For some time now, “social enterprise” has been a hot topic among nonprofits, a model in which a nonprofit sets up a for-profit business to sell products or services to generate revenue for the core organization.
And for nearly 10 years, the nonprofit Social Venture Partners Rhode Island (SVPRI) has assisted those entities with expertise from philanthropists.
Now SVPRI says its mission is expanding, recruiting new kinds of partners and looking to assist different types of entities. For example, the organization is creating a social-enterprise investment fund focused on for-profit companies with a social mission.
SVPRI is hosting a social enterprise summit at Bryant University in Smithfield on Nov 12. Kelly Ramirez, appointed SVPRI’s director six months ago, recently spoke with Providence Business News about the organization.
PBN: Can you explain how Social Venture Partners Rhode Island works?
RAMIREZ: SVPRI is part of a sort of network called Social Venture Partners. There are about 25 of them globally. The basic model is that leaders – largely from the business community – contribute their time and their money to support nonprofit organizations. They pay dues to become a partner, and then the partners do pro bono work with nonprofits. Here in Rhode Island, SVPRI was started more than 10 years ago … by some people that had been successful in the business world. … They wanted to have it focused on social enterprise.
An example would be Amos House, which has a catering company, More Than a Meal, which trains and employs the constituents that they serve and is actually making a profit for the organization.
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PBN: What would SVPRI’s involvement with a nonprofit be? PBN: Who are SVPRI’s partners? PBN: What about for-profit organizations that have a social-based mission? PBN: Aside from Amos House, what other success stories have SVPRI nurtured? PBN: So what is SVPRI doing for the Maher Center? PBN: SVPRI will be hosting what is billed as a “social-enterprise summit” at Bryant University on Nov. 12. INTERVIEW
RAMIREZ: We have connections with organizations in the community that would like some business assistance. Then we look at the capacity and expertise of the partners and we link the partners with the organization, based on what the needs are. If an organization needs help in marketing, we’ll link them to one of our partners who has expertise in marketing.
RAMIREZ: They are mainly people who have business expertise, who have been successful in the business world. Many are in the financial sector. Some [are] entrepreneurs. SVPRI is going through a growth stage where we’re expanding our mission. We’re moving away from this traditional model to be much more inclusive. We’re recruiting new partners and adding associate partners, who make less of a financial contribution but more of a time contribution.
There is all of this social innovation happening. It encourages more small-enterprise development, creation of jobs. It provides a more efficient model for social-service provisions. For the investor, it provides new ways to think about making very strategic charitable contributions.
RAMIREZ: This is part of mission expansion at SVPRI. The traditional model is we help these nonprofits launching for-profit businesses. But we realized social enterprise includes for-profits. … We realized there was all this activity in Providence and in Rhode Island in general that’s happening in this field, and we wanted to capture all of this activity and include the for-profit models. We see social enterprise as a great socio-economic development strategy. It’s a great way for Providence to differentiate itself. … In our expansion, we are creating this new program called Social Enterprise Rhode Island, which is aiming to capture the broad innovation that is happening in the social-enterprise space.
RAMIREZ: Another group we work with is the Maher Center in Newport. They help individuals with special needs. They’ve been doing social enterprise since before there was a phrase for it. They have an institutional laundry service, a nursery and horticultural center [and] a catering business. And they employ the constituents they serve. They’re making money, but more importantly for them, they’re creating job opportunities for their constituents who would not have the opportunity otherwise.
RAMIREZ: We’re helping them with their financial model and their marketing. The groups we have engagements with are Amos House, the Maher Center, the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, the Cookie Place Café and Arttix.
RAMIREZ: This is our first summit. We wanted to provide and share social-enterprise stories, build the field and launch this community of individuals that are interested in social enterprise. We think the time is right for this. We see social enterprise as an out-of-the-box solution for creating jobs, creating small enterprise, providing social services in a more efficient manner and retaining student talent in Providence. The goal of the summit is to inspire and be inspired, and we really want to map out what is happening in terms of individuals and organizations doing this work, individuals who can provide resources [and with] events happening at different organizations. •
Kelly L. Ramirez
POSITION: Director of the nonprofit Social Venture Partners Rhode Island
BACKGROUND: Before arriving in Rhode Island a year ago, Ramirez was an adjunct lecturer in social entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. She also served as manager of the Social Enterprise Initiative at the university’s William Davidson Institute, where she developed and directed a global, social-enterprise program for nongovernmental organizations, corporations and foreign nonprofits, including the Ford Foundation, the European Commission and USAID.
EDUCATION: B.A. in political science, 1992, University of Michigan; master’s degrees in public policy and urban planning, 1999, University of Michigan
FIRST JOB: Babysitter at about age 11
RESIDENCE: Warwick
AGE: 39
