americans, but rather expanding what businesses can do with a limited budget. Minimum wages in the US start at over $5 per hour, but the work we do tend to be lower-skill tasks that don’t make sense to do at that cost – it would put most of our clients out of business. Moving this work to lower-cost locations is the only option for our clients to maintain prices Americans can afford. Most of our clients choose Samasource over other offshore providers, not American workers — given that its already a part of the supply chain, we’re generally competing with large, for-profit outsourcing firms in big cities in India and China. These firms have generated seven billionaires in the last 20 years. These companies don’t recruit marginalized women and youth, and do not guarantee living wages to their workers. Because of their high attrition rates, we also tend to outperform them on quality. So I think what we do is a win-win for American businesses and for poor women and youth who desperately need a chance.

What’s the vision for Samasource for the next 5 years?

To date, we have distributed over one million US dollars in microwork wages since our founding.   We have a global capacity of close to 2000 workers.  Looking to the future, we aim to scale and take work to tens of thousands of workers in the next five years. Once Samasource really takes off, I envision building a family of “Sama” social businesses, all focused on using technology to drive social change.

How can our readers help you push forward your mission?

Readers can support Samasource’s efforts in Haiti and worldwide by giving work or donating through our website. We also accept qualified volunteers for projects that require a minimum commitment of a few hours a week. If you’re interested, please email us at info@samasource.org. You can also follow us on Twitter (@Samasource) and Like us on Facebook (facebook.com/Samasource).

Originally published on Care2. 

Maria Rodale is CEO and Chairman of Rodale Inc., the world’s leading multimedia company focused on health, wellness, and the environment and the largest independent book publisher in the USA. Rodale reaches 70 million people worldwide through brands such as Prevention, Men’s Healthand Organic Gardening; through books including The South Beach Dietand Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth; and through numerous digital properties. She is founding editor of Rodale.com, which features her blog, Maria’s Farm Country Kitchen.

Rodale is the author of Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe, which cuts through the confusion and misinformation to provide an indispensable look at why chemical-free farming unquestionably holds the key to better health for our families and the planet.

She has won numerous awards, including the 2004 National Audubon Society’s “Rachel Carson Award” and the 2007 United Nations Population Fund’s “Award for the Health and Dignity of Women.” She is a board member of Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project and co-chair of the Rodale Institute, a nonprofit that has been dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach to farmers, scientists, and consumers for over sixty years.

You are quoted saying, “If you do one thing to change the world go organic.”  Why do you believe that’s the case?

Organic food is healthier and safer for you and your children and our environment. We now know that toxic chemicals used in the production of our food are contaminating our air, soil, and water and are ultimately poisoning our families.  You do not need chemicals to grow food. We have been misled into thinking that adding chemicals is normal, necessary and that farming without them is somehow strange or impossible. Virtually every food in the world has been successfully and profitably grown organically in modern productive and regenerative ways.

What’s the biggest lesson you learned from your grandfather that has served you well as CEO and Chairman at Rodale?

Courage, patience and persistence. He had the courage to come up with ideas and products that so many people in the establishment laughed at and made fun of him for. But he knew it was the right thing, and due to his persistence and patience, was able to change the world for the better. In 1942 when he launched Organic Gardening magazine, people called him crazy. Now, according to the new study by Thompson Reuters and NPR health, 58% of Americans prefer organic food. It’s taken a long time, but it’s an amazingly wonderful change!

What inspired you to make promoting the benefits of an organic lifestyle your personal mission?

As a mother, an activist, a businesswoman and a vocal friend of the farmer, I’ve seen for myself the benefits of organic — so it’s easy to make it my personal mission. This is an idea that I have grown up with– the same idea that my grandfather started Rodale with over 60 years ago. Now is the time to bring the message to the masses– and science is on our side. A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that toxic chemicals that are being used to grow food are hurting our bodies and our planet.  These chemicals are being passed on to the next generation too. Writing Organic Manifesto, and spending time with the farmers in the field only reaffirmed my pursuit of an organic lifestyle. It’s the right thing to do.

One of the interesting things that is part of the Rodale Family is the Rodale Institute, can you tell us about that and about some of the exciting things coming out of there?

