Some of the following terms are used across this site and this page hopes to provide a background that will help readers engage with the material:
Innovation – The act or process of inventing or introducing something new. Leveraging insights into consumer needs to develop fresh thinking and unique solutions that create meaningful distinctions in brands, products and services, and enhances the consumer/end user’s experience. [source]
Venture Capital – Money used to support new or unusual business ventures that exhibit above-average growth rates, significant potential for market expansion and are in need of additional financing to sustain growth or further research and development; equity or venture financing traditionally provided at the commercialization stage, increasingly available prior to commercialization. [source]
Global Poverty – United Nations: Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation. [source]
Social Enterprise – A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in human and environmental well-being, rather than maximising profits for external shareholders. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit, and may take the form of a co-operative, mutual organization, a social business, or a charity organization. [source]
Social Entrepreneurship – Social entrepreneurship is a broad and diverse practical social change movement that deploys innovative business skills and technologies to address the needs of those living in poverty. Social entrepreneurs are people or organizations that use economic and technological innovation to achieve social goals. They use entrepreneurial skills to create organizations that, instead of seeking profit, pursue a more just and humane society. Social entrepreneurship addresses essential human needs of the poor, such as those described by the UN Millennium Development Goals. [source]
Non-profit Organization – A not for profit organization is a type of organization that does not earn profits for its owners. All of the money earned by or donated to a not for profit organization is used in pursuing the organization’s objectives. Typically not for profit organizations are charities or other types of public service organizations. [source]
Human development is a concept within the scope of the study of the human condition, specifically international development, relating to international and economic development. This concept of a broader human development was first laid out by Amartya Sen, a 1998 Nobel laureate, and expanded upon by Martha Nussbaum, Sabina Alkire, Ingrid Robeyns, and others.[1] Human development encompasses more than just the rise or fall of national incomes. Development is thus about expanding the choices people have, to lead lives that they value, and improving the human condition so that people have the chance to lead full lives.[2] Thus, human development is about much more than economic growth, which is only a means of enlarging people’s choices. [source]
Impact, impact potential – Impact may be demonstrated by behavior, infrastructure and/or policy change in social and/or environmental issues. Broadly, behavior change includes changes in the awareness and behavior of key actors, including the general public, companies, funders, beneficiaries, etc. Infrastructure change deals with systems or market changes. Policy change relates to government (regional, national, international) and regulatory policies. [source]
Scale up, replicate – To replicate or scale up a program is to significantly increase its impact in size, amount or extent. Scaling an impact can occur in many ways, including growing an organization’s own capacity, developing independent affiliates or franchises, encouraging widespread adoption of the model by others or creating strategic partnerships that enable greater reach. [source]
Sustainability – Sustainability for a social entrepreneurial organization is the ability to achieve and sustain impact for as long as the intervention is needed. Factors that contribute to long-term sustainability include:
- Leveraging a broad array of resources over time and applying them in the most effective way
- Building the governance and staffing capacity necessary to create and maintain a strong management structure, high-quality partnerships, skill in communicating its model and the ability to evaluate and measure change
- Achieving large-scale impact through elimination of the root cause of the problem and/or widespread acceptance of an innovation and replication by others. [source]
TechnoCapital 