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Caroline’s work as a social entrepreneur has kick started a global business movement through the Ability Awards and Ability International which are all grounded in The disability business case.
The IIBN (Irish International Business Network) conference in the Aviva Stadium last Friday in Dublin showed that entrepreneurship is alive and kicking in Ireland and has huge potential internationally.
Speaking at IIBN CEO of Norcom Paul Kerley gave a highlighted that learning from what other entrepreneurs experiences

The Arthur Guinness Fund 2012

The Arthur Guinness Fund re-opened for applications yesterday 1st of November. To date €1.65 million has been awarded to a wide range of social entrepreneurial initiatives that are committed to making a positive and sustainable impact on communities all over Ireland. Successful projects in the current process will be eligible to receive between €50,000 and €100,000 each.

Established as part of the Guinness 250th celebrations, The Arthur Guinness Fund is an innovative investment programme which honours the philanthropic legacy of Arthur Guinness by supporting the vision and the enterprising spirit of social entrepreneurs in Ireland. Earlier this year as part of The Arthur’s Day celebrations, Guinness committed to adding a further €500,000 to The Arthur Guinness Fund.

To make the Arthur Guinness Fund accessible to as wide a range of projects and initiatives as possible, applications are sought under two main categories. Firstly, established projects (termed as take-off projects) who have a proven working model in operation for between two to five years and can demonstrate the long term impact they are having in their community, are eligible to receive financial support up to €100,000. This funding will be provided over two years along with a comprehensive business mentoring programme with a view to taking their work to the next level. This includes additional expertise and practical support from Diageo Ireland through workshops, seminars and training.

Projects that have been established in the last two years (termed as start up projects) are also invited to apply to receive up to €50,000 in funding plus the professional mentoring support over two years. This award is specifically aimed at start up projects that require a springboard to help turn their vision into a reality.

Since its inception, €1.65 million of funding as well as professional business support has been provided to 20 Irish social entrepreneurs.

Work by the most recent Arthur Guinness Fund awardees focuses on a broad range of areas including creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities, returning former-prisoners to work, shaping the right environment for men to re-build their self-esteem during unemployment and much more.
Peter O’Brien, Corporate Relations Director, Diageo Western Europe said, “By supporting innovative and inspiring projects, the Arthur Guinness Fund is providing a much needed spark to bring about long lasting positive change in our society. As we now enter the third year it is really exciting to be able to see and be inspired by the tangible results of The Arthur Guinness Fund, especially with the projects which are now entering their second year of the programme.”

“We recognise how difficult it can be for projects like these to secure funding and professional business mentoring .Guinness is delighted to be able to support them both financially and through our bespoke support and mentoring programme in order to further the work they do in their communities”, he continued.

Awardees also benefit from Social Entrepreneurs Ireland’s alumni network and events. Applications to the Arthur Guinness Fund remain open until 5pm Wednesday, 30th November 2011. Those interested in applying can download an application form from www.guinness.com/arthurguinnessfund

Caroline at CGI

Caroline Casey speaking at the CGI conference
Then there is Petra Nemcova who I have come to admire for her steadfast support to build schools for children impacted by a natural disaster and who in six years has built over 56 schools where kids not only get an education but get some normality back into their lives. Petra her team at the Helping Hearts Fund create sustainable livelihood opportunities.
Linda Lockhart started the Global Give Back Circle to help girls in Kenya make the leap from high school to university. She provides the girl with training, support and most importantly mentors – and many of these girls are now becoming leaders in their own right.
I also met Ashok and Amrita Mahbubani who though the Ekta Foundation are making a significant difference in Haiti by helping build technology infrastructure and extend it into classrooms by partnering with Inveneo and NetHope.
Speaking of NetHope. ,Microsoft is partnering the organization to expand its NetHope Academy to Africa and Latin America to train 1,000 interns over the next three years. NetHope launched its inaugural NetHope Academy class in Haiti in September 2010 after recognizing an acute shortage of local, qualified IT staff at NGOs working to help Haiti recover after the 2010 earthquake. In March of 2011, 39 students graduated from the program and more than 80 percent of them achieved full-time employment. This commitment to action at CGI represents a new and significant expansion in the size, scope and geographic reach of our small, but highly successful program launched last year in Haiti.

There is incredible work underway around the world to address the issues we face. At Microsoft we feel very privileged that we have been able to support many of these efforts that are all about providing youth with opportunity so they can be the agents of change. As is customary at CGI it’s not just about talking, it’s about commitment. Microsoft have committed in partnership with Comcast, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) and One Economy to provide broadband access and technology to 1 million students from low-income families in the United States to receive the benefits of software, hardware and broadband Internet service. There are over 7 million kids in the U.S. today who have no access to a computer, a mobile phone or the internet. This commitment aims to change that reality and help these kids to contribute to their own future as well as the prosperity of their own community.
President Clinton summed it up best that it is better to try and fail that not try at all. He said that pessimism is making the decision to be disappointed in advance. Coming together to make change is what this week is all about. New Yorkers complain about the traffic and the gridlock because in addition to CGI, the UN General Assembly is in session with heads of State and diplomats rushing all over the city. But these people also show up at CGI where they come in contact with incredible, inspirational people like Craig, Caroline, Petra, Linda and others. Many of them are just committed individuals that wake up every day and against many odds go out and try and make change, one person at a time. We are honored to be part of this movement.

