Kere Kere Coffee: A Social Enterprise which gives gives jobs to young people in trouble

Kere Kere Coffee is a social enterprise located on campus at Melbourne University. It is a small cafe which serves coffees and muffins to students and staff on campus. The social aspect? Kere Kere employs troubled youth, giving them 12 months of experience and professional training. Also the cafe allows customers to choose where the profits from their cup of coffee goes; they can be contributed to a bunch of charities (enviro, social etc.) or given to the owner for his troubles.

Kere Kere has been a huge success, much thanks to the hard work of founder and owner James Murphy. James, a mate of mine, is passionate about social enterprise and giving people opportunities through a sustainable business.

James is planning to launch more cafes in the near future, possibly at other university campuses and around Melbourne.

Eco Towns are a distraction from the real task of a sustainable society

There has been a considerable amount of press over the last few years regarding "Eco Towns". These are complete new residential developments that are build to be super-green.

Examples exist in the UK (See BBC News, or the Wikipedia page on UK Eco Towns), the UAE (Masdar City) and of course the US (Sonoma Village).

I agree that these Eco Towns are a positive thing - they mean that new greenfield developments have the lowest possible environmental impact. Their incredible media profile however has a dark side in that they create a false sense of positivity when the bigger tasks are being ignored. These new Eco Towns confuse and distract from the urgent need to transform our existing cities and towns into sustainable places to live. Climate change will not be averted by a few small toy towns. We can only meet the challenges of this impending environmental disaster by transforming our current cities, towns and villages into environmentally sustainable habitats.

I think that more attention, energy (no pun intended) and government money needs to flow into projects that green our existing cities. These include greater use of sustainable base-load power, more energy efficient appliances in all homes and better access to public transport for all. Unfortunately these things arnt as sexy or newsworthy as Eco Towns...but the real solutions very rarely are.

Where is the "pro-jobs" climate change lobby in Australia?

It occurred to me recently that one of the things that Australia's climate change debate really lacks is the critical "pro-jobs" or "economics" based lobby groups.

Our domestic climate change debate has largely been one focused on morality and values rather than business. While climate change has a huge moral component (after all my carbon pollution harms all other people all over the world) this isn't the only aspect for why carbon reduction should be considered.

It is important to recognise the positive market implications for Australian business and enterprise of early adoption of low carbon laws and incentives. Early introduction of carbon taxes/cap and trade systems etc. create huge incentives for investment in carbon reduction R&D. Inherent in this investment is the development and refinement of efficiency improving technologies. There is little doubt that efficiency is a good (and profitable) thing: doing more with less inherently saves money. efficiency improving tech increasing the productivity of everything from transport to manufacturing.

In the US the positive economic benefits of low carbon incentive systems are being toted by a number of climate change lobby groups. Slogans like "Carbon Caps = Hard Hats"(www.thecapsolution.org) and "Less Carbon, More Jobs" (www.lesscarbonmorejobs.org) are on the lips of many a climate change activist. Al Gore's message has firmly focused on the positive economic benefits of early climate change legistlation, as can be seen in the range of new TV ads he has launched on the issue (check them out at the end of his latest TED talk: www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/al_gore_warns_on_latest_climate_trends.html). Websites like Repower America (www.repoweramerica.org) provide very detailed accounts of how green tax concessions and cap & trade programs can create millions of new American jobs.

In Australia we simply arnt getting this message. Aussies need to get the message that carbon taxes/green concessions, if implemented effectively, can be a hugely positive thing for our workers and economy. I hope that our politicians, industry and green lobby soon realise that the tired "green means poor but moral, pollution means wealth but immoral" discussion is just so out dated and oversimplified.

Friday night helping out on the Salvo's bus

So just got home from helping out on the Salvo's bus. This is an amazing community program organised by the one and only salvation army. They have this state of the art bus with computer terminals +internet, xbox consoles, playstations and a full BBQ kitchen which serves food for dozens of kids every night. I was helping out with set up and serving up the burgers...we would have seen close to 100 burgers roll out the door! was packed!

Speaking with some of the kids there it really is amazing what the bus means to them. It is a place to meet, a safe location to relax. It gives them something to eat and drink and ultimately allows them to connect with youth workers and the like to help them. I met this little 9yr old called Sarah who has just been squatting in abandoned buildings around Melbourne over the last year! It is truly shocking.

