Happy new year!  2010 has kicked off and I greet this new year with a renewed sense of the challenges we face and of the potential we imagine.  As we at Criterion Ventures seek solutions and look for strength, it is fitting to share three directions in the coming year that are shaping our sense of the possible:

Community organizing as market formation.  We know we can use markets to scale social change. But at times we assume markets are invisible hands moving goods and services. The reality is that enabling functional markets, as microfinance has taught us, is a very local activity. Markets are built one transaction at a time through the trust of individuals who believe the exchange is valid. We find this trust shaken in the US healthcare system, particularly in what we call the cash market in healthcare. To rebuild our healthcare system we need more than national reforms, we need to rebuild very local markets based in trust. To rebuild these community level systems we need to reclaim some of the fundamental practices of community organizing.

Social enterprises/entrepreneurs creating constituencies.  A few months back I was at an event for donors at my mother’s seminary. I’m a big fan of my mom but I sat in awe and growing envy as 200 donors, dubbed champions of the school, gave ovation after ovation. In the world of social enterprise/entrepreneurship, we don’t build champions. Sure, we have award programs that allow us to honor each other. But who are our champions? Smart nonprofits build constituencies through donor relations. “Sustainable” social change organizations do not rely on  philanthropy. For those of us who don’t actively fundraise, how do we cultivate the crowds who care, who give meaningful gifts, and who believe that the work we do is worth showing up for?

Engagement in the face of uncertainty.  We live in uncertain times - financial crisis, environmental degradation, political strife. There were moments when I simply wanted to close the door and tiptoe quietly away from 2009. Countless wonderful things happened, but it was a hard year for so many of us. The challenges of last year were not isolated. We live with fragility day to day. The tragedy in Haiti reminds us of the uncertainty in our world. What are the strategies that allow us to respond, to stand up again and continue working for a better world?

Our commitment this year as a company is to even more fervently seek engagement in the face of uncertainty. To take down a few more barriers and make Criterion Ventures a more porous organization. To engage more fully with our friends and comrades. To relearn how to rely on others, ask for help, engage and then engage more. It is through these intimate invitations, when we are most vulnerable, that we truly find the sustainable practices that create a better world.

Blessings for the new year, Joy

As guests arrive for the holiday season, I am thinking a lot about family structures and how we do invitation. Questions like:  How is family defined? What do we want our holiday experience to bring? Who is best to play host or provide the food? How will gifts be given and received? Which traditions will we honor and create anew?  Families are wonderful, complicated and dynamic examples of systems or structures. And, even within our families, the invitations we offer and accept inform what is possible and what we create.

How we invite family into our holidays is akin to how we invite people into our vision for social change. The invitation is not just to come and listen, but to come and be a part of creating something. Constituencies form around needs and issues; innovators gather believers and supporters; and structure transforms these gatherings into effective entities -a new company, a non-profit effort, a government project, etc. It is through relationships that ideas are born, partners recruited, funds raised, projects executed and problems solved.   

Elegant structure happens at the nexus of disciplined thought and creative possibility, and is formed and reinforced through authentic invitation into relationships. After all, entities are basically made up of assets and relationships.  Structures are created to manage these assets and relationships, and to turn vision into action. As we ready to greet the new year, ask yourself - who do you want to invite into your life's work?  What is the structure that will nurture and sustain your relationships? What is the family you will gather around your dreams?  

Warmest wishes to you and yours this holiday season – and a happy new year.

Blessings, Joy

That thing, that thing, that thing.
That thing, that thing, that thing.

You a social venture dude, but you don’t know what to do.
Trying to set it up right, there's so much to figure out that's new.
Capital formation, exit strategy. Mission insurance, now what's it gonna be?
Getting straight your vision, that's surely hard enough.
Damn, how on earth can you put it together tough?

Now know that you gotta friend, who always be on your side.
We at Criterion Ventures, gonna help to ease your ride.
It’s Structure Labs we doin, hybrid structures we'll lay out.
There’s twenty now to choose from, that's what this all about.
C3s, joint ventures, LLCs.  Steward councils, L3Cs we'll all be shoutin out.

We gonna lay it out in a happenin day-long gig, so you can figure out just how you can go big.
Help you get your money, your mission and your ease.
And set it up so you never gotta sell your venture to the sleaze.
I mean what's the point of all this do-gooder sh*t?
If it don't do what you want or you end up losing it?

That thing, that thing, that thing.
That thing, that thing, that thing.

Understand we ain't doing this alone, we got homies knocking at the door.
SVNers be hostin these gigs, gonna give our experts all the floor.
Perlman&Perlman got us to New York City, dang that Alan Bromberger he sure is pretty.
Hanson Bridget hooked us up to hit the Bay, with lovely Teresa Paul she gonna make my day.

These Structure Labs is coming to a city right near you. 
We got ten towns now with many more to do.
So hit this gig yourself with your people and your posse.   
And shout it on out for the whole community to see.
Cause we trying to do our bit, to advance your social venture.
What a crazy ride, what a wild as* adventure.

That thing, that thing, that thing.
That thing, that thing, that thing.

