Social entrepreneurship. Pt. 2//Must do to get the Money for the Mission.

So last week, I released the first part of this blog where I talk about what social entrepreneurship is and the first step to getting the money which is clarity for the core activity. Go read that blog to catch up if you have not. So in this blog, it is all about learning 2 new strategies to get more finance for your cause.

Stop solving the world problems

I have seen way too many social entrepreneurs try to solve the world’s problem, myself included. When I started my charity organisation against human trafficking called EXIT, I encountered so many problems. The core activity was to raise awareness. But then as we progressed with awareness raising, the result was that enslaved women showed up. We ventured into counselling. Then some needed shelter. So we ventured into providing shelter.

Others needed therapy, which we also offered. Some of the women had family members who needed support in Nigeria. So we ventured into supporting them as well. Before you know what is happening, we literally covered the full chain from awareness to outreach support and prevention. WIth a small team and no regular cash for the mission, I ended up working 12 to 17 hours a day for no pay sometimes. Forgetting my health, my family, me time and so on.

You often get so drained into the process that you lose sight of the core “Why” in the first place. That autopilot of activism begins to eat your vision. It took awareness to see and courage to stay “STOP”. This is not what I want to do. This is a mission I have set myself on but it is not my vision. What is the message here?

Develop focus – solve one major problem.

And hell no, focus does not mean you become rigid. It actually means you become more creative and engaged to maximise the process towards that vision that you have. I have a video about focus that I really encourage you to watch on my YouTube channel – use Deep focus. As social entrepreneurship might seem to be  challenging because you have so many issues to tackle and you are also very passionate about ending all these world problems, remember that you have just this life and chance to make a significant impact.

How do you maximise your impact?

By focusing to solve one major problem. It is a lot more impactful to solve one major problem for people in a specific region and then scale your know-how to solve that same problem in other regions, than to begin to solve multiple different problems in one community. Why? When you master solving one problem, you gain an enormous set of skills, know-how, network and process. You can leverage on this experience faster when replicating your problem solving mode in another community.

Here is the game plan. When you find that one major problem you can solve or want to solve in your social entrepreneurship journey, master the art of communicating it and use it to build relationships that matter. Building relationships is key.  Because the leverage you have, is the access you have to the community where you create impact. Find those corporate bodies that need that access and share similar value.

Build relationships amongst potential donors.

This is an aspect that comes after the first 2 strategies I have shared in this blog and in the previous blog. The first we talked about was getting clarity about the core activity of your social entrepreneurship venture. The second was to focus on solving one problem and differ from wanting to solve the world’s problems. Now that you have these two figured out. It is time to wrap up a good presentation of what you do so that you can go out into the wild world to get the money you need.

Without these 2 figured out, you will not be able to maximise your fundraising journey. Now let’s talk about donors. For many humanitarian or charity activities, we often have small donors who donate 10 dollars or twenty here and there. But these donors are super important. They share your why and therefore einvest in your cause. You also have larger donors which are the business corporations or SMEs, or even the gouvernement who dish out grants. See it is extremely important to take advantage of the government grants you can access. How do you give these donors, be it small or large, value as well even if they are not the end recipient for your services or products?

Here is how to take care of these donors.

Create a community around your why. And when I say create a community, I do not mean a random instagram profile, a facebook page and someone in a year newsletter. I mean for you to create an intentional and strategic community to build your social entrepreneurship efforts. You build the community like you are building a customer base because that’s actually what you are doing. Your instagram page and facebook page sync.

You care about the identity and message you put out there. There are calls to actions, updates, consistent information with value. Your newsletter is a sacred medium to create inclusion for your donors. You segment the newsletter into the donors class. You can use Mailchimp for free to actually get this rolling. Go beyond just information about all the great things you do with their donations to tell them about how the industry or issue in general is evolving. Think about it, they are investing their rcash because they either care about your “WHY” or the cause. So they would appreciate more about it and you can use this content to care for your donors just like a traditional business would do.

3 key takeaway from this blog
  1. Focus to solve a problem and master communicating this.
  2. Leverage on the access you have to specific communities.
  3. Treat your donors like real business clients .

Hey, thank you so much for stopping by and reading through to the end. I really appreciate it, because it takes so much to put this together. Hope you liked it. If you did, remember to share this blog on social media. Yes, more free training and videos on this topic will be out this month on YouTube. Not to miss out,  subscribe and turn on the notification on Youtube. It would be nice if you follow me on instagram as I share daily strategies and personal fun stuff. I am on facebook as well but to get it all in one place, subscribe to my free newsletter. Drop your comments, questions, feedback beneath using the comment section and I will be happy to answer your questions in my next video or blog.

Look forward to hearing from you soon!

Cheers,

Joana

 

Useful links:

  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joadreofficial/
  • Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/joadretv
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamjoadre/
  • Joadre blog: https://joadre.com/blog/
  • Joadre Newsletter: https://joadre.com/newsletter/
Joadre
Joadrehttps://www.joadre.com
I am Joana, a Nigerian-born Austrian-based entrepreneur and activist. Founded Joadre in 2012 and continue to develop content to engage and empower African SMEs.

The Joadre Analysis & Industry Journal

FREE Templates

spot_imgspot_img

Latest

How to Start A Laundry Business In Nigeria #1. Your Skills.

Learn how to start a laundry business in Nigeria. In Part one, we will inform you about the basic skills you need.

How to transform your fear to courage.

earn how to use your fear to build your courage to take action. It si simple. decide on the next logic step. Here is how I see it!

Joadre Tribe Sets To Help Small Businesses. 

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes As Joadre team continues to read and critically analyse very diverse information, from historical to contemporary content, we instantly...

3 Must-Read For Entrepreneurs

These 3 must-read for entrepreneurs is absolutely vital to developing your idea. From a personal story to the strategy of selling.

3 Low-capital Business To Launch In Africa In 2024

Launch a Low-Capital Business from either of these 3 ideas despite infrastructural challenges. And here is how!