Manna is a social enterprise working to develop other social enterprises. Social enterprise is a combination of business with humanitarian goals. There is a structure in business to make certain that a project is done properly, whereas in philanthropy and in charity work done in the developing world, the same level of accountability isn’t always available. Currently, in many programs, the success of a project isn’t tied to a source of future funds, and most performance is self-reported by organizations. As a result, many projects fall into disuse a few years after they’ve been installed. With a for-profit company, if you don’t succeed in providing a product you’ve promised, you’re not going to get more business in the future.
We are working with several different models for social enterprise, including local business development, microenterprise, franchise programs, and carbon finance. Carbon finance is a breakthrough opportunity for humanitarian projects on which we have been focusing.