Posts tagged Social entrepreneurship

And the winner is …

Nov15
2012 Brian Minter Written by Brian Minter

This morning in Washington DC, First Book distributed our 100 millionth brand-new book.

This morning at Martha’s Table, an amazing community program serving homeless families in Washington DC, First Book distributed our 100 millionth brand-new book. (Check out this great story on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.)

That’s not a typo. Since the organization was founded in 1992, First Book has provided 100 million brand-new, high-quality children’s books to kids in need throughout the United States.

We couldn’t decide what the actual 100 millionth book should be, so we let the people decide! Over 12,000 votes were cast in our ‘Ten Books Every Child Should Own’ contest.

And the winner?

“Green Eggs & Ham”, by Dr. Seuss!

Click here to see First Book's 100 millionth book on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer

Click here to see First Book’s 100 millionth book on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer

Kyle Zimmer, First Book’s president and co-founder, presented Chase-Kennedy Williams, age 4, with her very own copy of “Green Eggs & Ham”. Afterwards Kyle read the book to Chase-Kennedy and her classmates, after which they each got their own copy of the book to take home.

Watching Kyle give that book to little Chase-Kennedy was an incredible moment for everyone at First Book. The look on her face is one we’ve seen thousands and thousands of times when kids who have few or no books of their own are given a brand-new, beloved book of their very own, but we never get tired of it.

First Book staff with kids at Martha's Table in Washington DCMartha’s Table has a special place in our hearts here at First Book. Not only is it a terrific program that does an enormous amount of good for children and families in our home town of Washington DC, it’s where First Book was born twenty years ago, when Kyle, then a corporate lawyer volunteering in her spare time, realized that the children she was working with had no books of their own at home. She founded First Book, along with two friends, to ensure that those children, and others, would have access to the books they needed.

A big thank you is due to all the many partners and donors who help make our work possible, along with the heroic educators at programs like Martha’s Table across the country who are on the front lines every day. We couldn’t do it without you!

Okay, celebration’s over. Back to work. 100 million books is a whole lot of books, but there are plenty more kids out there waiting for us.

Want to help distribute the next 100 million books? Click here to get involved.

Posted in Book Distributions, Book Recipients, Books & Reading, First Book Events, Kyle Zimmer, Social Entrepreneurship, Success Stories, Volunteers - Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Civic Consumption: What It Is and How You Can Do It.

Oct22
2012 Brian Minter Written by Brian Minter

At First Book, everything we do is focused on putting new books into the hands of kids in need; that’s the big idea. But there are some other important ideas that go into that.

One of these is the concept of ‘civic consumption’. If consumers, as a group, make buying decisions that support socially responsible and sustainable business practices, companies will respond to that pressure by changing how they do business.

Kyle Zimmer, First Book’s president and CEO, explains this idea in a new article on Fast Company’s Co.EXIST blog:
Kyle Zimmer, president and CEO of First Book, on civic consumption

[T]oday’s customer has a much more nuanced set of concerns that they are looking to address with their purchasing power. In addition to low price and high quality, today’s consumer wants to know how the goods are sourced, whether the manufacturer was fair to labor, what the environmental footprint is, and if the company is a good corporate citizen. The social sector has driven the cause of consumer consciousness to a level that is unprecedented, and very healthy for the marketplace and for the world.

Civic consumption takes this one step further, allowing those conscious consumers to band together their purchasing power and leverage that demand to ensure producers provide socially and environmentally beneficial goods and services at competitive prices

This approach is critical to how First Book works, especially in the First Book Marketplace, where we make a wide range of high-quality children’s books (and other resources) available to the schools and programs in our network.

As Kyle explains, the Marketplace is a great example of civic consumption in action.

  • The schools and programs in our network lack the funds of their more affluent peers, so companies have less incentive to cater to their needs.
  • But when 35,000 of them band together through First Book, the publishing industry sits up and takes notice.
  • By coming together, they are able to get quality books at prices well below retail.

Award-winning, high-quality books on the First Book MarketplaceAnother benefit? The publishing industry is much more willing to create the kinds of books these programs need when we can show them 35,000 potential customers; books like bilingual versions of award-winning titles, and “high-interest, low-level” books (titles that are written at a lower reading level for kids who are behind, but still focused on topics that will interest them; an eighth-grader reading at a third-grade level won’t become a strong reader if we can only offer him books about third-grade topics).

First Book’s success — we’ve distributed almost 100 million books over the past twenty years — is proof of the strength of this idea, and, as Kyle writes in her piece, the more we support this way of thinking, the better off we’ll be:

The rise of civic consumption will not only push businesses that are stuck in traditional thinking, it will also promote the development of hybrid companies that will thrive in the civic consumption marketplace.

