Rightly or wrongly when someone first told me about Volontariat I had some real misgivings about going to visit them. The thought of people in Belgium and France sponsoring children made me doubt that the organisation could actually be empowering it beneficiaries to take control of their lives, I had visions of sad advertising campaigns being run in Europe and people having their heart strings tugged like so many charities do, also how many people could the organisation help through sponsorship alone and how on earth was it a sustainable model.

Well, I have to say that I was totally wrong. I still have questions about the charity model and the organisations sustainability, I feel that there is still more that can be done to generate income and also help their beneficiaries to get the most out of the services on offer.

Ok lets look at what it was that changed my mind….
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I am currently in India visiting and working with a range of social projects. I will be putting some information up about the projects that I am visiting, starting with the Indian Council for Child Welfare.

ICCW is a non-profit non-government organisation that is committed to ensuring that children’s basic human rights are protected within the state of Tamil Nadu.

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Fast Company (an American magazine charting innovation in business) have annouced the winners of their 2008 Social Capitalist Awards. The Awards were given to 45 non-profit and 10 for-profit world leading social enterprises. You can read in depth case studies on the each of the social enterprises.

You can also find a series of interviews and articles about the changing world of social enterprises today. Several of the interviews explore the merging world of the non-profit and for-profit sectors. Bill Drayton, founder and CEO of Ashoka, talks about the importance of social investment which is echoed by Brian Walker, president and CEO of Herman Miller, a Furniture company. Brian states that by getting a good return on capital, a social enterprise will attract further investment and gain more resources with which they can do do more with. By generating profit social enterprises can ensure their sustainability, can earn the respect of the business sector becoming a major influencer of the actions of other businesses, which in turn generates greater social impact.

To read more about it click on the link: http://www.fastcompany.com/social/