Corporate social responsibility

Kazi Corps will strategically consider the following as it opens its doors to its first applicants:

Financial Sustainability: Like any start-up program, the first year will be the most challenging to acquire funding. To ensure sustainability, CDS will collaborate with its network of corporate and donor partners to obtain matching funds and fulfill Kazi Corps’ budgetary needs. Additionally, CDS has also already isolated significant in-kind support to reduce overall costs, and will continue to do so in the coming months. Once the project has been initiated, CDS will design a robust plan for future fundraising and sustainability within the first quarter of the project.

Corporate Volunteers: CDS will face the logistical challenge of guaranteeing a steady flow of corporate volunteers to provide the Job Prep Seminars and mentoring to applicants. To mitigate any impacts, CDS will leverage its strong relationships with its partner companies to develop a vast network of local and international volunteers that can be called upon and mobilized quickly. CDS will also utilize technological resources available for e-mentoring from corporate volunteers overseas.

Stable Commitment from Businesses: Business and economic cycles in Nairobi could eventually factor into the success rate of Kazi Corps. To ensure consistency in the hiring rate of Kazi Corps graduates and alumni, CDS will work to convince companies of the economic, social, and political benefits of participation in the program, while seeking to acquire long-term, signed commitments from Nairobi-based companies.

Partner NGO:
CDS has partnered with the Kenyan NGO Initiative for Community Action (ICA), to provide significant programmatic, developmental, and financial support to Kazi Corps. Founded and run by Kenyans, ICA is a youth-focused NGO based in Kibera that provides support and resources to inform, educate, and empower youth. Well-positioned to perform youth-focused role modeling activities, and armed with a strong network of Kiberan youth, ICA has agreed to market and recruit for Kazi Corps, as well as provide significant in-kind resources, including use of its resource center and offices (detailed below).

Partner companies:
Thus far, two companies in Nairobi—Juhudi Kilomo and Makao Mashinani—have agreed to hire graduates of the Kazi Corps Job Prep Seminars program in their internship program, as well as provide employee volunteers and use of office space for Job Prep Seminars (see “project support” below).

CDS will continue to recruit for participation from for-profit companies, starting by leveraging relationships with its current partner companies located in Nairobi—IBM, Pfizer, Deloitte, Novartis, and FedEx—to receive in-kind support through local and international volunteer labor, financial contributions, and product donations.

Networks:
CDS will maximize its relationship with fellow members of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs—all companies or NGOs focused on social enterprise—including grant-making organizations in Nairobi, such as The Rockefeller Foundation.

Currently, Kazi Corps enjoys expressed support from a variety of NGOs and businesses in Kenya. These organizations have committed to providing in-kind support that will significantly defray overall costs. These include:

Center for Career Development: the Initiative for Community Action (ICA) has agreed to host Kazi Corps’ Center for Career Development (CCD) in its Resource Center. Currently, ICA’s Resource Center is equipped with 5 fully-functioning computers, internet access, and a community space, which will allow Kazi Corps to offer its CCD services to youth in Kibera wishing to learn job skills and knowledge.

Marketing and Recruitment: ICA has also offered to lead the marketing and recruitment components of Kazi Corps, for which it will draw upon its vast network of youth in Kibera.

Community Volunteers: ICA’s network of community volunteers will be employed to help run the CCD and provide one-on-one mentorship to youth.

Training Locations: Businesses in Nairobi will provide space in their offices for use in providing trainings to Kazi Corps classes.

Business Volunteers: Nairobi-based businesses will also encourage their employees to volunteer with Kazi Corps. Corporate volunteers will be primarily responsible leading individual Job Prep Seminars.

CDS also plans to leverage its current relationships with foundations, individuals, and companies to acquire the necessary financial support that will allow it to operate at full financial capacity. Based on past fundraising successes, CDS expects it can raise the needed funds with relative ease.

Así como los Icomundos 2.5D son innovadores esto puede retrasar un poco la adquisición del servicio y esto nos perjudica económicamente a los socios por lo tanto es importante contar con una sostenibilidad financiera constante, el premio en caso de ganarlo es para invertirlo en ello, sin embargo Icom Studio cuenta con 7 líneas de mercado publicitario, tenemos la capacidad para diseñar y desarrollar videos institucionales, imagen y multimedias corporativas, páginas web, ilustración digital, retoque fotográfico, litografía comercial, modelado y animación 3D. Por medio de la venta de estas piezas graficas generamos un sostenimiento momentáneo, pero realmente nuestro enfoque esta en nuestro servicio estrella los Icomundos 2.5D que genera una mayor rentabilidad.

