Social Entrepreneurship & Non-Profits BDP Student Kristin Clark developed a social enterprise model for home repair organizations, which allowed her to see a new way of approaching humanitarian effort.
"This experience provided me with a deeper understanding of the business aspects of NPOs and emphasized the ways in which social change can work cohesively with a business model to produce a result that isn't restricted by a lack of adequate resources.”
What is the title of your research project?
Social Enterprise Model for Non-Profit Home Repair Organizations.
How would you describe your research project and how did you come up with the idea?
The purpose of this project was to develop a social enterprise model for home repair organizations that would enable the generation of resources through profit. After working with grant-based funding, I saw first-hand how non-profit organizations (NPOs) social impact is severely obstructed by the limited resources they have available. By combining business frameworks with the mission of NPOs, a social enterprise can generate resources that allows the work towards social change to scale in growth.
What was the most rewarding aspect of your Connecting Experience?
While I have always been passionate about NPOs, my work on this project has allowed me to see a new way of approaching humanitarian effort and all of the possibilities for change that can be accomplished. This experience provided me with a deeper understanding of the business aspects of NPOs, as well as emphasized the ways in which social change can work cohesively with business models to produce a result that isn’t restricted by a lack of adequate resources.
In what ways has this Connecting Experience shaped your plans for the future?
My ultimate goal has always been to combine my interest in medicine with my passion for non-profit work to aid in the mission towards affordable healthcare. While my purpose hasn't changed, I am now able to see a new method of enacting that change.
Please discuss the relationship that you had with your faculty mentor(s), and how they helped you during this Connecting Experience?
My vested interest in nonprofit work made it difficult for me to develop a successful business model initially as I only considered the social impact the model would produce. It was only through the guidance of my faculty mentor that I was able to take a step back and see the bigger picture from an interdisciplinary perspective. Professor Scott helped me see all of the various ways social change can be enacted and provided me with a different method of approaching these issues.