There are so many exciting things going on at the Rodale Institute, and I highly suggest checking out the website to find out what workshops, events, tours and projects we have going on. Recently, we were very excited to open our Water Purification Eco-Center, an on-site bathroom and wastewater treatment system that that captures rainwater and uses it several times before returning it to the soil as clean water. Constructed wetlands are a little-known, yet incredibly efficient way to deal with all those things we flush down our pipes. Less in your face than a composting toilet, this method for sewage treatment cycles nutrients and water through the landscape to create greater fertility, ecological vibrancy, and cleaner groundwater.

We are also spearheading programs to raise funds for causes that powerfully align with Rodale Institute’s goals.  In the U.S., we need to be finding, educating and supporting the next generation of organic farmers, so we are elated to be starting Your 2 Cents, a program that unites producers, consumers, researchers and educators to reach that goal. The program is designed to raise funds to support student scholarships for sustainable agriculture degrees, military veterans establishing careers in organic farming, and new organic farmers while establishing research grants for farmers in the Your 2 Cents network. Our inaugural program partner Uncle Matt’s Organic, a company that offers organic citrus juice and produce, is kicking off support by donating two cents per case good of their organic juice sold to the fund.

What are some concrete actions our readers can do today to help push towards a healthier and greener life?

The first thing people need to know and believe when pursuing a healthier, greener life is that they are NOT powerless– this is the main point I wanted people to take away from my book.  The most powerful thing we can do for the health of our families and our planet is not just to choose organic (though that is very important) – but also to go out and demand organic as well. This can be as simple as a conversation with your local grocer.

If I am shopping for milk or eggs– or anything really– and organic options are not available, I always ask why not?  As consumers we always have the power to vote with our dollars; if we buy factory farmed meat– people will continue to produce it.

A huge piece of this is also education– education of our friends and neighbors, our children and ourselves. We need to arm ourselves to be better, savvier shoppers, and to understand labels and language. Over time, companies can really change language to make it misleading. For example, “conventional” produce should not equate to normal– it means it was grown using chemicals!

Any parting words?

Living an organic lifestyle is fun, rewarding, and can truly be accessible to families of different sizes on varying budgets.  Small steps are key. It can be started just by buying organic beans and grains in bulk, or by selecting just a few organic “no-compromise” items to switch into your diet. But once you start, you won’t want to go back. You’ll be amazed at how your health and happiness change by living organically.

My blog, Maria’s Farm Country Kitchen, is where I work to share the pleasures of simple, delicious organic living. Recipes needn’t be elaborate– but they can incorporate great things you can grow in your own backyard. I am a mom, so I know that the best recipes are often the people-pleasers– and it is a great bonus when they are easy, organic and good for you.

Summer is tomato season, so recently I have been sharing some of my favorite tomato tips and recipes – perfect for last minute entertaining or as a simple snack. A new, instant classic at my house this summer is Tomaquet– Catalan tomato bread. I really recommend giving it a try: Tomaquet recipe, Recipe page

Saba Gul is the Founder and Executive Director of BLISS.

Can you tell us a little bit about BLISS?

BLISS is dedicated to educating girls in Pakistan who are forced by poverty to choose working over attending school. It provides monetary incentives for girls to go to school, immediately making it more financially rewarding than work, while simultaneously providing skills that increase their earning potential in the long term.

Girls participating in BLISS help produce high-quality, trendy handbags to stay in school. The handbags are created as part of a skills class, which is a supplement to conventional curriculum. Girls spend an hour every day learning embroidery and needlework. The embroidered fabric is sent to local producers to be finished into unique handbags that are retailed at high-end boutiques. Profits from the sales are used to compensate existing students, recruit new students and create a sustainable income stream for the community. The more handbags produced and sold, the more students BLISS can educate and train, thus creating a “virtuous cycle.”

Over time, the girls and their mothers will also participate in other parts of our value chain e.g. design and marketing. Early next year, we are launching a business and financial literacy curriculum to provide the tools and training for participants to launch their own handcrafts micro-enterprises.

What inspired you to start it?

I was troubled, time and again, by the vast social disparities prevalent in Pakistan, where I was born and raised. More recently, as a graduate student at MIT, I was struck by the contrast between myself and the millions of Pakistani girls who would never even get a basic education. I heard one story that compelled me to visit the community that BLISS eventually chose as its pilot. This was the story of Azaada Khan. Azaad was a young girl who grew up in 1990s Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and masked herself as a boy for 12 years so she could attend school in a regime under which girls were punishable by law for doing so. When I visited this community, I could not forget what I saw inside the homes—young girls laboring at carpet looms for up to 14 hours every single day to support their families. There was no time for anything else—no play, no socializing but most importantly, no school. These girls and their families had been stuck in a cycle for generations. They were illiterate because they were poor, and they would stay poor because they were illiterate.

