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Founder
and Executive Director
Biographical information
Jerr Boschee, 67, has spent more than 30 years as an advisor to social entrepreneurs in the United States and abroad. To date he has delivered seminars or conducted workshops in 43 states and 20 countries and has long been recognized as one of the founders of the social enterprise movement worldwide. The NonProfit Times named him to its 2004, 2005 and 2006 nonprofit sector "Power & Influence Top 50" lists.
Mr. Boschee served as the full-time interim President and CEO of the Social Enterprise Alliance (www.se-alliance.org), the largest membership organization for social entrepreneurs in North America, during the first six months of 2010. He and five others co-founded the Alliance in 1997 as The National Gathering for Social Entrepreneurs.
Mr. Boschee is Executive Director of The Institute for Social Entrepreneurs, which he created in 1999, and is the founding Chair of Encore! Service Corps International, a nonprofit started in 2003 to re-deploy former Peace Corps Volunteers and staff members on short-term assignments in their areas of professional expertise. He also served from 2001 to 2004 as an advisor to England's Department of Trade and Industry Social Enterprise Unit.
Mr. Boschee helped start The National Center for Social Entrepreneurs in 1984 and served as President and CEO from 1990 to 1999. He has also been the catalyst and co-founder of The Forum for Nonprofit Leadership (1987); The Affirmative Business Alliance of North America (1989), currently known as the Americas Group of Workability International; and many other organizations. The Affirmative Business Alliance and The National Gathering for Social Entrepreneurs were the first two membership organizations created for entrepreneurs in the field of social enterprise. In addition, he has been a guest lecturer at academic institutions such as the University of Oxford (Said School of Business), the University of Cambridge (Judge School of Management), Carnegie Mellon University (H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy & Management), Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Management), Pepperdine University (Graduate School of Education & Psychology), Duke University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Minnesota (Carlson School of Management), and many others.
The Institute for Social Entrepreneurs provides seminars, workshops and consulting services for nonprofit entrepreneurs throughout the United States and draws on a virtual community of social entrepreneurs and others to collaborate on specific projects. Mr. Boschee is also continuing to partner with individuals and organizations to foster social entrepreneurship around the world; his work thus far has taken him to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Wales, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Russia, Ukraine, India, Japan and Ghana.
During the past 40 years, Mr. Boschee has also been an executive for a Fortune 100 company, an executive for both regional and national nonprofits, managing editor for a chain of newspapers, a Peace Corps Volunteer, and a frequent writer, speaker and trainer in the social service and public policy arenas. From 2007 through 2011, he served as Board Chair for SAGE ("Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship"), which supports teenage social entrepreneurs in more than 20 countries.
Mr. Boschee served previously as Senior Fellow at the Northland Institute (a national think tank devoted to social enterprise; as a member of the Board of Directors for a nonprofit management assistance consulting firm; as a member of the international advisory council for NESsT, the Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-Sustainability Team, which helps civil society organizations in Central Europe and South America develop entrepreneurial strategies; as a member of the nomination board for the annual FAST Company magazine "social capitalist" awards program; as a member of the Practice Advisory Council for the National Center on Nonprofit Enterprise; and as a member of the adjunct faculties at the University of St. Thomas, Louisiana State University-Shreveport, the League of American Orchestras Management Academy, and The Learning Institute for Nonprofit Organizations (a distance learning subsidiary of The Society for Nonprofit Organizations). He also served as a monthly columnist for the on-line magazine Social Enterprise Reporter from 2004 through 2006, and in 2006 as an assessor for the World Bank Development Marketplace competition
Mr. Boschee is the author or editor of six books, including the award-winning Migrating from Innovation to Entrepreneurship: How Nonprofits are Moving toward Sustainability and Self-Sufficiency. In addition to the title essay, the book also includes A Practical Lexicon for Social Entrepreneurs that defines more than 80 key terms, some in the form of mini-tutorials; a print bibliography; and a list of annotated electronic links. Other books include The Social Enterprise Sourcebook, which contains profiles of 14 nonprofits that have successfully started social sector businesses; Boschee on Marketing, which contains 21 of the columns he wrote for the Social Enterprise Reporter; and A Reader in Social Enterprise, a collection of 20 essays by leaders in the field.
Mr. Boschee has three grown children and two grandchildren. He and his wife, Linda Ball, live in Dallas, Texas.