Consumers are looking for a reordering of corporate priorities that is real and lasting, and the economy needs this kind of dynamic change.

Posted in Book Recipients, Books & Reading, Kyle Zimmer, Marketplace, Social Entrepreneurship - Tagged , , , , , ,

Lots of Noise, But No One in the Room

Sep12
2012 Brian Minter Written by Brian Minter

“There is a great deal of noise on the stairs but nobody comes into the room.”
– John F. Kennedy

President Kennedy was referencing a Chinese proverb when he said that, making the point that it was easy to talk about problems, but much more difficult to fix them.

Kyle Zimmer, First Book’s president and CEO, is in China herself this week, addressing the World Economic Forum’s ‘Annual Meeting of the New Champions’ in Tianjin, the foremost gathering of business and nonprofit leaders in Asia. She’s there to talk about subjects near and dear to our hearts – social entrepreneurship and social impact investing.

How First Book is making a differenceSocial entrepreneurship is a new way of doing business, a hybrid of traditional nonprofits and for-profit companies that uses market forces to create social change. (Click here to read a recent blog post by Kyle where she explains what social entrepreneurship is and how it can change the world.)

Social impact investing is a related concept; the idea of channeling investment toward mission-driven businesses and entrepreneurial nonprofits that are working to solve social problems.

As Kyle says in a piece published today in the Huffington Post and on the World Economic Forum’s blog:

Fundamentally there are holes on both the investor side and the social entrepreneur’s side of the aisle.

On the investor side, there is far more talk than there is traction. Certainly, a few funds have been established that focus on social investment, but it is difficult to see these as more than traditional charity, dressed up as investment.

Creative new designs in the financial category to address this need have been discussed for years, but few have made it to market. This lack of significant innovation by the investment community has been a major roadblock to the expansion of the social sector. Enterprises reach a certain level of growth and then choke from the lack of capital.

Kyle Zimmer, president and CEO of First BookLike any new idea, there’s a lot of work to be done. But Kyle is hopeful about the future, saying: “There we were all in a room at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions – financial institutions and representatives of the social sector — talking about the challenges, which is a great step toward a cure.”

At First Book, we’re working towards a new kind of solution to an old and intractable problem – how to ensure that the 30 million kids in the United States (and soon, around the globe) living in low-income families get the books and resources they need to succeed. Click here to learn some ways you can get involved.

Posted in Education, Kyle Zimmer, Literacy, Social Entrepreneurship - Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

How We Can Change the World by Buying Things … Together

Jun29
2012 Brian Minter Written by Brian Minter

A single consumer isn’t able to change much about how a given company does business. But when thousands of customers join together and speak with a single voice, corporate leaders pay attention and make changes – whether it’s revising business practices, yanking advertising or offering new products or services.

This idea, the power that comes from aggregating consumers, may not seem important to a nonprofit, but it’s actually at the heart of what First Book does.

First Book provides new books to children in needThe problem we’re working to solve is the lack of access to books and educational materials for kids from low-income families. The schools and programs they attend usually don’t have the resources to buy new books, and neither do their families. So these kids miss out on the single most important thing they need to become strong readers and successful students. And many of them lose their chance to become the scientist, engineer, electrician, doctor or teacher that they have the potential (and desire) to become. When that happens, we all lose.

And the private sector loses too. The publishing industry loses money because those children can’t buy books, and they lose future customers because those children never become readers.

But … if we can bring enough teachers and program leaders together, we can pool their limited resources and create a new, untapped market for the publishers. Not to mention creating future customers, and – most crucially – a stronger, better-educated society for everyone. Everyone really does win.

There’s an excellent piece by Will Byrne, co-founder of the nonprofit Groundswell, in Fast Company’s Co.EXIST blog describing this phenomenon:

With purchasing power, we can help business leaders to deliver social benefits while also meeting their bottom line, creating local markets that reward those who do. People, given a path that does not set them back economically, will make choices as consumers that do good for their world. And, just as important, business leaders will as well.

It’s a good idea, right? It’s also what First Book is all about.

First Book provides new books to children in need(In the piece, Byrne recognizes First Book’s president, Kyle Zimmer, and her contributions to this important way of thinking. But that just proves that he’s on the right track.)

That’s why, when we meet new teachers and community leaders, and tell them to sign up with First Book to get new books, we make the point that the more groups we connect with, the more books we’ll be able to get them, at lower cost.

