Welcome to the September BfE newsletter! 🎉 | |
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Dear BfE family,
Happy October! I hope this email finds you doing well. With summer escaping us and this being the 5th newsletter I've sent out, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on the purpose of BfE Briefs. When we conceived of this idea nearly a year ago, the initial objective was to provide a dedicated space to update our ever-expanding global community of 250+ on major updates happening within BfE each month. A secondary aim was to ensure that people realize – no matter your position within the organization – that we're all contributing to a higher mission to accelerate social enterprises advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals; and in the process, provide meaningful volunteer opportunities for university students and professional mentors. I've often heard that BfE members work in silos: on a day-to-day basis, you may only interact with your immediate team of 3-4 and rarely conceptualize that your seemingly small contribution adds up to make this global community function smoothly. In its own way, this newsletter is my attempt to break that silo by distilling the major happenings across BfE so that people feel less isolated, more impacted by our mission, and eager to continue making a social impact.
On the other hand, I also recognize that these newsletters may not be fulfilling this objective as best as it can. This is why I'd like to hear from you directly: Do you enjoy reading these newsletters? What do you like/dislike about them? Are they too long? What content do you wish we included? I'm not including any Google Form (we have too many of those in BfE!), but if you could please reply to this email with your thoughts (they can be in bullet points), I'd be very grateful.
With lots of gratitude,
Jordan |
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Missed something within BfE this month? Here's what you need to know:
- ICYMI: We released a summer update on our global impact! Check out this slide deck to learn more about some of the exciting ways we've catalysed global impact for our three core stakeholders (students, startups and mentors) 💪
- We've finalized a date for our next Startup Review Committee. We'll be reconvening on December 18 to select the next batch of ~10 startups entering our Spring 2022 Cohort. Stay tuned for an invitation landing in your inbox 👀
- The BfE Technology Division is seeking volunteers for the first iteration of its Technology Education Programme! The 5-week course is designed for first and second-year undergraduate students interested in learning valuable web dev skills and diving into the tech for good space on a real BfE internal tech project. Apply here or share the opportunity with your friends 🙏
- We're hosting another global event with our partner, Stepchange Africa, in early November! This event will cover HR best practices and hiring tips for African startup founders, a topic no doubt applicable for BfE Consulting teams. Look out for an invitation in your inbox soon!
- We have had some key personnel changes within our global team – we said goodbye to Aaron (Global Impact Research Head) at the end of this month and welcomed Fareeha as his replacement
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We've continued to make steady progress on various initiatives at the global level. This month was a busy one. Here's what each division was up to:
📊 Incubation
- We are excited to announce a new Global Manager joining our team! Richa, an alum from the BfE New York Chapter, will join the Global Incubation Division soon as the new Global Consulting Manager. Passionate about social development and entrepreneurship, Richa has founded a non-profit in India to promote education, health and rural development. She is currently working for Wellspring Consulting, a US-based impact consultancy for the social sector. Going forward, Richa will be working on supporting our consulting engagements and spearheading global initiatives to improve incubation programming. We look forward to having Richa work with our division!
- We are working with the Global Impact Research Division to distill insights from the Autumn engagements and define key actions to improve the Incubation Programme and the experience for startups, students and mentors alike. We will share the findings with incubation teams when they are ready.
- We are currently underway in curating some proposals for improving the Incubation Programme via speaking with relevant stakeholders to testify to these plans, including the idea of implementing a 'diagnostic phase' for startups entering the Incubation Programme. Look out for more details when more concrete plans are made!
🤝 Outreach
- Communications: Tiana (Global Communications Manager) has been analysing our global LinkedIn strategy to create a more structured way of producing content for the platform. Additionally, we will soon be publishing new content on our Medium platform, so stay tuned for some new reading material!
- Partnerships: After a series of revisions, we have now finalized a set of step-by-step guidelines for initiating partnerships. This framework will be leveraged by Chapter Growth & Partnerships teams to help determine which potential partners should be contacted, how they should be initiated and what benefits different organisations can offer BfE
🔋 Strategy & Operations
- Strategy:
- We are wrapping up a soon-to-be completed Student Experience Video created by our amazing Graphic Design Intern Darinka Arones!
- We are continuing to onboard the new chapter from the University of Delhi, while simultaneously devloping a handbook for creating new BfE chapters in the future.
- Operations:
- Startup Review Committee: Save the date – the Startup Review Committee for our Spring 2022 cohort will take place on 18 December. The Startup Recruitment team enthusiastically invites all BfE members to join us at the event
- Professional Mentors: We're coming up with a strategic direction for mentor recruitment from countries where our startups operate and how the global team can better function as a resource for chapter G&P teams
👩💻 Impact Research
- In case anyone missed it in the previous update – we have published an Impact Update internally in early September! If you want an editable version for any purposes, please contact Esther (Global M&E Manager)
- We are continuing our work with AMNIe, a sustainability consultancy to work on impact assessment within BfE and our startups
- Having spent over five years at BfE, Aaron will be stepping down as the Global Head of Impact Research, to be succeeded by Fareeha (Global M&E Manager). We are excited to have her on board, having recently graduated from NYU and proved a valuable team member both at the chapter and global levels.
- Yuan (Global Technical Advisory Specialist) will also be coming on board to help steer our impact measurement efforts
⚙️ Technology
- Edwin (Global DataOps Manager), Xue Hui (Global Tech Volunteer) and Charlene (Global Tech Volunteer) have been spending tremendous amounts of time to help us clean and restructure BfE's internal database for migration to our new intranet. *If you have 2 hours to spend at any point in October, sign up here to help them out with BfE data input!*
- Eko (Global Tech Volunteer) and Tiffany (Global Tech Volunteer) have been working tirelessly to launch our first BfE Tech Education Programme, a five-week course to teach undergraduates about software development with a potential conversion to a BfE Tech Associate role. *Don't miss this opportunity and ask your friends to apply here by 2 Oct!*
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Our chapters have been busy this month, with the academic year kicking off recently.