Contamos con una alianza estrategica ya mencionada y es la Camara de Comercio de Bogotá que nos brinda muchos beneficios y estar aliados con ellos potencializa nuestros esfuerzos, aparte de ellos pueden surgir algunas empresas con las que esporádicamente nos aliamos para el desarrollo de algunas piezas visuales pero principalmente con la CCB de Bogotá.

Cuando empezamos recibimos apoyo financiero por medio de préstamos de nuestras familias, con el tiempo el principal sustento de los Icomundos 2.5D es el comercial, tiene un valor y venderlo a la Universidad Minuto de Dios capitalizo temporalmente la empresa, de igual manera con otros servicios que ofrecemos a diferentes clientes hemos logrado una sustentación económica temporal, la idea es que nuestra herramienta se sostenga sola y sea lo suficientemente rentable, para ello estamos abriendo mas mercado en el sector educativo y paralelamente en otros segmentos de mercado.

Risk factors to execution
• Market Risk - While there are no direct competitors, Competition maybe expected from established players in the e-Commerce, internet, media and marketing space, directory services, gifting companies and other social development enterprises.
• Business Model risks - Our participation in the social services arena presents unique risks of unrealistic expectations and perceptions. There is no legal distinction of Social enterprises in India unlike the B Corporation of USA, and a balance of the triple bottomline in such an environment can be extremely difficult to maintain. Also integrity of purpose is constantly subjected to scrutiny prior to any engagement from the social development sector, corporate organisations and microentrepreneurs as well.
• Technology risks - Improvements in search engine technology that seeks to aggressively address consumer’s local and specific needs. Investment in appropriate technology would have a direct bearing as an alternative method of marketing and outreach for members and partners.
• Financial Risks – Revenues and operating results are difficult to predict and may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter as a result of a variety of factors.
• Operational Risks - As in any startup human resource recruitment and retention is a major challenge and risk for continuity and IP protection. Administrative overheads in terms of effort and money add to the pressures on the bottomline.

Idobro is aware of the issues associated with low entry barrier ventures. We plan to mitigate the risks through a highly differentiated brand positioning based on specific value proposition for each stakeholder, innovative product features and functional services. People-friendly policies and practices, Market intelligence, Operational efficiency, Technology and first mover advantage will help build a strong base of loyal members and positive relationships within the community.

Idobro is associated with corporate houses for events and employee engagement, that include Vodafone, J&J, TCS, Airtel, VFS, Tata Teleservices, Voltas, Godrej, Aditya Birla, A.C.Nielson, Kotak Securities. Idobro has been allied with conferences such as The Cherie Blair WMBC, Tata-Tie Stree Shakti, Women Leaders in India, TiE E-Summit, Mumbai Footprints, International Congress on Home Science (ARAHE 09), ICCC and Kalaghoda Festival among others. We are currently linked with premier institutes such as IIM, NMIMS, NITIE, MDI, MET, CIMR, TIMSR, IIPM and SNDT for events, interns and volunteers.

Idobro has worked with the National Trust (Apex government body for the differently abled), CBOs such as International Resources for Fairer Trade, Marico Innovation Foundation, India Development Marketplace, and has been exploring potential associations with the Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME ) Directorate, Development Commissioner (Government of Maharastra),

Idobro also has a content partnership with the Afernoon Despatch & Courier, a midday tabloid from the Times of India Group of publication. Articles and news releases are regularly carried by other publications as well.

We are also active with social organizations such as TiE Mumbai, Intellecap, Unltd India, AIESEC and government departments of MSME, NSIC etc.

A concrete plan is being into place to train students, women and senior citizens as resellers for member products and services.

Idobro is essentially a social enterprise that promotes economic solutions to social issues. Sustainability is a central theme to all our activities. Therefore it was imperative for our legal status to be one of business enterprise and not a non-profit.

Idobro has not been active in seeking external funds as we would like to grow organically until we have demonstrated proof of concept in multiple settings. However, as we grow we expect operational challenges and hence the need for a partner - the Catalyst Management Services (CMS) Group.

