Collaboration

At the August meeting of the Social Enterprise Network, the group discussed Collaboration. 

Scott Russell from MinnPost covered last month's Network in his article, Nonprofit entrepreneurs ponder joint website to boost business. 

Resources Mentioned in the Discussion

Factors for Success

  • Organized network of stakeholders
  • Critical mass of social enterprises
  • Ability to provide added-value/help to the consumer
    • Convienent access
    • One stop shop/online ordering
    • User friendly - especially for the end-user/consumer
  • Raise awareness
    • Social enterprise in general
    • Role in Minnesota's nonprofit community
    • Individual enterprises and their products and services
  • Positively impact triple bottom line

Questions to Consider

  • How to collaborate most effectively to increase collective sales
    • How do we benefit individual organizations and the network as a whole
    • How to best meet the needs of larger or more established organizations as well as smaller ones
  • Membership
    • What are the bounds of of participation?
      • Application and/or vetting process
        • Is there a definition of an industry standard
        • Nonprofit status
      • Services vs products
      • Geographic range
        • Twin Cities
        • Minnesota
    • Is there a fee to join?

Marketing

  • Need for increased visibility, which entails higher costs
    • Most organizations do not have additional marketing dollars, especially in this economy
  • Who is the primary audience?
    • Corporations
    • Individual consumers
    • Government
  • Should there be fees for customers to access?

Takeaways

  • Definining the portal/delivery mechanism is a separate question from identifying the market and then their needs.
  • Must create demand/incentive for services - appeal to customers' self-intertest