🇬🇧 Cambridge
- Cambridge Tech and Technology Advisory are starting recruitment for associate roles conducting projects this winter, including:
- Software development of Toolkit iSkills’ online training platform
- BfE internal search engine optimisation project
- Our Consulting, Finance Advisory and Legal Advisory teams are beginning their early-bird recruitment for associate roles
- We’re looking forward to a new batch of student social innovation enthusiasts joining BfE and working together with the founders in our Incubation Programme!
🇺🇸 New York
- We hosted our first all-chapter meeting on September 15!
- Help us spread the word! We are recruiting for our NYU Freshmen Education Program and Global Tech Education Program – more details can be found here and here 🙏
- On the Programme Development side, our associates have been assigned to projects (mentorship program, professional panels, etc.)
- Our Startup Recruitment team started conducting startup interviews and finding useful contacts in the LatAm region
- Our Incubation teams have completed introductory calls with our 3 startups: Toolkit iSkills (Kenya), Path to Growth Centre (Nigeria), and She Wins Mexico, and started working on their deliverables
- We are hosting training workshops for new associates in our Incubation teams
🇸🇬 Singapore
- Incubation Programme: The Singapore Chapter has kickstarted our Incubation Programme engagements for Consulting & Finance Advisory. We are going to hold a few mid-point calls in the following 1-2 weeks
- Communications: Our Communications has recently established the #BuildingBridges and #LiveBetter campaigns on our Instagram page to promote outstanding members of the community and introduce different forms of social enterprises to our social media audience
- Townhall 2: We recently concluded our second townhall of the semester. We invited Yen Yee from raiSE SG and we talked about her experience starting a social enterprise and developing a career in raiSE. Check out the photo below!
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🇨🇦 Vancouver
- We have successfully completed our new member onboarding and training, and are now ready to kick off our Consulting engagement with Afyaboost (Kenya)!
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We are so grateful for the outstanding contributions made by the following BfE members this month. Thank you and well done! 👏
 From the BfE Global Team: Shoutout to Fareeha for stepping up into her new role as Global Head of Impact Research! In her new capacity, Fareeha will be leading our impact measurement capabilities.
- ⚙️ BfE Technology: Shoutouts to Peter (Global Tech Volunteer), Brenda (Global Product Manager), Kathi (Global Tech Programme Manager) and Ian (Global UI/UX Manager) for going above and beyond in their work recently! We're laying the foundation for deployment of our more advanced intranet with everyone's steady commitment in the division 👏
 From BfE Cambridge: We would like to highlight Nancy Shen for her amazing work as the Technology Advisory (TA) Director! Nancy has been an essential part of BfE Cambridge Tech, leading and coordinating projects with startups like Safeplan Uganda. She also led and ran our Celonis Process Mining Workshop in February- 🇺🇸 From BfE New York: Shoutout to Amber Sun (VP of Outreach) for seamlessly managing everything on the Startup Recruitment, Communications, and G&P front! Amber has been working diligently on finalising projects with associates, kickstarting new initiatives and overseeing recruiting.
- 🇨🇦 From BfE Vancouver: Big shoutouts to all of our new members for joining us on this journey! Led by Shearer Wang (Consulting Director), our small team of Consulting Associates include Kate, Kiran, Erina, Ryan, and Romit. And we have our first-ever Communications Associate too – welcome, Kevin Lee! 🎉
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We also said goodbye to a longtime member who has been with us for years. We're sad to see you go 😔 Thank you for all your contributions!
- Aaron Tam (Global Impact Research Head), who has been with us for 5 years since BfE's early days! Aaron served as the President of the BfE Cambridge Chapter while he was a student, before subsequently joining the global team to lead our impact research function and startup alumni engagement. He has been a vital part of our global expansion, helping to lead various initiatives, and we greatly appreciate his contributions over the years.
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Curious what our startups have been up to? This month, we're spotlighting a few in our portfolio for their impactful work:
- 🇷🇼 NjordFrey: NjordFrey is a Rwandan tech-driven social enterprise offering farmers in emerging economies access to advanced farming solutions while at the same time giving the local population the capacity to fight poverty and malnutrition
- Why we’re excited about NjordFrey: NjordFrey’s business model and commitment to impactful food production is sustainable and provides access to farmers who don’t have the capital to pay upfront costs for equipment. Farmers are allowed to pay for the equipment in installments and are provided with education materials, and even equity, in the aquaculture kit to empower them on their journey
- NjordFrey wants to conduct market research into the aquaculture value chain and relevant industries, refine its go-to-market strategy and ramp up fundraising efforts
- Our BfE Cambridge team is creating a set of deliverables to address NjordFrey's objectives:
- Market Research: validating growth and fundraising milestones through market sizing and key market insights
- Go-to-market Strategy: analysing customer acquisition and distribution channels to refine go-to-market strategy
- Investor Due Diligence: developing an investor long-list for venture capital, venture debt with details on stage, ticket size, etc. for their fundraising plan
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At the global level, there is nothing planned for the month of October...but stay tuned for two upcoming events in November and December, respectively. The November event will be co-hosted with our partner, Stepchange Africa, and the December event will be our next Startup Review Committee. Stay tuned for event invitations 👀 |
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At the chapter level, 🇸🇬 BfE Singapore is co-hosting an event with the SMU Impact Investing Club on Catalysing Impact Through the Venture Space. The event will be held over Zoom on October 1 from 7-8pm SGT, and you may indicate your interest in this form. |
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🗞 News, Resources and Jobs | |
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