Bibliography
Books
- 2009: "The Chronicle of Social Enterprise" (editor)
- 2007: Boschee on Marketing
- 2006: Migrating from Innovation to Entrepreneurship: How Nonprofits are Moving toward Sustainability and Self-Sufficiency
- 2001: The Social Enterprise Sourcebook: Profiles of Social Purpose Businesses Operated by Nonprofit Organizations
- 2000: A Reader in Social Enterprise (co-editor)
- 1998: Merging Mission and Money: A Board Member's Guide to Social Entrepreneurship
Podcasts
(AUDIO) Interview of Institute Executive Director Jerr Boschee by Tim Zak of Globeshakers (26 minutes)
-- please allow about 30 seconds for the interview to load on your browser
(VIDEO) Plenary session speech by Jerr Boschee at the 1st Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship: March 2004 (33 minutes)
(VIDEO) Convocation speech by Jerr Boschee for graduate students, faculty and nonprofit executives at Carnegie Mellon University: November 2008 (42 minutes plus Q /A session)
Articles and essays
"Smart nonprofit leaders are finding opportunity in scarcity"
(a March 2009 Op-Ed essay from CausePlanet.org that urges nonprofits to see the current economic crisis as an opportunity)
"A key lesson business can teach charities"
(a September 2008 Op-Ed essay from The Chronicle of Philanthropy that bemoans "profit phobia" and calls for nonprofit leaders to pay closer attention to social enterprises in the for-profit sector)
(as Wall Street reels and the social safety net frays, the growing number of social entrepreneurs offers hope
even in the scariest of times -- an October 2008 Op-Ed essay from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
"Evolution of the social enterprise industry: A chronology of key events"
(a comprehensive, annotated list of important events in the history of the social enterprise industry; updated each summer)
"The Chronicle of Social Enterprise"
(edited by Jerr Boschee, written by graduate students, and published by Carnegie Mellon University; the Chronicle contains an in-depth look at affirmative businesses, which are social enterprises that provide three things typically not available to people who are physically, mentally, economically or educationally disadvantaged: Real jobs, competitive wages and career tracks; the issue includes profiles of more than 20 affirmative businesses, plus stories about affirmative business incubators, the role of the federal government and the rise of the movement internationally)
"Remembering John DuRand (1934-2008)"
(from The Chronicle of Social Enterprise, a profile of the man often called the father of the affirmative business movement)
"'Social innovation' and 'social enterprise': A powerful combination"
(from Social Enterprise Reporter)
Fourteen case histories profiling nonprofits that have successfully started social enterprises
(from The Social Enterprise Sourcebook)
(adapted from a chapter in Migrating from Innovation to Entrepreneurship: How Nonprofits are Moving toward Sustainability and Self-Sufficiency"
"Strategic marketing for social entrepreneurs (adapted from a four-part series appearing orginally in the Social Enterprise Reporter)
"Eight basic principles for nonprofit entrepreneurs"
(from Nonprofit World)
(from Nonprofit World)
"Recycling Ex-Cons, Addicts and Prostitutes: The Mimi Silbert Story"
(co-written with Syl Jones; published April 2000 in conjunction with The Second National Gathering for Social Entrepreneurs in Miami)
(from Across the Board, the Conference Board magazine)
"Jerr's Journal"
IT'S ALWAYS
THE LITTLE THINGS . . .
(February 8, 2012)
My grandfather lived to be nearly 103. Or it might have been 102. We were never quite sure. All we knew was he crossed the “Little Water” (the Black Sea) and then the “Big Water” (the Atlantic Ocean) at the age of 11.
He was at various points in his life a farmer, an entrepreneur, a pinochle savant, a lay leader in his church . . .
And a bootlegger.
Which would have worked out fine except for the smudge of coal on his brother Joe’s nose.
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“HOW DOES IT
LOOK NOW?"
(January 12, 2012)
One of my favorite social entrepreneurs lived more than 500 years ago . . . and his career is filled with ingenious strategies for meeting customer demands . . .
When you enter the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, you turn left and pass through a doorway, then glance down a large room to your right. When I did that three years ago I began to cry . . .
