SOCAP 2009: What Could It Mean For VolunTourism?
I recently had a conversation with an attendee of the SOCAP (Social Capital Markets) Conference 2009 held in San Francisco, CA earlier this month. If you take a gander at their website, you will see that it was an incredibly well-attended conference, especially given the current economic climate, with a list of some of the pre-eminent social entrepreneurial efforts around offering sponsorship support and participating as presenters.
Prior to the conference, SOCAP, with the help of EnvisionGood.tv, filmed several video segments with some of the presenters. Here is one from the SOCAP You Tube site – an interview with Dan Crisafulli of the Skoll Foundation:
What can some of the deliberations of the folks involved with SOCAP, and some of the topics covered at the conference, mean for the VolunTourism Community? Possibly more than you might think.
Possible New Legislation
For example, it looks like the biggest item will be new policy and subsequent legislation – likely in the state of California to start, with other states following soon thereafter – regarding corporate structures with social missions – people, planet, and profit. To date, the nonprofit and for-profit structures, along with their respective tax codes and regulations, leave social entrepreneurs standing with two feet on two different logs in a fast moving stream – not a pretty picture. And access to capital? It is virtually non-existent for those who elect to take the for-profit, structural route – unless their business models are truly scalable; and in the non-profit realm, well, the queue for grants and donations is long and getting longer.
Policy that establishes tax codes and regulations for “for-benefit” companies could go a very long way for start-up voluntourism outfits and could certainly provide options for those already in existence that might consider repositioning themselves. This, in turn, would open the door for such companies to benefit from the brand and market awareness that naturally flows from being associated with the term “for-benefit” company – brand differentiation is always helpful.
SOCAP Recap
For additional reviews of SOCAP 2009, Andrew Wolk, Founder of Root Cause, posted a great piece on his blog that included a link to Ashni Mohnot’s report on SOCAP 2009 for the Pop!Tech Blog. Here is a breakdown of her four excellent blog posts for the Pop!Tech Blog:
- “A Dialogue on Social Innovation and the Obama Administration“
- “Future of Social Innovation on the Web“
- “The Future of Social Capital Markets“
- “Radical Reportage and Democratizing Information“
Certainly some good takeaways for those pursuing a business model for their voluntourism operations.
Concluding Thoughts
The VolunTourism Community could definitely benefit from some of the ideas being introduced and floated at conferences like SOCAP; rarely, however, are such concepts discussed in a collaborative or cooperative fashion. What we hear most often are discussions about how to create “standards” and “protocols” for operational procedures. Not that these are unimportant, of course; but do you think if we spent some time talking about how to create economies of scale for travelers, or liability and employee health insurance policies, for example, that the savings could be directed to internal audits and some of the other items currently being put forward?
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