Forbes has just published a list of eight Crowdfunding Sites for Social Entrepreneurs.
Most sites on the list are available only to charities registered in the US.
It would be interesting to complement this list with European alternatives. So please let me know what you come up with. Any suggestions will be posted here.
An interesting half year option to study Social Entrepreneurship is offered by Malmö University. This 30 ECTS Master course runs each Spring (Jan-June) and aims to develop practical skills within the field of Social Entrepreneurship. The course is open to students from various backgrounds seeking to develop skills in leadership and organisation within the field of Social Entrepreneurship. For more information contact fredrik.bjork@mah.se.
One of Denmark's foremost Social Entrepreneurs, Thorkil Sonne, has received the 2012 Social Entrepreneur award from the Schwab Foundation for his launching of Specialisterne, an organisation specialized in software testing. What makes his company special is that most of its employees are diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. While people suffering from autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are typically seen as a burden by most employers Specialisterne welcomes them with open arms. For Specialisterne’s area of expertise they are actually more suited than anyone else, since its services involve tasks that are monotonous, repetitive and require great accuracy in all steps involved. Characteristics that fit perfectly the unique set of competences people with Asperger bring to the table.
At the start of every semester the CBS students studying our elective J28 "Business Plan Writing for Social Enterprises" are asked to raise funds for a social purpose as their first assignment. They have only 7 days to select a cause, develop a campaign idea, implement it, and transfer the funds to the beneficiary. This year's best team did not just raise more funds than last year's best team, they actually singlehandedly raised more money than all 2011 teams together. 8200 DKK will go towards Reden (the "nest") a private institution helping abused women working in prostitution.
CBS Responsibility Day is the first day of lectures at CBS for 2700 first year Bachelor Students. This year's case will focus on Danish sports brand hummel and its Karma United Campaign which includes a partnership with Play31. In 2010, hummel began sponsoring Sierra Leone’s national team and initiated a project to build children’s football schools there. In cooperation with the Danish organization Play31, community tournaments are organized in all provinces in Sierra Leone.
During tournaments, staff of Play31 talk with victims and former rebel soldiers to try to heal the wounds from the civil war, memories of which are still vivid in the minds of many, and teach them about human rights and other issues. Each year, the tournaments reach about 100,000 people.
Today CEMS has launched its Interfaculty Group in Social Entrepreneurship. The Kick-off meeting was held on the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) campus. It was attended by Franchesco Perrini from Bocconi, Alfred Vernis from ESADE, Li-Choy Chong from the University St.Gallen, Clémence Patureau from HEC Paris, as well as Kai Hockerts and Ester Barinaga from CBS. The group, which is open to faculty from all CEMS Member Schools, plans to arrange CEMS block seminars and CEMS PHD courses as well as joint research efforts.
A 5-year research project in Social Entrepreneurship has just received funding from the Belgian Science Policy Office. The project which will start in October 2012 will launch a partnership between four Belgian universities on the topic of “Building interdisciplinary and integrated knowledge on Social Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise”. The undertaking aims at five important issues relating to social entrepreneurship: a supply-side theory of social innovation, finance and performance measurement, HR management, governance, and public policy. CBS is proud to be one of four universities included in the project as an international partner.
The project is lead by
Jacques Defourny from the Centre d’Economie Sociale (Université de Liège) and
MartheNyssens from the Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche Travail, Etat et Société (Université Catholique de Louvain Research Unit: Centre).