I firmly believe that the world cannot escape poverty if it does not harness the potential of the 600 million girls that live in the developing world today. And the first step is sending these girls to school. The problem is too grave to ignore, and what can be achieved if we see our mission to completion is so incredible, that dedicating my life to this cause became a no-brainer for me.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced building BLISS?

Building a world-class team on a shoestring budget!

We’re really early stage—I moved to Pakistan 5 months ago to work on BLISS full-time. We launched our first line of handbags in May. After using up a few small seed grants, we bootstrapped, and now we’re raising capital. Meanwhile, we need to keep building the business, and to do that well, we need a stellar team. Finding capital to pay this team and to sustain our operations until we become cash-flow positive has been one of our big challenges.

You were recently an Unreasonable Institute fellow, what was the most important thing you learned that you’ll take with you as you grow your organization?

Think big. And build to scale from the start.

As Unreasonable Fellows, we got mentorship from world-class entrepreneurs and development practitioners. Among them was Paul Polak, who has had extensive experience working with poor communities. He talked about some basic principles for building a business to scale. For example, outsource parts of your value chain that are not core competencies. An unnecessarily long value chain is a huge impediment when you start replicating your model. Another principle is to not rely on a single revenue stream—this is an important one for us because at the moment we are focused solely on high-fashion handbags, which are part of a much more seasonal market than say, laptop cases or wallets. As we grow, it’s important to both find other sources of revenue and diversify our product line.

Almost all the Unreasonable mentors are at points in their careers where the Fellows, as budding entrepreneurs, want to be one day. They have achieved what we aspire to achieve. And there was a common denominator among all these mentors—they were not afraid to dream big, and to have audacious goals. The Unreasonable fellows all have innovative solutions to pressing social problems, but to make a dent, to become world-changers, they all need to think big. That is the first step to achieving big impact!

Along the way, it’s also vital to build great relationships with co-conspirators. These relationships sustain your dreams, and support your vision. One of the biggest tangible takeaways from the Institute has been the relationships I’ve built this summer—with the other fellows, the Unreasonable team, and the mentors.

Where do you see Bliss in the next five years?

Our ultimate vision is of no girl left behind when it comes to education, of every young girl able to define the course of her own life, and lift herself, her family, and her community out of poverty. 5 years from now, we aim to impact the lives of 10,000 girls. In 5 years, I see BLISS running an efficient business, becoming a brand that people talk about, partnering with top names in fashion and retail, and changing lives in the process. I see our girls and women as successful entrepreneurs on the path to self-sufficiency. Beyond that, we also plan on scaling outside Pakistan—other countries in South Asia such as India and Bangladesh, as well as African nations that suffer from the same social problem that we are tackling in Pakistan.

How can our readers help you push your mission forward?

Volunteer for us! We need help us with a variety of things—among our top 2 needs right now are web development and fundraising.

• Connect us! If you know people who want to mentor us, fund us, carry our handbags (retailers), write about us, please tell us know about them.
• Talk about us! Tell your friends, family, and colleagues our story. You never know who’s in the audience.
• Write to us! We love hearing from people who support our vision.

You can follow BLISS on Twitter @bagsforbliss or Facebook: http://facebook.com/bagsforbliss. 

Originally published on Care2. 

What is the GoodGuide and what inspired you to start it?

GoodGuide provides information about the health, environmental and social performance of products and companies. Our mission is to help consumers make purchasing decisions that reflect their personal values. We believe that better information can transform the marketplace: as more consumers buy better products, retailers and manufacturers will face incentives to make products that are safe, environmentally sustainable and produced using ethical sourcing of raw materials and labor. GoodGuide’s science team – comprised of chemists, toxicologists, nutritionists, sociologists, and lifecycle assessment experts – has rated over 120,000 consumer products on their health, environmental and social performance.