The Catalysts Group houses three organisations – CMS, Swasti and Vrutti, has been contributing to the social development sector since 1994. It is headquartered at Bangalore, India with branch offices in 9 states. The Catalysts Group also works in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines and Africa.

CMS works with a range of stakeholders worldwide: community-based Organisations (CBOs), governments, corporates, multilateral, bilateral funding agencies. The Group has over 16 years of experience in development research, consulting, capacity building needs assessment and training, action research, and program implementation in the specific domains of Livelihoods and Health. Their grassroots experience perfectly complements the last mile market linkage services that Idobro provides for end-to-end solutions. The strategic partnership will also provide us with ready infrastructure nationally and enable us to jumpstart expansion plans. An equity investment of $20000 was made at the time of the agreement.

Funding: we are today dependent on project funding, typically of 80% project value, requiring us to fund the remaining 20% from other sources. We need also to build up additional capacity to support the new partners, and add human resources to our organization. Unless we are successful in procuring adequate funding we are restricted in realizing the potential in our concept. We are therefore looking for strategic funding partners within the philanthropic and corporate sectors to allow us to rapidly scale and ramp up our licensees to achieve sustainability.

Scaling strategy: we need to manage the risks in expanding in scaling globally by successfully adapting our model in number of larger international markets before settling on the right and most efficient global scaling strategy. We need to optimize the model in our initial markets and develop best practices for accelerated global scaling, possibly by ”open sourcing” the entire model (making all our knowledge available for free to everyone wishing to join our community), and offering consulting, support and certification services for the planning and operations of Specialisterne-businesses.

Acceptance of Specialisterne-entities as new entrants in the market: We need stakeholders across societies to join as partners in supporting and growing the acceptance of the Specialisterne concept, and helping us to remove the barriers that exist amongst authorities and corporations to buy services from new market entrants such as local Specialisterne operations.

Specialist People Foundation is currently funded from donations and project grants, but is operating a license based model (flat annual fees and royalty on topline revenue of licensees) whereby we will reach breakeven within five years through a number of licensee partnerships. Grants and donations will however remain critical within a five years horizon as we are ramping up licensees and they are building and scaling their businesses.

We partner with local companies on setting up Specialisterne businesses, who are operating under license from us. Specialisterne is a for-profit model, where each business is locally owned and should achieve break-even within 3-5 years.

We have a corporation with World Autism Organization and are in a process of forming a partnership with Lions Club International.

Foundations provide us with project grants and help us build capacity.
Businesses are essentially the customers of Specialisterne services, but can also elect to support SPF with grants and donations, and may consume future services from us as well e.g. mentoring services for employment of people with ASD in the mainstream workplace.
Regional and National government are key stakeholders to provide some level of financial support in particular for the training and assessment parts of our model. They are also important to help provide the right environment for operating the business.

The biggest challenge for this project is the contextualized nature of workers and workplaces involved. Specific implementations will be highly tailored to the local language, legal and regulatory codes, and mobile telephony systems involved. We propose an iterative approach, starting with several pilot models in diverse world regions to maximize the information flow and value for workers. A second stage will include scaling up successful models, and simultaneously initiating data standards for external users. Also, because we use open-source code and work exclusively through local partners, our two largest costs are bandwidth (wireless minutes) and user-recruitment, costs which may prove to be a heavy burden. We expect, however, to negotiate lower bulk rates for bandwidth and to lower recruiting costs by working through local partners, earning our own positive reputation, and encouraging viral spread among workers. Meanwhile, as we grow and profile our user base, their incremental value to advertisers increases, as does our coverage of critical factories of interest to brands.

LaborVoices relies on strong partnerships to impart value to both migrant users and brands. We have two major partnerships for our pilot in Bangalore. We have partnered with Sattva, a consultancy with experience in media, management, and social science to launch and execute the pilot project. We have also partnered with Awaaz De, a mobile voice platform startup whose expertise, open source software and hosting solution we are using for the pilot. We are currently in the midst of talks with several brands and sourcing nonprofits to move towards achieving our first year goals.

We’ve been bootstrapping LaborVoices from friends and family investments, in cash and in-kind, since early 2010. We are gathering our first tier of corporate customers, and will likely have significant revenue flows by the end of 2011. However, our business plan requires significant investment to help us reach the scale necessary to provide a valuable service both to our users (workers) and our customers (brands).

