Saturday, October 23, 2010

A Glossary of Useful Terms

This industry has a lot of jargon. I know I get confused with all the terms thrown around these days, so I thought I'd put together a helpful guide for myself and others. They are below, in no particular order. Let me know if I've forgotten any or if you take issue with any of the definitions:

Social Return on Investment: Helping people with your money.

Entrepreneurship: Doing things that may or may not help people, including, but not limited to, things you can make money on.

Social Entrepreneurship: Doing things that may or may not help people, including, but not limited to, things you can make money on.

Social Enterprise: The thing that you do when you do things.

Leverage: Doing something that helps and/or inspires others to do something.

Effectiveness: Doing the thing that you do really well.

Capacity: As in, "increased capacity" or "capacity building." Actually, I'm not totally sure on what this means. But I know it's important and I know I say it a lot.

Scale: Making the thing that you do bigger.

Growth: See "Scale."

Growth Capital: The money that you need to make the thing that you do bigger.

Evaluation: Making sure the thing you are doing isn't the wrong thing.

Rigorous Evaluation: Really making sure the thing you are doing isn't the wrong thing.

Metrics: The numbers that you use to make sure the thing you are doing isn't the wrong thing.

Innovation: Doing something new, or something in a different way, that may or may not help people.

Social Innovation: Doing something new, or something in a different way, that may or may not help people.

Social Capital Markets: All the money that there is to help people do the things that help people.

"Triple Bottom Line": Making money, helping people and helping the environment all at the same time.

Philanthropy: Money that helps people.

Charity: Money that helps people.

Social Investment: Money that helps people.


                                                                                                   
Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and do not represent the positions, strategies or opinions of Venture Philanthropy Partners

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