Category Archives: Social Enterprise

Groupon & For-Profit Social Impact

February 28, 2011 – 9:51 am

The NTEN conference call interview I did with Groupon’s head of social innovation Patty Huber last week went well. Patty fielded my conceptual questions as well as lots of nuts and bolts technical questions from the large audience. I learned a couple of interesting things. (See my post on the idea of Groupon as a […]

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Philanthropy, Social Media | Comments (1)

Groupon, NTEN & Tactical Philanthropy Teleconference

February 24, 2011 – 9:16 am

The blog post I wrote about Groupon’s evolution from a social enterprise made the rounds on Twitter and elsewhere for quite a few days. One reader was Groupon CEO Andrew Mason who forwarded the post to his social innovation lead Patty Huber. Another reader was NTEN’s executive director Holly Ross who has now put together […]

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Corporate Philanthropy, Philanthropy, Social Media | Comments Off on Groupon, NTEN & Tactical Philanthropy Teleconference

Tax Protection for Social Results, Not Social Missions

January 31, 2011 – 8:56 am

Lucy Bernholz had another though provoking post last week in which she suggested there should be some sort of “consumer protection” oversight of nonprofits and social businesses. “From the donors’ perspective we need something more than metrics and annual reports that cements the organization’s commitment to social good. Nonprofits have typically relied on (been given […]

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Charity Ratings, Evaluation, Impact Measurement, New Philanthropy, nonprofits, Philanthropy | Comments (4)

Groupon’s G-Team: Social Enterprise or just Corporate Philanthropy?

January 10, 2011 – 9:57 am

My post on Friday speculating that Groupon could emerge as a multibillion dollar social enterprise was a hit on twitter and generated a number of responses. While much of the response was positive, one issue that bothered some people was my use of the term “social enterprise”. Reader David Geilhufe: “I think we need to […]

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in New Philanthropy, Philanthropy | Comments (14)

Groupon: A Billion Dollar Social Enterprise?

January 7, 2011 – 9:31 am

Groupon is the fastest growing company in history. Just two years after launching the company reportedly turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google. But what many people don’t know is that Groupon was launched by a social entrepreneur. Back in 2007, 26-year-old Andrew Mason was working away on a website called The Point. […]

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Corporate Philanthropy, New Philanthropy, Philanthropy | Tagged | Comments (15)

Leveraging Expertise in Philanthropy

October 20, 2009 – 8:20 am

Here’s an example of a way that donors with knowledge about a specific area of social impact can leverage their knowledge by sharing it with other donors. This comes from Social Venture Partners Rhode Island, but it is a format that any group with domain expertise in a particular grantmaking arena could copy. Leveraged Investments […]

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Community Foundations, Effective Giving, Information Sharing, New Philanthropy, nonprofits, Philanthropy, Transparency | Comments (3)

REDF Social Enterprise Expo

September 17, 2009 – 8:14 am

REDF is a venture philanthropy funder in San Francisco that creates job opportunities through support of social enterprises that help people gain the skills to help themselves. It is led by my friend Carla Javits, who has a great blog and who is an excellent speaker (recent gigs had her offering lessons on philanthropy interacting […]

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Discounts, Philanthropy | Comments Off on REDF Social Enterprise Expo