After the bus I sat down with my DayEight Cap on to chat with Brad and Brenden (the two gents that are the force behind the bus and some of the Salvation army's youth programs in the city). We began talking about a new strategy to give struggling kids additional opportunities. I suggested we bolt on a youth skills institute into the 69 bourke street drop-in centre + the bus. This would involve getting musicians, artists and designers giving up their time to apprentice kids in their skill. By doing so it would give the kids an opp. to learn to play guitar/dj/graphic design/sing/whatever and give them a path of future success to build on.

Brad loved the idea and it looks like DayEight will partner with the Salvos to implement this from june!

Now all that is left is finding a team and getting moving!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone out there reading this, please email me (matt@dayeight.com.au) or twitter me (@donazzan) letting me know if you are interested in getting involved.

‘Show me the money’ – The effects of ...

‘Show me the money’ – The effects of refunds and rebates on donations to fundraisers. 3 mins

The Elevator Pitch
•    Lab Experiment
•    Looking at charitable fundraisers
•    Studies the impact on donations of offering refunds and rebates to donors in the event that a fundraiser raises less or more than the target amount
•    Motivation: to help charities design fundraisers that maxamise funds raised

Key Terms
•    Voluntary Contribution Mechanism (VCM)
•    Provision Point Mechanism (PPM)
•    Refund
•    Rebate

Motivation of study
•    The provision of public goods are essential to our modern economy
•    A large array of public goods are provided through voluntary contributions
•    Voluntary contribution mechanisms suffer from free-riding - leading to under-provision of public goods
•    Mechanisms that are proven to reduce free-riding are valuable to society because they increase the provision of public goods towards an optimal level







Literature Review 3 mins

Bagnoli & Lipman 1989
•    Game Theory model of giving
•    Suggested fundraiser which best mitigates free-riding: a provision point mechanism (PPM) with refund and rebate


List & Lucking-Reiley (2002)
•    Tested Bagnoli & Lipman’s model in the field
•    Found PPM with Refund significantly increased donations vs. open request for donations


Marks & Croson (1998)
•    Tested Bagnoli & Lipman’s model in the lab
•    Looked at the impact on giving of different rebate rules on a PPM with Refund
•    Utilisation Rebate
•    Proportional (cash) Rebate
•    No Rebate
•    Found results consistent with Bagnoli & Lipman
•    Donations under Utilisation Rebate significantly higher than No rebate
•    No difference between Proportional Rebate and No Rebate









My Study 3 mins

Aims
•    Look at the impact of rebates in the field
•    Purpose is to determine whether Marks & Croson’s findings can be generalised outside of the lab
•    By doing so improve the field picture regarding Bagnoli & Lipman’s predictions about voluntary contributions

Hypotheses
•    A PPM + Refund fundraiser which has a utilisation rebate will raise more funds than a fundraiser with a proportional (cash) rebate
•    A PPM + Refund fundraiser (regardless of rebate) will raise more funds than a fundraiser with no refund

Design
•    Partner with a charity (Life Goes On)
•    Allow them to conduct three separate fundraisers
    o    Fundraiser 1: No rebate or refund
    o    Fundraiser 2: Refund + Proportional Rebate
    o    Fundraiser 3: Refund + Utilisation Rebate
•    Receive De-personalised data from charity
•    Number of prospective donors that donated, and the amount they donated











Progress, Plans and Questions 1 min

My Progress to Date
•    Literature Review
•    Study Design
•    Secured in-principle support of Life Goes On
•    In discussion with The Salvation Army and Oak Tree to also involve them in the study

My Proposed Next Steps
•    Ethics Approval
•    Confirm involvement of The Salvation Army and The Oak Tree Foundation
•    Allow charities to conduct their fundraisers
•    Collect de-personalised data & conduct analysis


Questions I Have
•    What are your thoughts regarding the ethics approval process - and knowledge of past studies
•    What are your thoughts on the statistical tests we should use?
    

My first Blog Post

Ok...so....the first blog post....and with it the sudden realisation that one is about to embark on another act of online narcissism.

Ahhh well....its too late now.

“I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity”

- Diana Vreeland