Today’s post is from Soles4Souls’ CEO, Buddy Teaster: Soles4Souls works to fight poverty at a global level. We collect shoes from all over the United States, Canada and Australia. In the last seven years, we have distributed over 21 million pairs of shoes to more than 127 countries. And we are also based in Nashville where we employ 25 people who live, work and belong to communities all around Middle Tennessee. We have serious issues to address in Tennessee that include rising poverty rates, marked income inequality and meth labs. Nashville and the surrounding counties are tackling many of these problems with an impressive collaboration between government, business, academia and the social sector. This recent piece on 60 Minutes, featuring that approach to homelessness, is a powerful testament to both the scale of the problem and real, tangible progress with the “hardest of the hard core” homeless. Makes me proud to be part of this community.
Last night I had a chance to see yet another way Nashville is making a difference. As part of the national summit for the Social Enterprise Alliance, to be held in Nashville April 13-15, SEA built on a vey successful business plan competition called Business for Good. In it’s first year, BFG attracted 30 local submissions for a variety of social enterprises. Several won legal and consulting help along with space at the very cool Entrepreneur Center in their social enterprise incubator. This year, SEA took that program global garnering 168 start ups in the social space from all across the US – and even from a few countries outside of North America! I was very honored to be part of the panel judging the 10 semi finalists. These will be narrowed down to the final three, who will present to the full Summit audience in competition for $75,000 in cash and in-kind support. While the finalist announcements are still to come, the mix of business models, true technology innovations and a focus on solving big social problems is incredibly impressive. All three of the finalists will have the opportunity to move to Nashville for a year to further develop their business and become a part of the thriving start-up and social enterprise community here.
Nashville is getting a lot of press as an “it” city because of the food, entertainment and business climate. The Business For Good competition is going to add three more social enterprises to the mix in the near future and that will make this town that much more interesting.