Hey Gang, I’m in SF to help my friend Alexandra Liss launch a fundraising campaign for her documentary film ‘One Couch at a Time,’ which explores the rapidly emerging sharing economy commonly referred to as ‘collaborative consumption’ through the lens of couch surfing.  Check out the inspiring video above and please consider supporting the campaign here by pre-ordering your DVD (and other goodies) and kindly forward it to all your friends.

Thanks guys!

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By Penelope Douglas, Board President, Social Capital Markets 

During the Fall of 2011, I stated in an interview that a sea change in impact investing will occur when two things happen. The first is when the conversation about wealth shifts, and the second is when the most powerful voices in the room aren’t exclusively those with the money.

This was before the impact of the Occupy movement, and it was before the online blackout related to two pending pieces of “anti-piracy” legislation in U.S. Congress. Each of these has certainly put the question of economic imbalance squarely on the table. Big media money has for the first time been less powerful in the conversation than the online community.

And, there is evidence of a new order in what people value & consider as wealth.

Return on Investing in Social Enterprise

In just six months we have seen extraordinary events contributing to a game-changing shift. But more needs to happen as it relates specifically to impact investing.

The most important trend will be for investors to celebrate their riches based on actual returns on double and triple bottom line investments. The wealth conversation will shift when we show increased wealth for investors that balances economic gains with social gains. In other words, increased wealth will be determined by new standards.

If, for example, the expected returns from a social enterprise providing a cheap, effective solution for a health problem in a developing nation, is 3 percent financial return and 50 percent fewer deaths year over year from a chronic illness, and those returns are met, the investment is a winner for the investor’s blended value portfolio.

Three among many to mention: Evergreen Lodge (Yosemite, California), Husk Power Systems (Bihar, India) and Better World Books (Atlanta, Georgia) are exemplary examples of a blended value proposition set forth and then met, and are therefore advancing the wealth conversation shift.

The second important trend is that the successful entrepreneur has a more powerful voice. They are making their investors and employees wealthy by new wealth standards, and thus policy makers and power brokers will begin to invite them into the room. In short order, the makeup of these very policy makers and power brokers will also change to those who can lobby effectively for the new dynamic.

Successful Social Entrepreneurship

Why aren’t we hearing more of these success stories yet? My experience tells me that there are three key reasons:

1. Social entrepreneurs need to be better disciplined about the creation of a clear blended value proposition and meeting these results.
2. Investors need to be able to find more investible deals based on their portfolio interests.
3. Investors, both large and small, need to think in portfolio terms about investing across a spectrum of financial, social and blended value return propositions.

What can we do to fill these gaps?

1. Multiple Value Creations:

Social entrepreneurs need to have the skills, discipline and business models to create and then achieve the double or triple bottom line. These skills are complex and new. The lasting social enterprise has to be built on a successful business model, with a talented team, and for not one but two or more types of value creation.

2. More Examples, More Data:

We must tell the rich stories of the tremendous value being created in the impact investing arena. This includes more data, and more examples made available to capital seeking investment for lasting economic and social change.

3. Building a Portfolio Value Proposition:

We must do more work to build a portfolio value proposition, versus a one by one deal making landscape. Therefore, intermediaries need to create portfolio opportunities, and connect education as well as advisory services to the new economy investor.

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Entrepreneurs from 60 countries vied for the 25 slots available to attend the 2012 Unreasonable Institute. After conducting 125 interviews, the Unreasonable Institute has narrowed it down to 46 exceptional Finalists. Now, in a true test of their entrepreneurial mettle, each of these Finalists face one final challenge before becoming Unreasonable Fellows: galvanizing the globe to raise the $10,000 it costs to attend the Unreasonable Institute.

The first 25 Finalists to raise $10,000 will be chosen to attend. Its going to take an Unreasonable effort, and the decision lies in your hands. Head to the Unreasonable Marketplace and join hundreds of thousands of people across the globe to vote with your dollars for an entrepreneur you believe might change the course of history.

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The future is upon us!  Translate the web while learning a language, for FREE!  Insane in the membrane!

Let’s go kids : http://duolingo.com/

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Show us your inner artist today : http://www.insideoutproject.net/

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Check out their A to Z Challenge to shift to a more positive outlook by changing just one habit a week.

More at http://www.innerspace.org.uk/

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Thanks to the good folks at TBD for letting us know about Project Repeat.  You can visit the full release at http://ourfutureistbd.com/issues/project-repat

Project Repat is redesigning the future of millions of shirts, working with local artisans in Nairobi to convert them into unique accessories and even repatriate ironic originals back to the US. Best part is, the proceeds are all donated to the artists in these Kenyan communities.

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Welcome To the Future of Education

The Future Project is the new national movement to inspire America, starting in our nation’s public schools.

We recruit from among the millions of college students and young professionals living in cities and train them to coach high-school students, in pairs and small teams, to discover their passions and use them to build imaginative Future Projects that change their lives, schools, and world.

During weekly ninety-minute huddles, our students, Future Fellows, also create personal Future Maps and use them to imagine and pursue inspired futures, whether admission to college or leaps forward in leadership or grades or pursuit of passion. Above all, both partners discover what moves them—and learn to channel it for good.

The Future Project launched this October with a Future Corps of more than 500 Future Coaches and Future Fellows at high schools in New York City, New Haven, and Washington, D.C. After six months of building, Fellows will present their projects at a Day of Affirmation in May.

The Challenge

Two in three high-school students say they are bored in class every day. Three in five say they do not see value in what they are learning. One in four students drops out before graduation. Three in four are not prepared for college. And one in three teachers say that their students are not prepared for one primary reason: they are not motivated.

We rarely as a nation talk about this epidemic of apathy, and yet when students are not inspired, they don’t learn. Despite heroic efforts by teachers and school administrators, our system has evolved to prevent inspiration rather than cultivate it. This means that many students don’t trust in their own dreams or take the necessary actions to fulfill them.

We don’t accept this reality.

We imagine a world in which everyone is inspired and in which inspiration is spread through partnerships and projects. Our mission is to give all students the opportunity to have a partner and project in inspiration for every year of high school.

Learn more @ http://www.thefutureproject.org/

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Rio de Janeiro has a new Purpose!  Purpose, the amazing creators of Avaaz and MoveOn have helped launch Meu Rio (My Rio), which is building a movement to promote transparency and reduce corruption in Rio de Janeiro.  Triggered by the massive influx of capital flowing to Rio as a function of the upcoming Olympics and World Cup, Meu Rio is holding politicians accountable and mobilizing a community of concerned citizens to take action and demand a transparent and a fair governance of funds.  This is just the beginning.  For more, visit www.meurio.org.br

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Now, for today’s Pure Fix…

Playing for Change is a movement which seeks to connect the world through music.  The video tells the whole story and you can read more at http://playingforchange.com/.

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