Social Enterprise Corps?
There's some interesting blogosphere chatter on Jonathan Greenblatt's proposal for a Peace Corps for social entrepreneurs. I like the idea, with one major caveat. When I got to the part about the US government screening people's ideas, a quick premonition of bureaucratic sclerosis dulled my enthusiasm. The social entrepreneurs I've met all seem to have an allergic reaction to paperwork. My vote: take the government out of the business plan, and instead leverage the great work being done by Ashoka, StartingBloc, Eonfire and others.
In the meantime, a great alternative to the Peace Corps is the GeekCorps.
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I had many of the same thoughts. One problem I think is that the 'social enterprise' tag is too vague and large. Niche approaches such as CityYear, GeekCorps and Teach4America will work better. A tighter focus will make it easier to rally people, create the networks people are looking for and scale-up. For example, two platforms that come to mind would be organizations that place recently graduated Law and MBA students and place them in developing country firms for two-three years after graduation. (or maybe a couple years after graduation, once they have paid their loans back.) The same would work with any graduate or PhD program.
Posted by: LuegoExisto | Aug 18, 2006 8:41:46 AM
Thanks for the recommendation Christine. We do see ourselves as a great alternative to the Peace Corps - we are more targeted, nimble, and for volunteers, quicker in admission and shorter in duration.
Unfortunately, we are also much, much smaller than the Peace Corps.
Posted by: wayan | Aug 18, 2006 4:44:16 PM