1. Did You Know?

2. In U.S., 20.9 million women lived below the federal poverty threshold in 2007
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2008 Annual Social and Economic Supplement.

3. The Women’s Bean Project in Denver CO employs women from backgrounds of chronic unemployment and poverty to manufacture gourmet foods.

4. The Women's Bean Project does not hire women to make and sell bean products. We make and sell bean products to hire women.

5. Did You Know?

6. Economically disadvantaged teens are more likely to be un- or under-employed in the summer job market
Source:
Also: Center for Labor Market Studies The Historically Low Summer 2008 and Year-Round Teen Employment Rate,
The employment rate of teens decreases sharply with family income. Students who live in high-poverty neighborhoods and students from low-income families are much less likely to work than youth in higher-income communities or from higher-income families. (College Majors Handbook with Real Career Paths and Payoffs, Second Edition, Neeta P. Fogg, Ph.D., Paul E. Harrington, Ed.D., Thomas F. Harrington, Ph.D.; Jist Works: America’s Career Publisher.) 6

7. Early work experience improves prospects for employability and real wages in the later teens and early 20s
Source: Andrew Sum, Neeta Fogg, and Garth Mangum, Confronting the Youth Demographic Challenge: The Labor Market Prospects of Out-of-School Youth, Sar Levitan Center for Social Policy Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 2000.
Also:
The employment rate of teens decreases sharply with family income. Students who live in high-poverty neighborhoods and students from low-income families are much less likely to work than youth in higher-income communities or from higher-income families. (College Majors Handbook with Real Career Paths and Payoffs, Second Edition, Neeta P. Fogg, Ph.D., Paul E. Harrington, Ed.D., Thomas F. Harrington, Ph.D.; Jist Works: America’s Career Publisher.) 7

8. Work experience in high school also increases the likelihood of graduation and lowers teen pregnancy and delinquency
Source:
Also: Center for Law and Social Policy, Demographics of America’s Future Workforce,
The employment rate of teens decreases sharply with family income. Students who live in high-poverty neighborhoods and students from low-income families are much less likely to work than youth in higher-income communities or from higher-income families. (College Majors Handbook with Real Career Paths and Payoffs, Second Edition, Neeta P. Fogg, Ph.D., Paul E. Harrington, Ed.D., Thomas F. Harrington, Ph.D.; Jist Works: America’s Career Publisher.) 8

9. Juma Ventures develops and operates businesses for the purpose of providing job opportunities to economically disadvantaged teens.

10. Did You Know?

11. One-third to one-half of HIV-positive Americans are either homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness
While 1.2 million people are living with HIV, the number of those people not in HIV care has reached greater than 50 percent.
One-third to one-half of HIV-positive Americans are either homeless or at imminent risk
of homelessness (Song, 1999).

12. Housing Works provides health, housing, legal and case management services to people with HIV. It also trains clients to run several upscale retail businesses that annually return $13 million to the organization.

13. Did You Know?

14. There are approximately one billion nonliterate adults (persons 15 years old and above) in the world today.

15. Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide.
Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than two million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders.

16. The company has converted more than 22 million donated books into $6 million in funding for literacy and education and in the process, diverted more than 12,000 tons of books from landfills.
Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than two million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders.

17. Did You Know?

18. Each year, more than 600,000 Americans aged 70 and older stop driving and become dependent on others to meet their transportation needs
Source: Foley et al., Driving Life Expectancy of Persons Aged 70 Years and Older in the United States, American Journal of Public Health , 92(8): ,

19. How will your elderly parents get around if they become unable to drive themselves?

20. The Independent Transportation Network provides rides with door-to-door, arm-through-arm service to thousands of seniors nationwide.

21. Did You Know?

22. There are approximately 8 million blind and visually impaired persons in the U.S.
Trace Center Statistics. 
According to the Trace Research & Development Center there are an estimated 8.6 million people in the U.S. with visual impairments (3.4% of the U.S. population), 580,000 of whom are legally blind. 
For Trace, visual impairment includes: (i) those with low vision and (ii) those who are legally blind.
Low vision includes problems (after correction) such as dimness of vision, haziness, film over the eye, foggy vision, extreme near- or farsightedness, distortion of vision, spots before the eyes, color distortions, visual field defects, tunnel vision, no peripheral vision, abnormal sensitivity to light or glare, and night blindness.
Legally blind means that visual acuity (sharpness of vision) is 20/200 or worse after correction, or that the field of vision is less than 20 degrees in the best eye after correction.

