civic entrep.

Dear Sterling Freeman:

There are a number of organizations that promote or provide resource for this
kind of social entrepreneurship. Their web addresses and partial descriptions
from their web sites are below.

Good luck.

www.redf.org
The Roberts Economic Development Fund.
Social Venture Capital Approach to the Support of Social Purpose Enterprise
Development
"The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund, featured in a recent
issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, evolved out
of a six year
effort to expand economic opportunity for homeless
and very
low-income individuals through the creation of
social purpose
business ventures. These businesses, free of
"training" time
limits imposed by traditional government funded
efforts, could
employ individuals for longer periods of time and
were operated by
nonprofits in order to provide transitional and
permanent
employment to individuals outside the economic
mainstream.

In order to support the creation of these social
purpose
businesses, a new funding relationship had to be
developed since
The Roberts Foundation wanted to support both the
business and
organizational development of its investee
organizations.
Therefore, we have evolved a practice of Venture
Philanthropy,
wherein REDF provides access to core capital (in the
form of
operating support "investments") as well as access
to business
technical assistance, an array of program supports
such as
information management, computer and internet
support services
and access to the marketplace. These elements are
brought
together under the infrastructure of The Roberts
Enterprise
Development Fund, which provides multi-year
philanthropic
investments, access to MBA talent through its Farber
Interns
Program and Farber Fellows Program, and access to
the
marketplace through its Partners-for-Profit. Our
current portfolio
consists of nonprofit organizations operating
business ventures
employing very low-income individuals throughout the
greater San
Francisco Bay Area."

www.natlgathering.org
"The National Gathering for Social Entrepreneurs is the only organization that
is exclusively devoted to providing support for nonprofit social entrepreneurs.
More than half of the members are practitioners, the remainder funders,
academics, and for-profit businesses. The nonprofit members include both early
stage entrepreneurs seeking the nuts and bolts knowledge to start and run a
social purpose venture and established social entrepreneurs seeking an
opportunity to exchange ideas with other pioneers of the field. The Gathering
links nonprofit executives who have operated in isolation with an ongoing forum
for addressing the needs and concerns of the social entrepreneur. Pioneer Human
Services and Northwest Center are two prominent Seattle nonprofits that are
active social enterprises and will participate in the Third National Gathering.
The promise of social entrepreneurship Nonprofit organizations have
traditionally relied on three sources of funding: government grants and
contracts; corporate and foundations grants; and individual donors. While these
sources remain essential, over-dependence on them can lead to inflexible,
unreliable finances

Forward-thinking nonprofit leaders have turned to revenue-generating strategies
to overcome the
drawbacks of over-reliance on traditional funding, and to pursue financial
sustainability. By generating all or a share of its revenue with earned
income, a nonprofit can ensure a stable, long-term source of support for its
programs, and ensure that the focus remains fixed on fulfilling its mission."

http://entreworld.org (they also have lot's of info for social entrepreneurs)
"What is EntreWorld? EntreWorld is designed to increase your productivity by
getting you essential information as quickly and easily as possible.
Recognized by USA Today, Forbes, Inc. and Fast Company as a premier online
resource for small business owners, the EntreWorld search engine delivers the
best and most useful information, guidance and contacts for you, the
entrepreneur.

We actively seek out and provide "A+" content -- more than 1,000 articles,
audio clips, tools, databases and even town-to-town small business event
listings -- to put the most essential entrepreneurial resources immediately at
your fingertips. We add to this content dozens of original management articles
written especially for EntreWorld visitors -- candid features from
entrepreneurial icons such as 1-800-FLOWERS ®' Jim McCann, Lillian Vernon, Guy
Kawasaki of Garage.com and other successful business founders.

EntreWorld eliminates the need for you to research and bookmark great Web-based
resources. We do the legwork for you -- centralizing the most important
entrepreneurial resources from the best sites, combining it with our own
top-quality content, and making all the information easy to find.

www.ncced.org
"The National Congress for Community Economic Development (NCCED) is the trade
association and advocate for the community-based development industry. Founded
in 1970, NCCED represents over 3,600 community development corporations (CDCs)
across America. CDCs produce affordable housing and create jobs through
business and commercial development
activities. NCCED services the community development industry through public
policy research and education, special projects, newsletters, publications,
trainings, conferences, and specialized technical assistance. "

www.enterweb.org/communty.htm
"This page lists and rates electronic resources related to community economic
development."




"Freeman, Sterling" wrote:

> Greetings Everyone:
>
> I am part of a statewide leadership program in North Carolina. As part of
> the program I will be doing a project that is related to community economic
> development initiatives. Specfically I want to learn about various models
> of civic entrepreneurship -- that is non-profit entities which engage in
> business practices in order to generate the resources for sustainability.
> If anyone has knowledge of viable sources (videos, books, seminars,
> conferences, etc.) that will help me explore this topic, please let me know.
>
> Thanks for your time and consideration. I am,
>
> With Best Regards,
>
> Sterling
>
> Sterling E. Freeman
> Insurance Officer
> BB&T-Asura
> (919) 281-4550 phone
> (919) 544-4494 fax
> sfreeman@bbandt.com

--
Harold Simon
harold.simon@verizon.net
973-233-1035



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