CASEconnection, Durham : Newsletter for February 2007
CASE Revamps Website
Visit CASE at www.caseatduke.org to see our recently refurbished website, with a new layout, more intuitive and user-friendly design, and updated information. Be sure to update any bookmarks you may have to old web pages!
CASE Senior Research Scholar Paul Bloom Releases Case Study on Scaling Social Impact
A new case by CASE Senior Research Scholar Paul Bloom, spotlights North Carolina based Girls on the Run International.
Abstract: Girls on the Run International oversees an educational program that puts pre-teen girls through a 12-week curriculum that uses running-related activities to teach self-respect and healthy living habits. From its start in 1996 as a small, after-school activity with 13 girls from Charlotte, North Carolina, Girls on the Run grew to deliver its program to over 40,000 girls per year by 2006, connecting to them through over 140 affiliates (or councils) that operate at hundreds of sites throughout the United States and Canada. The program has received numerous awards and recognitions, and evaluations of its efforts have indicated that graduates of the program have improved their self-esteem and formed more positive attitudes about healthy eating and physical activity. The case describes the mix of strategies that Girls on the Run International employed to scale to where it was in 2006, while also identifying the challenges the organization faced in trying to scale further. Particular attention is paid to the ecosystem in which the organization operated, identifying the different players and forces in that system that must be leveraged and accommodated for successful scaling of the organizations social impact to occur.
Download the “Girls on the Run” Case (“.pdf” format)
“How Marketing Thinking Can Help Social Entrepreneurs”
CASE Senior Research Scholar Paul Bloom writes an article for caseplace.org, a website run by the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program.
Abstract: ” Social Entrepreneurship has become a hot field. Inspirational stories about pioneers like Mohammad Yunus, the Nobel-prize-winning founder of the Grameen Bank’s micro-finance program, and Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America’s program that recruits recent college graduates to teach in inner-city schools, have sparked interest in how others can be encouraged to launch and manage innovative ventures that have significant social impact. Philanthropists and investors, many of whom were successful business entrepreneurs, are now supporting foundations (e.g., Skoll, Case) and nonprofits (e.g., Ashoka, Civic Ventures) that identify, fund, and advise social entrepreneurs. In response, students, restless executives, second-career seekers, and academic scholars are flocking to study and join this booming field. As they look to scale up and increase their impact, social entrepreneurs are not finding very much academic research to guide them.”
Read the full piece here: http://www.caseplace.org/references/
references_show.htm?doc_id=444780
Email – eiserloh@duke.edu