There is a growing trend among nonprofits to pursue their mission not just through philanthropy, but also through developing businesses that support their goals programmatically while also generating revenue that makes them partially or fully self-sustaining. With this webinar, NonprofitWebinars.com launches a series of presentations on successful social enterprises.

1. Social Enterprise & the Amos House Model
Eileen Hayes, MSW
President & CEO, Amos House
November 10, 2010
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3. Today’s Speaker
Eileen Hayes
President and CEO of Amos House
Hosting: Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership

4. Social Enterprise
and the
Amos House Model
Eileen Hayes, MSW
President & CEO, Amos House

5. The Power of SE in RI
 100+ Social Ventures
 300+ Jobs, majority for those with
barriers to employment
 Decreased burden on social services
 Talent recruitment and retention
 RI’s statewide sector approach is unique

6. Sector Convergence
Traditional Characteristics
For Profit Not for Profit
Competitive Collaborative
Private Good Social Good
Market Based Outside Market
Financial Motivation Social
Motivation
Advantaged Disadvantaged
Independent Dependent
Individual Collective
Risk-taking Risk-averse
Create Wealth Distribute Wealth

7. Definition of Social Enterprise
Social enterprises are mission driven
initiatives that apply market-based
strategies, and entrepreneurship to
maximize social impact. The movement
includes non-profit, for-profit and hybrid
models. Social enterprises have been
referred to as “Businesses with a heart”.

8. SE Impact on Organizations
Source: Powering Social Change: Lessons for Community Wealth Generation for Nonprofit Sustainability,
Community Wealth Ventures, 2003
Source: “Enterprising Nonprofits”, Yale School of Management – Goldman Sachs Foundation on Nonprofit Ventures

9. Timeline

10. Organizational Readiness
 Board Buy In
 One Champion
 Full Disclosure/Understanding
 Staff Buy In
 Understanding of Different Skill Sets
 Understanding of Compensation Difference
 Capacity
 Talent
 Time
 Resources

11. Social Enterprise Tips for Success
Consider:
 Life Cycle
 Operations: Marketing, Pricing, HR, Finance
 Internal Cultural Tensions – Mission vs. Margin
 Engaging/managing multiple stakeholders
 Policy/enabling environment
 How best to incorporate
 Succession Planning

12. Social Enterprise Tips for Success
Develop:
 Quality product
 Strategic marketing process
 Appropriate pricing structure
 The right team:
 Do-gooders vs. Good doers
 industry expertise
 create a “blended” workforce
 don’t be afraid to fire non-performers

13. Plan:
 Clearly define your core values
 Focus: identify your niche
 Obtain agreement and buy-in before
launch
 Define your “separation strategy”

14. Social Enterprise Tips for Success
 Bankers are hesitant to secure loans with
collateral that if a default and loss could
jeopardize organization
 Board is a tool to gain capital (social and
financial) and financial expertise
 Consider your size. Debt financing,
investment capital and creation of for
profit structures can be too complex for
small organizations

15. Social Enterprise Tips for Success
 Consider Capital Campaigns a source of growth
capital
 Understand tax laws and philanthropic tax
credits
 Loans are easily renewed. Grants have hidden
costs.
 Create alliances with business and lenders
whenever possible

16. Social Enterprise Tips for Success
 Capitalize on the power of word of
mouth and personal selling
 Fully utilize your social capital
 Customer service can be a good value
proposition. Can use the same approach
the organization uses with clients
 Fully leverage your PR capabilities

17. Social Enterprise Tips for Success
 Hire good PR people (it is a good investment
but also try for pro bono opportunity)
 Recruit a spokesperson
 Create strong relationships with journalists
 Write your own ideal story
 Focus on relevant media
 Think about who is your audience and how
best to target them
 Press releases should include key terms (for
search engines) and have long shelf life

18. Social Enterprise Tips for Success
 Profit maximization not always best strategy
for non-profits
 Can’t afford to lose clients – negative mission
impact
 Loss of clients can have adverse affect on grants
received because clients served often a metric
 Sometimes appropriate pricing structure can’t
cover costs but still could make sense if
mission-related

19. Amos House WORKS
More
Than
a
Meal
Amos
House
Builds
Friendship
Café
Amos
House
Bakes

20. Amos House Works
Overview of the Businesses
Date Current Projected Projected
Started Employees Revenues Deficit
MTAM 2004/05 11 $555,000 $78,000
Spring ‘10 $196,000 $92,000
CAFE 7
Fall ‘09 $145,000 $32,000
AHB 6-7

21. More Than A Meal

22. More Than A Meal
Plant & Equipment -- Crossroads Kitchen, 3 vans, 1
administrative office at Friendship Street
Organization -- 1 Exec Chef, 1 Schools Coordinator, 1
Catering Assistant, 7 “externs,” new Business Manager
Sales divisions -- Institutional and Catering (roughly 50/50
Institutional --Schools, camps and shelters. School
revenue is about $245,000. Schools are Gordon, Bishop
Connolly HS, Cornerstone, Community Prep, St. Lukes, Our
Lady of Fatima, All Saints Academy, and South Providence
Neighborhood Ministries.
Catering -- Dominated by sales to non-profits ($135,000;
almost 100 accounts). Weakest area is sales to corporate/
business customers (less than 20 accounts, and only 5
accounts over $1000/year)

23. Social Conscience

24. Friendship Café

25. Friendship Cafe
 Purchased Café property in SWAP mixed-use
development in late winter 2009/10; restaurant build-out
financed by grants
 “Soft” opening with limited hours in May
 New Business Manager (Robb DeSimone) with extensive
restaurant experience hired in June. Robb has initiated
menu expansion, Amos House Bakes, weekend brunch
hours, pharmaceutical rep orders.
 Café traffic still far below initial estimates
 Quality control, training and supervision still not at the right
level, but improving

26. Multiple Bottom Lines
Our Friendship Café has
expanded on two levels:
Amos House Bakes was
created as a small
subdivision of the Cafe and
serves as part of our
curriculum with interns
learning baking skills as well
as offering a new source of
products for our breakfast
sales.

27. Amos House Builds

28. Amos House Builds
 Launched in Fall 2009, but put on hold because of
high turnover and tough market conditions
 Re-launched in May 2010 with Dean Martineau, an
experienced local contractor
 Sales have been steady at around $10,000 per
month since June; mostly residential painting and
carpentry repair work
 Some initial turnover among trainees, but current
crew of 5 men working well since July
 Current assets include two trucks, a small supply of
tools and ladders, and a storage bin of materials at
Friendship Street

29. Stepping Stone Employment
Amos House Builds, like our other
businesses, hires graduates from
our training programs into
“stepping stone” positions.
These positions help our
graduates gain “real-world”
experience on the job while still
having full access to all of our
support systems and additional
training.

30. Success
Eventually, graduates from our
programs complete their time
working for our businesses and
move on to jobs with private
companies and organizations,
opening up positions in our
businesses for new graduates.
Some of our graduates are
employed at high end restaurants,
restaurant chains, construction
companies, and landscape
companies among other fields of
employment. We consider them our
success stories.

31. Social Enterprise
and the
Amos House Model

32. Find the listings for our current season of webinars
and register at
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Chris Dumas
Chris@NonprofitWebinars.com
707-812-1234
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