PICO Rwanda
Deliverables
Igniting entrepreneurial initiative: a business-planning curriculum for community enterprises. This workbook details business plan development guided by a co-learning process to address the lack of clear frameworks for starting or scaling business ventures.
Entrepreneurial action: community enterprise business plans. These business plans include business objectives, strategies, and financial projections. They can be leveraged internally as self-evaluation tools and externally as investment-evaluation tools.
Innovative fundraising: crowdfunding implementation guide & evaluation. This guide outlines the steps necessary to create a crowdfunding page aimed at diversifying funding streams.
Mission
PICO Rwanda envisions a future where Rwandans are equipped with the skills to solve any and all problems they face.
Challenge
Develop formal community enterprise business plans in collaboration with local leaders, and identify creative financing strategies.
Research Activities
PICO uses community organizing and leadership training to foster agency and entrepreneurial passion in five rural communities. PICO seeks a business planning process that engages communities in fostering their own financial independence. We engaged in a co-creation design process by forming a curriculum and leading weekly business plan development workshops with two PICO community cooperatives in Mumeya and Nyange. We collected information on the cooperatives’ history, business profile, future plans, and financial records and projections. Working with the cooperatives, we compiled this information to help them create business plans for their projects. We also combined research and evaluation of various crowdsourcing platforms along with continuous discussions with PICO International leadership to create a CrowdRise page. PICO will leverage the cooperatives’ business plans and its international connections to stimulate crowdfunding that kickstarts local community enterprises. This will allow PICO to diversify its funding streams.
Key Findings:
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- Hunger for learning business skills emerges from organized communities. With the agency and ambition instilled by the PICO Model and Miller Center trainings, local cooperatives develop an interest in entrepreneurial opportunities and skill building, and are ready to develop sustainable business ventures to help propel themselves and their communities out of poverty.
- Participatory business planning produces sustainable paths for cooperative development. A co-creation learning environment between fellows and cooperatives fosters increased engagement and excitement, instilling the desire to continue learning which drives sustained, independent growth.
- Entrepreneurial fundraising increases impact. A crowdfunding platform reaches untapped donor networks to support specific PICO cooperative projects.
Team
2019
Social Enterprise:
PICO Rwanda
Fellows:
Emily Fagundes
Marketing
Linkedin
Blog
Nick Fazio
Environmental Studies
Linkedin
Blog
Faculty Research Mentor:
Bill Mains, Leavey School of Business