The idea for GoodGuide came about while I was putting sunscreen on my then 3-year-old daughter’s face. I started wondering about the ingredients in her sunscreen, so I went back to campus at UC Berkeley, where I teach, did some research, and found out that the sunscreen contained traces of potentially toxic chemicals. I then researched the rest of my daughter’s stuff and found that her shampoo, her favorite toys, and even her furniture contained ingredients with potential health hazards. This surprised and angered me. I realized that even though I have a Ph.D., and study products and supply chains full-time, I knew almost nothing about the products I was bringing into my own house. This motivated me to create GoodGuide, to give consumers the information they need to make better decisions about which products best match their health, environmental, and ethical concerns.

How do you determine a good or bad product?

GoodGuide’s rating combines product– and company-level information to characterize a product’s health, environmental and social impacts. We rate products and companies on a scale of 0 to 10. A score of 10 means the product or company performs very well relative to other products in a category. A score of 0 means the product or company performs very poorly.

GoodGuide’s rating is compiled from three sub-scores addressing Health, Environment and Society. Each of these sub-scores are based on an analysis of a set of indicators that GoodGuide has determined are the best-available measures of performance in these areas. Our Health score characterizes the potential impact that use of a product may have on a person’s health. Our Environment score characterizes the potential adverse environmental impact associated with the manufacture, sale, use and disposal of a product. Our Social score characterizes the social impact associated with the manufacture and sale of a product.  You can learn more about our ratings methodology at:http://www.goodguide.com/about/ratings

One obstacle in effectively ranking products is ingredient transparency on the part of companies.  Has this been a big challenge to growing the GoodGuide, and what do you think individuals and institutions can do to increase the level of ingredient transparency of companies?

This has been a huge issue for GoodGuide. One of our mid-term goals is to incentivize firms to disclose the critical facts about their products and supply chains that matter most scientifically (from a life-cycle perspective) and that matter most to consumers.

We have actually seen very positive movement in this regard since we first launched. For example, back in the fall of 2008, the companies that produced household chemicals (such as cleaners, laundry detergent, dishwashing soap, etc.) by and large did not disclose the ingredients in their products. In our first rating of this category, we had to create a “transparency score” and we dinged companies that wouldn’t tell their customers what chemicals were actually in their products. After six months of back-and-forth with these companies (they didn’t like being dinged for non-transparency), and great work by a network of NGOs and consumers, virtually all of the major brands now disclose their ingredients “voluntarily” even though it is not required by law. GoodGuide’s users played an important role in motivating companies to be more transparent.

I believe individual consumers absolutely have an opportunity to motivate brands and retailers to be more transparent. Institutional purchasers have an even bigger opportunity – and responsibility – to promote product and supply chain transparency.

If someone were planning to build a consumer product today, what are some basic guiding principles they should consider?

I would think about four or five big issues. First, a product needs to be designed with the full life-cycle impacts of the product in mind – from raw materials used, to manufacturing, to use, to end-of-life. With this life-cycle perspective, a product should be designed to minimize the most important impacts. Companies should focus on the hot spots in their product supply chain, not peripheral issues (that often lead green marketing): avoid toxic chemicals, reduce materials use, make sure a product is recyclable, etc. We also recommend companies design their products and processes for transparency. Consumers increasingly want to know the full story behind a product and supply chain. Finally, I think companies can really benefit from designing in feedback and learning. Companies should include their customers in the product cycle, get them thinking about their impacts, and learn from them.

What’s the vision for GoodGuide?  How can our readers help you push forward your mission?

GoodGuide.com is still in its early days. We see a trajectory — in the not-too-distant future — of fully personalized, localized tools that empower consumers to shop their values whenever and wherever they shop. I believe in the next two to three years, people will be able to walk into any retailer, or land on any e-commerce site, and get instant advice on the products that best match their own values. We see long-term potential to really cut through marketing and advertising to provide consumers with exactly the information they need to make the best possible decisions, and ultimately to not only support a more transparent marketplace, but also a more sustainable one.

Care2 readers are obviously at the forefront of “conscious consumers.” We would love for Care2 readers to try out our website, our mobile apps, and our newest tool – the Transparency Toolbar, and tell us how we can make these tools even more useful and empowering.

Originally published on Care2. 

For those who are not familiar with 826 National, can you tell us a bit about what you do?

826 National is the umbrella organization for a network of eight nonprofit writing, tutoring, and publishing centers. We work with under-served youth, ages 6 to 18, and believe that fun and learning go hand in hand. Each of our 826 chapters offers students opportunities to explore their creativity and improve their writing skills, while operating from behind a unique and quirky storefront— in San Francisco it’s the Pirate Store, in Boston you’ll find the Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Institute, and so on. These whimsical storefronts help bridge the gap between students and the larger community— drawing in volunteers and donors. Here at 826 National our job is to provide our chapters with strategic leadership, administrative support, professional development opportunities, and other resources, so that they can continue to provide free student programming nationwide.