Seeking additional funding is perhaps the largest barrier to the ongoing success of this program. Unless additional funding is secured in the near future, the REACH program will be unable to serve new participants or provide the ongoing level of support since participants are engaged in multi-year tracks of improving education, work and life skills. Norton Healthcare is committed to making a positive difference in the wellbeing of the community and acts as a strong advocate for its patients and the community in the formation of advocacy programs and services that encourage and promote the health and wellbeing of the communityTo that end, the Foundation continues to explore and seek additional funding for the program from a variety of public and private sources.

The REACH program is a partnership between Norton Healthcare (Foundation), Family Scholar House, and Jefferson County Board of Education Adult and Continuing Education (JCBEACE). Together, the partners assist participants across educational levels through basic skills training, job shadowing opportunities, one-on-one mentoring, externship experiences, and ultimately employment with Norton Healthcare.
Family Scholar House was formed in 1995 with a mission to provide housing to single parents who are experiencing homelessness while concurrently supporting them in obtaining a baccalaureate degree. The Family Scholar House focus on education, post-secondary as well as elementary and secondary schooling, creates a primary catalyst for breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Family Scholar House provides vital support services including peer support, group activity mentoring and mentoring specific to parenting, community referrals, case management and academic advising.
JCBEACE has served the greater Louisville region for more than 50 years. JCBEACE operates a highly successful youth-focused One Stop Center, Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) Program, which targets at-risk youth (ages 16 to 21). JCBEACE also operates a nationally recognized workforce education program and a nationally recognized model college transition program. Participants in the college transition program are enrolled at a local college or university but lack the basic post-secondary skills to successfully complete courses bearing degree credit. The program provides additional instruction to promote success at the college level.

REACH is currently supported by a $160,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Lousiville. This funding will expire shortly. In addition, Norton Healthcare provides approximately $725,000 in educational funding for individuals participating in the program. Family Scholar House and JCBEACE will also provide in-kind support.

The program is reliant on the Biller Family Foundation partnering with non-profit, job training partners of the highest caliber in each of its cities across the United States. If the non-profit organizations who are sourcing and training candidates are not capable of implementing the program in alignment with the model that was created and refined in Los Angeles, BankWork$™’s ability to grow and continue helping more inner-city adults would be threatened. Further to this, if graduates placed in the program began to demonstrate a decreased rate of retention at the six-month and one-year marks, the growth of the program would be called into question. A peer-to-peer support program is currently being designed to provide new BankWork$™ tellers with mentors who are earlier BankWork$™ graduates.
The program is reliant on the existence of a bank teller position. As banks encourage online banking and provide tools for banking needs to be fulfilled with a personal computer or smart phone device, the demand for tellers could decrease. A decline in funding from the bank or government partners would hinder the program’s success. By maintaining a working relationship with bank partners, we are kept abreast of changes in hiring needs, which help us to predict such barriers and overcome them accordingly. This active partnership model also engages the bank on a level that nourishes donor engagement, which is how we plan to combat shifts in the funding model.

Created approximately five years ago in collaboration with industry sector leaders in response to the financial sector’s needs and the goal of addressing high unemployment in areas of poverty, we successfully launched BankWork$™ as a way to recruit, screen, train and place individuals into positions within the banking industry. Les Biller convened senior level managers from financial institutions throughout the City of Los Angeles – including U.S. Bank, Bank of America, City National Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, Union Bank and Pacific Western Bank – to address the employment needs of the financial sector. As the program has continued to evolve over the years, we have succeeded in expanding our partnerships to include a number of additional funders from both the private and public sector. This includes Citibank, OneWest Bank, The United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the City of Los Angeles Community Development Department, and the Employment Training Panel of the State of California. In addition, we have established strong working relationships with a number of community organizations through which we promote the program to their clients. This includes the Urban League and the Friends of the EXPO Center, a non-profit corporation in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, which provides training space and lunch for program participants as well as countless others.

As described in earlier sections, BankWork$™ is a project that relies on community partnerships. In terms of the organizations who contribute funding that makes up the program’s annual budget, the program has a diverse base of contributors. Private foundations like the Biller Family Foundation contribute to BankWork$™ because it is a program that breaks the cycle of poverty for families. Other NGOs provide support through in-kind donations of training space, meals, and donation of professional attire so BankWork$™ graduates look career-ready at their in-person job interviews. Business support, primarily from banks, is critical. The banks find their support pays off in heightened visibility within the government and community-at-large. Regional government is an important partner, especially in recent years as there have been Economic Stimulus dollars available for the creation of jobs. The long-term funding model for the BankWork$™ program is that 40% of the budget would come from bank partners, 40% from government, and 20% from private philanthropy (individuals and foundations).