The Gazelle is a simple to use clothes hanger which has been selected as the overall winner in the Easy to Use Design Awards. The awards are run in partnership with Pfizer Healthcare Ireland, Arthritis Ireland and the National College of Art and Design.

The aim of the Easy to Use Awards are to recognize and encourage innovation in universal design to make everyday products and devices more attractive and usable for everyone, including people living with disabilities.

The Gazelle was deemed the overall winner by a panel of judges which included entrepreneur Sean Gallagher from RTE’s Dragons Den. Sean Gallagher commented on the standard of entries saying “I was delighted to be asked back to judge the Easy to Use awards. The Awards give students the opportunity to really question the way products are designed and how they will be used by the end users. Even a slight change in perception can make a real difference for those living with disabilities.”

The Gazelle reduces the effort needed to hang clothes and allows the user to maintain a neutral hand position, reducing the pressure on the joints in the hand. The winners, Kevin Doherty, Louth and Ronan Murphy, Dublin were inspired to design the Gazelle after speaking with people living with rheumatoid arthritis who told of their frustration and difficulties with everyday household and lifestyle appliances.

Timing is everything and recognizing a good opportunity when it arises is key. Telefónica knows a good idea when it sees one – just take the Ability Awards.

In 2007, a team of senior Telefónica executives attended the O2 Ability Awards ceremony during an early visit to Telefónica O2 Ireland. What they saw left a lasting impression.

Now, three years on, the groundbreaking model has been extended to Spain in the form of the Telefónica Ability Awards Spain.

Similar to the Irish version, the initiative aims to raise awareness of the positive impact that people with disabilities can have in business, as well as highlighting examples of best practice.

Telefónica O2 Ireland CEO Danuta Gray said:

“The expansion to Spain marks the first franchise of the Awards internationally and is a historic achievement for us and for our partner charity, Kanchi, highlighting the strength and innovation of Irish Social Entrepreneurship.

Our Awards have come a long way since 2004 and I am very proud of what we’ve achieved. We’ll continue to support Telefónica and Kanchi as they take their first steps together in Spain.”

Kanchi Programme Manager Ian Elliott said:

“When we first had the idea for the Irish Awards I don’t think we ever imagined the impact it would have or dreamed of it spreading to other countries.

But the response we got since the 2005 Awards was overwhelming and, when O2 was acquired by Telefónica, this took the scope of the Awards to the next level.

We worked very closely with Telefónica to assist them in the implementation of the Awards and supported and advised them on all stages of the Awards from assessment to the Awards event itself.”

Since the idea for extending the Ability Awards franchise to Spain was first mooted, Kanchi has been working with Telefónica and its partners in Spain to tailor the model for the Spanish market.

Ian Elliot said:

“We went through all the due diligence and research needed to adapt the Awards for a new country and a totally different culture.

That included everything from looking at legislation with their Assessment Partners PriceWaterhouseCoopers and their Disability Partners to adapting the whole process to ensure it fits culturally in Spain.“

Applications for the Awards opened early 2010, 273 companies applied for the Telefónica Ability Awards representing 458 individual category entries.  Customer service was the most popular category at 34% and accessibility the second most popular, at 20%.  Of the 273, 48% were small and medium enterprises, 23% were large companies, 12% were non-profit organisations, 9% were universities and 5% were public bodies.

Ian Elliot said:

“Telefónica launched the Awards with a big direct marketing campaign.They reached approx 1.6 million contacts and have contacted 13,000 organisations; The success of the Awards so far, both here and in Spain, is fantastic.Compared to Telefónica, Kanchi is a tiny organisation, but this partnership is allowing us both to make a real difference.”

The Telefónica Ability Awards is an extraordinary achievement. From the outset, Spain has proved an unmatched commitment to the inclusion of people with disability through business, one that will be fundamental in leading a global business movement. Not only do we have over a hundred Ability Companies in Ireland, we now have 48 more in Spain, companies that demonstrate best practice for disability equality within their businesses, thereby creating examples for others to follow.

The Telefónica Ability Awards ceremony is taking place in Madrid, Spain this Monday 17th January. We are honoured to join Telefónica in welcoming her Royal Majesty the Queen to celebrate those 48 companies that recognise the benefits that people with disabilities bring to their organisations, be it employees, customers or members
of the community.