What do you think has been the most important part of 826’s education model thus far that other youth education organizations could adopt?

We have an incredible pool of dedicated volunteers who show up every day in astounding numbers to support our students and staff. Nationwide, we engage over 5,000 individuals from all backgrounds—writers, teachers, artists, and other professions. Whether it’s during after-school tutoring, a workshop, or an in-school projects, students work in small groups with volunteers and often receive one-on-one attention. Having the support of these talented volunteers allows our chapters to focus their attention on student programming. Project-based learning is another important component of 826’s model and a crucial part of helping young people learn. For example, we engage entire classrooms in long-term writing projects, which result in nationally published collections of student work. We believe that one-on-one or small group attention and the consistent publishing of student work are two of the key factors that make our model so successful.

Storytelling is a crucial part to the success of any organization, how does 826 tell its story? How can other organizations better integrate story telling?

826 is certainly full of stories! We often focus on the stories of our students—of their immense and inspiring successes. The stories our students tell, and the effect that sharing those stories has on their lives, helps us describe the mission of the organization and its impact in each of our communities. I think that when organizations focus on the effects of their work for their constituents, they are ahead of the curve. And the more examples or exhibits of their work that can be offered, the better.

I noticed 826 also started a project called ScholarMatch, a service that connects college bound scholars with donors who want to support them. What inspired this idea and why did it make sense to launch the site?

ScholarMatch was started by our co-founder Dave Eggers and inspired by the scholarship program we had developed at our flagship site, 826 Valencia. We could only give out a few scholarships per year, but there were so many other students who needed help funding their college education. ScholarMatch was created to allow students to share their stories and dreams for college online and give donors the opportunity to fund students whose stories resonated with them. We pride ourselves in connecting students with donors and making college possible. We’ve also found that ScholarMatch donors appreciate getting to know and stay connected with the students they help throughout their college careers.

How can our readership help push forward your mission?

Get involved! You can either volunteer at an 826 chapter in your city or help us raise funds. Volunteers and donors are what keep our organization going strong. Or, if readers are more interested in starting their own nonprofit, they should attend one of our 826 National 101 Seminars where we discuss ways to nurture and develop a successful nonprofit.

Originally published on Care2. 

Can you tell us a little bit about what Agora Partnerships does, and what inspired you to start it?

We are a non profit organization that identifies the best investment opportunities to create social impact in Central America and Mexico. Our goal is to build a community of investors and entrepreneurs who want to use business to solve humanity’s toughest problems like extreme poverty, inequality, and climate change. We really believe that to build a more sustainable world we need to find the entrepreneurs operating in very poor areas who have both the values and the management skills to turn a vision for change into reality.

The way we work is to identify the very best small business entrepreneurs defined as having the most potential to create positive impact in the world.  There’s a broad range of backgrounds, one entrepreneur – she makes children’s clothing – got her first loan from a microfinance bank for $100 and now has 50 employees, another – who has created a wooden toy company, used to work on Wall Street. What they have in common is commitment to practicing a better, more sustainable kind of business focused on profits, planet and people.

Our job is to accelerate their impact and we do this by giving them leadership training, building a community around them, helping them learn the language of venture capital, and then connecting them to mentors, supporters, and investors. When they get capital and grow, they create social impact more efficiently than any other kind of program because they are a profitable business.

When I was younger I launched a miniature golf course in Puebla, Mexico. It is still running today and it taught me that the best way to fight poverty in the developing world is through entrepreneurship and innovation. One of our employees, Maribel, is a single mom and she got a government loan that allowed her to buy her own apartment – which to her symbolized independence. When I saw the impact on her life, how critical a job in the formal economy is,  I realized I was making more of a difference in the world with the Minigolf course than at my day job at the White House Budget Office, so I quit to go back to school and start Agora. We have an equation that informs our work: human potential + capital = impact.  We need to level the playing field for entrepreneurs who believe in sustainable capitalism. Doing so gives you the best bang for your buck in fighting global poverty.

Can you tell us about one of the entrepreneurs you have invested in and how things have changed for them.

