Inbox: Starter pack

MNSBC anchor Richard Lui provides the following advice to anyone wanting to start bridging the gap between business and social philanthropy.
Become part of the social venture community. Go to talks. Meet as many other people as you can who are involved in the venture. You have to live and breathe social entrepreneurship.
Similarly, you need to be part of the business entrepreneurship community. Meet everyone, talk with everyone: because guess who’s going to be giving you the capital?
Volunteer or work part-time to learn practical lessons. This is essential. Get to grips with the realities of any particular social venture space. Otherwise you’re just talking about what you’ve read or thought but you don’t really know how things work in practice.
Create new intellectual capital in the space in which you are interested. When you sit down with potential funders this is how you can answer their questions around why they should fund you as opposed to anyone else.
Develop relevant credentials and skills. Consider getting certification, working with certain company or getting relevant degree. Be aware, however, that many people jump to this fifth point too quickly. They invest year or more and hundreds of thousands of dollars in an education when they don’t need it. M