Week Six Reflection

In week six, I pondered over Revenue Generation. The videos and articles I studied were a Ted Talk by Michael Porter titled, "Why Business can be Good at Solving Social Problems," Financial Model Section and Galvanizing Resources created by the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation, "Social Entrepreneurs Don't Have It Easy Raising Capital" written by Genny Ghanimeh, and "Capital Sources for Social Enterprises" written by Drew Tulchin and Sunny Yi-Han Lin. One key point from the studies is shared value comes from combining social value and economic value together. Another thing to bear in mind are some popular funding sources for a social venture are donations, grants, special events such as annual fundraisers, races, and charity events, selling a product or service, endowments, Patient Capital coming from capitalists who are willing to donate and wait until the organization can return the investment capital and they do not expect high levels or rates of return on the investment capital, and lastly, unconventional funding sources such as using other people's resources or running the organization from home. Some regular start-up ventures are typically investments, banking, equity debt, convertible debt, and crowdfunding.

During my studies this week, I thought what Michael Porter had to say in his Ted Talk was very inspiring and profound. In particular, the moment when he said reducing pollution and emissions actually generates profit rather than wastes money really spoke to me. Most businesses assume it's too expensive to create a safer work environment and making sure the company creates less of a negative impact upon nature will require even more money. However, in the long run, it does the exact opposite. There are less sick days and less worker's compensation to pay for when employees are able to function in a safer, cleaner workplace. He did the calculations after starting up four different nonprofits. He stated "business does not profit from causing social problems." Instead, "business profits from solving social problems."

I do not think money can really buy happiness. It can provide shelter, safety, food, and everything else necessary to live comfortably in this life, but it cannot buy true happiness. The richest man in the world can still be sad. I know of people who attempt to buy their friends and they are still sad because deep down, they know as soon as the money is gone, each "friend" who showed up just for the financial benefits would disappear. However, I do think money can help change the world. Money can finance a project and help people obtain the much-needed supplies and manpower to make things happen. After all, not many people will work for free for long periods of time.