Mindful Metropolis September 2009 : Page 22
Change to the city By ChrIstIna galoozIs The economy may be down, but the number of social enterprises is up. Way up. According to B Lab, a non-profit that supports social entrepre- neurship, purpose-driven companies in the United States have grown to 30,000 strong and repre- sent $40 billion in revenue. Roughly 11 percent of professionally managed assets (or $2.71 trillion) are invested in them, according to the trade group Social Investment Forum. In case you’re unsure what a social enterprise is, consider this definition: “distinct from a company that sees value in creating new markets, a social venture finds value in transformational change that benefits society at large.” In other words, a former teacher who makes chemical-free cloth- ing made by American hands. A pair of friends who sell allergy-free, vegan ice cream (and only throw out one bag of trash each month while doing it). A reverend who funds his homeless shelter through a for-profit bakery. A healthcare consultant who gives a voice to patients in their doctor’s office. And, a pair of friends building a website that links small donors to worthy causes. Bringing transformational These five social entrepreneurs are making a difference in Chicago—one T-shirt, sundae, cupcake, survey and donation at a time Elizabeth Rangel, 33 Blissful Seed 55 W. Grant Place, Chicago blissfulseed.com Launched: May 2008 PHOTO: CHRISTINA GALOOZIS The Carbon-Free Clothes Maker After teaching for almost 10 years on the North Shore, I decided I wanted to become my own boss and do something socially significant with clothes. At the time I couldn’t find many clothes that were made domestically from organic ma- terials, and practically none with innovative, modern designs. So I created Blissful Seed, a T-shirt company that incorpo- rates sustainability in every part of the process, including the designs by my husband, Hugo. Our T-shirts are made with 100 percent organic cotton, which means the farm does not use genetically modified seed and employs U.S. workers for manual labor. Convention- al cotton T-shirts use one-third of a pound of insecticides— none is used in ours. I also try to minimize the company’s carbon footprint; for example, the T-shirt tags are made within 100 miles of the manufacturer in the South, making for less pollution in transit. Using domestic materials and labor completely cuts pollution from any overseas shipping. Blissful Seed is different from other organic apparel compa- nies. We are intimately involved in Chicago’s eco-conscious community by selling the T-shirts at green farmer’s markets and working with non-profits to provide them with a more socially responsible alternative to conventional T-shirts. We strive to be people-oriented with our products. The T-shirts are sold online only right now, but within one year I want to open a 100 percent sustainable store—from the lighting to the building materials. A Michigan Avenue store is tempting, but I’m also looking in Wicker Park and Humboldt Park. Chicago is an exciting place to be—its his- tory is that immigrants (like my parents, who are from Ecua- dor) really succeeded here. I want to be that kind of leader and make a positive impact in the sustainable community. 22 september 2009
Bringing Transformational Change To The City
Christina Galoozis
These five social entrepreneurs are making a difference in Chicago — one T-shirt, sundae, cupcake, survey and donation at a time.
The economy may be down, but the number of social enterprises is up. Way up. According to B Lab, a non-profit that supports social entrepreneurship, purpose-driven companies in the united states have grown to 30,000 strong and represent $40 billion in revenue. Roughly 11 percent of professionally managed assets (or $2.71 trillion) are invested in them, according to the trade group social investment Forum.
In case you’re unsure what a social enterprise is, consider this definition: “distinct from a company that sees value in creating new markets, a social venture finds value in transformational change that benefits society at large.” in other words, a former teacher who makes chemical-free clothing made by American hands. A pair of friends who sell allergy-free, vegan ice cream (and only throw out one bag of trash each month while doing it). A reverend who funds his homeless shelter through a for-profit bakery. A healthcare consultant who gives a voice to patients in their doctor’s office. And, a pair of friends building a website that links small donors to worthy causes.
The Carbon-Free Clothes Maker
After teaching for almost 10 years on the north shore, I decided I wanted to become my own boss and do something socially significant with clothes. At the time I couldn’t find many clothes that were made domestically from organic materials, and practically none with innovative, modern designs. So I created Blissful Seed, a t-shirt company that incorporates sustainability in every part of the process, including the designs by my husband, Hugo.
Our T-shirts are made with 100 percent organic cotton, which means the farm does not use genetically modified seed and employs U.S. workers for manual labor. Conventional cotton t-shirts use one-third of a pound of insecticides— none is used in ours. I also try to minimize the company’s carbon footprint; for example, the T-shirt tags are made within 100 miles of the manufacturer in the south, making for less pollution in transit. Using domestic materials and labor completely cuts pollution from any overseas shipping.
Blissful seed is different from other organic apparel companies. We are intimately involved in Chicago’s eco-conscious community by selling the T-shirts at green farmer’s markets and working with non-profits to provide them with a more socially responsible alternative to conventional t-shirts. We strive to be people-oriented with our products.
The T-shirts are sold online only right now, but within one year I want to open a 100 percent sustainable store—from the lighting to the building materials. A Michigan Avenue store is tempting, but I’m also looking in Wicker park and Humboldt park. Chicago is an exciting place to be—its history is that immigrants (like my parents, who are from Ecuador) really succeeded here. I want to be that kind of leader and make a positive impact in the sustainable community.
The vegan venture
While studying engineering at Purdue in the mid-1990s, I was surrounded by soybean fields and thought there was no better time to start my own natural foods company. I asked Dan, a fellow vegan, to run the business with me in Chicago, so I moved here in 2001 and Dan commuted three weekends a month until he moved from Indiana in 2004. We initially funded the business through my salaried job as an engineer for General Mills and Dan’s retirement package (at the age of 28) from Southern Bell.
