Introducing the GSBI
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Industry Crafts provides millions of artisans
and farmers the opportunity to work in
clusters and earn continuous incomes.
India, 2008 GSBI
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The Global Social Benefit Incubator provides an intensive two-week residential program at Santa Clara University that enables successful social benefit entrepreneurs to scale their endeavors and achieve sustainability.
A social benefit entrepreneur, or SBE, is defined as one who creates and leads an organization, whether for profit or not, that is aimed at creating large scale, lasting, and systemic change through the introduction of new ideas, methodologies, and products or services. A challenge for many social entrepreneurs and the organizations they create is “scaling up” in a sustainable way—they might have enough talent and resources to get an organization launched and achieve alaudable impact, but they are unable to grow beyond a certain point, to increase their reach, and to achieve increased financial viability through self-generated or earned income.
Presented by the University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society and the Leavey School of Business, the GSBI combines the discipline of business planning and Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial resources with sensitivity to culturally embedded models of social change. The invited SBEs have demonstrated their commitment to applying technology to address urgent human needs throughout the world. Many have achieved recognition through the rigorous selection process of prestigious programs such as the Tech Museum Awards—Technology Benefiting Humanity, and the World Bank’s Development Marketplace.
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Roshan Vikas enables India's urban poor to
gain success to financial services.
India, 2008 GSBI
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Living and learning together, participants develop conceptual skills and the sense of community that is essential for effective peer-to-peer collaboration following the residential program. Practical knowledge and skills are developed in the areas of marketing, finance, business planning, and organizational capacity building. The GSBI combines classroom instruction, case studies, and best practices with carefully matched mentoring on specific challenges for each participating organization. Ongoing collaboration is supported by a distance-learning platform that enables the Center to support the progress of participants once they return home. Through this resource network, SBEs are empowered to accelerate the financially sustainable growth of their social and technological innovations. The GSBI is a transformational program for people with the power and vision to change the world.