- This project is part of the Positive Talks project. We will ensure the effort to reduce employment discrimination as part of the project work;
- For the confidentiality issues of PLHIV, we use the networks of PLHIV community groups to encourage the participation, and always fulfill the privacy protection for the participants;
- For the participation from the enterprise, we will discuss with our enterpriese partners and CSR organizations, use the sample influence(such as impact of famous entrepreneur or stars) and seek for potential cooperation with categories forum and workshop organizers;
- For the wills of media, we will persuade the win-win situation to them with help of powerful partners.

-UN agencies, working for zero discrimination against PLHIV, are always our close partners;
-Provide training service to Total, Standard Chartered, Baidu and many other famous enterprise;
- Contact with media workers, such as China Daily and Global Times, and China National Radio;
- Most importantly, we keep pleasant relationship with Chinese government departments and other NGOs.

- Financial support from foundations;
- support from The UN, Chinese national and local government, other NGOs on HIV/AIDS, who are also working on anti-discrimination against PLHIV; - Cooperation with CSR organizations and Enterprise for training and speech service, and th planned employment equality campaign.

Riesgos internos.
Principalmente la falta de reservas económicas para soportar cuentas por cobrar a 30 o hasta 60 días plazo por concepto de venta, ya que lógicamente la asociación sufriría de falta de liquidez para pago de mano de obra y compra de materia prima.
Así mismo el hecho que un buen porcentaje de artesanas no están capacitadas actualmente para enfrentar pedidos más grandes que podrían venir con lo cual la empresa perdería clientes al no poder cumplir dichos retos.
Que las artesanas luego de las capacitaciones no tengan el suficiente compromiso y cohesión con la organización para impulsar un proyecto a mediano plazo de superar las expectativas de producción y venta

Riesgos externos.
Siempre está latente el hecho que la competencia puede ofertar productos similares o sustitutos con precios difíciles de competir. Si en el transcurso de este plan se experimenta un incremento en el precio de compra de la materia prima toda la proyección de ventas se vería afectada.
La dependencia de un solo proveedor de materia prima también es un riesgo latente siempre ya que estamos a expensas de los costos que ellos dispongan y de la cantidad de producción que ellos generen.
Al ser nuestro producto un elemento de vestimenta estamos a expensas de las tendencias de la moda por lo tanto con un mercado objetivo variable.

Estrategias para mitigar esos riesgos.
• Gestionar préstamos con tasas de interés mínimos a entidades financieras u organizaciones que compartan nuestra filosofía
• Gestionar fondos para realizar capacitaciones permanentes a nuestras socias.
• Lograr una profunda sensibilización de las artesanas a través de los eventos de capacitación, eventos sociales, incentivos, etc.
• Alianza estratégica con nuestro principal proveedor “Hilandería Salinas” para fijar el precio de la materia prima por lo menos para 1 año.

Estamos asociadas a la camara de artesanos de la provincia de tungurahua donde tenemos acceso a eventos de capacitacion, informacion de clientes y de mercado.
Con Fondo Nido NESsT tenemos un convenio de 3 años para capacitacion al personal administrativo y gerencial en temas de liderazgo, comunicacion, administracion, recursos humanos, gestion de proyectos entre otros.
Tenemos un acuerdo de cooperacion con la cooperativa Pace e Svilupo cuyo objetivo es impulsar la venta de artesanias de Ecuador en Europa a traves de un canal de comercio justo

La razon de ser de la Asociacion es la elaboracion y venta de Artesanias, entonces nuestro principal sustento es la venta de las mismas a nuestros clientes pueden ser distribuidores, mayoristas o clientes finales.
En segundo lugar por el hecho de ser una organizacion sin fines de lucro tambien presentamos proyectos de apoyo a nuestras actividades a ONGs internacionales

La barrera con mayor dificultad se da en el fondeo de recursos para el desarrollo de procesos de entrenamiento en el programa SEMILLEROS DE OPORTUNIDAD, puesto que éste requiere costear desplazamiento de instructores, alquiler de equipos, compra de materiales, seguros y demás recursos para que el proceso de entrenamiento brinde la calidad y las condiciones necesarias para que los participantes sean competitivos en el mercado laboral.