I simply do not understand, and I will never understand, why one work of art will move me and another will not. Why do I always weep at the first movement of Mozart’s Prague Symphony? Why am I entranced by Monet’s Terrace at the Seaside, Sainte Adresse and Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Crows? And why did the sight of Michelangelo’s David bring me to tears when I first glimpsed it from 50 yards away?
I was 22 when I discovered Florence and the David, but in 1967 I had only a wisp of artistic sensibility. I knew the statue was special, but I didn’t know why, either intellectually or emotionally. The only thing I remembered, for years, was its height -- 17 feet from base to crown.
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"WAY TO GO, KID!"
(December 5, 2012)
Shortly before she died earlier this year, Russia’s legendary social activist Olga Alexeeva sadly observed that too many people are trying “to save the world in 45 minutes.”
She was talking about wealthy philanthropists, but her words apply to social entrepreneurs as well. People are suffering – and we want to help them YESTERDAY! But it takes time for social enterprises to put down roots and begin to thrive. And I know there are moments when each of you wonders whether you will EVER make a difference.
So let’s find a way to replenish ourselves. Let’s look away from the forest for a while and walk among the trees, stop obsessing about the big picture. Let’s concentrate instead on the impact we have on the people around us – our families, our friends, our employees, our casual acquaintances . . .
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A CAUTIONARY TALE
. . . IN FIVE ACTS
(October 5, 2011)
Anton Chekhov and I wrote a play together 15 years ago. I know, I know, he’d been dead by then for more than 90 years, but wait for it, okay?
This past summer my wife and I attended a performance of Chekhov’s last and greatest play, The Cherry Orchard, starring Zoë Wanamaker and a stellar supporting cast at the National Theatre in London.
It was a live production -- but we weren’t in England. We were nearly 5,000 miles away, in a suburb of Dallas. Saved us a lot on airfare . . .
We were able to attend the play because two years ago the National Theatre boldly introduced a new way to bring drama to the masses worldwide.
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TEACHING GEORGE TO COUNT
(August 20, 2011)
The legendary John DuRand (1934-2008) started Minnesota Diversified Industries (MDI) in 1968 with $100, a circular saw and a sewing machine. He had 14 employees between the ages of 18 and 24, all of them developmentally disabled.
When he retired in 1997, MDI had become a $68.5 million nonprofit business employing more than 1,000 people of all ages, 600 of them with developmental challenges
John often claimed it was possible to break down any task to the point where even the most severely disabled individual could be productive.
I once asked him how he learned to do that – and he took me back to something that happened during the early years of MDI.
He told me about teaching George to count . . .
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THE MAN WITH THE DOUBLE LIFE
(July 20, 2011)
I see him every four or five weeks. Took a while to find him. I had the same barber for 35 years, then the headhunters came after my wife and we wound up in Dallas.
The first Texas barber I tried put me through an assembly line of hair washers, hair rinsers, hair cutters, hair trimmers and hair blowers, then turned me loose. Never went back. The next guy did fine, but retired after six months. The third one took the entire 35 minutes we spent together complaining about her boss.
So when I finally found Marv I latched onto him . . . "
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OF PREDATORS AND PREY
(June 20, 2011)
Our guide wasn’t about to brook any nonsense.
We were ready to depart from Thornhill Safari Lodge for a late afternoon/early evening plunge into South Africa’s Kruger National Park two months ago. Nine of us were perched in a three-tiered Land Rover without a roof.
"Do NOT get out of the Land Rover at any time,’ he thundered. ‘And do NOT stand up."
The wild animals we were about to stalk with our cameras had long ago become comfortable sharing their turf with Land Rovers and their seated passengers. But Reckson wanted to be sure we understood the stakes.”
CHANNELING PROF. BROWN
(May 9, 2011)
Prof. Huntington Brown taught me this lesson during my sophomore year at the University of Minnesota in the spring of 1964 . . .
He was an elderly English professor with abundant white hair and a bristling white mustache. Tall and stooped, he seemed to hover over the classroom.”
OF ROMEO, JULIET
AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS
(March 15, 2011)
I didn’t know . . .
I was 16 and woefully ignorant about world literature.
Well, there was Julius Caesar. We did that in tenth grade. Didn’t every high schooler in the 1950s? But we never got to King Lear or Hamlet or, god help us, Romeo and Juliet. The Catholic Church didn’t have much to say to us about teenage lust. Davy Crockett and Marshall Dillon were just fine, thank you.