Approach
Guiding Principles

Approach

Social Entrepreneur Corps designs all of its programs with one priority question ; “What are we trying to achieve from a community impact perspective?”. We are 100% confident that the activities of participants should be dictated by the goals that we are trying to achieve for our developing country beneficiaries.  We don’t “make up” activities for participants to engage in. We design solutions where partipants can play a central role as a part of a community development team. And it is a social entrepreneurship approach that is the heart of our programs and dictates programmatic elements to facilitate participant success. 

So what is social entrepreneurship? Although there is no one definition that is universally used, there is broad agreement that it describes an approach rather than any specific development model. It is “more related to leadership than to management” (Schwab Foundation) and thus is more about the “how” than the “what”.  As a starting point, it is helpful to start with the metaphor “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime” to demonstrate the evolutionary nature and impact of this approach.

“Giving fish” is what could traditionally be defined as relief assistance.  Relief assistance is needed after natural and manmade disaster situations. Effective relief assistance primarily strives to provide emergency food, shelter, healthcare and clothing resources. Relief assistance does not concern itself with issues other than what people need and how to logistically get it to them as quickly and effectively as possible. It concerns itself with the immediacy of the here and now.

The most challenging next step in supporting communities/individuals as they endeavor to either build or re-build their lives is development assistance. This is the “teach a man to fish.” Intelligent development assistance may be concurrent with but more often directly follows relief assistance and provides appropriate resources to communities and individuals at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way. Development assistance supports beneficiaries as they mobilize themselves to create continuously higher standards of living over the short, medium and long-term. Development assistance by and large concerns itself with supporting education, continuing healthcare needs, income generation, and community/civil society mobilization. 
In short, relief assistance is about providing critical assistance for communities/individuals in dire need of “help” whereas development assistance is about providing compelling opportunities so that communities/individuals can “help themselves”. So how does social entrepreneurship fit into this? The social entrepreneurship approach represents an evolution even beyond traditional development assistance. As Bill Drayton, the founder of the Ashoka Foundation, states "Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry."

Going even further, social entrepreneurs are often even more ambitious in that they attempt to create locally sustainable and globally replicable models that both “create” fish and fisherman where there were none before.  As David Bornstein, author of “How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Idea”, states “Social entrepreneurs identify resources where people only see problems. They view the villagers as the solution, not the passive beneficiary. They begin with the assumption of competence and unleash resources in the communities they're serving."

This social entrepreneurship approach form the basis for our Social Entrepreneur Corps program. Social entrepreneurship demands structures whereby an ecosystem of sorts is created and all stakeholders both add and derive value. Students can offer tremendous value as additional creative and critical thinkers and service providers and, consequently, gain an invaluable education and unique insights in the process.
In implementing our social entrepreneurship programs, we rigidly adhere to our stated stated Guiding Principles.

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Guiding Principles

Excellence:
We are committed to providing the highest quality service to our constituents with integrity. We know that mutual respect and transparency are the basis of any positive relationship.  We aspire to seamless execution and don't take shortcuts on the quality of the service that we provide. We seek the best from ourselves and from those that we work with and serve. We are flexible, open to constructive criticism and learn from our mistakes. When we fail we take responsibility for our actions and take appropriate corrective actions.

Innovation:
We thrive on creativity, ingenuity and looking for compelling responses to challenges. We seek the innovations and ideas that can change the world. When someone says “It can’t be done.” We see this as an opportunity not an impediment.

Client Focus:
We respect our clients above all else and never forget that they come to us by choice and that we must earn their goodwill and respect every day.  We have an organizational responsibility to maintain both internal and external stakeholders’ loyalty and trust every day. We listen and respond and seek to exceed client expectations.

Teamwork:
We treat one another with respect and communicate openly. Open communication, collaboration and listening is the key to success. While maintaining individual accountability we encourage the best ideas to surface from anywhere within our organization as well as from our clients. We understand that no one, despite their rank or role, has the monopoly on good ideas.

Community:
We are here to do good and do well and first and foremost serving our community exceptionally is at the heart of any successes we may have. We exist to make an impact on society and empower and provide opportunities to clients in ways never before possible. Everyone must benefit from our work or everyone will fail.

Sense of Humor:
We believe humor is essential to success. At our core we believe in taking our work seriously but not taking ourselves too seriously. 

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