It sounds like magic, but it’s actually simple. First Book exists to aggregate the purchasing power of the hundreds of thousands of Title I schools, mentoring programs, food banks, homeless shelters and church groups that work with kids in need, and our power to make change grows as we grow … together.

Posted in Book Recipients, Books & Reading, First Book Partners, Kyle Zimmer, Marketplace, Social Entrepreneurship - Tagged , , , , , , ,

What Is Social Entrepreneurship? (And Why First Book Is Such a Good Example)

Feb01
2012 Kyle Zimmer Written by Kyle Zimmer

A social entrepreneur is someone who sees a social problem — like hunger, homelessness or lack of access to clean water — and looks for ways to solve it. Unlike more traditional business entrepreneurs, who are trying to generate profits, social entrepreneurs are trying to change society. Long-term change is important, not just solutions to the immediate problems.

At First Book, the problem we’ve been working on for twenty years is the unbelievable lack of books and other educational materials faced by children from low-income families. Books are painfully scarce for many of these kids; one study that never fails to shock showed that there is only one book available for every 300 children in some of the lowest-income neighborhoods in the country.

First Book provides new books to teachers that work with kids from low-income familiesFirst Book works by giving the teachers, librarians and local program leaders that work with these kids ongoing access to the new, quality books they need to do their jobs. Giving a child a new book of their own is a powerful thing, but the real impact comes from making sure they have books throughout their lives, from before they enter kindergarten until they graduate — with honors — from high school.

So we were pleased to see ourselves listed as one of the five examples of nonprofits around the world providing “innovative yet pragmatic approaches to solving social problems” in a new report from the respected financial services company Credit Suisse.

The report, “Investing for Impact: How social entrepreneurship is redefining the meaning of return”, was just released at the World Economic Forum in Davos. You can learn more about it, and download a copy for yourself, online here.

In it, the Credit Suisse analysts have this to say:

[T]he potential of growing efforts to deliver entrepreneurial solutions to global problems is bigger than ever before – as are the opportunities to channel private capital toward social and environmental issues.

The report also quotes Mark Kramer, the co-founder and managing director of social impact consulting firm FSG:

Mark Kramer on social entrepreneurshipMany investors and philanthropists are turning to impact investments as equally valid and in some cases even more effective vehicles for social change than pure charity. To complement this growing interest, a number of new innovations are emerging in the field, ranging from new financial tools to better metrics for social impact to new impact investing funds.

All that may sound a little dry, but it’s actually really exciting stuff. First Book, and groups like it around the world, are charting the way to better and more equitable societies.

But doing so requires support and funding on a large scale, so it’s a big deal that the international investment community is paying close attention to the work that we’re doing and the impact that we’re having.

Learn more about First Book and our work at firstbook.org, or sign up for monthly updates about ways you can get involved.

Posted in Education, Kyle Zimmer, Literacy, Social Entrepreneurship - Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Giving Where It Works

Nov30
2011 Brian Minter Written by Brian Minter

At First Book, we work hard to make an impact: we put over 8 million new books into the hands of kids in need across the country this year. And we’re mindful of how many amazing organizations there are out there, both nationally and locally, that could use your support.

So we were pleased to see the New York Times Opinionator blog list First Book today as a nonprofit that is making a major difference while staying on the difficult path towards self-sufficiency, describing our work as a “particularly good use of charitable dollars” (we agree) and “proven to work” (also true).

Commenting on the way First Book’s model marries “altruism and profit”, Tina Rosenberg writes:

If you give books to children who don’t have them, good things happen — they become interested in reading, and they read more. Having lots of books in the home is as good a predictor of children’s future educational achievement as their parents’ educational levels.

But good things also happen to the publishing industry: First Book has harnessed its large network of education programs to create a guaranteed market and persuade publishers to make low-cost versions of some 2,000 titles — allowing publishers to reach the 42 percent of American children who were not in their market before. Fifty dollars buys 20 books for a child who has none.

We hope you’ll support First Book this holiday season. Every $2.50 you give provides one new book for a child in need. It’s a great way for you to make sure your hard-earned and well-considered donation goes to support something that works.

Posted in Kyle Zimmer, Philanthropy, Social Entrepreneurship - Tagged , , ,

First Book’s Kyle Zimmer in the NY Times

Nov01
2010 Written by Becky H.

Check out the recent New York Time’s article, The D.I.Y. Foreign-Aid Revolution, which focuses on women who have found innovative ways to solve some of the world’s most challenging social issues.  Among the social entrepreneurs mentioned is our very own president and CEO, Kyle Zimmer.

Read the whole article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/magazine/24volunteerism-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=kyle%20zimmer&st=cse

Posted in Social Entrepreneurship - Tagged ,

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