For all you Spanish speakers the Awards ceremony is being streamed live at 6.30pm on www.telefonicaabilityawards.com

About Telefónica

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world in terms of market capitalisation. Its activities are centred mainly on fixed and mobile telephony businesses with broadband as the key tool for the development of both. The company has a significant presence in 25 countries and a customer base that amounts to 265 million accesses around the world. Telefónica has a strong presence in Spain, Europe and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth on strategy. Telefónica is a 100% listed company, with more than 1.5 million direct shareholders. Its share capital currently comprises 4,563,996,485 ordinary shares traded on the Spanish Stock Market and on those in London, Tokyo, New York, Lima, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo. Visit the website: www.telefonica.com

Over the past few months, aware that I am approaching the 10th anniversary of the elephant adventure with Kanchi that began it all, I can’t help but compare how different things are now.

Last night as I stood on stage welcoming the eight new German Ashoka Fellows into the Ashoka Family, it occurred to me as I was speaking (never a good thing to let your mind wonder off mid speech), that 10 years ago I hadn’t a clue what Ashoka was, that I was a social entrepreneur, or that I was capable of speaking publicly without having a minor coronary. 10 years ago the Ability Awards, whose global expansion takes up vast amounts of sleepless hours, hadn’t even been conceived; my office was a bedroom and all I cared about back then was getting on the back of the elephant as fast as I could while remaining positive in the face of rejection from the corporate world who had yet to be convinced that people with disabilities were their customers, employees and suppliers too!

And yet, only 2 weeks ago, nearly 10 years on, Kanchi (the organisation, not the elephant) brought 15 of Ireland’s leading CEOs together, hosted by Dermot Desmond, to establish the Kanchi Network – The Business Network committed to creating Inclusive business. That day was made all the more poignant by the fact that it was 10 years ago that I struggled to get access to the business world and Dermot gathered together his business associates for a lunch so that I could ask their advice on how the current situation could be positively changed. That extraordinary lunch was the very beginning of the Ability Awards and everything we do now. It therefore seemed appropriate that in launching the Kanchi Network, we asked Dermot to recreate the lunch of 10 years ago, however this time the big difference was, Kanchi brought the guests to the table.

I have said for a long time now that disability is at a tipping point – that soon everyone will be talking about it – in effect it will be the new “green” – no longer invisible!

As the 8 new German fellows were welcomed to the Ashoka family, this was confirmed once again – as 2 fellows had innovative solutions around disability – check out Wheelmap and Discovering Hands!!

This morning I fly back to Telefonica where we are working on the final stages of the Telefonica Ability Awards in Spain which have been a phenomenal success to date.

Tomorrow we have a Sightsavers Board meeting in London discussing the implementation of our new strategy which is now focused on a broader disability agenda.

After that I am talking at the British Council’s Youth Summit of Global Changemakers, many of whom work with people with disabilities while making a significant effort to ensure that disability is represented among their youth leaders.

I’m not exactly sure what it is about travelling, airports and taxis but as I look out windows watching the world whizz by, passing through places that with more time I would love to discover, I find myself daydreaming. Looking out that taxi window this morning I couldn’t help but feel a flutter of excitement of what is possible.

10 years ago all that we are doing now would seem ludicrous as the concept of getting a meeting with a CEO was farcical – and yet now I’m on route to our partner -  the second biggest communications company in the world!!

My father constantly warns me, as he watches me screeching around at top speed – “You need to take time to reflect and appreciate what you all have achieved, not simply on what you haven’t”.

I hate when he says that because I feel that there is still so much to do and I worry we aren’t getting there quickly enough.

But just before I board this flight for Madrid I’m going to take Dad’s advice. We really have come a long way since that elephant trip.

Back then, before I saw Kanchi (the elephant) for the first time, it seemed almost impossible to others that I would complete the trip and raise the money, and yet I always, always believed we would.

And we did, better than we ever imagined.

So yes, maybe as possibly one of the most impatient people on the planet I worry that we aren’t achieving our ambitions quickly enough. 10 years seems a long time. Should we not have done more?

But maybe that isn’t quite the point – how quick or how fast.

The important thing is that we ARE making stuff happen, stuff that may not happen without us. And most importantly we haven’t stopped believing.

Despite all those journeys to and from meetings, pitches, talks, beggings, pleadings, and events. All the strategising, believing, hoping, convincing and presenting more confidence than you feel in reality, I still believe as much as I did 10 years ago that things can and will change.

I have learnt from experience that no change is possible without completely believing you can make it happen.

In the words of Eddie Izzard, “You have to believe you can be a stand up comedian before you become a stand up comedian”…and this said by a man for whom it took 10 years to get his big break.

So as I shut down my laptop and gather my things to board this flight I’m going to remind myself of something I took for granted 10 years ago – that believing is seeing – not the other way around! That’s how we have made things happen.