El programa en la actualidad se ha fondeado con el patrocinio de organizaciones no gubernamentales que buscan una estrategia de alto impacto dentro de sus comunidades y que les permitan acceder a posibilidades reales de vinculación laboral, mas sin embargo estos no son suficientes, hoy los esfuerzos se unen a contrapartidas obtenidos de las empresas, para sufragar gastos de movilización de los participantes, espacios dentro de la misma empresas, refrigerios y apoyo logístico.

Lo que vemos hoy, es que la aceptación de los empresarios y nuevos convenios establecidos se han incrementado, pero la escasez de los recursos, limitan la cobertura para la atención de más población. El programa en la actualidad se financia con recursos de Visión Mundial, los que tienen una expresa orientación a que los beneficiarios directos sean personas vinculadas a sus programas, pero como se trabaja directamente en las comunidades, muchos de los habitantes de las mismas, quedan por fuera al no cumplir con este requisito. FUNDAES, ya tiene dentro de su estrategia trabajar por el desarrollo de programas incluyentes, los que en el futuro, dado los buenos resultados de los procesos emprendidos, poder crear para estos semilleros, un fondo común en donde las empresas vinculadas en participar destinen un rubro que financie costos operacionales para el desarrollo de los procesos de entrenamiento, de igual forma el participante deberá cubrir un costo de participación que garantice acceso a dotación, implementos educativos, alimentación, seguros, entre otros. De esta manera, podremos hacer que el programa sea sostenible en el tiempo y se acerque la gran empresa a las poblaciones más vulnerables, creando oportunidades reales de vinculación a oportunidades de trabajo.

FUNDAES es una entidad que trabaja de la mano con el sector empresarial, monitorea permanentemente la dinámica del mercado con el fin de identificar sus necesidades y poder articular el proceso de alta demanda y de alto impacto social.

Para ello ha ido construyendo alianzas con empresas destacadas como Grupo Acción Plus, una empresa de suministro de personal temporal, una de la más grandes y sólidas del país; dentro del sector hotelero, contamos con más de 10 hoteles ubicados en nuestra ciudad que tienen personal vinculado laboralmente mediante nuestro programa y muestran intención de brindarle la oportunidad a más personas; otro aliado industrial es la empresa Alfacer del Caribe, empresa ubicada en zona rural del Distrito de Barranquilla y que dentro de su responsabilidad social incluye la vinculación de personas residentes en sus alrededores, cuyo común es denominador ser vulnerables y desplazados por la violencia.

También contamos con alianzas estratégicas de otras ONG´s que vienen trabajando en estas poblaciones vulnerables, con las cuales se unen esfuerzos por similitud de objetivos, tales como: Visión Mundial, Children International Colombia, Trust for the Americas, ACR, Acción Social, Opción Vida.

El apoyo otorgado se representa en:

- ONGs y FUNDACIONES: Recursos económicos para el desarrollo de las actividades.
- EMPRESAS: Entrega de recursos financieros para cubrir gastos transporte de participantes, refrigerios y dotación.
- OTRO: Recursos propios de FUNDAES.

QUALITY EMPLOYMENT: Securing permanent, quality positions for our students and community resource center clients remains a challenge. Since the recession began, we have seen a marked decline in the availability of benefits for our students. In 2010, 56% of the men and women we placed into permanent employment were eligible for benefits at the inception of employment. While many of our employed students became eligible to receive benefits after 90 days on the job, the availability of benefits has continued to diminish significantly over the last two years. Despite this challenge, we remain dedicated to seeking quality employment opportunities for our students. We continue to pursue positions with a competitive combination of wages, hours, and opportunities for advancement, and remain vocal advocates for benefits for our students in our conversations with our hiring partners.

STREAMLINING SERVICE DELIVERY ACROSS THE ENTERPRISE: In conjunction with the development of a new strategic plan for the organization, we are focusing on streamlining service delivery across the enterprise in 2011. At present, we are working with Accenture on a second pro bono, skills-based consulting project to enhance the impact and operational effectiveness of our community resource center and further align the service delivery at the center with TCP’s core mission. We have already identified several areas for strategic improvement, including standardizing processes and data tracking across the center and leveraging additional aspects of our Traditional Program curriculum to serve community resource center clients more effectively.

