[p2p-research] Fwd: UK Gathering Event Concept

Fri Nov 12 18:43:03 CET 2010

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Suresh Fernando <suresh2323 at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 12:13 AM
Subject: Fwd: UK Gathering Event Concept
To: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>

FYI

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Suresh Fernando <suresh2323 at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 9:57 AM
Subject: UK Gathering Event Concept
To: uk-gathering at googlegroups.com

Hey Folks - my sincerest apologies for the delay in getting this out! I've
been immersed in the organization of a transformational gathering that I
will be a part of Nov. 19-21.

Let me know what you think.

*Guiding Vision: *dramatically increase the proportion of social ventures
relative to purely financially motivated enterprises

We start from the premise that our local communities and, by consequence,
the world will be well served by *increasing the overall proportion of
organizations that focus on delivering social goods*. As such, we believe
that it should be an objective to provide seed financing to a wide number of
social ventures, some of which might be quite modest.

*The goal needs to be to populate the world with more social entrepreneurs
(period).

*

*
*

*The Problem: *Lack of Funding for Pre-Proof of Concept Social Ventures

Currently there is a funding gap in, roughly, the $25K - $100K range where
the focus *is on prototyping and proving ones concept. *This gap exists for,
at the least, the following reasons*:*

*Risk/Reward Imbalance:* the financial reward afforded by early stage social
ventures does not sufficiently compensate investors for the risk they
assume.

*Transaction Costs/Financial Benefit*: The cost for smaller transactions is
equivalent to the costs for larger transactions. Hence the financial
motivation to focus on smaller transactions is reduced.

*The Nature of the Problem:* a systemic one

If we are to solve this problem we need to begin by acknowledging that the
source of this problem lies in the nature the very structure of how capital
is deployed to social venture projects which, in turn, is based on models
that were designed to flow capital to early stage financially motivated
enterprises. These models have the following characteristics:

*Seek Best of Breed (highly scalable) enterprises*: consistent with the way
that capital is allocated by traditional venture capitalists, early stage
social venture financiers seek to find the single enterprise that will
provide them with the most leverage for the capital they deploy, namely the
projects that have a chance to do disproportionately well.

*Financiers and Social Entrepreneurs Not Completely Aligned*: Although
funders do aim to partner with social entrepreneurs, what we need is a
deeper connection. *We need to really understand and feel that we are in
this together.
*

*
*

*
*

*The Root of the Problem:* Wrong Value Set Guides Capital Allocation Models

The current funder/fundee relationship in the social finance space has been
developed from the perspective of traditional financiers who are completely
profit driven. What is needed is to realize that funders and fundees need to
work together to proliferate social goods. We all need to think about the
community at large, not merely the interests of isolated investments and
organizations.

* *

*The Solution:* A Paradigm Shift

What is needed is a paradigm shift that will involve the following:

   - ·         A focus on core values underlying the social finance sector –
   *the proliferation of social goods*
   - ·         As shift away from biasing projects that are highly scalable
   - ·         Greater *dispersion* of funds so that smaller, more modest,
   projects also receive funding
   - ·         The development of* much deeper partnerships* between social
   funders and social entrepreneurs
   - ·         Much greater *fluidity and flexibility* on the part of social
   funders in terms of funding criteria and expectations
   - ·         Less demarcation between *investment stages*
   - ·         A* *redefinition of what ‘*investment ready’* means
   - ·         A *greater emphasis on collaboration* both between funders
   and social entrepreneurs as well as across the whole social finance space.
   - ·         A greater emphasis on *openness and transparency* across the
   entire social finance ecosystem with a view towards sharing information and
   leveraging our collective intelligence
   - ·         A shift away from focusing solely on the success of projects
   towards a *focus on risk mitigation*

*
*

*Arriving at the Solution: *Innovate in a Spirit of Trust and Cooperation

If we are to be successful, we will need to work together in a spirit of
openness and complete trust in order to think of new of ways of approaching
challenging new problems. We need to be willing to closely examine what we
can import from existing models and what needs to be reinvented.

* *

*The Process: *Build trust and the Spirit of Cooperation through
Transformational Group Process

We propose a multi-day gathering in the April/2011, the objective of which
is to create the right conditions to allow funders and social entrepreneurs
to work together to co-create innovative solutions. The precise details have
yet to be worked out, but the following is representative of what we
foresee:

*Location:* We hope to hold the event at
Embercombe<http://www.embercombe.co.uk/>,
a serene and idyllic location that will best enable everyone to discard the
imperatives of day to day life in order to work collaboratively together in
inspirational and innovative ways.

*Transformational Process:* We believe that it will be necessary to get into
a mindset that places everyone on a level playing field and makes us truly
realize that we are in this together. This will require forming deeper human
bonds in advance of doing any specific work. We expect to use a number of
different processes to bring this about including music, dance,
collaborative art, etc.

*Co-Creation:* We expect to utilize a range of different group processes to
allow funders and social entrepreneurs to see things from a different
perspective and to jointly develop innovative solutions of various sorts.

-- 
*Suresh Fernando *
BLOG <http://sureshf.posterous.com/>,
YOUTUBE<http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhum>,
OK WEBSITE, <http://openkollab.com/>OK FAN PAG
<http://goog_1343289408/>E<http://www.facebook.com/openkollab?ref=ts#%21/openkollab>
, OK GROUP <http://groups.google.ca/group/openkollab>,
OK-WE<http://www.wiserearth.org/group/openkollab>,
PHILOSOPHY,  <http://sureshfernando.wordpress.com/> TWITTER,
<http://twitter.com/sureshf> FACEBOOK,
<http://facebook.com/suresh.fernando>WOTW FAN
PAGE<http://www.facebook.com/tedxvancouver?v=wall#%21/pages/The-Way-Of-The-Warrior/156574347703364>
LINKEDIN<http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=412718&authType=name&authToken=GrUl&locale=en_US&pvs=pp&trk=ppro_viewmore>,
SLIDESHARE <http://www.slideshare.net/sureshf>
*
**'The counter cultural revolution was a rhizomatic meshwork of
loosely-coordinated, loosely-affiliated struggles. The goals of these
struggles weren’t always complimentary, but the struggles were aligned and
together they staged a mass offensive to shatter the status quo'*. - from
The Coalition of the Willing

-- 
*Suresh Fernando *
BLOG <http://sureshf.posterous.com/>,
YOUTUBE<http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhum>,
OK WEBSITE, <http://openkollab.com/>OK FAN PAG
<http://goog_1343289408/>E<http://www.facebook.com/openkollab?ref=ts#%21/openkollab>
, OK GROUP <http://groups.google.ca/group/openkollab>,
OK-WE<http://www.wiserearth.org/group/openkollab>,
PHILOSOPHY,  <http://sureshfernando.wordpress.com/> TWITTER,
<http://twitter.com/sureshf> FACEBOOK,
<http://facebook.com/suresh.fernando>WOTW FAN
PAGE<http://www.facebook.com/tedxvancouver?v=wall#%21/pages/The-Way-Of-The-Warrior/156574347703364>
LINKEDIN<http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=412718&authType=name&authToken=GrUl&locale=en_US&pvs=pp&trk=ppro_viewmore>,
SLIDESHARE <http://www.slideshare.net/sureshf>
*
**'The counter cultural revolution was a rhizomatic meshwork of
loosely-coordinated, loosely-affiliated struggles. The goals of these
struggles weren’t always complimentary, but the struggles were aligned and
together they staged a mass offensive to shatter the status quo'*. - from
The Coalition of the Willing

-- 
P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org

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Think tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
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