23. Benetech operates Bookshare
Benetech operates Bookshare.org, which allows people with print disabilities to legally download over 40,000 books and periodicals to be read as Braille, large print or synthetic speech.

24. Did You Know?

25. A microenterprise, commonly called “mom and pop” business, is a business with 5 or fewer employees and a seed capital of $35,000 or less

26. There are more than 23 million micro-enterprises, representing 18% of all private employment and 87% of all businesses in the U.S.
Source: Association for Enterprise Opportunity
In the United States, a microenterprise is usually defined as a business with five or fewer employees, small enough to require initial capital of $35,000 or less. AEO estimates there are more than 23 million microenterprises in the U.S., representing 18% of all private U.S. employment and 87% of all businesses 26

27. Very small firms tend to obtain credit from non-traditional sources such as owners’ loans and personal credit cards rather than traditional loans
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
Also:
Availability of Financing to Small Firms Using the Survey of Small Business Finances
The research finds that ethnic minority firm owners are more likely to have transaction loans from nonbanks and less likely to have bank loans of any kind
researchers found that African-American and Hispanic firm owners face significantly greater loan denial probabilities than white male firm owners on both relationship bank loans and transaction bank loans. New evidence in this study hints that discrimination may be specific to particular segments of the loan market rather than a general problem.
• Researchers found that lenders do not artificially restrict the credit-market access of female and Asian firm owners.
Financing Patterns of Small Firms: Findings from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finance
Fifty-five percent of small firms had some kind of traditional loan, while 71 percent obtained credit from non-traditional sources, mainly owners’ loans and credit cards.
While the majority of small firms used some financing, most small firms’ reliance on credit in business operations is limited in scope: 47 percent of firms had no outstanding debt, and another 25 percent had just one loan outstanding.
The percentage of small firms using credit normally increases with firm size. The percentage of firms using any credit increased from 70 percent to 99.6 percent as the employment size of the firms increased from 0 to over 100. This rising trend is most evident in small firms’ uses of credit from loans supplied by depository institutions (banks, thrifts, etc.). For example, only 22 percent of firms with no employees used credit from depository institutions, while 78 percent of firms with over 100 employees used depository institutions.
-> The positive relationship between firm size and the percentage of credit from depository institutions seems to reflect the availability of credit to larger small firms—credit becomes more available as firm size increases. A flat or inverse relationship between firm size and the use of owners’ loans and personal credit cards reflects a different phenomenon. Very small firms tend to use these alternative sources because other sources of financing, which are usually cheaper, may be unavailable.
In conclusion, very small firms seem to rely heavily on costly personal credit cards and owners’ loans. On the one hand, this seems to confirm frequently heard complaints regarding the shortage of credit and the inefficient operation of the credit markets where very small firms are concerned.
It was found that very small firms relied less on financing by financial institutions and more on sources from nontraditional sources such as owners’ loan and the use of personal credit cards. Minority and women-owned firms were also found to have used more of certain sources of financing as compared with all small business in general.

28. Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation offers small business loans and also manages a catering business and bakery - which provides income to both WWBIC and its clients.
The Women's Business Initiative, which draws more than half its funding from earned income and donations and the rest from federal, state and local governments, has directly financed about 750 businesses and lent $11 million to small business owners. It offers loans of no more than $100,000.
The organization estimates it has assisted in the creation of 2,500 jobs statewide. It also provides education and assistance to people considering going in to business for themselves.

