NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, June 23, 2016

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Many social enterprises address similar problems afflicting the global poor—such as lack of access to drinking water or to clean, affordable energy—with highly localized solutions. But could the best solutions be better replicated across regions or industries, helping lift more people out of poverty more quickly? What if, for instance, a safe drinking water business validated in one location could be reproduced and introduced to other geographic regions that also lack potable water?

To help answer such questions, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jon Freeman has given $1.5 million to Santa Clara University’s Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship to explore the best ways to replicate effective social business models.

“Social enterprises participating in Miller Center’s Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI®) programs emerge with substantiated and scalable business models. But to meaningfully address the pressing problems of poverty, we need to amplify the scaling process by working on multiple successful business models in parallel, reproducing and launching them in other geographic regions,” said Thane Kreiner, executive director of Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship.