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Miller Center & Alphamundi Foundation Partner to Accelerate Scaling for High-Performing Enterprises

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 28, 2023 – Designed to support and scale high-performing enterprises for maximum social and environmental impact, Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship and AlphaMundi Foundation (AMF) today announced a partnership bringing together two respected leaders in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The partnership builds on AMF’s expertise in gender and climate investing to provide structured blended finance products to scale small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa and Latin America, combined with Miller Center’s leadership in accelerating social enterprises.

The two organizations will work together to scale enterprises by sharing knowledge and resources, in addition to seeking opportunities for co-investment and pipeline sharing across their respective networks.

“By joining forces and referring impactful enterprises to each other’s networks, we can help businesses explore new opportunities, gain access to capital, and expand beyond their current markets,” said Ladé Araba, executive director, AlphaMundi Foundation. “This can provide opportunities for growth and help businesses to become more competitive and bring economic benefits to their communities.”

During the two-year partnership, Miller Center will reserve spots for up to five qualified AMF-referred social enterprises per year in its globally recognized accelerator programs. It will also identify and prepare Santa Clara University interns to support AMF’s work. Additionally, Miller Center will recommend social entrepreneurs who have successfully completed its accelerator programs to AMF for investment consideration.

AMF commits to participating in Miller Center mock investor panels to provide social entrepreneurs with expert feedback. They will also consider co-funding Miller Center alumni enterprises in conjunction with Miller Center Invest, a funding vehicle designed to unlock and catalyze capital for social enterprises that are women-led or led by local leaders typically left behind in the investing ecosystem.

“Our organizations share a vision of what a more equitable, inclusive future looks like and support entrepreneurs as the innovators and agents of change to bring about this future,” said Brigit Helms, executive director, Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship. “Through our collaboration, we can reach a greater number of entrepreneurs and provide them with more seamless, integrated support leveraging our combined expertise and resources.”

Miller Center created the Community Partners Program to extend its reach and impact around the world by developing deeper connections across the social entrepreneurship ecosystem. Organizations participating in this program play an essential role in helping scalable social enterprises gain access to Miller Center’s global accelerator programs and for Miller Center alumni to access complementary services and capital from community partners.

AlphaMundi Foundation’s mission is to strengthen the commercial viability of SMEs in Africa and Latin America to drive economic transformation. It leverages financing and technical assistance to provide catalytic capital to facilitate follow-on private investment for the companies.

 

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About AlphaMundi Foundation

The AlphaMundi Foundation provides structured blended finance products (technical assistance, investment stage grants, concessional loans, first loss guarantees, and scaling capital) to scale SMEs in Africa and Latin America. The Foundation supports these companies to incorporate a gender lens and environmental sustainability to create attractive risk-adjusted returns and positive social outcomes.

About Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship

For over 25 years, Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship has been a leader in the global social enterprise movement. With an emphasis on climate resilience and women’s economic empowerment, Miller Center accelerates social entrepreneurship to end poverty and protect the planet. Located at Santa Clara University, the organization has served more than 1,300 social entrepreneurs based in over 100 countries that have impacted hundreds of millions of lives. Fusing the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley with the university’s heritage of social justice, community engagement, and global impact, Miller Center is guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Media ContactsRemove featured image

Hayley Mundeva, Communications Lead of the AlphaMundi Foundation, hayley.mundeva@alphamundi.ch

Rhonda Brauer, for Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, rhonda@rbrauerconsult.com, (310) 508-0426

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Guest Blog

Cycle Connect Lifts Smallholder Farmers Out of Poverty with Bicycle Loans and More

Guest Blog by Lucie Ellis, Marketing & Communications Intern, Beneficial Returns

Milly is a mother and farmer who lives in northern Uganda. Until 2019, Milly walked the long trek to the market as often as she could to sell her crops of corn and soybeans, yet her family still lived in poverty. Then, in 2019, she obtained a loan for a bicycle from social enterprise Cycle Connect. This allowed her to sell her crops at markets farther away at a higher price, go there more often, and carry more crops. Milly steadily raised her income, paid off her loan, and quickly requested a second loan for another bike. With a second bike, her kids now easily travel to school, the entire family has better access to healthcare, and Milly is making a steady income.

When Milly learned that Cycle Connect was offering products beyond bicycles, she was interested in a product that would help her grow her farming business. She obtained a loan for an ox and plow, which enabled her to till twice the amount of land, harvest twice the amount of crops, and do it in half the time. Milly’s new assets are allowing her to achieve her dreams. Her increased income is helping her grow her business, keep her kids in school, and save for the future. She is now contemplating a motorcycle loan from Cycle Connect.

Cycle Connect — a 2019 Miller Center graduate and participant in several alumni programs — helps farmers just like Milly to reach their goals. Today, the vast majority of farming families in Uganda lack access to basic agricultural tools. They can’t afford to buy these tools with cash, and securing credit is nearly impossible in rural areas. Cycle Connect fills this gap by financing products that boost farmer income while also offering them training in best practices for agriculture and basic business accounting. The company makes loans from $100 to $1,400 for as long as 20 months, which means farmers can comfortably afford to acquire assets that make big changes in their lives. Additionally, over 50% of clients are female smallholder farmers who are among the most financially excluded.

The Truss Fund provided Cycle Connect with a $150,000 loan to support its efforts to double its portfolio. Now more dreamers like Milly can send their children to school, grow their businesses, and live more comfortably, knowing that they have better access to resources that will lift them out of poverty.

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Photo: Milly riding the bicycle she bought with a loan from Cycle Connect.

This article originally appeared in the Truss Fund 2.0 Quarterly Update, August 2022.

The Truss Fund was created by Miller Center and Beneficial Returns, which manages the fund. It provides emergency loans to Miller Center social enterprise alumni that are employing market-driven solutions to end global poverty and protect the planet.

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Guest Blog

Truss Fund Investment Helps Teacher-Focused Social Enterprise Persevere

Guest blog by Ella Haley, Marketing & Communications Intern, Beneficial Returns

COVID has upended plenty of businesses, but few suffered the challenges that Inspiring Teachers (2018 Miller Center graduate) faced. Launched in 2011, and formerly known as LRTT, Inspiring Teachers matches seasoned teachers from high-resource countries such as the UK, Australia, and the US, with their counterparts in under-resourced regions in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for one-on-one teacher training. Revenue flowed from fees paid by the high-resource teachers for this mutually empowering travel and learning experience.

According to founder and CEO, Simon Graffy, “We were accustomed to obstacles in our business, but never did we expect that a pandemic would close schools throughout the world and make international travel nearly impossible.” Its clever business model became untenable in a matter of weeks. The hundreds of teachers who had signed up to travel in the summer of 2020 canceled their plans. In the spring of 2020, Inspiring Teachers went from a social enterprise on the rise to an organization fighting for survival.

A $50,000 emergency loan from Truss Fund 1.0, along with a matching facility from Open Road Alliance, gave the enterprise a second wind as the organization pivoted its business model to deliver impact and generate revenue in an entirely new way. Long-term plans for a library of video recordings and a mobile app suddenly became immediate priorities. Staffers who were experts in international travel arrangements quickly got up to speed on providing lessons by radio, educational materials via Whatsapp, and instructional videos on YouTube. What didn’t change was their commitment to improving educational outcomes for low-resource children through peer-based teacher training.

Rather than sell a summer of enrichment and adventure to teachers in the developing world, the Inspiring Teachers team switched to pitching Ministries of Education and development agencies that wanted to promote professional development for teachers. Contracts with the Ugandan government, along with emergency grants from philanthropists, kept the doors open at Inspiring Teachers.

The past two years have been painful ones for Inspiring Teachers: staff size has shrunk, and the remaining team is doing more while earning less than they were two years ago. Cash remains tight, and Truss Fund restructured its loan (along with Open Road Alliance) in recognition of the fact that it may be years before the organization can regain its financial footing.

This past summer, 95 teachers traveled abroad under the auspices of Inspiring Teachers. Most were encouraged by a recognition that the pandemic hurt all children academically, but disproportionately so in the developing world where Zoom lessons and laptops are impossible luxuries. The one-on-one training that resumed is now augmented by multimedia resources that grew out of the COVID crisis. Early indications are that next summer will be even stronger for teacher enrollment barring a major new outbreak.

It would be wonderful to report that Inspiring Teachers is on solid footing, its impact and financial health on an inexorable upswing. But life is messy, and the outcome is still very much unknown. Meanwhile, millions of children in the developing world deserve better education, and this fact continues to motivate the team at Inspiring Teachers to innovate and persevere.

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This article originally appeared in the Truss Fund 1.0 Quarterly Update, August 2022.

The Truss Fund was created by Miller Center and Beneficial Returns, which manages the fund. It provides emergency loans to Miller Center social enterprise alumni that are employing market-driven solutions to end global poverty and protect the planet.

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Whitepaper

Fostering the Impact of Social Entrepreneurs working on Climate Change in Africa

The African continent continues to be massively affected by climate change, driving its countries to be ever more sensitive to vital poverty-related needs like access to energy, water, and agriculture. Social entrepreneurship is one key answer to unlock sustainable development. African countries living with extreme poverty are the most vulnerable to climate change because those two scourges overburden their population. This means that many challenges await Africa given that the continent has 9 out of the top 10 countries with the highest poverty rate in the world.

Many sectors in Africa are in desperate need of support, and Miller Center sees social entrepreneurs as a key vector to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Read the full article, Fostering the Impact of Social Entrepreneurs working on Climate Change in Africa here.

Written by: Mialy Rasoanarivony, Atlas Corps Fellow C42 from Madagascar, who worked with Miller Center during 2021-22.

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Guest Blog

Solving Energy Poverty in Haiti, Earthspark Bridges Funding with Truss

Guest blog by Analiese Tisa, Marketing & Communications Intern, Beneficial Returns

Photo: Members of Fanm Vayant, an agricultural women’s cooperative in Les Anglais, Haiti, pictured with an electric-powered machine for agricultural processing that they adopted upon receiving electricity through EarthSpark, a Miller Center alum.

In Haiti, less than half of the population has access to electricity, making it the most energy-poor country in the Western hemisphere. The situation is especially pronounced in rural areas where electrification rates are below 15%. Rural households routinely spend up to $20 a month for candles, kerosene, and charcoal — a steep price for energy that is damaging to the environment and human health. With a vision to meet the needs of the rural poor and expand clean energy access, EarthSpark was founded in 2009.

Les Anglais, a coastal town in Haiti, is home to 27,000 people. It is also the first town with a microgrid system. When EarthSpark first started working in Les Anglais, it provided small household solar lights and efficient cookstoves as an alternative to candles, kerosene, and charcoal. In 2009 EarthSpark connected 14 people to the grid; by 2015, it had expanded its reach to over 2,000. Community members shared their desire for higher levels of cost-efficient power to energize not just homes but also businesses. These conversations sparked the creation of microgrids (community-sized electricity systems) which cut energy costs from 10% to only 2% of household income.

EarthSpark, a 2012 and 2018 Miller Center graduate, builds businesses to solve energy poverty. Since its inception, EarthSpark has brought clean energy to over 4,000 Haitians and launched two companies that each tackle a specific aspect of energy access. SparkMeter is a smart meter company that provides microgrid technology and services in over 25 countries. Enèji Pwòp (“Clean Energy” in Haitian Creole) brings solar energy to Haitian communities without access to the national grid and currently operates in the towns of Les Anglais and Tiburon. Under the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, both companies work toward achieving SDG 7: “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.”

EarthSpark prides itself on taking a human-centered approach by deeply assessing customers’ energy service needs and opportunities. It follows a model of “business accompaniment,” where the EarthSpark team works alongside businesses to unlock and expand their economic opportunities with the arrival of electricity. Additionally, EarthSpark takes a “feminist electrification” approach to infrastructure planning, ensuring that women’s voices, especially female business owners, are central throughout the planning and implementation of the electrification process.

Truss Fund’s recent $150,000 loan to EarthSpark will tide the enterprise over until it receives a substantial award from Green Climate Fund and other committed grants. This means the enterprise can continue to operate at full capacity and bring electricity to more Haitians without delay. Its long-term goal is to scale from two to 24 grids across Haiti. EarthSpark aims to bring reliable, high-quality electricity to over 80,000 people in the next four years.

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This article originally appeared in the Truss Fund 2.0 Quarterly Update, April 2022.

The Truss Fund was created by Miller Center and Beneficial Returns, which manages the fund. It provides emergency loans of up to $150,000 to Miller Center social enterprise alumni that are employing market-driven solutions to end global poverty and protect the planet.

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Guest Blog

Weaving Stories and Tradition

By Giancarlo De León Argueta, Marketing Intern

I’m a sophomore English major at Santa Clara University. In my role as a marketing intern for Miller Center, I had the pleasure of interviewing Antonio Nuño, CEO of Someone Somewhere. He visited Santa Clara for the April In-Residence to receive Miller Center’s Impact Excellence Award, where I had the opportunity to talk to him about his company’s sustainability and employment efforts during the pandemic. Antonio is down-to-earth and incredibly passionate about his work — focused on giving local artisans in Mexico the tools and chance they need to retain their traditional crafts while boosting their incomes. I appreciate the company’s brilliant work and am thankful for being able to share their story. I hope you enjoy it just as much as I did.

Launched in 2016 by longtime friends Antonio Nuño, Fátima Álvarez, and Enrique Rodríguez, Someone Somewhere has integrated environmentally conscientious and traditional techniques into beautiful and sensitive cultural products that generate sustainable work for its 400 artisans in Mexico’s poorest states. As Antonio states, “Our mission is to contribute to the welfare of artisans by integrating their traditional work in innovative products that generate consistent and equitable labor opportunities.” And that’s what Someone Somewhere is doing. A certified B Corporation on a mission to improve artisan wellbeing and empower its workforce of 98% women, Someone Somewhere’s creative and sustainable use of traditional techniques has brought rural artisans into the global market and provided labor opportunities for artisans in Puebla, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Hidalgo, and Estado de México. These opportunities provide steady and diversified income and improve local economies — increasing artisans’ monthly income by 300% and dedicating 30% of the product cost to their payment.

Someone Somewhere’s research and design teams work closely with the leaders of artisan communities to supply the artisans with quality materials — creating gorgeous and sustainable products whose utility doesn’t compromise their cultural significance. Artisans also report improved well-being, including increased self-esteem, reduced stress, and greater educational opportunities for their children. The B Corp’s commitment to creating a positive social impact for its workers and consumers also appeals to the conscientious millennial market. Antonio describes, “We are focusing on a particular lifestyle of exploring the world and connecting with the people of the world. This creates a good circle: the more you travel, the more you connect with the problems that exist.” Someone Somewhere’s approach to sustainability also contributes to its appeal. This year, the company joined other B Corps in committing to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. It has also integrated recyclable bags in stores to reduce its carbon footprint.

Someone Somewhere continued its positive impact during the pandemic. The company established an emergency fund for its artisans and expanded its B2B business to provide consistent work while keeping its workers safe from harm. Since 2020, Someone Somewhere has generated over 100,000 hours of work for its artisans and recently landed a contract creating environmentally-friendly amenity kits for Delta Airlines which will benefit more than 1,000 people from Mexican communities.

Antonio first connected with Miller Center in one of our 2015 social enterprise workshops in Mexico and has since participated in two accelerator programs and joined Miller Center’s Social Enterprise Advisory Council. This year, Someone Somewhere was awarded Miller Center’s Impact Excellence Award for its many contributions to alleviate poverty and build climate resilience. When discussing Miller Center, Antonio shared, “Miller Center’s constant support has been amazing. The quality of their mentors is really good. It’s people you’d normally never have access to, but here they give you a lot of their time, connections, and resources to help you build your brand and your company.”

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Videos

Funding Women Entrepreneurs: From Bias to Bonus

Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship and the School of Engineering’s Frugal Innovation Hub collaborated to explore the challenges (and a few viable solutions) for women and people of color raising capital for their businesses. Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship is the premier university-based social enterprise accelerator in the world, combining the innovation of social entrepreneurs, accompaniment of executive mentors, and passion and enthusiasm of Santa Clara University students to create proof points for business as a driving force for positive change. Frugal Innovation Hub engages Santa Clara University students and faculty in technological and humanitarian projects through partnerships and programs.

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Guest Blog

The Impact Investment Gap in West Africa

In summer 2021, Father Bossou Constant SJ, Miller Center Jesuit-in-Residence, spent time working with social enterprises in West Africa. These enterprises are all alumni of a 3-day Boost workshop that Miller Center delivered in partnership with West African Jesuits in 2017 and 2018. In conversation with Keith Warner, Miller Center’s Chief Learning Officer, Bossou shares his research and reflections. This is the third and final in a series of 3 articles. (Read the first 2 articles: Social Entrepreneurs Distinguish Themselves in West Africa and Navigating Social Entrepreneurship and the Pandemic in West Africa)

What is the state of impact investment in West Africa?

There are nearly no local impact investors in West Africa. The culture of impact investment is not even present in the understanding of social entrepreneurship in the region. Many social entrepreneurs don’t even see themselves as social entrepreneurs until someone explains to them that what they are doing is social entrepreneurship. Thus, they don’t seek impact investment for their social ventures.

They mostly, like any other entrepreneur in the region, turn to banks for loans. Unfortunately, those loans usually carry high interest rates (up to 15%). Most of the entrepreneurs I spoke to this summer have all tried to get bank loans. The bank requirements for getting loans do not allow some to get loans. Those that do get these bank loans get them with an interest rate that ranges from 10% to 15%. The best enterprises as rated by banks in West Africa can get as low as 7%, but rarely less than that. As an example, Africa Global Recycling, the Togolese social enterprise that specializes in collecting and selling plastic waste with average annual revenue of $260K, is in the process of securing an Ecobank loan with an interest rate as low as 7%.

Social entrepreneurs are rarely able to secure grants for their projects within their regions. Those who manage to get grants do so through international grant-making companies. Of all the alumni in West Africa, none of them have been able to secure a grant for the social impact they are making.

The concept of shareholding and equity investment is still at a baby stage in West Africa, probably because many social entrepreneurs in the region do not like the idea of sharing their companies with others. Only Foufoumix, our multi-million dollar company alumnus in West Africa was contemplating the idea, but later got an important loan instead.

What role might Miller Center play in this context?

Given the current focus on working with more advanced social enterprises, I recommend identifying those social entrepreneurs in West Africa who also speak English and working with them. Many social enterprises in West Africa are naturally women-led and/or organic agriculture/production related. They can benefit from the training offered by Miller Center and mentorship to connect with impact investors.

Training social entrepreneurs in West Africa is not the only solution to social entrepreneurship capacity development in West Africa. Impact capital culture is an even bigger challenge to take on. Most of our alumni in that part of the world have said they were not able to find any local impact capital fundraising opportunities. And usually, they are not big enough to attract international impact capitalists. Moreover, many Francophone social enterprises in West Africa lack adequate English language skills to engage accelerator centers and impact capitalists in America.

In these reflections, I showed evidence of the many social entrepreneurship-related opportunities in West Africa. However, accelerators and investments available for social entrepreneurs are scarce. The most successful social entrepreneurs can only get bank loans with high interest rates. To bridge the gap between the abundance of business opportunities and the available investment opportunities, there must first be training such as accelerator programs to help social entrepreneurs hone their business skills and formalize their knowledge of the social impact they are making. This will help social entrepreneurs in West Africa prepare to talk to impact investors abroad as well since there are very few locally. In the long run, many more capable Africans should embrace the idea of impact investing and become impact investors to help startups take off and scale their social impact.

Photo: Founder of VEGA (Vision Eco Green Afrique) Recycling with bags of sorted and cleaned plastic waste

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