It is a HALF United kind of day today. You wouldn’t understand what that means if you haven’t visited the Patio today or know what HALF United even is. As that might be the case for some readers, I will go ahead and reintroduce this awesome company. HALF United is an online apparel company based in Wilmington (NC). The wonderful Carmin Black founded it after her work experience with TOMS. The reason Carmin and her business are so wonderful and awesome is because half of all profits go towards fighting hunger around the globe. This social enterprise helps feed children in North Carolina, Liberia, Cambodia, and Fiji by selling shirts, book bags, sweatshirts, bracelets, key chains, beanies, scarves, and so much more.
What intrigues me most about this social for-profit is the way it was started … bootstrapping.
Continue reading »
When it comes to funding, social entrepreneurs find themselves between a rock and a hard place. This is because social ventures inherently have a double-bottom line. Many businesses find it hard enough to maintain a healthy (single) bottom line. Well social ventures have a much harder time acquiring funding compared to traditional for-profits and nonprofit organizations. This is because of the double-bottom line faced by social entrepreneurs, which consists of making a social impact and being self-sustainable. This tug-of-war between generosity and sustainability makes the life of a social entrepreneur much more challenging. And if your definition of social entrepreneurship includes nonprofits, I ask you to please humor me for this post Continue reading »
So it is finally done. My thesis has been turned in to Novancia and I am a free man!!! I guess that means it is time for me to commit some time to this website?
For my very first blog post I am going to introduce a company that helped me complete my thesis and talk about crowdfunding as it relates to social entrepreneurship. Crowdfunding websites are a relatively new phenomenon in the funding world. In case some readers aren’t aware, these sites allow people to create and advertise projects in the hopes of attracting donations. A project can consist of almost anything, a fun summer vacation, instruments for a high school, a science fiction novel, innovative start-ups; the possibilities are endless.
Continue reading »
Greetings and welcome to FatPatio!
To who I am addressing, I’m not entirely sure. My name is Michael and this area contains my social entrepreneurship blog. I am currently typing this while I should actually be working on my thesis. But no worries! There will be enough time to finish that (I hope) in the coming weeks. For now, I want to test this blog out and get a feel for the layout.
My plan for this blog? Great question good sir, or ma’am.
Continue reading »
