Pitching Social Innovations

As many of you may know, DSVP is celebrating our ten year anniversary next year. We have already begun planning the celebration with an event that will blow your minds. As part of the planning, we have researched an array of socially impactful experiences to consider for our celebration. What we have loved, is the idea of a pitch event.

Pitch events are a known experience in the world of venture capital. You get a room full of investors to listen to a handful of entrepreneurs pitch their idea or business model. The value for the investor is getting exposed to a broad array ideas of which they might consider investing. The value for the entrepreneur is to pitch to a room full of potential investors and make new connections. (Think Shark Tank)

Now consider applying this to the world of nonprofits. Get a room full of social investors (donors, foundations, and corporate philanthropists) and pre-select and prepare a group of nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas, programs and organizations. This is exactly what took place at the recent Social Innovation Fast Pitch, co-hosted by Los Angelos Social Venture Partners, the Social Enterprise Institute and the University of Southern California.

After a six weeks of preparation and coaching, ten nonprofit organizations took the stage for three minute pitches without visual aids. That's right, NO Powerpoints! They were not only competing for $20,000 worth of award money, they were pitching to be seen and heard among a community of social impact investors. To see the list of presenters and winners click here.

DSVP will bring the fast pitch experience to North Texas with our big event in 2010. (think big BANG!) It is a refreshing take on the traditional grant writing approach to fundraising. Although it might not be a replacement, it certainly enhances community awareness of missions and puts the leaders to the test to present their mission, vision and needs!

Learn more by listening to the Maximizing Social Impact Podcast: Social Innovation Fast Pitch

Triple Bottom Line = offers new value to share/stake holders

It was clear throughout the SOCAP09 Conference that not only are new business models and financial tools emerging to achieve social impact, but there are also disruptive innovations and creative destruction of the existing business models. There was much talk of real value in the triple bottom line model. This is where a business measures social impact and environmental impact alongside profits.

Customers are now looking at how a company manages ALL levels of their business and supply chain. Sustainable business now provides a strategy on how to last for the long term. Consumers have a greater demand and expectation for companies to be transparent in their social and environmental impact. And, consumers have more tools (social media in particular) at their disposal to organize and communicate their happiness and disappointment. A new generation of social action is emerging with the use of these tools, that work to influence the behaviors of businesses towards this new way of thinking...check out Carrot Mob.

Customer dissatisfaction is best dealt with in an honest and transparent way. Corporations who show a willingness to address any issues that may have social or environmental consequences in an honest and open way, are more likely to retain their customers and gain their trust.

But more importantly, corporations who operate at a large scale both nationally and globally have the opportunity to create greater positive social impact with just a tweak of their supply chain or business model. And this is the real opportunity for the social sector to explore.

Storytelling as Strategic Communications

This morning, I have the opportunity to teach a class on Storytelling at the Center for Nonprofit Mangaement. DSVP began our storytelling initiative in 2008 to capture the stories and build the communications content for a social media campaign. (See homepage for links to twitter, facebook, linkedin, and this blog) As a small nonprofit with 2.5 staff members (.5 is really a whole person who works part-time), we had a shoestring budget and very limited time to commit to our marketing and communication efforts.

The primary focus was to engage our stakeholders in meaningful conversations about our work and the value we bring to the community. In the process, we have captured 13 stories from 31 interviews; produced over 500 photographs, gleaned 40 useable quotes, and helped attract a variety of traditional media coverage. The impact it has had on all of our printed and social media work is exponetial as we slice and dice that content.

In today's class, I intend to talk about approaching storytelling beyond the traditional elements of storytelling strategy, i.e. protagonist/conflict/emotional hook. I get worn out on the "emotional hook" angle of nonprofit storytelling. While appropriate and compelling to some of your stakeholders, others need a differnt "impact hook". We will explore stakeholder personas and motivations and how to let them communicate your mission's value.

Storytelling as Reinforcement of Mission - Slide Presentation

Storytelling as Reinforcement of Mission

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