Key Partners – One Acre Fund’s goal, is to combat the irony that of which the majority of the worlds hungriest are farmers. The organization’s vision is to facilitate improvement in business practices, and advancement for and in partnership with farmers and their communities.

Key Activities – In the effort to fight rural poverty, One Acre Fund acknowledges the challenges and complexity surrounding such social issue. In that effect, the organization proceeds with a holistic, and longer term approach. One Acre Fund uses a proven market-based approach delivering a bundle of services both providing guidance to farmers and the communities, while being a sustainable approach for the organization itself.

Value Proposition – One Acre Fund, provides a structure for farmers to further their business and increase profits which both provides sustainability for the organization. Furthermore the integration of these business factors will work cohesively and if one is neglected the effect will be minimal among farmers.

Customer Relationship – The stakeholders such as farmers and community members rely on trust on behalf of One Acre Fund. This is essential in order for the consumers to be able to enact the guidance provided, and furthermore develop a sense of accountability.

Customer Segment – One Acre Fund is creating value for the impoverished and those who have challenges to make ends meet. Farmers happen to be the outliers among these groups, who produce food but are often unable to meet their own needs.

Key Resources – 

The following is a comprehensive list of the resources and guidance One Acre Fund provides.

Financing:Seed and Fertilizers
– Asset Based Loans: Receive products, and manage debt through flexible repayment system

Distribution: Farming Inputs
-Regional delivery, that brings product walking distance form every farmer

Training: Agricultural Techniques
– Education across the season of modern agricultural techniques

Market Facilitation: Maximization of Harvest Process
– Crop storage solutions, educate about market fluctuations, in order to time crop sales.

Channels – Farmers will need to be reached in-person in order to build trust between then and the organization.

Cost Structure – The majority of the expenses come from in country farming expenses and resources.

Revenue Streams – 75 percent of field expenses are financed through farmer loan repayments, with donor dollars covering the rest. Technology in the long term help provide efficiency among the organizations revenue model.

 

 

 

By far, Guy Kawasaki’s “Art of the Start” lecture, is one of the most inspiring and logical speeches I have experienced. One key takeaway from his presentation was among the context of creating a company, and the best and only reason one should is to create meaning This powerful while not directly related to my project, it has influence among my personal life. One way this value could be integrated into our project is in our process of evaluating companies we’ve found to have inspiring CSR effectiveness. Furthermore, when creating our final project whether it be a matrix, rubric and our overall documentary series, using the value of companies making an impact as a foundation to evaluate the efforts among CSR. Another interesting takeaway comes from, developing mission statements. Guy, criticizes the development and ideas behind common mission statements across companies emphasizing there complexity and being unrealistic. We can integrate mission effectiveness and simplicity to both of our main stakeholders of NGO’s and companies. As our trip consists of analyzing partnerships between these stakeholders, mission statements will be at the core of our evaluation process as we look to see if they meet their mission and how we can improve and possibly simplify their implementation and organizational development to do better CSR. Another takeaway from Guy’s speech was along the subject of marketing and value. Kawasaki made the argument that there were a plethora of companies that were copies of each other and/or lacked the proper structure to be effective or profitable. When thinking about our own project, and specifically evaluating corporations we can follow a thought process of determining if such project is duplicate of another. When situations like this arise, we hope to evaluate their differences, and corroborate to develop a comparison and in result we can come to a consensus on the best practices among NGO’s. Finally another takeaway that while it could be considered common sense, it speaks to the value of simplicity. Guy emphasizes the importance of having “infected people”, referencing to commitment and passion among the team members. One thing we hope to view is the interest and value NGO and company members have towards CSR. Kawasaki alludes to a inefficiency and limited value of hiring just industry professionals. Our team hopes to use this as both a mission for ourselves, and as an integral assessment of companies and the NGO’s and evaluate whether they are important factors.

When thinking about the context of a social venture, our project does not need the development of a business plan. But our team will keep in mind the composition of an effective business plan and encompassing it in guiding companies and NGO’s into effective corporate social responsibility.