We work with a variety of partners – referral partners, training partners and employment partners – without whose contributions we could not do serve this mission each day. From thought leaders like Accenture and Deloitte, to hiring partners like Northwestern Memorial and JPMorgan Chase, to referral partners like Sister House and St. Martin de Porres – it takes a system of linked partners to support individuals in need of our services in the right way, and at the right time, to achieve a true transformation in their lives.

But the best way to tell you about our partnerships in the words of our partners themselves.

“This clearly isn’t another consulting project to any of our employees. The team does what they do best…. from the heart. They thrive on the impact they know they are making to better individual’s lives, and are inspired by what you do for people every day.”
Tracey L. Seward, Management Consulting R&D Director, Accenture

“The Cara Program has a proven track record of being an effective, reliable and responsive community partner, committed to the students of the program in helping them achieve long lasting success. We want to be a part of that mission."
Maria Lin, Program Director of Human Resources, Northwestern Memorial Hospital

“The Cara Program is one of the best conceived and best-run workforce
development programs in the U.S. and has demonstrated substantial success in placing and retaining poor adults in jobs. The Cara Program is financially sound and well-regarded in its community.”
Donn Weinberg, President, Harry & Jeannette Weinberg Foundation

TCP maintains a fiscally responsible operation and a broad base of funding partners. We are committed to remaining 75% privately funded, and cap our government funding at no more than 25% of our agency revenue. Of our private revenue, approximately 45% is generated through private philanthropy (individuals, foundations and businesses) and about 25-30% stems from our social enterprise business contracts - Cleanslate customers.

As barreiras que podem dificultar o sucesso do projeto são:
o Estrutura física deficiente
o Falta de apoio por parte das empresas / instituições
o Falta de instrutores qualificados
o Falta de divulgação dos cursos ofertados
Pretendemos superar essas barreiras, mostrando a importância das empresas / instituições se associarem ao CVT, elaborando bons projetos de responsabilidade social e colocando os parceiros na mídia. Conseguindo esse apoio constante poderemos contar com o suporte da Prefeitura Municipal e das mídias locais, que enxergam o trabalho como uma ação de apoio ao cidadão local, conseguindo assim divulgar nosso trabalho e estimular a vinda de novos alunos. Com esse ciclo funcionando e a participação em editais e prêmios sendo uma prática constante teremos condições de melhorar constantemente a estrutura interna do CVT.

O estabelecimento das parcerias é o que sustenta o projeto. Se cada parceiro se disponibilizar a fazer parte do projeto e apoiar com doações financeiras e /ou doações de equipamentos e materiais de consumo conseguiremos ofertar os cursos de forma gratuita à população e possuir uma estrutura moderna, completa e atualizada.

Na verdade atualmente o projeto está sem sustentação financeira, o que está acontecendo é que a instituição possui apoio na manutenção da estrutura física e de materiais de consumo. Os instrutores estão cobrando dos próprios alunos o valor pelos cursos, portanto não estamos conseguindo ofertar de forma gratuita os cursos, como nosso propósito. Com o apoio dos parceiros que estamos buscando teremos doações (projetos de isenção fiscal) para patrocinar cada curso, a empresa poderá patrocinar a realização do curso ou adotar um número x de alunos por mês.

The lack of adequate market-based solutions that work - we are continuously sourcing with different organizations that have networks of innovative social entrepreneurs

The lack of adequate corporate interest in Asia - where possible, we approach the HQs that are based in other developed nations; at the same time, we are putting a lot of emphasis on awareness building in the region

Human resource - we are trying to plan for our human resource needs 6 months in advance, and ensure that we have sufficient cash flow to hire help and expertise when needed

We would consider most of these members of our network, as opposed to "partners" where we define to be involved in one of our projects.

On the social enterprise / innovation side:
Ashoka: Full Economic Citizenship, World Economic Forum's Schwab Foundation: BoP Task Force, World Entrepreneurship Forum: BoP Track, (and other individual social enterprises whom we are working with or in discussions with, e.g. World Toilet Organization, Hapinoy, Gawad Kalinga, Lifeline Energy)

On the corporate side:
Economic Development Board of Singapore, Japan's Ministry or Economy, Trade and Industry, CSR Asia, HIP Investors (and specific companies we are working with or in discussions with, e.g. Unilever, and others)

Other informal partners and advisors who are experts in their fields:
Commercial Franchise Consultant (based in Singapore)
Supply Chain Consultant (based in Belgium)
SME Scaling Expert (based in Singapore)

BoP Hub has obtained a co-funding grant of USD600,000 (for three years) from Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB). However, that is a reimbursement grant, which means that we cannot draw the funds until we have spent some.

