Meeting #3

Our team met with Davin this past Wednesday to solidify our game plan and approach on a group level. It was a great brain storming session of possible ideas for raising funds for the calendar instead reaching into our own pocket.

We want this calendar to be MORE than a calendar. We want to put dates of all the events that happen on a yearly basis in San Antonio to keep our community aware of what's going on. It will have up to 15 different artwork images submitted by students of the Alameda School. We are also looking into gaining funds by having advertising space on each page or a page of coupons and advertisement. We are trying to narrow down which way we want to go to get all the necessary funds.

Gettin the ball rolling

Today we met with Davin from Graffiti Foundation and the Henry Ford Academy Alameda School of Art and Design. Our meeting covered a new project the school wants to start and have done by the end of May. The project involves creating a student made mural on the school to bring the community together around art. We are trying to come up with a product to offset the costs of the mural as well as bring about funding and an annual project. The idea that we are leaning towards is creating a calender to sell. It will be made up of art submitted by the students of the academy. It will be sold at the school, art shows, UTSA, and through our own networking. Next step is putting together the logistics of the calender. Internet here we come!!

New Developments

Today we developed our team contract. Established specific guidelines that will help us move forward on this project's progress. Our team is a very experienced group, so this allows us to be very reassured in delegating responsibilities throughout this semester.

In more recent developments, we have spoken with the founder and CEO of Graffiti Foundation, Davin Gutierrez, who has proposed a new idea on developing a calendar. We plan to meet with him on Wednesday to go over the specifics on going forward with this product.

Tune in next week for further developments......

Graffiti Foudation

Today we met with CEO and founder Davin Guitierrez to discuss what can take Graffiti Foundation to the next level. We came up with a few ideas with events and tshirts. We narrowed down to about 3 ideas. One idea is to partner up with Susan B. Koman for breast cancer awareness. Another idea is to have an event at the Blue Star where we will showcase the artists. The third idea is to help fund and start a post juvenile program where we help artists use their talent in better ways. We should be coming to a decision by next week.

What is Social Enterprise

Wikipedia says:

Social enterprises are social mission driven organizations which apply market-based strategies to achieve a social purpose. The movement includes both non-profits that use business models to pursue their mission and for-profits whose primary purposes are social. Their aim – to accomplish targets that are social and or environmental as well as financial – is often referred to as the triple bottom line. Many commercial businesses would consider themselves to have social objectives, but social enterprises are distinctive because their social or environmental purpose remains central to their operation.

Rather than maximizing shareholder value, the main aim of social enterprises is to generate profit to further their social and or environmental goals. This can be accomplished through a variety of ways and depends on the structure of the social enterprise. The profit from a business could be used to support a social aim, such as funding the programming of a non-profit organization. Moreover, a business could accomplish its social aim through its operation by employing individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds or lending to micro-businesses that have difficulty in securing investment from mainstream lenders. ... ...