Criterion Ventures represents a certain breed of social change organizations that shape markets, builds fields, and accelerate social change.  Organizations like Criterion play the role of connective tissue, we step into the boundaries between sectors, between the lines of established approaches to social change. We use networks of relationships to manage intersections across traditional boundaries. As a result of playing in the margins, we are able to find the unexpected synergies, spark innovation through unique connection, reframe issues and advance the market.

You may know the type but we find you can’t quite define the category. We are accelerators, facilitators, mavens, network weavers, intermediaries, connectors. Criterion is working with several colleagues to define this field-building, market formation role. What are the sustainable business models for this role: consulting, technical assistance, brokering transactions, conferences, gifts and grants? Which work in what circumstances? What are the methods that have the greatest impact? How do we measure effectiveness when outcomes can’t be defined in near term value or outputs of individuals served? How do we strengthen this function within the social change marketplace? How do we accelerate the accelerators?

Over the last 8 years of Criterion we have learned a lot about playing this role. We start with the fundamental assumption that the world is already connected and our role is to make the connections visible.  We ground our daily work in the values of grace, hospitality and invitation. We believe hospitality is about welcoming the stranger, knowing the stranger will change you.  We’re obsessed with the practices of invitation. The practices behind our values have shaped a rich network of social change actors that cross large nonprofits, faith-based institutions, impact investing, social enterprise, women’s philanthropy, aging, healthcare, education, energy, poverty. Because we have a systems viewpoint, we find value in relationships that cross sectors, in surprising people, in having access where those focused on a single market do not. 

In the end, our business is about launching social ventures that respond to complex social systems and as a result accelerate innovations. Half of the time, we are playing the role of consultant, helping organizations launch their ventures, and half the time we are stepping out on our own to launch ventures that shape markets. That is Criterion’s answer to a business model for the accelerator role. We see the potential for a gender lens in social investing and launch Women Effect Investments, we redefine a conversation medical debt in United States as a poorly formed “cash market” in health care and launch a financial services company to respond, we see the gaps in scaling social enterprises and help form Good Capital. We, like others and with other others, step out and build the bridges. In our case, those bridges take the form of new ventures that shape markets.

Ours is but one set of practices that accelerate social change, that shape social systems and that create innovations in the margins. Bridge building is powerful stuff, rife with possibility, proven to work. How do we better define the practices and outcomes of this role and ensure that we have sustainable organizations playing this role, creating collaborations and redefining possibilities?

Joy

Our world is a Kaleidoscope. With a twist and a new way of viewing the seeming chaos, we find the thing, the person, the place, the idea, the pattern that can create systemic change. A little confusing at times, but ever beautiful. At Criterion, we identify, examine and solve systemic social problems on a large scale by launching social ventures, for clients or on our own. We work across disciplines and sectors with large nonprofits, faith-based institutions, foundations and individuals to develop solutions in areas like impact investing, social enterprise, women’s philanthropy, aging, healthcare, education, energy, poverty and more. It is a jumble of inspiring people, ideas, and innovations that shape, color and define our world.

We've just launched a new communication, Kaleidoscope. We’re adding this to keep us better connected to you and your interests, help to share the incredible stories of real impact on the ground and offer opportunities for you to participate in our vision of launching social ventures from within the kaleidoscope. At Criterion, we believe that social change comes from a community of caring individuals and this Thanksgiving we are grateful to count you a member of our community. Thank you.

It is our hope that you will enjoy a regular update of news, upcoming activities, opportunities and insights.  Please email benghiat@criterionventures.com to subscribe. 

Joy

An invitation is a promise: if you participate you can expect these outcomes. Buy this and you can trust the product. Sign on to this and your name will be used for good.  From the very beginning of Criterion, the promise we have made as we invite people to view, shape and shift our colorful world is a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship for greater good.

It is through careful invitation and hospitality that Criterion brings together the people and organizations that can change the world. We insure that the invitation is authentic. The ancient definition of hospitality is about welcoming the stranger, knowing that the stranger will challenge and change you. Criterion places invitation at the heart of our work because we believe fundamentally that social change is a process done by connected networks of caring individuals. Our network isn’t comprised of a single market, it’s an open network where we have real conversations with people about inspiration, innovation and action. We manage intersections across traditional boundaries of sector, market, religion and identity. We find inspiration in the relationships that cross sectors and in the surprising people, the ones that might not seem to fit. We value relationships rooted in innovation, exchange of ideas and expanding connections.

Hospitality creates and protects a place for everyone to engage. At Criterion, we think about hospitable places, and ways that we can welcome a diversity of voices and outlooks. We value the opportunity to be changed by you, to have our outlook changed through conversation, openness and honesty. Through hospitality we let people know that they have been invited, and that they are valued for the whole of who they are.

At our signature Convergence events, members of our network come together to create connection, find inspiration, and spark new solutions that will create a better world.  Our upcoming Convergence is built around The Power of Invitation.

I'd be honored if you would join us.

Criterion Convergence VIII:
The Power of Invitation
The Desmond Tutu Center
180 10th Ave, New York, NY 10011
March 14-16, 2010
Click here to register.

Joy