Our first product was soy milk, which the two of us made in my Wheaton basement. We thought we were going to become a big soy milk company, get on the Oprah show and have all these Chicago housewives buy our product, and live happily ever after. It turns out there were other companies that could make soy milk a hell of a lot faster and cheaper than us, so when one of our customers asked if we made vegan ice cream, I said yes. We didn’t. But we figured it out, and now our temptation vegan ice cream is sold in hundreds of grocery stores and restaurants across the country.
We also make vegan marshmallows and cheese out of our 3,200-square-foot factory in Lombard, with 10 employees. We try to be socially conscious at every step. Since our area doesn’t offer solar power, we purchase credits to offset the impact of our electricity usage. Our products are also allergyfree, 90 percent gluten-free and made with Fair Trade Certified ingredients. Almost 100 percent of our incoming materials are reused or recycled, so we throw out only one trash bag every month. This year Chicago Soydairy will amass $1 million in sales. A small amount, but it’s bigger than we’ve ever been.
Creating jobs from cupcakes
I had been CEO of Chicago House, an agency that serves homeless men and women living with HIV and AIDS, for six years before i thought of the idea for Sweet Miss Givings.
The agency had received a $200,000 grant from Sen. Durbin that we used to start a five-week intensive job-training program for our clients. But, those who excelled in the program still couldn’t find jobs because they didn’t have enough skills, a high school degree or work experience. So with a $25,000 grant from the Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, we worked with Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management to launch Sweet Miss Givings, a commercial bakery that employs the program’s graduates for six-month paid internships. The stints provide them with real-life work experience for a better shot at long-term employment.
We originally wanted a neighborhood bakery, but decided to tap Chicago House’s more than 150 business donors for catering orders instead. Now the bakery, which has a 2,000-square-foot factory built from $1.5 million in raised funds, delivers 50 orders for cupcakes, brownies, scones, breads, muffins and the like every week. We also sell the baked goods through wholesalers such as Whole Foods and Green Grocer.(although we’re now looking to open a storefront in Lakeview or the Loop.) Altogether, Sweet Miss Givings generates $25,000 in sales each month, 49 percent of which is reinvested in the business and 51 percent of which funds Chicago House.
Sweet Miss Givings is a unique social enterprise in that Chicago House, whose job is to advance the social mission, owns 51 percent, and 49 percent is owned by for-profit investors who focus on the bottom line. Though the structure is legally expensive, we wanted to avoid one of the top reasons social businesses fail: spending too much time on the mission and not enough on turning a profit.
Do I consider myself a social entrepreneur? I’ve never even used the term, though I have dedicated almost three years of my life to getting the bakery started. We even perfected the recipes in my home.
Solving healthcare one survey at a time
I was working as a consultant to hospitals and free-standing imaging centers in 2004 when my business partner and I decided to update our clients’ archaic method of surveying patients—through the mail. The project brought me back to a business plan I wrote in graduate school for a website that posts patient-written reviews of OBGYNs to help women find a doctor. Combining these ideas, I created an electronic survey for patients to anonymously voice their comments and concerns, which doctors would then use to improve the quality of their care.
My partner didn’t have the stomach for investing in product development, so we amicably split later that year and I formed PatientImpact. The company now has more than 2,000 doctors and other outpatient providers using our electronic survey system, which is better for the environment and 10 times more effective than paper surveys. The physicians use the feedback (typically 30 to 50 completed surveys per doctor each month) to better interface with patients, shorten wait times, make sure the bathroom is clean, etc.—anything to improve the quality of care. Research shows that satisfied patients tend to follow doctor’s orders and get better faster than their counterparts, so we think we’re doing our part to lower the cost of healthcare.
We also offer nine training programs for doctors to act on the feedback they receive, such as telephone courtesy and how to handle patient complaints. We expect to hit $2 million in sales this year. In the future we may develop a consumer website where patients can rate and review doctors— of course, in collaboration with our customers in the spirit of healthcare reform and transparency. After all, that’s what it’s all about these days.
Where $5 funds a kidney transplant
I told a friend about my idea for GiveForward, a website that connects worthy causes with everyday donors, at a super Bowl party last year, and she surprisingly knew someone with the same idea. Ethan and I immediately hit it off on the phone, and he moved from California to Chicago a few months later to launch the business with me.
As an intern at a non-profit during Hurricane Katrina, I recognized the desire of average Americans to donate directly to afflicted families, and not through large organizations like the Red Cross. At the same time, Ethan had reached $6,000 through a personal fundraising Web page for his first marathon sponsored by st. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. With these personal experiences in mind, we wanted to give everyone with a credible cause—from transplant surgeries to mission trips—a place to collect small donations, even as little as $1, and reach their goal.
To start, Ethan and I were able to pool $50,000 in capital, which we spent entirely on site development, and GiveForward.org first went live on Aug. 14, 2008. We now generate revenue through the 3 percent fee charged to every fundraiser once they reach their goal, as well as Google Ads. People are generally honest, but we police the site for fraudulent behavior.
So far the site has done amazing things. The largest contribution has been $5,000 to help fund a local woman’s kidney transplant , which we’re happy to say was recently granted by the hospital for a reduced rate. Her sister raised a total of $32,000 on our site. We also sponsor “Fun for a Reason,” where runners can raise money through GiveForward for any cause and run the Chicago Half marathon and 5K together on Sept. 13.
Like our donations, we started out small. Our ultimate goal is to become something bigger—like the eBay for giving.
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