I made the trip to Stanford University’s Center for Social Innovation last week to hear U.S. Business Editor of the Economist and Keynote Speaker at SoCap08 Matthew Bishop talk about his recently released book “Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World.” It was great to hear Matthew speak again. He spoke of particular moments during his interviews with some of the world’s most prominent philanthropists that had a major impact on him. Three examples were relevant to the work that we here at SoCap Media are engaging in and got me thinking:

1. The Importance of Working with Government:Bishop spoke of his interview with Bill Gates who talked to the idea that quickly upon beginning his research into investing in drugs for the developing world, he realized that the major problem was not just improving the drugs, but convincing people to take them. Advocacy and working with government institutions needed to be a major focus area.

2. Emphasizing the “Social” in “Social Capital”: Matthew Flannery of Kiva emphasized that that Kiva has not only become a well-known way to individually micro-lend, but more-so serves as a social networking site around giving. It is an early example of harnessing the power of the masses both to mobilize action while providing a community environment.

3.Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is:It was great to hear audience questions around how socially responsible investing plays into the idea of philanthrocapitalism. A great example that Bishop used to highlight the importance was hearing how Jeff Skoll was in negotiations for his company Participant Media to produce “Fast Food Nation” and made the decision to divest his shares in Young Brands, owners of KFC and Pepsi Co.

Check out South African investment banker Euvin Naidoo as he explains why investing in Africa can make great business sense on Ted.com

Just came across this blog by Mike Lee on Socialedge on Sustainable Capitalism in Emerging Economies. There are some interesting responses on where the private and public sector need to meet in order to create a strong structure for a support system for serving the BOP.

For everyone not in attendance at the Social Finance Forum, happening right now, there are a number of ways to get engaged with the action. Here are a few:

• Twitter feed: Watch sff2008 for microblog on the conference proceedings.  If you’re on Twittering the conference, please tag tweets with sff08.
• Presentations on Slideshare are tagged with sff08.

So far there have been panel conversations around clean/green tech, microfinance, and scaling international dev programs to name a few.

#sff08 BYoung: panel trend: it’s tough to get enough scale to make a BIG difference. It’s creative entrepreneurial ways of finding solutions

#sff08 BKopperson: in europe, the renewable sector is really grassroots. 50% of renewable in Germany is locally owned.

“Although donations and grants are still their primary revenue source, the Girl Scouts sell over 200 million boxes of cookies every year generating a huge amount of earned income and sustainability. One enterprising scout, Jennifer Sharpe from Michigan recently sold a record 17,328 boxes just by setting up shop on a busy street corner. Is Jennifer our next great social entrepreneur?”

This is a great quote from a recent Triplepundit.com post. A topic on my mind lately has been about the power of the masses. The energy devoted by millions into the Obama campaign proved that giving real power to the people and showcasing how they are effecting change on a daily basis works. Now that we’ve got the framework, where does this take us? For the Obama camp, it moves into instilling that same level of commitment into American culture with The Serve America Act and frequent updates and addresses on change.gov. Just as they are changing the structure of political participation, how do we as proponents of changing the structure of business mobilize the masses? We had an interesting meeting with the founder of Virgance last week who has created a for-profit company based around the idea of “Activism 2.0,” mobilizing their networks to support projects such as Carrotmob and One Block Off The Grid. Both of whom rely on community organizers to fuel their particular brand of social change, not just in conversation but physically mobilizing groups to action.

I started website hopping to do a little research on what’s out there, Found Thepoint.com on Change.org. Exciting stuff, Kiva meets Carrotmob model.

I’d love some feedback on this topic. Other than the girl scouts, whose getting it right?

What do incarcerated youth and Oscar-winning producers have in common?

For one thing, both are constituencies served by the Bay Area Video Coalition, one of the four ‘Big Bet Investments’ supported by ZeroDivide that presented at SoCap08 as part of our ‘Pitching in Action’ panel.

All four pitches are now up online in podcast form here. In addition to providing insightful snapshots of the current status of innovating social enterprises, I found the sessions to be interesting examples of how to “pitch a community enterprise venture to potential investors and other entrepreneurs.”

After you give the podcasts a listen here’s my question - If you had $50K to invest in one of the four companies, which one would you pick and why?

While putting together our online platform, we are also moving full steam ahead with the planning for our next event. While we know we want an annual flagship event in San Francisco each year, we are also looking to one to two smaller and more dedicated events. A question that arose out of this year’s conference was how to bring government into the conversation. We had them at the table (UNDP, the Federal Reserve, OPIC etc), but it was clear more conversation was needed on how public and private organizations need to work together in the social capital space. We have been talking with some of our early collaborators, Rob Katz of Nextbillion.net and Francisco Noguera of Nextbillion.net and the World Resources Institute, on their thoughts on how to collaborate with the goverment to advance the sector. While on the WRI website, I came across this video which was produced for their 25th anniversary. I thought it perfectly summed up some of the major focus points at hand. We’re proud to have the opportunity to work with such great organizations as we move SoCap Media forward.

It’s been a whirlwind following SoCap08. Due to the overwhelming response of the market calling for events based around social capital, we are moving forward as a new company: Social Capital Media (SoCap Media for short). It’s an interesting position to be in a start-up company focused on what some might deem a start-up sector. We are making choices based on a newly evolving constituency that will continually grow and evolve as new players come into the field. We are putting together our online strategy for a new website, discussion forum and events schedule and we want to hear what you are looking for and what would be most beneficial. What sectors are we missing in looking at the social capital landscape? Who else should be at the table? Here’s the list we have so far:

We’re excited to be working on this project and look forward to collaborating with the community.We hope to put together events that will breed effective partnerships and advance the social capital sector. We hope to act as a hub of content generation and pathological collaboration. The future looks very bright from here.

“When the water starts boiling, it is foolish to turn off the heat” - Nelson Mandela

Watch this 9 minute interview with SVT Founding Partner, Sara Olsen, filmed during SoCap08. Sara discusses social enterprises and “gourmet carbon” work conducted by Patricia Ruiz Corzo’s Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda in Mexico.

‘Gourmet carbon’ in Mexico from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

All of the companies that present at Investors’ Circle are both socially or environmentally responsible and financially sound. However, some are operating in undeveloped markets, have lower prospective returns, and incur higher levels of risk for the potential to build out a new kind of mission-driven business. These are our “Activists.” At the same time, “Influencers” are working to expand established markets and bring the products and services of double-bottom-line businesses into the mainstream. At the top right are our “Pioneers.” These are companies with the potential to become the next Stoneyfield Farm or Evergreen Solar: leaders in the field proving that businesses built around social or environmental missions can also become huge financial successes.