We seek to be financially self-sustaining in three years, with revenues primarily from corporates, through helping them with BoP market entry, and also fees from workshops and trips. We are expecting our first earned income this year from a corporate we are working with.

Limited market for carbon offset investments. Lack of interest among firms to adopt a green profile by investing in the voluntary carbon offset market is a potential barrier. We plan to overcome this barrier by initially targeting a few high profile firms that have expressed interest in this project. We will aggressively promote the economic benefits of greening business operations by highlighting the growing market for sustainable products and services. We will scale our business model by targeting a network of green businesses that are connected to these high profile clients. DCOD will continue to grow its client base by marketing its services through a web-based platform that will connect a broad network of environmentally conscious businesses.

Opposition to reforestation. Landowner and farmer opposition to reforesting lands is a potential barrier. We plan to overcome this barrier by identifying high value timber and non-timber forest products that are native to the region, have short growth life cycles, and can increase revenue streams for landowners and farmers in the near term. DCOD will promote the economic benefits of reforestation to landowners and farmers, facilitate the provision of trainings and tools, and provide assistance in marketing and sales of these forest products.

Insufficient revenue streams. Lack of sufficient revenue streams to maintain a profitable business model is a potential barrier. We plan to overcome this barrier by generating a range of revenue streams. These include:
1. Transaction fees on carbon offset purchases and carbon offset management.
2. The sale of carbon-offset futures to kick start local projects.
3. Advertising fees on our web-based green business network platform.
4. Public funds and grants from donor agencies, NGOs and foundations to support training programs for landowners and farmers in host country.
5. Private investment.

Host country partnerships:

Government: DCOD is partnering with Ecuador’s Ministry of Agriculture to help identify possible participants for the project. The Ministry will offer invaluable technical, administrative and community support throughout the project. We have already consulted Eng. Jaime Rojas P.MSc. a former congressman and agricultural engineer with close ties to a number of university deans and government offices.

Academic Institutions: Local universities will offer technical and research support as well as supply us with experts for training and capacity building. Ecuador’s universities have strong agriculture departments and we will rely on this local support. Mr Rojas has already connected DCOD with several universities and we plan to meet their respective deans during a planed August 2011 trip to Ecuador.

Farmer Associations: DCOD will partner with farmer associations to identify project participants and map out appropriate areas for reforestation activities. Partnerships with these institutions will determine our success on a local level.

International Partners:

NGO’s/International Organizations: We will partner with the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), UN REDD and the International Network for Bamboo and Rotan (INBAR), all of which have a presence in Ecuador and are committed to the development of bamboo as an alternative to sustainable economic development in the region.

Industry: DCOD has reached out to established manufacturers of sustainable timber products to initiate an increase in manufacturing presence in the region and to serve as potential buyers of forest products cultivated through the DCOD initiative.

Green Businesses: DCOD will consider all green businesses as potential clients and will focus on establishing strong working relationships with a wide community of environmentally conscious businesses. Our growth as a business will depend on the success of the green industry in general and the success of DCOD relies on building a strong community of businesses who are committed to taking significant steps towards climate change mitigation and environmental stewardship.

Friends and Family: We will seek support from friends and family to generate start capital for our project. These investments will result in part ownership of the project and will allow us to develop the basic infrastructure of the DCOD project.

NGOs/Foundations: We intend to apply for NGO and foundation grants as well as social enterprise competitions for start-up capital to cover travel costs, web-site development, office space and initial project activities.

Individuals/Venture Capital: We will seek financial support from venture capitalists once the basic structure of DCOD has been set up. We will leverage the future earning potentials as a means to court sizeable investments to help pay for the scale-up of the DCOD project.

Businesses: We will begin to generate income from add placement and other marketing services directed towards green businesses and consumers through our web site. As our business grows and web traffic increases, so will the value of advertising and marketing potential.

US Government: We will seek foreign investment grants from the US government to help us develop export opportunities for sustainable forest products with the intention of expanding existing export/import relationships between Ecuador and the US.

Customers: Transaction fees from the sale of carbon-offset to client businesses will contribute to the majority of our working capital and will cover DCOD’s full operating expenses by year three.