New School Student Ambassadors Internship Program for Social

Entrepreneurship and Social Capital Investment

Program Abstract

The current global economic crisis raises questions about the sustainability of “industrial capitalism” in a
world grown increasingly “hot, flat, and crowded” (T. Friedman). Global social entrepreneurs and social
capitalists may in some cases be born, but where do you go if you want to learn the science of social
investing or impact management?

Many people have begun to suspect that there must be knowledge about what works and what doesn’t
work as a starting point for a career in social entrepreneurship. The need for meaningful social
entrepreneurship experiences by MBA candidates is underscored every year at events like the Global
Social Venture Business Plan Competition (GSVC), as judges, entrants and student organizers all
grapple with how to evaluate the business plans’ “social return on investment,” which each team is
required to quantify.

When a social venture capital moves beyond planning and into implementation, the questions that come
up can be challenging, in the context of 21st century needs and careers, and require more than the
summary knowledge that can be found in the survey courses many MBA programs now provide.

New School Student Ambassadors proposes an MBA internship program designed to help future social
entrepreneurs gain a real-world perspective on these complex questions:

• Financing a social capital venture: How does a high social return on investment affect the cost
of capital? Are there ways this can be used to decrease the cost of capital? How can this be
employed as a strategy in capital formation? Can and should deals be structured to leverage
large amounts of money without the social investors subsidizing the conventional investors?
How?
• Accounting for non-profit or “hybrid” social capital ventures: What are the appropriate
environmental, social or other impacts to measure in a given industry or sector? Are there any
sector-specific performance benchmarks for carbon footprints, water footprints, health impacts or
other kinds of impact? Whose job is accounting for this, and what training should they have to do
it? Do audit standards exist? How can management use this information to inform strategy and
improve results?
• Marketing and communications for non-profit social capital ventures: What is the difference
between marketing and “social marketing”? What are ways social media can be used to reinforce
or undermine a venture’s intended impact? Are there principles or standards of practice for
branding socially responsible businesses? How can branding and communications affect the
value of sustainable business?
• Legal questions for non-profit social capital ventures: What issues do managers need to
understand about their right to remain true to a socially responsible business model when that
comes into conflict with quarterly profit or revenue maximization? How can and should the needs
of investors be balanced with those of other stakeholders and the environment? What legal and
tax issues do managers need to understand about hybrid for-profit/non-profit business models?

While these questions are touched upon in survey courses on corporate social responsibility and social
entrepreneurship, to truly build experiential knowledge leading to sustainable, equitable ways of doing
business requires that this knowledge be institutionalized into MBA programs. Leading practitioners have

New School Student Ambassadors

knowledge of every one of the topics above, but 99% of the time, leading practitioners are in the field, not
in the classroom. Over many years of experience they have accumulated datasets in their heads, and in
some cases produced formal research for papers, conference presentations and university lectures. But
this knowledge has not been codified into the scholarly disciplines that produce Ph.D.s who can be hired
onto faculties, develop textbooks and teach every day.

With minor exceptions, future business leaders are still being taught the same canonic skill set that
managers have been taught before the world realized that natural resources were not limitless, the
climate could be made uninhabitable, and poverty may in fact be solvable. Social entrepreneurs and
social investors will continue to operate on the margins of our economic system until this situation
changes.

New School Student Ambassadors is a “green field” social entrepreneurship model for addressing
global education, cultural awareness, poverty eradication, and open society issues. As a model for start-
up development, capital funding, and sustainable practice and management, New School Student
Ambassadors offers a unique “internship” model for an MBA program that seeks to give students a
hands-on, experiential role in all aspects of an audacious global social venture project.

New School Student Ambassadors is designed around the principles of:

• Open systems and stakeholder transparency

• Digital social media and globally networked communications
• Virtual office and management operations
• Social production
• New media literacies and social learning frameworks
• Micro-financing models
• Social venture partnering and leveraging the power of networked organizations with compatible
missions

As MBA candidates enter the marketplace over the next several years, traditional business models may
not be in a position to offer the unique experiences needed for preparing a generation of leaders in social
investing and entrepreneurship. New School Student Ambassadors is a real, near-term opportunity for
a cohort of students interested in the non-profit, global social entrepreneurship model, to engage in a
unique, hands-on experiential learning opportunity at all levels of funding and accounting, market strategy
and planning, organizational development and resource management, and legal frameworks. While this
internship program is unpaid, a collaboration with an MBA program could be offered as a “for-credit”
program.

For discussion or additional information, contact:

Stephen Wilmarth
Managing Director
New School Student Ambassadors, Inc.
eMail to: stephen.wilmarth@gmail.com
Telephone: 860-227-1225