The Washington Global Health Fund awarded two grants to two Washington-based companies making an impact across the “bottom billion” around the world. $120,000 was granted to BURN Design Lab, the non-profit sibling of BURN Manufacturing, one of the Fledge “fledglings” from this summer. According to Peter Scott, founder of BURN, this funding will permit BURN Design Lab to...
A big THANK YOU to all the applicants for the Winter 2013 program. It is amazing the breadth of “conscious” ideas that exist around the world. That breadth was augmented by applications from over a dozen countries worldwide, plus a similar number of US states and Canadian provinces. In fact, what is quite nice to see in this latest round of applications are the number of applicants...
It takes far more than a business incubator to create a thriving ecosystem…
More money than ever is flowing into impact investing, yet many entrepreneurs creating companies that serve the poor still find it difficult to raise capital, particularly at the early stages of their company’s growth. (Originally posted on the Stanford Social Innovation Review) Husk Power Systems, a growing social business, burns rice husks to generate power and provide electricity to low...
The past month in Seattle has seen an incredible surge of efforts around sustainable, conscious, impactful business. Showcased across four events, more than four dozen emerging, impactful, social enterprises have shared their stories with the city and with the world. The tsunami of activity began on September 23rd at the Fledge “Demo Day”, where seven “fledgling” companies shared their visions...
Fledge is exceedingly happy to announce today that it has received certification as a B Corporation. What exactly is a B Corporation? These are companies which realize that capitalism can be a force of good in the world. Companies that can be a benefit to the world. The “B” in B Corporation stands for “benefit”. These are companies which believe that shareholder values...
Seven inspiring companies with the potential impact to improve the lives of billions… to save millions of lives… to make it easy to share and reuse the planet’s limited resources… to make it easy for us to share our time with those in need… to recreate the world where we know our neighbors… and to work with those neighbors to create the world we want to live in...
This month begins a tsunami of social entrepreneurship: #SocEnt Weekend, Fledge “Demo Day“, and Social Innovation Fast Pitch (SIFP).
The mobility of Americans over the past six decades has led to huge cultural changes, with the norm now for Americans to move every five or so years, and with those moves, to have friends scattered across multiple states. The rise of email, instant messaging, and most recently, social networking, it is become commonplace for Americans to connect to those friends online. Meanwhile… as we spend...
Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charities last year (2011). That is almost $1,000 per person, and surveys show almost 90% of that giving was by individuals, with those individuals consisting of 67% of the total U.S. population. Meanwhile… in the same year, 64 million Americans volunteered their time, just shy of 25% of the total population. Why do more Americans give away their money vs...