And I believe our next big break is moments away. I don’t know why or what proof I can give. But something is about to happen. Something is about to change!

Watch this space!!

As we were put in our places for the shoot we were asked to think “inner confidence” and “stand tall”.  Less smiling, more confidence – with the eyes people, with the eyes. We joked amongst ourselves about where was Tyra Banks (America’s Next Top Model) when you needed a tutorial on Smizing. Every time a frame was taken, the team would huddle around a laptop discussing minor alterations to get THE photo. And an hour later they found it and held it out proudly for our approval.  To be honest, with my vision I couldn’t see it as clearly as maybe others could, but on first glance I was horrified. Before my brain had time to engage I opened my mouth nearly shrieking – “That’s awful – we look so smug” – hardly the thing to say to a team of perfectionists who had just worked their socks off for hours!  They looked at me aghast. “No you don’t – you guys look confident; that’s exactly what we wanted, a look that was more than happy smiling people, but a look of strength, possibility and pride from people who make things happen.” Realising I had put my foot in it and feeling utterly guilty, I thought it better to promptly shut up and keep my opinions to myself.

But something about that photograph has been on my mind since yesterday morning. Why did I see it as smug while Diageo saw it as confidence and strength?  What is that about? I was standing alongside some of the most talented social entrepreneurs in the country – people who are achieving amazing things. As a group we should have every reason to be confident and proud.

Is it so hard to be confident and proud because in reality we are like ducks -  appearing calm on the outside but paddling like shit underneath to survive;  is it that we just feel like complete egits in front of the camera, or is it simply an Irish thing?

It strikes me that if this was a group of Americans they would have no problem at all standing tall and projecting pride at their success. There would be no question of appearing smug. As Irish people, we tend to hide our achievements, fearful that if we shout about our success we will be criticised for arrogance or as Mary Nally best put it, we would be open to the typical comment “who do these people think they are?”  And maybe now, after a decade of ungrounded smugness, we are petrified of appearing confident again and the criticism it would entice after such a fall from grace?

Is it possible that Ireland Inc has something to learn from one of the world’s greatest brands? Is it not time that we start projecting that inner confidence that Diageo wanted to capture in our picture, hoping to inspire others? Should we stop glorifying in the over-humble and the self-critical and get up and own and be responsible for our success stories, of which there are many? Yes of course we have and continue to fail at many levels but I imagine Diageo as a company could tell us countless scenarios of failure. The difference however is that Diageo, from the outside at least, has not self-cannibalised on failure but continued to market leadership and confidence, which I imagine has carried the company through tough times. Should Ireland Inc or the Irish Government consider gathering the expertise of the world’s greatest brands to help us find a way through what seems an endless jungle of negativity?

I can’t imagine I will ever like any photograph of myself; I’m not sure any of us do. But I learnt something really important yesterday that goes beyond the image. It is important that we are genuinely proud of what we achieve so that we can build on that success. Self-deprecation is a great part of the Irish character but self-annihilation is simply neither attractive nor intelligent.

I really wish I hadn’t opened my gob so quickly yesterday without thinking – because I was wrong, the Diageo team were right -  confidence is not smug – confidence breeds confidence and people need to see and believe in that confidence to move forward.  Maybe it’s time the Irish Government called in the marketing and branding gurus of one of the world’s greatest brands so that they could learn about building confidence into Ireland Inc again, a place that we are all proud to be part of!

Check out the 2010 Arthur Guinness Fund Awardees:
Anam Cara (Sharon Vard)
Camara Education (Cormac Lynch)
Growing Locally (Margaret Leahy)
Fáilte Isteach (Mary Nally)
GIY Ireland (Michael Kelly)
Pieta House (Joan Freeman)
Rediscover Fashion (Carrie Ann Moran)
Speedpak Workplace Accreditation Model (John P. Murphy)
Suas Service Learning Programme (Colman Farrell)

To find out more information on the Clinton Global Initiative take a look at their website and check out the videos from the conference this week!

Kanchi are delighted to announce that Caroline has been selected as one of only 25 Social Entrepreneurs from around the world to participate at the Ashoka Globalizer. Caroline was selected from over 2,500 individuals and more than 70 countries…what an achievement!

The Ashoka Globalizer is a new initiative that brings together the most advanced social entrepreneurs with leading business entrepreneurs on a yearly basis. Caroline and 24 other social entrepreneurs are meeting this weekend, August 1st at the Hofburg palace in Vienna, Austria, to help them globalize their projects.

Caroline’s goal is to take the Ability Awards global and this weekend she gets the chance to meet business entrepreneurs such as Jim Barry, where they will share their insights into strategies for rapid growth, and draw on their own experiences to help the social entrepreneurs ask the right questions, formulate the best strategies and create the proper partnerships.

Good luck Caroline – Lets take these awards global!