social entrepreneur | AffectiveAction

Splurge on promoting immense real impact by one of the coolest companies I have encountered. I had the honor of serving as a business advisor at a speed-pitching event by the 2012 Tech Museum Tech Award Laureates. (More on this prestigious Silicon Valley award program below.) There I met Sanga Moses, CEO of Eco-Fuel Africa. He is an inspiring and experienced young social entrepreneur whose company has a validated model for doing all of the following simultaneously:

Reduce deforestation (in Uganda which is already 70% deforested!) & contributes to re-forestation
Turn farm waste into safe fuel and fertilizer — reducing peoples costs as well as the serious health impacts of other fuels
Provide men and women with their own businesses as manufacturers and distributors of those products
Enable children to go to school instead of searching for wood

That is a lot of impact! More on the business model that creates all these benefits can be found below.

The Eco-Fuel Business Model

Learn more about Eco-Fuel Africa social venture from their website (Click here) or from a YouTube video (click here).

How You Can be a Part Through Funding

Until December 12 you can use your phone to help fund Eco-Fuel toward sef-sufficiency or fund other Tech Museum Laureates.

Pledging instructions for funding Eco-Fuel (Pledge now through December 12, 2012)

Text 41444
Enter tech [space] pledge amount [space] fuel

For info on how to fund other Laureates by phone through the Tech Museum between now and Dec 12: Click here.

Tech Awards information:

“The Tech Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.” This year’s categories were:

Environment
Education
Young Innovator
Health
Economic Development
Sustainable Energy

This is an invitation to be inspired and perhaps help change the world. Are you familiar with Social Entrepreneurship? Here is a glimpse into this uplifting and fast-growing part of the business world and two specific actors worth knowing.

On August 23 twenty international social ventures will present their plans to investors and interested members of the community in Silicon Valley. Please read the information below and contact me if you are interested in attending.

WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?

For over ten years Santa Clara University has run an international Social Venture incubator. They get over 200 applicants annually from which they choose 20 to participate in the program. The successful candidates are companies that have proven their model and are ready to scale up. Those 20 companies engage in a rigorous 5 month program of business planning exercises culminating in 2 weeks of on site instruction and workshops at the University in August. In other words, the University brings critical help to the companies that seem ready and capable of having a big significant impact on their region or the world. Faculty, staff, and a band of Silicon Valley executives coach the entrepreneurs through learning and planning that has proven to increase their success as they scale.

What is a Social Venture? It is a for-profit company that has a social good as its main mission. Often, these companies focus on serving the bottom of the pyramid (BOP). Read More →