Social Venture Network
| Founded | 1987 |
|---|---|
| Location | San Francisco, California |
| Key people | Joshua Mailman & Wayne Silby, Co-Founders Deb Nelson, Executive Director |
| Focus | Sustainable Business |
| Method | Networking |
| Motto | Lead the Way |
| Website | http://www.svn.org |
Social Venture Network (SVN) is a nonprofit membership organization composed of socially responsible business leaders who are committed to creating a more just and sustainable world. Founded in 1987 by Joshua Mailman and Wayne Silby, SVN encompasses nearly 500 national and international leaders of both for-profit and non-profit sustainable enterprises. Those in the for-profit space are also recognized as companies dedicated to a triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit.
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[edit] Events
Social Venture Network hosts two annual conferences, a member gathering on the West Coast in Spring and an open conference on the East Coast in Fall, in addition to nationwide local gatherings held throughout the year.
[edit] Notable Members
Some notable past and current members of Social Venture Network include:
Eileen Fisher- Eileen Fisher, Inc.
Gary Erickson- Clif Bar
Ben Cohen- Ben and Jerry's
Gary Hirshberg- Stonyfield Farm
Margo Fraser- Birkenstock
Amy Domini- Domini Social Investments
Paul Hawken- Smith & Hawken
Jeffrey Hollender- Seventh Generation Inc.
Adam Lowry- Method
Wayne Silby Calvert
Anita Roddick- The Body Shop
Dominique Conseil- Aveda
[edit] Innovation Awards
SVN's Innovation Awards began in 2007 as a way to provide scholarships through its Bridge Project to emerging social entrepreneurs to help scale and expand their impact. Honorees have included TerraCycle, Back to the Roots, Revolution Foods, World of Good, Root Capital, and Green for All, among others. Several of the Innovation Awards winners have also been honored as Echoing Green Fellows, Hitachi Foundation Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneurs, White House Champions of Change[1], and have been listed on the Forbes Impact 30[2].
[edit] Sister Organizations
SVN has been identified as inspiration and catalyst for several other successful organizations in the business ethics and corporate social responsibility spheres, including B Lab, Investors' Circle, Net Impact, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), Social Enterprise Alliance (SEA), Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), and Bainbridge Graduate Institute.[3]
[edit] Resources
[edit] Book Series
In 2004, SVN began a partnership with publishers, Berrett-Koehler to create the SVN Book Series. The books are written by SVN members as practical guides to starting and growing a socially responsible business. The books have been made available in paperback, PDF, and Kindle versions and are priced between $10-$17 each.[4]
[edit] Social Venture Institutes
Founded in 1996 by Gary Hirshberg, President and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, Social Venture Institutes are offered twice each year as a forum in which business and nonprofit leaders may receive expert advice and mentoring to overcome pressing challenges and to explore ways to succeed.
[edit] Esalen
The Esalen Institute was founded in 1962 as an alternative educational center devoted to the exploration of what Aldous Huxley called the "human potential." In 2011, Social Venture Network began its partnership with Esalen to offer a series of workshops on conscious business practices, designed to help business professionals lead with passion, insight and authenticity.
[edit] Sustainability
The Social Venture Network office is located in the Presidio of San Francisco, California in the Thoreau Center for Sustainability and is a Certified Green Business. SVN publishes tools and best practices for including B Corp Certification, as well as a Sustainable Shopping Guide.
[edit] References
- ^ "From Senioritis to Sustainable Solutions". http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/08/08/senioritis-sustainable-solutions.
- ^ "Forbes' List of the Top 30 Social Entrepreneurs". http://www.forbes.com/impact-30/lander.html.
- ^ Hollender, Jeffrey and Stephen Fenichell, What Matters Most: How a Small Group of Pioneers is Teaching Social Responsibility to Big Business, and Why Big Business is Listening, Basic Books, 2004
- ^ "Home Page". SVN Books. http://www.svnbooks.com. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Conscious Manager - Balance in business and life. Online magazine
- SVN's YouTube Channel
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