Social Entrepreneurship Before It Was a Mainstream Term

Case Study: Creating a Marketing Culture to Promote a New Field to the World

Client: Non-Profit Foundation in Social Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise

Field: Social Entrepreneurship

Sector: Citizen Sector & Civic Engagement

Challenge: Create, launch and manage new global marketing strategies and programs. Transform a change resistant and academic organization into a marketing culture. Promote the new field of “social entrepreneurship” and maximize fundraising  in 50 countries and 5 continents.

Outcomes: Created branding, messaging and communications platforms that enabled every manager, staff member, volunteer and grantee in 50+ countries and 20 languages to speak in a unified voice. Link to TIME Magazine article.

Key Success Factors:

  1. Conduct a listening and audit tour.
    1. Ask questions at every management level and across every country.
    2. Listen intently. Ensure that all staff members feel included and acknowledged in the process.
    3. Cull best practices learned from the HQs and field teams.
    4. Segment audiences  into internal and external client definitions.
  2. Identify key champions inside and outside the organization (staff, donors, grantees).
  3. Collaboratively codify a Strategic Marketing and Communications Plan for 3-5 years that supports the Institutional Strategic Plan.
  4. Collaboratively roll out best practices with key teams/champions on every continent.
  5. Recognize, acknowledge and celebrate these champions and teams.
  6. Coach and train board, staff members and grantees to become “marketers.”
  7. Create and launch new events, media campaigns, donor strategies and volunteer programs that can be transferred and adapted country to country.
  8. Celebrate successes throughout the organization!
  9. Ask yourself and your teams: Are we having impact and fun together?

Bottom Line:

Make the case ~ and show benefits ~ to staff and social entrepreneur grantees how marketing/communications will make the difference between a great idea ~ and a great idea that truly leverages their impact and outcomes.

To promote a new field, such as social entrepreneurship, and maximize new funding and media attention to the field, it is key to: 1) develop a unified message strategy; 2) create a differentiated brand approach; and 3) tell human stories with concrete examples that connect to audiences across cultures, languages and countries given all their diversity.

An example: “The New Heroes,” broadcast on PBS, tells the human stories of social entrepreneurs.