Welcome to the April BfE newsletter! 🎉 | |
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Dear BfE family,
While this month was a relatively slow one with semesters winding down and engagements wrapping up, I'm looking forward to the upcoming Startup Review Committee to determine our next Autumn 2022 Cohort. We have had a solid amount of interest in our programme from passionate social entrepreneurs around the world, and I'm keen to learn more about their business models to see which ones we'll have the privilege of supporting going forward. I hope you share in this excitement with me!
I hope you all have a happy and healthy May. All the best to those sitting for exams! As always, please reach out to me via email or Slack if you ever want to chat!
With lots of gratitude,
Jordan |
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We've continued to make steady progress on various initiatives at the global level. Here's what each division was up to:
📊 Incubation
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The Incubation Division has recruited two amazing Global Volunteers - Rebecca Evans and Sara Ahmed - to support Arnas in creating BfE Academy content. Rebecca from the UK has been working in sales and training at SAGE; Sara from the US has experience in marketing, sales and social media management. We are excited to work with Rebecca and Sara to push forward the agenda to build BfE Academy 👏
🤝 Outreach
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Partnerships: There are no new updates for this month. Stay tuned for some updates next month regarding a summer ESG training program we're launching for BfE startups with CliMatr, a partner of ours 👀
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Communications: We have a few BfE-wide global events and articles in the works for May 👀 Chapter Comms teams have completed a few case studies from past Incubation Programme engagements, too, but they're not on the website yet. Here are links to view them, in case you're curious: HealthyFarm (Vietnam), Kineer Services (India), and Toolkit iSkills (Kenya)
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🔋 Strategy & Operations
- Strategy:
- New Chapter Handbook: Currently in the works. A portion of the handbook has already been socialized to Chapter leadership during the April Monthly check-in call. However, additional time will be needed to incorporate feedback and add information to part 1 of the handbook.
- Onboarding Global Strategy Manager: In the next week, we will be focused on onboarding a new Global Strategy Manager, who will be responsible for developing strategic plans and initiatives for the Global Team 🎉
- Annual Impact Report 2021: We're building the BfE Annual Impact Report in collaboration between the Global Strategy, Impact Research, and Comms Divisions to be published in Q2 2022.
- Student Testimonial Video Project: Reaching back out to a former summer intern for completion of the video project.
- Operations: There are no new updates for this month. Stay tuned for updated figures on startup applications for BfE's next cohort in the May newsletter 👀
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👩💻 Impact Research
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The Impact Research division has worked through several components of the BfE Annual Impact Report, providing key data insights and testimonials to the Strategy and Communications Divisions to execute the final report. We’re very excited for the final publication!
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We’ve finalized metrics for BfE’s Impact Wheel, which will be immensely helpful in collecting various metrics across our startup portfolio. Metrics fall into four main themes: 1) Poverty Alleviation, 2) Job Creation, 3) Gender Empowerment, and 4) Planet Positive
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We’re continuing to focus on wrapping up revisions of the pre- and post-engagement surveys from this latest round of Incubation Programme engagements, and hope to send them out for the Autumn Cohort soon.
⚙️ Technology
- We are thrilled to welcome Hesam (who prefers to go by his nickname Saba) as our new Global Tech Talent Manager! Saba will be overseeing recruitment, volunteer & mentor experience management & community building of BfE's Technology Division. Saba is a professional based in London who has extensive experience across different branches of Tech, from development, database, UI/UX to even products. He has lived in Europe and the US, and worked within the IT sector for more than 8 years in various countries. We’re very confident that his wide exposure of technical expertise and sharp business sense will help BfE Tech attract and connect with the sharpest minds and the most compassionate hearts in Tech across the world. Welcome to BfE, Saba! 🥳
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🇬🇧 Cambridge
- The Cambridge Chapter has no new updates for the month of April. Stay tuned for the month of May as their engagements wrap up 👀
🇺🇸 New York
- Incubation: Our Consulting team continued its exceptional work with LeafyLife Limited, which has made great progress in pitching to incubators and social impact funds. One of LeafyLife's founders is currently in the Netherlands working with world-class leaders in recycling to license LeafyLife's incredible proprietary technology. The Finance Advisory teams are making similarly robust progress: The Imara Art Design team is helping the startup rethink its inventory tracking and business model, while The Toolkit iSkills team continues to work on impact tracking and grant applications.
- Programme Development: Our Growth & Partnerships (G&P) team has been hard at work this month with creating a design workshop for outreach associates, a social entrepreneurship panel with Professor Shantae Edwards, and a data visualization workshop with Deloitte. Meanwhile, our Communications team has been preparing for our NY Chapter student recruitment cycle by creating Facebook banners, email flyers, and Instagram posts/stories to promote our organization to NYU students. Lastly, Our Startup Recruitment (SR) team has shifted to focusing on completing startup interviews for the upcoming cohort. Several startups have made it to the second-round interview stage, and one startup has been confirmed for pitching at the Startup Review Committee in June.
🇸🇬 Singapore
- We're concluding most of our incubation engagements! We have many new associates who joined us this year and we're really proud of everyone for their eagerness to learn and their invaluable contributions to the respective teams. Thankfully, Singapore has begun to ease its lockdown restrictions locally; as our school semester comes to a close, we look forward to organizing more in-person bonding events and meeting one another in person this summer.
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🇨🇦 Vancouver
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General: We held a chapter-wide townhall in the last month, and also had a fun happy hour + ice cream team social! Leadership has also begun roadmapping plans for summer recruitment to support the creation of new team(s).
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Consulting: Earlier this month, our Consulting team did a fantastic job presenting our midpoint engagement presentation to our client, Dorothy, at Beyond Solid Waste Management (Kenya). We recently received positive feedback and are moving forward with our plans for the final phase of our engagement.
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Communications: The Vancouver Comms team is in the process of preparing a thought leadership article with support from the Global Comms Division, as well as case study material from our previous engagement with Afyaboost (Kenya).
🇮🇳 New Delhi
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Some BfE New Delhi members posing for a team photo! |
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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! 👏 |
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- 🇮🇳 From BfE New Delhi: Shoutout to Luv Sehgal and Rajveer Singh Kochhar for volunteering actively to complete admin work, and also for taking up various things within their teams. Thanks for your efforts! 👏
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A big shoutout to E&L Suppliers (Malawi) and its founder Lumbani, whom the Singapore Chapter has had great pleasure working with during their current consulting engagement. Lumbani and his team are very motivated and really receptive to feedback. Kudos! 🚀 |
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There are no organization-wide BfE events scheduled during the month of May! But stay tuned for future events coming soon 👀 |
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🗞 News, Resources and Jobs | |
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