Building Blocks International
Essay Preview: Building Blocks International
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Charity company
Asking for donations
Both in cash
Or in form of an employee for an entire year
Held numerous meeting with prospectives who SEEMED interested
But never received a call back
Program had been running on donations from individuals and foundations but never received the long term support and commitment they had been hoping for
Anastaoff along with several other students (idea team) from Harvard founded Building Blocks International in 2000
Mission: Helping children in developing countries enter school, stay in school, succeed in school
Instead of creating their own institution, would work through local already established institutions
Felt community based organizations were better suited to the unique needs of each place, rather than a general one size fits all ideal used by global organizations
BBI would bring to these local institutions a higher level of management expertise in order to expand capacity and improve effectiveness
Community Based Organizations (CBO)
BBI only worked with CBO that were non profit with a well defined mission and a strong team in place, that had identifiable potential but were not yet reaching it
Thousands of these CBO all around the world in every country, helping an average of 200 kids each, and an average of about 1 in 4 kids dropping out of the programs each year
She estimated BBI could deliver to the CBO an annual growth in the range of 15% for about 6 years after which the growth would flatten out
Connecting business expertise with Central Based Organization
Competition: Ashoka
Corporate Service Corp. members
In the model for this, corporate service corp members would commit to living for four months to a full year in the CBOs local community and working with the CBO to provide advice to its managers and strategic guidance
Do they target rookies just out of an MBA program? Or go after those that have been out a couple years
Or those with 7 to 10 years experience?
More experience means greater impact on the CBO
Launch Strategy Phase 1
Attracting corporate start-up funding in the US and Chile was unsuccessful
To attract financing run a one year pilot program to prove companies merit in Santiago
To do this they sought donations from individuals who were just benefactors with no tie to the organization
Seeked to recruit people with MBAs or master degrees promising to offer than an experience that could not be matched anywhere else. Giving them the foundation for success as a leader
Commonly believed leadership skills were better acquired through experimental methods rather than in the classroom. Yet 90% of leadership training programs were classroom based
Attract seed capital through individual donors who were moved by the mission of the organization
Aswell as additional funding through the corporate service corp member themselves
Forcing each member to raise $5000 on their own through whatever sources they could find
Results were mixed, attracted 40 applicants, 3 would go to chile
Limitations
Corporate service corp member would not be comfortable asking family and friends for donations
And gaining individual donations were very time consuming for such small amounts
Decided they needed a constant source of income, ex. Corporate funding
Launch Strategy Take 2
New Model: Corporate Ally