I love Maria Pacheco from Guatemala. She runs an incredible company called Kiej de los Bosques that through its Wakami brand is transforming the tired handicrafts market into something really exciting. She is passionate about giving rural Guatemalan women a chance to access global markets. She does this through Wakami’s products which are imbued with strong stories about how we are all connected together. I can’t think of a company that is more dedicated to their producers than Maria’s. Fifty percent of Guatemalan children are malnourished so Wakami measures the height and weight of the kids of their producers to track impact and ensure the income they help generate translates into real impact. We helped them with their finances and connected them with a number of investors who are getting ready to invest.

Maybe more importantly, we’ve created a community so people like Maria don’t have to feel alone. She was just at the SoCap conference in San Francisco and she was the only non-American to be selected to speak on the main stage. Her pitch was incredible and left the room breathless. People like Maria who have the commitment and drive to make a difference need to be surfaced and supported. That’s what motivates our work.

How do you select who is accepted into the program?

We look at the person, the business model and social impact, in that order. The person is by far the most important thing we look for. Without an ethical, passionate, committed entrepreneur, nothing else really matters. We want people who are fired up to make a big difference in their communities, and maybe the world, and who have vision and maturity to build teams and grow a business. What they need is access to opportunity.  We look at the business model with an investor’s eye – if it makes no business sense, no matter the potential impact, we can’t support it. It needs to be viable.  A good business idea that serves a real need is key. Third, we look at social impact. A great entrepreneur with a good idea that creates clear social impact and that harnesses market forces – that’s a winner for us.

Agora was founded on the principle that  “untapped human potential is the greatest resource for creating a better world” What things do you believe are needed to help unleash that latent potential?

Our experience is there are 3 key factors that help unleash potential. The first is access to human capital, to mentors, to knowledge, to business acumen. The second is access to social capital: networks of trust, visibility, and access to people like care2 readers who believe in supporting entrepreneurs from very poor parts of the world who are doing their part to build a better world. And finally, access to financial capital is obviously critical. These entrepreneurs need investors who believe in them and who want their money to create impact. They especially need early stage investors who are willing to take risk and who realize that investing in good entrepreneurs could create more impact than a charitable donation.  Typically, early stage entrepreneurs need all three types of capital to succeed.

How can our general readership push forward your mission?

Well, we are trying to bring the values of a community like Care2 to the poorest communities in our hemisphere outside of Haiti. You can help us by just getting informed about the power of start-ups to create jobs and provide products like bamboo housing or solar lights that people really need. You can check out our blog and Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. Learn about the entrepreneurs and give us feedback if you think they are really improving the world through their business.

The world of impact investing is still very small and we need more people to realize there is no better way to make a difference in global poverty than to invest your time, networks, or money to help an entrepreneur build a good, viable business in a very poor community. It’s simply the best bang for your buck out there.

Finally, we are looking to find mentors, donors, investors, and others who want to engage with us to build a sustainable capital movement that crosses borders. Applications are also open for the next Accelerator class and we’d love you readers to forward the announcement (in English or Spanish) to their networks to make sure this opportunity reaches the most people in the region.

Originally published on Care2. 

Can you tell us a little bit about what Krochet Kids does, and what inspired you to start it?

Krochet Kids intl. is a cause-driven accessories brand that is working to eradicate poverty through sustainable economic development programs and unique, one-of-a-kind products. We are currently working in Northern Uganda and Peru to fulfill our mission statement – to empower people to rise above poverty.  Our work was inspired by our desire to see people living in developing nations empowered and their dignity restored, while utilizing this odd skill that had, crocheting.

Why did you guys decide to be a non-profit?

From the very inception of this idea we wanted it to be clear what our intentions were, which were to care for and make an impact in impoverished communities around the globe.  To this day, our bottom line is not in the profit we generate but in the successes of our beneficiaries and how they are learning and caring for their families.  We wanted to be transparent in such a way that would instill confidence in our supporters and those that wanted to purchase our products.

Can you tell us about the programs you have on the ground in Uganda?

The programs that we have in Uganda, and those that we are starting in Peru, are built upon a model of “holistic care”.  That is to say, we provide opportunities for our beneficiaries to grow and enrich their lives in every way.  It starts first and foremost with a fair and consistent income earned through their work creating products.  For many of them this is the first consistent income they have ever had.  The goals for our program go far beyond a job and incorporate tools and resources for them to truly be empowered.  We have a team of mentors (1 mentor has a group of 20 beneficiaries) who oversee and direct education on a variety of topics to help the ladies understand ways to use their income and plan for the future.  Ultimately, the mentors help the women plan for future careers and jobs that they can hold completely sovereign of Krochet Kids intl. that our locally sustainable within their economy.  Our program is to last 3–5 years to facilitate this process and each women’s individual empowerment and longterm livelihood.

