Ulrike Schuermann is an experienced international consultant & social profit coach. Her main areas of focus are: corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, business and human rights, income development for social profits.Archive for the ‘philanthropy’ Category
“together we can change our world”
Minister Kate Ellis and Mia Freedman at the launch
When most people think Girl Guides they probably don’t think of progressive girls and young women who play a significant advocacy role in local and global issues?
Well, think again everybody!
This is precisely what the 10 million members of the world’s largest volunteer organisation for girls and young women do, with memberships across 145 countries including Australia.
As their Global Action Theme, girls worldwide say: “Together we can change our world”. This theme is based on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). An activity pack supports the curriculum and helps children and young women to learn about the MDG’s and, most importantly, to take action on the issues that affect them and their communities. Read the rest of this entry »
the girl effect
On the 8 March 2011 we are celebrating the centennary of International Women’s Day – a good occasion to remind us of the plight of girls around the world.
Did you realise that currently:
- women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, produce half the world’s food, and yet earn only 10 % of the world’s income and own less than 1% of the world’s property?
- women make up 70% of the worlds 1.3 billion people who live in poverty?
- women over the age of 15 in the least developed countries are twice as likely to be illiterate than men.
The solution? Read the rest of this entry »
from social investment to social return on investment
a social enterprise????
I recently attended the inaugural ”Social Return Forum” put together by a colleague of mine, Oliver Wagg of New Climate for the 3 Pillars Network.
Concepts like social investment, social return on investment and a social investment market are much talked about lately by social investors, social entrepreneurs, those generating social profits and intermediaries alike and seem to have gone mainstream – and for good reasons:
- We all want and need to know if our efforts are making a difference to the issues we are trying to address.
- This evidence base to inform further investment has been missing in large parts of the social sector.
- Evidence of social returns is instrumental for those investing funds in social issues and who are convincing others of the merit of these investment.
To state the obvious and track back a little – we are hungry for alternative approaches to welfare funding and need evidence about whether approaches work or not. Read the rest of this entry »