29. Did You Know?

30. 136 million tons of building-related waste is generated in the U. S
136 million tons of building-related waste is generated in the U.S. annually, nearly 60% of all non-industrial waste in the U.S.
Source: U.S. EPA, Characterization of Building-Related Construction and Demolition Debris in the United States. 1998

31. But only 20 to 30 percent of this building-related waste is estimated to be recovered for processing and recycling.
Source: U.S. EPA, Characterization of Building-Related Construction and Demolition Debris in the United States. 1998

32. Materials Matter diverts construction waste and materials from landfills and sells the products at discounts through a Home Improvement Outlet to nonprofits working in housing and community development.
The Women's Business Initiative, which draws more than half its funding from earned income and donations and the rest from federal, state and local governments, has directly financed about 750 businesses and lent $11 million to small business owners. It offers loans of no more than $100,000.
The organization estimates it has assisted in the creation of 2,500 jobs statewide. It also provides education and assistance to people considering going in to business for themselves.

33. Did You Know?

34. In 2005, 1.4 billion people, or one quarter of the population of the developing world, are estimated to live in extreme poverty of $1.25 a day
Source: Chen and Ravallion The Developing World is Poorer Than We Thought, But No Less Successful in The Fight Against Poverty. The World Bank.

35. Fair Trade provides a fair price for producers of coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea and other goods in developing countries.
I think this slide is optional. The economic and social impact of fair trade, or even the casual relationship between international trade and economic growth (i.e. increase in GDP), is somewhat contentious and there are many papers with different conclusions. So it will be hard to definitely say that fair trade can reduce poverty and help people in developing countries.
Some examples of the papers observing positive impact of fair trade:
Raynolds, L. (2002). ‘Poverty alleviation through participation in Fair Trade Coffee Networks: Existing Research and Critical Issues’. Colorado State University Fair Trade Research Group Report.
Imhof, Sandra and Andrew Lee. 2007: Assessing the Potential of Fair Trade for Poverty Reduction and Conflict Prevention: A Case Study of Bolivian Coffee Producers

36. TransFair is the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States.
The image found from their image gallery ( Just an example, there are some cool pictures there. Do we need their permission to use their image?
Contents from TransFair’s website above – probably I shortened it from the following:
TransFair is the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States, which audits transactions between US companies offering Fair Trade Certified™ products and the international suppliers from whom they source, in order to guarantee that the farmers and farm workers behind Fair Trade Certified goods were paid a fair, above-market price. In the past six years, TransFair has certified 74.2 million pounds of Fair Trade coffee, providing coffee farmers in some of the poorest communities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia with over $60 million more than they would have earned selling their harvests to local intermediaries.

37. In the past six years, TransFair has certified 74
In the past six years, TransFair has certified 74.2 million pounds of Fair Trade coffee, providing coffee farmers in some of the poorest communities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia with over $60 million more than they would have earned selling their harvests to local intermediaries.
The image found from their image gallery ( Just an example, there are some cool pictures there. Do we need their permission to use their image?
Contents from TransFair’s website above – probably I shortened it from the following:
TransFair is the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States, which audits transactions between US companies offering Fair Trade Certified™ products and the international suppliers from whom they source, in order to guarantee that the farmers and farm workers behind Fair Trade Certified goods were paid a fair, above-market price. In the past six years, TransFair has certified 74.2 million pounds of Fair Trade coffee, providing coffee farmers in some of the poorest communities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia with over $60 million more than they would have earned selling their harvests to local intermediaries.

38. What do all these solutions have in common?

39. They are using business to solve a social problem

40. Social enterprise harnesses the power of the marketplace to solve critical social or environmental problems

41. We envision a proliferation of social enterprises as a primary means of creating a more just and sustainable world.

42. The Social Enterprise Alliance is the only member organization in North America to bring together the diverse field of social enterprise. It serves as advocate for the field, hub of information and education, and builder of a vibrant and growing community of social enterprises. Join the movement!

43. Visit us at www.se-alliance.org
SEA was started as a gathering convened by six nationally known social entrepreneurs to bring other such practitioners out of isolation and to share best practices, provide mutual support and advocate for a national agenda for social enterprise. This national gathering was held several more times before the participants moved to create a permanent organization to support the advancement of social enterprise and to attract other organizations to the field.
Visit us at
co-produced by Kevin Hong & the Social Enterprise Alliance