What’s the biggest challenge in running Krochet Kids?

We started the organization while we were in college, so aside from other small entrepreneurial endeavors like a snow shoveling business, we are learning a lot as we go.  We are faced with the challenges of growing our organization in a smart and focused way on all fronts, including not only the business of selling hats, but the balance between scaling our operations while holistically caring for every individual that is a part of our programs in Uganda in Peru.  We are fortunate to have trusted staff and knowledgeable advisors — here at home and abroad — that have helped guide us along the way.  Yet we are committed to being a learning organization.

How did the partnership with Volcom come about and what have you learned that other non profits can adapt to their partnerships with bigger corporations?

As a brand we have always made an effort to set ourselves up to partner and collaborate with people we respect in order to push forward and involve others in making a true impact on developing nations.  We became friends with the staff at Volcom and were able to create a fun partnership that does exactly that.  I think one of the biggest things we have learned as a non-profit is how much we have to offer.  It’s easy for us, as non-profits, to think we have little to offer, but this is a lie.  The intentionality and authenticity that happens within our work is something that corporations really want to be a part of, or can have a hard time doing on their own.  Know that you are valuable and have much to offer.

How can our general readership help you push forward your mission?

“Buy a hat. Change a life.”  That’s the most direct way for people to get involved and help spread the story of our work.  Moreover, if you own one of our hats you can go online and thank the lady that made it at http://www.krochetkids.org/projects/ladies/.  In this way you can not only support our work, but you can directly encourage the woman who made it.  Words are powerful, and let us not forget that.  You can also check out this video that showcases the ceremony we had at our compound in Northern Uganda, where we presented the THANK YOU notes you all have written to the lady that made your hat.

Originally published on Care2. 

Josh Nesbit is the Co-Founder and CEO of Medic Mobile.

Can you tell us a little bit about Medic Mobile and what inspired you to start it?

When I met Dickson Mtanga in rural Malawi in 2007, he was walking 35 miles to a hospital every week to hand-deliver updates on patients living with HIV in his village. As a community health worker, he had received some training and was responsible for caring for his community. He was committed to his work, but the reality was that he was disconnected from the hospital and its resources.

This is where we started our work in 2008 — at St. Gabriel’s Hospital in Malawi, where patients were walking or oxcarting 60 miles or more to access doctors. Dickson and 100 of his fellow community health workers used mobile phones and simple text messaging to connect to the hospital; they tracked new symptoms and doubled the number of patients being treated for tuberculosis in just six months. They also saved thousands of hours of travel and work time, and the hospital began responding to emergencies.

Medic Mobile is a nonprofit technology company that creates connected and coordinated health systems that save more lives. We’ve created a number of mobile technologies that health workers and patients need, including easy-to-use medical record systems and mobile SIM applications. We now work with more than 30 partners in 15 countries to improve how healthcare is delivered in extremely low-resource settings.

Can you give us an example of how your mobile technology tools are being used in low resource areas?

We used text messaging for emergency response at a much greater scale during the 4636 project after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Working with a number of partners, we set up a text message system allowing anyone in Haiti to text in their need and location. Every message was mapped, translated, and turned into a report for first responders and aid organizations on the ground.

What other organizations or ideas in health technology for global development excite you the most?

There’s a lot to be excited about. Global Cycle Solutions and ToughStuff are innovating quickly in the energy space, creating low-cost solar panels and bicycle chargers… access to power is crucial.

I also think that low-cost diagnostics have a lot of potential — the LUCAS imaging technique being developed at UCLA is set to revolutionize testing for HIV, TB, CD4, and more. Diagnostic lab-in-backpacks from the Beyond Traditional Borders team at Rice University package multiple innovations, which is a badly needed approach.

How can our readers help you push forward your mission?

Hope Phones is a great way to engage your family, community, or company and contribute to global health efforts. If you do donate or start a drive, we’d love to hear from you in the comments here, on Facebook, or via Twitter!

Originally posted on Care2.

Originally posted on Care2.